EU+US 20 Warlock

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I want to play warlock but the damage looks pretty bad... Destro doesn't interest me much, I'd love to play affliction or demo would be ok. Is it at all viable? Any have an armory or tips? High stamina builds look interesting, does that help survive the opener and actually get a juke off? Vers and Crit look bis tbh, the partial tick from high haste is next to nothing and there's no CDs to reduce with haste nor many cast for Aff. Thoughts?
 
Frost mage outperforms warlock in every way, IMO.

However, warlocks are viable, offer health-stones, and are a blast to play.

https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/character/us/moon-guard/jwli Pretty outdated, but that's my 19 Twink Warlock.

The damage isnt necessarily bad...it just isnt great. My warlock tends to miss a great deal of his spells & abilities, which discourages me from updating his gear & actively playing it. Maybe at level 20 (scaled to 29) the hit rate would be significantly better.

I usually run double AGM + LFH for the durability. With no gap closer, warlocks are extremely squishy and require great positioning. I highly suggest you aim for 1700+ health (unbuffed, outside instanced PVP) with at least 15% versatility.

I think warlocks are most useful for their health-stones & fears...their damage is generally padded damage, that truly contributes very little in competitive PVP. In all reality, Frost mage outperforms this class in every way, shape & form. Highly encourage you give warlock a try though. Lots of fun.
 
I love locks but I just dont see where the damage is there and as JWL mentioned, there are better control classes.

But if you wanna go for it, I think your crit/vers idea is compelling, especially with the instant "nukes" available via talents. Between that and playing as a tanky fear turret, you might actually do some good. It'd be fun, regardless.
 
I've seen demo do well lately but I haven't seen anyone manage to get an affli spec to do well in BGs. The DoTs are too low dmg and seem to fall off targets too quick.
 
I just got back into the game and I'm working on a 29 lock now. That was my first twink a long time ago and I loved playing affliction so that's what I wanted to try again. Too bad it sounds like they're not as good now, still fun to play though. I can say from my recent experience that destro and demo are great in dungeons, afflict not so much. Of course, afflict is great for questing as always, and running around dotting every mob in sight :)
 
I love to play my warlock as Destro, it has a really strong dot with a opening dmg, an instand dmg spell, a really strong chaosbolt, a decent lifesurge (iirc better than Demo, worse than affliction) the imp also does lots of dmg. Stats should be int>vers>haste

Affliction need lots of haste to get the gcd down, in my opinion it takes to long to cast the second dot. It still lots of dmg if you dot everything but there is no pressure in the dmg you do.

Demo has a good amount of dmg spells, with the aoe dmg from your demon you does lot of dmg while fights in mid, but you need to cast shadowbolts to get shades up, to hold the dmg up. I personally don't like demo. Stats should be int>vers > haste=crit

I hope that helps a bit, my armory is in the signature
 
Demo+ demonic strength = great AoE damage that most classes cant put out easily without multiple target swapping
But yeah their single target is mehhh but still can out pressure on heals since their damage is sustained
 
I did some highly unscientific testing yesterday and today.
Used a F2P warlock who has decent gear by F2P standards but no epics. Only thing she has that a "pure" F2P wouldn't have is the heirloom neck (unenchanted).
In terms of dps output at the Test Dummy:
1. Destro +Flashover 145 dps
2. Demo +Bilescourge Bombers 134
3. Demo +Demonic Strength 128
4. Demo +Dreadlash 120
5. Affli +Nightfall 112
6. Affli +Drain Soul 94

I couldn't test Affli +Deathbolt at the Test Dummy because this happened:
affli23583deathboltcrit.jpg

...which gave me a "dps" of 582.
So I tested Deathbolt in the wild and it was rubbish:
Afflispec3PvETotG.jpg

I also tested in it in PvP (just in case hehe) and it was... =surprise= rubbish!
Afflispec3BG.jpg

83 dps /cry.
Now look at how Destro does in the same ground:
DestroPvP.jpg

A respectable 134.

I took a million screenies of how each spell in each spec with each talent broke down, and I can upload if you like, but the brief conclusions I present are, first, the specs and talents are ranked as above (bearing in mind that I've been playing Destro for over a year so I probably didn't do as well in rotations with the other specs, nonetheless I tried my best with each, cast their special abilities on CD etc, and I'm pretty sure the differences are bigger than any caused by my noobishness).

In terms of fun:
- destro good,
- demo good, (loved Bilescourge bombers),
- affli meh (disliked Drain Soul in particular - really slow and ineffective).

Edit: Two things I forgot to add - first, though the tooltip on unstable affliction says you can stack it 5 times, I never managed to have it up more than 3 times at best and more often could only get 0, 1 or 2.
Secondly I didn't bother testing the other two Destro talents because I've tested them in the recent past and Flashover still very definitely wins out.

Second edit: despite all this, I do truly believe you should play whatever you enjoy, so if you love affli + drain soul or deathbolt, don't let me stop you, go out and have fun with it! <3
 
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i know this thread is for 20s , but i will do some testings on my 19 WL @Oldpunk as destro, have you waited 4 shards to cast 2 chaosbolts with the shorter cast time?
 
Okay Deathbolt is broken on Dummy, did 33k hit :D
Affliction
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Demo
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Destro
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It's interesting to see the comparative numbers between an ultra-geared 19 and a modestly geared 20.

Your results vary a bit from mine in terms of ranking of talents but certain consistent themes emerge:
1. For raw power Destro > Demo > Affli
2. Dreadlash is the weakest Demo talent
3. For Affli, Nightfall is stronger than Drain Soul

I find it odd that you got such a low result for Flashover (Destro talent), when all your other numbers are 17-32 points higher than mine.
I just retested Flashover twice using 2 techniques, (a) double Chaos Bolt, and (b) single CB.
Surprisingly, single CB had greater result, 156 dps as opposed to 148 for double. (Last night i got 145 for a hybrid approach mostly double some single).

NB I only tested to 30k dmg tonight whereas yesterday I tested to 50k. Due to CDs all being up at the beginning dmg starts off high, quickly goes down then levels out.

I also tested Eradication (156) and Soulfire (146).
I still prefer Flashover though, especially for PvP, because having that bigger instant cast is invaluable when chasing someone.
 
Shock and awe! I was using dreadlash and that's pretty good aoe too, then I tried bilescourge bombers and damn that's like a nuke going off, can lay waste to a crowd of mobs.
 
I was thinking of making a warlock to, affli probably is very low as people pointed out but i'd love to try demo.
For weapon enchant i guess sp is better then other enchants?
 
kutz said:
I was thinking of making a warlock to, affli probably is very low as people pointed out but i'd love to try demo.
For weapon enchant i guess sp is better then other enchants?
Click to expand...

Maybe coastal surge.
Colossus may have interesting results, if the PPM is high enough.
Elemental force is still a dependable enchant IMO. Many others disagree post-nerf, but I find the numbers to be impactful.
 
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