How to counter this?
It is extremely difficult to take down some classes with it (warrior, by far the most difficult for me as a warlock) and apparently from what I heard that offhand makes you immune to all CCS including engineering gadgets like the rocket helm. Well im sure this could easily be countered in bgs but im talking about whenever it comes to 1v1. Any suggestions or is it all a matter of luck and gear level?
Laugh as the skull burns them to death. Most people won’t know how to use it properly.
This. It’s a bit of an all or nothing item because the damage is pretty RNG. It will do anywhere between 500 to 2505 damage to them. Most people won’t know when and where a good time to use it would be, which would just equate to free damage for you.
the only real benefit was the speed boost. that can be countered with any slow/root ability.
the reason why there was a lot of immunity was because of the constant health tick. taking constant (even if small) damage, broke most CC like freeze traps etc.
to better explain; Skull of Impending Doom came with two benefits but one downside. It has a speed boost and broke most CC’s but at the cost of losing health over time. this slow, frequent health loss- is what broke those CC’s. people used it with that understanding and (mostly warriors) tended to have something on hand to deal with the loss. pots, healer etc.
most CC’s are designed to break when the opponent is damaged. like freeze trap for example. so using freeze trap on someone who has the Skull, would prove pointless.
you have to focus on CC that can not be broken by damage. that is the only counter.
as a warlock? grenade yourself and howl of terror? enjoy the even easier kill than usual?
So howl and grenade won’t be broken by skull?
Grenade will be broken by skull, since it breaks on damage taken. Howl (and Fear in general) will not.
grenade won’t interfere with your howl because of the cast time being equal or greater than the GCD. You can cast howl as soon as your grenade leaves your hand and the overwhelming majority of the time you won’t be interrupted
edit:
just remembered it was fear that was on the 1.5 second cast, not howl. just fear them.
The Thottbot comments on this item archived by classic.wowhead.com indicate that this item was in use in PVE in 1.12.1 as a way to avoid durability loss during in raid wipes.