Warlock or Wizard?

I see this question come up from time to time on the SOE EQ2 Newbie forum.

“Which class should I pick, Wizard or Warlock?”  It’s usually followed by some sort of qualifier, like: “I want to be a pure caster class that does a lot of DPS, but reading the class boards, I can’t decide!”

Okay, well.  First of all, a couple things to know:  1.) the class boards, while they CAN be a good source of information, are more often than not a very bad representation of any given class’ potential.  These boards are usually filled with posts from a vocal minority who are primarily concerned with two things only; how much their class sucks, and how much their class rocks.  There is almost no in-between, and usually very little constructive feedback or discussion.  2.) Finding the worthwhile threads can be tedious, as you generally have to sift through a lot of crap, for the afore-mentioned reasons.

So, there is nothing wrong with asking this in the Newbie forum.  I find that people generally give better, more concise and constructive answers there, anyhow.  Particularly the warlocks and wizards, who, when left by themselves in their respective forums, usually resort to flaming one another and anyone unfortunate enough to stumble in and ask a valid question.

So now that you know about the perils of the class fora, I can proceed to answer this conundrum, based on my own experiences.

First.  I am biased.  I love my warlock.

But, I am also a realist, which means I am well aware that the wizard currently holds the trump card in this game.

Wizards have one huge, overwhelming advantage.  And no, it’s not “evac.”  Please.

Their advantage is that, within the current mechanics of the gameplay, they are able to pump out more damage with less risk to themselves.  In EQ2, the standard group or raid works like this: one person is the “tank” who pulls the monsters to your group, and then, you all assist the tank, who does the targeting for you.  So long as you all focus on his target, you can safely kill each monster with very little chance of it turning its rage onto you.

But what happens when you are a warlock?  This entire system that so many people rely on becomes, for lack of better terms, completely FUBAR’d.

A warlock works like this.  Tank pulls an encounter, warlock targets tank, tank begins attacking first mob.  Warlock unleashes an encounter-wide AE (in EQ2, there are two types of AE: encounter-wide, which does not affect any mobs outside the current encounter, and point-blank, which is your typical “everything” AE — warlocks have many spells which are encounter-wide, in fact, most of our damage, almost half, comes from these spells).  3 of the 4 mobs — all but the one the tank is focused on — immediately come and unload on the poor little warlock.

Now, you CAN learn to throttle this.  It comes with time and MUCH willpower.  However, even while doing the best to throttle your output to lower levels, more often than not you’ll die first.

Why don’t wizards have this issue?  Becuase wizards are focused on single-targets.  Just like everyone else in the game.  And so they can easily attack JUST the monster that the tank is focusing on — and since the tank has already built up tons of hate on JUST that ONE mob … the others don’t even bother with the wizard, since he is not attacking them.

But, but “Why don’t I just use my single-target spells?” you say!

Because, the entire point of being a warlock, as it is now, is to do as much devastation to as many opponents as you can.  That is what our “role” is in this game, now.  Unfortunately, it simply doesn’t FIT into the way most people play.

So what can you do to be the best warlock you can be?

First.  Learn to use your de-aggro abilities.  We get two, fairly early on.  The first, the Vulian line, is encounter wide, with a short daze.  The second, also encouter wide, is Concussive.  Concussive does slightly more, and also has a short stun.

Second.  Don’t unload with your biggest nukes right off the bat.  You may even need to wait, especially in raids, until 10 or 15 seconds has passed, if you plan on unleashing all of your encounter-wide nukes in succession.

Third.  Learn to use your procs.  Warlocks get some nice proc spells.  A “proc” is something that adds extra damage on top of another spell.  A triggered effect, all its own, if you will, that goes off when certain conditions are met.  The term is short for “procedural code” — which is basically what the programming entails.  Our first proc is the Gift line, which adds a tiny bit of damage on top of every single poison-based spell we cast.  The second, and more powerful and volatile, is Netherous Realm, which you won’t get until your 50’s, and only if you have the Desert of Flames expansion.  This spell covers a radial area around the warlock, and yourself, and any other group or raid member, who cast a poison-based spell, will get a hefty amount of extra poison damage added.  This will also proc off of scout poisons!  It’s a great benefit to you and your group.

Fourth.  Cast your DoTs!  DoT (damage over time) spells tick for small damage, but have a long duration, and, if kept up consistently, will do a lot of damage while you are busy casting your nukes.  Warlocks get 3 DoT lines, eventually.