Blood Pact: How the mighty have fallen, 2008 in review part II
by Zach Yonzon 
Dec 31st 2008 at 4:00PM
Wish List
Unlike some classes, Warlocks maintained their status quo for most of 2008. There were no big buffs or nerfs and no real changes to class mechanics. The biggest shake-up happened with Patch 3.0, which many argue kind of broke the class. In a way, it's true. Blizzard's new philosophy of "bring the player, not the class" is working incredibly well. Too well, in fact, that nobody misses Warlocks in raids or Arena teams. I can't recall the last time anybody actually asked for a Healthstone, and the last time I felt useful (or used, to be more precise) was when my guild used up most of my Soul Shards to summon everybody after losing a lot of guys in the run to Loatheb. As we bid 2008 a not-so-fond farewell, here are a few wishes I have for 2009:
1. Fix Soul Shards
Blizzard removed the entire poison skill as well as reagents for some abilities from Rogues to -- according to a blue post last August -- "free up a fair amount of bag space." Ouch. While Rogues get reagent requirements removed, all we get are bigger, 32-slot bags. Shadowburn, a talent, requires a Soul Shard, making it impossible to spam on a boss unless we want to lose our raid utility later on. It's meant to be kind of our version of Kill Shot, but doesn't deal quite as much damage.
Casting Drain Soul when a mob is at a sliver of life is second-nature to me, but let's face it, the whole Soul Shard mechanic is clunky. It's a great concept -- and since I also play a Hunter, I'm used to the whole bag space thing -- but there's something extremely cumbersome about having to kill a ton of mobs just to prepare for a raid. Patch 3.0.8 will relieve that somewhat by reworking the Ritual of Summoning, but there's got to be a more elegant way to do this.
2. Fix our squishiness
After getting used to so much Stamina, I don't think I've ever felt so squishy in my Warlock life. Rogues have always had our number, but now they've got us on speed dial. And it looks like they've forwarded our calling card to all the other classes. This doesn't matter so much in PvE, where we've got tanks to soak all the hits for us, but where Warlocks were once feared (literally and because we've Feared them) in PvP, we're now primary targets. We don't have Ice Block, we don't have any form of shield (Demon Armor doesn't count), and even after Blizzard re-buffed Soul Link, it takes ten seconds to summon our even squishier pet.
3. Give us some outs
Corellary to number 2, I wish Blizzard would give us some real escape options. In a Death Gripping, stun-locking, Fear-breaking world, Warlocks simply don't have any way to get the hell out of a tight spot. At least Hunters can Disengage or Feign Death to break targeting. There's Demonic Circle, I know. But a 40-yard range is pretty sad, particularly in Arenas. Besides, you can't teleport when you're crowd controlled. At least Mages can Blink through a stun.
4. Make us loved / feared again
Alright, I know it's not an easy fix, but when nobody is playing the class anymore, there's something wrong isn't there? It's not the DPS -- although it'd be nice if it were actually a bit easier to play -- but I think it's got a lot to do with our survivability and overall place in the scheme of things. This must be how Mages felt when all people wanted them to do was make some food and water...
The good news is that we're dealing with the new Blizzard. Class changes and balancing comes at a relatively faster pace. If they can fix things now, they will. As bad as 2008 ended for the class, I think 2009 will end up being a pretty good year. After all, after falling so low, there's nowhere to go but up.
Blood Pact has everything you need -- well, mostly -- for your Warlock concerns. Check out his gear guide for Haste, as well as his discussion about needing to get that Hit. Have a Happy New Year, everyone!
