Finally got a hold of beta on the 100 pvp realm...and man...was I disappointed.
I've played Lock since late TBC and am an average pvper (both arenas and bgs). With the changes in WoD for casters, it's pretty grim for Locks doing duels, 2v2, and random bgs. I know the game in pvp isn't balanced around 1v1 or without heals, but this is probably the worst I've seen since Cata. With no fel flame and (for destro) all damage outside of conflag on a hard cast time, you can't generate embers nor do damage as filler with melee. From my testing, I think incinerate hits for at best 10% health? Chaos bolt crits for like 20k on targets with 300k health. Blood horror is at a 1 min cd, Pet Seduce on a 30 sec cd, and with 1 stun or instant fear talent row its near impossible to do any damage with targets attacking you. If you roll Afflic or Demo, your sustained damage is a LITTLE better, still can't use full rotation with channeling or long cast times, and your entire survivability revolves around drain life, which you will never get off with any target. Each class has about 3-4 cc types, even if you use the talent and glyph for drain life, you can't use it from their CC! KJC only lasts 8 sec on a 1 min cd. You won't kill anyone in 8 secs or get enough from drain life assuming you don't get locked.
Every expansion is different. WotLK was all about burst around CC, with incinerate hitting for 30% health and using seduction and stuns at the right time, without a healer you could still survive long enough to damage around your cc. MoP was the opposite, where self heals outweighed cc and you had tons of instant damage abilities where it didn't matter lol. Cata was in between, where off healing sucked, but health pool was larger so damage was less around CC. However, you still had FEL FLAME! Both for damage and to build embers for destro. Now, you don't have any of that. Damage is so low for everyone (which if fine) but most classes have an instant cast heal or some kind of hot. Plus, melee is instant casts with plenty of gap closers. You mostly stand around in 2v2 or duels doing nothing but getting attacked.
Maybe its only fair, considering how good MoP was for locks. I mean, MoP, mechanically speaking, was probably the most OP since SL/SL in TBC. So...I’m not complaining about the nerfs, I understand them, but BOTH damage percentage and mechanics are crazy stupid. Embers are still good for destro, but no way to generate them. Anyone else feel the same?