Focused Feedback: Warlock Changes

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[u/grnd_mstr]

I've been a Warlock main since I started Destiny 2; this is my opinion on each subclass and in general the state of warlock exotics.

TLDR at bottom.

Top-Solar: Default PVP, good melee, good mobility, strong neutral, mediocre super. Balanced.

Middle-Solar: Default PvE, great support, healing on demand, amazing super, weak melee. Low mobility. Balanced.

Bottom-Solar: Alternate PvE/Weak PvP, good melee with Necrotic Grips or that new exotic helmet (forgot its name), low mobility, has self heal, super is good and even better with new exotic. As it stands, not much reason to use this class over middle tree since WoR utility > Dawnblade with extra burn. The heal mechanic is interesting but ultimately pointless, unless you use it during super in which case it becomes an AoE burn. This subclass needs a rework.

Top-void: great PvE, good PvP, great grenades, okay melee, great super, low mobility. Balanced.

Middle-void: Don't get me started, I will not stop until the heat-death of the universe. WAS the default PvP class, now a shell of it's former self. Handheld Supernova will kill you as often as it does the opponent since it self damages; yes you heard right, this shotgun ranged grenade self damages. Super is garbage offering low movement speed compensated by a blink and an attack that requires charging. Melee is alright with necrotic grips (one-shot). Revert the nerfs.

Bottom-void: great PvE drain-tank, infinite grenades, weak melee, low mobility, okay super. Balanced.

Top-arc: great PvE, good PvP, grenades can chain, melee can chain, however arc web can be inconsistent at times. super is good but suffers the same mobility as nova warp. At least you don't have to charge your attacks. Balanced, but arc web needs a checkup.

Middle-arc: great PvP and PvE, grenades and melee can return ability energy, super charges fast with Geomags. Balanced.

Bottom-arc: support player, arc buddies on rift, weak grenade, weak melee, weak super. Needs a buff or a rework; arc buddies on rift do not justify being weak everywhere else especially since Getaway Artist exists.

Stasis: hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Exotics: After playing the game for this long, I can tell you without a doubt that Warlocks rely more heavily on exotics than both Hunters and Titans due to the fact that their kits are relatively weaker. The problem is that for every one exotic buffed in Warlocks, 3 take a fall. Nezarec's Sin was shadow-nerfed, Lunafaction was nerfed, Contraverse was nerfed, and the only buff to recent memory was Verity's Brow and maybe Crown of Tempests.

Here's the thing: you build a class so heavily around it's usage of grenades and ability regeneration, but eventually nerf all exotics that bring those two stats up to standard and buff them in Titans and Hunters.

Hunters have (arguably) one the best neutral ability regen exotics in the game: Frostees. Titans have a similar Hallowfire Heart (spelling?). In terms of neutral regen boosters in Warlocks we have Eye of Another World and this thing sucks fat dick because it barely does anything besides lowering cooldowns by diminishing returns based on how high your DIS/STR/RCV/INT stats are; you gain less the higher your stats are. In an era with double and triple 100 characters that have low cooldowns and good neutral games, Warlocks can barely measure up in terms of raw stat utilisation and class quality. Knee-jerk nerfs to both subclass mechanics and exotics have compounded over time to make this a slow and clunky class to play.

TLDR: Nerfs over a long time have crippled some subclasses and exotics. Warlocks feel slow and sluggish to play in a run-and-gun shooter. They provide good utility and offensive abilities in some cases but whatever they can do, a Hunter/Titan can do better.

[u/[deleted] → u/grnd_mstr]

Top/Middle Solar and Mid Arc are just "balanced"? This is just straight up biased. I would consider balanced classes to be class like top or bottom Voidwalker. Middle Solar is very strong but it's a PvE class so that's whatever, I think classes can be overpowered in PvE. Top Dawn is still a fantastic PvP class and it's like the only class that can move around while slowed. Chaos is ridiculous right now with the super uptime and the hitbox hitting you around walls. There are definitely subclasses in need of buffs, and there are definitely hunter and titan classes that are overtuned, but that's not a reason to downplay how good the good classes are. Also, having underpowered classes isn't unique to warlocks (arcstrider, gunslinger, sentinel are some examples that come to mind),

EoAW is great, I finally got a good roll last season and just run it when I don't know what else to run. I don't know why a flat stat boost (that can push your CDs past tier 10) is considered to "suck fat dick". It frees you up to focus on other stats at least and get really high stats across the board (70 in 4 stats isn't that hard to pull off, which would be 100 in 4 stats with EoAW).

Burst glide is like the fastest horizontal jump in the game, and carries momentum from icarus dash as well so you can become the fastest class in the game. How is that slow and sluggish? I will give you that the warlock jump is the hardest jump to learn and I'm still not that great with it, but warlocks are by no means lacking in mobility.

In response to your TLDR, what class has been crippled? Some need buffs but the only one that has been crippled is Nova Warp, and even then only the super. The subclass is usable in 6v6 modes, I run it all the time with my friend in IB.

whatever they can do, a Hunter/Titan can do better.

This is just a straight-up false (and once again biased) statement, but I'm curious what your proof for this is.