4.2 Warlock Specific Rant

[Osiris-Illidan]

This is my rant thread for Warlocks if you don't like it you don't have to agree or continue reading, also let me know what bothers you guys about the class. I want to know if these problems are without any factual basis like if they're just my percieved issues.

Our DPS is adjusted and balanced around having a significant 10 minute CD, it really bothers me that on half of boss attempts during progression, I'm not going to be able to use my doomguard. - Lower CD or make an ability that lowers it per tick. (Ala lightning bolt/cl and elemental mastery - UA/Corruption ticks on the target with haunt reduce CD by 2 sec)

DoTs not updating on personal stat changes. WTF annoying makes mastery procs very useless for aff - adjust on the fly.

Our hardest hitting ability is a pet attack that requires you to be in melee range if you want an extra 30% dmg on it from (Shadowflame not sure if additive/multiplicative 30%) - pet bite should apply a debuff that causes auto SB crits or increases DoT crits/dmg. (It is less rewarding having pet damage than doing it yourself IMO.)

Instant shadowbolts become marginally less useful per point of haste as it approaches your GCD - Your next shadowbolt deals double damage

Bane of Agony surpassing at statically unattainable haste levels Bane of Doom - Make BoD scale with haste obviously.

Ebon Imps that do almost nothing - Remove

Fel Flame - Not useful in stationary spell priority queue - (Don't know how to fix without gimping movement via CD or making shadowbolt obsolete)

ISF - Is a clunky mechanic that should be either more benefit or duration because hard-casting a SF is really boring

OOMing in dangerous, unavoidable stretches of encounters (luckily there aren't TOO many but timing a LT with a haunt return/healthstone/lightwell(if you can) just doesn't cut it sometimes) (Good thing you can't go OOM during execute phase which brings me to my next point)

Average damage is accounted for in execute phase, I understand that is usually the prime time to want to have all that extra dps, but coupled with the doomguard problem, our non-executing dmg could be nice (I realize 75x75+100x25 = 81.25x100 but for 75% of the fight if we don't have our DG also its more like 72% of our full potential, which bothers me on wipes > 25% knowing that maybe we could've gotten to execute phase if I had pumped out that higher % until then.

Since something like 20-25% of our damage is pet based we are usually not the optimal target for FM/DI(if it stacked) or encounter specific buffs

Pretty bad at contributing to tiny/small health pool add killing mechanics compared to arc/fire/ele/spriest/hunter/boom what are we really bringing to a raid other than a DI single target and multi medium/large health pool adds/ - Tiny/Small adds can die before seeds hit and you need a 10 min CD if you want to have a great impact on them which you wont have next attempt or in execute phase if you use.


- WHAT I LIKE -

All of the % increasing mechanics on things like haunt and shadow embrace means we get a great return per SP gained

Our execute phase dominates with CDs

Lining up procs/on use feels really rewarding at start/execute. (LW Embroider/DSoul/Trinket/Trinket/PT/Orc)

Spec flexibility for aoe/1-3target/not targeting boss is really nice.

I actually really do enjoy my Warlock but I want to maximize my enjoyment since I can only raid on 1 character.




So after reading all of the things I dislike, do you guys think I would be happier on another class? Ele/Spriest/Mage

---------- Post added 2011-07-05 at 06:19 AM ----------

Do these problems exists on ele/spriest/mages

[nekrot]

I agree with some of this. I do have an issue with the fact that they took one of our best abilities, Soul Swap, and made it pretty much useless unless you just happen to pull only 2 targets.

Issues: Very long ramp up time. Usually I'm on my 4th or 5th SB before I start hitting my 'prime area' for my dps. This is all situational, based on the fight, i.e. a lot of movement, adds, etc
I agree with the 10 min CD. Yes, our infernal is good if there happen to be a ton of adds to AOE. And the doom guard isn't exactly what I would call great. The 1.5 min of extra DPS usually isn't worth it.
The buff from Fel Puppy is alright in certain fights, i.e. Chogall, etc. But in some, lets say Nefarian, doesn't really help us much, and it shows.
4.2 Gear as a whole seems to very mastery heavy. This can somewhat be mitigated with reforging, but not completely. Its our weakest stat.


Positives to come in a few.

[bmillz1341]

This seems to specifically be affliction based griping other than ISF mention. If there are a ton of tiny adds that need to die you have the best aoe spec in the entire game for that. All in all I don't think affliction has very much to QQ about. Affliction is one of the consistently highest performing dps specs in the entire game.

[wartywarlock]

Soul fire is too short to be fun I must admit, sometimes it feels like I barely have time for incinerating. Instant shadowbolt too was great back in vanilla when haste was almost non existant but I can agree now it is less beneficial and feels less fun than it could be. Perhaps it could no longer trigger the GCD so it actually feels like a free SB again.

[nocturnus]

I agree with each and every point you mentioned and as far as I know, these exact points have been mentioned by other warlocks, including myself.

Don't forget our soulstoune still hasn't been fixed correctly.