Soul keeper

[Dark_Barbarian]

this new update has nerfed it i like to tell NGD why it should not be nerfed and why it supos to effect mobs. let me put it in simple terms. soul keeper is the back bone of a warlocks grinding with out it the warlock would not grind as long as it used to be. NGD nerfing it will make it very unplesent for the warlocks leveling efforts. i like it to be put back the way it supos to be or make the vampish spell suck more hp then it is now. i hope you other warlocks agree with me other wise im gona keep my lock at a noobish level.

[Minorian]

It is one of the most over powered spells a warlock has. In a PvP it essentially does 2000 dmg, -1000 to enemy, +1000 to warlock. Its crazy stuff.

And for grinding, Try vamp, lower cd, id say its better (despite lower health suck).

[ncvr]

I rarely use SK while grinding. Vamp is used on the cooldown, and you should only worry about losing hp when you amb sac (keep barrier up 100% of the time).

Of course you can't do that as well before lvl 37 or so but vamp should be draining enough hp for you not to worry too much about resting.

When I grind, I usually max mental for arcane missile and blaze, get lvl 4 vamp (sk too for emergencies) and get meteor, stalagmite and crystal blast to lvl 4. You can do that at lvl 38 or 39. It's the most mana efficient method of grinding I've seen before, and it is affected less by resists due to the low cooldowns of arcane missile and blaze.

[VandaMan]

Originally Posted by Need_More_Invasions

It is one of the most over powered spells a warlock has. In a PvP it essentially does 2000 dmg, -1000 to enemy, +1000 to warlock. Its crazy stuff.

And for grinding, Try vamp, lower cd, id say its better (despite lower health suck).

Yes, but when a pet hunter can kill you in about 10 seconds, the majority of which you're ambushed for... it's a pretty important spell. Hopefully with all the other nerfs in the update it won't be.

[Dupa_z_Zasady]

I agree with DB 100%. And note to you DB, i would rather try to grind your lock ASAP _before_ they introduce those changes instead of keeping him on noobish lvl.

Originally Posted by Necrovarus

I rarely use SK while grinding. Vamp is used on the cooldown, and you should only worry about losing hp when you amb sac (keep barrier up 100% of the time).

Of course you can't do that as well before lvl 37 or so but vamp should be draining enough hp for you not to worry too much about resting.

When I grind, I usually max mental for arcane missile and blaze, get lvl 4 vamp (sk too for emergencies) and get meteor, stalagmite and crystal blast to lvl 4. You can do that at lvl 38 or 39. It's the most mana efficient method of grinding I've seen before, and it is affected less by resists due to the low cooldowns of arcane missile and blaze.

1-st, if you advice people to use energy barrier in lock grinding you are completely wrong. Damage dealing is what matters the most in grinding, always was, always will be. Putting points in non damaging, non stopping spell is a waste. I see your grinding setup is set on direct contact (crystal blast, blaze) and you say that this is most mana efficient, it isn't. The most mana efficient style IMO is staff mastery setup with max mental stopping abilities (WD, ivy, beetle). To SoulKeeper. It will have an impact on lock grinding, because having SK lvl 3 or 4 is often a matter of having to rest or not. Vampirism drains enough only on higher level, so you have to put points in necromancy tree anyway, why not to put points into SK as well then? If they make SK not able to drain mobs, points put into necromancy tree will be wasted somehow. I thought that we want to make warriors grinding easier not screw up other classes.

[VandaMan]

Not to mention when you're fighting an archer in sotw, sometimes the only way to survive is to cast soul keeper... on a mob! Just sayin'

Edit: Also, disagree with both of you on grinding. A setup based on mentals is too slow to kill, and requires too much attention to continue doing it for hours on end. Staff mastery and CCs are fine, but you need to be able to find good gear for it, and you're a lot less likely to survive encounters with realm enemies while you grind.

I always used a pretty even balance between arcania, elements, and necromancy; Meteor, Crystal Blast, Lightning, Fireball, SK & Vamp (mostly at lvl 4, until I was high enough to take arcania to 19). It's not too difficult to manage the mana costs, you've got life drains, and your CDs are only 15-20 seconds. Not to mention if someone attacks you, and you do get a chance to fight back your setup isn't some crazy grinding-only BS, and you might be able to defend yourself.

[Dupa_z_Zasady]

Originally Posted by VandaMan

Not to mention when you're fighting an archer in sotw, sometimes the only way to survive is to cast soul keeper... on a mob! Just sayin'

I would say it is THE ONLY way without "sometimes".

Edit: Also, disagree with both of you on grinding. A setup based on mentals is too slow to kill, and requires too much attention to continue doing it for hours on end. Staff mastery and CCs are fine, but you need to be able to find good gear for it, and you're a lot less likely to survive encounters with realm enemies while you grind.

I disagree. Of course, you need decent staff (hey I used 33 lvl staff for till lvl 41), but, at current level of mob resistance to spells, you spend to much of your mana into air (resists), believe me it is much faster with SM, mentals are only auxiliary to keep mobs away or prevent them from hitting you. Requires more attention? Yes! This is why it isn't so boring type of grinding, you have to move. Surviving encounters. I guarantee you that you are more likely to survive with heavy mental, necromancy and SM, than with other setup. Survive, not kill. And this is another argument why SK should be left as is.
SK can be used to grind and to pvp. With SK not being able to cast on mobs, locks won't skill it for grinding, and they will be more vulnerable while grinding in WZ.

