Warlock Talents Post Release 1.6

[Dren]

Now that we've been forced to rethink our talent builds, what did you go with?  I'm personally trying out the new demonology tree where I had none of it before.  I'm only at lvl 32 with that toon, so I'm far from the full spec.

Anyone else doing the same and have you had time to test it out yet?

[Zetor]

I've respecced to 31 Demonology / 20 Affliction after the patch and am loving it. Nothing like coming out of a 2v1 with half mana and hp, kek. Except for shaman, fscking shaman.

However, Demonology is still endgame stuff. You really need to be 60 with good equipment (either heavy +sta or heavy +damage) to best utilize it; before that, it's best to go pure Affliction. Grab Dark Pact (-> no downtime ever) and then work on destruction up to shadowburn so you have some versatility. After you hit 60, respec at will. With Dark Pact, the warlock becomes one of the best soloing classes in the game, second only to rogues and shadowpriests.


-- Z.

[Mesozoic]

Jeez, how many locks do we have here? 

I'm just 25th, and I've gone full Affliction so far. 

[Dren]

Jeez, how many locks do we have here? 

I'm just 25th, and I've gone full Affliction so far. 

Apparently not many, heh.  This is actually just an alt for me, but I'm enjoying it so far.  I agree with it being a very solo friendly class at least in the lower stages.

I'll keep going with this build, but I might try out all affliction with some destruction.  I was mainly destruction before and was whipping some ass pretty well.  I'm noticing now that affliction has some nice powers though, so I'll probably stick with it.

Thanks for the advise.

[Morfiend]

I started as a Warlock in release, but only got to 40 before deciding to make a Rogue. Warlocks just soloed WAY to slow for me, and I like to solo a lot.

[Dren]

I'm currently leveling a priest, rogue, and warlock. 

The rogue can level fastest, but you have to be very careful and play it just right.  There is little room for mistakes because you are so fragile for a melee fighter.

The priest does well, but again, you can't mess up at any point because there is nothing between you and the creature but cloth.

The warlock is slightly slower for dps, but I can screw up quite a bit before I get in over my head.  I can run away easier (pet holds off the mobs while I run away.)  The demons provide a buffer between me and melee'ing a mob and my dot's help insure the mob dies over time regardless of my own performance.

I find that I have to play solo and do so with below average attention spans (kids want things, make messes, etc.) So, for me the Warlock is fitting my playstyle at the moment.

If I have time to concentrate and really get ahead, I'll log in my rogue and have some stealthing fun.

I log my priest in when I have time and my friends want support in a group.  That's a different kind of fun.

[Rasix]

I'm currently leveling a priest, rogue, and warlock. 

The rogue can level fastest, but you have to be very careful and play it just right.  There is little room for mistakes because you are so fragile for a melee fighter.

I don't know about this. It's pretty damn hard to die as a rogue.  I don't think I bit it with my rogue more than 3 total times before my rogue was level 50.   Even afterwards, pretty much all of my deaths were in UBRS or other instances where it was just a matter of getting mortal striked into oblivion by a pissed off uber mob.

You've got a) vanish b) sprint c) blind d) evasion and sometimes you've got preparation so you've got all of the above times 2.  Along with whatever you're fighting might have crippling poison and there's always the possibiity that you might have Cold Blood for an instant huge eviscerate crit.  Plus you've got gouge, kidney shot, and even more tricks if you're an engineer.

A warlock with dark pact though is just a soloing machine. Virtually no downtime what-so-ever.  You don't kill remarkably fast, but you still have more room to mana dump on whatever you're fighting.

[Dren]

Well when I said no room for mistakes I didn't mean you die...you just run/vanish/etc.  I just meant you lose time screwing around because you didn't prepare right or didn't hit the right sequence of moves at the right time.  When done right, the rogue will own most anything even +2 in lvl, but screw up once and you are probably running to try again.

