Scoop! Leaked notes at least partially accurate!

[Drasca]

Seduce is one of those things that's less reliable on paper, but works out more or less the same in practice.  As long as you don't try pulling with it, the difference between it and poly is really negligible, in my experience.  I've done virtually every instance in the game multiple times with a warlock, and seduce has never been of less value than poly.
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Then our experiences have been different. In my experience, that one hit after popping out of seduce is sometimes enough to kill the pet and thereby ending the seduce capabilities. Or seduce, one hit, seduce, break, another hit, die. Whereas poly lasts longer, and can be pre-buffed. This breaking & havoc is most often in Dire Maul north.

Seduce is no less valuable, but its definitely riskier imo.

[Drasca]

Then, it's perhaps warlocks or rogues.  Warlocks are much farther down the list, because they don't heal but often have a boatload of health, which makes them annoying to kill.
Priest fear is dispellable.  It also has a short range and a long cooldown time, unlike warlock fear that can be chain cast from a distance.
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Over here, warlocks have been #1 target because we have no instant defense. If a priest is ambushed, he can spam psychic scream until out of stunlock... actually, in one situation vs alliance in ST, the rogue preferred to engage me thinking I was an easy target. Not with my demonology Soul link out. My party behind me made short work of them as I took all their damage and dished damage out. The unexpected is our best weapon.

Priests tend to have no trouble running through a crowd and spamming psychic scream due to instant. If it were even .1 second cast, you would not be able to do this, running or standing still (interrupts).

I've never seen psychic scream dispelled, or go less than full duration, where fear's always been resisted/broken early by various means. Lasting 2 second for a sometimes 4-6 second cast off a non-undead that costs more than priest's psychic scream is not worth it.

[Drasca]

Well, hunters can't change pets without returning to town, and their pets do jack in a group besides maybe die on the boss and contribute a little dps.[right][snapback]73577[/snapback][/right]

I've seen pets tank or dps. Switching pets in town, where its safe, is not a huge deal. Trying to summon pets in the wild while enemies are pounding are you, is suicide.

I don't see what the issue is.

Because you have no clue how time consuming shards take. How would you like it if there were no meat/fruit/fish vendors? You had to farm all the food for your pet's happiness. Sure meat stacks, which makes it a helluva lot easier, but add the additional restrictions of casting a low dps spell as your enemy dies, and the mob has to give you experience. So, at 60, 48+ enemies only. Add the additional restriction that you need meat any time you want to play with your pet, you have to fly from azhsara from Ogrimmar (not familiar with Alliance flight paths). Or how about you cannot fill your ammo except by looting? Hmm? You'll feel differently if you cannot have the 'quick recharge' as you do by just going to a vendor, and whistling your pet.

Rogues are limited by energy, warriors have to generate rage.

Nope. They aren't. Swiftthisle tea, and rage potions, both easily obtainable. But even necessary really, as it comes back in-battle. That doesn't apply for warlocks. We burn our soul shards? Out of luck. There was a 'soul power' bar generated by soul drain suggested, and a lot of folk would love that, but that's not how it works now. You cannot generate soul shards as you can energy, combo points, or rage in battle.

Many individuals to form a greater whole by contributing fractions of their potential.

Weren't you guys chastised for abusing your class board admin?

Whitewashing the glaring imbalances, and red herring. Blah blah blah. Don't give me that everyone has a role blind ignorance. It doesn't apply PvP. Roles are thrown out the door. Sure you'll still see priests healing, but you'll also see them transforming to shadowform under attack and suddenly blasting everything around them. The most and fastest adaptable win.

With long preperation times, the longest cooldowns, and backloaded damage, warlocks are starving for such adaptability. It takes at least a minute to gain one soul shard in ideal conditions (battle 30 seconds / eat/drinking 30 seconds). Add 5 minutes travel time each way to and from farming areas on top of that.

