After endless feedback from endgame-warlocks in beta and no improvements, many of the end-game guild warlocks have main changed or betrayed. I'm about to become one as well. It is really frustrating and sad that it has come to this. When we finally got focused casting to give us spell double attack, we shot up the ranks quickly and were finally able to compete with the other mage classes again. Many warlocks did very well, because to a large extent, the only ones of us who were still playing warlocks were the long-term loyalists to the class. However, with the way encounters are built and the way our Prestige points are set up, we're clearly 4th best against the mages. We're 4th in single target, and really 4th in aoe as well. Even if there were linked ae encounters, summoners using ro-pets would beat us in those as well. At this point, of the 4 mage dps classes, we are not best at any type of encounter, and really all things considered, we're pretty much the worst at most of them now. Summoners get more utility AND more dps. Wizards too, to a lesser extent. Heck, in looking at the numbers, I think we're a t2 dps class now with pretty much no utility either. As a result, I'm packing it in. My guild isn't interested in me main changing to a warden, and warlocks have had oen too many slap downs to be worth playing anymore. I wish there was a light at the end of the tunnel. Here is my list of warlock issues. I hope these get fixed for future Warlocks. I loved playing the class, but it hurts to see what we've become. 1) Of the 4 mage dps, we rely the MOST on buffs. A warlock without upbeat tempo doesn't belong in raid. 2) Of the 4 mages, we're the most reliant on dots. Dots are cleared on many encounters which does a number on our dps. 3) Of the 4 mages, we have the lowest damage output spells, but we cast faster. In the era of spell double attack, doubling a few massive spells in the time warp window provides a bigger advantage to all other mage dps classes. 4) Of the 4 mages, our aa and class defining spells are the most problematic. We have to time focused casting in sync with time warps to have any chance to dps. From an efficiency perspective... Rift is pretty much unusable despite being looked at by the game as one of our bigger spells. Absolution is also pretty much unusable. Dark infestation is unusable. Dissolve is unusable. Encase is unusable. Acid Storm is unusable Netherlord is unusable. Dark Nebula is unusable. Distortion is only usable if you go down the left prestige line and put all possible AA into enhancing it. Dark Aggravation gets cured, procs funky, and often costs us dps instead of helping due to triggering on a mob we don't have targeted. 5) Anything we can do, Wizards. Conjs, and Necros have all been doing better for a while, with the exception of dps against linked green encounters that stay alive for a long time. 6) If being largely the 4th best mage dps class wasn't enough, the new prestige in this xpac helps us less than the other 3 mage classes, making the gap wider. 7) Because spell double attack is increasing, the gap will continue to widen. Every point of spell double attack helps all other classes more than a warlock, because a warlock has more times where we're going to be at 100% double cast because of temps, and having spell double attack on gear does nothing at all (focused casting, time warp, etc). We've proposed tons and tons of ideas for solutions. Some from players more prestigious than I, even some from competing mage classes. When Wizards, Necros, and Conj's in end game raiding guilds are all agreeing Warlocks need some love... and we still don't get it... it becomes discouraging. I've seen fixes from our Dev's before. I'm really hoping one comes soon. :-/
Mogrim I cannot thank you enough for your tireless efforts. I cannot imagine how many hours or in fact days you spent in beta looking at the new abilities. I too and unsure of my future. My current guild already has 2 wizards, a necro and a conj so if they are doing that much more now and I am around the same there may not be a place for me. Betraying in my current guild would not be an option either. I am praying to the EQ2 gods that they read the pages and pages of info on the beta forums that people took the time to write. I have been through that thread a dozen times. No bashing, no unneeded comments. All constructive and all, minus a bit, has gone ignored.
Kind of off-topic; What would you consider the best caster? Now that you mention it, I haven't seen a Warlock in a while ...
As much as I wish they would, I don't think they'll listen. Shame I'm terribad at the one 90+ alt I have and I don't know how to play a wizard at all. Oh well, I guess me and the guy who took the mythical cloak in hope it was bugged and actually was decent will just be the only warlocks. As for best mage dps it would depend on the encounter to be honest. It would still be warlock if it was a fight with waves of 8-12 linked adds that took 20-25 seconds to kill imo. Shame that hasn't existed since like HM Klaatuus was relevant content.
