[Suggestions,concerns,past and future]

[Exirian]

A link to the EU thread :
http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread....04811378&sid=1

First of all I will start with some explanation.I want to say that I have not received a beta invite but I am writing this on what I've read,seen and expect from the future of the class. This post is mainly about PvP and class mechanics suggestions . Some of them might be seen already some might not but I will try to make it as most constructive as It can be, even though I know that this is Europe and my and others' writings might be in vain because the developers might never see them. But still just looking and waiting isn't really going to change anything.
So, let's take a look at what exactly THE warlock class is all about. It's one of the 9(soon 10) classes. It is the type of dark caster/summoner that exists in many RPGs under the name of summoner,demonologist,conjurer or to some extent a necromancer. The class' three talent trees are:

•1 - "Affliction" - this is the tree that is based mainly on DoTs(damage over time effects),drains and curses. In other words you tend to destroy your enemies slowly while draining their life force for yourself thus making it lack the nuking capabilities.
•2 - "Demonology" - the tree that is considered by me the support tree of this class. It is based on demon empowering,increasing the effect of your demonology spells,giving a new pet which you cannot get otherwise and some passive buffs to yours and your demon's stats.
•3 - "Destruction" - This is the tree that lives for its name. It is based purely on direct damage dealing spells, nothing more nothing less. This tree was the most recognized when the game's cap level was 60.
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With the introduction above I will continue to some revision to how the trees changed from Classic WoW to TBC.
I was really happy of how affliction turned out to be when the expansion came, mainly because I started my warlock three and a half years ago with the idea of playing the evil,life-draining class I've always played in such games(as nerdy as it may sound really ). And yes I was happy playing the 33/7/11 build back there when it was considered the leveling but I still destroyed other classes and warlocks with the PvP builds and it was really fun. When the BC came out it turned out to be a really viable tree for the pvp aspect with nice additions. The drain life range was increased as it should be, the new dot was really useful protecting the other spells from getting dispelled and the improved howl of terror was fantastic. But then it got too strong and had to be changed, even tough not so drastically. The drains got 50% healing reduction during debuffs such as - mortal strike,aimed shot,wound poison etc., the damage of the dots got reduced by scaling and default and then got a resilience reduction effect. Then the constantly increasing damage of the other classes got too high and affliction couldn't offer many defenses, so many warlocks were forced to spec into something else. This is where the popular SL/SL spec came out consisting of siphon life plus soul link. This is the build that dominated when it came out and was the only choice for warlocks looking forward to high ratings. As it consists of affliction and demonology this build provides both Dots,drains and passive defenses and increases such as : stamina, health and intellect from Demonic Embrace, Fel Intellect/Stamina , Critical strike chance reduction from Demonic Resilience, Pure Damage reduction in the face of Soul link and spell damage bonus from demonic knowledge. And by now destruction got long forgotten simply by the factors such as : LoSing( hidding behind pillars and other objects= line of sight) , the tree is crit dependant and the crit chance it provides is not enough to overcome the crit chance reduction of the resilience stat.
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Now it's time for the pets. The warlock class is one of the two classes which relies on pets for things such as damage increases,spells,effects etc, even though to some extent death knights and mages are also dependent on their pets in their case they serve their purpose as ADDITIONS to their aresenal of abilities and spells. While to the hunter and the warlock they have become a burden and those classes are crippled without them.
The warlock has a chance to have one of the following 4 (5 if talented for it) demons:
•1: The Imp - this is the first pet you can have when you start your warlock. It is fragile but really serves its purpose as a group pet giving bonuses with its presence and it is ok as it is.
•2: The Voidwalker - that is the second pet you can get and it is considered the demon with the highest physical endurance or also the tank while leveling. But this pet doesn't really serve its purpose. It is fragile and can't really hold the aggro as it should be. He is given the new paranoia tool as addition to his consume shadows ability which isn't bad at all but cannot be used while in combat which severly cripples its potential, plus every caster can destroy him in pvp and I mean complete oblideration
•3: The Succubus - it's the third pet you can keep submissive. She is has the pet which adds more crowd control to the warlock's arsenal with "Seduction", has somewhat good damage dealing abilities and is able to make herself invisible. But on the other hand seduction is EXTREMELY costy, she is too fragile thus has no real potential in the arena battles where she can just be 2-3 shotted by anyone.
•4: The Felhunter - the last non talented pet which is the one most used in the pvp aspect of the game. It is cosidered the anti-caster pet with its Spell Lock,devour magic(wrote devour mage at first and loled ) and high resistance. But it also posseses some stealth abilities and attack power reduction when hit. In the expansion this pet is getting its Tainted Blood changed with Shadow Bit which restores mana if talented and fel intelligence aura which gives a some spirit and intellect. But this pet is very fragile against his paranoia is being taken away and being replaced with some pathetic aura which only increases stats.