It takes a base 10 seconds to summon a pet, which is easily worth more than the 20% of our damage it gives us. How would you like to be unable to even use even watered-down spells against an enemy that has no preperation requirement? The existence of a summonable pet is the justification for watered-down spells, not soul shards. Long summoning times because we get 4 different pets to choose from? ok. Fine. Add a reagent that takes 15 minutes to get, and seconds to burn? and is required by all of the above?! That means no pet, and water-ed down spells that can't even be cast. Our offensive and defensive power is cut down greatly. A warlock without shards is a warlock gimped. No shards? There goes our spells. No pet? There goes easily 20% of damage, plus many offensive and defensive options.

Our class board admin totally ignores us, gives us nil in concent when he does answer, and openly plays a mage as his main and preferred class. Anyone who does half a whit of digging shows he gives "I love mage" detailed posts on the mage forums, and redundant robotic like responses stating various broken talents are working as intended, ignore core issues with the warlock, and is simply absent in the warlock forums as a participator.

[kandrathe]

...
A request; stop looking at a soulshard as a punishment and view it as an additional "resource" that needs to be attended to. While I admit shards can be a pain in the ass, at times, they aren't exactly difficult to acquire, and that's all this bitching about shards is, whining that they make the class more difficult on some level than other classes.
...
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Just to pick one argument at a time. While my Warlock is only in her upper 20's she is already finding shard's are a PITA. Here's a recent case to highlight: She is located in Stormwind city and a Lurker on Darkshore asks if it would be possible to do a summon. "Sure" says I, having an extra shard she runs to Goldshire and humbly recruits a couple of loiterers to help with a summon. But, someone moves. Doh! I disolve the party, now what to do. Hmmm, nearest "green" mob to extract a shard from? Run off toward Darkshire, and 15 minutes later having collected 2 more (just in case), back in Goldshire to try again. Good thing too, because after spending another 20 minutes to rebuild another little party to summon another person moves and we blew another shard. All in all, I spent an hour on this endeavor. At higher levels, and certainly Lissa's level, there are fewer places you can go to find "green" mobs.

Ok, what else can I do. Make Healthstones... One at a time. So, take your usual party of 5. 5 shards where you burn the stone, a bunch of mana, and you can make one, trade, drink, make one, trade, drink, etc... Meanwhile the entire party is already /bored with you.

Now, you want to make a Soulstone for your healers, hmmm, Another shard and, the creation AND life are on a timer, so if you need to supply additional Soulstones, well you'll just have to wait. I try to keep a 12 slot bag fully stocked with shards at all times, but typically its depleted midway through an instance due to stone creation and pet resummoning.

My primary is a Hunter, and in comparison, I think Lissa has a point on this one. True, Hunter pets are currently limited in the range of skills they have, but Blizzard IS addressing that. Maintenance of Hunter pets is very easy, as is dismissing and resummoning.

[Treesh]

Ok, what else can I do.  Make Healthstones...  One at a time.  So, take your usual party of 5.  5 shards where you burn the stone, a bunch of mana, and you can make one, trade, drink, make one, trade, drink, etc...  Meanwhile the entire party is already /bored with you.[right][snapback]73590[/snapback][/right]

So make a stone, life tap a bit, make a stone, life tap some more. Much quicker than drinking in between and if you have a healer in the group, have them throw a renew on you after the first life tap. Speed things up for everyone. And if they're so bored with you making healthstones, they obviously haven't been around warlocks much and haven't seen how handy that stone can be when things go really wrong.

Now, you want to make a Soulstone for your healers, hmmm,  Another shard and, the creation AND life are on a timer, so if you need to supply additional Soulstones, well you'll just have to wait.  I try to keep a 12 slot bag fully stocked with shards at all times, but typically its depleted midway through an instance due to stone creation and pet resummoning. 
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If you are in an instance (and not just zerging it), replenish the shards along the way. If you're zerging it, you shouldn't need tons of shards anyway. You will usually have other DPS classes along so it's not a long wait between the time you soul drain and the time it dies. Oh, and two warlocks can both get a shard from the same critter so you don't even have to compete with other warlocks in the group. Yes, it's not as simple as just buying and stocking up ammo or food for the hunter pet, but it's not nearly as difficult as many warlocks try to make it. I always try to log out with at least 6 shards with my warlocks so that I can summon and stone right at the start of my play session (I only keep six at logout because my warlocks either solo mostly or just group with GG so I don't need to have enough for an entire party at the start of the play session.)


