Warlock current design as class is terrible at best, many of iconic abilities was pruned, many of great mechanics was stolen and given to other classes, and warlocks/comunity was treatened as second class people second Xpac in the row.
While number wise warlocks may seems good, but big numbers will not replace great gameplay.
Some may say that Demo/Affli/Destro was good in Cata or Mop or WoD.
For each of us, any of these Xpacs was fun to play for many reasons, but there is a thing that common between each of these xpacs - soul and effort that was put in warlocks.
We never was perfectly balanced, sometimes we had crappy damage, but had amazing control capabilities, in some Xpac we had great self sustain mechanics.
In every Xpac we had some problems, in design or technical side of the game. But we always had some tools to overcome such problems. But with major rework in legion, blizzard stepped in whole wrong direction. Now all our problems lay down in surface and we can’t do anything about that.
This whole nightmare that Blizzard calls warlocks isn’t working in a freaking PvE.
Low mobility isn’t game desing perk in current game it is liability.
Almost all classes in game have some sort of effective mobility spells, that could be used in dynamic combat situations, while warlocks have crap like burning rush, and static demonic circle and demonic gateways… circle and gateways are great spells, but the fact that they are visible for enemy ruins any potential escape for warlock.
Whole tanky ideology is just a fuss, you can’t be tanky while your class broken in every desing level. Drainlife is a joke, healthstone - one per combat use is a joke.
Where is my Darkregeneration, i never asked soul leech to be baseline spell.
How tanky should i be, if to gain shields i need to deal damage, and in order to deal damage i need cast all my spells. And my spell cast protection abilities has painfuly long CD - 3 minutes for 8 seconds of freecast…and all normal players will just use control spells to counter undying resolve. And there is a broken loop, i cant gain shields because i can’t do damage, because i don’t have good spell protection and mobility/control to able to deal any damage.
Even Demo warlocks with army of demons are vulnerable, because with all these volleys of imp fireballs - not a point of their damage will contribute to your shields, so they are basicaly DoT that has physical model in game, but doesn’t interact with our defence mechanics unlike agony or corruption.
Hardcasting is other thing that kills any possible enjoyment of warlock as class. I don’t wanna cast everything instant, but some core spells should be instant baseline. Like hand of gul’dan - of cast time was reduced for each spended soulshard for 33% it wouldn’t killed balance, or blew up damage meters…this spell is already requires you to cast shadowbolt three times in order to do max damage and summon max amount of imps. But NO! Blizz belives that warlocks should hardcast everything exept some affli dots.
Pets/CC and our spell book/talent tree - this is really a mess. First - warlocks the only class that doesn’t have interupt by him/herself only trough pet.
Yes Affli/Destro could use felhunter or grimoire of sacrifice to have that spell, but what about demo?
Ok let’s talk about our CC. Shadowfury - a castable stun? For 3 seconds? Cast time would be legit only if stun duration was 5+ seconds, but not like this.
Fear and Seduction - first, warlock basicaly has two variations of fear in his/her dispasal…and question here: for what?
Would it be better if Succubus seduction was not fear like, but a mind control spell? It would fit the lore of that demon, and gives warlock the edge in battle that we are currently lacks off.
Felguard - felstorm and demonic strenght are same spells with diffirent damage numbers…LAZY! By the way, why the hell are you forcing us to play with Felguard, while in previous Xpacs we had an opportunity to play with demons we liked the most. And another thing contradictions between talents - Demonic strength and/or Soul strike are not compatible with Pleasure trough pain. This is not right, no other class suffers from that design crap, no other class talents may block other talents. Ok Demonic strenght might be felguard’s exclusive spell…but soul strike? Would it hurt balance so badly if Succubus or felhunter may use that spell? The answer is NO!
This whole class desing mess looks not like the work of team that cares about class, it looks like some afterthought of designer who are absolutely not interesting in warlock, that person doesn’t know legacy of that class, lore, history, gameplay in previous Xpacs and the most painful, that person doesn’t care about community of that class.