Unlike some classes, Warlocks maintained their status quo for most of 2008. There were no big buffs or nerfs and no real changes to class mechanics. The biggest shake-up happened with Patch 3.0, which many argue kind of broke the class. In a way, it's true. Blizzard's new philosophy of "bring the player, not the class" is working incredibly well. Too well, in fact, that nobody misses Warlocks in raids or Arena teams. I can't recall the last time anybody actually asked for a Healthstone, and the last time I felt useful (or used, to be more precise) was when my guild used up most of my Soul Shards to summon everybody after losing a lot of guys in the run to Loatheb. As we bid 2008 a not-so-fond farewell, here are a few wishes I have for 2009:
1. Fix Soul Shards
Blizzard removed the entire poison skill as well as reagents for some abilities from Rogues to -- according to a blue post last August -- "free up a fair amount of bag space." Ouch. While Rogues get reagent requirements removed, all we get are bigger, 32-slot bags. Shadowburn, a talent, requires a Soul Shard, making it impossible to spam on a boss unless we want to lose our raid utility later on. It's meant to be kind of our version of Kill Shot, but doesn't deal quite as much damage.
Casting Drain Soul when a mob is at a sliver of life is second-nature to me, but let's face it, the whole Soul Shard mechanic is clunky. It's a great concept -- and since I also play a Hunter, I'm used to the whole bag space thing -- but there's something extremely cumbersome about having to kill a ton of mobs just to prepare for a raid. Patch 3.0.8 will relieve that somewhat by reworking the Ritual of Summoning, but there's got to be a more elegant way to do this.
2. Fix our squishiness
After getting used to so much Stamina, I don't think I've ever felt so squishy in my Warlock life. Rogues have always had our number, but now they've got us on speed dial. And it looks like they've forwarded our calling card to all the other classes. This doesn't matter so much in PvE, where we've got tanks to soak all the hits for us, but where Warlocks were once feared (literally and because we've Feared them) in PvP, we're now primary targets. We don't have Ice Block, we don't have any form of shield (Demon Armor doesn't count), and even after Blizzard re-buffed Soul Link, it takes ten seconds to summon our even squishier pet.
3. Give us some outs
Corellary to number 2, I wish Blizzard would give us some real escape options. In a Death Gripping, stun-locking, Fear-breaking world, Warlocks simply don't have any way to get the hell out of a tight spot. At least Hunters can Disengage or Feign Death to break targeting. There's Demonic Circle, I know. But a 40-yard range is pretty sad, particularly in Arenas. Besides, you can't teleport when you're crowd controlled. At least Mages can Blink through a stun.
4. Make us loved / feared again
Alright, I know it's not an easy fix, but when nobody is playing the class anymore, there's something wrong isn't there? It's not the DPS -- although it'd be nice if it were actually a bit easier to play -- but I think it's got a lot to do with our survivability and overall place in the scheme of things. This must be how Mages felt when all people wanted them to do was make some food and water...
The good news is that we're dealing with the new Blizzard. Class changes and balancing comes at a relatively faster pace. If they can fix things now, they will. As bad as 2008 ended for the class, I think 2009 will end up being a pretty good year. After all, after falling so low, there's nowhere to go but up.
Blood Pact has everything you need -- well, mostly -- for your Warlock concerns. Check out his gear guide for Haste, as well as his discussion about needing to get that Hit. Have a Happy New Year, everyone!
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
JokeyRhyme Dec 31st 2008 4:16PM
I was one of the many that swapped over to a DK main. The 3.0 changes were good for warlocks, but they didn't address the personal enui I felt being one. And I was especially tired of being told I should have been on a PvP killing spree, when anyone who actually played the class knows just how helpless Warlocks are in most match-ups.
As a Death Knight, I'm having fun in PvE again. And at least people are correct when they call me OP. :P
Bill K Dec 31st 2008 4:23PM
Not having the same experiences as the OP, healthstones are still very much appreciated by my raid, and the two locks in my guild that have been 25 manning Naxx are both constantly in the top 5 for DPS.
I haven't even bothered with PVP, but if I wanted to PVP I'd play Warhammer, a game where PVP works a lot better...
Azizrael Dec 31st 2008 4:32PM
Well GC keeps saying they're looking at the soul shard issue, but I'm guessing it'll be 3.2 before they come up with a winning solution. The squishiness is an unfortunate side-effect of gear homogenization - maybe a talent that converts a % of spirit to stamina would help us?
