Balanced Warlock Recommendations

WoW Classic Season of Discovery
1

I’ll keep it to the point and elaborate later in the thread as needed:

  1. Demonic Grace - Remove Demonic Grace from GCD. Lower duration if necessary.
  2. Lake of Fire - Change to a DoT similar to ignite (so it’s not in a single target DPS rotation)
  3. Soul Siphon - change to literally anything, even a cosmetic.
  4. Grimoire of Synergy - Increase the proc rate and reduce the benefit, or make the proc based only on warlock damage only (helps non-destro specs in PvE and all PvP specs)
  5. Metamorphosis - Don’t allow a demon to be out in Meta Form - prevents cringe soul link meta pvp
  6. Allow nightfall procs from affliction to do something useful in meta form
  7. Change demonic pact to a raid-wide buff, but reduce the benefit (nobody uses it anyways)
  8. Dance of the Wicked - Increase mana gain %, allow the dodge benefit to refresh rather than override with lower dodge% from the initial application
  9. Demonic Grace - remove movement imparting effects
  10. Demons - fix it so they stop coming to life with half hp
  11. Demon Armor - let us “find” something to reduce the mana cost and make it not dispellable.
  12. Haunt - increase buff to 40% or more. Allow it to increase siphon life and drain life damage even if they were applied first. Or increase the baseline damage of the ability (but be careful so it’s not bursty in pvp).
  13. Let DoTs crit
  14. Combine siphon life into corruption without it taking a rune slot
  15. Make Firestone the warlock tanking offhand
  16. Give spellstone multiple charges
  17. Increase wards to keep up with damage
  18. Give affliction damage outside of drain life, it’s a crutch. It’s either worthless or OP in PvP, rarely neither.

As I think of more I’ll add them.

4 Likes
2

And make a Healthstone Table summon so lazy Warlocks can actually provide me with a health stone.

1 Like
3

No thank you. This would absolutely screw over every single Demonology tank out there right now using Soul Link to tank Gnomer.

4

I tank without soul link. Soul link still requires the same amount of healing, just spread over two targets. Yes I know locks get get chunked without it on some fights. I think crazy stamina buff runes like what shamans have are bad and difficult to balance too in PvE and PvP.

But having said that I can see how that’s an unpopular suggestion, seeing as demo probably should be the “tanking” tree. I just feel like meta is so difficult to balance in PvP, and adding soul link to that equation along with powerful runes makes it even more difficult. My suggestion is based on preventing players that PvP to be forced into meta because our survivability is too high with meta against physical dps, and 30% stronger with added soul link. It’s like having my on-use spidersilk boots up permanently. How can a dev team balance around this outside of a PvE vacuum?

There are more creative approaches too, like once fel-guard comes out (if it does), if you sac your felguard it gives you a damage reduction.

Any thoughts on the other suggestions?

5

I agree with all the rest of the suggestions.

1 Like
6

Make dots be able to crit and make the crits deal 100% more damage (like Ruin). We could also get something like Malefic Grasp which increases our dot damage while under the affect of drain soul, so this would be more of a PvE buff than a PvP buff given the nature of the ability.

I like the idea of giving Demonic Grace the ability to remove snares, in pvp at least I’m constantly stuck in snares.

3 Likes
7

Yeah locks need something defensive in PvP.

8

Lazy? You go grind soul stones for each and every single one… plus soul stones for each summon so you lazy people don’t have run there yourself.

3 Likes
9

i was thinking of this earlier while being stuck in a million hunter traps being thrown at me and then trying to move about to attack a target more than 30 yards away from me (i am soul link/haunt)

10

Some sort of spell pushback would be nice too. Damage is too bursty in PvP to deal with getting 100-0’d in one fear cast.

11

Agree with some of these but not all.

If we buff haunt then dots are only stronger against one target at a time, aff dots need to be stronger baseline.

Qol things i’d say make spellstone not consume friendly magic buffs ,that alone would make it so much better.

Soul well for healthstones too.

A rune that mimics the gcd reduction when casting curses like we had later on.

Shadowflame damage schools reversed ( shadow dot instead of fire) and baked in snare like the glyph it had.

12

Wow, there’s certainly some hot takes.

Yes.

Bad.

Needs to be changed to be competitive.

Just needs proc rate increased for the pet component.

Lol, no. Worst take ever.

Definitely needs to happen.

