Thursday, September 6, 2007

Blood Elf Warlocks in Denial

As if having every other class crying in the Warlock forums wasn't bad enough, now we've got Warlocks doing it themselves. But not just any Warlocks, Blood Elf Warlocks! What could be so possibly wrong that it would require a tissue for Warlock tears???

It's pretty much a known and accepted idea that Blood Elf Warlocks are not the ideal blend of class and racial ability. The Undead and Orc 'locks, while much more likely to cause one's eyes to fill with pus akin to an STD, are agreed to be the better selections. However, a massive number of BE Warlocks have been rolled contrary to these generally accepted facts, and a direct result of such numbers is a sense of denial that their race make for inferior Warlocks.

Take for example this thread on the Warlock forums that starts with the original poster, a BE Warlock, stating that the BE 'locks with their Arcane Torrent are better at crowd control than Undead Warlocks. True, Arcane Torrent is useful as an extra Silencing effect, which can come in very handy in the Arena environment. However, the OP overlooks one obvious issue with this line of reasoning. Just because you've got it, doesn't mean you're gonna be allowed to use it. In other words, you can't Silence if you're CC'd yourself.

'Locks are one of the most important first targets in all of PvP. As a result, they are either burned down or CC'd almost immediately upon engaging in combat and throughout an encounter. Having multiple methods (WotF + Trinket) to break varying CC's is a priceless tool, and completely out-classes Arcane Torrent in any PvP environment.

Sorry BEs. It's totally and completely true. Your racials are just not all that great for the Warlock class, in any environment. I know it's a hard reality to accept, that your hard work at leveling a toon to 70 only to realize it's not ideal is a bit in vain, but at least you're hawt and sexy, right? I mean, I'm sure that'll come in handy in 5v5, or against Mag, right? =P

Heheh, much love. Now go pwn some faces.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

true dat, i totally agree with you.
while the racial has saved us a few times on alakea's 5man, it would be better suited for a priest who would be on utility duty.

imo, the UD racials still hold top slot for me in Arena and pvp. The ability to gain a few hundred, if not 1k hp at the least can make a world of diff. taxing less of your frontload healer's mana and it can be done IN COMBAT. think about it for a sec...in min, you're unloading damage, slowly begin positioning yourself next to a dead body, then on the next CC, you hit canabalize and grab yourself a couple of bites on that dead dorf. (not female dorf..male)
you don't have to be a full on piggy and canabalize for the entire duration..but much like taking couple of gulps of star tears just to gain a mana advantage over your opponent.

but if you had to place them in order of boning them...it would prolly go like this.

female dorf>belfie>UD>fat tauren>orc.

i put fat tauren ahead of orc because at least when you're done boning..you'd have at least a nice, soft, furry pillow to lay your head on and go sleep.

-six tha seven

Anonymous said...

oh..btw...we finally broke 2k rating on alakea's 5man! RAWR!
we finished today at 2007...just a little over, but still 2k..lol

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Anonymous said...

here comes the blog flood again...

so come to think of it...what if you had 5 belfie in the arena...each one maxes out their torrents...then chain silence. is there a DR on racial?

that would be sick to put a lockdown like that on their frontload healer and all casters. 4dps gib squads would be completely fucked.

Jagoex said...

lol, Six. And a huge grats on the 2k+ rating! That's quite an accomplishment man. Well deserved.

Dorf over BE? Noes.

As for the chaining Torrents, I don't think there is DR on racials. And it would be annoying as hell to face a team like that, but also, for it to work, they'd all have to stick together due to Arcane Torrents very short range. It wouldn't be hard to counter them when they're all grouped up like that.

Zy said...

Honestly I have watched a few videos and talked with a few good players about this subject. Arcane torrent, the natural resistance and the largest mana pool horde side mean a lot.

The difference between a belf and an undead is more than black white, its offence and defence. Undeads strong base stat is spirit, not int or stam or anything particularly useful. Sure theres life tap, but thats not a happy fun thing to do in serious arena. Canabalize is useful, but only when things aren't hitting you or you dont have dots ticking on you. Will of the forsaken is ok - I do like it, but any of the CC it breaks can just be re-applied.

Arcane torrent tactics are tricky but highly effective. A fair amount of the top rated teams have highly active belf warlocks/mages oddly enough ;P

Heres a highly annoying, yet talented belf warlock.

And untill I see people with that rating and above saying how much they lol at arcane torrent, I am gonna continue thinking that belfs are perfectly viable warlocks.

Jagoex said...

Alea is annoying. Truth. He also has a good rating. I think it has very little to do with the toon's racials, however. As has been stated many, many times, talent and team synergy matters most. Racials are just an additive.

That being said, one has to wonder if these successful BE 'locks would perform any differently as a different race. I doubt it, personally.

As for base stats. That has very little weight in this discussion. And using Alea as an example after complaining about Life Tap doesn't make much sense either, being that he's Affliction and uses Dark Pact.

Cannibalize is VERY important and VERY useful in PvP - I'm surprised you would discount it even slightly, being that you've played an UD Mage. Even if you get a couple of ticks off, that's gonna be near 1k health per tick once decently geared and buffed ('lock). That's not a bad deal at all. DoTS ticking on you? Use a Spellstone to clear them. Very, very useful.

WotF also provides immunity to certain CCs for a few seconds. Timed well, it is the difference maker. Just imagine a 2v2 between two Undeads and two BEs. So much would need to go right for the BEs to even land their Arcane Torrents. And once they've used their trinkets, they are CC meat, if you know what I mean.

It's not just a generally accepted thing that BE 'locks don't have the best racial for the class. High level raiders and PvPers alike will readily admit to it. Look around, Zy. I'm sure you can find highly-ranked arena PvPing 'locks that will agree.

Zy said...

You know I just like to argue :)

Anonymous said...

we went up against clan hex. slotted #1 in our battlegroup. (they made S1 finals but got a few got disqualified for not being americans.)

all normal race except for their frontload which is a belfie.

http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z301/sixis1/Picture-8.jpg

i went down first, like a sack of potatoes. i'll put it this way, i popped spell refect only once, black out from priest just kept me locked down. the pally popped his racial in a chain with the Spriest (fuckin oP class) and shut down our casters/frontload and i went down.

they farmed us for a whole 3 points. 0/3 against them. lost only 1 point per game.

2k! rawr!
http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z301/sixis1/Picture-9.jpg

6-7

Anonymous said...

http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z301/sixis1
/Picture-8.jpg

http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z301/sixis1
/Picture-9.jpg

just copy in one long string per. 2 images

Zy said...

Here is something to consider, predictability. I know that as soon as I throw a fear/charm your gonna pop your racial. Its hard to calculate when a belf is gonna lock you down with a silence ;)

Jagoex said...

Nice images, 6. Grats again.

The predictability thing is a good approach. I guess that's where WotF really shines though. By having more than one way to break out of a CC, you have a greater CC'ing opportunity. By keeping them CC'd, they can't AT. It's the circle of WoW. :)

Anonymous said...

chain silence!
6-7

Anonymous said...

Spriest blackout really fuckin needs to be nerfed. seriously.

spreistt/lock
blackout>dot>dot>dot>fear from preist>dot>mindblast>lock fear>lock wind up>deathcoil other opponent>finish off current one.

>laugh at other opponent.GG

utility wise...both bring just too good of things into the arena. hands down.

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