The Warlock is a new spellcasting class introduced to the realm of Midgard with the Catacombs expansion pack. The premise behind the Warlock, is a frontloading spellcaster - i.e. they deliver the majority of their damage per second (DPS) in the first 6 thought 9 seconds of a battle, after which point, their damage over time drops well below that of a mainline caster - until the mainline caster is out of power - at which point, the Warlock regains the DPS advantage. A very interesting "U" shaped graph is the best way to describe warlock DPS. (Damage per second).

Immediatly, alarm claxons began sounding at the description of the warlock class. I began to think of the other late, great frontloader... the pre-1.65 Berzerker. You remember them... buffed Troll Berzerkers, with zero quick built into their spellcrafting template, wielding the biggest, slowest cleavers in each hand, coupled with the potential for 100% crits in Vendo form, maximizing the DPS over the short term in such a way as to kill even high durability classes in a few blows - a trade off in damage over time for raw, upfront destruction - i.e. frontloading. If this type of frontloading, which was resulting in the deaths of mainline hibernian tanks in 2-3 blows, was deemed unacceptable for a melee class, what would the reaction be, to a new character type, able to deliver an even GREATER frontload, and do so, from RANGE?

You guessed it - almost universally negative. Well... allow me to rephrase this - almost universally negative from the perspective of Hibernians and Albions. The vast majority of Midgardians are quite happy with the Warlock "frontload-of-doom" - by and large, becasue they are not on the recieving end of it. There are many attempts to justify the Warlock frontload by pointing at Sorcerors and/or Hibernian baseline stun spells, but, I consider this to be a cop-out. Akin to justifying car theft becasue somebody stole your wallet.

After seeing a few Warlocks in action, and after a few test duels, in which a level 47 Realm Rank (RR) 1.1 warlock (EDIT: Chimpi Has corrected me on this - he was level 45 at the time and he was RR 1.8). completely decimated my realm rank 10 thane, realm rank 7.7 shamen, and my realm rank 4.9 skald, I decided that somebody needed to examin this class, and present the nuts and bolts of it for the DAoC community at large. Rather than simply "talk" on the VN forums - like so many members of the Thane VN community - I decided that I would back up my writings with actions - and thus, Contention, the Warlock was born. I decided that I would take him to realm rank 5, and then, present my thoughts, opinions, and reactions to the class, based on actual play expirence, testing, and logs.

PvE was very easy for my warlock. 40+ I found myself very welcome in Modernagrav groups thanks to my ability to use point blank area effect magic, (PBAoE), or spread healing spells (SH) as needed. Numerous times I was able to avert group whipes with the uninterrutpable spell primer plus PBAoE's or SH's.

A good portion of my time was also spent soloing in instanced task dungeons - where I had a very easy time of things, and made quite alot of gold. The warlock is one of the few non-pet casters that can very easily engauge mosnters from close range - thanks largely to it's chambers and steady cast spells - which allow it to easily dispatch yellows/reds from melee range. Down time was very low, due to the powerless nature of chamber magic, and the extreamely low power cost of the "double spells" which I used most of the time. When I refrence "double spells" I am referring to the warlock's ability to cast two spells simultaniously - a primary spell, (Direct Damage, Healing Spell, Root, or a Bolt), and a secondary spell, (Lifetap, PBAoE, SH, Damage Over Time (DOT), Frogshape, or Nearsight), which hit the target simultaniously. The power of the single target heal, spread heal, and self power regeneration buff, was a tremendous boon for downtime reduction - as well as the tireless ability - a trait normally reserved for melee classes - which allows the warlock to regenerate endurance at a constant rate - and thus, a warlock, unlike other spellcasters, will typically have a full bar of endurance to kite or run away with. EDIT: The Warlock Team Lead has provided the following information in regard's to the rational behind Warlock's possession of the "Tireless" ability:

For leveling equipment, I gave myself a budget of 2 platinum pieces. I made a day of consignment merchant shopping, and bought a suit of 99% level 51 cloth, as well as some cheap catacombs jewelry, with usefule PvE statistics. (Blade turn reienforcement, defensive bonus, and % to power cap). I used my 502 level spellcrafter to cap melee resists, constitution, hit points, dextarity, Cursing, and piety on the player made armor (no overcharge on any of the gear). With the last 800 gold pieces, I purchased a used (91 durability) Duskwood Staff of Heavenly Bodies off a consignment merchant.

Around level 47, I aquired my three artifacts from Atlantis - Naliah's Robes, Belt of the Moon, and the Stone of Atlantis. I then traveled to the Passage of conflict to level these pieces of equipment, and finish the road to 50.

While leveling my artifacts in the Passage of Conflict (PoC), I got my first tastes of PvP combat - and quickly began to realize exactly how overpowered the warlock was againt a single combatant.

Crossing the bridge at Glenlock, was where I met my first attacker - the RR 10 Nightshade Cindy. Cindy opened the fight with a Backstab which stunned me, and then strafed to the side of me, where, I am assuming, he was using the side style Pincher. The stun broke with me at 32% life. I faced my attacker, and mashed 1,2,3 (my chambers), as fast as I could. In 4 seconds, a RR 10, artifact encrusted nightshade, was dead at the feet of a RR 1.1, level 47 warlock in PvE equipment. I was agast. I had fought this particular assassins many times on my RR 10 thane, and rarely was the result my victory. To so effortlessly, and quickly have destroyed this person, was, to say the least, one of my first wake-up calls to extent of the overpoweredness of the warlock.

