Xiemage wrote:
The thing is a skilled lock isn't...much(?) better than an unskilled lock far as pvp goes.
Wrong.
I have a level 70 Warlock and if you think taking a Warlock to a battleground on a killing spree only requires you to keep track of Fear and Drain Life, you'll fail tremendously in all aspects.
The Warlock class is, of the two in question, by far the most complicated one to play well. I have no experience in anything past 5-man instances (non-Heroic) as far as PvE goes, so I won't comment on that, but in PvP...
Let's just say that if you're up against anything that utilizes fast melee damage, you're screwed. Every 3 minutes you can blow Death Coil to gain some distance on the attacker, followed by Fear, which he'll most likely break. You can toss on the DoT spells, but you'll probably be dead before they chew through his health, not to mention most people have ways to counter DoT spells, if not by healing themselves or dispelling the debuffs, then by simply waiting to leave combat and eating to outlast the damage. I've tried just about every talent build there is for my Warlock and I still Fail with a capital F when I do PvP.
The thing is, you can't rely on crits, instant casts or shields to prevent you from losing casting time. With the right talents you can get some spell pushback protection when casting various spells, but you rely a great deal on being left alone and giving your spells time to do their thing. If someone spots you and singles you out, you're in for a rough time, unless you're wearing all epics, have Soul Link running with your Voidwalker out and about 300 resilience. Maybe then you'll unlock God Mode, I don't know.
Speaking of Voidwalker, that's another thing about Warlocks that makes them much more complex than the Mages. You have to choose the right demon minion for the right situation. Using your Felhunter against spellcasters is kind of like winning the lottery, but your opponent might as well be a Warrior (with no buffs to eat and no spells to lock) who'll rip your Felhunter a new one along with you.
Some will tell you to go with a Demonology build, to get Soul Link, Demonic Knowledge, Master Demonologist and Demonic Resilience. Pretty neat build, but unfortunately it relies a great deal on your demon to stay alive. Let's use the before mentioned situation where you encounter a Warrior with your Felhunter out. You've blown Fel Domination so you can't insta-summon a better demon and doing a 6-second summoning is suicide.
You have your Soul Link which basically reduces all incoming damage by 20%. That's like wearing plate armor as a spellcaster. Neato, right?
Then there's Demonic Knowledge which takes your demon's stamina and intellect, put it together and gives you 15% as spelldamage. Also pretty neato. Gives around 100-200 spelldamage.
Then Master Demonologist, which, with your Felhunter out, increases your magical resistances by x amount. Also great, maybe not so much against a Warrior who has zero magical abilities. But still.
Now, let's say the Warrior has half a brain and notices your many Demonology buffs on you. He won't switch target to your pet, because that'll allow you to get off a Fear or whatnot. He'll simply use Cleave, Whirlwind and any other multi-target attacks he can find. Since your pet receives the damage your Soul Link absorbs, it'll drop like a rock. And once your demon is gone, Soul Link, Demonic Knowledge and Master Demonologist goes with it. Buh-bye.
That's what many anti-Warlock crybabies forget about. They just see a Warlock with 12,000 health, 300 resilience and Soul Link and goes "OMG HE'S INDESTRUCTIBLE LIEK CONCRETE!" and they totally forget that not all Warlocks run around with that kind of gear and more than once the opponent has the brains to figure out that killing the demon makes the Warlock very sad. Sad like a sad panda.
Anyway, that was a little sidetrack on Warlock vs. Mage in PvP. I would definitely prefer to play a Mage there, simply because Mages have so many instant cast spells at their disposal. But it's a matter of personal taste, I guess.
Welcome back to the game. Two years is a long time considering the major overhauls this game has gotten since then. Hope you'll like it.
Edited, Feb 7th 2008 12:03am by Mazra