On the subject of Warlocks

[Coldfire]

I recently rolled a Warlock to take a break from my Rogue (mainly because of the fact that I just hit level 40 and it'll be at least a week before I can farm the gold to get a mount ><)

The first thing I noticed is that there doesn't seem to be much discussion, if any at all, about them. Here, at least. That worried me a bit. I've been going over their skills and talents and it's starting to make me wonder. A lot of their talents seem, to me, mediocre at best.

Then I take a look at their DoTs, the heart and soul of the class. I see Corruption, 42 shadow damage (all right!) over 18 seconds (wtf?). That's about 2.33 damage per second. Ok.. maybe it's because you're meant to stack? Assuming a level 11 Warlock (which is what I am right now)..

Corruption for 2.33 dps
Curse of Agony for (if generously averaged) 2.5dps
Immolate (averaging, DoT only) for 1.33 dps
Drain Soul for 3.66 dps

Assuming you do Curse of Agony, Corruption, Immolate, Drain soul:
1 - 2.5 CoA
2 - 2.5 CoA (global cooldown)
3 - 2.5 CoA (Corruption casting)
4 - 2.5 CoA (Corruption finishes casting)
5 - 2.5 CoA + 2.33 Corr = 4.88 (global cooldown)
6 - 2.5 CoA + 2.33 Corr = 4.88 (Immolate casting)
7 - 2.5 CoA + 2.33 Corr + 10 = 14.88 (Immolate finishes casting)
8 - 2.5 CoA + 2.33 Corr + 1.33 Imm = 6.16 (global cooldown)
9 - 2.5 CoA + 2.33 Corr + 1.33 Imm + 3.66 DS = 9.82

Total damage over 9 seconds = 50.62 = average 5.62 dps

Following that, it's a full 9 seconds before all your DoTs are even ON the target. Is anyone else thinking "What the damn hell?"

Then I look at the duration of the DoTs.

Rank 1 Corruption - 18 seconds
Rank 1 Immolate - 15 seconds
Rank 1 Curse of Agony - 30 seconds

In my experience as a Rogue, I rarely had a fight that lasted more than around 12 seconds with a caster. You can't get players to attack your pet like you can get mobs to. No one bothers because the caster will usually go down faster. As a Warlock I'm not killing nearly as fast as a Rogue and the implications of that in PvP in the future worry me.

I'm perfectly open to the possibility that this is just because I'm really low level. Can anyone reassure me that it gets better as time goes on?

Also, does anyone have any talent build suggestions that would be good for PvP? Is it possible to have a Warlock that's more than just a one-trick pony Fear Tower and have it be viable?

Thanks a lot :)

[hellion]

warlocks have a completely different role in everything from a rogue and it is folly to compare them.

[boris]

i be lvl 60 warlock

dont you go discussing us, we like to keep it in house.

[hellion]

silly guy, trolls can't be warlocks!

[boris]

I just changed to give destruction a shot, and my combat often goes like this:

Immolate, Corruption, A curse, Searing Pain x3-4, Conflagrate, Searing Pain again if they're not dead. (not on fire resistant mobs, obviously)

Though I still use three DoTs a lot of my damage comes from my direct demage spells, and my Imp, who fireshields me and throws down a fireball for 100-180 damage every second (when needed, his mana should be carefuly conserved).

A affliction warlock will play it very differently, as SB has an annoyingly long cast time, and they can somewhat tank with fel concentration and life drain. They mgiht hit with 5 Dots, add Siphon Life and Drain Life in there, and just hammer down SBs when nightfalll kicks in.

Or you might play it another way.

Basicly: Don't judge a class off limited options, as the game goes on you should be able to do different things with the class. If the DoT's look weak to you, then figure out another way to do more damage, just because it's a DoT heavy class doesn't mean that's all that avaliable.

And in early game the difference between rogues and warlocks is hilarious. Warlocks Kill HEAPS slower. It will get a better... but you still might not enjoy the class.