Warlock

[Micron]

I'm sorry if this is the 937th thread on this topic, I haven't really read the forums lately, but...

I've decided to TR my wizard to grab the last wiz PL on her and I found a +20 heart in bank so I thought I might as well level as warlock to check the class out and then respec back to wizard when I cap. Until last night I knew absolutely nothing about warlocks. I asked a few questions in guild and spent about 5 minutes planning my build. This morning I TR'd, rolled the warlock and proceeded to solo (with a barb hire) the first 30 or so quests on leet in about 2.5 hours, using almost exclusively gear I picked up in quests as I went (okay, I did grab a few pots and scrolls and crafted an impulse stick). I met next to no resistance, finished all quests with 90-95% mana left and didn't need to use a single shrine. I basically just zerged through the quests holding down the right mouse button, only stopping to do traps for extra XP. It wasn't particularly entertaining.

I have two questions:

1) ***?
2) Is the class as ridiculously OP at cap as it as at low level?* If it is, I have a bonus question: What were they thinking?

* After running a few EEs with a guildie who was on a capped warlock last night, I'm inclined to think it probably is.

[FranOhmsford]

1) ***?

Hard to comprehend what the Devs were thinking isn't it?

2) Is the class as ridiculously OP at cap as it as at low level?*

Yup...So long as you don't go out of your way to gimp it!

If it is, I have a bonus question: What were they thinking?

Who knows?

[Lonnbeimnech]

I'm sorry if this is the 937th thread on this topic, I haven't really read the forums lately, but...

I've decided to TR my wizard to grab the last wiz PL on her and I found a +20 heart in bank so I thought I might as well level as warlock to check the class out and then respec back to wizard when I cap. Until last night I knew absolutely nothing about warlocks. I asked a few questions in guild and spent about 5 minutes planning my build. This morning I TR'd, rolled the warlock and proceeded to solo (with a barb hire) the first 30 or so quests on leet in about 2.5 hours, using almost exclusively gear I picked up in quests as I went (okay, I did grab a few pots and scrolls and crafted an impulse stick). I met next to no resistance, finished all quests with 90-95% mana left and didn't need to use a single shrine. I basically just zerged through the quests holding down the right mouse button, only stopping to do traps for extra XP. It wasn't particularly entertaining.

I have two questions:

1) ***?
2) Is the class as ridiculously OP at cap as it as at low level?* If it is, I have a bonus question: What were they thinking?

* After running a few EEs with a guildie who was on a capped warlock last night, I'm inclined to think it probably is.

Now try it with a con based enlightened spirit in sentinel. You can finish quests like devil assault by walking into the middle of the room and going afk for 30 min.

[JOTMON]

Its the latest and greatest prestige class, it should be op..
over time it will fall into its own..

your 95% mana bar is kind of meaningless.. most of the warlock is based on attacks that do not require mana..
Does anyone care if the rogue's mana bar gets used or not?

early on Warlock is powerful.. none of the mobs in the first 25 levels were designed with warlock in mind..

Once you start playing with other mobs like helmed horrors that are healed by force damage, Golems that are healed by various elements like pact damages...
Let me know how your eldritch stuff works against the pillars in Von6..(immune to all magic).. or the endfight golem in Von5 (immune to elemental magic).. had to dig out my heroic esos, turn off auras/blasts and whittle them down...
going forward there will be newer mobs that are not affected by various focusses of Warlocks.. like the slaads..

[Hobgoblin]

Its the latest and greatest prestige class, it should be op..
over time it will fall into its own..

your 95% mana bar is kind of meaningless.. most of the warlock is based on attacks that do not require mana..
Does anyone care if the rogue's mana bar gets used or not?

early on Warlock is powerful.. none of the mobs in the first 25 levels were designed with warlock in mind..

Once you start playing with other mobs like helmed horrors that are healed by force damage, Golems that are healed by various elements like pact damages...
Let me know how your eldritch stuff works against the pillars in Von6..(immune to all magic).. or the endfight golem in Von5 (immune to elemental magic).. had to dig out my heroic esos, turn off auras/blasts and whittle them down...
going forward there will be newer mobs that are not affected by various focusses of Warlocks.. like the slaads..

for the pillars, cast tentacles on them

[JOTMON]

for the pillars, cast tentacles on them

I was a multiclass 8warlock/2rogue at level 10, so no tentacles for me until level 12...
might have been able to use scrolls though.. like disintegrate.. wonder if prismatic spray works... will have to check next life.. or when I hit epic vons...

