R.I.P. Warlocks

[Nekudotayim]

Hello,

I would like to start this discussion about warlocks because I believe, something needs to be done. As someone else already mentioned, warlocks have gone down from postion 1 to 6 of the most powerful classes of this game. People are leaving their warlocks behind because they do not want to play a class, which is that weak. Warlocks are not weak, the other classes are too powerful.
Of course this is a multiplayer game and you should not walk alone through the warzone as a warlock but however at least a warlock should be able to defend himself against other classes in PvP matches on a well balanced way.
I always liked to avoid such threads like this one because I believed that there is always a way for a warlock to win a PvP. However, some events made me thinking about the whole thing.

English is not my mother tongue so please excuse me, if my descriptions will be a bit bad.

Marksman

Just cast "Son of the wind", then cast "Death sentence" on the warlock and kill him with autohits. It is that easy. No challenge and most times there is no way, the warlock will survive this. "Wind wall" and "Energy barrier" won't help the warlock to survive this in most cases. You must be very lucky, if "Soulkeeper" and "Vampirism" will hit the marksman through his "Son of the wind". You also can wait until "Son of the wind" disappears but chances are, that you won't survive until then.

Barbarian

Cast "Raving madness" and some buffs, run to the warlock, knock him down and do one until three of your powerful attacks. Job finished. Almost no challenge and again, the warlock have to be very lucky to survive this and to do some attacks. Of course the warlock can win such a fight, but in most cases he won't.
A Barbarian has 3500+ Hitpoints. The normal damage a barbarian will cause on the warlock is as high as the damage the warlock will cause on the barbarian with his spells. Those spells need mana and longer casting time.

Knight

Many knights almost have 5000+ Hitpoints. Add their good defensive buffs and blocking chance and now try to take them down with 2750+ Mana. ("Energy bond(5)" included - if you got points for that) Notice something? "Infuriate" will not really be helpful and "Elemental exposure" as well. Often this will be just a slow death.

Hunter

Surprise! "Ambush", "Confusion" and "Stunning fist" are doing a great job. The pet will cause a lot of damage. If the warlock is able to manage this situation and maybe to kill your pet, just run through or around the warlock to interrupt his spells, the warlock likes to cast on you. It should be easy for the hunter and in most cases, you will win as a hunter and if not, you still could be able to get away.

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So, I hope I could give you some good examples, why people like to leave their warlocks behind. I don't really like to do that because I always liked to play such types of classes but if I am not able to win such battles no matter how smart I act and how hard I try, it is just going to be depressing. Anyway, what I like to show you, is that there are non-challenging ways to defeat a "normal" enemy. Something like this should not be possible and again, I am not talking about how weak warlocks are, I am talking about how strong some classes are. So what could get changed to give a warlock a chance to win such fights on a well balanced way?

Marksman - Maybe reduce the power of "Death sentence"?
Barbarian - Maybe reduce the chance of resistance of "Raving madness" on skill-level 1? (currently 90% chance to resist freeze, knock downs, dizziness etc. on each skill-level) Isn't that a bit Imba?
Knights - Maybe make "Infuriate" and/or "Elemental exposure" a bit stronger? I do not really see a difference when using these spells on enemies.
Hunter - Maybe do not interrupt magic attacks when the enemy runs through or around the caster? I mean.. it's magic. :-)

Of course the warlock has some powerful spells as well like MOD and Terror but in such situations, they wont be helpful.

So these are my 2 cents about it. What do you think?


kind regards,
Anu