I stopped maining, even playing, my Warlock years ago. He was my First Character in Vanilla, and played him up until the end of Wrath.
I recently made, and leveled another on the opposite faction. Current level content is fine, dare I say even fun. Especially with the changes to affliction (imo the only valid spec for Warlocks). However, they hit a HARD wall when it comes to low level, and legacy content.
There is no spamable AoE spell left in their arsenal to deal with it. It seems small, but that alone ruins the whole fun out of the class for me. Every other class in the game I can think of has some sort of spamable or short CD AoE. Warlocks need to single damage everything while waiting for Soul Shards, or Cataclysm (which isā¦ 40sec?). I am talking any spec in the class, as long as its there.
Priest - Holy Nova
Mage - Arcane Explosion
Rogue - Fan of Knives
Druid - Swipe
Monk - Spinning Crane Kick (borderline since it needs Chi points but something)
Demon Hunters - Basically their whole kit
Hunters - Multi Shot + Barrage (short CD)
Shamans - Lightning Crash (Short CD - Kinda awkward)
Warriors - Whirlwind
Death Knight - Blood Boil, Frost Fever
Paladins - Divine Storm (Another combo point but good enough)
Then we have Warlocks.
Rain of Fire - 3 Soul Shards which you need to hard cast to have a chance to get back.
Cataclysm - Long CD
Rupture (awesome at current level) - Need to dot all to do dmg
Then Seed of Corruption - Decent, but Soul Shards again + a hard cast.
It justā¦ doesnāt feel good. And Hellfire had its own Niche where it damages the casterā¦ why was it even removed?
That does seem like an over reaction Blizzard would do. So, instead of say. Cancelling the cast at 10% Health to prevent deathā¦ Lets just remove the only spamable AOE Warlocks could use in low level content.
Honestly that sounds like it could easily be fixed without affecting Hellfire. I feel the more likely reason is that Blizzard just wanted to shift more of the AoE damage to be focused on demon pets rather than Warlock casts, hence Demonwrath, Implosion, Bilescourge Bombers etc. Before the rework, Demonology (as fun as it was) didnāt really have much focus on pets. You got a special pet and that was it. The rest of the focus was on becoming the demon. Then that entire design (which was borrowed from demon hunters in WC3 anyways) was moved from a spec to an entire class and demonology became a spec about demons finally.
Itās unfortunate that thereās not really a spec quite like old Demonology anymore. The closest I imagine would be Enhancement Shaman, but even thatās still nothing like how old Demonology was.
I donāt dislike the fundimental playstyle of any of the Warlock specs. The thing that bothers me most, Is just not having that spam able AoE. In Any of the 3 Specs.
Doing Legacy Content isā¦ a chore and a half on them. Which is a portion of the time I play. So, I just canāt bring myself to Main a Lock because it just feels like I handicap myself. Especially, since I listed above. How every other Class has a Spam able AoEā¦ It is just bizarre how we lost ours.
I would even be happy if they made Rain of Fire a Soul Shard Dump for more damage, but you can still use it with 0 shards for less damage. It would still 1 shot everything low level and still work the same at high.
We need spamable aoe period. at this point their is no reason why seed is not instant cast, with some kind of a cool down so you cant spam it. Something like that, but i did play Lock and vanilla and Hellfire was cool. They should have unpruned it.
I mean, only Mage and Shadow Priest has spammable AoE. Everyone else has a CD or resource tied to it. Ele Sham kinda has spammable AoE since Chain Lightning hits like 5 targets and can overload onto others. Itās really not the norm for spellcasters to have it anymore. Itās not even the norm for melee to have anymore since they capped a bunch of abilities.
The argument feels weird to me anyways. I could see it being annoying as Affliction but Shards recharge outside of combat and there are several talents you can take to AoE if youāre really having issues with the Soul Shards. Iāve not had an issue on my Warlock, just pull a bunch of stuff, use Vile Taint, move on. By the time Iām done pulling stuff again, I can Vile Taint again.
Edit: Also Warlocks have Burning Rush, which is perhaps the greatest talent available in an environment where Drain Life will tick once for insane damage and instantly heal you. The only caster faster is probably Druid. Itās unfair to complain about Warlock weaknesses in running old content and then compare them to other classes without acknowledging their strengths. Thatās just cherry picking.
What is this comment even suppose to add too the thread?
I listed above all classes, Not specs, with āspamableā aoe. I by no means am asking for something to top damage meters. I am simply looking for a means to do legacy content without having to individually target each low level mob.
Sure, if you stay out of combat for a full minute or two. Not to mention, generating them on low level targets takes the same amount of time to killā¦ the low level targets.
Why do I feel like you just skimmed over, and just honed in and what you wanted to and not the whole?
What does this have to do with anything? Nothing was mentioned about mobility. Stop trying to change the topic at hand to fit your agenda.
I will quote and individually respond to everything for you then.
Of the 12 classes, only 2 have spammable AoE. DK, Warriors and Paladins have no AoE abilities without CDs, only cleave. Monks, Hunters and Rogues cleave and have energy restrictions. DH cleaves on all their abilities and their AoE is gated by CD and resources. Balance Druids come close with Sunfire but since the AoE component doesnāt do direct damage, thatās not helping with spamming AoE, and Starfall has a resource cost while Swipe and Thrash are target capped. Ele Sham, Priest and Mage we already discussed, so what you want (a means to do legacy content wihtout having to individually target each low level mob) is available to only 2 classes out of 12 (Priest, Mage) have unlimited, spammable AoE, in the form of Holy Nova, Arcane Explosion, Flamestrike and Blizzard. It is hardly a Warlock only thing.
Itās 15 seconds after combat, not a minute. If Shards are really bothering you (and since we are talking about entire classes and not specs) just go Destruction and pick up Fire and Brimstone. That doesnāt cost shards and itās better AoE for running transmog than 10/12 classes have since itās spammable.
There is no agenda, you brought the discussion to comparing Warlocks to other classes. If youāre going to make comparisons you canāt just ignore what you donāt like to suit your argument. Yes, Mages and Priests have spammable AoE spells that work great for farming transmog, but they also donāt have the option to permanently run at 50% speed while farming transmog. If your argument has gone from āI want Warlocks to have Hellfire backā to āI want Warlocks to farm transmog easier compared to other classesā then itās completely on topic.
The thing is, the Soul Shard design is fundamental design for Warlock. Some spells, especially your most powerful, are gated by Soul Shards. It seems that youāre arguing for an AoE spell that doesnāt do good damage but has no Shard cost, and thatās going against the fundamental design of the class. (And, seeing as how only 2 classes have unlimited spammable AoE, the fundamental design of most classes as well.)
Hellfire was never a reliable aoe spell for pve content. You needed a dedicated healer at least and the threat it produced was insane. It was only useful for grinding low level creatures.
I miss spammable aoe as well. Leveling in Bastion this evening required some timing management on large world pulls: 1st pack gets Cata; 2nd RoF; 3rd pack Infernal for stun/whittle down; Cata up - rinse and repeat.
Itās a minor annoyance, but sometimes I crave simpler times from the class. It would be nice to have RoF on tap but augmented by CD spells when wanted.