So…I’m going alt-crazy and most of these classes are pretty much how I remember…but my 32 lock…that just feels all sorts of wrong.
I went affliction, using succy…it almost feels like my spells are downranked…I can fight a level 30 or 31 mob, or a 32…doesn’t matter…using a succy putting 3 dots and even a 4th fire dot on it, start wanding with a equal level wand…and my dots are often falling off the target before the thing dies.
I mean…that isn’t at all how I remember locks. For the most part I have all eagle gear with 2-3 nice plus shadow damage pieces…is it just me? just feels really off.
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I fought a few locks and won, and I was surprised. Can’t tell if they were new to the class or it’s nerfed though
I’ve been leveling with a Warlock buddy. It might just be the level range. I heard similar complaints of weakness when we were around your level but now I’m the weaker one.
There is an easily noted drop off in power of spells relative to mobs if you keep attacking higher level mobs as you level… especially just before you get a new rank. If this is your first mana user, the spell ranks don’t update automatically on your bars.
Yeah I keep them updated on bars, one has a macro, but the macro auto updates if you don’t assign a rank to the spell. Yeah I noticed it in PVp too fighting a druid…it was absurd how hard it was to damage the guy down.
That being said…I also noticed that curse of agony you can’t “cast over it” to renew it like all your other dots…I know that was a thing in TBC> it just says “a more powerful curse is on” or something…is that a glitch or is that just how classic was with agony?
I have spirit tap talent on my priest (plus spirit after a killing blow) and then the holy tree spirit to spellpower talent. My spellpower thus changes, so I really do have a more powerful spell active some of the time (for healing over time or damage over time effects).
I didn’t have any issues lvling at that lvl range, is your gear up to date with some +dmg?
Also I’ve noticed the opposite with CoA. Even if it has 3 secs left and thus would be at the highest dmg potential I can still overwrite it with a fresh CoA. I have not gotten any text yet saying I cannot cast over it as “a more powerful curse is on.” to date yet. It’s rather annoying as I may refresh it on accident, and it shouldn’t be letting me do that if I remember how it worked before.
Make sure you are replacing all your spells with the highest ranks of them, unlike physical dmg dealers our spells have to be replaced manually
at 32 you should have siphon life with a full drain tank build (if you want speed) look up dive drain tanking guide on google, really amazing build for leveling
Gauge how much dmg each mob is taking to die, if they die at the 15 second mark of curse of agony that mana was wasted. Some mobs require your full row of dots, some dont. With siphon up on multiple mobs the heal value is amazing for sustain (worst mana/dmg spell for locks but great sustain)
You can juggle multiple mobs which most classes cannot, with succ killing one, and fearing one, even drain tanking a third
Succ does amazing dmg with no mana, once you get to the end of the affliction tree you pick up dark pact. Then you become a one man killing factory that never needs to stop to drink.
(i skip putting talent points into demo until i have dark pact)
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Grind out a couple levels in SM then go back and do your quests when you outlevel the mobs. Once you start getting shadoweave you’ll be alright.
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I thought same thing when I was leveling a lock…Put up immo, corup and agony…then wand…Agony getting all the way to the last tick or falling off.
I use macros for each spell to ensure max rank…just easier than replacing stuff on bar for me. I swear I remember my old lock never using agony cause stuff died before it went halfway through dot.
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I had a warlock in vanilla too, there was a couple level ranges it felt super weak to me. Same with this druid, now it feels fine at 60.
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My recommendation is to only use the Succubus for PVP … or once you reached level 40 and have Dark Pact. DP is a massive game changer as you can all out and drain tank, and then just suck your succubus dry of mana. Just have to make sure to turn off Lash.
Until that time, I’d strongly recommend using the VW to play safe, or Imp if you love that sweet fireball spam. Or Felhunter on those rare occasions you’re grinding through a bunch of casters.
