Future of Warlocks, or Dealing With the Existance of Demon Hunters.

[Azgraal]

Greetings fellow warlocks.

Back when DH were firstly announced, couple with the changes and "overhauls" to warlocks, namely Demonology, there was quite a bit of ruckus about it. Some people defended they took all the fun things that made Demonology special and fun and gave them to DH. Others were happy to see it return to early Wotlk Demonology when the spec's focus was juggling demons. But as time passed and as we got access to more and more alpha content, the commotion died down.

Are we as the warlock community accepting the complete change to one of our specs yet again and having DH so damn close to what we used to be in some aspects, that even their class colour is pisstakingly close to our purple; or have people simply moved on to another ranting target and/or couldn't care less anymore?

Personaly I wasn't the biggest of fans of what Demonology had become lately. Sure, it was my main spec, I had fun with it and I managed to pull insane dps in some situations, but from a lore standpoint (and I understand this might be a irrelevant argument for some people) it always felt kinda off. Demon Hunters were the ones that delved so much in demon power they absorved it and became half past self half demon, Demonology warlocks simply controlled demons to fight other demons, not become one. I'm a bit bummed by the fact on the surface it seems we got shaft to give our fun stuff to another class, but I will surely want to play a DH as an alt, and I'm dying to try out the new """revamped""" warlock specs.

What are your opinions on this, fellow warlocks?

TL;DR: People ranted DH were getting warlock's fun stuff. People stopped ranting. Change of opinion or apathy?

[Sesshomaru]

The first version of Metamorphosis as a 3m CD was not fun at all. Of course, looking like a purple Illidan was fun enough, but the fact you had to time your cds to the Metamorphosis was not fun. I'm just glad we get it removed, although I would say that the current version we have is in fact the most fun I've ever had with Demo.

The fact we get back to the summoner type with the ability to empower our (temp) demons and have a floating skull is going to be way more fun than the purple Illidan-clone ability. From current videos showcasing a tiny bit of the revamped Demo spec, it shows truly a high potential, but I also felt disappointed for not having a variety of demons to summon, like Voidwalkers(/-Lords), Succubi and the like. It's still early on, but for me the spec is getting closer and closer to what I first imagined (and played) of the Demonology Warlock; empowering own demons to fight for us.

[Calfredd]

I will say I am going to miss green demon form though.

[Bluesftw]

i gonna miss utility of demon form the most, leap and falling meteor were simply amazing. Donts see the apeal of demo artifact weapon at all though... just throw pet cookie to your ghostly skull, there, you're warlock from legion now... feels a bit... meh

[Azgraal]

but I also felt disappointed for not having a variety of demons to summon, like Voidwalkers(/-Lords), Succubi and the like. It's still early

I feel the same way. It would be awesome yet dangerously close to hunters, if we got to capture and use any wild demon we fought too.

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i gonna miss utility of demon form the most, leap and falling meteor were simply amazing. Donts see the apeal of demo artifact weapon at all though... just throw pet cookie to your ghostly skull, there, you're warlock from legion now... feels a bit... meh

I loved those utilities. As for what demonology looks like in Legion, I guess it's one of those specs you can only judge if it is fun/practical/cool or not when you play it and get the feel of it personally.

[Duckz0rs]

Got over it personally. Mained Warlock (mostly Demo) since Vanilla, and personally the MoP/WoD version remains my favourite gameplay-wise. The Legion version looks to be fun too, although I'll still call it the Imp Master spec instead of Demo. It could use some iteration to smoothen things out from what I've seen.

At this point it's simply more constructive to look forward and make sure the new versions of the specs come out nicely, instead of going on about our flair being taken away. I guess that's why the discussion died down.

[MatadorMedia]

I never liked Demonology with the Metamorphosis form. It turned into a cooldown and spam abilities thing and that's just not fun to me. The way this new spec is showing, Demonology is all about calling and controlling your various demonic pets which seems pretty cool. The way that pets in general bug out in WoW bothers me a little since you can't really control them as much as you'd like, but still a neat spec.

[jayx10]

I'm elated that Demonology is returning to its roots. I rolled a Demonology Warlock in Vanilla WoW, because I wanted to play as a summoner/pet class (I loved my Diablo 2 Necromancer) While the gameplay wasn't particularly interesting back then (probably due to limitations of what the designers could do at the time...) Demonology was a pet spec. With almost all the talents in the tree buffing or augmenting your pet in some form.

Some people are upset that demon form is going away, which is understandable after having it for so long. But you know, it was also upsetting for those like me who wanted to play a pet-centric spec, and it ended up turning into a spec revolving around metamorphosis-- a far cry from its original incarnation.

[Kirroth]

Lots of people find the idea of change scary. It means dispensing with what's safely familiar and taking a risk on the new and unknown. For people strongly on the Risk Adverse end of the spectrum that's not a fun idea. Then the changes arrive, and people start reacting to what's actually gained and lost instead of the abstract idea of change itself.

So are these changes net gain or loss? I have to think they're a gain. Sure, Warlocks are losing some bits, but they were always Demon Hunter bits that got clumsily grafted onto the class to begin with. It was a stopgap measure because some people really wanted Demon Hunters and Warlocks could serve as a temporary platform for some aspects of that class fantasy.

Giving those bits back to the Demon Hunters just frees Warlocks to focus on being themselves. We're casters who master fel magic and command demons, they're fighters who imbue themselves with fel magic to be better at poking people with sharp bits of metal. It's like how Priests and Paladins both wield holy magic but in very different ways. I'd like to think the fel domain is just as expansive and has room for two classes as well.

