The State of Warlock going into 11.0.5

Community General Discussion
1

Hey just wanted to bring some attention to warlocks for the upcoming patch. Currently we are probably the weakest class in the game, in all forms of content, and looking ahead we are actually receiving a nerf in the anniversary patch.

Just going to highlight the main issues with us right now:

Warlock Class Tree:

Our class tree is so incredibly restrictive, as well as lacking much utility. A good potion of the tree is just things to make us tankier, which while helpful, doesn’t really give any reason for us to be brought to M+ (except for the occasional doorway skip).

Curses as a concept are cool, but the fact that they take a gcd to put up and constantly have to be reapplied for raid fights is just not a very fun maintenance game. In M+, they’re nearly useless with how long it takes to put them up instead of ramping up our slower damage.

We had a solution for this in shadowlands with the venthyr ability smart cursing targets in AOE. It would be amazing to have some form of this back for warlocks.

Low Mobility and the “Tanky Caster”:

The low mobility style of warlock just doesn’t work if we aren’t tuned to be higher damage than everyone else as well. That just makes it all the more ridiculous that right now, all 3 specs actually ALSO sim the lowest for no movement as well. And so now we’re getting a nerf to destruction for a bug that was already solved before launch?

Most raid fights require a huge amount of movement these days. We pay for that with supposedly being “tanky”, but in reality our extra health and soul leech amount is just making up for the fact that we have to take more damage to be able to cast anything. They gave us an OP repeatably usable demonic healthstone in TWW, making us even tankier and able to recover, but in reality it’s just the bare minimum for us having our mobility nerfed in TWW. (Especially demonology).

Mages are more mobile, have more defensives, have better damage profiles/niches, AND sim better patchwork too. How is that even fair? Either warlock should sim the best patchwork to account for movement, or give us actual mobility.

Wrapping Up:

I’m not sure how we’re just flying under Blizzard’s radar when multiple other classes are getting buffs, reworks, etc. Again we would probably be fine if we just got some small aura buffs, but the question of whether or not an immobile class should even exist in today’s WoW still remains.

TL;DR: Being the lowest damage, least mobile SPECS (ALL 3 IN A TRIPLE DPS CLASS), in the game isn’t exactly fun.

Thanks for reading, hope someone at Blizz sees our hears our call for help.

2 Likes
2

Haaaarrrrrrd disagree. They don’t take long at all, and you’re doing your tank and healer a huge favors by weakening your pitiful enemies.

3

Compared to the instant burst of frost DK, enhance, fire or arcane mage, warlocks are definitely slower. Demo is the only exception with it having implosion, but it’s also not doing great damage, and it has an even longer interrupt.

4

If I tweaked anything on my destro lock , it would be to have chaos bolt , crit higher with less frequency. I wouldn’t mind a longer CD if it did more damage .

I have had issues in TWW with mobs ignoring my voidwalker, so I really don’t feel that " tanky ".

I haven’t played my Demon Lock yet , but I am going to be really annoyed if mobs resist their taunt like my void did, since that is my primary source of damage.
I found an alternative to drain life on him for secondary dps, but it only does moderately more damage.

I could not make affliction do damage , so I don’t have any , I will probably read a guide about their rotation and see if i can make one work eventually.
Affliction needs a buff IMO.

5

I would also opt for this.
I miss when chaos bolt was scary. Hell, sometimes Incinerate can be buffed to hit harder.

As for Warlock in general, I personally really like where Affliction is at. But the perception of us being the “Tanky” ranged is an old one that I agree doesn’t reflect the current status quo.

Damage wise, yeah we’re not as burst-heavy as DKs, Mages, other classes. But we’re not supposed to be. That isn’t our schtick.

1 Like
6

I agree, being super bursty doesn’t HAVE to be our thing, but then as compensation our single target sustain should be far better.

7

I have to disagree OP, Warlock is one of the best utility class, they can give healthstone summon, portal, soulstone. Their damage isn’t that bad and their mobility is okay for every encounter in the game right now.

8

Yall got the move that turns your feet on fire, that’s the fastest mobility in the game.

9

Just make burning adrenaline 15% passive move speed and call it a day

10

Setting ourself on fire is only for times we have to move a lot or very quickly. It doesn’t change that fights require players to be basically constantly moving to avoid mechanics. A huge portion of our damage comes from standing still and hard casting (basically the only class in the game that does this anymore). If we had kiljaeden’s cunning back or similar to cast some things on the move, we would be far better off.

1 Like
11

That’s great. Just means one warlock is guaranteed a spot in a raid. Only one, though. And looking at raider io for high end keys, it appears that doesn’t make the cut for M+

2 Likes
12

Be the exception. Be water.