Patch 5.2 interview with Dave Kosak
Inside an old alt's vault
The latest patch 5.2 news
All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsMarch of the Warlocks
by Alex Ziebart 
Feb 26th 2008 at 5:30PM
The World of Warcraft community has pounded it into our heads that the recent Life Tap change was pretty lame. Luckily, Hortus has let us know that there will be additional changes coming to Lifetap, as Eliah told us a bit earlier.I'm not here to hit you with the shovel of logic, detailing the Life Tap change yet again, so don't worry. My question is on the methods of giving feedback that the WoW community has displayed. Most specifically: Protests.
The Warlocks were a little more creative in their griefing than the Shaman have been. While it hasn't happened on all servers, many of them saw Warlocks summoning, enslaving, or kiting many powerful demons into the heart of Shattrath. Uvuros, Pit Lords, et cetera. Did this non-peaceful protest have anything to do with the devs' decision to make further adjustments to Life Tap? Personally, I somewhat doubt the protest was a direct contributor to that decision.
I don't think that a protest has ever directly changed something in WoW. I don't believe it strikes fear into the heart of Blizzard. However, it does bring the fact that there are issues into the spotlight. Is this the best way to do that? No, probably not. It does seem to get noticed, at the very least.
[EDIT: My apologies for any misunderstanding: I am aware that this protest was unofficial and not widely organized amongst the Warlock community, and I do not mean to trivialize the feedback the Warlock community has given on the topic. It is merely something that accompanied the Life Tap incident that I wished to supply thoughts on, and see the views of others.]
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 3)
ThorinII Feb 27th 2008 12:44PM
It doesn't matter! EVERY time someone gets nerfed they act like it's the end of the world (of warcraft) and days after the nerf takes affect they find ways to play around it. EVERY TIME!
Jane Feb 27th 2008 6:45PM
Everyone continues to ignore the major point. It isn't that we cant adjust to the change from a play perspective, that will be tricky and raiders will see some major dps changes, but livable.
Its the gear.
ALL warlock gear now needs to be restatted or we'll be rolling on your mage gear. See who laughs then.
Lysy Feb 27th 2008 12:17PM
I really wish people would research classes before posting. If you don't know anything about the nerf and how it affects a class and other classes for that matter, I don't think its appropriate for you to post.
Granted this is a PvP based nerf, people don't realize that there is another side to the game (Which we little raiders like to call PvE) Its not really fair to make changes to the PvE aspect of the game due to the PvP'ers QQ'ing over something so dumb.
If you look at the statistics of this nerf..it takes away 15% of your health to return 15% of your mana. If half the people posting knew anything about warlocks you'd know most of our gear is stamina based. So that means if you take a 13k health and 9k mana warlock, one lifetap would cause them to lose 1950 health and return only 1350 mana. The more health you have, the more health you're going to lose from lifetapping. While this may seem fair in pvp (heaven forbid some people actually get beat by warlocks), it does affect other classes in PvE.
Healers for example will have to heal warlocks just that much more. (And trust me, sometimes its hard to strangle out a heal from some as it is at times). So not only are we costing healers that much more mana, we're putting ourselves at even more risk to be killed during aoe attacks if we don't get that ever needed heal at the right time. So there goes one needed dps from your raid. Also, seeing as how we'll have to spend even more time lifetapping to get that sacred mana than we did before (as the return isn't equal), that's less time dps'ing.
I've also heard some mages rejoice because they'll be at the top of the dps charts once more. Really, if all you're raiding for is a little e-peen strokage and bragging rights amongst the guildies instead of progression and support of your guild..I wouldn't want to have you in my raid.
Bloodwind Feb 27th 2008 1:15PM
Alex = LMFAO NOOB !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Crispy Feb 27th 2008 12:38PM
So my main is a lock and I am admittedly not as serious into the game as most of the posters here. However I dinged 70 about a month after TBC launched and have experienced the all the nerfs that locks have dealt with since. I think ALL classes will agree that you get used to playing your toon a certain way and when blizz changes that it's annoying and, having said that, the nerfs that locks have experienced so far have been annoying but can be overcome by changing play style. I have read a lot of posts (and their accompanying comments) regarding the possible LT nerf and I think there is one point in particular that has not been mentioned so far.
If the proposed change to LT goes through as is blizz will be changing one of the fundamental core abilities that define the Warlock class. I can see why people complain about a lock's ability to LT back to full mana but keep in mind that typically when locks are specced to maximize the LT ability they do not have the large mana pool of a mage or priest. Also, the LT ability is one of the reasons why people roll locks instead of mages or shadow priests.
If the proposed change goes through as is, it seems to me that locks will basically turn into mages with more dots.
Sorry for the long post :-)*
imparush Feb 27th 2008 6:43PM
so we get iceblock and frost nova when we become dots mage, and there are more mages than warlocks
Tyrrax Feb 27th 2008 4:37PM
What kills me is that this has been coming for a long time. I remember leveling a pally in the months before BC release and BC beta. Everywhere you looked in the newbie zones...warlocks everywhere. When BC comes out what happens...warlocks everywhere with felguards (which almost outdamaged arms warriors).
And don't ever try comparing lock nerf to the mage buffs. STA scales MUCH better than INT has since BC release.
A while back there was an interview with a top ranking PVP warrior and he mentioned warlocks. The comment was that warlocks were the only mana using class that wasn't dependent on mana. Sooo true.
If anyone doubts this just take a look at the similarities between the EQ Necromancer and the WoW Warlock. The resemblance is unbelievable.