And of course, I will definitely say that you need to be able to restock your shards through PvP play. That is a legitimate gripe of warlocks.

[Zippyy]

Just picked up Doom 3 (yeah, old news, bite me). Been playing it in the dark.

Thanks for the laugh, I might be able to sleep now.
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Doom 3: $49.99

4:00 AM: Priceless

Total darkness: Priceless

FULL volume: LOUD!

Adrenaline rush when cat jumps on the back of my chair: AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Skandranon]

Because you have no clue how time consuming shards take. How would you like it if there were no meat/fruit/fish vendors?

This is reminiscent of a lot of warlock complaints that I see. "We have five times the capability of any other class...but damn it, soulshards are annoying!" I'd accept that drawback for warlocks' versatility any time.

With long preperation times, the longest cooldowns, and backloaded damage, warlocks are starving for such adaptability. It takes at least a minute to gain one soul shard in ideal conditions (battle 30 seconds / eat/drinking 30 seconds). Add 5 minutes travel time each way to and from farming areas on top of that.

I agree with you that warlocks need some PvP attention. However, Blizzard has to do this while holding the line on, or even scaling back, warlocks' PvE dominance.

The dichotomy in this case is between the ease of acquiring shards in PvE and the inability to do so in PvP. You can't seriously argue that getting shards is a hassle in group instance play, PvE. On all the initial trash pulls you can pick up a shard on each one if you want, and I see many warlocks do.

With warlocks, you get great single-target DPS, a pet (which can be offtank, CC, or just provide a huge stamina buff), healthstones, the best wipe recovery in the game in both soulstones and summoning, and AoE damage in one package. No PvE party can afford to go without this.

I've said it often before, but I'll say it again here. The only reason mages still get high-level groups is because most high-level players have no idea what a warlock can do. Even that's changing: in IF General I've seen far more "LF Warlock" calls...as well as "Mage LFG".

Our class board admin totally ignores us, gives us nil in concent when he does answer, and openly plays a mage as his main and preferred class. Anyone who does half a whit of digging shows he gives "I love mage" detailed posts on the mage forums, and redundant robotic like responses stating various broken talents are working as intended, ignore core issues with the warlock, and is simply absent in the warlock forums as a participator.
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On the one hand, I agree Eyonix should be more responsive. On the other hand, I do think the mage class needs more attention than the warlock class. Warlocks are useful...right now. All of the issues are annoyances. The mage's problems are far more than just annoyances, as are those of hunters and paladins, at least. And to be honest, the mage got even less help than warlocks did in the patch (plus some significant nerfing to frost).

Oh, and Eyonix hasn't exactly appeared on the mage forums in the last month, either.

[kandrathe]

Granted, all the shard gripes are overcomable. They are still gripes.

[MongoJerry]

Over here, warlocks have been #1 target because we have no instant defense. If a priest is ambushed, he can spam psychic scream until out of stunlock... actually, in one situation vs alliance in ST, the rogue preferred to engage me thinking I was an easy target. Not with my demonology Soul link out. My party behind me made short work of them as I took all their damage and dished damage out. The unexpected is our best weapon.

Priests are *always* the #1 target, because of how deadly they are with their heals/dispells if you don't attack them first. Priests can only psychic scream something in melee range. All ranged dps is going right at the priest, and even melee characters will often try to get a few hits in to get the job done fast. I think you just think you're the #1 target, because you're not seeing what else is going on around you. If I saw a group try to attack a warlock in my party before me, I'd laugh my head off, because warlocks tend to have as much health as a warrior, plus they have soulstones and all that health linkage stuff they have with their pets. They might not have the armor that a warrior has, but they make a decent tank to heal in a pinch, while the rest of my party takes out their healers. And, jeez, mages are made of paper mache. They are so dead long before people even think of dealing with warlocks.

