Why are they not viable?

[Yayo]

Warlocks can do well and put out massive damage , ele shamans are personally my favorite support class at lower levels and I need to make mine soon. No other class has a pushback like Thunderstorm at this level and its an aoe and is clutch as fuck in ab. Shamans can put out damage (not as much as others) but also CC nice with their totems, thunderstorm, and they have frost shock and windshear. Overall theyre very viable imo.

 

[Geist]

Warlocks can do well and put out massive damage , ele shamans are personally my favorite support class at lower levels and I need to make mine soon. No other class has a pushback like Thunderstorm at this level and its an aoe and is clutch as fuck in ab. Shamans can put out damage (not as much as others) but also CC nice with their totems, thunderstorm, and they have frost shock and windshear. Overall theyre very viable imo.

unfortunately, frost shock is first available @ lvl 22

 

[Yayo]

unfortunately, frost shock is first available @ lvl 22

oops. I was thinking of 24s when I made that post.

 

[Voidwalker]

Nothing will change the fact even how good lock you are, hunter will kill you faster with autoshots unless your lucky enough to pull that 300 crit with 10% crit change.



I know what im talking about, i had 24 lock and that pushback is really annyoing when trying to cast 1.7 sec fear.

If you're trying to fear a hunter that's already attacking you, you're doing it wrong.

It's obvious that by the time you get that fear off, you're at about 20% hp at the very most so there's no use. I honestly have beaten lots of hunters 1v1 and survived or my dots just take care of it. And it's not only 300 crits. Talking about those 600 ones.

 

[C O T U S]

like a couple people have pointed out in this thread, the classes mentioned are not very "viable" not because they necessarily are objectively inferior, but because they are helpless against hunters. everything in this bracket is dictated by its relationship to hunters. everything. they're that broken.



it's important to keep this distinction in mind.



i have a 20 warlock and a 20 elemental shaman. these classes are completely helpless against hunters, and do nothing but drag down their team when they are focused by hunters. it's the truth whether anyone wants to admit it or not.

 

[Reltney]

I'd argue that warlocks are objectively inferior to mages until end game PvP. They still suck as late as the 70s bracket when resilience comes into the equation. Part of it is because they don't get some necessary PvP skills until late game and part of it is the lopsided damage-to-HP ratio of pre-Cata PvP. They're an outlast class that can't outlast until damage comes down and hit points go up.

 

[C O T U S]

I'd argue that warlocks are objectively inferior to mages until end game PvP. They still suck as late as the 70s bracket when resilience comes into the equation. Part of it is because they don't get some necessary PvP skills until late game and part of it is the lopsided damage-to-HP ratio of pre-Cata PvP. They're an outlast class that can't outlast until damage comes down and hit points go up.

i imagine that this is in general probably the case, but i haven't played at any level other than 20-24 in a very long time, so i don't know for sure. but at level 20, frost and fire mages suffer for the same reason warlocks do - because they are hard countered by hunters. they're unable to sit and cast to set up their damage, and warlocks in particular have no escape mechanism at all and so are completely helpless (frost mages have blink or can at least desperately use a ranged nova on a hunter to get away)



mages seem like they are "better" than locks at 20 only because arcane mages happen to be particularly effective against hunters at this level - they don't require any setup to do damage, can do all their damage while moving, and can keep enough distance between them and hunters to not be a viable kill target

 

[Geist]

the only class that hasnt really been discussed are shadow priests



i wonder why nobody plays one. Since you dont have shadowform yet you dont even lose healing capability

 

[danceparty]

the only class that hasnt really been discussed are shadow priests



i wonder why nobody plays one. Since you dont have shadowform yet you dont even lose healing capability

disc has better burst, heals and stronger bubble. shadow is still strong compared to a lot of other specs, you can play it in a bg and do fine.