Yeah, I can pretty much constantly fight with my lock.  I did the Alterac Ogres last night and they were all 2-3 levels above me.  They are spread out so I could hit them one at a time.  I probably killed 40 of them and only stopped two times to rest up myself and my pet and that was only because I screwed up and had to take on more than one at a time.  Oh, and I leveled while doing it 

Yep, my Warlock is going to be a killing machine once I figure out the best talent template.  I am, of course, only talking about PvE though.  I have no clue about their PvP potential.

[Zetor]

PvP warlocks are an entirely different beast.
Putting WOTF and trinkets aside [nullifying your primary and secondary CC], Decursive is a huge problem. Basically priests and mages/druids running DC can remove your debuffs as soon as they're put on, which is somewhat annoying as a debuffer class. At least priests get an undispellable fear...
So you're pretty much a shadowbolt spammer in pvp, maybe throw in isolated fears, infernal summons every hour, hellfire bombing, etcetera.


-- Z.

[trias_e]

As a mage, I remove warlock curses as soon as they are put on me without decursive  ; )

[Zetor]

yeah, casting curses on mages and magic dots on priests / pallies is silly. But decursive means that their entire read is immune to them...


-- Z.

[Mesozoic]

My Warlock, post-1.6:

Summoning no longer works inside instances...i.e. a warlock in an instance cannot summon a player located in that instance.

Pet speed has been reduced...just walking, a lock can now outpace their pet.

Pets will now sometimes not appear for upwards of a minute after being summoned.  This is annoying when logging on or switching between fights; its deadly when trying to re-summon when the heat is on.

Imps are now having issues with Blood Pact; the spell does not auto-cast, and in my case will never cast until after the pet is in combat.  This is presumably an issue with Phase Shift, which drops once the Imp attacks something.

There have been occassions when my pet simply goes away, typically in cities. 

Even before 1.6, pets would occasionally forget spells, which would disappear from both their action bar and their spellbook.  When this happened to my succubus the CSR rep answer was, in short:

CSR: "Buy it again."
Me: "Will I get reimbursed for that?"
CSR: "No."
Me:  "How do I know it won't happen again?"
CSR: "Thank you for playing World of Warcraft."

Since 1.6 I've seen two occasions of my pets forgetting spells from their action bar; luckily both times they were to be found in the pet's spellbook.

..and these were just the ones that I've personally encountered.
 

[Xerapis]

I have been having the same issues with my warlock as well.

In fact, I can't train my imp on new spells unless I deactivate phase shift first. Tried to activate the grimoire and was told invalid target. I actually double-checked to make sure I didn't purchase the wrong grimoire. It took me a couple minutes to figure out what the issue was. Even turning off phase shift doesn't turn off the graphical effect of phase shift being active. I'm beginning to wish I had never bought it. Last night I was actually considering restarting my Alliance warlock (He's only 16) just to make sure I didn't have phase shift for my imp. It is THAT annoying.

And the delay on pet summoning is really vexing as well. I was afraid to move at first, thinking I might get too far away and the pet would despawn, but I tested it yesterday and it didn't seem to be a factor. I was actually almost finished with a second summon attempt the first time it happened when suddenly my pet appeared and I was told that it was already active.

I didn't actually notice a reduction in pet speed....

Same issue with blood pact. Tried removing it from the action bar, deactivating and reactivating....no joy. Tried removing phase shift from the bar completely and resummoning the imp. He showed up looking like he was phase shifted and didn't activate blood pact. Until I entered combat.

Hadn't they screwed over the warlocks enough yet?

No summoning in an instance? That is just unnecessarily painful.

I had an issue two days ago where my voidwalker just attacked a coyote for no reason. The coyote took no damage from the voidwalker or myself, but also did not attack. The voidwalker was in defensive mode, not aggressive. Shifting him to passive made him ignore the coyote, but I'm still not sure why he attacked...

Nothing like totally botching the pet abilities of a pet dependent class :P

[Mesozoic]

In fact, I can't train my imp on new spells unless I deactivate phase shift first. Tried to activate the grimoire and was told invalid target.

Forgot about that; I had that too.  I couldn't turn PS off at all, and actually had to wait until our group was in combat to be able to teach the Imp Firebolt 3.  Luckily no one in the group noticed that I was using a Grimoire in the middle of a fight.