[mjdoom]

Over here, warlocks have been #1 target because we have no instant defense. If a priest is ambushed, he can spam psychic scream until out of stunlock... actually, in one situation vs alliance in ST, the rogue preferred to engage me thinking I was an easy target. Not with my demonology Soul link out. My party behind me made short work of them as I took all their damage and dished damage out. The unexpected is our best weapon.
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Just because you have run into a foolish rogue doesn't mean everyone else has the same problem.

Priests tend to have no trouble running through a crowd and spamming psychic scream due to instant. If it were even .1 second cast, you would not be able to do this, running or standing still (interrupts).
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If you want to do this you better have 3 (or more priests). Psychic Scream does have a cooldown. Spamming it is not an option and as MJ points out its range is very limited. It is also limited to 3 targets as opposed to the 5 of piercing howl. For a priest to run into melee range (especially of more than 3 targets) to get a scream off is potential suicide which has now depleted your party of a healer.

I've never seen psychic scream dispelled, or go less than full duration, where fear's always been resisted/broken early by various means. Lasting 2 second for a sometimes 4-6 second cast off a non-undead that costs more than priest's psychic scream is not worth it.
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If you don't want to dispel it that is your prerogative. But both Scream and Fear can be resisted or dispelled by the exact same means. To try to draw any conclusions of one vs. the other based on fear immunity or dispelability (is that even a word?) is simply ignorance. I don't know how calculations are done for the spells potentially breaking early so I can't comment specifically about that, but if it does break early at least you have the option to refear a target (a limited number of times now) while we are still waiting for our cooldown to run out.

- mjdoom

[MongoJerry]

If you want to do this you better have 3 (or more priests).  Psychic Scream does have a cooldown.  Spamming it is not an option and as MJ points out its range is very limited.  It is also limited to 3 targets as opposed to the 5 of piercing howl. 

Actually, at higher ranks, you can get up to five. However, it's rare that a party stands close enough to be feared all at once. I've done the "run forward and fear" thing, but it's usually just to disrupt a couple of players on the opposing side so that my party can focus on killing the other team's healers.

I came back to add to what I said before. The way people kill priests quickly in group situations is with stuns. It's usually a charge combined with tons of ranged dps. Or perhaps a rogue will stun the priest or hit an already stunned priest for 1.5k damage coming out of stealth. If a priest's stunned, all those tricks that you think make priests invincible are worthless, and we're as much paper mache as all other casters. I've often been hit by a charge followed by a mortal strike while being pelted by a mage and/or hunter. When I come out of the stun, sure I can phychic scream the warrior away, but then my health has fallen enough that the ranged dps kills me before I can heal myself. That's just the life of a priest in a group situation.

And if they don't do that to me, well they're idiots and will lose, because I'll heal and dispell stuff on my party, and debuff and distribute SW:Pain's on their party. Like I said, if someone's attacking my party's warlock instead of me, I'm smiling, because I know my party will win.

[bonemage]

Only comments I have are that I've heard fire protection potions do nothing to stop Hellfire damage, but I could be wrong about it.  It's only hearsay.
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In my experience, the potions work just fine. However, it's about 1 pot per cast.

A paladin's shield will protect you from enemy's attacks, but not from your own hellfire damage. This may vary depending on if it' applied before or after casting starts. vor_lord and I haven't fully tested it. It was also a previous version of the game we tried this under, so things could be different now. It was a preemptive cast, so the shield was up prior to me starting my cast, if memory serves.

[mjdoom]

Actually, at higher ranks, you can get up to five.  However, it's rare that a party stands close enough to be feared all at once.  I've done the "run forward and fear" thing, but it's usually just to disrupt a couple of players on the opposing side so that my party can focus on killing the other team's healers.
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My bad. This is what happens when I don't have time to fire up the game and I just glance quickly at the thott spell listings (missing the higher ranks). Thank you for straigthening that out.

