Kalgan offers a possible WoTLK sneak peek for Warlocks
by Daniel Whitcomb 
Mar 6th 2008 at 6:25PM
Kalgan chimed in on a thread in which the original poster insisted that Warlocks, despite dodging the bullet on life tap, still have a nerf bat incoming somewhere. He rebuffed the poster with a nice little tidbit that may intrigue Warlocks. He also ensures us that, no, he does not hate certain classes.
He says that they'd like to give Warlocks some type of escape or defense mechanism so that they don't have to balance warlocks around the idea that they'd be "tanking" melee classes in PvP. By melee classes, I assume he means Warriors, who can shake off a Warlock's main defense, Fear, with very little trouble in multiple ways.
He even brings up a spell that Warlocks may be getting in the expansion.
He describes it as "a spell that places a circle of demonic power on the ground. The warlock would be able to teleport to this location from within a relatively short range (ie: 40 yards), and would also be able to summon demons more quickly if they're standing within the circle."
As someone with a level 70 PvP Warlock, I'm not completely convinced yet that this is a completely workable form of self defense (I'm still a fan of a short duration self Banish, but that my be because I'm an Affliction Warlock), but 40 yards is at least out of Intercept range and the range of most ranged attacks, and would definitely be useful for giving us some breathing room. At the same time, we might just see the warriors and rogues camping near the circle so we couldn't use it as an escape route.
Mind you, they're still testing this, and we won't see it until WoTLK at the earliest, if they don't scrap it altogether. Still, any possible little preview like this is incredibly exciting to see, and we can only that this trickle might lead to an opening of the floodgates. Here's to more sneak peeks!
It's probably also worth a mention that Kalgan once again assured us that no, neither he nor any other team member hates your class. Whether you believe him is up to you, of course.
Filed under: Warlock, Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Blizzard, News items, PvP, Wrath of the Lich King, Arena
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Rob Mar 6th 2008 6:33PM
They probably just hate all classes equally :)
Moofles Mar 6th 2008 6:39PM
I don't see why Warlocks need another escape ability when shamans still have 0.
imparush Mar 6th 2008 6:46PM
let me see cloth=mail NO IT IS NOT can you see the point, if we get shaman mail we would not need a escape ability?
Faar Mar 7th 2008 4:20AM
Earthgrab totem much lately? :P
Fear generally isn't much of an escape ability, you'd know that if you played warlock a lot yourself. Just getting it off is an issue when you're having a meleer in your face, much less two of them.
BladeeR Mar 6th 2008 6:46PM
You sir,RangerSix is a moron. every class have anti class. Learn to play.
I guess you never seen retri paladins being lucky on proc and one shotting ppl.
Azureblood Mar 6th 2008 6:45PM
wow.. this is a warlock thread go QQ in your own threads or something jeez. or at least learn2play first
Adj Mar 6th 2008 6:51PM
I think something like that would be nice. As for the people camping the circle, well at least they are not camping and you can just always just DoT them and run away unless they are ranged but you can't have everything.
wintermute Mar 6th 2008 7:00PM
You, Mr. Rangersix, are a noob. Period. End of discussion.
Warlocks have 0 escape tools, there are many ways to escape or prevent Fear, beyond what Warriors have, and we have nothing else beyond that, so if a melee class gets up close, there isn't much we can do.
Before you complain about a class, learn how it plays, or STFU and GTFO.
Brandon Tilley Mar 6th 2008 7:01PM
While I'm sure you feel the need to use language like that to get your feeble point across, I'm sure it's not actually required.
RangerSix Mar 6th 2008 7:04PM
Retri Pala's one shotting people? Eh, have you even played outside battlegrounds?
Angelus Mar 6th 2008 7:54PM
My Ret pally can get lucky and one shot a clothie. Its really not one hit, its just everything going off at once and critting.
Crusader Strike: 2000
white damage:2000
Seal of Command:2000
15% debuff to your stamina
Judgement of command: 1000
its not too common but it happens enough to make Ret pretty addicting. And pretty dangerous up close and in your face.
I'm not worrying about locks getting this, I just know how to play.
Frogonius Mar 6th 2008 7:13PM
Im not here to QQ about warlocks but, i really do not see the need for ANOTHER escape mechanism. Is 3 different fear spells really not enough?? The pvp trinket is only good for one time, they still have 2 other fears to use if the 1st doesnt work. And the fact that warlocks wear cloth means nothing when they have over 13k hp and drain life. Im not gonna be like everyone else and say that warlocks are OP, but they sure as hell dont need anymore ways to escape melee imo.
RangerSix Mar 6th 2008 7:34PM
It doesn't matter Frogonius, you're just another noob in there eyes.
