I get a group to do a few instances. The group is made up of a pally, two clerics, monk, ranger, and me (warlock). All ranged from level 57-60. The pally pulls the mob which are either ^^ or ^^^ he gains agro and I start to cast just one spell it lands and go to cast another and the mob is dead. OK, np... the next pull is a a group of three ^^, so being that alot of our spells are AE to the ecounter, I start to cast devastation and before it even lands due to the cast time the first mob of three is dead. You can see where this is going. This was the entire instance. One other thing that I would like to point out. I did start to cast probably at the same time the pally was getting ready to pull. This caused me to pull the agro from the tank. I dont want to continue to beat this subject into the ground but something really needs to be fixed. And...I'm not even talking about being top DPS class though it would be nice since that is why I picked the class. Im talking about having a purpose in a group. Warlocks seem to benefit more soloing then grouping and they have almost no contribution to a group. The damage our spells can do is impressive. The cast times on them is absolutely ridiculous. Ok I'm done whinning.:smileyhappy:
This has been one of the primary issues in regard to warlock cast times vs. mob difficulty. I'm of the opinion that certain other classes are overpowered and thus the mobs are dying too fast. SOE has said over and over that it does not want to revert to "mob bloating" with an increase in HP for the plain sake of making battles seem more tough / lasting longer. The only avenue then is to assume that some classes are overpowered. Or to reduce our casting times - which would then make us overpowered and perhaps bring an irreversible aggro gain onto our backs. I'd rather see other classes adjusted (I'm thinking here of the scout classes primarily which - as I see it - do entirely too much damage in too short a timespan and have no power restraints such as mage classes do - even rangers and swashbucklers I've grouped with have admitted feeling over powered - lol) before mob HP is bloated to our cast times are reduced. I feel our class is fairlyu well balanced as it is. A final solution would be to simply allow the casting process to continue even after a mob dies and a new one is selected - when it is a linked-encounter AE spell being readied - so long as one mob in the encounter is standing the nuke would continue to cast. Message Edited by Vicontessa on 01-24-200602:25 PM
First of all, yes mobs die way too fast if you ask me. The solution to this would simply be add more hp's and increase the xp for them but that's another story. As for not being able to land before you get your first AE off target another mob than the one all the single target dps's are hitting. I wouldn't mind lowering the casting times but using a different target than the assist is what I do untill then.
I think there is not one warlock that doesn't think our casting-times should be shortened by 50% or so, we waste alot of time in casting and that's a reason why our dps in groups sucks vs other aoe-able classes. Heck... selecting a target that isn't the main assist target doesn't even work sometimes in raids, the other encounter members die just as fast with all the other AE classes. Another fix that would be nice if the game would remember vs which encounter the aoe spell was casted at and would hit regardless if the target it was casted on died.
Yes, pretty annoying. While I would prefer a shorter casting time on the AE spells, at least remembering the encounter would be a good step.
well while i do agree that out spell casting times could be tweaked a little, one thing you're just going to have to get used to is targeting a mob in the group that is not the main target, in order to get alot of your aoes off. If you're using an MA, simply click your assist macro, and then tab to the next one.
Unfortunately, off targeting in a raid situation really upsets our raid coordinators. WE know its needed, but since they dont 'get it' we look like the bad guys if we do it. Now, to the op - something i've noticed with many pallies and sk's, is their reliance on their old range spells to pull. This works fine for some group situations, but can cause social aggro from some mobs, such as the spiders in return to nek, and other zones where body pulling is necessary. It also builds little initial aggro, similar to bow pulling for non crusaders. Get to know your tanks. With tanks who pull with a taunt, starting your 4 second cast as soon as the tank moves in may work fine. but again, very situational issues come into play... examples - -- 5 mob encounter - tank usually opens combat with a solo taunt ho. If he uses his single taunt first, finishing his ho with an aoe taunt,your devastation may hit between the time the first single taunt hits, and before the aoe taunt goes off. If so, you've probably got 4 mobs on you, while the tank has 1. -- 5 mob encounter again, but this tank opens with an aoe taunt. 4 mobs take the taunt, 1 resists. Devastation hits, and you end up with 1 mob on you, 4 on the tank. How the tank responds to these situations will show you the measure of the tanks skill. Pallies definately have an edge here, if you've got amends on you. All I can say for advice, is to get to know a good group of tanks, and stop standing on the docks /lfg. Log in, check friends list. Grab a good tank, grab a good defiler and a fury. Search frantically for a troub, and form a group. Building a group of competant KNOWN players that works well togethor is key. Even if they are all strangers, having a group thats well built will do much to alleviate your pain, the tanks frustration, and the healers nervous twitches. Message Edited by Maelwys1 on 01-25-200601:01 AM
Welcome to the first 9 months of being a conjuror, drive through plz. Oh and its the scouts that are causing that, the other mages don't compare to your guyses burst dps, long cast time or not.
