Mop lock and roll

[Drayner]

MOP - Mists of Pandaria is here!
LOCK - The class I've played as a twink forever!
ROLL - The ability my monk will have come Tuesday!

What do you think of 19 Twink locks today?

Before I returned to Wow 4-5 months ago, I heard from all my 19 twink moles that Lock was gonna be the shiznit come MOP. Excited, I returned and played my last 19 twink lock, Daphane to get back into the game. That was squelched really fast.

Anyhow, on Twinking.net, I started posting videos and opinions about 19 twink classes from my Beta access tests. I was very disappointed with warlocks. I prefer the affliction style of play and losing CoA and RoF really bummed me out. My imp was hitting harder, but losing 2 key abilities was gonna hurt. I posted on why I wasn't taking the time to cover Warlock changes on the site too.

Affliction Negatives

• Lost Curse of Agony. It’s now exclusive to Affliction, but not until level 36. There goes 1/3 of the spells I try to put on each target.
• Lost Rain of Fire. Destruction spec gets it at level 21 though. There goes pulling rogues out of stealth. Based on what we are seeing, a lot of rogues will probably roll something else though.
• Soulburn no longer affects healthstones, only summon demon and drain life. With imps hitting harder, we might need summon demon more often.

Affliction Postives

• Increased pet damage. My Imp hits PVE targets for ~250 now.
• Voidwalker has more taunts. No biggie in PVP still though.
• Healthstone – When I create one, it now has 3 charges, but there is a 2 minute CD on them. On live servers, my healthstone hits for about 100hp. On the beta server, it hits for 358hp.

These were my opinions a few months before the pre-patch. I have since rolled another lock and my opinion hasn't changed much.

At 19, the only viable specs are Demo and Destro.

Destro is fun and damage is quite nice, but there is no way to close in on an FC and a 50% chance to slow a target by 30% is all we have in the way of slows. Basically, Destro would be a super offensive spec against a stationary D or mid chop scenario. No instant dots, to me, sucks. If I want to play a fire mage, I'll roll a fire mage.

Demo has some nice tools and the damage is also decent, but it's just not my style either. Hand is nice for getting pesky rogues or warriors off of you and slowing FCs a little, but that's about it. With only a dot and our nuke to work with, I'll pass. I think this spec works better at running down a kiting FC better with Hand and Demonic Leap.

I will admit that my disappointment with locks has led me to roll a Hpal and Dpriest to go along with my unfinished druid. I am not feeling either of them though, well especially with them both being nerfed now.

That leave Monk. I honestly don't expect Monks @ 19 to be very viable, but I am planning on having one ready for WSG by the time Tuesday evening rolls around.

So... Locks. Tell me what you think? I know it's not all doom and gloom, but I am not happy with the class. I like running around laying dots, only stopping to fear someone. That's gone!

To the dozens that rolled a lock towards the end of Cata expecting Locks to be stronger than they are, what do you think now?

 

[IhazBankz]

I created my lock in vanilla but didnt play it much until wrath. Didn't play so much in cata for obvious reasons of being camped and 2 shot ^^. Been playing demonology since patch and really enjoy it. Leap is great for creating distance and the double snare is awesome. Damage is a bit lackluster and i wont kill a healer anytime soon but its very fun to play atm. Plus no more bad rogues camping me all day in da gulch <3.

 

[ßabyface]

I'm founding Destro lock alot fun to play it puts out some nice damage and has some kind of survival skills like Dark Regeneration, compared with Healthstone. And also other useful skill is Curse of Embfleement which increases targets cast time by 25% so i'd say that warlock is pretty useful. It may not be the best class out there but it is not for sure most worse- I'd Say that Wlock with a rogue attacking EFC makes him Wonder what just happened.

 

[Dorigon]

Locks are doing great right now. We have CC at a time when CC is super important, respectable burst, and very high single target sustained damage. Immolate also does a ton of damage by dot standards. Demo is decent too, and has high damage and ridiculous mobility, but it lacks burst. It's great on a kiting defense. Aff does fine damage-wise, have broken 110k on it, but without a slow, mobility, or burst, it is lacking compared to the other specs.

If you prefer the aff style of play, then give demo a try, as it spreads damage around in a similar manner yet boasts both slows and mobility.

 

[Hellmuth]

Locks are doing great right now. We have CC at a time when CC is super important, respectable burst, and very high single target sustained damage. Immolate also does a ton of damage by dot standards. Demo is decent too, and has high damage and ridiculous mobility, but it lacks burst. It's great on a kiting defense. Aff does fine damage-wise, have broken 110k on it, but without a slow, mobility, or burst, it is lacking compared to the other specs.

If you prefer the aff style of play, then give demo a try, as it spreads damage around in a similar manner yet boasts both slows and mobility.

What's this mobility you speak of? Is there some kind of speed boost?

 

[Dorigon]

What's this mobility you speak of? Is there some kind of speed boost?

Yea, Demonic Leap every 10 seconds. You can constantly get out of danger when opened on, and increase your distance covered over time by a significant rate.

 

[shanker]

i like the jump when i tried demo, do not like aff-spec like i did in CATA, destro seems to be where it is at for me right now. conflag > UA