Demonic circle is a start as an escape button but for usefulness in BGs it needs a much bigger range - we're talking 100 yards not 40 - and I think GC mentioned that teleporting out of stun/root/whatever would at least be looked at. Howl of Terror used to make for a good escape button in BGs if you spent the points on instant cast, but the cooldown is annoying.
As far as making us feared again... fear has been nerfed into the ground, sadly. Everyone has trinkets or talents that makes our #1 PVP weapon a joke, and diminishing returns means that just reapplying it is useless.
WoW has skewed massively toward burst damage with WoTLK, and Warlocks are the least bursty class. We either need more direct damage to compete (SB is okay as filler, and I haven't talented for Chaos Bolt yet but it looks pathetic next to Frostfire Bolt), or to be a lot harder to kill.
As far as class balance in general goes - Warlocks and Mages are pure DPS casters, and should be more or less equal at the top of the DPS meter, along with rogues. Druid, Shaman, Paladin, Priest - they have other options, and the final scores after a raid or BG should reflect that. Right now, the mage is WoW's glass cannon, and we're glass water pistols.
Cyanea Dec 31st 2008 4:52PM
Personally, I don't get the soul shard thing and why it's such a big deal. Do Demo or Destro locks use more shards on a regular basis? I'm Affliction and have been since I first rolled my lock, so I'd love it for someone to explain it to me.
The only things I use shards for are Soul/Health/Spellstones, and summoning. I can understand how annoying it is to burn through half a bag of shards on summoning, but they're fixing that. Stones are a much lower drain on my shard bag, and I can grab replacements for them whilst I'm raiding without having to go out of my way to get them.
Azizrael Dec 31st 2008 4:59PM
@ Cyanea:
The only time I've run out of shards as an Affliction lock (with a 16 shard bag at the time) was when I did a 40-man For the Horde! run and had to summon about a dozen guys. I spent the money on a 28-slot soulbag and have yet to go below 20.
Cyanea Dec 31st 2008 5:02PM
Just about the same. I have a 20-slotter that a guildmate made for me, and like you, summoning's my only real drain on that bag. When I'm out questing, I leave the bag in the bank and only carry around four or five shards.
Tenchan Jan 1st 2009 2:49AM
Cyena , the biggest problem with soulshards is that if you need new ones in a raid, you need to sacrifice DPS for soul draining. And while I imagine that in the new raids, that lack of damage is not so bad anymore, instead Soul Drain now can not be downranked anymore, costing a lot more mana then before.
It is certainly nowhere near as bad as the problems other classes are facing, but that doesn't mean it's not a PITA that could be easily avoided by adding soulshard gain to, say, Corruption.
Ahoni Jan 1st 2009 9:20PM
"the biggest problem with soulshards is that if you need new ones in a raid, you need to sacrifice DPS for soul draining"
Drain Soul now does 4x damage if the mob is under 25%. As a 0/41/30 hybrid, it ticks for 4500-5500. If you are Affliction and have Soul Siphon, it can scale dramatically higher in raids. It really isn't a big DPS loss anymore.
Aler Jan 1st 2009 2:11PM
As an affliction lock, my shard problem is quite the opposite - I don't have enough to do with them.
Other than summoning (which will soon require far fewer shards) and giving out health stones (which I'm not specced for), I don't have much use for my shards. In a typical raid situation, I'll use maybe half a dozen shards, and I can easily replenish these (and more) on the trash.
A 32 slot soul bag sounds great on paper, but I could live very comfortably with an 8 slot bag. It's an especially weird situation for affliction locks, since our drain soul is a good source of DPS. My soul bag is overflowing, and I have to keep trashing shards in order to have room for loot.
If we're going to get better shard management tools, I'd also like some new toys to spend them on.
Cyanea Dec 31st 2008 4:41PM
I use an addon called ShardMax. You can find it on Curse. You set a number, and if you farm a shard that pushes you above that number (like trying to get the mana return from Improved Soul Drain), it'll automatically trash it.
kesherz Dec 31st 2008 4:59PM
Affliction has little use for Soul Shards, but Demonology needs them badly. Some of their Talented spells require shards, and return a shard to you if you kill the target while that spell is up. Mistime it and *poof* that shard is gone.
