My first toon was a Nelf Hunter and I had a blast in vanilla. I don’t raid or dungeon crawl all that much, I geared myself with BG gear (got to rank 12) and crafted weapons. I might take a shot at Rhok in Classic if I can make friends who are willing to help.
Anyways…
I played an Afflock in Legion and honestly it was the most fun I have had in WoW since vanilla. Things I liked, in no particular order:
strong solo
pets are fun
good in PvP if played properly
“tanky” feel, not a glass cannon
I am really considering a Foresaken Warlock in Classic to experience Horde side. How does it play, how does it feel? I am no raider or hardcore min maxer, I just want to feel viable in BG’s and have fun solo’ing while leveling, etc.
Warlocks are one of the best solo classes in the game.
no matter what “Spec” you choose, all warlocks get all pets.
Warlocks are one of the strongest classes in PvP.
Warlocks are one of the tankiest casters in the game.
An undead warlock was my first character and is still my main Herbalism and Alchemy were my professions for the first four years; needless to say, I never had much gold lol (I changed professions right before transmute specialization took off). That being said, the warlock class has a lot of “utility” spells that makes alchemy more for roleplaying (fun fact: I’m doing alchemy again).
Having the imp on aggro was beautiful (and would often kill you or party members). The voidwalker can’t hold aggro for nothing (you can use dots OR occasional shadow bolts, but rarely both). Sacrificing the voidwalker before it dies so you get a shield, giving you enough time to summon another voidwalker, is a skill one needs to learn (example: grinding furbolg rep in Felwood was quite a gladiatorial event… until the felguard was released and one could level the entire population without breaking a sweat).
Remembering spell levels was a must, both for remembering to update macros as well as to know when to use a level 1 version just for the initial impact (or for giving healthstones to lower level players).
I always ran out of action bar slots due to all of the abilities, etc. Combining things into macros helped.
Warlock meets/excels at all the criteria you want. I had hunter and warlock, both excellent at all on your list. In many ways I found warlock easier to excel than hunter, especially gear scaling. Warlocks have great utility and easier pet management as well.
I will play both in classic again also. Warlock, hunter, and rogue are my favorite classes, especially for pvp.
funny story: i was leveling a warlock and i had a quest for an elite mob. I went to go do it but there was a group of three already doing it. I asked to join and they told me to buzz off and laughed at me making fun of me for missing out on the kill and having to wait for the respawn after they were done. So i feared the elite while they were fighting it and it ran into a pack of mobs which caused them to wipe, then i solod the elite with my void walker while they were corpse running back and sending me angry whispers.
Warlocks can be summed up as an exercise in holding back. They had the potential to be amazing, but so many mechanics to let them realize that potential were missing, or there were artificial roadblocks put up to prevent them from reaching their peak potential.
Great class, but they were hobbled by things they shouldn’t have been, and didnt need to be.
Maybe I missed it, but the one pitfall if you specifically enjoy Affliction is you won’t really be able to raid on it in Vanilla without feeling massively stunted on bosses. Why? The 16 debuff limit. Forty players in a raid, certain necessary debuffs like Sunder, and maybe they’ll let you use a certain Curse that benefits multiple players, but each DoT would be a debuff and potentially be knocking off others.
Back in vanilla my main was a mage, but this time around im gonna try a warlock. Easy solo play, with good utility in raids and dungeons. Plus the epic mount was probable one the coolest mount in vanilla in my opinion.
Question: My only experience with lock was maining an Afflock thru Legion. As I have said, I loved the playstyle in both PvP and PvE. I am a solo casual who loves BG’s and the honor grind.
Can anyone comment on comparing Vanilla Warlock to Legion Warlock (don’t care about raiding, BIS, or min/maxing).
Well, there is the SM/Ruin spec. Goes into affliction and partly into Destruction. However, you won’t be putting dots on the boss aside the needed curses.
This has some good information on the various builds. I just remember running Affliction in TBC (as well as healing a good friend’s Afflock) and there was a lot more to do in a raid fight than there would have been in vanilla. (EDIT: Fixed link)
BWL-geared Demonic Sacrifice = nonstop 3k+ shadow bolts on Huhuran.
Naxx-geared? Oh man, nonstop 5k+ shadowbolts.
Then there’s this gem;
“Time to deliver a pizza ball!” Aka 4729 crit Soul Fire one-shotting a Rogue using everything he has.
Private server legend and God Warrior, arguably the best Warrior on any private server? Rank 14 Monkeynews, chugging a health pot and dying to a T2 soul link Lock who doesn’t even budge. He sits there and just lols;
Not only are Warlocks tanky, they hit really hard.
![:slight_smile:](https://d38bqls1q93fod.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/slight_smile.png?v=6" ":slight_smile:")
Herbalism and Alchemy were my professions for the first four years; needless to say, I never had much gold lol (I changed professions right before transmute specialization took off). That being said, the warlock class has a lot of “utility” spells that makes alchemy more for roleplaying (fun fact: I’m doing alchemy again).![:wink:](https://d38bqls1q93fod.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/wink.png?v=6" ":wink:")