Over the next week, while leveling my Artifacts, I racked up a litinay of kills - players from enemy realm that either attacked me on the bridges as I moved to the PoC, or players who came inside looking for a fight. My victims included:

Tiberiuss, Funkamealo, Evy, Cindy, Llewd, Rangerbill, Stealthyblade, Motiv, Silentservant, Mscleo, Drudgery, Zilan, Sinogi, and a litinary of other very very high realm rank attackers who all looked at the "Skiltvakten" tag, and thought they saw easy realm points. When you consider my RR and equipment, I should have been destroyed in moments, but, as it turned out, I was killing realm rank 9 and 10 players as fast as I could zap them with my chambers.

Was my success relying on very sophisticated tactics, complex manuevers, powerful gear, or the advantage of catching my target by suprise at range? No. I was simply pressing 3 buttons while facing them, and watching thousands of hours of their effort crumple into a dead smoldering heap at my feet.

It quickly became aparent, that, regardless of who had the momentum at the outset of any encounter with my Warlock, my ability to both deal massive instantanious damage, and also heal myself while in the act of killing my attacker, would nearly always carry the fight in any sort of 1:1 match up. The only difficult fights I encountered were against:

An eldrich who made excellent use of his two forms of his crowd control (CC), nearsight, and bolts. It came down to inituative - whoever gets the nearsight off wins.

A Half-Ogre Mercenary named Zavits, whose entire RA scheme was dedicated to magic damage reduction. (Banelord was also VERY helpful to him). Last i spoke with him, he had capped equipment resists, empty mind/avoidance of magic to very high levels, as well as charge to close the distance and ignore pain.

Beyond that, virtually any single person that ran across me alone with my chambers up, died in 4-6 seconds barring a disasterous series of resists. EDIT: Since purchasing Mastery of Focus Level 2, I have noticed a substantial reduction in the rate of resists. The vast majority of deaths incurred during my leveling phase were to multiple assailants or me being attacked - usually after killing one person already - with my chambers down.

Quickly I realized, the most imporntant thing for a warlock to buy is purge 2. This would mitigate the only things that could prevent me from facing my attacker and blowing them apart - Stuns and/or Nearsight. As I progressed in RR, I eventually bought Purge 3, and now, I have no fear of hib baseline stuns, assassin cit strikes, ect. Currently, the only way to prevent me from killing someone 1:1 nearly instantaniously, is Forceful Zephyer. EDIT: Now that I am more focused on group combat, I have re-specced my RA's to to Purge 2, as our group environment has support classes to help save me in the event I become incapasitated.

In my opinion - with the toolset this class was given, virtually any battle is already in the win colum from the outset - you have to screw up to give your opponent an opportunity to win - and, it's not terribly hard to "screw up" pressing 1,2,3 - if you mix in uninterruptable cast Life Taps while pressing chambers, the carnage only escalates. Based on my playtime in all three realms, and on numerous level 50 classes, I am of the opinion, that Warlocks are about as close to an absolutely skill-devoid class as I have ever played. I take no credit for any kill I have gotten on this class [the Warlock] as, in none of those situations, do I believe my Thane, Skald, Shadowblade, or Shamen could have won fights where my attacker(s) had such an inituative, skill, equipment, or realm rank advantage. To put it simply - in my opinion, and based on my expirences - a Warlock's frontload is virtually unsurvivable by most of the player base in 1:1 scenerios.

The nuts and bolts of the matter, is the warlock is the dominant force in 1:1 combat at this time. Not much is going to win this match-up, and this, in my opinion, is where the warlock is most need of adjustment. You have the ability to heal yourself, both directly with heals/spread heals, and with VERY high damage lifetaps, which goes a long way to negate what should be the great weakness of a cloth wearer - their fragility. And un-like other llife stealing casters, the the warlock does NOT have to rely on high realm ranks, master levels, or timered realm abilties to aquire this durability - all he needs is chambers -or- a full bar of power.

As a Warlock, you posess Bolts, Direct Damage, PBAoE, a DOT, Roots, and a Unique Frogform Snare. Not to mention Nearsight, which is basically an instant victory v.s. most any other caster. This is not even mentioning the insta cast hambers and the primers. In my opinion, the Warlock is an unprecidented combination of utility and potency, all supported by a delivery system, that does nothing but MAGNIFY the utility of the warlock spell list. Of these, the uninterruptable primer, is in my mind, the worst offender.

Now, for those of you unfamiliar with warlocks, steady cast is a "primer spell" that a warlock chooses before casting a spell. Each primer has a different effect:

The first primer allows Warlocks to any of his secondary (Hexing) spells at zero power cost. The downside of that, is it is interruptable, and the spell is locked at a 4 second cast time. EDIT: The Warlock Team Lead has provided the following correction about the powerless primer:

The next primer lets a Warlock to shoot any secondary (Hexing) spell, at a very high range, which increases based on his Witchcraft spec.