•5: The Felguard is the fifth pet you can choose from if you are willing to spend 41 point in the demonology tree. I can say that this is is my favourite demon but I don't think it is really justified by putting 41 points just to have it. In the expansion this pet looks really lack-lustre because it damage seems low, gets 3 shotted and doesn't provide anything rather than the intercept it has, plus it is currently missing an ability slot, which many people have suggested to be filled with something.
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Now, let's see what does the the warlock get in the new expansion:
Fear is getting a damage cap so it can no longer break early which is a good point because having the core CC spell last 0.0001 seconds in many cases, is simply stupid.
Some pets are being looked at with the stats being increased but health increases only are not the answer for the desired AND needed pet scaling.
Some talents that were useless got their use, some got reduced in points because the trees were very bloated.
New 51 point talents which look very useful to me.
Some spells and talents got moved or improved : Corruption instant (even though it should have always been like that),bane and ruin moved thus allowing more builds to have those two, nether protection got changed to a really nice way rather than simply giving a stupid overpowered,only usable against certain classes immunity, Conflagrate being able to stun when you put points in Pyroclasm and so on.
Plus even a nice new spell- Demonic Circle/Teleport, which would in some way help getting the range to cast that the warlocks desperately need.
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But of course some spells got really bad changes: Life tap is scaling with spirit, fel armor got it's healing increase moved to demon armor, amplify curse got nerfed extremely, soul link got moved thus allowing more builds to pick it but got decreased in damage(again!) reduction, which isn't justified considering the damage done in the future expansion.
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Now I would like to take a look at how does the warlock deal with the other classes.
•1 - Druid - if the druid is Moonkin spec or feral spec in this case the warlock has the upper hand, but his problems come when facing a resto druid not because they really have a big chance of killing the warlock but they can heal and kite via travel form and HoTs that the warlock almost has no chance of nuking him down. I guess with the new tools given to the feral and balance tree the druid might have a bigger chance VS the warlock.
•2 - Hunter - pretty much 70% win ratio for the warlock if they are equally skilled but some crits, well used traps and feigns may prove deadly. I think the tools given to the them in the expansion, the hunters might become another problem for the warlock.
•3 - Mage - the mages consider warlocks their anticlass which is to some extent true while using the SL/SL build, but rather than that in every other build if they are equally skilled the mage has a bigger chance (considering he is frost). There had been sayings that the warlock when fighting mage takes no skill. Probably if both people are low and equally skilled the warlock>mage and even if they are highly skilled the warlock holds the upper hand but of course the mage has his chances too if he uses his tools fine. Plus the warlock anticlassing issue is been looked at and the mages got some of the abilities they needed.
•4 - Paladin - nothing to say here....The paladin currently has got to be the easiest class for the warlock but that is looks like is going to change in the WotLK. The paladin's heals are extreme on the PTR and the beta,they got their talent for the curses duration reduction, but I guess the retri paladin isn't going to be as much of a problem. I have fought versus a retribution paladins on the PTR with affliction build and haven't lost a single game, but their damage seems to be going to be really high.
•5 - Priest - If the warlock is SL/SL and the priest is shadow , the warlock has more chances of winning. If the priest is discipline and the warlock is SL/SL while fighting in arena, the priest becomes a really tough fight with all his dispells,prayers of mending,shields etc.
•6 - Rogue - . As I had liek 50-50 chacnce in Classic wow , in TBC with all the snares,stuns,incapacitates became the warlock's most hated enemy. You simply become a hardly moving,only instant casting target. Of course there are big chances you can win in 1vs1 but you have to do everything prefect - fake casting on fear,being careful about him using cloak of shadows and more. If the rogue is an undead and posseses some skill the win chances are close to ZERO. As for the warlock when countering the mage , the rogue countering the lock isn't even close to it I guess. Even if they are both low or high skilled with bad or good gear , the rogue keeps the upper hand. And unlike the other classes being countered by the warlock, the rogue problem seem to reamins unchanged.
•7 - Shaman - I guess it is the same as Paladin really. Curse of tongues and macro managing kills on the totmes with the pet and the shaman is dead. Enhancement shamans could be quite devastating in some cases with their damage if the player is good. Also they seem to get their remove curse spell in the resto tree wich would prove very useful for them.
•8 - Warrior - well from my experience the warrior fights seem to be even. However if they are lucky on some crits and mace stuns( I know it is removed in the expansion), plus some good usage on the spell reflect might be devastating.
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OK let's finally move to the suggestions:

