Warlock Awesomeness for MoP

[salpsan]

An assessment of what warlocks will have available for MoP (with the current information, will try to update frequently)

SURVIVABILITY:

- Tier 1 talents provide healing in three unique ways. Dark Regeneration being the best "oh noes" heal but on long 3min cd.
- The Tier 2 talent Mortal Coil provides a nice heal as well as horrify cc on a 45s cd.
- Tier 4 talents provide damage mitigation. Soul Link provides a dynamic shared damage with pet, a blood shield and an invulnerability shield with damage return over time. All are really nice and provides great mitigation that will annoy any other class in pvp.
- Fel Armor increases armor, total stamina by 10% and increases all healing received by 10%.
- Cauterize Master, the Imp/Fel Imp inflicts minor damage (which may break cc) and then heals over time.
- Twilight Ward a baseline ability that absorbs shadow and holy damage on medium cd.
- Healthstone heals are always nice, with three charges now it will be more reliable. Its respective glyph increases the heal but over time.
- Unending Resolve, a baseline spell which reduces all damage by 50% and makes spells un-interruptable for 12s. Very nice indeed
- Affliction only : The Soulburn ability offers numerous upgrades which include some survival; eg. through Drain Life
- Demonology only: Nether Plating increases armor, reduces melee crit chance on you and reduces stun and snare durations while in demon form.
- Destruction only: Ember Tap heals the warlock for a reasonable amount on medium cd.
- Glyph of Demon Hunting allows for further damage reduction.

CROWD CONTROL:

- Fear. The well loved spamable ability that can keep people pacified or cause wipes in dungeons. It later provides a short term snare aswell :P
- Banish demons or elementals to render them useless. Enslave demon may be used to temporarily control a hostile demon also.
- Each spec provides a snare ability: Affliction has Curse of Exhaustion, Demo has Guldan's Grasp, Destro has Conflagrate daze.
- Aff only has a silence through Unstable Affliction when it is dispelled.
- Demo only also has Metamorphosis Carrion Swarm, a knockback effect to Shadowflame.
- Destro only has Rain of Fire that has a 2s stun incorporated into its design.
- The Infernal/Abyssal guardian pets offer a 2s stun as well when they land.
- Tier 2 talents provide a fear bomb with dynamic cd, a single target horrify on medium cd or an aoe stun on relatively low cd.
- Tier 4 offers an upgrade to the fear spell making it instant cast, but the health cost makes it horrific. I personally love it
- Disarm is available through the Void Walker/Void Lord pet.
- The Felhunter/Observer can silence or lock out spell schools via Spell Lock/Optical Blast respectively.
- The Succubus/Shivarra both provide a knockback spell interrupt and they both have an incapacitate ability which shares diminishing returns with fear. The Succubus can Seduce humanoids while the Shivarra can Mesmerize humanoids, beasts, dragonkin, giants and undead
- Axe Toss, a 4s stun provided by the demo only pets Felguard/Wrathguard on relatively low cd.

RESISTANCE TO CC

- Unbound Will, a T4 talent acts as a pvp trinket but with a health cost.
- Unending Resolve prevents spell interruption for its entire duration.
- Demo only Nether Plating reduces the duration of stuns and snares by half.
- The Imp/Fel Imp pets provide removal or harmful magical effects. The Fel Imp has an aoe version of it, targeting multiple nearby allies.

DE BUFFS

- Curse of Enfeeblement reduces physical damage done and increases spell cast times. All specs has aoe applications available.
- Curse of Elements increases magical damage taken by the enemy. All specs has aoe applications available.
- Devour Magic/Clone Magic provided by the Felhunter/Observer respectively to remove/steal magical buffs from hostiles, while providing a small heal.
- Legion Strike/Mortal Cleave. A single target debuff that reduces healing taken for a short time.

BUFFS

- Unending Breath allows underwater breathing.
- Dark Intent increases party members' spell power...yummy.
- Grimoire of Sacrifice, a T5 talent provides a self buff that increases damage output and passive health regeneration at the cost of the pet.
- Through Consume Shadows the Void Walker provides a stealth detection buff to nearby allies.
- Blood Pact from the Imp/Fel Imp gives party members a stamina boost.

MOBILITY

- A lot of warlock abilities are instant cast which allow for great sustained dps.
- Burning Rush, a T4 talent increases movement speed at the cost of health.
- Kil'jaeden's Cunning, a T6 talent allows all abilities to be cast while moving at the price of reduced move speed and increased cast time.
- Demo turns Shadow Bolt into the instant cast Demonic Slash and Helfire into Immolation Aura.
- Destro allows Incinerate to be instant cast if under physical attack and the demon minion's attacks reduces the cast time of Soul Fire.
- Demonic Circle teleports the caster to the predefined location and removes snares. The Soulburn empowerment also increases move speed.
- Demonic Gateway provides a projectile teleport for allies on short cd between two predefined locations.
- Glyph of Nightmares allows the Felsteed and Dreadsteed to run on water.

