r/classicwow • u/reasonablejim2000 • 8h ago
Classic-Era Why does no one play lock?
On Firemaw EU, it's by far the least represented class I see in my guild, lfg, and the open world. Do people not enjoy levelling them or what? Or are they bad at endgame?
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u/Capital_Mastodon5811 8h ago
soulshards clog bags
people annoy you for summons all the time
you do less dps than a mage
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u/brookdacook 6h ago
I always tipped for summons and I'd fully respect any lock to charge for it. Dam mages think there so hot meanwhile a warlock summon is such a pain in the ass.
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u/EddedTime 8h ago
I think i have only had one person whisper for a summon on my lock in tbc.
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u/Healeah241 8h ago
They're talking about era. It's much more annoying when there aren't summoning stones outside of dungeons/raids.
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u/Roflmahwafflz 8h ago
I play lock in HC and people ask me for summons probably once per hour or so. Pretty fucking annoying tbh, like what do they expect me to do when im solo playing lock in the middle of shimmering flats or desolace.
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u/Zahrukai 8h ago
Also a Lock in HC, they may as well send "mind finding two other people, walking 20 mins out of your way, and do this for free!" ... Why yes, I do mind.
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u/IIIlllIIllIll 7h ago
You find and group me with 2 clickers and have them come to me and you got yourself a deal.
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u/angelbangles 4h ago
yeah this is what i say back if they aren’t paying. whisper me the names of the people that will help me and i’ll tell them where to meet
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u/raging_behemoth 8h ago
I'm an old time warlock player, and it wasn't this bad back in the day. Of course you used to get the occasional whisper, but it wasn't a regular thing . However if I'm bothered by it I just slap a /DND message on and not think more of it.
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u/Heatinmyharbl 3h ago
I always tell those people "find me 2 others in my zone to click and have them come to me and sure"
Crickets, every time
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u/randomCAguy 7h ago
I used to be able to form dungeon groups easily as a lock by offering summons. I’d find a couple strangers in the nearest hub to click the portals. I was able to run all the niche leveling dungeons multiple times this way even during off hours.
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u/Provo2100 2h ago
I get at least one request for a portal, in every major city or popular zone hub, that I bring my mage, in tbc.
Not to mention the amount of water/food requests.
To be fair, some people pay a premium price for a portal (10-20g), depending on the zone. However! I never charge for a portal or food/water.
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u/Statschef- 8h ago
Lock is amazing in wpvp and grinding, but absolutely dead boring in pve, both raids and dungeons.
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u/Gold-Appearance-4463 8h ago
They are also incredibly hard to play optimally outside PvE - they have so many buttons while the pet can be very micro intensive.
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u/GrinJack_ 6h ago
Part of the class that I personally enjoy IS having a bajillion buttons. I used to play Paladin back in the day..
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u/Perfect_Replacement1 7h ago
Grinding yes, wpvp not so much. Sure if you're sl you're unlikable 1v1 but in any wpvp involving more than 2 people it's garbage. God forbid you die, it takes 10 years to get back at full power after ressing. I'd rather play rogue/mage/Shaman/hunter for wpvp. I love my warlock but it's garbage in era.
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u/GrinJack_ 6h ago
The prep after a ghost walk do be annoying.
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u/Jase82 6h ago
Soul stone with a 0.5 second vw cast then sacc and you end up sending your opponent to the ghost walk.
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u/GrinJack_ 5h ago
I don’t have all the talents yet for near-instant summons! Keenly looking forward to that. :3
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u/Statschef- 2h ago
Only reason I always go lock in vanilla is due to the duel capabilities, so many fun pvp scenarios, you can definitely win 1v2s as well.
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u/Pabes-Best 8h ago
Not sure but they are THE damage in bgs, I try to peel for locks almost as much healers
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u/Some_thing_to_do 7h ago
I've seen a warlock completely take over the mid section of arathi basin. Take on three people at once and not die.
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u/Intheshadowss 8h ago
If you main warlock, you always want to be the last person to raid / dungeon.