Cyanea Dec 31st 2008 4:39PM
I love playing my warlock, and I'm dedicating myself to my class even in the face of the savage screwing we got. I was Affliction before 3.0, and I plan on staying that way.
Here's my 2009 Wishlist:
1. Fix Soul Shatter. I'm sick of being the only DPS class without a decent ohshit button. Soul Shatter has a five minute cooldown, uses a shard, and can be resisted. And you know those Blue Dragonflight mages and dragons that you fight in Dragonblighta and in VH? They can REFLECT it. It's pretty much a guarantee that if I were to pull aggro from a tank, I'm dead. I can't Vanish like a rogue, or Feign like a hunter. Granted, it's harder to do that, but it HAS happened.
2. Fix Unstable Affliction. Great spell for PvP. Almost worthless in PvE. I don't PvP, so guess what I'm stuck with. At the very least, make it an instant or up the amount of damage the DoT aspect of the spell does. I rarely use it unless I'm in an instance, and the ONLY reason I have it is because you need it to get to Pandemic. It's a lame, lame, lame deep tree talent in it's current form.
3. Pandemic. This was the talent that was supposed to be the answer to Afflock's lack of crit in the endgame, thus keeping them competitive with Destruction. Sure. Okay. Great idea on paper. But not only do you need to have Unstable Affliction to get to it (see above), you need to invest three points into the talent to get full access to your crit percentage, and it only affects TWO spells...one of which (again) I don't use in PvE questing.
4. Demonic Circle. It's almost useless in a PvE setting. Make it have some additional effect when you stand inside of it, like making your demon summoning faster or whatever.
Azizrael Dec 31st 2008 4:51PM
UA really isn't that bad. It's definitely preferable in PVP for the dispel mechanic, but it's always been part of my trash rotation. Haunt->CoA->SL->Corr->UA and then drain life until completion was how I levelled 70-80, with Immolate only coming out to play if the mob had plenty of health left after the UA had ticked.
Cyanea Dec 31st 2008 5:00PM
It's not a BAD spell, but I think it's bad considering the placement it has in the Affliction talent tree and how it's a requirement to gain access to Pandemic. Make it an instant cast with an eight-second cooldown (like Haunt) and I'll love the spell.
I should also add to my 2009 wishlist, a wish for a warlock column or an edition of Blood Pact that comes out more than once every three weeks and addressed more than just Warlocks in PvP. Just about every other class has a series of really great articles about gearing for the Wrath endgame. Us? Nope.
Skulltula Dec 31st 2008 7:53PM
@ Cynea:
I agree. The warlock column has been in a tumble lately.
avi Dec 31st 2008 4:51PM
Well I'm another one of those former locks with a shiny new DK main. I didn't even know this was a big thing, locks moving en masse to DKs.
I just wasn't having fun with the class anymore. I'm on a pvp server. Leveling from 70-72 in northrend on my lock, I got ganked more than I have lvling from 68-78 on my DK.
Even Frost Mages won't touch my DK, even though they can own it. So I'm happy.
I miss my lock a bit... but I also love tanking (I'm good at it though, many DKs aren't). We'll see if she gets picked back up in a few months.
Posi Dec 31st 2008 4:50PM
Wow.... an entire article of QQ.
Posi Dec 31st 2008 4:54PM
Wow.... an entire article of QQ.
Azizrael Dec 31st 2008 4:57PM
As for Pandemic.. it's probably nice on a statistical level, but it's just not satisfying when a DoT crits compared to a SB crit. I'm pretty badly geared (something like 1400 spellpower with fel armor up and about 10% crit) but I just don't notice when I get double damage from a Corruption tick, compared to that split second of YEAH! when you actually get a 5k SB crit.
Cyanea Dec 31st 2008 5:07PM
Yeah...but SB gets full access to your crit rate without any talent points required. It IS awesome when you score the big SB crit, but I still don't like that my bread-and-butter spells require three talent points to get access to crit (and only half of them at that)