[cru121]

there's power in warlock.
however, it comes at great price.
my hand aches like hell when constantly holding the left mouse button.

that's why I spec my warlocks as aura builds, starting around lvl 8. less DPS - but enough

[HatsuharuZ]

there's power in warlock.
however, it comes at great price.
my hand aches like hell when constantly holding the left mouse button.

that's why I spec my warlocks as aura builds, starting around lvl 8. less DPS - but enough

Oh, you can use Auto-Attack with the focused and chain versions of EB.

[cru121]

autoattack needs a target selected, you lose the dps during the initial windup. if I blast, I want to blast constantly.

[Micron]

Its the latest and greatest prestige class, it should be op..
over time it will fall into its own..

your 95% mana bar is kind of meaningless.. most of the warlock is based on attacks that do not require mana..
Does anyone care if the rogue's mana bar gets used or not?

early on Warlock is powerful.. none of the mobs in the first 25 levels were designed with warlock in mind..

Once you start playing with other mobs like helmed horrors that are healed by force damage, Golems that are healed by various elements like pact damages...
Let me know how your eldritch stuff works against the pillars in Von6..(immune to all magic).. or the endfight golem in Von5 (immune to elemental magic).. had to dig out my heroic esos, turn off auras/blasts and whittle them down...
going forward there will be newer mobs that are not affected by various focusses of Warlocks.. like the slaads..

If it was tailored for high levels only then fair enough I guess... Although it would seem weird to me to design a class with seemingly no regard to how balanced it will be at low levels.

I hope you're right and stuff gets harder. I usually need at least a bit of challenge to have fun and so far no effort or skill has been required.

[Burradin]

If it was tailored for high levels only then fair enough I guess... Although it would seem weird to me to design a class with seemingly no regard to how balanced it will be at low levels.

I hope you're right and stuff gets harder. I usually need at least a bit of challenge to have fun and so far no effort or skill has been required.

If you have played a long time and are on a completionist toon, with a hirling you can do the same thing with any class. So I am not sure how far I believe in the OP argument. Does it have some nice new shinnies as the new class, yes. Will Turbine implement something in the future that makes it less OP in everyones mine, yes. Will the next class that comes out after Warlock become the new shiny OP class, yes. So play what you like, how you like, and enjoy the ride. Been doing that since a few months after initial launch and still here enjoying the ride.

By the way, liked FVS when it came out, never play mine anymore. Liked Monks, never play mine anymore. Was not a big fan of Arty (which many said was OP), just wasn't my style. Couldn't even get a druid up to high level, was not fun for me. But when I was working my completionist, it was always 6 fighter, 6 rogue, 8 insert class for this life. But that is what I enjoyed, others take paths they enjoy. Now my completionist is getting back to 20 to start epic reincarnates and will be 20 level Warlock. Why? Because I can buff, swing a Bastard Sword, Hide behind a tower shield and aura/burst. Is the most power toon or build out there, likely not, but back to, I enjoy playing it. I will preface that I mostly solo, again, what I enjoy. But someday I will get my character to where I am happy and will join all the raids again, but not yet. My wife doesn't miss me playing 60 hours a week.

Burr

[Micron]

If you have played a long time and are on a completionist toon, with a hirling you can do the same thing with any class. So I am not sure how far I believe in the OP argument. Does it have some nice new shinnies as the new class, yes. Will Turbine implement something in the future that makes it less OP in everyones mine, yes. Will the next class that comes out after Warlock become the new shiny OP class, yes. So play what you like, how you like, and enjoy the ride. Been doing that since a few months after initial launch and still here enjoying the ride.

No completionist. I'm simply comparing my experience on a warlock in low level quests with my experience playing other classes in low level quests. On other classes I have to actually try a bit - get some twinks from the TR cache, grab assorted consumables and actually pay attention to what I'm doing. On warlock so far, and particularly after I picked up Blast Shape Chain (a tier 2 ability that costs 5 AP to get to), I have just been running through quests using mostly lootgen and korthos gear, holding down a button and watching everything die almost instantly.