These guys are getting one shotted in PvP by a ret pala, no way in hell that these guys have seen decent Arena games as Affliction.
R055 Mar 6th 2008 7:34PM
As far as I can tell, the only lock with an escape mechanism is a gnome lock (for shame!) and even that is fairly limited. We don't have any sort of bubble to speak of and very little damage prevention. Calling Fear an escape mechanism is remotely true, at best. Its more like a stun effect, which is usually quite lethal.
Damage can break Fear so if they have DoT's on you (which they probably already did before they needed to Fear you) then you won't be running around for too long so you'll get keep slapping us around (yes, I play a lock).
Also, Drain Life isn't even close to keeping up with melee damage. It merely softens the blow.
Then of course theres always the possibility you simply got owned by the lock in question. We locks are far from helpless up close. Just please, one at a time! We can only Howl once a minute, y'know. Thx!
Faar Mar 7th 2008 4:44AM
Just because warlocks have three different fear spells don't mean they have three escape abilities.
While you're casting fear you can get kicked, gouged, intercepted, silenced, counterspelled, intimidated, earth shocked, cycloned, sheeped, bashed, spell reflected, shield bashed, pounced, viper stung, scatter shotted, cheap shotted, kidney shotted and probably a few others. After that, your fear can be resisted, eaten by fear ward, tremor totemed, heartbeat resisted, break after half a second on damage. Or your feared victim could end up running randomly right alongside you the same way you intended to flee; there's no control over where someone you fear will go.
Fear also has diminishing returns as you know.
Two out of the three fear spells you mention only affect one target, one for only three seconds max, and two have cooldowns (one is quite long) on them.
Compare this to say, a mage's combination of sheep, ice block, frost nova and blink and you quickly notice that the warlock is a decidedly one-trick pony. There needs to be something else.
iKandiman May 12th 2008 11:33AM
depends on spec- an SL/SL lock can't do HoT instacast- a deathcoil has a two min cd and you ever try fearing while getting ms'd/stunlocked?
Sneakstar Mar 6th 2008 7:15PM
Whilst i also hate being chain feared and helpless to do anything at times what i think you meant to say was...
"QQ off, QQing fear AND and a melee escape tool?"
imparush Mar 7th 2008 2:27PM
chain fear? up to 10second first time and damage can break it or pvp trinket to remove it or be reflected or it can be stop by stunt or silence or totem or Earth Shock or fear ward or if you are an ally undead or... next time use 5second same with damage and trinket .... Last time before immune 2,5 second same again, so if you are realy unlucky and dont got any spell or pvp trinket or breaked by curse you can highest be feared for 17,5second, and it is the only way we can keep us from being killed. if we take rogue they got something better chain stunt, they got cheap shot 4sec, Kidney Shot1-5sec after combo point, Gouge 4sec none of them are up to and only gouge does damage effect,all the time rogue got they can kill you and there are only few thing that can save you, so why do you think fear is sooooo good?
Kworry Mar 7th 2008 6:14PM
I never write in these things cause you basically can't say something that doesn't fully support the OP without getting flamed. However, imparush, your post was so misinformed it can't go unchallenged. I would like to make it clear that I have a L70 priest and a L60 lock on his way to 70. I don't Arena, but no one said this had to be about arena, just PvP in general. Also I apologize if I missed a post that already covered this.
"you dont got shadow form there take 15% of physical damage"
I have yet to meet a warlock that doesn't have at LEAST 15% more health than my priest. Most have 20%+ (hence the 2.4 proposed lifetap nerf being so harsh). And if you've ever been a S Priest (which you very obviously haven't) in shadow form in a BG, it's like painting "kill me" on your forehead (please let there be a moonkin nearby) so that 15% frequently is useless.
"you dont got a spell there make 15%-25% to heal?"
If I hit someone for 1000 damage (currently this is pretty normal) using my nuke (mind blast) I get (with talents) 250 health back. The same geared (and I mean the same) lock in my guild gets a minimum of 243 health back a tick from siphon life. This doesn't include drain life. My poorly geared L60 lock gets about 106 health from drain life each tick. I can only imagine how much a L70 lock gets.
"the bubble stil make a different to damage"
if it's a well-geared duel wielder, their first shot removes the shield and the second hits me. So I get halfway into my spell before being interrupted and die 1 second later.
"SL remove 20% to pet and we both take 5% more damage in demon spec"
No. No. No. You both DO 5% more damage. Not TAKE 5% more damage. /sigh
My apologies to the other locks if I've offended anyone and I don't even begin to presume to speak on behalf of the Arena players. Imparush, don't compare yourself to another class when you obviously haven't played it.
Kworry Mar 7th 2008 6:18PM
My bad, this was supposed to be on Imparush's NEXT misinformed comment.