I like to play World of Warcraft. When I play this sort of game I tend to get attached to my character and I don’t really feel comfortable making new ones. I’m not sure exactly what it is, but once I’ve got my guy I stick with him no matter what. As each new patch comes out Blizzard opens up new classes for play. Once I started my Warlock though I never really saw any reason to switch. I guess that makes me a shitty beta tester, but I don’t really care. Besides, there are so many fucking hunters in the game right now it’s ridiculous. I was in Westfall yesterday and it was like Noah’s fucking ark.
Since I’ve really only ever played a Warlock I tend to think about them a lot. As of right now Blizzard does not seem to have a real clear idea of what the Warlock should be. They’re really just shitty mages with pets. There is really no reason to invite a Warlock into your party and so I tend to have a hard time finding groups. People are always asking for a healer or a tank or maybe a rogue. If someone is asking for a warock it’s usually just for health stones or a free teleport. I still love my Warlock though and I’ve spent a good deal of time imagining the sorts of things I’d like for him to be able to do. I figured it wouldn’t hurt anything if I just went ahead and posted my Warlock ideas here. Maybe Blizzard will read them, maybe they won’t. At least I’ll have shared them with someone other than Tycho who I don’t think really gives a shit, but is very polite when I start talking about soul shards.
Gabe’s Crazy Warlock Ideas!
I don’t know how to write this out in a way that makes sense, so I’m just going to spit out all my ideas in no particular order.
The way I see it, the entire warlock class should be based on the concept of trades. The idea here is that these are magic users who have decided to consort with demons in order to become more powerful. That’s awesome and all, but as of right now the demons aren’t getting anything out of this deal. Everything I know about beings from hell tells me they don’t give up anything unless they get something in return. Maybe it’s money, maybe it’s some other kind of sacrifice.
I think the warlock should have a few incredibly powerful spells that have equally high risks involved. Maybe he could deal a ton of damage to a wide area but then he’d be useless for five or six seconds. In a party situation this might be cool. Once he’s done doing his thing the rest of the party could keep an eye on him until he’s conscious again. He might even become possessed for a short period of time. While possessed, his mana would be draining away but he might have access to a new set of attacks or spells. A warlock who is possessed might be capable of dealing insane amounts of melee damage but he might have a hard time staying on target. This goes back to the trade off concept. Maybe you have a warlock in your party beating the fuck out of some monster, then all of a sudden he comes at you.
The talent system for warlocks has not been implemented yet. I’d like to see an ability tree for them that actually had multiple demons on it, and advancing through the tree equaled gaining more and more favor with these individual demons. Some kind of fire demon for instance might allow you immolation at the beginning but as you prove yourself through class specific quests he might open up new more powerful fire spells for you. Demons always want humans to go and do shit for them. I’d like to see more of this sort of thing for warlocks.
What if while in a group you could trade one of the players in your party for a demon? Say you were about to go into a crazy fight, maybe the warlock could make a deal and trade one of his companions for a powerful demon. The player getting traded might slip into the spirit world as long as the demon was there. That’s the kind of evil shit I want my warlock to do. They are essentially the middlemen between hell and earth. The sorts of deals they are able broker between those two parties seems really interesting to me.
Warlocks should be able to bring someone back from the dead, but it should work a bit differently. When dead, if a warlock is near and he offers to revive you a contract should appear on your screen. He might require money or a soul shard in exchange for bringing you back. If you click okay you essentially sign the contract and your back in business.
Soul shards are cool but I should be able to do more with them. It would be awesome if warlocks could use soul shards in their crafting of items and clothing. Armor made from soul shards for example might protect you against certain spells or even other warlocks.
The role of the warlock in a party isn’t really clear yet. Like I said there is no reason as of right now to invite one to join you. He ends up just taking away XP and not offering anything back to the group. I’d like to see the concept of “trade offs” apply to a warlock’s role in a group as well. They should be able to do some wild shit for a party but you never know if something they try might backfire. It should be a sort of risk vs. reward type of deal. A warlock might be able to deal a thousand points of damage in one explosion of power but to gain that ability he might need an offering for his demon master from everyone in the party. Does he want health, mana, money, or maybe even someone’s life?
I’d say that right now warlocks are the kings of soloing in the game. With my pets I can go out and fuck up just about anything I want without to much trouble. I really don’t need to group if I don’t want to. To me that fits with the class, they are loners. When playing a warlock you often find your trainers tucked away in dark basements. These are evil fucking people who hang out with demons all day. Taking one into your party should be a gamble. There needs to be a high enough possible payoff that people will want to do it, but they should never quite know what they are going to get.
-Gabe out
