According to Ghostcrawler, Blizzard is aiming for 3 new spells for each class in Cataclysm, one at 81, 83 and 85. We do know about Soul Burn already but according to Blizz it's supposed to be a core spell of the class which would lead me to believe warlocks get it very early on.
One thing I’m going to go ahead and say is that I’m of the personal opinions that warlocks do not need an active defense. I just think that in pvp, high offensive damage output for the trade off of low defenses is what warlocks are. That’s what gives us our identity and play style. Mages are the opposite, low offensive output for the trade off of great control and defense. It’s important to me because I think mages and warlocks need to have something that makes them different. Don’t think I don’t care about PvP, I’m a PvP’er first and foremost.
The 3 things I think warlocks need most from a baseline spell:
1. A dispel protection mechanic. This is inspired from lifebloom, which was a success as an offensive dispel defense. It should do weak damage so not as to be a PvE dps spell. Just enough to make healers think twice about faceroll spamming on their dispel button.
Imminance - Places a debuff that does x fire (something in the low-to-moderate range maybe 2000 with spell power figured in) damage after 9 seconds or if dispelled. Stacks up to 3 times.
Let me stress this spell should do very weak damage. I don’t personally think 2000 damage after a 9 second wait is going to top any warlock on the damage board. Even if it is too much, it should only be enough damage to be a dispel deterrent, not lethal damage.
I don’t want to hear cries about that would be overpowered. How overpowered it is depends on how much damage it does. There is certainly a balanced number somewhere.
While affliction doesn’t really need the dispel protection because of unstable affliction, it does provide a much needed something to do while interrupted for the PvP’ing affliction lock.
2. Anti-assist train punishment
Don’t take this as a defense. Like I said above, I like warlocks as a low defense, high offense class that gives them their identity. What I’m talking about here is punishment. Make melee assist trains think twice about zerging a warlock, cause they might get zerged back.
suffering For the next 15 seconds, each time the warlock is struck, there is an x% chance that the enemy will be hit by an additional tick Of the warlock’s periodic (dot) effects on them. Instant cast, 1 minute cool down. Usable while stunned.
Again, the x% chance just has to be the right percent that it’s balanced. There’s a good number somewhere where melee feel the payback, but it’s not like no one will ever target the warlock.
3. A spell for demo locks to add to their DPS rotation to make it more interesting. The trick is to make a spell powerful enough to be worth using in a DPS rotation for a demo lock, but not make affliction and destro locks cast it.
Fel Rage - 5 second channel, while channeling this spell your demon does x% more damage. 15 second cooldown.
It may sound simplistic but that’s a thing to look for in adding a spell to the basic rotation.
This is meant to be a core dps rotation spell for a demo lock. Get dots up and have your demon go nuts. Isn't that what demo is about? Obviously not designed for an affliction or destro lock. A boost to an imp or felhunter wouldn't be worth putting in the dps rotation.