Treesh,May 24 2005, 05:40 PM Wrote:That's not a warlock thing. That's solely dependent on the player.
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Though players do have this option, let's look at the classes and what they're effective at. I believe Warlocks are in a position natural to dissecting the entire battlefield.
Rogue: Their combo points are lost when losing targets (bug). Reguardless, combo points only apply toward one target at a time. They do a lot pre-battle, in and out of stealth, will stun lock a target or two at a time, or silence with kicks, effectively shutting down a caster or stun-lockable target. If there's a runner (to casters or away from the battle), they'll stun, finish, or crippling poison them, but that takes a few hits as it doesn't usually proc immediately. They're single target specialists, focusing a lot of power and moves at one target time. Top three rogue qualities seem to be damage, interrupts, and personal survival, but all focused on one target.
Targets engaged: 1.5, one main one occassionally sapped/stunned
Warrior: They make and hold down the line, controlling several enemies through watching their rage, skill timers, and their healer's mana bar. They've got a lot of survival, melee range buff and debuff techniques and interrupts. Lot of survival tricks, but they're focused on staying alive. Warriors bring order to the battle, they're the hub at which everything revolves. Their role is focused at holding the line and damage mitigation becoming eye of a hurricane.
Targets engaged: All melee range, and occasional runner.
Mage: Single target, one poly, counterspell, AoE, remove curse. Occassionally detect magic if the party leader asks for it. Focus on 2 targets at any given time. One to pull, and keep silenced or poly'ed, and a dps target or group target for aoe. Removes curses if very attentive, or reads chat mid battle after yelled at. Generally try not to aggro most targets, and FF with the main assist's target. Mages have wonderful single ranged and aoe damage, but only focuses on the main target single or group, plus a sheeped target.
Targets engaged: 2.5 Damage, CC, curse removal.
Priest: Healing, dispels party, and less often MC/Shackle duties. Generally doesn't pay attention to mobs at all.
Targets engaged: 4.5 Mostly the MT warrior. Very rarely the enemy with dispel/mc/shackle and mind blast if there's nothing else. Doesn't usually pay attention to own health bar.
Druid:Usually ends up playing healer role i.e. priest, but may engage single target, multi target (non aoe) through moonfire, tanking, stealth and damage roles. However, as dots render cc options unusable and uses a debuff slot, moonfire spam is recommended to targets already engaged and when debuff slots aren't conserved (PvP cp harvesting comes to mind). When in cat form, druids will track humanoids. How often cat form becomes used is dependent on the party and instance. Curse removal also available, and not to be forgotten with an attentive druid or party leader.
Targets engaged: Party + 1. Humanoid patrol tracking in cat form.
Shaman: Totem, shock timing, and mana management is key. Earth shock interrupts casting, totems can do mob or party appropriate buffs, or interfere with what the party is trying to achieve. Windfury is great for warriors, but stops rogue crippling poison. Agility is better for a warrior/rogue mix. Fire Nova totems are good for trash mobs, but interfere with CC options like freeze trap, poly, charm and gouge. Their shocks are aggro heavy, which is a blessing or a curse. If aggro is too early, mobs might be on the shaman too fast, if too late it'll pop a CC. Done just right, shocks will steal aggro off priests, frost shock slow and finish runners, and spellcast silence pull when appropriate. All totems and shocks are very mana costly and come on timers. Shamans have powerful fighting juice, but not much of it over time. They play an off-healing role in general. They will heal, but only if designated such toward certain or all targets at the start or if primary healer falls.
Targets engaged: 1 or Party. Single or AoE damage or Party healing.
Paladin: Can't judge. I've neither played as or alongside paladins long enough to assess their skills. I can only imagine they tank, and play the healer/buffer role shamans, and with tricks unique to paladins like Divine intervention and aura of concentration.
Hunters: Ideally, a hunter keeps track of many targets on their radar, priority targets with hunter's mark and is always watchful of incoming mobs. He will ping your minimap and shout when there are incoming. Freeze trap may or may not be used in varying forms of success. Feign death best used in opening manuevers next to main tank. Do not FD near healers, otherwise healers may become next main target. Also note, hunters should not aggro steal onto themselves. Best not to venom sting dot everything either.
Mid-battle, best in back lines nearish healers or other casters. Good perspective on entire battle.
Targets engaged: 3.5 Single target, Freeze trapped, cat target, marked/tracked targets, and sTarget wing clipped enemies.
Warlock: Oh boy. Warlocks are in a position to engage everything.
Pet ability targets (when demon pet out):
-Voidwalker Aggro theft on runners and off tanking
-Succubus Charm/Mezzing on pre-established targets, and charm intercept on mobs approaching healers.
-Felhunter spell lock pull / interrupt
-Felhunter devour magic on enemy buffs and allies magic debuffs every 10 seconds (8 second cooldown)
-Demon attack target
Fear-lock if applicable
Banish & Enslaved target if applicable
Curses (instant) on everything nailed down by warriors and rogues.
Corruption (instant) on all non CC-able targets.
In order to maximize utility without stepping on toes, a warlock must switch around targets checking first which targets are being CC'ed, and which aren't. Which are being engaged, which targets are coming out of CC, which are approaching the healer, and match curses/dots/cc/other skills to the appropriate target. Sapped and sheeped targets may be cursed once battle has commenced (though at risk to warlock).
Dots draw aggro slowly (delayed +3 seconds before Corruption activates and Doom takes a full minute before major aggro happens), but interfere with CC options and curses have low static aggro. Pets are always a +1 target to draw attention to.
My druid friend Grendel is used to multiple forms of engagement, and uses a lot of his hotbar buttons as a result... but when I got him to enjoy a warlock to a moderate level 30's or so. He noted and teased me, "Why didn't you warn me you use up all your interface buttons as a warlock. Absolutely all of them."
Targets Engaged: All. Single, Multi, AoE, debuff, and party.
All those targets kept tracked of and engaged. Warlock can easily become the most complicated class with so many skills and targets types.
However, because warlock needs to constantly check all targets to assign appropriate use of their skills, he's in a better position to assess the battle. The only unnatural checkup is watching the healer's mana. Honestly, my warlock don't even have to watch his own mana bars most of the time. They'll simply life tap and life drain when low.
Other classes, they have their areas of focus but their skills do not lead toward watching all targets. Warlock skills lend toward spreading attention between mutiple targets in solo and group play in their class careers.
This awareness is not player based created. Warlock skills lend themselves towards watching the entirety of the battle, controlling its flow, and functioning as a living fighting organism sharing aggro, health, mana, damage, and powers between the warlock and his pet. The warlock is an advanced tactical class and has a lot of utility options to approach a problem.
For example: if a runner approaches a priest, I may fear, charm, aggro steal to myself, aggro steal with pet with melee, attack single or multi target aoe skills, banish/enslave, attack to kill, snare (curse of exhaustion, if I have it), or debuff (with a zillion variants) all depending on the situation. What to do what to do...
Direct damage, Delayed damage, backloaded damage dots, enhance magic damage, crits, channeled lightsabre drains, AoE. I'll pull a rabbit out of my WL genie hat too.