No one (as in not a lot of people) wants to play Warlock because you can use more DoTs on a caster and have a less throttled, less conditional-focused play style that doesn't require you to be in the MOB's face so much by going Necro - a class that isn't designed for conditions (fights with linked encounters) that the Devs aren't focusing on right now. Devs can fix Warlocks by inserting more content for which the class was designed to excel, but they aren't doing that. This is a classic case of content being the issue, not the class. If they boost the spell damage outside of nerfing the damage they do on linked encounters then they will be OP once more linked raid encounters are put in the game. Also there are just too many buttons and the play style of this class simply wards off new players. The skill cap is much higher than some other caster classes, like Necro or Conjuror who offload a ton of damage to their pets. I never felt like a bad player until I rolled and started gearing up a Warlock. At same gear level my Necro was doing significantly more DPS. It is too gear and buff dependent, IMO.
Actually now conjuror's will laugh in the face of any warlock on a large linked encounter except maybe if the adds last just long enough to get all ticks of Eternal Damnation in and then they all instantly die immediately after.
Yet another face slapping thread. I was not aware that it was now impossible to play a warlock. Do they get auto-DTed whenever they cast a spell?
No but we auto-lose a parse to a summoner or wizard. Guess what that leads to, auto lose our raid spot.
Can he play the class? Sure! Will it be the best class for raids to have in that slot for most fights right now? maybe not
So I grouped with some guildies last night. Did the Faceless heroic zone. Group was me (lock), 2 conjies, tank, illy, healer. Sorry, dont remember what classes the tank and healer were offhand. Point is, conjies did 3x the dps I did.. Yep, 3x. On linked fights they were averaging 300k while I was at about 130k. Mobs were not living more than 10 seconds. On named fights it was about the same, so the question remains. Why be a warlock? With the choice of summoners and wizards, who would want us?
Well, I tried all reasonable prestige layouts. No matter which to choose, I deal 15-20% less dps on epic dummy compared to an equally geared wizard; the gap between me and only a slightly better geared necro is significantly larger, and I would not consider myself a bad player. I personally fail to see, why keep playing the class, which, compared to any of the 3 other mages, is a clear outsider in all types of content. Either I switch my warlock main to a conj/necro, since we already have 2 wizards and don't need more, or I simply quit. Warlock today is just a joke.
Warlock is very overpowered in PvP atm...VERY!! Check parses on Battleground and u will see they are on top dmg and played for many more ppl that other class. If it get bufed, will break pvp system lol.
FALSE! We've already seen they are able to adjust down pvp damage vs pve. Spells have a seperate pvp vs pve check box. Which basicly displays they work differently in those 2 situations. There is a way to buff pve damage without changing pvp.
The notes on test are a start. Fixing Dark Infestation's dot to not self-cancel when it triggers broodlings would be one other very useful improvement.
CowControl im going to assume your judging warlocks by what you have seen previous to this expansion. Warlocks are also nerfed in pvp aswell. They are as weak in pvp as they are pve now. The devs have been active on these forums so im hoping to see a response. I have an honest question for the devs and would love an honest answer. Should i betray wizard or just reroll a summoner if i want to be a mage dps. People game wide have no choice but to do either of those or get kicked from guild/raiding because warlocks cant compete. Honestly how sad does that sound?
I really don't see why ppl are reacting like this. Going left side is really nice. The extra 33% potency, the +18% duration to beneficials really add a lot to dps (11.8 sec FC etc). Noxious Influx is really nice, about the same dps zw as plaguebringer. Distortion being 1 sec instead of 1.5 also means that you basically get free dps from casting occult bolt and doesn't **** up a casting order rythhm. My guess would be an increase of around 15-20% single target.
Oh it's nice but no where near as good as other classes.I can't think of a single encounter where we have a real shot of winning the parse in the new content EM that we blew through in one night. This is of course assuming equal gear and skill and proper application of buffs. A little extra FC doesn't make a huge difference (Timewarp is up so much anyway) especially once you add in the fact you can't fit in another truly large efficiency spell. Distortion is still hardly if at all worth casting. Oh and of course on fights that use adds as an aoe dps check (See Plane of War and content in general that is actually difficult) you practically have to take double conversions as right side is so bad but Eternal Damnation is needed. Also that 33% potency increase will need to be adjusted at a later date once average stats go up (33 is a nice increase at 500 pot buffed/proced, once we're at 700+ it will be less useful).
For those of us who don't care about raiding, how do they do solo? I've played a necro and done pretty well, and have heard that wizards can work well as long as you remember you're a glass cannon, but I haven't heard much about warlocks one way or another. I finally decided to pick up another character slot for my 'choose a loot' card from the credit card debacle going back a ways, and want to try something new (my main is a guardian, though I'm starting to dig beastlord).
No ability in this game is designed with solo play in mind, so I find it unlikely you're going to get a response. These abilities are supposed to be tested in a real high end environment and in that regard they are lackluster at best. Something needs to change or warlocks won't be allowed in high end guilds.