- mjdoom

[Lissa]

So, essentially, warlocks don't like that Hunters can simply call their pets whenever they "poof" without dying, and they cannot.

Wow.

Well, hunters can't change pets without returning to town, and their pets do jack in a group besides maybe die on the boss and contribute a little dps.

Imp, please, I've developed a sudden allergy to cats.

First, let's get the strawman arguement out of the way, yes, Hunter pets have no real variety, that being said, that does not make what I said untrue. A Hunter does not expend mana or time to call their pet. A Warlock, on the other hand, does expend time, mana, and a reagent to call their pets. It likewise isn't about like/dislike, it's about balance. Why must a Warlock require a reagent to call a pet when they're already expending time and mana to do so? See the problem here.

Likewise, I don't know about you, but I've seen some Hunter pets that do quite well in instances and other places. Hunter pets are probably the best off tanks in the game (I've actually had Warriors tell me to shut down growl on Lissanna's pet because they couldn't keep agro over the pet). To say that Hunter pets are useless in instances is to not seen one used properly.

So the base arguement here is, why must Warlocks expend a reagent for their pets when they already have to expend a good amount of time and mana to bring the pet into being. It's not about pet envy, it's about fairness and balance. The Warlock pets are already balanced by the fact it takes time and mana to summon them, throwing the need for a reagent is just adding a needless level of aggrivation into the situation.

Soul shards- I'll get to those later.
Can you clarify this entire arguement? I don't see what the issue is. You seem to be trying to argue that the soulshard component is excessive given that the spell is still "worse" than similar mage skills. The entire Pyroblast bit just seems to be rationalization for a talent/non talent skill comparison.

The point is, the Warlock versions of these spells are already deterimented over the Mage version by either having a lower Damage per Mana or having a longer cooldown. Why is there an additional need for a reagent to be used? Again, it's needless aggrivation to the situation.

A request; stop looking at a soulshard as a punishment and view it as an additional "resource" that needs to be attended to. While I admit shards can be a pain in the ass, at times, they aren't exactly difficult to acquire, and that's all this bitching about shards is, whining that they make the class more difficult on some level than other classes.

Imagine if some of your best powers required a reagent. Imagine that as a Rogue, in order to use things like backstab you had to first have a reagent beyond using a dagger in main hand and be behind your target and said reagent could only come from you using another skill to harvest said reagent from a green mob. Imagine you as a Warrior wanting to Battle Shout, but in order to do so, you need a reagent that you could only get from harvesting from a green mob through use of another power. Imagine you were a Priest and to cast Power Word Shield you needed a reagent that you could only get from a green mob and that you had to use a harvesting power to get it. Do you see the point now? Do you see the tedium because these powers already have a built in detriment in some way? Why must aggrivation be heeped on further? This is the question Warlock's want answered.

They are an incredibly minor impediment and give the class an additional dimension. What's the problem?

No, really, I'd love to be told what the issue is.

They don't add another dimension, they add frustration. It does not give a new dimension in anyway shape or form.

Rogues are limited by energy, warriors have to generate rage. Maybe we should get rid of those, too, afterall, none of the other classes have to deal with those limitations. They're obviously being used to "negatively balance" rogues and warriors and prevent them from being all that they could be.

And Warlocks are limited by Health/Mana AND soul shards or have you forgotten that in order for a Warlock to do anything they must either expend Health or Mana (sometimes both in the case of Hellfire). It's a needless addition that causes aggrivation it does not add depth or dimension.

Screw it, let's just pile some plate armor on a priest, hand him an axe and a gun, load up a few sapper charges and elixirs, and forget about the concept of class variation.

My Priest could so beat up your Priest.
While the debuff limit is an honest issue that deserves attention... you're kidding me with the "we become one or two trick ponies in parties" bit, right? Warlocks don't actually whine about that, right?

