Easiest warlock spec to play?

[Shelly]

Hi there Warlockertockerdockerrockers,

I have a friend who just brought his warlock to 100, really enjoys playing the character but enjoys watching TV and playing with his daughter and talking to his wife more. Yeesh, jocks amirite?

Any possible tips from the warlock community? He's basically looking for a way to play that would maximize his gearing - he's currently doing about 10 to 12k dps in LFR at the 669 gear level.

Here's his armory if you'd like to check him out: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/antonidas/Treehorn/simple

He'd like knowledge on how to be a bit more low-key about the whole deal. He knows he needs to refresh his DoTs and all that, but just isn't quite gelling on how to put it all together.

I'd love any suggestions for him, UI, macros, playstyle, etc.

Thanks a lot you super duper dapper and amazingly good looking ladies and gents!

[Vulcanasm]

Destruction is the easiest Warlock spec to play, and one of the easiest specs in the entire game to master.

[Robula]

I always found Affliction much easier to play, especially compared to Destruction.

[Caolela]

I always found Affliction much easier to play, especially compared to Destruction.

Me too. Aff is easier than Destro or Demo. Just keep up DoTs, then Haunt/SB:SS/Drain Life as needed. Once you get used to the timing it gets boring fast.

[striderZA]

Destruction is the easiest Warlock spec to play, and one of the easiest specs in the entire game to master.

On single target, sure.

[Yuna]

Destruction + Addon: "affdots" with horizontal bar view settings = every information needed in a small window, should be easy even if you never played destruction warlock before.

Tracks your immolate, embers, havoc, conflag and backdraft stacks too.

He should get WeakAuras2 or TellMeWhen to track offensive cooldowns and trinket proccs to maximize his output.

[Zaroch]

Destruction is the easiest Warlock spec to play, and one of the easiest specs in the entire game to master.

Destruction is easy to play but I don't agree with the 'one of the easiest to master' part. It is definitely not easy to master Destruction, if it was easy there wouldn't be such gap between equally geared destro players.

@OP I would also suggest your friend to play affliction.

[Locknrollen]

If he only plans on doing LFR, he should just play the specc he enjoys the most. Affliction with Grimoire of supremacy and Demonic Servitude should be the easiest thing to play as a warlock, which will do fine in LFR and his gear lvl.

If he wants to up his game and go in to normal and above, i suggest reading the pinned guides on the warlock forum.
And perhaps becoming a padawan and taking on a mentor.

[Gaidax]

Destruction is definitely not easy to master, there are so many shitty Destruction players it is almost unreal. Single target it's easymode, but as soon as there are adds and such - this is where the fun begins and the issue there is proper execution, something that is not as easy to pull out at 100%.

[Valq]

All 3 warlock specs are relatively easy to play. Destruction is the hardest to master out of the three, demonology comes second, and affliction is overall the easiest spec we have in the current iterations.

On a side note: most people who say destruction is easy to master are generally shit at the spec, or think they've mastered it when they really aren't close.

[Shelly]

It seems his biggest problem is with multi-dotting. I showed him some mouseover macros - which I figure would work well since he just plays with the mouse - and he worries he's not getting everything dotted up or that it's dropping and he can't keep track of them all.

I'll go ahead and pass the info along.

Thanks folks. :-)

[Nethlord]

Destruction + Addon: "affdots" with horizontal bar view settings = every information needed in a small window, should be easy even if you never played destruction warlock before.

Tracks your immolate, embers, havoc, conflag and backdraft stacks too.

He should get WeakAuras2 or TellMeWhen to track offensive cooldowns and trinket proccs to maximize his output.

Hold on there now...don't let the devs hear you need addon's to play Destruction...otherwise you'll get a flat 25% nerf to "EVERY SINGLE SPELL IN YOUR REPERTOIRE"

As a long time Lock, currently:

Destro is clunky, (clunky like a swedish prog metal band). But when you get it works awesome.
Affliction is rewarding, but slow and really great at one thing (just one thing)
Our other spec is being called "Demon Hunter" for some reason, and they keep trying to fuse us with rogues....

Your best bet right now is to play another class altogether, no sarcasm here either.

[Deleted]

Does that addon still work even if it's outdated?

[Octa]

Hold on there now...don't let the devs hear you need addon's to play Destruction...otherwise you'll get a flat 25% nerf to "EVERY SINGLE SPELL IN YOUR REPERTOIRE"

As a long time Lock, currently:

Destro is clunky, (clunky like a swedish prog metal band). But when you get it works awesome.
Affliction is rewarding, but slow and really great at one thing (just one thing)
Our other spec is being called "Demon Hunter" for some reason, and they keep trying to fuse us with rogues....

Your best bet right now is to play another class altogether, no sarcasm here either.

I often find myself hearing really bad warlocks spreading information like this to other people, quite entertaining.

[Nethlord]

I often find myself hearing really bad warlocks spreading information like this to other people, quite entertaining.