No. It’s situationally still useful. Should be raid wide, doesn’t need a reduction.

Yes.

Meh.

100% this.

100% this.

100% this. In the current meta, it being bursty isn’t a worry. It’s needed, unless they tone down all the other BS.

Pretty sure this is happening P3 with a rune.

Yep.

Make it not disappear on logout too.

Probably still never use it.

Yes, needs to happen. Same for other things like CoW - needs to scale a bit to be relevant.

Affliction needs an entire rework, considering void plague does more damage/tick than aff dots combined.

1 Like
13

The datamined runes if applicable will help alleviate some issues, as pandemic would allow crits on every dot except master channeler life drain, backdraft would ease casting speed after conflag, and while being suppressed would give some value to shadowflame for once despite its completely unacceptable damage. The casting speed isnt a 70% pushback but its something.
Mana issues are a huge problem, as we are expected to lifetap at roughly double mana cost of other casters with the asumption of being healed in combat. Demon armor is instantly purged by shamans making us out of 1/3 mana, and a free kill to said shaman, reapplying it is foolish. Dance of wicked helped with mana until they nerfed it, which is now a trash rune.
Nightfall being invalidated by demon form entirely makes affliction unappealing for affliction tanking. Shadow ward is literally not worth the GCD as it stands which is a trap in pvp, dont use it unless its a precast before going in (eats one tick of spriest dmg)
Oh and Demonic pact is a boatload of butts, I am still confused as to who did the math on this rune.
Overall damage of dots base damage is just laughable, I had hoped invocation would be useful for burst damage, but the timing is just rough in actual pvp when your being attacked and even than the damage is terrible.

14

It was a dead on arrival rune just like Soul Siphon. Since nothing has been done to change Soul Siphon since release, I highly doubt anything will be done to make Invocation appealing. They should have given Warlocks the data mined rune that lets DoTs and Channels crit instead of Invocation. Affliction Warlock would definitely feel less like a K-Mart Shadow Priest.

15

Warlocks are by far the most balanced class in the game in PvP. I main a warlock and do just fine, we are monsters in solo PvP, and provide invaluable utility in group PvP. The player base is just garbage and feels like they should 2 shot global like a shadow priest when warlocks are a rot, sustain, and cc class in PvP.

Destruction will still remain a meme spec in PvP unless they put a DR on spell pushback and give them access to soul link; neither of those things should happen, destruction is a raid dps spec that requires and should continue to require set up to burn things down that isn’t possible against competent players in PvP.

Meta rune is a meme in PvP. If you think metas are useful outside 1v1s against melee just lol. Haunt is what good warlocks are running.

No. Warlocks constrained mobility is their main weakness as a class. This is vanilla+, classes should retail their identity and unique strengths and weaknesses.

Haunt is fine at 20%, take notes we get UA next phase if you read the data mining notes. Warlock damage isn’t too low, other classes damage is too high.

You didn’t read the data mining notes.

Absolutely no thanks, I loved the old version of siphon life from tbc and vanilla when it was an actual spell you had to upkeep.

This would be busted. You realize your fel hunter dispels too, right?

Warlocks have an amazing tool kit, and are one of the best classes in PvP right now, players just suck and run meme specs like meta and destro.

Play soul link/haunt or affliction and you’ll perform if you know what you’re doing. You are not meant to burst, you are valuable for your cc and sustain.

16

My goodness you are very angsty.

I’d agree if everybody else sucked more. They are the model PvP class, but apparently other classes won’t become more in tune with affliction lock pvp. So warlocks are only the most “balanced” if the goal of the developers is to make everybody comparable.
Sadly, I suspect locks were just left behind (at level 40 at least). What makes locks good is the same toolkit they had in classic, very little from SoD. Our runes just help us keep up even though we have been left behind.

I wasn’t talking about this from a pvp perspective. It’s a clunky pve rotation ability. And by the way I’ve been playing destro the last few days and absolutely deleting people. It’s really weak when being focused but OP if left alone. I’ve cleaned out BS fights in AB almost singlehandedly because the damage is unexpected.

I did a WSG earlier today with 4 locks in total. 3 were soul link and 2 of those were soul link meta. It’s a thing.

So warlocks retain their weaknesses while literally everybody else doesn’t? Rogues have ranged abilities now and shadow step (more mobility). Range was their weakness.

