Warlocks need help.
Compared to other classes, we bring nothing of value, yes Health stones and Gate are nice but its not enough in todays game. We need an update. Playing multiple classes, one quickly realizes that warlocks feel out-dated in todays version of wow.
We do not have any group/raid wide buff such as skyfury/motw/arcane int. etc.
We have the least utility in terms of CC/Kicks/decurse/knockbacks etc while also having low mobility and low dmg while on the move, compared to other classes of same role. Our interrupt also has the longest Cooldown in the game. (besides sp)
As it stands right now we are also on the lower end when it comes to pure damage numbers.
Objectively speaking, there is no reason to take a warlock in your group for M+ or have multiple in raid besides one.
In order to be accepted to M+ at a fair rate, we either need more utility or bring group/raid wide buffs, OR have more damage than those that bring the above mentioned.
Here are a few changes that could help keep warlocks their head above water.
All warlock specs now have 6 soul shards, up from 5. (default still at 3)
All warlock demons (primary pets) dmg increased by 100% and health increased by 75%.
Shadowfury cast time reduced by 100%.
Burning rush self DMG reduced by 50%.
Drain Life base healing increased by 100%.
Spell Lock is now a Baseline warlock spell. Cooldown reduced by 4sec when you land a successful interupt, and applies curse of tongues to the target.
Felhunter command demon ability changed to Decurse (Remove all curses from the Friendly Target, 8sec Cooldown)
Fel Domination base Cooldown reduced to 90 seconds (down from 180 seconds)
Shadowflame is now a Baseline warlock spell. (melee frontal cone → DoT + 70% Snare similar to Cata classic) 15sec Cooldown, and now applies curse of weakness to targets hit.
Reverted TC Change. (tormented crusendo)
Vile Taint no longer Costs a shard, and Cooldown reduced to 20sec.
Seed of Corruption explosion radius increased by 100%, and cast time reduced by 50%.
Unstable Affliction DMG increased by 200%, and now refunds 2 shards when target dies. (UA is our ST DoT and currently does less dmg than agony, in pure ST)
Chaos Bolt costs 1 shard, down from 2.
Dreadstalkers expiring now has a 100% chance to grant 2 stacks of demonic cores (up from 50%)
New: Felflame - (instant cast spell, costs 6% base mana, deal moderate shadowflame dmg and increase duration of UA/immolate/vilefiend by 3sec.) → adds something to press while on the move. (cata classic)
New: Life Tap = Sacrifice 33% of your maximum Health, to gain 1 shoul shard and increase your crit chance by 25% for 4 seconds.
New: Shadow Waltz - infuse in the shadows, instantly dashing 20 yards in the targeted direction, and healing for 5% of your maximum health after appearring. 30sec cooldown. (much needed for warlock mobility in current version of the game, pve/pvp)
New: Raid/Group wide buff: Dark intent = increase your raid/Party members haste by 3% for 60mins, Costs 1% base mana. (cata classic) (similar to skyfury/motw/arcane int)
New: Mass Soul link = Grant your pet IMMUNE and link the soul of your Party members with your demon, granting them and yourself 20% DMG reduction for 10sec, 3min cooldown. (similar to mass barrrier from mages / rallying cry from warrriors)
New: Death’s Bargain = The next time you take fatal damage, your active demon (pet) sacrifces his own soul to prevent harm to master, granting you immunity for 3 seconds. can only occur every 6 minutes. (passive cheath death ability).
Like mentioned, some ideas, feel free to give your thoughts.
regards, warlock player since TBC
This would be actually incredible if it was the option for the “teachings of the black harvest” talent.
It used to apply immolate back in the day, so maybe something like applying immo/corruption/doom depending on the spec would be great.
I cannot stress this enough, as affliction in keys I still have no idea if I should fish for crescendo procs or drain soul the low health target that’s in execute and going to give me a soul shard, so confusing.
We are in a desperate need of something like this, especially in mythic plus, where some classes can straight up give you more damage, we can only give healthpots, also our curse of the elements is now called chaos brand, if you needed another reason to hate dh.
Certainly the class, for several years, appears decidedly outdated compared to practically all the other classes in the game. The further the game progresses, the more the speed increases, the further the warlock falls behind. I now play warlock out of nostalgia, like when you grow up and go to a nice place in your childhood to become a child again.
There are spells from the past that have been removed for absurd reasons, I’m thinking of the Fel Flame which guaranteed mobility and utility. Spell eliminated because it was “similar to Ice Lance”. As if all classes didn’t have similar spells and abilities. It was enough to give 3 Fel Flame with a Cd of 15 sec and the problem was solved, putting the Shadowburn as a real execute under 20%.
