MongoJerry,Jan 15 2006, 11:18 PM Wrote:Mages have all the dps advantage of warlocks without the messiness of accidentally fear kiting mobs into adds[right][snapback]99439[/snapback][/right]
Dps advantage and fear kiting don't go together. Dps advantage comes with a 'burn all' mindselt of frontloaded nukes, and the pet factor. Like hunters, we're a lot more survivable due to having useful and powerful or durable pets that we can bounce aggro off of, or add damage with, or use for special effects.
Fear kiting has steady damage, varying with the safety level of the enemy. I have three words mages are always aware of: out of mana. That's the main limiting factor. With mages, once you've perfected use of your skillset, you either need the gear for increased mana / mana efficiency, or face less challenging mobs.
The main advantage of warlock fearkiting is longevity. Steady damage, and ability to mitigate lost health and mana at a steady rate ad infinitum. A lock can wear down any fear-able or banishable enemy, via his mana and life steal/tap cycle and bandages. Battling Volchan solo is particularly fun as he stomps around, not aggroing dragons (been too long to be sure) because he's considered to be of a seperate faction. Battling those elemental fire guys in BRD 3 at a time solo is also fun. Fear one, curse of doom and banish one, pet on other to attack with. No, they do not aggro the gnomes in that room with archangel golem, but they do aggro other fire elementals. Much easier with a priest at my side, btw, but soloing three via banish, fear, pet and curse of doom is not nearly impossible
Big, really big hp enemies can be worn down by warlocks when other classes run out of health or mana... and btw, having fear resisted is only a problem for those not prepared for it. When I was in winterspring solo'ing those hederine slayers guarding the gates, I lured them out onto the hill near the bears (they spawn slowly), I had been resisted for fear plenty of times. I was prepared for that though, fearing twice in a row, and had Big Blue around for an emergency defense.
Once you realize different factions don't aggro each other, the process becomes a whole lot easier. Bats won't aggro alliance guards to you, for example. Nor can shadow trolls speak with and aggro wildkin / owlbeasts.
Yes, as everyone knows, warlocks own PvE with great versatility, either burst damaging something to death within moments (Pet attack, shadowbolt, shadowbolt, dead), or choosing to wear it down, or any other series of warlock combined firepower which make combat interesting... choosing to fight fast or slow.