Now then, who dare say the warlock isn't getting goodies this expansion?
Please correct me where i may be wrong and point out what i may have missed

[Silverforgerer]

Sadly, I expect a huge nerf soon enough...but it could be really interesting if they kept it this way and maybe tried to put up other classes to the same level? :>

[salpsan]

actually they are trying to get warlocks on par with the other classes. we are the ones that are being experimented on, so yea....nerfs are abound

[Vidur]

All this love is the only reason I picked my Warlock back up after Wrath and leveled him. He was my main from Classic to mid-Wrath and then I kinda lost interest. Demonology is looking like a lot of fun and, if we get green fire at launch, I'm sure as hell picking Destruction up as well.

actually they are trying to get warlocks on par with the other classes. we are the ones that are being experimented on, so yea....nerfs are abound

I don't think it's about us not being on par, necessarily. Warlocks, alongside Rogues, have consistently been the least played class for quite some time now. Their intent is to make them more interesting and dynamic to play. Yah, I'm sure there will be nerfs but, they'll have to be careful or else they're going to be exactly where they started.

[Shiekyerbooty]

I like Demo as it is Live

This Demonic Fury-Stance Dancing sounds like a bunch of crap to me

[Gratlim]

you missed the option: "Loved the start of beta. Now it's crap"

I would vote for that

[Deleted]

To OP, Nightfall has changed and is not a direct mobility effect anymore.

Personally, I like whats happening to warlocks, and as long as some bugs and tricks get ironed out I'll be very happy indeed

[salpsan]

To OP, Nightfall has changed and is not a direct mobility effect anymore.

Personally, I like whats happening to warlocks, and as long as some bugs and tricks get ironed out I'll be very happy indeed

ahh yes, ty
and yes i will be very happy too.

[Management]

I have'nt played warlock on retail, but on private servers, and I really am liking these changes. I might just level one on live for MoP. Too bad I can't be a panda warlock though, that would indeed have been awesome.

[Harsesis]

While the changes they have made are cool, Warlocks will be bringing less utility wise and survivability wise than they do on live. As of right now Affliction doesn't have the self healing to maintain casting against a target dummy let alone adding in random damage from fights. The changes to destro make the spec play better but not nearly as complex as it is now so in my mind it is less fun.

[psr1620]

I never liked demo. I hate it on live and I hate it on beta. So I'm indifferent to the demo changes/nerfs, but I love where affliction and destruction are going.

[Phoenexis]

Isn't there an "I have mixed feelings and would love to see a mix between current and beta model" option? That's definitively what I'm thinking right now.

[lockattack]

"MOBILITY

- A lot of warlock abilities are instant cast which allow for great sustained dps."


choked on my coffee when i read this... did you miss the threads about our new 4 second cast chaos bolt?

[Jessicka]

Isn't there an "I have mixed feelings and would love to see a mix between current and beta model" option? That's definitively what I'm thinking right now.

Pretty much this.

[addonex666]

Isn't there an "I have mixed feelings and would love to see a mix between current and beta model" option? That's definitively what I'm thinking right now.

I remember being all excited about the Cata changes. Then 4.06 came along and kicked me in my sack. It looks mostly good now but I'm pretty sure Bliz will fuck us up. Not surprisingly mages are looking good.

[Deleted]

I am going to dust off my warlock in MoP, he was my first ever character.

[painweaver]

I remember being all excited about the Cata changes. Then 4.06 came along and kicked me in my sack. It looks mostly good now but I'm pretty sure Bliz will fuck us up. Not surprisingly mages are looking good.

This^
And a hard kick to the sack it was...especially after all of the "new mechanic" hype.

Don't be surprise if there is another kick in the sack incoming, only this time it will be all dazzled up with a lot of frills, gimmicks and sparkles. But it will be the same old shot to the nuts.

[salpsan]

"MOBILITY

- A lot of warlock abilities are instant cast which allow for great sustained dps."


choked on my coffee when i read this... did you miss the threads about our new 4 second cast chaos bolt?

but....chaos bolt was never instant cast....and its 3s now....fitting for the amount of dmg it does.
all specs have instant cast abilities that allow for great sustained dps. check it out

[TheRickyB]

This^
And a hard kick to the sack it was...especially after all of the "new mechanic" hype.

Don't be surprise if there is another kick in the sack incoming, only this time it will be all dazzled up with a lot of frills, gimmicks and sparkles. But it will be the same old shot to the nuts.

agreed =/ but as Warlocks we are used to getting kicked in the Sack >_<. All i know is whatever hybrid of Live/Beta we get they give us Fel Armor back the way it was in Early Cata (after losing Spirit -> SP) with spirit bond giving hunters 1% Hp per 2 seconds we DEF deserve having old Fel armor back =/

[Xelnath]

It's possible Chaos Bolt might get nerfed for PvP reasons in the future. If so, I don't expect that to have much impact on your overall PvE DPS ever.