Do you think Warlocks will ever be nerfed?

[Deleted]

So affliction warlocks seem to always be really good or OP the majority of the time, from the low rated people there is not alot of lets call it feedback about them since they are easy targets in BGs and 2s. But the fact is that they are extremely overpowered, with dispel protection over the top, highest damage in PvP and synergy with most classes. The truth is, there is no reason any comp should choose any caster over a warlock (or a mage but thats a different story). Feel free to try to prove me wrong.

Proof?:

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/pvp/arena/bloodlust/3v3

Some people claim it´s only because of resto shamans, I do not believe this is true. Warlocks play with resto shamans because they are the best healers in the game. The only other healer which has been decent in arenas is discipline priests, which warlocks have horrible synergy with because of PWS+Demon armor and fear+Psychic scream works horribly together.

Affliction Warlocks are extremely overpowered, everyone knows it, it is constantly complained about on hydramist and arenajunkies. Blizzard is not showing any signs of doing something about it. So do you think this class which plagues the 3s bracket with almost 50% of the teams at the higher brackets, will ever get nerfed? Discuss, if you have a valid argument to why they are not overpowered please post it.

I only mean affliction warlocks not destro or demo if it wasnt obvious enough.

[Lidenbok]

I don't PvP, or ever will so I cannot speak for that side of Warlock.

But speaking in terms of PvE Warlock is not even scratching the surface of "being OP" as people call it, they are fairly average and right now one of the hardest classes to play because you have to utilize every single DPS increase you can just so we can compete with other classes, and without Doom Guard we are total bollocks.

To answere your question I don't know how they will "nerf" it without absolutely destroying it in PvE, I kinda like reading about how OP is it in PvP because playing Warlock in PvE for so long and in Cata I have had to work extra hard just to show I am pulling my weight in a raid (whilst hunters/mages are rolling over their keyboards) It's a nice piece of mind to see we are doing well somewhere!

How do you suggest they are nerfed without effecting them in PvE? Thats what you need to ask yourself and then but yourself in Blizzard's shoes, if people did that more often there wouldn't half as many class OP rants.

TLDR : Warlock are OP in PvP, but absolute shit in PvE, How do you suggest they balance it?

[leave him to me]

extremely overpowered......not really, the proof of a ladder is pretty solid aswell.

[Pert]

Kind of an odd question, Warlocks have recieved nerfs pretty regularly since the beginning of the expansion. There have been some buffs, too, to be sure, but your question is phrased as if they've been bulldozing kids since day one with no attention from Blizzard.

Answer: Sure, if Blizzard deems them to be a problem and can do so without negatively impacting PvE balance.

(the same could be said about any class)

[Deleted]

I don't PvP, or ever will so I cannot speak for that side of Warlock.

But speaking in terms of PvE Warlock is not even scratching the surface of "being OP" as people call it, they are fairly average and right now one of the hardest classes to play because you have to utilize every single DPS increase you can just so we can compete with other classes, and without Doom Guard we are total bollocks.

To answere your question I don't know how they will "nerf" it without absolutely destroying it in PvE, I kinda like reading about how OP is it in PvP because playing Warlock in PvE for so long and in Cata I have had to work extra hard just to show I am pulling my weight in a raid (whilst hunters/mages are rolling over their keyboards) It's a nice piece of mind to see we are doing well somewhere!

How do you suggest they are nerfed without effecting them in PvE? Thats what you need to ask yourself and then but yourself in Blizzard's shoes, if people did that more often there wouldn't half as many class OP rants.

TLDR : Warlock are OP in PvP, but absolute shit in PvE, How do you suggest they balance it?

Good point, some suggestions off the top of my head:
-Remove spell lock blanket silence.
-Nerf demon armor.
-Increase single target damage with dots but make them harder to spread.

---------- Post added 2011-08-02 at 11:25 PM ----------

Kind of an odd question, Warlocks have recieved nerfs pretty regularly since the beginning of the expansion. There have been some buffs, too, to be sure, but your question is phrased as if they've been bulldozing kids since day one with no attention from Blizzard.