[dholland662]

I do wonder, lore wise, why Warlocks arent more Demonic than we are.

Our lore states that we also delve deep into the dark arts, sacrifice our own life energy, and become voracious spellcasters.

Whereas Demon Hunters being so Demonic (outside of meta) was specific to Illidan becoming like a Demon after absorbing the skull of Guldan (a warlock).

So really shouldnt anything sufficiently exposed to fel become more like a Demon? That's what happened to Archimonde and Kil Jaedan. They're Eredar Warlocks who received so muchnpower it corrupted them.

So Demon swag for all!

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It's helps when Demon Hunter gameplay is so bland and piss easy to benefit all the terrible FotM re-rollers and Illidari ERPers.

That may be annoying if they can pull mad dps with a simple rotation

[demonicpanda]

Personally it's apathy. There's nothing I can do to make blizzard reverse their decision. Trying to make do with the changes really and doing whatever I can to make them not a change for the worse after finally having demo shine in MoP, and still be interesting in the WoD pre-removal of the spec.

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So really shouldnt anything sufficiently exposed to fel become more like a Demon? That's what happened to Archimonde and Kil Jaedan. They're Eredar Warlocks who received so muchnpower it corrupted them.

Lorewise yes. That's exactly what happens. Which is why, regardless of what people try to say, meta was always a lore consistent change.

[Annedrooo]

So when I started playing just at the end of BC a buddy of mine helped me pick my class. I told him my number one want was the ability to have minions that could take hits and keep people off of me. He told me that Warlock and Hunter were my options, and I told him that Bows were for assholes and picked my lock. I still think my dream class involves summoning a lot of minions (which I think the new spec is doing admirably) but I'd be remiss to say I won't miss old demo. That being said I think I honestly will miss demonic leap more than the rest of it because that move was always really fun to mess around with.

[Kirroth]

So really shouldnt anything sufficiently exposed to fel become more like a Demon?

That's like saying everyone who works in the nuclear power industry is going to die young of radiation poisoning. Yes, that's what happens. If you ignore basic safety precautions. Also those doomsday cultists who like to juggle radioactive power rods bare handed as part of their rituals? They might claim that horrible cancerous mutations are an inevitable fate for everyone who works with those materials, and sure that's how they ended up, but they're hardly a normal baseline now are they.

Don't believe the pro-arcane propaganda. Fel magic is perfectly safe if used in a controlled and responsible manner. Demonic transformations are not an inescapable result of its use.

[dholland662]

Demonology to me never excited me before now because outside of two really cool abilities (meta and felguard) it felt like the leftovers of Affliction and Destro were making a rotation together. Now it does.

[xezar]

I'd still like to see about 50% less imps and50% more of other demons, even if it's a cosmetic glyph or something, being the master of the weakest demon race just doesn't say fun instead of an army of felguards hacking away.

[Deleted]

I want and Army of Felguards riding dreadsteeds into battle. I want to cast Rain of Fire and make the sky Green with Meteors hurling down towards the ground bringing Infernals that burn everything (destruction artifact talent). I am god wielding forbidden and dangerous magic into battle. But all I get are imps and puppies...

Current Demonology gives me the God fantasy I like. Demonic Leaping into battle, bringing Hellfire to everyone that gets close and Soulfire to everything that is within reach.

[Tenjen]

ive not been keeping up, any changes to our list of demons and talented demons?

[FertsBlert]

Every single warlocks Banish should be placed on permanent CD in Legion whether that warlock is just created or whether they are a char that has been around for 11 years, and every single Banish on CD means one less DH that is playable.....

Who am I kidding, even with that there would still be 20000000 XxIllydenxX running around.

As for accepting a complete change to our class meh by this stage it wouldn't be a new expansion if warlocks didn't have to completely relearn their class again, so that would be a vote for apathy. I personally didn't really care about DH's getting warlock skills, I mean Shadowpriests got Meta (as per the warlock one) I'm just hoping that warlock becomes fun again for me after the travesty that is WoD warlock.

[ThePhantombox]

I was always of the opinion that if they made the changes cool enough it would be worth it. Like, the devs need to make it so cool that people won't even miss meta, and for the most part I feel pretty good about it. I'm also a bit less salty since DH meta is a bit different than ours, namely it being complete shit. Sure it looks cool, but that's about all it has going for it. Mechanically it's a snoozefest and 6 min cd? Yeah, call me petty, but I find it fitting they're not even good enough for our hand-me-downs.

[demonicpanda]

I was always of the opinion that if they made the changes cool enough it would be worth it. Like, the devs need to make it so cool that people won't even miss meta, and for the most part I feel pretty good about it. I'm also a bit less salty since DH meta is a bit different than ours, namely it being complete shit. Sure it looks cool, but that's about all it has going for it. Mechanically it's a snoozefest and 6 min cd? Yeah, call me petty, but I find it fitting they're not even good enough for our hand-me-downs.

I'm actually a bit more salty that DH meta isn't actually closer to ours, which is more in line with the WC3 spell. Feels like we, and the game entirely, has lost a thematically cool playstyle, just in the name of giving a visually unique cooldown to a class that's seeming to be more and more a hollow shell of a class I've wanted to play since 2004.

That said, I'm not exactly opposed to summoner warlocks, though it's been over 10 years of not being a summoner spec, why start now? But the iteration of Demo that I'm seeing, and their lack of making substantial changes to it, is making me regret pre-purchasing for the warlock mount.