After playing warlock tank, getting him some solid gear and doing BFD 7/7 and some dungeons I would like to post the feedback for the class, starting with what is good, what is bad and suggestions for the bad + the future.
The good:
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Overall feel of the spec: The spec feels nice, the class fantasy is there, I believe many of us wanted to be able to tank with warlock for a long time a doing it as a demon is satisfying.
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Instant searing pain. Good implementation, without this the spec would feel totally useless.
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Nice armor bonus, easy to gear, not depended on defence. Similar thing here as shamans, druids, rogues. Being crit immune by design leaves freedom for gearing.
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Meta rune slot. The fact that meta rune is on gloves, and some of the strongest runes are in legs/chest leaves room for synergy.
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Life tap buff during meta is almost mandatory. Nice touch. Spec would be unplayable otherwise.
The not so good/bad/worries for the future of the spec:
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Putting curses + corruption on is a threat gain but at start feels like you are sacrificing threat. Would be nice if they were buffed to deal some extra damage when applied (not to the point where they become preferable to searing pain), just for extra snap aggro.
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Getting interupted while casting any spells. I think meta form should make your spells by default not lose cast time when taking mellee swings. Really feels bad having to cast incinerate and getting delayed.
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No thunder clap, demo roar etc equivalent. We only have curse of weakness, which lets be real is meh…
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Shadow cleave is flat out useless. It needs a threat modifier for sure + maybe add some synergy with nightfall talent, but thats not the biggest problem to worry about.
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Pets prone to dying. Right now not an issue but in the future it will be. Basically pets in raid will be susceptible to death. When you are a demo lock, you are supposed to have a pet with you, thats the class fantasy. The only pet that can be used 100% without dying is imp in phase shift BUT that makes it useless and its only a buffer + it ruins the synergy with master demonologist (if we were ever to go for the demo spec talents). If it was me I would make a rune at a new slot (hopefully we get more slots in the future) causing the pet to have aoe dmg reductions + pet getting healed by % of damage done by the lock (so it doesnt die from bosses).
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Potential soul link issue in the future. Soul link as it stands right now in the hands of good guilds will be broken. Basically healers will focus tank + pet and you will have a tank with 30% permanent mitigation. That will be INSANE damage mitigation and will make locks overpowered. I would instead make demo form to alter soul link when used, making it give % extra health/give the warlocka shield based on damage done by pet or something else instead of the damage transfer effect.
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No dodge/parry/block chance might make warlocks take the most damage of the tanks. I think locks can feel a niche as the tank that absorbs damage with shadow magic. Maybe adding a rune causing corruption damage to provide a shield equal to the damage caused (capped at 1 corruption max), or something along these lines, cause I believe master channeler rune will be useless healing in raids.
Anyway thats more than enough at this early stage of the game but I felt to share my thoughts and invite other fellow warlocks to add up their opinions.
Overall I am happy with the spec and cant wait to see what lies ahead. Hope the wow dev team makes nice additions to the game for all classes so everything is fun, viable and unique.