•1ST and probably the most important: THE PET SCALING
Warlocks are and will always be pet dependent - for their mitigation,spells,drinking interuption etc. But all of the pets in their current form are nothing but a 3 shotted,hard to switch under pressure burdens.
The pet scaling had,is and will be always needed for the warlock class. As Ghostcrawler said on the US bea forum he is afraid of giving them resilience and would rather giving the classes(hunter and lock) "tools" to keep them up. I was asking myself how could you be afraid of trying something that might urn out to be a good step. If people were afraid to trying we would probably be sitting with big clubs, chasing animals and living in caves(maybe I exaggerated in here). You can always give them scaling, see how it turns out. If it turns out to be very strong- lower it, if it turns out weak increase it, if it turns out not the way you wanted it give warlocks more tools like:
Health funnel should probably be Hot. With the change of the spell power this spell really turned out well as it looks. Make it a HoT by default,glyph or the improved health funnel talent. With its improvement(15-30% less damage taken) this spell would be extremly useful and a "must-have" for almost every warlock.
Soul Link as it is provides no REAL mitigation. I guess changing it to something like :"While active you and your pet/demon take 15% less damage".
And there you have it by those suggestions above I guess the pets won't be as easily killed as they are, plus if you are willing to spec deep in the demonology tree you will have access to the "Demonic Resilience" talent which adds another 15% less damage done to the pet.
I am not sure if this would not turn out to be overpowered with it's 60% less damage done to the pet but if it turns that way you can always tune down the health funnel talent or do something else.
I like the Idea the pets(mostly the voidwalker and the felhunter) have become the kinds of pets that depend on the classes you are fighting against. That on the other hand should mean that you can switch them easier.
One way is to add(like many mentioned and asked for), a 50% lowered cast time on the pets while standing on or near the demonic cirlce. This will add both to the RP aspect of the game( you need ingredients and a a specific rune/mark/circle to summon a demon from the nether) and to the warlock class itself. 3 second-cas pets will be fine plus you will ahve to be careful where are you standing to do that.
Also a needed change is switching Fel Domination and Master summoner in the demonology tree. Also a needed change is lowering the cooldown on fel domination ( 3 minutes sounds reasonable I guess) and probably making it reduce the summon by 6 seconds thus the pet becomes instant.
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Now some base pet abilites and spells:
•The Imp seems ok to me with all the improving talents it seems to serve its purpose of a low enduring,group,caster demon.
•The voidwalker doesn't seem ok to me. He needs to hold the aggro a lot more than 2 seconds so a increased effect to the his "Torment" ability is more than needed. His demonic empowrment could be changed to something like :Your voidwalker takes 10/15/20% less physical damage and its threat generated by 20%. Lasts 10-15 seconds"
•The Succubus' "seduction" should have its mana lowered so that she doesn't run out of mana after 3 seduces. I think that her invisibility should either be used hile in combat or be changed with something like phase shift effect. Yes, I like the new imrpved subbubus talent but the pet iteslf remains extremely squishy.
•The Felhunter is going to the right direction but his "Fel Intelligence" should be probably changed to something like "10-15 % Increased spirit and intellect" because the flat increase in the moment isn't useful at all. Also the "Improved Felhunter" could be changed to "You Felhunter regains 4/8% of it's maximum mana each time it hits with its Shadow Bite ability and decreases the cooldown of Devour Magic by 1/2 sec."
•The Felguard need more survivability against magic because he is getting 2-3 shotted by mages from what I've seen. Also he needs a little damage increase and a filler to his missing abiliy in the pet bar. Something like: Hamstring, Disarm or Pummel might be ok but ofcourse considering those are pet abilities and should have decreased effect.
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Now suggestions for the spells and talents:
•1 - Demonic Teleport - it is a really great spell but I think it needs some addition against certiain classes. Maybe removing all slowing effect when teleported is going to be really good. We don't want another copy of blink that is going to remove stuns but we also want to be able to gain range or escape because a warrior,rogue or a shaman is one button away from getting on us(shadowstep,intercept,ghost wolf).