Do you know what the class role of the Warlock is? Do you know what the class role of the Priest is? How about the Warrior? The Mage? The Rogue? The 8 debuff limit takes away from the class role of the Warlock, that being THE Debuffer. That is the role of a Warlock in a group, to debuff and add some DPS. The role of the Warrior is to take damage and hold the attention of the mob in question. The role of the Priest is damage mitigation, buffing, and healing. The role of the mage is to be pure DPS, burst and AoE. The role of the Rogue is to be the single target DPS attacker. The role of the Shaman, Druid, and Paladin is to lend some DPS support, give some useful buffs to the group, and help mitigate damage from the party through healing. So, if you look at all the classes with the exception of the Warlock, it's all about have primary effect toward the party or doing damage while the Warlock is all about lessening the effectiveness of the mob being attacked. With the 8 debuff limit, suddenly the Warlock is thrown to just DPS and we really need to be destruction specialized to shine in this area, otherwise our DPS is mediocre at best.

Yeah, that's everyone. Many individuals to form a greater whole by contributing fractions of their potential. Welcome to the club. There's punch and snacks on the table to your right, your hazing begins at a quarter past the hour. We'll be in the back cleaning hockeysticks until then. Just shout if you need anything.

Except, as I noted above, everyone else in the party is there to help the party or lend damage support. The Warlock is there to lessen the effect of the mob and to lend damage support. You limit the effectiveness of the class when the debuffs cannot stick because everyone else is causing debuffs in someway through use of various powers.

Weren't you guys chastised for abusing your class board admin?
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Yeah, and our CM spends more time in GENERAL forum than he spends in ours. You can see him posting constantly there, but in the Mage and Warlock forums, he hasn't posted in a month and then doesn't listen to any of the constructive posts put towards him (people have pointed him time and again at Creeshinnibon's post and he ignores it even though it has a comprehensive list of issues he could go to the devs with if he just printed the first 4 posts in that thread).

[Phoenix]

Yeah, and our CM spends more time in GENERAL forum than he spends in ours.  You can see him posting constantly there, but in the Mage and Warlock forums, he hasn't posted in a month and then doesn't listen to any of the constructive posts put towards him (people have pointed him time and again at Creeshinnibon's post and he ignores it even though it has a comprehensive list of issues he could go to the devs with if he just printed the first 4 posts in that thread).

At least you have one. In Europe we have one (1) single community manager person, and he barely even posts on the General Discussion forum.

[Zarathustra]

First, let's get the strawman arguement out of the way, yes, Hunter pets have no real variety, that being said, that does not make what I said untrue.  A Hunter does not expend mana or time to call their pet.  A Warlock, on the other hand, does expend time, mana, and a reagent to call their pets.[right][snapback]73631[/snapback][/right]

I may be mistaken here, but I was under the impression it DID require mana to revive a fallen pet; a much higher portion of their total mana pool than the summoning for a Warlock, in fact.

Additionally hunters must level their pets and keep them fed well in order to maintain loyalty. A Warlock's reagent is gained by killing something. A Hunter's way to keep his pet happy is to spend some time grinding beasts for meat or spending a good hunk of change at a vendor.

I've played a Warlock a bit, and I have to say I actually enjoy the need for a reagent. It brings some flavor to the class and lends one more aspect in which it is different from a mage.

[Lissa]

I may be mistaken here, but I was under the impression it DID require mana to revive a fallen pet; a much higher portion of their total mana pool than the summoning for a Warlock, in fact.

Only when the Hunter's pet dies does the Hunter have to spend about 50% of their mana. A Hunter that watches their pet closely need never expend this mana. On the other hand, if a Hunter outruns their pet, they simply use call pet at the expense of no mana and no time and the pet is there. If a Warlock outruns their pet, they expend time, mana, and a soul shard (unless the pet is an Imp).

Additionally hunters must level their pets and keep them fed well in order to maintain loyalty.  A Warlock's reagent is gained by killing something.  A Hunter's way to keep his pet happy is to spend some time grinding beasts for meat or spending a good hunk of change at a vendor.