On raid utility: they gave Dark Intent for 3% haste, removed. Yet the mark of the wild with 3% versatility has remained, it is not clear why one disappears and the other remains. Shadowfury at cast time is the most obscene thing they could do… if the problem for them is that it’s too “OP” an instant mass stun (while other classes like DH, War and DK are allowed for reasons ranging beyond our logic), it was enough to make sure that “Darkfury” had two node choices: in one the Shadowfury had reduced CD and increased range, and with the other it became instant but no longer targettable on an area but hit a single target at example.
The current Shadowflame is totally useless as well as buggy, the few times I tried to use it on characters or mobs I didn’t hit them even if I was perfectly in front of them and less than 1 yard… because it still remains as a skill or simply because they don’t make it similar to a cone of cold or dragon breath in the hit box?
But the even more incredible thing is the fact that in this game all the melee and caster classes have effective and powerful instant procs, unlike the warlock who in 2024 has yet to cast the simple immolate (unless you go hellcaller, but first or later…)
That’s because they pushed all our damage into MR. I find it totally annoying that as an Affliction my DoTs doing waaaay less damage than my hard casted 1 button spam spell. I miss the times when my DoTs were frightening… No one cares about them anymore.
Burning Rush shouldn’t be on the GCD either. It feels super clunky and I often turn it off and on again by mistake because I’m a natural button spammer.
We have a problem with DoT classes in MMO’s where they are just insane in multi target situations so I’m not really surprised we end up with them in this state. Its a fundamental design flaw and there is no easy fix.
To be honest, in my opinion, there is. They already have something like this on Disc priest even. “Sins of the many”
Simply explained: The more you spread your DoTs, the weaker they get per target.
From there on, you can find the exact Weakining/Strongening Factor by trying it out simply. So not like halving it’s damage every time a new target is applied but let’s say %10 less ? It can be tested and found out where it feels “ok”.
Certainly, but the problem could be easily bypassed in a very simple way: give a curse with CD, or a single target spell, which increases the damage of the DOT on the primary target. Once we had the malefic grasp, it would be enough that during the Drain Soul the DOTs were strengthened or speeded up
just some ideas, dont have to take it word for word, ,but rather as a stepping stone to start the well awaited update to the class to match todays version of the game in 2024/2025 and not 2014/2015.
What you suggest is good, but it won’t solve the fundamental issue of warlock class and spec design… and I’m not talking about Blizzard itself, for fel sake I think nothing would fix that issue. I spec about gamedesign issues deeply rooted/coded/designed into the class.
This one they will never implement, we already have a poster child of Legion - DH with metamorphosis.
I agree that we should get Meta back, but not with current devs. Because they either won’t give it to us, or current devs would butcher spell.
Too many HP for too little to gain, only Destro would benefit from that, Affli and Demo is not suited to work with Crit at all with the current design of our abilities.
In MoP - yes, that would have been good, because all specs benefited from crit, our abilities that generated warlock resources gave us twice as much of that resource if ability dealt critical damage.
yeah as mentioned, the actual numbers can be tweaked for better “balance”.
the idea behind this post is just to give some suggestions and bring news that warlocks in fact need some help in todays game.
this is meant to be a starting point for people of influence/power to perhaps take inspiration from.
Regarding your point of “life tap” costing too much health. Its not meant to be a regular press in rotation, ,but rather for “burn phases” when your raid/group wont be taking much damage or the boss/enemy has +dmg amp, for example.
It fits the warlock theme very well - in that you sacrifice HP for more power / resources. In the past it was mana, but that resource is useless now, hence the soulshard / + crit increase as a suggestion.
Warlock is a forgotten class, ive played it since classic 20 year’s ago, tbh since wod they just have not bothered with it, to me feels loke they want me to leave the game, so i do, for years now i just do lvl up of new expansion 1 month subs, and then wait untill close to next expansion and smash it all in 2 months subs max, its all warlocks worth im not paying anymore
Oh sure, let’s just ignore all the warlock players because, clearly, who cares about class balance, right? It’s not like the developers actually play their own game or anything. And Ion raiding or running M+? Please, I bet he’s too busy not playing the game to notice anything’s wrong.
the developers have done too many contradictory things about the warlock, using meaningless excuses to justify things that are not justifiable.
The examples are numerous, such as the fact that we eliminated the Call Felhunter PvP talents from demonology “because it already has a lot of CC”. Do you find that a rogue or an unholy dk or a bm has so little CC and has been removed the kick? Another striking case is the Shadowfury cast time (as if the mage were given the frost nova at 1.5 sec cast), but leaving the instant to various classes that have mass stuns/blinds (dk, war, dh, retri). Teleport with half a second of cast time, in 2024 almost 2025… why? The monk has it instant, why?
The reason why they act like this because they play and test* locks only at training dummy.
The soul leech bug should have been caught by blizzard own Q&A test team before it reached the Retail, but how they can learn about this bug when training dummy doesn’t hit in return?
They don’t see an issue with Axe toss sharing mechanics of interrupt and stun, because in M+ nothing lives long enough to be bothered with diminishing.
Castable shadow fury? It is not a problem in raid and M+ scenario.