I always used a pretty even balance between arcania, elements, and necromancy; Meteor, Crystal Blast, Lightning, Fireball, SK & Vamp (mostly at lvl 4, until I was high enough to take arcania to 19). It's not too difficult to manage the mana costs, you've got life drains, and your CDs are only 15-20 seconds. Not to mention if someone attacks you, and you do get a chance to fight back your setup isn't some crazy grinding-only BS, and you might be able to defend yourself.

So we have totally different philosophies of skilling, I rather skill one or two trees good. You have noticed(made bold), they just want to cut you life drains at least half, IMO more.

[ncvr]

Originally Posted by Dupa_z_Zasady

1-st, if you advice people to use energy barrier in lock grinding you are completely wrong. Damage dealing is what matters the most in grinding, always was, always will be. Putting points in non damaging, non stopping spell is a waste. I see your grinding setup is set on direct contact (crystal blast, blaze) and you say that this is most mana efficient, it isn't. The most mana efficient style IMO is staff mastery setup with max mental stopping abilities (WD, ivy, beetle). To SoulKeeper. It will have an impact on lock grinding, because having SK lvl 3 or 4 is often a matter of having to rest or not. Vampirism drains enough only on higher level, so you have to put points in necromancy tree anyway, why not to put points into SK as well then? If they make SK not able to drain mobs, points put into necromancy tree will be wasted somehow. I thought that we want to make warriors grinding easier not screw up other classes.

Resists say hello.

In theory, an elements/arcania setup without any defensive spells 2-shotting mobs would be the fastest, most efficient and most effective setup.

In practice, it's not. You have 4 dmg spells with the ele/arcania setup: stalagmite, lightning, fireball and meteor, with crystal blast as backup. Standard rotation would be something like stalagmite/lightning -> meteor/fireball. What happens if just one of those spells is resisted? You're screwed. You'll be forced to cast SK (which you no longer can), and it'll take a chunk out of your effectiveness by having to use another dmg spell and wait for a cooldown.

Arcane missile resisted? No problem, blaze and arcane missile again.

This is my standard grinding rotation: meteor -> arcane missile -> blaze (takes a bit of practice to get a blaze without taking dmg) and stalagmite -> arcane missile -> blaze, crystal blast as backup. 3 spells per mob, and I've been able to grind nonstop pretty fast even if one mob resists 3 or 4 of my spells. When vampirism is off cooldown, replace arcane missile with it. Note that mental setup, with energy barrier is highly effective if someone tries to gank you - usually you'll have max mental, so that means TM, silence, will domain, beetle etc. which you put excess points in.

[Topogigio_BR]

SK is not overpowered, its a spell that perfect match warlock. Most of warlocks spells are debuffs or capable of changing battle scenario.
Sk do a lot of damage is true but you can only have total damage of SK if you are almost half hp, its a risky spell.

[Dupa_z_Zasady]

Originally Posted by Necrovarus

Resists say hello.

In theory, an elements/arcania setup without any defensive spells 2-shotting mobs would be the fastest, most efficient and most effective setup.

In practice, it's not. You have 4 dmg spells with the ele/arcania setup: stalagmite, lightning, fireball and meteor, with crystal blast as backup. Standard rotation would be something like stalagmite/lightning -> meteor/fireball. What happens if just one of those spells is resisted? You're screwed. You'll be forced to cast SK (which you no longer can), and it'll take a chunk out of your effectiveness by having to use another dmg spell and wait for a cooldown.

Arcane missile resisted? No problem, blaze and arcane missile again.

This is my standard grinding rotation: meteor -> arcane missile -> blaze (takes a bit of practice to get a blaze without taking dmg) and stalagmite -> arcane missile -> blaze, crystal blast as backup. 3 spells per mob, and I've been able to grind nonstop pretty fast even if one mob resists 3 or 4 of my spells. When vampirism is off cooldown, replace arcane missile with it. Note that mental setup, with energy barrier is highly effective if someone tries to gank you - usually you'll have max mental, so that means TM, silence, will domain, beetle etc. which you put excess points in.

It is perfectly fine. In theory. But these days there are 3-4 resists in a row. So with your setup it may happen that you won't kill anything at all(thanks NGD) while you make full rotation of your spells. SM+mental is more secure because mob evades are still less likely than resists. So with staff maginications maxed, arcane acceleration you're sure to kill mob relatively fast even if all your mental spells fail, and you won't blow so much mana into the air. Often i'm able to kill CHG+~10ish-+~20tish without using any offensive spell at all, 6-7 staff hits(range 30) thats all, maybe some kiting. This is also good antiganking setup.
But we are talking about SK being castable on mobs or not. Locks need it, without it they will be highly nerfed grinding wise. But, maybe is it something that NGD wants, i can only ask then, to make sure that we will be able to cast SK on pets.