I had a similar problem on my lock. Pretty much:
If you are finding your fights are taking more than 20 seconds you want to fully dot the mob. For less than 20 second fights you only put a siphon life and corruption on the target.
+Spell damage gear helps a ton especially at low levels and while leveling if you aren’t getting constant gear upgrades your gear will slowly hinder you more and more.
There are levels where you’ll feel the weakest and those are usually 1-3 levels before new spell ranks.
I leveled a shadowpriest first and am currently on a warlock. There are a lot of situations where my warlock feels a bit weaker as far as burst but locks are amazing for their utility and sustain. Always make sure to take advantage of your soul stone created items.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but with affliction spec in particular, doesn’t this become a non-issue if you start stacking +shadow dmg gear as it becomes available since it is straight through-put, and you are likely just drain tanking anyway?
Things for me didn’t speed up until 36+ when I started to be able to wear my spell damage gear. I use Imp because I have Dark Pact now (starting at level 40). Succubus (the pet, not me lol) white damage is easily outdone by me and my Imp as a mana battery given my shadow spell damage. Long term efficiency just makes having Imp+Dark Pact much more ideal with my spell damage compared to Succubus.
It may just be you. Honestly, this feels normal as far as I’ve seen so far on my warlock. Are you perhaps remembering TBC or WOTLK? Those were absolutely great days to level and play as Affliction (in my opinion) early.
FYI I used Voidwalker up until 40 because of mana efficiency vs drain tanking.
I could be remembering TBC leveling. That being said, do you use your imp and NOT attack with it? so it stays phase shifted for a mana boost if I recall? I assume that’s worth losing your white damage from succy?
Yes, I keep my Imp out as a mana battery to use with Dark Pact. He’s always on passive. The only time I use him outside of Dark Pact is to put a Fire Shield on myself (since for some reason the auto-cast feature doesn’t make him use it anyway) if I’m tanking a lot while solo’ing. Same thing when I’m in a party, he’s out as my mana battery. His Blood Pact does help and I sometimes cast Fire Shield on party members when it makes sense.
I haven’t bought each level of the pet spells since it makes no logical sense to do so at lower levels with little gold. However I’m going to start doing that now because I’ve come into more gold on my main. The lower level tomes aren’t required in order to learn the higher level tomes anyway.
When I solo, I fear a lot so the succubus pet can’t even keep up with the mobs’ run speed anyway. And if she starts tanking for too long, she’s already about to die at least from what I’ve seen. Her mana regeneration is nothing compared to the Imp so there’s that too. Constantly having to send her out and MAKE sure she’s not aggro’ing anything else is another management part I can avoid with Imp. The GCD is the biggest factor that limits my DPS but because I’m stacking shadow spell damage as much as I can, the mobs are almost already dead by the time I need to refresh my DOTs anyway.
At lower levels, Drain Life is very mana inefficient when you get interrupted part way through even with Imp Drain Life. At low levels, the mana net gain from Drain Life + Life Tap is negated because of the interruption ticks when you’re drain tanking. Only when your spell damage is high enough does drain tanking start to even out and eventually become mana efficient. I used to use a ton of bandages because I didn’t have Dark Pact yet. Now, at 40+, I maybe use 1 bandage every 30-45 minutes of non-stop leveling because Dark Pact is the primary source of my mana gains compared to Life Tap. It’s very rare I have to bandage because the Imp’s mana is empty.
My gear and spec below (just remove the space between the h and the ttps):
h ttps://classic.wowhead.com/gear-planner/warlock/undead/Ai8LVQAlBQIgEAUf9fABJzkCKdcDJywFJyUGEBUHJxIIUKEJE3MKJyMLGT9MLtMDAg0LBE8nVwNaEB4iER4FEhtZ
I drain tank as well and agree with you 100%
Agony ramps up in damage. That is, the last ticks are for more than the early ones. If you try to refresh once the ticks have gotten stronger, it gives yo the message.
I found the 30’s to be a painful spot leveling, for the same reasons you describe.
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