Answer: Sure, if Blizzard deems them to be a problem and can do so without negatively impacting PvE balance.

(the same could be said about any class)

The one that really disturbed me was the UA dispel protection buff in 4.1. This was at the same time as spriest had a horrible dispel protection and were getting one of their core pvp abilities taken away, at the same time elemental shamans needed dispel protection, they instead buffed the best one.

[Holyspartann]

I don't PvP, or ever will so I cannot speak for that side of Warlock.

But speaking in terms of PvE Warlock is not even scratching the surface of "being OP" as people call it, they are fairly average and right now one of the hardest classes to play because you have to utilize every single DPS increase you can just so we can compete with other classes, and without Doom Guard we are total bollocks.

To answere your question I don't know how they will "nerf" it without absolutely destroying it in PvE, I kinda like reading about how OP is it in PvP because playing Warlock in PvE for so long and in Cata I have had to work extra hard just to show I am pulling my weight in a raid (whilst hunters/mages are rolling over their keyboards) It's a nice piece of mind to see we are doing well somewhere!

How do you suggest they are nerfed without effecting them in PvE? Thats what you need to ask yourself and then but yourself in Blizzard's shoes, if people did that more often there wouldn't half as many class OP rants.

TLDR : Warlock are OP in PvP, but absolute shit in PvE, How do you suggest they balance it?

Have you looked at WoL and damage meters? Seriously?

Warlocks (affliction) is in the top 5 damage dealers in PVE in the game...I don't think that's absolute shit...far from it actually. Demo is even up in the top 10-15 I believe...which isn't terrible at all...

Locks are Op slightly in PVP, they are above average in PVE...

They need a slight nerf to something...not much SLIGHT...yes they are probably the most played glad class for 3v3...

[bobthebuilder]

There's only 30 locks in the top 100. Only slightly OP.

[Deleted]

how about buff destro so i can acutally do some burst

[Pert]

The one that really disturbed me was the UA dispel protection buff in 4.1. This was at the same time as spriest had a horrible dispel protection and were getting one of their core pvp abilities taken away, at the same time elemental shamans needed dispel protection, they instead buffed the best one.

Yup, that was overkill, to be sure. Thankfully Blizzard knocked it back down 1-2 weeks later.

[EinsamerLobo]

Make DoTs have cast timers.

Easy Peasy.

[Deleted]

TLDR : Warlock are OP in PvP, but absolute shit in PvE, How do you suggest they balance it?

Buff some spells, and add "deals lower damage against player characters" to the spells buffed, fixed

[Arktosa]

You seriously want to nerf the only viable PvP spec, that only works in 3's, and with one composition only? lol...

If anything, they're the only class besides Hunters that really need a buff.

[BigDuke]

*sigh* here we go with the "nerf locks omg" stuff again

they are fairly well balanced against other casters and even some melee in pvp in pve i watch locks get rolled over in dmg meters by feral and balance druids, spriests, dk's, and of course rogues. yes they CAN be OP if the person that is using them knows what they are doing and how to utilize all their abilities to the locks benefit. so all in all NO locks do not need to be nerfed but that's my opinion

[Vesoha]

Make DoTs have cast timers.

Easy Peasy.

Besides the fact that 50% already have? by all means lets remove all mobilty from the class with least to begin with. This might not be last year but sir you need to loot a clue.

[Lidenbok]

Have you looked at WoL and damage meters? Seriously?

Warlocks (affliction) is in the top 5 damage dealers in PVE in the game...I don't think that's absolute shit...far from it actually. Demo is even up in the top 10-15 I believe...which isn't terrible at all...

Locks are Op slightly in PVP, they are above average in PVE...

They need a slight nerf to something...not much SLIGHT...yes they are probably the most played glad class for 3v3...

Do you play a warlock? Also which guilds WoL's are you looking at? I can gurantee you the top 5 are in 6/7+ Heroic guilds with almost full BiS.

Just because we seem to be in high raw damage, it does not mean our class is not crap, let me explain something to you.