That's just completely and totally false OperationsX. EVERY parse in every thread on the forum, as well as all the parses of my guild and many other peoples guilds show that Summoners outdamage Sorcerors hands down. Another thing. The concept of "Burst" dps is in direct conflict with "long cast times."
/yawns, I have a parser too, on ^^^ mobs the wizard wins 80% of the time, unless there is a lack of dps and its JUST the wizard and conjuror for dps, then the mob will last longer than 25 seconds and yes the summoner will win, we are king of sustained dps. This goes for warlocks as well, a group of mobs, warlock wins, especially if no arrows huge group and not lasting over 25 seconds, these are all 'burst' instances. If its a ^^^ + ^ or ^^ + ^^ , I win. When it comes to groups its pretty balanced, just admit that and be over with it. When it comes to raids yes sorcerers are not balanced, just please know your situations before you post what you think is 'completely true'.
LOL there's nothing to admit because in any group the mobs are dead before the warlock can even get off a spell. This is what you call "burst dps" by the way. Maybe you should try familiarizing yourself with the class a little better before commenting.
Or maybe you should familiarize yourself with reality, unless your fighting a buncha double down arrow mobs there's no way mobs will die before the warlock can get off a spell lol, the shortest parsed fight I had ever had was 11 seconds, warlock got in devastation, nil absolution and bearly a dark nebula pretty much ending the fight, this was with a buncha BURST scout classes as well. Tell your group to stop fighting mulitiple solo mobs, thanks.
Try doing a Lockjaw raid, the trash mobs are all heroic. You can't even get a deva or abso1/8th of the way cast. I usually just autofollow a healer and surf the web on this raid. All they need from me is Aspect anyway.
Without questions summoners are over powered or we are underpowered. I parse 24 / 7 on raids and it is not possible to beat a necro or a conj on epic x4 encounters unless there is no ^^^ epic mob in the encounter. This usually means there are 5 to 10 ^^^ or ^^ non epic mobs (this is mobs with less then 100k hp's a epic mob has 400k+) grouped together to form a epic group. If your a summoner and getting beat on raids in dps by wizards or warlocks then your doing something really wrong. Message Edited by Modean on 01-31-200608:46 AM
I was in an XP group with a conj recently and was running stats. It was a toss up between us who would have the higher DPS, though usually him. The problem is he never once gained aggro, where I had done so many times yet he was out damaging me. I had to start holding back some to save from aggro, yet he could continue without fear of aggro. So not only can they beat us single target, and groups, they can do so without fear of aggro. I am simply amazed at what I can do with my own lower level conj.
The only time I do less damage than a summoner on a raid is when the mob is poison immune or when I'm AFK. Ever think that maybe it's a certain warlock doing something wrong?
Or is it possible your necros are newbs? Necros are sold 1k+ dps on any X4 mobs not resistant to Disease... Tell me your a 1200+ dps warlock and I will re-evaluate what I'm doing wrong...
I was referring to groups, and when you have a raid is scouts causing that insanely high burst damage so that you seem useless, not us. Trust me we are a sustained dps class not burst, we couldn't do as much quick damage even risking our lives.
ON RAIDS you are underpowered, Summoners aren't overpowered at all as we can be out dpsed by lots of scouts and even a fighter or two depending on who is MTing (berserker with rampage and open wounds anyone?) In group mobs I challange you to find a 15 second or below parse where the summoner came ahead and the wizard/warlock had ALL their spells up and ready, go for it.
