WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot

Hello. My name is Daniora and I am a demonology warlock.

Saying that always sounds like I should be standing in front of a support group for people who don’t know any better.

Some people are alt-aholics, I’m a main-aholic.  When I decided to make a character on Earthen Ring to join AIE, I made another warlock.  I had contemplated several other options, but I shuddered at the thought of leveling all the way to 80 with any of them (and I hate playing Death Knights, so that wasn’t really an option). So, my warlocks and I are pretty close.  We’ve been through some hard times together.  We’ve been called “Failock” in pugs.  We’ve heard “If you respec’d this way, you’d have a much better spell rotation for maximum dps.” We’ve been laughed at in battlegrounds. In spite of it all, we soldier on.

I leveled from 1 to 80 doing two and a half instances at level.  I’ve never been one for dungeon running. I wasn’t concerned with getting the best gear or having the highest dps.  It’s been a long time since BC, though, and I had to find something to keep me busy.  I did a bit of research and found information on stats that was easy enough for someone who couldn’t be bothered to do the math to understand and started suiting up my lock. Courtesy of the random dungeon tool, I’ve got myself geared up pretty well now.  I hold my own in DPS in heroics.  But here’s the thing.  Being spec’d out the way I am now, I could never raid. The same thing goes for beast mastery hunters.  In both cases, these specs are not viable for end game, certainly not if you want to be taken seriously.

So what.

I know there are plenty of you out there who would just say to change specs and move on.  I, however, want to play the game in a manner that I find the most entertaining.  For me, it’s demonology warlocks all the way.  I could move a few points from here to there and dramatically increase my dps.  The downside is that I would no longer be able to transform into a giant purple demon… and that’s just not okay with me.

A warlock that doesn’t take full advantage of the monstrous demonic powers drawn from the void is really not that different from other casters. Having demon pets and strange abilities is what makes them special and sets them apart.  There’s a similar situation with hunters.  I’ve been in a fair number of pugs where the hunter’s pet was just around for buffs and almost never attacked at all. By marginalizing these two specs, Blizzard is taking the thing that makes these two classes unique from any other and making them unsuitable for higher end content.

Now, before I’m attacked by all the destro warlocks and marksman hunters, let me just say that I have no problem with them.  As I have said, I’m all for playing the game in whatever manner you find most entertaining.  I also know that not every spec should be appropriate for every situation.  However, at least in the case of a full metamorphosis demonology warlock, that spec is not really great in any situation. The problem I have is with how Blizzard has taken the two specs that make warlocks and hunters most unique among all the other classes and made them completely nonviable for end game. If you want to a) raid and b) play a demonology warlock you are c) out of luck.

Small side note regarding marksman hunters.  I think it would be awesome if they made a hero class similar to Sylvanas’ dark rangers.  They would be like marksman hunters, but without a pet.  Sort of an Artemis thing. (I’d go so far to say that it should only be open to female toons, but I know that would never fly.)

All I’m asking, Blizzard, is to give those of us who play pet classes the ability to use those pets to our maximum advantage. I want my ability to metamorphosize into a demon to play as awesomely as it looks.  I’m hopeful that Cataclysm will fix a lot of these things with the whole mastery thing, but I truly believe it’s something they should think about.