I would like to bring up a topic that I have been noticing within the game.

As can be seen on the latest seasonal server, the presence of warlocks has been decreasing at an alarming rate. This is largely due to the gameplay style, which differs significantly from the other mage classes. While the pyromancer can move forward and deal area damage with ease, and the shaman now has the option to use Hailstorm freely without a target, the warlock has ended up falling behind. Even though its party damage is strong, when it comes to hunting while moving, it becomes the worst gameplay style in the game. It is extremely exhausting for the player to have to turn every 2 seconds just to cast a single spell during a hunt that can last up to 2 hours.

When hunting with other mages or rangers, there is a constant need to move and lure new creatures all the time, running forward and turning nonstop in order to remain useful during the hunt. Meanwhile, rangers, shamans, and pyromancers can simply keep moving forward with the mouse positioned behind them and cast significant area damage spells.

In hunts with a blocker, at certain moments Cross becomes extremely useful, being one of the best sources of damage in the game for party hunting. Even so, it comes with some difficulty, because if there are too many monsters on the screen, it is often impossible to stay in the correct position to hit the box, which makes the hunt less efficient.

I cannot say for sure whether I can help solve this, but I have two suggestions that could be discussed.

Option 1
Give players the option to cast Cross either on the target or on the cursor, but perhaps with a slightly smaller area, with a use similar to Tibia’s GFB.

Option 2
Create a new spell that can be used on the target or cursor, with the same area as Cross but dealing 70–80% of its damage.

These options would make the gameplay more flexible, giving players the freedom to choose how they want to hunt depending on their situation, and perhaps bringing the class back to life again.

Very nice! That's why we need players on all class on seasonal to improve some points to class balance.

Totally agree with the option 1, let give back the power to the most powerfull class of the game.

You just explained a shaman, it has the on hit AOE.

Warlock is the most unique class in the game due to it's playstyle, I would say their AOE is underpowered.
It seems most people want to change it so they can just bot/macro hunt which is sad to see.

Here are some simple ideas for a Warlock that hunts using large wave (Cross of Annihilation), small wave (Whirlwind) and 3x3 AoE (Advanced Soul Fire):

1. Distance Decay System (Risk-Based Casting)

- Warlock damage varies based on proximity to enemies.

• 1–2 tiles:
+20% base damage to Cross of Annihilation

• 3–5 tiles:
+25% base damage to Whirlwind

This creates a threat system to reward properly each type of spell.


2. Delayed Rupture (Stored Damage Release)

- Add a toggleable passive spell with magic level requirement. While active, it converts previous wave damage into a burst, allowing Advanced Soul Fire to remain impactful despite today its base damage is capped.

> Enemies track/store the damage taken only from wave spells (Cross of Annihilation and Whirlwind) over the last 5 seconds

On the next cast of Advanced Soul Fire:
• Releases 25–33% of the stored damage instantly
• This bonus damage is applied together with the base AoE damage

Advanced Soul Fire becomes a damage converter/detonator, not a primary source


3. Wave Speed Scaling (Power Feedback System)

- Makes spells feel faster and more responsive with consistent play.

After casting 4 consecutive wave spells - Cross or Whirlwind:
• -50% cooldown on next wave spell (Cross of Annihilation or Whirlwind), reducing cooldown from 2s to 1s for both spells.

Resets if:
• Player stops casting wave spells for a short duration (5s-10s)
• Healing, Buffs or non damage spells doesn't reset or count to this mechanic.

This creates a clear reward for consistency and accuracy


4. Escalating Waves (Momentum Scaling)

- Rewards sustained combat.

Each consecutive wave cast (Cross or Whirlwind):
• +5% damage (max/cap 25%)
• This bonus would only apply to PvE

Resets if:
• No wave cast for 5s or more
• Other spell besides Cross of Annihilation and Whirlwind don't count or reset the bonus.

Keeps focus on wave identity, since today Advanced Soul Fire is capped.


