Warlocks in Classic

[garicasha]

A fourth warlock is almost certainly going to bring less to a raid than an extra rogue, mage, or late-game warrior would.

[paralleluniverse]

How are Warlocks in classic? Thinking of rolling one. What spec should I use for PvE dungeons/light raiding? (casual raider, I raided MC/AQ20 and a couple other ones but never got that far) I joined WoW a couple months before the 1.10 Priest changes where they changed the Greater Heal cast time from 4 seconds to 3 seconds. I mained a Holy Priest most of classic but I want to try something different. Or I might just go back to my Priest, dunno yet.

SM/Ruin for PvE. SL Demonology for PvP.

[Armourboy]

Great thing about Warlock is you could do everything well. Might not be the best, but it wasn't really bad at anything either.

[Kagthul]

It really wasn't that bad unless you wipe a lot. The biggest issue is going to be bag space. The bigger soul shard bags didn't happen until TBC if I recall.

No, they were available in Vanilla (at least, big for the time) but they required mats from raids and IIRC (i haven't looked to be sure) the pattern for the biggest one was also from a raid rep.

[Gaidax]

Oh yeah I agree, but it's not that hard (or bad) all things considered. IMO much classes have it much worse, it's not that bad being a Warlock!

That's why I'm saying that Warlocks unlinke all these Pala DPS dreamers and nonsense such as that are actually legit damage dealers.

It's just this constant feeling of being a mage with a bunch of annoyances all around and little advantages.

[XtraT]

One single Mage gets the Ignite stack, every other Mage tends to site below the Warlocks

So you have no idea what you are talking about, what a waste of time.

[AeneasBK]

If you manage to kill him within the minute, congratulations! You just killed the hardest boss currently in World of Warcraft!

Made me giggle

[Outofmana]

Shards even isn't that bad as ppl make it out to be, it's one of the quirks that makes the class have it's identity, making sure their shardcount is ok just as a healer manages his mana, in a way.

Also for corruption lovers, with 16 debuffs (thank god not 8 in classic), you'll find it hard pressed to find a guild willing to let you use corruption, which means getting shoehorned into a demonic sac spec spamming shadowbolts after you put your curse on the boss, and if it's only 2 locks in your raid and you don't get to do CoS...enjoy the partial resists and the low dps, just sayin'.

With every curse though, locks are amazing later on in the game, think AQ/Naxx, but before that any caster will get blown out of the water by melee heavy setups anyway. Still fun to play imo though, don't get me wrong. Life tap alone imo makes it way more enjoyable than mage for me, no boring periods and worrying about mana.

[jackofwind]

So you have no idea what you are talking about, what a waste of time.

Cite your sources. For that matter, don't waste your own time responding to threads you think are a waste of time if you don't have anything to actually contribute.

The Fire Mage that gets the Ignite stack is always at the top of the casters. Equally geared Warlocks will usually sit below him but above the other Fire Mages, dependent somewhat on raid comp (SW from a Priest). It's safe to assume that the average post-AQ raid runs at least 3 Warlocks so they're not going without CoS.

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Shards even isn't that bad as ppl make it out to be, it's one of the quirks that makes the class have it's identity, making sure their shardcount is ok just as a healer manages his mana, in a way.

Also for corruption lovers, with 16 debuffs (thank god not 8 in classic), you'll find it hard pressed to find a guild willing to let you use corruption, which means getting shoehorned into a demonic sac spec spamming shadowbolts after you put your curse on the boss, and if it's only 2 locks in your raid and you don't get to do CoS...enjoy the partial resists and the low dps, just sayin'.

With every curse though, locks are amazing later on in the game, think AQ/Naxx, but before that any caster will get blown out of the water by melee heavy setups anyway. Still fun to play imo though, don't get me wrong. Life tap alone imo makes it way more enjoyable than mage for me, no boring periods and worrying about mana.

Definitely. DS/Ruin actually scales better at the very top end than SM/Ruin anyways so once you're in Naxx you're not really being gimped by not getting a Corruption slot. People just love SM/Ruin because it's still strong in raids but provides a ton of utility for solo content and is a decent PvP spec. (Though Conflag is way more fun IMO if you have the gear for it).

Shards are essentially a non-issue, once you have a Core Felcloth Bag you never run out unless you're trying to or are strictly PvPing for long periods of time.

[Mermeoth]

Shards even isn't that bad as ppl make it out to be, it's one of the quirks that makes the class have it's identity, making sure their shardcount is ok just as a healer manages his mana, in a way.

Mana and shards are completely different thing to manage.

Mana for healers is something you have to use smartly during combat. Proper management of mana makes difference between good and bad healer. After fight you just sit and drink to refresh it.

Soul shards are chore you have to do every time, you want to run raids/dungeon (or pvp) just for sake spend it on utility before you even start to do any content.
It's probably even worse in pvp. I hated to fly from Orgrimmar to Winterspring every while, because I wanted properly use all my destro abilities. Probably I have have spent more time flying and farming shards than dueling.

[Akasha64]

In PvP they kinda suck. No escape, low mitigation, DoTs are easily dispelled, undead rogues are everywhere (if you're alliance), they get trained really hard by warriors. Fear spam is excellent though and they can hold their own in 1v1 situations with the proper pet out.

