Breakfast Topic: What's the least loved class in WoW?
by Olivia Grace 
Mar 13th 2012 at 8:00AM
Fortunately I didn't spill coffee on the spreadsheet; that would have been more problematic, seeing as it's inside my laptop and all. So here, ladies and gentlemen, are the results of The Biggest Loser Azeroth, 2012! Now, for clarity, this is the number of times each class was mentioned in the context of someone not succeeding in leveling it, not wanting to level it, or not finding it appealing to level or play. People who got a class to 85 but don't really play it that much weren't counted!
So based on this extremely scientific approach, the most loved (least mentioned) class was the priest. Only 4.7% said they wouldn't level a priest. Does this mean priests are just bland and inoffensive, or totally awesome? Who knows!
But the least loved (most mentioned)? Well, warriors came in second, with 12.4%, but there was a bit of a cluster with rogue on 11.6% and druid on 10.9%. But, ladies and gentlemen, the runaway winner with a truly epic 20.9% was the warlock. Why is that? I kinda like my 'lock. I'm not entirely sure why they don't appeal, but there's clearly something. I'd say it was the pets, but the hunter only had 8.5% of the vote! What do you think?
Here are the full results:
| Priest: 4.7% | DK: 10.1% |
| Shaman: 6.2% | Druid 10.9% |
| Mage: 7.0% | Rogue: 11.6% |
| Paladin: 7.8% | Warrior: 12.4% |
| Hunter: 8.5% | Warlock: 20.9% |
Filed under: Breakfast Topics
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 6)
Nina Katarina Mar 13th 2012 8:07AM
Well, for me it's the pets, which is why I said warlock and hunter. Warlocks are a great utility class (closets, teleports and cookies) but they're not a burst class. Their big damage requires rampup time, so far as I can tell.
Arrowsmith Mar 13th 2012 8:09AM
For me, it was the feeling of being slow and sluggish. With a Hunter for a main that has a maximum cast time of 1.65 seconds, suddenly going to having Shadow bolt take over two seconds to cast made me feel, well, sluggish and slow by comparison. That poor Gnome never made it past level 5.
spectres Mar 13th 2012 8:29AM
I could not agree more. It feels like killing mobs with a warlock takes forever. DoT effects are about as appealing to me as waiting for a webpage to load.
downesy93 Mar 13th 2012 9:03AM
Never pity a gnome.
Noyou Mar 13th 2012 9:15AM
Couldn't disagree more. It's been a while since I leveled mine, but when I did (Affliction) I steamrolled through content faster than my Paladin, DK and frost mage. You get to a point where you don't use shadow bolt at all for normal mobs. Put 2 DoT's on a mob, switch, let your voidwalker do his work. Run around and collect loots. If I leveled one now, I would probably go Demo as you get your felguard at level 10.
Schadenfreude Mar 13th 2012 6:21PM
Yeah, my warlock is my main, and affliction has always been my one true spec. Dot, dot, dot, dot, dot -- collect loots, never lose health.
Rojslade Mar 13th 2012 8:10AM
What's wrong with Warlocks?
Shard mechanic, primarily dot damage depending on spec, doesn't hit hard at low level even with heirlooms compared to other classes (rogue, hunter, paladins being overly OP sub level 25), ramp-up time to do decent damage, it having a pet is more of a plus rather than a con... But overall it takes a certain type of dedication to really play one all the way thru and competently.
I for one don't.
Noyou Mar 13th 2012 9:18AM
Shards have been a non issue since the shattering. At least on the 2 specs I play. The only time I even use them now is to instant cast my pet if it dies or I want to switch.
Seika Mar 13th 2012 8:10AM
After I put my two bits in for Warlock as the class I wouldn't level, I SoR'd myself, raised a lock to level 80, and suddenly fell in love with it.
I think a lot of the lock hate might be that they're horribly boring at low levels and you get a lot of the things you need too late. For example, Destro gets its main nuke at level 64. Kind of ridiculous if you ask me.
Nynaeve Mar 13th 2012 8:17AM
This is my situation. Never could level a warlock out of the 20's. Used a scroll to bump one to 80 and now I'm having a blast.
Jordan Mar 13th 2012 10:05AM
And in low level dungeons (1-80) things die so fast that dots will do little or no damage, hence making a lot of your warlockiness feel underwhelming.
