Destro warlock is fine

[Amariw]

Single target dmg is a problem, yes. The sharp drop in aoe if a tank moves the mobs is also not the best of designs. I'd much rather the MoP/WoD aoe rotation (a toggle that makes your single target spells aoe, but cost soul shards and do around 50% of regular damage, but if there are enough targets you gain more shards then you lose. There's complexity in both sustaining soul shards and maximizing aoe. Also Rain of Fire no cost, but doesn't overlap, and does more damage so you can reposition it whenever). Much funner then "cata and demonfire/incinerate spam and rain of fire". Tuning can happen so dmg is good, not op.

As for single target, a simple solution might be reducing infernal soulshard gain by 50%, so its twice as weak, but increasing all single target damage (non aoe incinerate, chaos bolt and conflagrate) by around 20%. Less powerful cd, but stronger sustain single target.

[Exeris]

It's no surprise that a class that has a massive single-hit spell would do well in low keys - if things die quickly, the big hits result in a higher proportion of damage.

The problem is that the higher you go, the less that is the case; and suddenly you find yourself diminishing on every pull after some nice burst while other classes have much more consistent damage, particularly on single target.

Something I've always struggled with as destro are groups that practically never stand still, continuously pulling and moving and spending a lot of time trying to catch up, burning rush helps but not by much and it makes me feel bad that I'm giving the healer more to do even though they might not mind.

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Single target dmg is a problem, yes. The sharp drop in aoe if a tank moves the mobs is also not the best of designs. I'd much rather the MoP/WoD aoe rotation (a toggle that makes your single target spells aoe, but cost soul shards and do around 50% of regular damage, but if there are enough targets you gain more shards then you lose. There's complexity in both sustaining soul shards and maximizing aoe. Also Rain of Fire no cost, but doesn't overlap, and does more damage so you can reposition it whenever). Much funner then "cata and demonfire/incinerate spam and rain of fire". Tuning can happen so dmg is good, not op.

As for single target, a simple solution might be reducing infernal soulshard gain by 50%, so its twice as weak, but increasing all single target damage (non aoe incinerate, chaos bolt and conflagrate) by around 20%. Less powerful cd, but stronger sustain single target.

I know this is wishful thinking but I would love a redesign of rain of fire, I just don't enjoy using it as it feels clumsy and it costs 3 shards that I'd like to use for chaos bolts instead(that are more fun to me).

Something that works close to this maybe.. summoning a sphere of fell energy a target location that explodes leaving a burning dot on all targets hit.

Then the mobs can run around as much as they want.

[Biomega]

Something that works close to this maybe.. summoning a sphere of fell energy a target location that explodes leaving a burning dot on all targets hit.

Sooo..... Cataclysm? XD

[Exeris]

Sooo..... Cataclysm? XD

Oh I forgot about that.

I don't play warlock much and barely tried that spell, I'd love it replacing rain of fire though but I'm sure there are many having played lock a long time having rain of fire grown on them.

I didn't think it much over, just envisioned a glowing sphere growing and going boom, sounded fun.

[Aggressive]

You clearly have not played other casters.

Dumbest shit I ever but I will help you out so you don't look stupid again.

I have a mage, druid, and a priest. I will admit I don't play the priest enough at like I do my druid and mage. But I am just going to assume that fits me into play the other caster classes.

Do me a favor don't assume you know things about a person. It just makes you look like a fool. Just better to ask me. At least it makes you look smart and intelligent.

[enigma77]

Destro needs a 20% aura dmg increase. Or another 40% damage buff to Chaos Bolt.

[Gaidax]

My beef with Warlocks as a whole now is that M+ utility is simply shit and this is now worse with drums being nerfed to shit, which makes a lust spot reserved for Mages/Hunters unless you get Shaman healer

So instead of competing for 3 DPS spots, we compete for 2. Our other utility is mostly forgettable, Healthstone is nice, but it's not a key utility actively sought like lust/shroud. Yes yes I'm sure there will be some pepegas that will try to glorify shadowfury, banish and gateway for M+, but that's just gravy stuff. It's not major stuff that you really need for high keys.

Damage-wise in M+ Destruction is just fine. It's really OK, it's just that Hunters are broken as fuck and shit in everyone pretty much.

So the issues are down to lackluster utility in M+ that make warlocks as a whole not desirable and yes the traditional Achilles' Heel of shit ST in raids for Destruction.

What Blizz should have done? I'd say a 5% aura and add desirable M+ utility to a pet or even outside pet. Lust on imp if they have to or some such because why not.

[Rinaul]

I’d say it’s rather the other classes being overtuned.

Imagine saying that to a havoc dh or frosty mage about now.

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MoP destro was fun. Now mind you it was OP as hell. But the style was the funniest that warlock will have ever been. Would love to have fel flame back Like mages have their Ice Lance and take Soul Burn off of the talent row and make it base line. So yes rather you like it not, MoP style destro was the most fun..HANDS DOWN. So whoever designed the class should be hired back cause right now the style is OK but I sure as hell won't say it is the funniest.

WoD aoe CB

[Squigglyo]

I main a warlock.

Last season, I leveled up, geared up and pugged the 15+ FOS on a Demon Hunter.


