Tee
4th January 2007, 09:40
Posted by Ming in : World of Warcraft, Rogue ,
Warlock:
1v1:
Felguard warlocks will be our biggest threat. There are just too many ways to kill the succubus at this point with COS that I am almost ready to conclude non-felguard warlocks are farm status. Against felguard warlocks, health stone + death coil can heal for some ridiculous amount and I really find AR+BF+SND helps a lot in this pure DPS fight. You still want to use your initial stunlock to do as much damage as possible, and he is going to try to break your stunlock with intercept. The idea is you want to mix up the openers and keep him guessing. Sometimes I open with garrote->kick->vanish CS, other times I use CS but gouge him when I anticipate the intercept. You really want to get a big lead before the inevitable healthstone + coil.
Save your COS for his coil is key. A top warlock has enough stamina to stand there and not coil into your COS, being able to wipe all his DOTs after you get coiled, and get back in his face with AR+BF+evasion is GG. If you get coiled after you already blew the COS, it is going to be very difficult to win since their DOTs do so much damage. What wins this fight for the warlock, is intercept -> fear which requires trinket to break, and coil -> fear in which case you can no longer counter unless you are Undead. For all the laughable complaints from warlocks that “fear breaks too early”, I can say a single untrinketed fear is GG against a competent warlock. It is possible for him to kill you during the coil->fear duration with DOTs and felguard beating on you.
If you feel like it, it is also possible to sap the warlock and use AR+BF+SND+renataki to kill the felguard, you will have to blind the warlock before sap ends however to give yourself some extra time. No other spec is better equipped to play this strategy like combat. Either way, I see the rogue winning this match-up, and Undead putting them on farm status for sure. Having said that, no one is decked out with PVP/gladiator gear yet, so it is hard to say what will happen when stamina/resilience gets high. Warlock is one of the two classes completely unharmed by the resilience stat.
5v5:
IMO, with the exception of possibly an AP/fire mage (a spec that will be quickly extinct in high level play), there is no better target to assist train first than warlock. They have very little mobility and very little escape options outside of coil and they are completely defenseless against stunlocks. You can not allow a warlock to DOT up everyone in your group. Warlock has the highest DPS of any class in 5v5, if left alone (you can see this right now in 2.0 BGs). Their DOTs are just too hard for healers to keep up with once fully applied. MS+wound debuff him, take him out before he applies curse of tongue on all your healers and fear the non-UD’s in your group. They are relatively easy to kill, with or without soullink. Although felarmor (+20% healing) is a huge asset against -healing debuffs, they are still much easier to kill than say, a mage with two ice blocks, or a prep rogue with COS and two sprint/vanishes to drop targets twice.
I think high level 5v5 will not be so much about killing a healer first, it is about killing the softest DPS. When you are focus firing on a DPS, you force him to play defensively. He can no longer sit back and casually cast all of his spells, you can make his DPS a non-factor. Warlock, with the kind of DPS they do, is definitely the target I will focus on first. Healers just have to be bothered with a well timed hammer of justice, gouge, blind, fear etc. Healers are harmless to your group, reducing their DPS is far more important than reducing their healing, especially if your DPS’s are not limited by mana.
With COS a warlock is a much smaller threat for me personally. I simply love eating his coil of desperation with COS. I also enjoy the fact that rogue beat on warlock like a redheaded stepchild in 5v5 and they have to bend over and rely on their teammates. Rogue is by far the best counter to warlocks, both solo and group (although marksman hunters also do wonders against warlocks in group play).
5 healthstones for your entire party is quite strong, maybe a little too strong. Other than that I think they are well balanced in 5v5 right now, and still arguably the strongest 1v1 class, only losing to the rogue, and that is before gladiator gear.
TBC Improvements:
Fel armor greatly increases a warlock’s survivability in group PVP with the +20% to healing effects, with +100 spell damage you will probably never see demon armor again in arena fights. Seed of corruption looks like a pretty solid upgrade over corruption although I am not sure if there are talents to reduce the cast time, if there is it would render corruption useless. Incinerate is very potent for demolocks. Soulwell allows easy healthstone distribution at start of arena fights. And for those who PVE, at the cost of one shard, warlock can reduce their aggro by 50%. Warlock will most likely be king of DPS for any multi-target fights, and near the top of the charts for single target as well.
