Q&A Warlock Comments - Blue Tracker

#1 - Dec. 8, 2016, 8:49 p.m.

What was mentioned about Warlocks in yesterday's Q&A and the recent blue posts from Watcher were a great first step and I applaud the team for admitting some of the shortcomings with each spec. However, these issues were the tip of the iceberg, can we get some confirmation that other aspects of the class are also being discussed internally? Some of the main issues that have been raised by the community since alpha include:

Destruction
RNG mastery is universally disliked
Lack of a compelling burst CD
Redesign of Fire and Brimstone fundamentally changed how we AoE for the worse
Loss of visual effects associated with burning embers
Large number of abilities removed from baseline kit and added to talent tree when compared with other classes (Backdraft, Shadowburn, Demonic Circle, Fire and Brimstone)
Lack of a baseline interrupt or access to pet abilities when taking sacrifice
Talent row changes which reduced our survivability, contrary to the "doubling down on strengths" comment
Upcoming Shadowburn change which will make it a dead talent
Low single target dps coupled with low mobility
cast time on shadowfury has never been explained

Demonology
Glyph of Wrathguard removed
Imps do not summon if Hand of Gul'dan is the killing blow, lands after target is dead, or if a Hunter Feigns Death
Over reliance on hard casting and crippling effect of heavy movement in the dps rotation
Pet AI has multiple issues and target swapping is a serious problem
Lack of compelling demons to summon, the community is generally unimpressed by imp and dog summons as the "master summoner" class fantasy

Affliction
Trinkets proccing on Soul Effigy is a problem
Feast or famine RNG shard generation
The role of two gold traits which only activate on kills during raid encounters
The rate at which tormented souls accumulate in encounters without adds
Lack of visuals
Very boring rotation, especially if absolute corruption is talented
UA stacking not well received by the community
Low damage of dots when compared with other classes

Class Wide Issues
Sin'dorei Spite is the BiS legendary for all specs but drops only for Demonology
Life Tap is disliked by the majority of the Warlock player base and does not feel rewarding to use
Utility of healthstones is subpar compared to consumables, opposite of lust/drums
Class Mount not well recieved
Spec specific pet traits remove choice from the player
All specs are unable to do good ST and AoE with one talent build, contrary to mage/hunter/ele shaman design
General feeling of distrust and neglect

#12 - Dec. 10, 2016, 3:18 a.m.

One problem that Destruction Warlock had was a number of talent rows with very obvious "single-target" vs. "AoE" talent picks. This has clear downsides--a requirement to swap talents often (and as a corollary, a feeling of being significantly crippled when not using the ideal talent loadout for a given situation). Clearly, it's a DPS loss single-target to say you can no longer have both Eradication and Reverse Entropy, and a DPS loss in some AoE situations to say you can no longer have both Cataclysm and Fire and Brimstone. But making that swap, and then making sure throughout PTR that Destruction DPS remains reasonably consistent with live, will leave the spec more well-rounded and not as pigeonholed by talent choices in a given situation. PTR already has buffs to Doomguard and Imp damage that help with numbers in all situations, as well as buffs to various talents to help futher improve flexibility.