Btw there is no argument in the OP. I'm not jumping to any conclusions after playing a class for 3 hours. I was just startled by how stupidly easy playing it has been so far and was wondering if it changes later.

[der_kluge]

Warlock is extremely powerful. One of the most powerful classes I've played - and I am a completionist, so I know what I'm talking about. lol

Incidentally, you can splash in some monk or rogue onto Warlock, and then you don't even have to worry about traps!

But warlock doesn't scale all that well. Like Artificer, it tends to become a bit lack-luster in the teens. My warlock DESTROYED content up to level 13/14 or so. After that, killing red-names and stuff kind of became tedious. Actually casters start to outshine warlocks at the high teens.

[noinfo]

I'm sorry if this is the 937th thread on this topic, I haven't really read the forums lately, but...

I've decided to TR my wizard to grab the last wiz PL on her and I found a +20 heart in bank so I thought I might as well level as warlock to check the class out and then respec back to wizard when I cap. Until last night I knew absolutely nothing about warlocks. I asked a few questions in guild and spent about 5 minutes planning my build. This morning I TR'd, rolled the warlock and proceeded to solo (with a barb hire) the first 30 or so quests on leet in about 2.5 hours, using almost exclusively gear I picked up in quests as I went (okay, I did grab a few pots and scrolls and crafted an impulse stick). I met next to no resistance, finished all quests with 90-95% mana left and didn't need to use a single shrine. I basically just zerged through the quests holding down the right mouse button, only stopping to do traps for extra XP. It wasn't particularly entertaining.

I have two questions:

1) ***?
2) Is the class as ridiculously OP at cap as it as at low level?* If it is, I have a bonus question: What were they thinking?

* After running a few EEs with a guildie who was on a capped warlock last night, I'm inclined to think it probably is.

Compared to a wizard you are a demigod expecially if you were one of the dying breed DC based casters.

[slarden]

I rate the classes this way:

A: Paladin
A: Barbarian
A: Druid Melee utilizing favorable bugs
A-: Warlock
A-: Swashbuckler or Warchanter
A-: Mechanic
B: Shiradi Caster
B: Assassin
B: New Tempest
B-: Sorc
B-: Druid Caster (But A for cc)
C: Fighter
C: Monk
C-: Favored Soul
D-: Cleric
D-: Artificer
D-: Archmaqe DC caster
F: Palemaster

Warlock doesn't scale well. It's a top-tier build but just below Paladin and Barbarian at level 28 - barely. However, nothing beats warlock at heroic levels. There is no question it's OP at heroic levels.

[FranOhmsford]

I rate the classes this way:

A: Paladin
A: Barbarian
A: Druid Melee utilizing favorable bugs
A-: Warlock
A-: Swashbuckler or Warchanter
A-: Mechanic
B: Shiradi Caster
B: Assassin
B: New Tempest
B-: Sorc
B-: Druid Caster (But A for cc)
C: Fighter
C: Monk
C-: Favored Soul
D-: Cleric
D-: Artificer
D-: Archmaqe DC caster
F: Palemaster

Warlock doesn't scale well. It's a top-tier build but just below Paladin and Barbarian at level 28 - barely. However, nothing beats warlock at heroic levels. There is no question it's OP at heroic levels.

Why have you given PM an F?

Stalwart or Vanguard Fighter probably deserves a B- It's not as bad as people make out, Add 2 Pally to it and you've got a B+, Kensai however deserves a D- at most!

Monk C- - More like D.

Artificer D- - Add 2-5 Rogue Levels and it's an easy B, I'd push pure Arti up to C-.

Warlock is A++!
It's so far ahead of any other Class it's unbelievable! It's far easier to play a Warlock into Epics than any other Class - The Top players like yourself may get more survivability out of a Paladin or Barb but for everyone else Warlock is undeniably #1!

Wolf is Broken and We all know those Bugs = Exploits so take away those bugs and what is it? A B+? Still good but not in the same League as Paladins and Barbs and nowhere near Warlocks!


P.S. What about Bears, Acrobats and Spellsingers?