5. Identity Summary

Warlock becomes:

[Warlock = scaling AoE pressure + setup-based burst + positional risk]

Instead of:
> Pure burst (pyromancer)
> Sustained damage (rangers)
> Frontline control (warriors)

Option 2, I've been insisting on this for a long time... but they don't want to give the wizard any more space...

Warlocks are excellent in PvP, mainly because of their strong single-target spells.

In PvE, they are currently bad, since their main AoE wave spell has a very short range and it was heavily nerfed due to PvP balance concerns.

As a result, Warlocks have become a weak option for PvE content while also having one of the most demanding playstyles.

Hunting with wave spells forces solo players to constantly reposition and turn their character toward the lure every two seconds, which is tiring and discouraging. This is one of the main reasons why almost no one wants to play Warlock on non-PvP or servers without wars, when the players just want to hunt and leveling.

My proposal is to introduce a new spell similar to Marksman’s Arrow Volley, but instead of dealing burst damage, it would apply a damage-over-time effect (DoT), functioning as a poison spell.

Mechanics

- Affects 1 main target + up to 4 nearby monsters.

- Applies a poison effect to all affected targets.

- Like Marksman Arrow Volley, it could only affect the main target in PvP.


Cooldown - 4 seconds.


Damage Model

- 3-second poison duration.

- 3 ticks total (1 tick per second).

- Damage could be equal to Blood Leech, weakest warlock damage spell.


Design Intent

The spell prioritizes sustained damage instead of burst. This improves PvE efficiency while limiting PvP burst potential, maintaining balance between both environments.


Sprite of this new spell

The vanguard monsters cast a spell with an amazing visual effect that could be reused for this new Warlock spell:

The chances of us getting them to make a whole new spell with sprite etc then balance it is very low.
Currently I would just suggest them just un-nerfing cross and making advanced soulfire scale.

It's very easy to add a new wave or A.O.E. spell to warlocks.

For example, Arrow Volley - marksmen - was completely reworked from a small A.O.E. into a targeted spell that only deals A.O.E. damage in PvM.

The Staff could simply copy Arrow Volley, Mortal Melody, or another base spell, add a sprite from any spell cast by a monster or boss and adjust the damage. If further balancing is needed, it should be easy to handle.

What we urgently need is something to improve this subclass so it isn’t limited to just casting Cross and Whirlwind, which makes for a poor experience despite the high effort required....

Warlock subclass deserves some love </3

No one is saying it cannot be done...
What I'm saying is that takes a lot more effort than tweaking numbers of existing spells.

Rangers have been totally broken since last seasonal and mages/barbs have been down bad. The chances of us getting tweaks is far higher than them making a new spell.

One of the warlock's main buff spells, Dark Gathering, could have its lifesteal effect transferred to the other Warlock buff — Absorbing Aura — unifying the current two buffs into a single spell.

This way, Absorbing Aura would provide 24% damage negation and around 10% lifesteal. Absorbing Aura would concentrate its negation of damage (24%) + Dark Gathering's effect (HP steal).

''Dark Gathering'' could become a new AOE hunting spell and both Warlock’s buff spells would be consolidated into only one buff spell, just like happens to the other subclasses: Fortitude Growth/Shaman (35% HP + 10 negation of damage); Fire Shield/Pyromancer (12% mana shield + 16% negation of damage).

Idea to Warlock's New Spell (New Dark Gathering) - suggestion to create a new spell with similar description of current Curse spell that debuffs all monsters to receive more damage up to 20% (debuff limit).

I think a new debuff spell, especially a mass curse, can help warlocks a lot to be more requested to party hunts and fill the gap that exists in PvE of warlocks doing bad exp/h and hunt mainly solo.

Features to this New Spell:-

*AoE 5x5 sqm around the caster;

*Warlock's magic level / 4 = % debuff;

*Unable to debuff players so current Curse spell will continue to be useful against players in pvp;

*This spell don't inflict any damage just debuff the monsters.

Ex.: A warlock with magic level 40 = 10% debuff, magic level 60 = 15% debuff and finally magic level 80 = 20% debuff (max limit).

** Magic level 40+ required to the spell. Mana usage = 250. Cooldown 20s.