I have come back after not playing for years and my vanilla class was always afflic lock.
I am having a look at the forums and asked other locks in-game but I am seeing a lot of replies like ‘‘you won’t do damage’’ or ‘‘it is impossible to 1v1 in pvp’’.
Whilst I play a spec for fun, I do think that spec’s ability to hold it’s own and do significant dps is part of the fun. The other two specs of lock sadly do not appeal to me so it all hangs on affliction.
Will I always be bottom of the meters and useless in dungeons until the boss? Constructive feedback would be welcome, as I’d like some non-salty responses to help a returning player
Is affliction fun? No. It’s a stressful mess where you keep refreshing like nine different debuffs on a target only for 1 single spell to be able to do damage once the rng gods has given you five shards.
Can affliction do damage? If enemies stay alive long enough they sure can. But other classes do the same or more for way way less work.
Affliction takes effort to do well with. More effort then most other classes, especially in m+.
Most people dont enjoy this and prefer the easy route.
If you just want to chill and do decent with little effort, Affliction is not for you.
On the other hand, it can be very satisfying, once you got the hang of it and doing well can feel more rewarding then doing well with a more easy class everyone does well with.
Aff’s playstyle does most of its damage during burst windows every 45-60 seconds. if you mess those up, your damage will end up really really low. That’s what most people struggle with.
If you want a more forgiving and balanced playstyle, affliction is not for you.
Well I like the theme of the spec and I do not like to play something that just throws out burst by pressing two buttons.
I am not a major competitive player, I plan on raiding, PvP and so on but I don’t want to be server best or anything. So long as I can pump out some dps when I need to and in PvP I can take someone down I am alright.
How does it perform in PvP? Can you chunk health? (Thanks for the feedback)
In Arenas, it’s easier for enemies to focus you with stuns and interrupts.
Also, many melee speccs right now deal too much damage and affliction is one of the squishiest speccs. Meaning you’ll most likely be kiting the majority of the time
In 3’s, affliction can do well together with a shadowpriest or an ele shaman.
Preferably with a Healer that can help you kite.
But again, it probably takes way less effort and communication to do decent playing one of the overtuned melee specc right now.
If you enjoy juggling 13 abilities with a gcd then have it.
Been playing warlock since 2006, this expansion has been my worst lock experience. Sure i’m topping meters in raids, but i am NOT enjoying it as i come from work to play and relax and not put myself through more stress with a billion dot timers.
Fun: Is always hard to Quantify. I know many who love the massive multidotting playstyle. If you hate managing a lot of Timers, its not for you. Unfortunately the specc I find most fun, Demonology, just doesnt seem to work in any expansion.
Plus, Warlocks have some of the craziest utilities in the game, with Healthstone, Portals, Teleports. Your Raid will love having you. Thats always a fun feeling.
DPS: Affliction are TopDPS in Raid. In Mythics they are in the upper specturm of the DPSchart. I have no idea about PvP. So for DPS you are more than good. It will be the other classes trying to catch up to you.
All in All I think Warlocks are doing quite well at the moment. Not like many other classes.