Hunters do well in mele range now too, was their weakness. Ranged CC in combat, rounds out their weaknesses.
Spriests have tons of mana now, was their weakness.
Warriors have 2 in combat gap closers, was their weakness.
Druids and priests gained super powerful heals that completely negative warlock affliction gains.
Moonkin can burst and dot and cast certain resto spells in boomkin form, was their weakness.
Ferals have fear immune, was their weakness.
Shall I keep going??? Respectfully, your argument is shallow and a single bullet-point feel-good statement with no substance.

You’re crazy. Haunt is another GCD. Do you realize that PvP event HP gains singlehandedly out did damage from haunt? 30% HP gain > 20% dot gain.

I’d normally agree but we gotta get lock damage into a manageable number of GCDs. It’s a suggestion to help, especially since it does so little now.

Does it really? Oh my gosh… how could I have known? It’s more about the absorb and not having to conjure one. Also there are things called cooldowns. There are very easy ways to implement some of my suggestions that aren’t game-breaking in any way. And in the end they are just suggestions based on a lot of experience.

1 Like
17

All these suggestions and not a single one addressing Shadowflame…

18

That’s the point of spells like Haunt though. When DoT’s are too strong on their own Locks become broken against multiple targets and if they balance for multi dotting then they suck for single target making them hard to balance.

I’d love to get a buff to the bonus damage from Haunt so Affliction is competitive Raiding and can actually cause some real pressure in PVP.

1 Like
19

I’d like it to change RoF to leave a fire on the ground and being instant, similar to death and decay (death knights) . It could add a cd to it like, 30s cd, 20s duration).

It kills a whole spec with the rune and it would change a lot of things. Meta was originally a demonology talent. You wouldn’t be able to use demonic knowledge anymore nor demonic grace and it would change drastically how you interact as a warlock.

Furthermore, I don’t think at all this is anywhere a problem in PvP.

Maybe just reset the cooldown of shadow cleave.

We do use it as meta for tanking, except for Menagerie. My caster bros love me for the 42 spell power they get.

To give a raid wide buff would have to lower its value and I don’t find fun to have a very low value raid wide while many people wouldn’t use it.

The mana gain should be based on the % crit, it changes the way we work as a tank. The refreshing is problematic because of snapshotting, could let us get like 90% dodge snapshotted 100% uptime given that you crit within the window duration.

Leave demonic grace as it is please.

That would be nice.

Everyone’s buffs are dispellables. Not an issue.

That requires a change to how dmg works in classic, like a debuff applied later would recalculate all the current damage already happening in the target.

Nah, leave it as it is please.

Please no.

Affliction is not good for PvP. We can’t have SL / SL in Classic, so it is dead for PvP.
For PvE, I would like to have an interaction with Soul Siphon to work similar to WoTLK affliction warlock that drain soul is our filler while our dots are up.

I would like Soul Siphon to make the nightfall procs to auto shoot the shadow bolts, tho.

That would make a nice affliction build which you could, as a dps, use Demonic Pact.

20

That doesn’t mean it’s a smart thing. Not having fear is a massive nerf to your utility, and when other warlocks are around you are forced to shift to avoid banish and sacrifice a fat chunk of mana to shift back. It’s very bad.

In STV I’ve done meta as destro for searing pain crits since it’s just a super fast call of duty snipe mode, but in BGs and world pvp it’s a joke.

The +20% healing for drain life and the self heal from haunt crits is huge. It’s kept me alive on so many games, and it makes your CoA actually deal ok damage. This is critical as soul link spec since we don’t have instant corruption, and searing pain tickles people without destruction talents. Meta is only better against rogues, except I still stomp on rogues anyway as haunt.

With soul link/meta with the fel hunter, there is almost no match up 1v1 where you lose. If you do lose you’re doing something severely wrong. You have enough mitigation and sustain to bait out interiors/silences to double fear bomb. I jump into fights with half health and win because you’re just that strong with huge sustain and cc. Certain matchups I can even 1v2. It’s busted, it’s just now a bursty play style like every other class and that’s fine.

The ONE class that is capable of countering SL/haunt is a balance druid. If they stay in 40 yard range and put up dots and starsurge, they win. They can shift cheetah form and stay away while you rot and warlocks have no speed boost to catch up. The only way to win is with swiftness pots.

Most druids I fight suck though and stand in melee range like idiots and get double fear bombed and drained thinking they were going to get an easy 1 shot.