Note: I am primarily speaking from a pvp perspective, and the last thing I want is to be overpowered.
Issue 1: Warlock DoTs are very weak in a SoD PvP environment, and not just because of burst.
Discussion: A PvP affliction warlock primarily gained damage in a few ways during SoD.
- Haunt (increases damage of shadow dots by 20%) (Hand Rune)
- Increased Spell Power from gear/runes
- Master Channeler Rune (The drain life channel we all run, Chest rune).
This isn’t actually a problem, except when you consider that player HP has gone up during PvP events (BGs/STV) because the damage is so bursty. The player HP increase, has almost completely negatived the damage gains warlocks received with runes for PvP. This isn’t the case with other classes. The only exception to this is allowing locks to be stationary and freecast for extended periods of time. Then of course they’ll do more damage proportionally.
Additionally, locks are mostly FORCED to run Metamorphis in PvP which means they can’t cast haunt, so that 20% disappears. On top of that, a lot of warlocks are running succubus/void even as affliction in BGs because survivability is so low, which means the offensive utility of fel hunter is lost. Generally speaking an affliction lock should never run succubus, but they do it anyways out of necessity.
Suggestion: Besides “buff damage” because there is too much damage in PvP-
- The best solution is to significantly increase kill times in PvP which will allow locks to survive long enough to feel effective.
- Other creative methods would be a small mortal strike… maybe 20% from our DoTs via a Rune.
- Dispel protection would help. Survivability outside of meta.
But mostly just bring PvP damage in check and make it less bursty. - Maybe dispelling our dots buffs our next haunt… something along those lines.
- An ability like swift mend with dots, or dot swapping.
- Give us death coil 2 levels early.
Issue 2: Our most powerful PvP rune is a bad mechanic. (Master Channeler)
Discussion: Drain life has become a warlock’s highest damage ability in PvP. It does about twice as much DPS as corruption. It hits way too hard but it’s the only thing keeping warlock’s heads above water. It also gets dispelled by paladins, priests and other fel hunters. It can be easily ranged, and I find myself unable to use as often as I like due to it’s severe limitations. Unfortunately it can’t be recasted despite the huge mana cost after being dispelled or ranged.
Suggestion:
- Reduce the damage dealt by the ability (mine without haunt is 1000 dmg over 15 seconds), and give it back to other DoTs.
- Buff Siphon Life instead.
- Buff Soul Siphon rune instead, which is never used.
- Find another way to give locks damage pressure/sustain in PvP. It’s too easily countered and affliction locks lack quick casts to fall back on unlike other classes (Mind Blast, Wrath, ice Lance, etc.)
- Allow it to be recasted once dispelled. It costs lots of mana, so don’t worry, it won’t get spammed too much if it’s being actively dispelled.
- Add the damage of siphon life into corruption if talented.
Issue 3 Warlocks are normally forced to use their tank rune, Metamorphosis, in PvP, which completely negates their damage and utility. Warlocks in caster form are without a doubt the squishiest class in the game. Nothing comes close.
Discussion A warlock in caster form is the following:
- Unable to peel for themselves (no deathcoil, only have fear/seduce which against any mele player after the first fear is trinket’ed you’re dead, assuming you don’t get spell pushback’ed for 5 seconds before you get it off, and you successfully juked a kick or landed a grenade)
- Has no protection from melee
- Has no movement abilities
- Is the equivalent of a mage without nova, blink, shields, or ice block. (we have drain life though)
A warlock in metamorphis is the following:
- Low damage output.
- Unable to peel for their team due to being unable to fear
- Inappropriately hard to kill for physical DPS
- Annoying to play and annoying to play against. (The SoD version of the Full Demo lock from classic).
- Unable to toggle form consistently (which could add some level of skill) due to the 900 mana cost of form.
Suggestion
- Normalize damage so that a lock can survive cheap-shot/kidney in caster form (just using this as an example)
- Give us some stamina gear
- Make Demon Armor non-dispelable. It reduces physical damage by about 7% in my gear. It’s extremely expensive to cast, and I still die in stun openers to rogues with it on. As long as damage remains bursty, prevent us from being gutted further by a shaman/priest/fel hunter.
- If things don’t improve, some sort of spell pushback protection.
- Add mele protection abilities similar to disc priests… but be extremely cautious so we don’t become gods. A useable while stunned CD would help a lot.
Issue 4: Other classes have gained abilities that significantly counter locks in their current state and contribute to these issues. Locks didn’t receive much in return to counter the counters.
Discussion
- Priest Prayer of Mending counters dot spread and rot almost by itself.
- Wildgrowth can undo 10-15 seconds of dot damage in one cast for an entire group.
- Warriors can charge in combat and stick a warlock endlessly now.
- Feral druids gained fear immune for 15 seconds
- Rogues can shadowstep instead of blowing big cooldowns to stick a lock (vanish/blind/sprint)
Suggestions
- Reduce overall damage in PvP from other classes (don’t buff HP, it hurts us more).
- Give warlocks a more effective snare than the 5 talent point Curse of Exhaustion that only affliction PvP locks have.
- DoTs have to tick harder due to heals being strong and HP increases of players.
Issue 5 Demons don’t have enough HP for current damage being put out
Discussion Our demons are incredibly fragile and they are needed. What separates a good lock from bad, a lot of it has to do with pet management. Unfortunately our pets get blown up. (inb4 cry more learn to manage your pet).
I thought the Infernal Pact Essence trinket was a great idea, especially since it synergizes with Demonic Knowledge run to net 10 spell power (So I can justify swapping another trinket). I suggest giving more stats towards the pet HP though, not mana. PvE players have other great trinkets to choose from.
Suggestion
- Increase pet HP during PvP events.
- Fix the bug where our summoned demons have 1/2 hp, same with GY rez pets.
Conclusion: A lot of these things I have brought up are closely related. For example our inability to survive has forced us into a Rune that guts our PvP damage, which was designed for PvE tanking. As a result, we are lacking the utility that makes locks special. This has also trickled into demon choice. There are far fewer fel hunters than there should be in BGs. We have lost one of our most important spells: Fear, while in demon form (which should NOT be changed btw). The problem is we are stuck in demon form against any physical dps team. It feels bad. Locks have to play so scared/defensive now it’s just crazy. It’s hard to support your team and peel when stuck in demon form.
Just a few thoughts of mine. Please be productive- thank you.