Firestyle Mar 13th 2012 10:22AM
Completely agree. I have wanted one for a long time, but I can't get past level 34. When I played it and did level it, it was with Valentine's SP buffs and dotting everyone to death in PvP. After that was over, I tried questing. Major issues were:
1. 2.5s cast shadow bolts.
2. Shadow bolts don't one shot mobs, need to send in voidwalker.
3. Void walker doesn't hold aggro. Mob hits lock.
4. Lock loses health due to squishiness, and also uses too much mana to kill things and then uses health to get mana, and then drinking to get mana.
It was a never ending, exceptionally slow, cycle of drinking. And this was in heirlooms mind you.....
Stilhelm Mar 13th 2012 11:56AM
Questing with a lock is easy as affliction. Low-level mobs don't hit for anything anymore, so I just dotted things up and let my felhunter chase them around until they died. Mobs are pretty sparse these days, so it's hard to pull more than 2. The thing that helps a lot is glyph of soul swap, so you can cast your dots on one mob, then swap them to another.
Dungeons as a leveling lock are extremely boring, though, you have to get used to healers beating you in damage if they try, especially atonement priests. PVP is just beyond stupid until lvl 70 where you can get the full set of resilience PVP gear. At low levels, your dots tick for less than the out of combat health regen, making them beyond worthless.
Actually, low-level PVP and dungeons could be "fixed" if they knocked everyone else's damage down to warlock levels.
Revynn Mar 13th 2012 12:00PM
- "3. Void walker doesn't hold aggro. Mob hits lock.
4. Lock loses health due to squishiness, and also uses too much mana to kill things and then uses health to get mana, and then drinking to get mana."
There's an old warlock saying: "Warlocks don't eat. Warlocks don't drink. We don't even need to breathe. We exist solely on the suffering of our enemies."
Seriously, though You get Soul Harvest at something like level 8 now and your Felguard at level 10 (much better tank). If you're having problems with downtime then you're doing it wrong.
Chetti Mar 13th 2012 12:38PM
See I think this is exactly my problem. My main is a shadow priest, and I absolutely love it. I figured I could learn to warlock since I'm already familiar with keeping dots up and the orb thing. I'm leveling a goblin warlock for the classy goblins achievement for my guild, and its... going. Sometimes I enjoy it, other times I'm just looking at it thinking.. good crips this is kinda terrible. I want to see a lock at max level, and I'll get her there, but I'm thinking once I get all the good stuff and a (more) solid rotation it'll be more fun. The pet thing is different, but I figure no one has yelled at me yet for my demon going astray (I guess thats because they can't be on aggressive anymore - a good change I think) so I must be doing ok. I'll never change my main, it took me 3 "mains" and a lot of research and advice seeking and practice for everything to fall into place and be good at (or at least hold my own) this main. But having another 85 that actually does stuff will be awesome. She's 53 now - my goal is 85 soon(ish). Some days I think, well lemmie get one level and call that progress. Other days I bump up 2-3 levels before I log off.
scottmatthew1985 Mar 13th 2012 1:40PM
I loved levelling my Demo 'lock. Just about one of the only classes I levelled that could consistently beat tanks in big AoE pulls. Macro Felstorm with hellfire (both available at fairly low levels) and stuff goes BOOM. I was even tanking with my Felguard in vanilla and BC dungeons by using HoG and felstorm properly
Gendou Mar 13th 2012 8:11AM
Warlocks have, fairly or unfairly, been considered an overly complex class.
Combined with their being underpowered compared to other caster DPS, it's no wonder they're underplayed.
To be honest, I haven't raided consistently with my Warlock since Burning Crusade - and I haven't played him at all since Cataclysm came out.
He sits, unloved and alone, waiting to be leveled from 80 to 85.
Noyou Mar 13th 2012 9:21AM
Perhaps the new lock columnist can do a top 10 misconceptions about warlocks or top 10 reasons to level one.
evoxpisces Mar 13th 2012 10:45AM
@Noyou I would love to see the new 'lock columnist do a "Why you should level a warlock" article. I don't need any convincing as my warlock is my favorite toon right now. But I'd love to see the reasons she comes up with why people should level one and hopefully more people will find joy in the class.
Spellotape Mar 13th 2012 10:54AM
I agree with most of this assessment. Recently I noticed a friend of mine had levelled a number of mages beyond level 80 and eventually ended up with a few at max level - their main is a lock. When they eventually played their warlock again they admitted they found warlocks too difficult to play by comparison.
I don't think warlocks in end game are underpowered, at all, but they do seem to be difficult for a lot of people to master.