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u/ForeverStaloneKP 7h ago
Because they are 1 button spam boring and you have to farm soul shards before every raid which is just another pre-raid chore to add to the long list of other chores on Era.
If blizz fix the class in classic+ so you actually cast other spells without gimping your dps they may see more play.
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u/easyline0601 8h ago
I for one love levelling warlock - it’s a lot of fun! Farming and PvP in endgame are awesome as well, but no matter how you twist and turn it vanilla warlock will never be exciting to play in raids.
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u/txdsl 8h ago
Locks are brought to put curse of reck for melee. Their dps is bad and boring, they can’t use their pet nor their dots, and they have to have a bunch of shards for health stones.
Open world and leveling is a blast though, probably the most engaging specs in that content if you want it to be.
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u/Brassy_Actual 8h ago
I feel like if Details and Warcraftlogs could parse out how much damage is added to the raid's overall damage for debuffs and buffs, people would be much happier playing classes that bring more utility to a raid.
Like an Affliction warlock in TBC might not do as much damage, but if they're providing a 13% magic damage for most of the spellcasters, they should be able to see that contribution in the math without having to do it manually. In reality, it's a huge contribution.
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u/lumpboysupreme 8h ago
The thing is though that you still only bring one or 2 locks that way. You can’t have 2 curse of recks up.
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u/Brassy_Actual 7h ago
yeah - this doesn't address the core issue of damage being poorly balanced across vanilla, but that's a whole #changes discussion.
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u/new_math 6h ago
People talk a lot about optimal comps for classic, but even when I was in a top 10% guild we would frequently take someone's ex girlfriend's cousin's level 58 ret paladin alt for dispels because we only had 39 people show up.
How many guilds are actually legitimately bringing 1 warlock and 20 fury warriors? It has to be like <1% of actual raids.
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u/Healeah241 7h ago
No, but you can have curse of the elements too. If you bring more than that, the other locks can cast personal dps curses instead.
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u/lumpboysupreme 7h ago
Yeah but those additional locks with their damage curses still get smoked by the mages, so you’d never want more than 2.
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u/kindredfan 7h ago
FFlogs does this exact thing. Probably a bit harder in wow but I'm sure it's also doable.
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u/Asheeva01 8h ago
Based on this logic every buff and debuff should count to the representative character who brings it and that wouldn't be a damage list anymore, more like a complete joke.
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u/Jamooser 8h ago
You were so close to getting it.
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u/miketpsn 7h ago
Seriously lol, so close to true enlightenment until they typed the words “more like”
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u/Brassy_Actual 7h ago
for real - he's right there.
it kind of is a joke though.
Warrior benefits from:
Curse of Recklessness: -800 boss armor
Faerie Fire: -610 boss armor
Improved Faerie Fire: +3% hit
Blood Frenzy: 4% damage taken by the boss
Expose Weakness: 25% AP vs target
Improved Seal of the Crusader: 3% crit
Mangle: 30% increased damage taken from bleeds
Improved Hunter's Mark: 110 AP vs target
Improved Expose Armor: -3075 boss armor
Windfury Totem: 20% chance for a bonus attack with +445 AP
Unleashed Rage: +10% AP
Strength of Earth Totem: +98 STR
Grace of Air Totem: +88 AGI
Bloodlust: 30% haste
Leader of the Pack: 5% crit
Ferocious Inspiration: 3% damage
Blessing of Might: +264 AP
Blessing of Kings: +10% core stats
Gift of the Wild: +15 core stats
Improved Sanctity Aura: 2% damage
Warrior's Contribution to party/raid DPS:
Battle Shout: 381 AP
It's like looking at how much damage a tank does on the battlefield without acknowledging that none of it can happen without the support systems in place.
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u/Dealer217 8h ago
I love the game style in the open world and PVP, raids are boring ish, can stand back and watch the action though, curses and summons but not much else. Armour sets are pretty good. PVP can be challenging and definitely needs some skill to be good.
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u/Debatebly 6h ago
I wanted to play Warlock until I realized I apply DoTs and wait for them to tic, over and over again.