Is it likely I can get all +15 by pugging this season on a lock?
Or would I need to make another FOM class for this season too (if i wanna pug it all)

[Biomega]

I main a warlock.

Last season, I leveled up, geared up and pugged the 15+ FOS on a Demon Hunter.


Is it likely I can get all +15 by pugging this season on a lock?
Or would I need to make another FOM class for this season too (if i wanna pug it all)

As always, you can do any +15 key on any class/spec. 15 is not a high key, even right now, and doesn't require meta comps. Also the world first timed +20 did, in fact, have a Warlock

Not being a meta class/spec doesn't mean you CAN'T do keys, it just means it'll be harder to get into (good) groups. Hunters & Rogues will get invited a lot more/more quickly than a Warlock, and people will be likely to demand a higher standard of ilvl/r.io score from a Warlock but it's not impossible to PUG +15s on a Lock by any stretch.

[Stunlocked]

I’d say it’s rather the other classes being overtuned. Haven’t leveled an alt yet, so I don’t know how other classes feel. But in solo content our damage feels in place. Except for the chaos bolts

I'm not a "sky is falling" guy but are you really measuring class balance in a MMO based on solo content??

[Lucrece]

The Legion rework to warlocks was a disaster because they were pruned to hell to fill some of the holes with the artifacts, but once the artifacts were gone, the unpruning never took place.

Got some shitty gimmick curses nobody asked for. The useless Ritual of Doom. That's it. In fact, over BFA the pruning from Legion just got worse, hammering away at the tankiness and self healing aspect Legion gave the warlock when they did away with dark regeneration and embers healing.

To top it off, all the warlock specs were turned into ramp up turret specs. Completely bereft of meaningful instant casts or snap aoe/ST burst. If a turret doesn't do more damage than a class filled with instant cast spells and mobility, then that turret spec is gimped by design.

Destro has been screaming to baseline Cataclysm or FnB for a while. Affliction has too many short duration debuffs to layer on a target to be practical as target count goes up, unlike shadow priests whom with the rework got a SW:P spread with burst and sustained aoe damage in searing nightmare and shadow crash put in, alongside a baselined SW that makes the pathetic Shadowburn look like a complete joke while costing a talent slot.

Demonology from Legion was an abject failure of kit design and has been in need of revisiting, because with its current kit if it isn't absolutely overtuned for ST, then it's a worthless spec next to the other two warlock specs.

Warlock specs like affliction scream unfinished, as prospective spells in alpha were cut, it was interrupted mid-rework and their lack of commitment was evident when they recycled the Implosion animation as they couldn't even be bothered to give Malefic Rapture an actual animation of its own.

[Araya]

Destro and Demo likely need somewhere in the range of a 7% overall buff to even be competitive in raids right now and I doubt they'll even get 5% anytime soon.

[Lucrece]

Destro and Demo likely need somewhere in the range of a 7% overall buff to even be competitive in raids right now and I doubt they'll even get 5% anytime soon.

As usual, because affliction is overperforming. Another xpac of affliction dominance.

[crimsonhead]

Destro and Demo likely need somewhere in the range of a 7% overall buff to even be competitive in raids right now and I doubt they'll even get 5% anytime soon.

well looks like you got your wish lol, destro 5% aura buff tomorrow

[zachie]

well looks like you got your wish lol, destro 5% aura buff tomorrow

It's not gonna be enough, at least not on single target fights, we might be able to close the gap a bit with affliction on fights like sun king, Lady or huntsman, but single target fights there's no way around afflicition.

Affliction might be doing big dps, but it's far from fun to play, yeah the mobility is great, it can do big numbers, but the burst windows are to a point where one mechanic in a fight outside of your Darkglare window can/will totally mess up your burst window.

I've been playing a pure caster warlock since the SM/Ruin days in classic, so i'm biased in my dislike towards affliction, but it just feels so terrible to play, half of the time you're looking at timers.

[Orwell7]

See the bigger picture! Blizzard is balancing around their "expected" DPS numbers. Some specs are below that in RL scenarios, but not in their sims. These specs are getting 2-3-5% buffs, which is good.

On the other hand, Blizz said that they won't nerf classes to dethrone them! This means that some specs are above in RL scenarios than their sims, and they "didn't see it coming".

Conclusion:
1; their sims suck balls
2; what strong right now will be strong in all of Shadowlands
3; if we get more borrowed powers, those can shift the meta around, but I won't count on that. Just watch Izen Hart's video about double legendaries. Hint: what is OP now will be even more OP with double legos, while bottom feeders have zero synergies/interactions with multiple legos.

[oathy]

I'm really struggling with destro in PVP
my main is riversong on outland EU.

the endless interrupts, in pve she's fine but the spells seem to be hitting PVP targets like wet lettuce.
owing to my illness i play wow with just 3 fingers now, So I understand will never be some amazing player
But when you start getting called the worst lock someone has seen it does hurt a lot.

Soul fire can do some really good damage 24k in pve and around 13k in pvp, trouble is the cast time.
Sorry if this isnt making sense

[Niratias]

We are in a good spot now.

https://www.wowhead.com/news=320826/...ruary-2nd-week

We are no long bottom tier in Raids, and doing just fine in mythic+.

[Bonus]

Was just about to post this .. We're in a really great spot right now IMO, although I primarily do PVP.