Source:
http://www.worldofming.com/?p=285&page=2
Warlock:
1v1:
Felguard warlocks will be our biggest threat. There are just too many ways to kill the succubus at this point with COS that I am almost ready to conclude non-felguard warlocks are farm status. Against felguard warlocks, health stone + death coil can heal for some ridiculous amount and I really find AR+BF+SND helps a lot in this pure DPS fight. You still want to use your initial stunlock to do as much damage as possible, and he is going to try to break your stunlock with intercept. The idea is you want to mix up the openers and keep him guessing. Sometimes I open with garrote->kick->vanish CS, other times I use CS but gouge him when I anticipate the intercept. You really want to get a big lead before the inevitable healthstone + coil.
Save your COS for his coil is key. A top warlock has enough stamina to stand there and not coil into your COS, being able to wipe all his DOTs after you get coiled, and get back in his face with AR+BF+evasion is GG. If you get coiled after you already blew the COS, it is going to be very difficult to win since their DOTs do so much damage. What wins this fight for the warlock, is intercept -> fear which requires trinket to break, and coil -> fear in which case you can no longer counter unless you are Undead. For all the laughable complaints from warlocks that “fear breaks too early”, I can say a single untrinketed fear is GG against a competent warlock. It is possible for him to kill you during the coil->fear duration with DOTs and felguard beating on you.
If you feel like it, it is also possible to sap the warlock and use AR+BF+SND+renataki to kill the felguard, you will have to blind the warlock before sap ends however to give yourself some extra time. No other spec is better equipped to play this strategy like combat. Either way, I see the rogue winning this match-up, and Undead putting them on farm status for sure. Having said that, no one is decked out with PVP/gladiator gear yet, so it is hard to say what will happen when stamina/resilience gets high. Warlock is one of the two classes completely unharmed by the resilience stat.
5v5:
IMO, with the exception of possibly an AP/fire mage (a spec that will be quickly extinct in high level play), there is no better target to assist train first than warlock. They have very little mobility and very little escape options outside of coil and they are completely defenseless against stunlocks. You can not allow a warlock to DOT up everyone in your group. Warlock has the highest DPS of any class in 5v5, if left alone (you can see this right now in 2.0 BGs). Their DOTs are just too hard for healers to keep up with once fully applied. MS+wound debuff him, take him out before he applies curse of tongue on all your healers and fear the non-UD’s in your group. They are relatively easy to kill, with or without soullink. Although felarmor (+20% healing) is a huge asset against -healing debuffs, they are still much easier to kill than say, a mage with two ice blocks, or a prep rogue with COS and two sprint/vanishes to drop targets twice.
I think high level 5v5 will not be so much about killing a healer first, it is about killing the softest DPS. When you are focus firing on a DPS, you force him to play defensively. He can no longer sit back and casually cast all of his spells, you can make his DPS a non-factor. Warlock, with the kind of DPS they do, is definitely the target I will focus on first. Healers just have to be bothered with a well timed hammer of justice, gouge, blind, fear etc. Healers are harmless to your group, reducing their DPS is far more important than reducing their healing, especially if your DPS’s are not limited by mana.
With COS a warlock is a much smaller threat for me personally. I simply love eating his coil of desperation with COS. I also enjoy the fact that rogue beat on warlock like a redheaded stepchild in 5v5 and they have to bend over and rely on their teammates. Rogue is by far the best counter to warlocks, both solo and group (although marksman hunters also do wonders against warlocks in group play).
5 healthstones for your entire party is quite strong, maybe a little too strong. Other than that I think they are well balanced in 5v5 right now, and still arguably the strongest 1v1 class, only losing to the rogue, and that is before gladiator gear.
TBC Improvements:
Fel armor greatly increases a warlock’s survivability in group PVP with the +20% to healing effects, with +100 spell damage you will probably never see demon armor again in arena fights. Seed of corruption looks like a pretty solid upgrade over corruption although I am not sure if there are talents to reduce the cast time, if there is it would render corruption useless. Incinerate is very potent for demolocks. Soulwell allows easy healthstone distribution at start of arena fights. And for those who PVE, at the cost of one shard, warlock can reduce their aggro by 50%. Warlock will most likely be king of DPS for any multi-target fights, and near the top of the charts for single target as well.
Source:
http://www.worldofming.com/?p=285&page=2