It's not too hard to have your pet stay within a level of you as a hunter. It is only when you turn in a large amount of quests at one time that your ep shoots up enough that the pet may fall behind by two levels. Also, the cost of meat from a vendor isn't that bad as a pet's happiness doesn't go down to badly unless they die (and if you're watching them close enough, that shouldn't happen). Since I have both a Hunter and a Warlock, I do know how both operate concerning pets and I would choose the Hunter's method over the Warlock's in a heartbeat.

I've played a Warlock a bit, and I have to say I actually enjoy the need for a reagent.  It brings some flavor to the class and lends one more aspect in which it is different from a mage.
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Once you're had your pet disappear enough time and find how little bad space you have due to the shards, you'll understand why the shards are needless for many of the things Warlocks do. It is more a frustation situation than of actual need.

[Skandranon]

Granted, all the shard gripes are overcomable.  They are still gripes.
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I don't think any denies that they are gripes and that there is a level of aggravation in Warlock play. I don't think anyone denies that these are issues that warlocks feel they need addressed.

But I'm annoyed at the "now now now" attitude of the warlock community towards changes that really don't impact game balance. I'm more concerned with giving Paladins and Hunters real group roles, especially rebalancing things like Paladin shielding (probably too much) and damage (almost certainly too little).

When I looked at the Hunter list, the majority of the items made me nod my head. "Yes," I thought. "This is an issue that needs immediate attention." Lacerate rank 3 does 133 damage over 21 seconds; this is a fully-ranked 31-point talent. Something is clearly wrong with that. Then I look at the Warlock list: "Dismounted by Daze". Wait...what?

I know most of the problems listed are bigger than that. But nothing there seemed, to me, to demand an immediate fix. Given limited developer time, I actually like the idea that lesser-priority items are being given a pass on the earlier patches.

The lone exception is the debuff limit, and that hurts mages, too, among other classes. I'd like to see immediate action on that. Otherwise...gripes should be dealt with at the time for gripes. And the current time is for significant problems.

[Drasca]

And if they don't do that to me, well they're idiots and will lose, because I'll heal and dispell stuff on my party, and debuff and distribute SW:Pain's on their party.  Like I said, if someone's attacking my party's warlock instead of me, I'm smiling, because I know my party will win.
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Same beliefs here, but I never commented how dim alliance have been on my server. Priests should be #1 priority target in group situations, however 1v1 or 2v1 (usually warriors or rogues), priests have a chance to spam the psychic scream hotkey and run away, whereas warlocks simply have no such option. Priests should be #1, but rogues consider warlocks #1 targets, especially as most are affliction and/or destruction, and not demonology. Plus, demonology warlocks actually have to get a pet out and soul link out (which is not dispelled). Ugh. Purge and dispel are actually too powerful PvP... Utterly nasty to dispel enslave before :P All risk... what reward?

Pyshic scream works as an escape option. Fear/Howl of terror does not. Only desperate warlocks use fear/howl as an escape method.

As for latest patch gripes, increased mana cost of fear wasn't the only nerf. Many stealth nerfs and bugs introduced this patch for warlocks involving fear, enslave, soul link and voidwalker sacrifice which can totally ruin the build.

[Drasca]

And the current time is for significant problems.
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Time? These problems have existed since beta. They've gone ignored.

These 'gripes' aren't just that. They're killer on a PvP server. Disppeared pet? Take forever to summon? Someone attack you on road? You're SoL. What can a hunter do if the pet isn't dead, but lost due to pathfinding/feared out of range. Whistle, and poof. Its back. What does a warlock do? Fight an uphill battle, try to run with weak snares and no instant escape skills, and a 1.5 easily interruptable fear cast that is made a mockery of by trinkets, racial abilities, fear ward, shadow resistence, beserk stance, and more . I might as well wear "Kick me, I've fallen and I can't get up" as my tabard.

I don't think blizzard will ever take out the debuff limit. It is their way of keeping enemies artificially difficult, and keep bandwidth down. . . Hence, WL's are pushed out of being the debuff class in group PvE.