I feel like that's not true. People hated going against warlocks in PvP because of Death Coil and Fear. And 1vs.1 against Mage, Warlock would win if they have their Felhunter out. If there was one thing bad in vanilla WoW, it were DoTs and Fear and Warlock was professional at doing that.

[tikcol]

So you have no idea what you are talking about, what a waste of time.

He has got half of it right, the first mage to crit gets rewarded the ignite stack the rest of the fight. But the second part is wrong. Never in my life have I dealt less damage than a warlock under normal circumstances. With ignite or without ignite rewarded to me.

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I feel like that's not true. People hated going against warlocks in PvP because of Death Coil and Fear. And 1vs.1 against Mage, Warlock would win if they have their Felhunter out. If there was one thing bad in vanilla WoW, it were DoTs and Fear and Warlock was professional at doing that.

Warlock is one of the most versatile classes in PvP, don't listen to that guy. Warlock is a very bad match against mage especially because the most played pvp mage spec lacks the damage to pressure the warlock, they can dispel the mage with their pets or dispel themselves off shatter burst set ups. Gnome warlocks with escape artist are a pain in the ass to kill.

You only stand a chance against a good warlock even as a good mage yourself if you bring a shadow reflector and use it properly, either on the lock's death coil or preemptively to become immune to the felhunter's dispel/silence. You also need a good grenade to the face, sometimes you can save the reflector if you manage to use the grenade on the warlock and his pet together so you can shatter without getting silenced, then use reflector after it.

[Caelrik]

He has got half of it right, the first mage to crit gets rewarded the ignite stack the rest of the fight. But the second part is wrong. Never in my life have I dealt less damage than a warlock under normal circumstances. With ignite or without ignite rewarded to me.

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His private server isn't as vanilla as he thinks it is, lol. Mages def. never sat below warlocks, would be time to replace some mages if that happened.

[Mermeoth]

I feel like that's not true. People hated going against warlocks in PvP because of Death Coil and Fear. And 1vs.1 against Mage, Warlock would win if they have their Felhunter out. If there was one thing bad in vanilla WoW, it were DoTs and Fear and Warlock was professional at doing that.

Well people were crying all the time that fear is way too OP. Thought back then almost nobody had trinket.
Warlocks were actually very strong against noobs. Not so much against experienced players.

Anyway. I would say warlocks are good at pvp thanks to strong CC. If you want to play pvp as warlock I would suggest go as horde. Since as alliance you have to face shamans and forsaken who have strong counters to locks.

[jonvm]

Endgame (Naxx) in terms of PvE DPS Warlocks will sit somewhere alongside the Rogues... Warriors and Mages will be higher on the DPS meters but that's about it.
They're fun, they bring a load of utility in terms of summons, health stones, soul stones, curses etc...
As others have said - for raiding, SM/Ruin when you hit 60, DS/Ruin at some point around ZG/AQ gear when you start to get more hit.
You might prefer to stay SM/Ruin if you do a lot of other things, grinding/wPvP etc. A Soul Link warlock is also a nightmare for most melee.

Just don't get the "first days of 60" put you off. The lack of +hit on talents or gear will hurt a new lock, as will the 8 debuff slots (if they go down that road) and you'll probably be sitting somewhere at the bottom of the raid DPS meters in MC. If you're OK with that, or if you have a shadow priest butt buddy (for shadow weaving and/or, if you're lucky, power infusion!) then go for it. Farming shards is a non-issue.

[Deletedaccount1]

How are Warlocks in classic? Thinking of rolling one. What spec should I use for PvE dungeons/light raiding? (casual raider, I raided MC/AQ20 and a couple other ones but never got that far) I joined WoW a couple months before the 1.10 Priest changes where they changed the Greater Heal cast time from 4 seconds to 3 seconds. I mained a Holy Priest most of classic but I want to try something different. Or I might just go back to my Priest, dunno yet.

You need to be conscious of your threat and life tapping in raids. Alliance warlocks who want to PvP also need to be concerned with WoTF which is annoying, but not the game ruining counter that some people claim it to be.

[Tapcon]

Cite your sources. For that matter, don't waste your own time responding to threads you think are a waste of time if you don't have anything to actually contribute.

The Fire Mage that gets the Ignite stack is always at the top of the casters. Equally geared Warlocks will usually sit below him but above the other Fire Mages, dependent somewhat on raid comp (SW from a Priest). It's safe to assume that the average post-AQ raid runs at least 3 Warlocks so they're not going without CoS.

One reason I think you're wrong is that warlocks struggle most of the game with obtaining enough hit. Mages have 6% from talents which is an inherent advantage AND 2% extra from ZG enchants. So mage basically starts at 8% hit making it way easier to get hit capped.

[Pieterman]

If you like a big toolkit, theyre wonderful. Granted, in raids its nothing special but Classics not about raiding. I had a lot of fun playing mine.

Fun bits:
Handing out healthstones to strangers
Being able to summon people
Free mount at 40
Mountquest at 60
Lots of choice in talents
High skillcap in dungeons and pvp
Tanking dungeons occasionally
Tons of class quests

What I missed from my priest:
Cant heal dungeons so finding a spot is harder
Cant buff people
Pet management wasnt really my thing

[Fallen Angel]

Ritual of Doom.

[Kallor]

From what I recall from vanilla (and tbc), Warlocks were great against pretty much all classes except Rogue.