Warlock is the least played class.

[det]

Played my lock for 5 years and I guess it always appeared to be one of the more complicated classes. affliction was pretty demanding, Demo was a low damage / support specc. Destro a very simple nuke (that would be Classic/TBC mainly, I switched in ToC during WotLK to tanking)

But I liked the lock not least for the evil theme behind it and I am still surprised how powerful he is now at the lowly lv 80, doing some quest in Mt Hyjal.

[MoonZapdos]

Played my lock for 5 years and I guess it always appeared to be one of the more complicated classes. affliction was pretty demanding, Demo was a low damage / support specc. Destro a very simple nuke (that would be Classic/TBC mainly, I switched in ToC during WotLK to tanking).

Long were the days where said was true. Since BC and WotLK, Affliction was made the bread and butter spec and Demonology has received a grand buff to damage.
It's -impossible- to be a bad Affliction Warlock in PvE. The rotation/priority system is beyond easy. Affliction doesn't have half the worries Demonology or Destruction has in a PvE environment.
And don't even get me started on PvP. Warlocks have basically been funneled to Affliction, for the survivability, because Demonology lacks the mobility and Destruction the burst it did back on WotLK to be competitive.
The reason that Warlocks -might- be the least played class is because the three specs haven't been balanced out enough to make all three viable choices. The differences are just abysmal, from both PvE and PvP standpoints.
As for me, I will continue to be Destruction, no matter how much of a clusterfuck the priority system is. Fortunately, prospects from the next expansion indicate a complete overhaul for the spec, which I will surely enjoy (no more Improved Soul Fire, yay!).

[Asherlol]

Long were the days where said was true. Since BC and WotLK, Affliction was made the bread and butter spec and Demonology has received a grand buff to damage.
It's -impossible- to be a bad Affliction Warlock in PvE. The rotation/priority system is beyond easy. Affliction doesn't have half the worries Demonology or Destruction has in a PvE environment.
And don't even get me started on PvP. Warlocks have basically been funneled to Affliction, for the survivability, because Demonology lacks the mobility and Destruction the burst it did back on WotLK to be competitive.
The reason that Warlocks -might- be the least played class is because the three specs haven't been balanced out enough to make all three viable choices. The differences are just abysmal, from both PvE and PvP standpoints.
As for me, I will continue to be Destruction, no matter how much of a clusterfuck the priority system is. Fortunately, prospects from the next expansion indicate a complete overhaul for the spec, which I will surely enjoy (no more Improved Soul Fire, yay!).

This is actually incorrect. Our 3 specs are close in damage and performance making each viable in this current tier(speaking on a strictly PVE basis).

[glowzone]

Dots are boring to me.
I play my warlock as destro because I can't really stand afflicion.

For a very long time I didn't make a warlock at all just because I disliked the idea of affliction so much.

[Dotbotdotcom]

Long were the days where said was true. Since BC and WotLK, Affliction was made the bread and butter spec and Demonology has received a grand buff to damage.
It's -impossible- to be a bad Affliction Warlock in PvE. The rotation/priority system is beyond easy. Affliction doesn't have half the worries Demonology or Destruction has in a PvE environment.

I am sorry what? All Warlocks specs (this goes for basically every spec) are shit easy. Demonology is only harder if you are still rolling with MWC and pet twist otherwise all three specs are pretty much equal in difficulty.

[tyry]

For me the big problem with locks is that they are useless and extremely boring until higher levels. Low damage in low level dungeons, often trash is dead before I can even get a cast off and bosses are dead before I finish my opening rotation. And low level battlegrounds as a warlock, among other classes, are hands down the worst gameplay I've ever experienced in a video game. Blizzard should really be more embarrassed about this than they are - just imagine a new player heading into a BG at lvl 10-60. Uninstall, unsubscribe. Questing is fine, but boring. As affliction it's "send in demon, apply dots, /afk". For demo, "send in demon, /afk". Destro would be more interesting, except you don't get incinerate, soul fire or chaos bolt until the mid-high levels, leaving you with a looooot of shadow bolt spam.

I have a lot of respect for anyone who has managed to fully level and commit to a warlock. Kudos. I started mine 2 years ago and have her sitting around lvl 81...I play her for an hour or two a week. I don't know why. It's gotten better in Cata content, hopefully MoP will offer some real reasons to play a lock.

[MrLoser]

100% efforts resulting in 80% Damage of the other spell caster (even a newbie)
that's frustrating.

[Arazor]

I play my lock mostly at the moment, but having said that, i spend alot of time on all 7 of my 85 characters. Although i enjoy them all, lock has something special to me, i dont know what it is, it just feels great to play, i think its just something you either love or hate. However, if the talent tree changes we have seen for lock in MoP hold out, i think locks will become ALOT more interesting in the next expansion, some of those abilities look really cool.

[Biruta]

In my opinion (6 years playing as warlock) our class was badly damaged over the years.
In pve, every patch released only made ​​us change spec, forcing a different style of play against our will. It seems that the developers never read any warlock forum.
In pvp we have been transformed from a "pure dps" class in something similar to mosquito buzzing, tweaking, but causing no real harm to anyone.
I hope that in an upcoming mmo, Blizzard do something like TRION did in RIFT, with many possible specs per class, so when they nerf 1 spec, there are others to play satisfactorily.

[Puri]

I always liked affliction, because it offered a different playstyle to the direct nuke mage. I never really cared about the other specs, except destro when it was bread and butter spec for 5 arena in BC.

But they have nerfed this playstyle to the ground. The dots only do a small part of the damage compared to bc or wotlk, and they are pretty much a minor part of the rotation. Most of the time I am casting shadowbolt. Yeah, just like in vanilla. And then they only do low damage, compared to their cast time and to other classes/different WL specs.

[mitbrandir]

My personal guess is that its to complicated for some people. And the pets are getting boring after like 7 years so yeah..

[Glnger]

In a world of Alt-craft, it seems pretty obvious that people would lean towards playing a mage over a warlock. especially true in 4.2 with arcanes retardedness.

(not talking about progression raiding or top end arena here) it's hard to argue against frost being a pretty powerful battleground and 1v1 spec all throughout the leveling process. Likewise, arcane makes for a very straightforward spec to pick up and start doing descent damage at any gear level