Hello!
I have a question regarding world pvp as warlock. I love warmode, got my Horde Slayer title on another toon, and was wondering if this class is any good as im currently leveling one (love demonic lore and spell effects).
So far I was doing decent in skirmishes (86lvl) though whenever I face rogue I feel like his toolkit is superior in every way to mine and last time I faced Outlaw he basically interrupted everything I tried to cast, or simply vanish/cloaked if I finally got my CB or immolate, really felt crippled and frustrated. Need opinions.
Your toolkit isn’t designed to provide you utility in open world PvP, only instance based combat BGS/Arenas/Dungeons/Raids. Demonic gateway, demonic circle are territorial mobility spells, it is not useful in WPvP because in order to put gateways you will need to spend x-amount of seconds to cast it.
Warlocks have many problems in current class/spec design - good damage output requires a lot of time for preparation, CC is very questionable and ureliable, and self healing capavilities was cripled in legion (demo/destro) and BFA (All specs).
Current warlock state is worst in years, damage isn’t everything, and sadly mot many people understand that.
Warlock is actually pretty decent in world pvp. Not the best but heres my view on my exp of it
As affliction = its hard. You have damage but you are also very hard pressed to actually kill anyone unless you join someone elsed fight. Healers who dispell will be your bane end of
Destro = strong killing tool kit, assuming your rocking focus chaos, enrich the flame and demin armor in world you have a decent tool kit to kite / prevent people peeling burst and deleting targets .take note succubus is probably best all star pet for world pvp as her seduce +snare helps a ton, save felpup for casters
Demo = SURPRISINGLY good im world over instanced and best in 1v1 / 1vX . You need good traits and versatility /haste gear to get the most out of it. Your not the best killer spec that is owned by destro but you are considerably more survivable and you have strong CC against the unexpected + good sustain damage to rip someone apart who thought you was easy pray, the amount of rogues who open on me to realise im actually tough as nails and my guard +adds hurt far too late is pretty funny . If someone runs you probably wont be able to do anything about it though . Too bad demo isn’t anywhere near as solid in rated or instanced . Healers are hard to kill out side of good cd use in tyrant .
1v1 is definitely one of the areas where aff actually can do well.
Got decent control and sustain. If you’ve got coil, HS and trinket ready I usually find I have enough to outlast most people, even those who open on me.
Ele sham one exception I can’t quite build enough momentum to bring them down
Destruction is an amazing specc right now regarding its viability in PvP. It requires some practise though when you face an enemy that understood how to lock down a destruction warlock properly.
The key is to use your different spell schools to soak interrupts and use your cc (which you have a ton of) to the right time.
Basically you want to get one stack of Backdraft first by casting conflagerate. Then you can cast fear. If the opponent locks your fear - cast chaosbolt. If your opponent doesn’t lock fear - cast chaosbolt why he is running in fear. Most people will trinket the first fear though, so try to fakecast the chaosbolt during the fear.
Furthermore you can use your shadowfury, mortal coil and infernal stun to get important casts of.
Try to not waste your infernal before the rogue has used a major cool down like cloak, trinket or vanish. Destruction has amazing sustained DPS and you can force this cooldowns of the rogue most of the time with properly chaining your cc.
I hope I could help you a bit, but eventually you can only learn how to counter other classes by playing the actual game.