Interesting Breakdown on our Raiding Body.

[Chunes]

Yeah, that's more or less where we're at too. It's not that they're unplayable, it's just that our comp is unable to overcome certain fight mechanics and the two "easiest" classes to persuade to change are our shaman. Between our mage, lock and rogue, I'm not too worried about our aoe/cleave needs.

[Flex]

Luckily Blizzard agrees on the external cooldown side and is moving to rectify that. Hopefully the druid one isn't just a shorter cooldown Tranquility.

[Rhiannon]

Aside from that niche, for what reason would you bring a Warlock (of any spec) as opposed to any other class? Or are Warlocks simply an acceptable way to fill DPS slots after all essential utilities and roles have been covered? Would you be concerned if every one of those Warlocks was traded in for another Ranged DPS class/spec?

Demo also brings the 10% spellpower buff, with elemental being the only other spec that brings it. I'd rather have a demo lock than an elemental shaman almost all of the time, unless somehow said elemental shaman would be the only source of bloodlust. All lock specs bring the 5% spell crit vulnerability debuff, with fire mages being the only other spec that brings it. As already mentioned all specs bring the 8% spell damage vulnerability debuff, with affliction being able to apply it on multiple mobs at once thanks to Jinx (which destro can spec if really really needed, but at a personal dps loss), which UH DKs can also do, but boomkins have to spend multiple casts to do. Heath/soulstones have already been mentioned. Shadowfury (destro) and glyphed shadowflame both have their uses in raid content occasionally.

All lock specs do well on multi-dot encounters - not AoE, but fights such as Valiona/Theralion where you can keep DoTs on two different targets simultaneously. Of the 13 heroic encounters in current content, this is a definite benefit on 8 of them (but then again, boomkins and SPs can do the same thing extremely well). Dark Intent is a pretty powerful raid dps buff as well, especially on those multi-dot encounters.

[Epimer]

I have never gotten a warlock high in levels. The reason is pretty simple. They are fantastically easy to level through questing, but when you get in a dungeon, they play completely different.

I'm levelling a Warlock alt just now, and Demo is pretty stupidly easy to play in dungeons (I've done everything up to SM: Cath so far). Since you get Rain of Fire at level 18 and low-level dungeons are complete AoE-fests, it's just a matter of DoTing up a couple of things while the Felguard charges in, then Rain of Fire your way to the top of the meters. It might be even better to just skip DoTs entirely for the benefit of more Rain of Fire time, I dunno.

[Passionario]

Aside from that niche, for what reason would you bring a Warlock (of any spec) as opposed to any other class?

We have four raiding Shadow Priests (including yours truly), and only one Warlock to buff us with Dark Intent.

[theckhd]

It's funny, I'm on the other side of the Warlock fence. I found leveling to be fast but boring (drain tank to 70, dot 8 mobs and let felguard cleave from 70-80, nuke single mobs as Destro 80-85). What I really enjoy about the class is how it plays while raiding.

[Shoju]

It's funny, I'm on the other side of the Warlock fence. I found leveling to be fast but boring (drain tank to 70, dot 8 mobs and let felguard cleave from 70-80, nuke single mobs as Destro 80-85). What I really enjoy about the class is how it plays while raiding.

I should try and get a warlock capped. Everyone says that they are fun to raid on, but it just seems to be a completely different play style as opposed to what you do while leveling. I just found it irritating that I can mow through questing on one so fast, only to realize I feel lock stupid in a dungeon.

[Gracerath]

We have a 10 man group with ~13-14 people that we have on our invite list at any given time. We usually end up with 11 or so on raid time and we swap a tank or healer around as needed.

1 DK (Blood)
2 Pally (Prot and holy)
2 Shaman (Enh and Resto)
2 Druid (Resto)
2 Rogue
2 War (Fury and Prot)
1 Hunter
1 Mage

I have no idea how this comp will play out if we start tackling heroic modes but those are a while yet. We just killed Cho'gall in one night of attempts (6 or 8 wipes I think) but we haven't made it to Nefarion yet. For some reason.. we can't repeat our Atremedes kill..

[Flex]

1 Prot Paladin
1 Prot Warrior
1 Rogue
1 Fury Warrior
1 Hunter
1 Mage
1 Elemental Shaman
1 Resto Druid
1 Holy Paladin
1 Holy Priest

We also have subs of
1 Moonkin Druid
1 Warlock

Amazingly enough our primary raid group only has one role with overlapping gear, in the tanks, and we just alternate who gets what.

[Chunes]

We have a 10 man group with ~13-14 people that we have on our invite list at any given time. We usually end up with 11 or so on raid time and we swap a tank or healer around as needed.

1 DK (Blood)
2 Pally (Prot and holy)
2 Shaman (Enh and Resto)
2 Druid (Resto)
2 Rogue
2 War (Fury and Prot)
1 Hunter
1 Mage

I have no idea how this comp will play out if we start tackling heroic modes but those are a while yet. We just killed Cho'gall in one night of attempts (6 or 8 wipes I think) but we haven't made it to Nefarion yet. For some reason.. we can't repeat our Atremedes kill..

You will likely do fine until maloriak. the lack of a bubble or holy priest on that fight, as well as chimaeron heroic is a pretty significant disadvantage my group found.

[Tekkel]

We just got our raidgroup a bit more stable and started on heroic 10 mans.
2 Warrior(Dps and Tank)
1 DK(dps)
1 Mage
1 Warlock
1 Priest(holy/disc)
1 Druid(resto)
3 Shaman(2x resto +Ele)
3 Pally(tank+dps+holy)
1 Hunter

What I really don't miss these days is rogues. It feels like that class vanished from all groups I join. I do enough randoms on different toons and the last 2 weeks I've seen about 1 rogue. It probably has to do with the fact that rogues bring jack shit these days and are not on top of the dps charts.

[tinalt]

Our raid group keeps growing as people seem to come back from breaks, or RL suddenly calms down enough to let them play. We have 3 tanks that do a rotation so we all get spots. As of right now we have

1 DK - blood
2 Paladins - 1 holy/1prot
1 Hunter - Survival
1 Mage - fire
2 Priests - 1 holy/ 1 disc
1 Shaman - ele
2 Warriors - 1 prot/ 1 fury
1 Druid - feral

This is our "main" raid group that is there pretty much every week, we also have a resto shaman, another prot pally, and alts that get swapped in on occasion. we really need to start another group.

so far just normal 10 mans, killed cho'gall, currently wiping on nef and al'akir.

[Flex]

the fact that rogues bring jack shit these days and are not on top of the dps charts.

Rogues bring a pretty large single target damage increase.

[Chunes]

the fact that rogues bring jack shit these days and are not on top of the dps charts.

Rogues bring a pretty large single target damage increase.

Yep.

A well-played rogue is a thing of beauty. Tekkel, I think you don't really know what you're missing out on.

[thatguy]

Rogue + Flame Laser Kiting during Air Phase on Atramedes = Win

Evasion Tanking on Chimaeron During Phase 2 = Double Win

A well played rogue is something special.