[Wipey]

Stupid garbage class.

99% of locks are ES, tanky with high prr / mrr , with free uber damage aoe, aura, blast and burst, with metas and scaled 700 light spellpower. Plus tainted crits. 100 temp hp and Shining Through. Warpriest capstone is 100 temp hp for 18 seconds every 5 minutes for example.
Maybe Divine Wrath if EA and Evards for added lag.

Doesn't scale well ? Especially Shiradi ES clears EE Amrath or Stormhorns trash en masse faster than anything else. Just standing there and pressing two buttons. Without single shrine.

Devs completely lost any perspective.

[IronClan]

If you know what you're doing Warlock is easily the most OP class in the game that isn't a broken unintended not supposed to work that way synergy, in other words Tree, Wolf, Warlock. Chain blast DPS is like cleaving from a remote location without the mobs needing to be close together... It's like being able to launch a cleave attack only it's got no cooldown and a high rate of fire, into a room from outside that room, that has an area about as big as maybe half the end fight room of Feast or Famine, hitting monsters that are half a room apart that the warlock literally can't see or target, that a melee would have to run to individually.

I don't think people realize what DPS is some times... damage per second, when you can clear a room without entering and it's half cleared before the first melee gets through with a single mob... that's pretty much the definition of top DPS. They literally are better off not casting any spells, even Evards is a DPS loss unless you Enlarge it so it can be cast before you are in range of E-blast maybe.. And I've not even touched on ES (Easybutton Spirit) Aura+Burst builds... which are the FOTM but are not even the most powerful Warlocks, just the most popular.

Warlock plays like this:

1. if mobs not dangerous: hold LMB and run forward
2. if mobs are dangerous: hold LMB and run backwards

I think people who don't consider them OP "in epic" aren't playing them right. Not using the right blast shape or are doing something wrong like running into the room or I don't know: aiming? or something? If you're bored and want to show off you can circle strafe instead of running backwards. This will have the benefit of letting a melee Paladin or Barb actually hit the mobs a few times when they circle back around near him, this way the melee can feel like he's contributing, hey I'm a nice guy like that, most Warlocks just backpedal all the mobs away from the furiously air swinging melee and laugh.

There are so many reasons Warlock is OP I'm not even going to continue, you can start by realizing that every single aspect of Eldrich blast is superior to SP based casting of heroic damage spells, crit %, multiplier, 110% to 150% power scaling, base damage, rate of fire, resistance of mobs, EVERY SINGLE ASPECT, and work back from there until you find something Eldritch blast isn't better than a heroic nuke at and come report it here because it'll be the first one..

[pjw]

Although it would seem weird to me to design a class with seemingly no regard to how balanced it will be at low levels.

Don't worry. They didn't do that. They designed it with no regard to balance at any level whatsoever.

[redoubt]

I'm sorry if this is the 937th thread on this topic, I haven't really read the forums lately, but...

I've decided to TR my wizard to grab the last wiz PL on her and I found a +20 heart in bank so I thought I might as well level as warlock to check the class out and then respec back to wizard when I cap. Until last night I knew absolutely nothing about warlocks. I asked a few questions in guild and spent about 5 minutes planning my build. This morning I TR'd, rolled the warlock and proceeded to solo (with a barb hire) the first 30 or so quests on leet in about 2.5 hours, using almost exclusively gear I picked up in quests as I went (okay, I did grab a few pots and scrolls and crafted an impulse stick). I met next to no resistance, finished all quests with 90-95% mana left and didn't need to use a single shrine. I basically just zerged through the quests holding down the right mouse button, only stopping to do traps for extra XP. It wasn't particularly entertaining.

I have two questions:

1) ***?
2) Is the class as ridiculously OP at cap as it as at low level?* If it is, I have a bonus question: What were they thinking?

* After running a few EEs with a guildie who was on a capped warlock last night, I'm inclined to think it probably is.

It is stupid powerful throughout heroic. I hit epic on a 16lock/2rogue/2pali that does EB in either chain or cone and uses stricken and consume a lot. Going right to EE really notching up the challenge and as you hit level 25 or so and are running EEs that are level 25 the incoming damage and HP of the mobs really ramp up and you will find some more challenge.