•2 - Shadowflame - I was really looking forward to this spel but with its recent nerf I don't see myself using it that often. After all its high mana cost, low damage and low range of the cone this spell doesn't server any other purposes than an additional thing for the conflagrate which isn't bad for itself but, it will only be a useful for destruction warlocks. Maybe an additional effect like a daze(5seconds) and/or knockback(5 yards) will be both an anti melee tool and could serve as a spell interupting effect.
•3 -- So we want tools to keep our pets alive eh? I don't know if this had already been suggested but something like this might be good:
NEW SPELL: Demonic Pull/Call or whatever( the name could be changed). 30 seconds(+/-) cooldown , 30(?) yards range. You teleport/pull your pet demon next to you. "Well ok Exirian, this might be a nice new spell but what do you think will be its animation ?!" Well it could be givien a completely new animation or just get the same as:
1: http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?spell=49576#screenshots - Death Knight's Death Grip or :
2: a portal that opens next to you the same way as the the quest from ogri'la when you have to banish demons http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?quest=11051#.
•4 - Nightfall - I personally think that affliction should be rid of its dependancy on the destruction spells, so changing Nightfall talent and glyph of corruption into "Clears the cooldown and makes your next Haunt spell an instan cast" might be ok.
•5 - Haunt - this spells is nice as it is but I would like it to get its animation changed to something like in Diablo II with the necromancer's bone spirit spell, rather then a ball/blob/balloon thing.
•6 - The demonology trees needs to be made a little more active , maybe adding new spells deep down in the tree would be nice.
•7 - Destruction suffers from a lack of immobilizing effects and crit chance. So adding more crit talents to certain spells a a new immobalizing spell(suggestion below) might work fine.
•8 - NEW SPELL (DESTRUCTION) Enveloping Pain(name could be changed!) - immobalizing the target target for up to 10 secs. Your next destruction spell has plus 20% more critical chance while the spell is on the traget. 20-30 seconds cooldown. "Well, but the animation?" Flame Wreath ?
•9 - Soul Shard System - There have been many suggestions on the forums in regards to this. My own opinion is that the shards are needed component for the lore and mechanics of the class. A simple and great solution will be to make the shards simply stack. We will still be forced to farm them,still we will have to keep them in our soul bags and they will still exist as an component on some spells but we would have to farm them less often. With the new shard bag that has 32 slots we will be able to carry 160 shards (32x5). Seems reasonable and not game changing or breaking.
•10 - NEW SPELL - Nether/Void Skin (Change the name if you'd like). "The warlock links himself to the nether, clearing all physical debuffs and taking 40-60% less physical damage but during the spell the warlock takes 40-60% more damage from spells.Lasts 5-6 seconds. 90 sec. cooldown" This spell will be the answer to the melee threat, while you should be careful using it if there are casters around. Many will say that I made a copy of the "Cloak of shadows" ability but also many will say that this is a needed spell.
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Well this is it, I would like to apologize that this topic turned out so long, I begin with some well-known information but I wanted to make a thorough post about my concerns. Also excuse my grammar,punctuation and language usage. I would also like to add that those Ideas aren't completely my inventions so the credit should go to all the warlocks on the US/EU beta,other forums etc. IT would be good to see people's constructive opinions on this.

[Deleted]

Wall of text crits you for 1337. You CBA, and go to bed, and read the post tomorrow and answer with an real intellectual answer. Goodbye.

[Rockeroad]

I read most of this and wow, you spent a lot of good time on this. I like a lot of your ideas to the class. Some of them might be OP but still very nice.

[dsswoosh]

Good post, most warlocks here seem to think pet scaling is fine though. :

I'm pretty sure the thread of whines will hit when patch comes live though, and will expect to see many many threads like this when it does

[DreamOfTheRood]

I copy-pasted the OP to MS Works, and it came out to 7 pages at Times New Roman 10-pt. font, here's to you, guy. That's a frickin Post.

To address a few of your points:
1) I agree with you that Nightfall should affect Haunt. Specifically, the proc should clear the cooldown of Haunt, and the cast should affect either Shadowbolt or Haunt, whichever one the caster chooses.
2) Affliction is desperately in need of an ability that deals all of the remaining damage on your dots to the target and then clears the dots. I really like the word 'Atrocity,' so I will henceforth refer to it as such.

Now, I will go have an Iron Maiden moment.

White man came across the sea ...

[Wildhorn2]

Wall of text crit you for infinite damage.

WTB more spaces!