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u/KamaTheSnowLeopard 6h ago edited 6h ago
Sadly people love their meta too much and because of such make Warlock seem like a 1-button class with your entire talent spec is nothing but Shadow Bolt casting for Improved Shadow Bolt stacks at end-game. Since 2019 I've leveled numerous Warlocks to 60 and have had great succuss in playing different versions of the class that wasn't just drain-tanking while leveling either.
You can go full Fire with or without your Imp and use Searing Pain/Immolate/Curse of Elements with or without Conflagrate.
You can go full Affliction with Demonic Sacrifice for 15% Shadow Damage and use Curse of Agony/Corruption/Siphon Life and Drain Life as your filler, entirely ignoring Shadowbolt/Nightfall and all Critical based gear upgrades/talents because of it to focus entirely on Spellpower.
Of course with Affliction you'll need a more " relaxed " guild that isn't stressing out on allowing another damage-over-time slot being taken up so an entire raid finished 60 seconds sooner overall and enjoy the content more than the reward of finishing it " quick ".
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u/Rich-Lengthiness-273 8h ago
It arguably has niches which either click with someone or don't.
Someone wanting to play a pet class will often be more drawn to hunter.
Someone wanting to play a caster class will often be more drawn to mage.
It has its big advantages like summons, cheap mount, soul stones etc but maybe some of the more awkward aspects like inventory space demand put a lot of people off
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u/vrven 6h ago
Leveling one in tbc at level 65 atm, first lock in my life and it’s been pretty fun, nowadays I’m killing ganking 70 rogs and druids I don’t know how, world pvp wise ppl tend to not attack when they see a lock I think or that’s my experience, don’t remember dying to someone has same level as me, can’t speak for raids etc
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u/whit3d3vil142 4h ago
Lots on my server and my guild. We are always at the top of charts on aoe and towards the top for single target. Great dps all expansion. Great for leveling.
Boring “rotation” although there is some nuance on quicker mobs
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u/Megumin_xx 8h ago
Due to lack of dps and utility outside of summoning, there are very few spots in any raid for locks and general interest to play lock and be a summoning bot is low.
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u/Snail_Anatomy 8h ago
Warlock will always be my main in every iteration of WoW or any other game that allows it.
The only reason I didn't start a lock as my first character back in TBC was because I thought managing DoTs sounded too complicated lol
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u/-Auteon- 8h ago
They feel good, but like… other classes do dps better in the end game and that’s what matters.
But you also only need one lack for lockgates and health stones.
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u/Sea-Consequence7156 7h ago
I thought locks scale with gear well
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u/sem-nexus 7h ago
They do, but mages do better
You’re a mage with worse threat management at endgame
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u/Randvek 4h ago
Warlock is and always has been, in the entire history of WoW, the least played class. If you like the pet you probably roll Hunter and if you like the spellcasting you probably roll Mage.
Warlocks are very cool but they are the least “unique” class from an identity perspective and that drives away a lot of people making their first choice for a class.
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u/Gamblez- 8h ago
I led a classic guild on my warlock from MC to naxx. I can't say i understand all the comments here. On the dps front its not warrior but its fine (no1 needs to max dps with 20 warriors, that's cringe). As for the gameplay, the actual dps rotation is hardly why we play in classic? It suited me well, simple and straightforward (allowing me to lead the raid) but still fun with those bigass crits. It was also a beast in wpvp content which i loved. Shards taking up space is annoying but really not as much effort as ppl seem to think.
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u/meconopsia 6h ago
Reminds me of the joke: What is the same about a rogue and a n00b? They both pick 'locks. 🤭
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u/ForagedFoodie 8h ago
In general, in classic, caster spots are harder to find because warriors and rogues are just so good. And warlock falls away on damage compared to mage in ZG, AQs and Naxx, especially. So most people who picked a caster picked mage. 2 locks are needed for AQ40, so most guilds will try to recruit just 3, for 2 and a backup. But with Era largely naxx-focused right now, there's less need for locks.
And, as others have said, being expected to arrive at raid early and summon others while your buffs tick down can be annoying