Well you obviously do not get subtly, Allow me to translate

the 1st part is because the devs nerfed demo into the ground citing, to play the spec it needed addon's

Destro is not straightforward for people that have not played a warlock, every single person i've trained on the class gets overwhelmed and gives up without a detailed explanation and/or visual to make it clear. Once they get it, they are golden.

Affliction is great....for single target and very little else. Care to tell me how awesome affliction is for raid aoe? Well it's not, and in very few (if any) niche fights is it better than destro in current content. It does awesome single target and feels awesome to do it, and that's about it.

All that demo is or what it could have been is being pushed into the demon hunter class. Fighting melee, demo had it. Tank spec, had the glyph that let us be a niche off tank once upon a time. There is a complete change coming in the next expansion and the Demon Hunter class just reeks of all the things they tried out for Demonology over the years, but never committed to for the class. And for the record, main spec demo, since forever, i'm really looking forward to what they do, and no, I am not scared about potentially losing meta. At most it was a CD that never found it place (and by that I mean Blizzard never figured out what to really commit to with the CD).

As for playing one now....in this expansion where we are getting at least "ONE" complete spec remodel and god knows what else, there is little to no reason for someone to come into the class now, master the mechanics, only to watch all of it go up in smokes in less than a year. If the OP really is dead set on it, all the more power to him/her, otherwise i'd advise them to wait till legion where the can start from a place of power.

For the record, copying and pasting a quote, and then lazily responding with mock superiority, but backing it up with zero opinion/advice or fact makes you sound like a person more at home sniffing their own farts than actually adding anything to the conversation.

Too subtle for you? Let me try again so you might understand:

YOUZ R TEH BADZ!!! LULZ!!

[striderZA]

Well you obviously do not get subtly, Allow me to translate

the 1st part is because the devs nerfed demo into the ground citing, to play the spec it needed addon's

It's not that you need addons. Every spec needs addons to be effective, their problem with the current Demo is that it's simply too difficult for the average player to pick up and do okay at.

Destro is not straightforward for people that have not played a warlock, every single person i've trained on the class gets overwhelmed and gives up without a simple explanation. Once they get it, they are golden.

On the contrary, Destro is really easy to pick up and one of the easier specs to understand in the game. Once Havoc is involved though, you see the enormous difference between a good Destro lock and a great Destro lock.

Affliction is great....for single target and very little else. Care to tell me how awesome affliction is raid aoe? Well it's not, and in very few niche fights better than destro in current content. It does awesome single target and feels awesome .

Aff is great for single target yeah, but it also does decent 2-3 target cleave.

[Nethlord]

It's not that you need addons. Every spec needs addons to be effective, their problem with the current Demo is that it's simply too difficult for the average player to pick up and do okay at.



On the contrary, Destro is really easy to pick up and one of the easier specs to understand in the game. Once Havoc is involved though, you see the enormous difference between a good Destro lock and a great Destro lock.



Aff is great for single target yeah, but it also does decent 2-3 target cleave.

<Sigh>

The addon thing...is not my words, this was literally said by the lead game designer during one of the last Q&A that was done. I am going to assume you did not know this was said.

Destro FOR YOU person that has played, at least for sometime, a Warlock is easy. People brand spanking new to the class get all confused with when to do the rotation, get frustrated, throw up their hands and say "THIS IS STUPID! I QUIT." Again I am inferring this has happened in my experience, all of your experiences might be to the contrary. I doubt it, but have no way either way to confirm of deny.

Thanks for all but confirming what I said about Affliction.

[striderZA]

<Sigh>
The addon thing...is not my words, this was literally said by the lead game designer during one of the last Q&A that was done. I am going to assume you did not know this was said.

Yeah, I know that's what the devs said in an interview. But I also know that they said that the spec is extremely unfriendly towards new players and they'd like to change that. R

Destro FOR YOU person that has played, at least sometime, a Warlock, people brand spanking new to the class get all confused with when to do the rotation, get frustrated, throw up their hands and say "THIS IS STUPID! I QUIT." Again I am inferring this has happened in my experience, all of your experiences might be to the contrary. I doubt it, but have no way either way to confirm of deny.

I disagree, and people that get confused with the rotation that don't want to spend 10 minutes reading a guide or asking someone is probably going to do equally bad at another class. That said, some people have an easier time picking up a certain playstyle, others don't. Not that there's any point in arguing over it.

[Deleted]

I know it is not really necessary to work with keybinds when you play PvE, you can get by just alright by clicking all of your skills.
Clicking, albeit intuitive, has it's downsides though--it makes playing good harder. I'm not saying it is impossible to perform well, being a clicker BUT it is way more difficult than being good with the use of keybinds.
My advice to your friend is to get familiar with keybinding his abilities. It will be difficult and akward at first, rest assured, but after he adapted to that new playstyle, doing alright will be a whole lot easier (no matter what spec)!
Although it wouldn't hurt to read through some guides, too.
Cheers!

[Blithe]

PvE: Destruction is easier than Affliction which is easier than Demonology.
PvP: Affliction is easier than Destruction which is easier than Demonology.