Mythic+ What level m+ is this?
The higher the keys go, the far more desirable Warlocks get, especially Affliction since longer lived adds means more consistent damage once those rogues, demon hunters, and mages’ burst falls off.
Many 14s and 15s I did last week I’d see myself at the top of the trash meters as Affliction due to trash health even without fortified and dumpster everyone on boss damage
Also, Destro and Demo are viable, I’ve played em all in 14 or higher keys and there’s Destro locks among the top Warlocks in m+. This week in particular Destro is quite desired as they can easily top damage done to explosives through Conflag. With the hotfix nerf, Demolock can probably viably kill those damn things too
Arena:
Not gonna deny that Warlocks aren’t fantastic in Arenas right now. But that doesn’t make them entirely unplayable. I’m not going to claim to be the greatest Warlock ever since the only toon I ever made it past 2k on was my Ele shaman, but if you aren’t minmaxing at Blizzcon level, Warlock is playable.
Warlock comps right now ultimately come down to out-playing your opponents because despite being made of tissue paper right now, the damage is still there, you’re still one of the highest damage Arena casters in the game as Aff/Destro.
Plus, every expac, no matter what, no matter how well certain classes do at the end of it, the first patch is a mess. Sorry, casters are typically screwed on the first patch of the expac against the melee train except for mages.
Hell, this time’s a bit different since Boomkins/Shadow Priests are so dominant when they’ve historically also been like Warlocks/Shamans: Terrible at the start, godly towards the end. If you pvp’d in Legion, Warlocks were also considered garbage tier but suddenly in 7.2 and 7.3 you saw melee like Rogues, Warriors, etc (the guys who dumpster Warlocks right now) crying about how broken Warlocks were in Arenas, how unkillable they were, how much damage they did. Etc. The opposite of 7.0 and 7.1
And another thing, Destro’s viable in raid. Not just the whole “Vectis havoc meme”. Destro can be viably played on pretty much any boss. The damage is competitive for sure on full single target and is obviously superior on short lived adds. The times affliction is massively superior is on high movement fights or fights with very long lived adds
That said, I will happily take any buffs thrown our way, so long as they don’t bring us to the point of broken overpowered and have to cut us down…again…after finally bringing us back to the spotlight
Man Legion prepatch Affliction was just…why…tankier than tanks and highest damage just…ugh…brought in way too many FOTM Warlocks who returned in Nighthold only to ragequit again and get Warlocks nerfed before having to get mega-buffed again