The final primer, allows a Warlock, at a cost of a large percentage of his power, to cast at FULL CASTING SPEED, and UNINTERRUPTABLY, any of his secondary (Hexing) spells. How much power is used, is based on the Warlock's Witchcraft spec.

Now, from my perspective, the real abuse appears, when a player uses % to power pool items and/or power cap gear, to basically DOUBLE the number of steady cast spells they are able to cast. Due to power cap and % power bonus equipment, players are exceeding the built in limitations on the Steady Cast Primer. When you jump from THREE to SIX uninterruptable casts, (for the cookie cutter 43\12\30 Warlock spec with a 35% power bonus on equipment), well... you basically have a class that, for all intents and purposes, has damage penalty-free MoC, (Mastery of Concentration), on demand. Needless to say, a Warlock with Raging Power, Jacinia's Sash, or Tartaros' Gift, would be a truely massive horror to have to deal with in any sort of single combat.

Group base RvR was a change from single combat. I found that in most cases, the frontloading of the warlock to be less able to bring about the swift annilation of people - particularly in well supported enemy gank groups. (By well supported I mean the presence of 2-3 group support specced players). The presence of matter resistance buffs, the Divine Intervention realm ability, as well as multiple primary healers, makes it VERY difficult to actually kill somebody with the warlocks frontload. More and more, I find the strongest thing about the warlock in group rvr to be their spread heal, mine - which heals for 460, is in my opinion, my strongest asset - particularly for my ability to spam it free of power cost after a friendly seer resurects me. (A warlock is marked for immediate disposal by his chambers). Typically I will unload my chambers on a druid or a cleric, in hopes I hit the one that is not covered by Divine Intervention, then try to escape enym line of sight, which allows me to constantly cast powerless spread heals. (This is admittidly difficult - Warlock advertise their presence more than most). While alternating powerless spread heals with full casting speed un-interruptable casts as needed, I can greatly prolong my groups lifespan. The Frogshape was useful in crippling charge tanks, and the Nearsight is helpful on casters.

So, my conclusion on group RvR, is that I find the Warlock's real strength's are not the massive frontload, but the utility found in the Hexing spelline. While the warlock does have a tremendous number of tools, I don't feel that the class is as overpowered in a group setting as they are 1:1. As I have said - The Warlock chamber frontload, which is ANNILATION 1:1, is not such a big deal against a well balance group of foes - as good support plus resistance buffs can usually keep the warlock's target alive through the 4-6 seconds barrage of damageing magic. Admittidly, there is an advantage in completely destroying an enemy group's divine intervention in 4-6 seconds, but I find my power is usually better spent Frogshaping enemy tanks, Nearsightning enemy casters, and using spread heals on my group mates.

Since the merger of the Galahad server with Morgan La Fey, I have had ample time to participate in siege warfare. Oh god... where to start... what a perfect class for defending any sort of fortification. The ability to load a Bolt plus Dot in your third chamber, in combination with your range primer to deliver the bulk of your Hexing line at extreame range, allows you to brutalize people on your timetable - i.e. only when it is most advantagous for you - with your chambers up and a full bar of power. Until the doors of a keep/tower are breeched, I feel that only the Animist exceeds a Warlock in terms of ravaging enemies attacking a fortification. Unless a player has capped matter resistance, or a nearbye group support, the Warlock frontload Bolt + DOT Chamber + range primer Lifetap combo, which can be timed to all hit nearly simultaniously, is a virtual death sentance. A Warlock player can to hide behind walls and battlements, until a target moves into range, then pop himself into LOS, unload chambers while range primer casting Lifetaps, and unless VERY well supported, that person is going to die. If you start taking archer fire from moving into line of sight, simply straif back out of line of sight, and start using your uninterruptable cast primer + spread heals - even the arrows hitting from out of line of sight will have a hard time killing you.

Another potent tactic, (that is a near sure kill against enemy casters), is to cast a Bolt plus Lifetap directly, and just as the your casting animation finishes, use a Bolt pluse Lifetap chamber - the end result will be two Bolts and two high damage Lifetaps hitting the enemy caster is such rapid succession, that nothing short of resisted spells or the Divine Intervention RA will save them from an isntant death.

So these are my observations of the warlock class, based the time it has taken me to reach Realm Rank 5. In my opinion, The Warlock class is as near to "god mode" in any sort of 1:1 conflict as can be found in Dark Age of Camelot. The Warlock is solid and very group worthy in 8:8 combat, with a great deal of utility and group support potential to offset the lessened effectiveness of his frontload, due to the presence of hostile group support. In siege combat, (and any fortification defense), a Warlock is a "tower humper's" wet dream, capable of dishing out carnage and mayham on his own time table.

I feel, the majority of any adjustment's to the Warlock need to focus on how this class performs in PvP combat - where they are currently, in my opinion, placed at the top of the food chain by a large margin - and their lethality in siege situations, where a Warlock can prowl, like a spider perched in a web, waiting for the opportunity to set up a nearly unsurvivable catastrophy for his victim.