Sorry, but I had to reply to this post. Try to make it short to get the topic back on track.
dedleygnome wrote:
Greeting, I am a lvl 75 lock on a pvp server with affliction spec and mostly lower end gear ie pvp items ranging from s1 to s4 with about 425 resilience. My issue with my class is not with the rotations, a simple add on like necrosis can give you dot timers and keep track of your dots. I feel many of the cast times could use some serious reduction however especially the haunt/unstable affliction/immolation line 1.5 sec is very long and haste items taking off 1/100's of a second are retarded. In addition death coil could last longer and my fears could be resisted less.
My main issue is with the inqualities you have produced between the classes in regards to pvp. In my opinion there should be a close equality between every class in regards to pvp with the main advantages being with equipment (ie the tier 6 guy is gonna waste you) and with skill in pvp and playing your class. You have so overpowered many of your classes that the standard lock is already at a disadvantage from the start. For example Ret pally stun locks the hell out of you, you do not get to resist the spells and basically has been amped up dps wise to a level that you die before your fears and dots start working then the pally heals and that is that. Rogues same deal if they get you stunlocked game over and if I do get spells on them they cloak and resist your stuff basically carving you to pieces. Deathknights similar deal they can summon you and the dps is so overwhelming that a well equipped one will own you then depending on spec they ghoul out for another 8k hp. Hell with soulstone I only get back half my hp and even less mana and it costs shards as well as only has a 30 minute duration. What about warriors with their fear resistance? What about arcane mages with the mega nuke that has little to no refresh timer? Standard pvp with locks is the coil followed by fear and if you are affliction based I try and COE melee classes before I dot them up and attempt to keep some distance and keeping them fear locked. These days the way you all have redone many of the classes it is easier for me not to fight back and just go back and get my body. I do not claim to be some great pvp'r, I hold my own for the most part but man I should not get my **** handed to me like I am from under to poorly equipped players.
It is time to turn up the locks dps to be comprable to other classes. Here are some possible solutions:
Improve death coil duration and allow it to be cast on target regardless of direction you are facing.
Dramatically reduce cast time of existing longer cast dots ie less than a second. Create a snare type dot that lasts in the 20 second range to allow us to get away from melee (except deathknights I suppose). Implement a fast cast shadowbolt comprable to arcane mages nuke speed because shadowtrance is too unpredictable and not there all the time. Maybe you could reduce resists to some of our spells especially the fear line. The main thing to take home is that our class seriously lacks in certain aspects compared to classes they will fight in pvp.
There are some suggestions to improve on warlocks. Warlock dot rotation is not the issue guys like I said with the necrosis add on you can time all your dots without an issue (Maybe you could design some of those type of dot timers in the game for warlocks). The real issue is that it is time to unnerf warlocks so that they are on par with all the other classes that you have unnerfed.
Firstly, the cast times of spells being 1.5 seconds is because of one reason. All spells are equalized at a 3 second cast time. Why does UA deal more damage then CoA? Why does Fireball deal more damage then Ice Lance? Why does Greater Heal heal for more then Flash Heal? The longer it takes for your spells to be cast, the more powerful they'll be. Instant cast spells have lower spell power co-efficents then longer cast ones. Also, the GCD(Global Cool Down) is 1.5 seconds for all classes other then Rogues. So, basically, you're asking for weaker spells that take just as long to cast due to GCD. I guess you could run around and hope they don't catch you...
Secondly, PvP has always been, and always will be, about a Scissor Paper Rock game, with just a bit more depth. A PvP speced Rogue will trounce a PvE speced one. Same goes for all same class fights, unless gear/level/skill is vastly superior. Cross-class works like this: Rogues beat Locks. Locks beat Warriors. Warriors beat Rogues. Yea, there are abilities that allow you to fight back against the other classes, but it takes skill to reverse this. Warriors have one fear break, Berserker Rage. They have to be in 'Zerker stance to cast it. Oh, they are also taking 3% more damage for being in 'Zerker stance to begin with. Then there's trinkets. Undead and Humans have a racial as well, though they seem to have been tied to the trinket CDs. Everything has trade offs; Can't give people homes they can't afford and expect them to make the payments.
Thirdly, fears. Note the "s" on that. While your fears have been nerfed, there's someone else that's hurting far worse then you in that area. Priests. Every fear nerf has killed Priests Psysic Scream. So, their only way to "get away from melee" is nerfed with your fears and doesn't even have a horror effect, so most classes can break it. It's all part of the Scissors Paper Rock game from above.
Finaly, Death Knights. They are an Anti-Magic class. Everything they have is meant to take down casters. They have an Anti-Magic shield, "Get over here" taunt, a root, DoTs from their hits for when you DO get away and a health regen attack. Basically, they pull you to them, hit you a few times as you get away and chase you untill they repeat the process. That's without talents. Of course they're going to eat you alive... They are built to. Think Cats to Mice. You're the mouse, DKs are cats.
Now, I'll give you that the self port thing shouldn't be seen by anyone other then in your own group, but there's a reason the other things are that way. Now, back to the topic.
As Lathais said, there isn't a whole lot wrong with rotations. As Lath said, bloated at times, but that's the way the class works. Three spell rotations are for fire mages. Locks are all about the slow death, savoring the pain and agony induced by them. I believe if they mess too much with the rotations, they'll end up like Prot Warrior rotations, which used to be SS, Revenge, Dev, Dev. Replacing the second Dev with a shout refresh, TC or whatever needed to be put in. Now it's "Spam Devastate until Shield Slam comes back up and mash Shield Slam! Toss in Shockwave every 20 seconds too!" Without challenge, there is no desire to play. Making rotations more about button mashing and less about skill makes for a dull game. It's already bad enough that on my server, people don't want to run Heroics due to "Not having Purples" in every slot, let alone in one. Quite a few players have lost the ability to run things AT the gear level, let alone when they out gear the place. I digress though.
All in all, the "rotations" are something that the Devs should not even be concerned with, unless it's game breaking. A DK being able to summon 2000+ ghouls is game breaking. How a lock strings his or her spells together is all up to the player, much like which quest do I want to do now. Rail roading takes away from the whole Open Ended feeling you get when stepping into WoW. With Rail Roading, you end up having "flavor of the week" specs and rotations that, if not followed, disclude you from doing anything other then soloing. Fixing a class to make it playable is one thing, much like Warlocks at release compaired to now. Making things that take skill to accomplish within the realm of key smashing is something entirely different.