A hunter, mage, rogue, warrior can do competitive DPS without much BiS items, a warlock needs a lot of BiS items just to even begin to compete. Maybe I exagerated with complete shit I apologize, but we are definitely not doing well, we are decent enough. We also rely way to much on cooldowns..At the start of a fight when we have all cooldowns popped we peak a lot, then towards the middle we hit rock bottom. If we don't use doomguard (which is a 10 minute cooldown) we do awful.

In WoTLK we where doing fine, thats what I am comparing it too.

[Darktheist]

WTB Extremely High Skill cap... Ohh wait. If you can play a Lock well, well done your a very good player. I wouldn't call them OP'd they have one spec that works the rest suck dick, they "NEED" to be with a Shaman pretty much. And class with good peels/CC E.G A DK 4 Interupts if Unholy + Necro. if not It's fucking hard to win a game. With the exception of LSD.

[Inactivity]

<sup>1) The reason dispel protection was buffed is because virtually all warlock abilities are magic debuffs - all dots, and fears. Without stronger dispel protection chain-dispels would render a warlock worthless.
2) Warlocks are weakest against melee, so nerfing demon armor just encourages hard counters and less skill-based play.
3) As mentioned there's only one really viable class, and it has its weaknesses (very poor defense against melee, extremely vulnerable to interrupts, all debuff-based damage).
4) Ability to spread dots was already nerfed in 4.2, no more 15-sec soul swap. The strongest DoT (and the one with dispel protection) is already a hard-cast.

5) In PvE warlocks require extreme, extreme ability to top charts. Yes, the real good warlock players do really well. But a few mistakes and your position will plummet.... that's just how the class works, it has a high skill and moderate gear curve. Affliction dps is almost all ability to spread dots and keep up stacks of SE. Destruction is ability to keep up ISF, while managing procs and cooldowns. Demo has to time cooldowns, or dps goes down a lot. Also the class is really buff-dependent, a few haste buffs missing and your dps is down the tubes.

6) On that, if you want to suggest a nerf, I would say a way to nerf PvP without crippling the class is to reduce damage of BoA slightly, but move it into BoD (which is more often used in PvE), taking down multi-target and pvp dps slightly without crippling the class, but increasing single-target dps (where affliction is weakest) to buff the class. This has the side effect of buffing destro (weak class). If Demo becomes OP as a result then a mastery adjustment can fix the issue.

Another idea is to look at the felhunter, but as is having the shadow bite hit hard gives locks incentive to control their pet well, as well as incentive for opponents to try to cc or even kill the pet.</sup>

[Pert]

A hunter, mage, rogue, warrior can do competitive DPS without much BiS items, a warlock needs a lot of BiS items just to even begin to compete. Maybe I exagerated with complete shit I apologize, but we are definitely not doing well, we are decent enough. We also rely way to much on cooldowns..At the start of a fight when we have all cooldowns popped we peak a lot, then towards the middle we hit rock bottom. If we don't use doomguard (which is a 10 minute cooldown) we do awful.

Define "rock bottom."

[Lidenbok]

Define "rock bottom."

10-15 on the DPS metres in a 25 man group.

5) In PvE warlocks require extreme, extreme ability to top charts. Yes, the real good warlock players do really well. But a few mistakes and your position will plummet.... that's just how the class works, it has a high skill and moderate gear curve. Affliction dps is almost all ability to spread dots and keep up stacks of SE. Destruction is ability to keep up ISF, while managing procs and cooldowns. Demo has to time cooldowns, or dps goes down a lot. Also the class is really buff-dependent, a few haste buffs missing and your dps is down the tubes.

This man gets it perfectly.

I rolled a hunter few months ago and get her decked out ready for raiding, I actually wanted to change my main from warlock to hunter just because how easy it was to top the metres on a hunter compared to a warlock. Thats just an example for you guys.

[Pert]

10-15 on the DPS metres in a 25 man group.

How much DPS is that? How much DPS is first place?

EDIT - If you're arguing other classes have an easier rotation, then I agree absolutely. But if you're arguing that Warlock DPS is simply inferior, than I disagree.