Comments on: ‘Locking It Up, Feeling The Burn

By: QamarQamar

QamarQamar — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 19:01:00 +0000

So much fun reading about your adventures with destro! For me, WoW means World of Warlocks, and always will.

My approach is similar to yours — fun and playstyle matter most to me. But some of the issues you had with affliction may be gear related, as affliction reportedly shines at higher gear levels, and while affliction can feel clunky in heroics due to its nature as a “slow killer” you may enjoy it in raids where targets live longer. My affliction friend took one look at destro in 5-mans and respecced, it’s just so much more fun in that context. But check out Evrelia’s videos — he’s a brilliant Affliction soloist and raider.

One problem I have had with MoP is determining stat weights at pre-496 gear levels for our specs — I use Simcraft to work out mastery/haste/crit, but sometimes doubt that my reforges make much difference. However, as long as stuff keeps dieing in huge balls of fire I’m happy :).

Strange for me to hear people say that destro was not fun to play in Cata. I played it then and always felt it was smooth and fun. But back then I never went past heroics, so perhaps the problems were at Raid level. Destro is still my favorite spec, so glad others are enjoying it too! Funny to hear about you pulling too many mobs — that’s what soulstones are for — to see how crazy we can be and save us the run back! My friend and I ride on his elephant, see how many we can pull and after the smoke clears see if we are still standing and count up the dead :).

By: bigbearbutt

bigbearbutt — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 16:20:10 +0000

And when that day comes, I shall be loving life even more. :)

By: tithian

tithian — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 07:27:09 +0000

You know how Destruction underperforms currently?

Well, it’s supposed to be the top dps spec for warlocks in 5.2, due to all the buffs. Just saying.

By: Wylset

Wylset — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 17:13:59 +0000

Hey BB;

Thanks for posting these updates about your adventures as a lock. I’ve been an altoholic since the 1st week I played in Vanilla, and have always had a soft spot in my heart for my affliction warlocks. Was always under the impression of ‘yeah, neat stuff, but I’ve got a mage if I want to cast stuff that goes boom as soon as it hits’. In MoP, it’s been Affliction with a Blueberry for my horde and alliance locks, unfortunately I levelled them before you started posting about your Demon fun.

The other night my guild needed a fill in dps for MSV, so I took my lock. Been running heroics and scenarios, doing my affliction thing, being satisfied at putting out numbers that are decent enough. Unfotunately, with the movement and helping make raid calls I was losing track of my dots in MSV. I use classtimers as well as weak auras, so it keeps me on track, but I was still futzing around and just not feeling comfy like I have in years past.

Now, thanks to you I’m going to give Destro a shot and see if that’ll be the hand-in-glove experience that you had. I’m hoping so, because I always enjoyed the lock as it’s one of my go-to toons whenever I need a break from tanking, healing or huntering.

Keep up the great blogging, been following it for some time now. Thanks!

By: Thelandira/Sheeturself

Thelandira/Sheeturself — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 16:16:41 +0000

My little, female gnome Warlock was the first toon I ever created…and it’s precisely for the reason you described above…but with added “goodi-ness” (yes, I just said that). Picture in your mind the cackling, madness fun you are having coming from a little, female gnome, sans pigtails, who’s laugh is all, “tee hee hee”. I doesn’t get much more epic than that in my eyes. And her purple wings, from Dark Apothesis, are the cutest things ever…I tend to stay in that form probably more often than I should.

I hadn’t played my Warlock for some time. But, when you started talking about how much fun you were having, I decided to see what the hub-bub about the Pandaria changes were all about. Let me tell you, I have been having a blast!!

My chosen specs have been Demo & Dest pretty much her entire existence. I did give Aff a go back in Cata and enjoyed it some.

Leveling as Demo was a breeze. I will admit that I got a little cocky after a while and ended up killing myself a few times by pulling too many mobs. But, after seeing that I could handle 7-8 vermin, at level, in Valley of the Four Winds can you blame me? I barely survived pulls like that on my Prot Pally and Blood DK when I was leveling them there.

I’ve been chain running scenarios, for gear upgrades, as Dest and have been having as much fun as I did leveling in Demo. Both specs fit me well and I doubt I’ll be changing that any time soon.

By: Classy

Classy — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 15:31:32 +0000

Wow, I am loving my hunter just as much as you are loving your lock!

By: Kemonojin

Kemonojin — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 04:19:43 +0000

Heh. I never pvp’d much, but wanted the white wolf. So I got into it on my druid and hated it. Then a friend dragged me into Arathi Basin on my affliction warlock, back in BC. I ended up holding the farm by myself against eventually six of the other team, with siphon life and drain life. I wasn’t doing enough damage to kill any one of them, despite keeping them all dotted up, but I was such a pain in the ass that it eventually took seven of them to kill me and in that process my team captured everything else. About the only time I’ve ever actually enjoyed pvp.

By: shelly

shelly — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 02:33:23 +0000

Outlined in this post you have pointed out the exact reason I hate the question, “which spec is the best for my class?”
a seemingly innocent enough question that depends almost completely on your own play style (for normal folks, which if you ask the question you automatically become)

By: Daraxis

Daraxis — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 23:26:00 +0000

There is very little that compares to the delight of generating that “FWOOMF!” sound when 10 incinerates arc out in a fiery cone in front of you.

I spend most of my time imagining my ‘lock just cackling non-stop while setting more things on fire.

By: Jem

Jem — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 23:00:27 +0000

I’m an affliction lock, always have been, most likely always will be, and I find it amusing it is the current flavour of the month spec (PvE wise) after soon long. But it is definitely not for everyone. It’s a lot of fiddling around, and conceptually it is more about the slow death. I was worried about the MoP changes because I hate channelled spells, and the other two specs have gone too far from the kind of caster I enjoy. I’m not a melee fan and destro has never been my cup of tea. If I want that play style I have a mage. MoP destro is a pretty good rework for a spec that ended up having more things to watch than affliction in Cata. I can deal with the channelling if there is plenty of movement, so I’m now someone who loves heavy movement fights.

However, I’m really pleased that the class has enough diversity in playstyle that it can suit entirely different people. I don’t tend to recommend affliction to someone who just wants to have fun, because quite often the whole “omg I’m on fire and have you seen chaos bolt?!?” thing is just what people are looking for.

Oh, always have a SS up and a healthstone in your bags. Always. You never know when you’re going to come across something big, tough and nasty and you feel like finding out what loot it drops.

Hubby returning from being afk in BC: Why is there the corpse of an elite spider on my toon?
Me: I was bored, you were gone for a while.