Okay, so before I get into this, I request that we all be respectful and intelligent in the comments. This should be a place of healthy discourse and idea sharing. Thank you.
I am going to talk about all of light 3.0 for Warlock in this post. I may make some comparisons, but those are not my main concern.
Let's start with Void. Void 2.0 in general was very balanced and beloved to the Warlock community. Chaos Accelerant and Devour were very iconic and still are and on the whole it was balanced.
When Void 3.0 rolled around, we saw some changes.
As far as aspects go, I think all of the aspects are very powerful. I'm glad we got a Devour aspect, although I was slightly irritated that devour was granted to other classes. Chaos Accelerant was strong enough to probably warrant that one fragment slot, and Child of the Old Gods is a really strong way to apply Weaken.
The fragments felt very easy to build into and I was generally pleased with their distinct nature and noticeable effects.
Here's my first real criticism: Grenades. I don't understand why all classes got all grenades. They were pretty iconic to the classes. It felt a little bad seeing a hunter throw an Axion Bolt, and a little weird to use a Void Spike. I believe that grenades were fine as is and should have been kept to the classes.
Now for the melees. A lot of people I know were angry about the Handheld Supernova nerf into Pocket Singularity, but I agree that it probably needed some sort of toning down. I don't mind the new version, but it's not the highlight of the subclass.
Supers: Oh boy. The Nova Bombs were fine. They stayed balanced. I don't have much else to say. Nova Warp I feel needed a buff probably, but I didn't play it much so didn't care either way.
Blink was untouched. For now.
In summary, not a whole lot of changes, but mostly ones for the better. It was interesting and fun and felt like a revamp.
Time for Solar. Oh boy...
Before WQ, solar was irrefutably both the best Warlock subclass and support subclass. It was super good at whatever it wanted ti be good at. After Void, though, it was looking more balanced every day.
The aspects were the first problem with solar 3.0. This revamp was supposed to bring originality and customization options to the subclass. Both aspect slots were required to have icarus and heat rises. We also received buffed grenades, which wasn't incredibly creative. All aspects have two fragment slots, which is fine.
I didn't have a huge problem with the fragments, and the scorch system was super fun and creative.
Healing grenades being shared is certainly irritating, as that was a very iconic Warlock support ability. We did get the best version with Touch of Flame, but it was still a nerf and a distribution.
As for the melees, Incinerator Snap is cool, and great reference to a great anime, but Celestial Fire is more practical for most activities, especially PvP.
As for supers, we have a lot to cover.
Well needed a nerf before Witch Queen probably, but with Void 3.0, we got more Bubble and Lorely. After those two things, I'm not entirely sure Well needed its Overshield taken away. It also seems odd that it didn't grant some sort of Restoration and Radiance, as it wouldn't change in function but it could hVe synergy with the subclass.
Daybreak was turned into a sort of Shell of What was. It got a nerf to tracking, and no longer was lengthened after a kill. For a short super if you are using Icarus Dash, this hurt it a lot.
In summary, Solar was pretty disappointing, with a pretty much complete loss of bottom tree Dawnblade and not much flavor. We got to spam grenades a lot, which gave is crazy damage numbers, but got boring and lame after a while.
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11 RepliesLet's move on to Arc 3.0. Before the light rework, Arc was the weakest of the subclasses for all characters. Warlock had the strongest Arc which was good, but not great. I had high hopes for this subclass after Solar's disappointment, and because I generally loved it. I remember running around as a blueberry zapping all the red bars in sight. I then learned that it wasn't very good, and shifted gears to explore Solar and Void. As far as Aspects go, I'm not thrilled with the Arc Soul nerf. It can't really hit moving targets as well now, and the amplified buff makes Getaway Artists useless. The surge melee doesn't proc melee mods, which is a [b]huge[/b] non-starter for me with buildcrafting. The Ionic Trace Aspect is pretty good, and I can understand why it's in there. The fragments just feel kind of... out of place. Some of them feel a little wonky. Arc Web should've been an aspect of some kind I feel, and the ammo sliding one is just strange. None are incredibly stellar for buildcrafting. As for grenades, Arc Web straight dipped and was given to all classes. It also felt strange for Titans to get the grenade aspect. Feels more in place for Warlocks. Melee wise, we have nothing new. The supers are not good. Stormtrance was consolidated, which is good, but took a big nerf to Landfall. It is now very difficult to pop a bubble with Stormtrance. Ionic Blink leaches your super energy like nobody's business, and Crown of Tempests is borderline mandatory after Transcendence got removed. Its nickname "Ticklefingers" is not far from the truth as it kills fairly slowly for a roaming super with very little armor. Chaos Reach needed a change and didn't get one. It's supposed to be a long range dps option, but takes too long for too little damage. A beam of pure light I feel should do a little more damage. It is actually more efficient to be doing damage if you've got a good set up than to use Chaos Reach for damage. I'm sorry. No thank you. In summary, our identity of having being amplified enhance things worked on the melees and the Arc Souls and that's it. The Emperor Palpatine power fantasy we were promised never really came about, as our Emperor Palpatine abilities were pretty much all nerfed. To summarize all. The Warlock identity is supposed to be support and raw, unbridled power. If your definition of support and power is being a little better at support than everyone else and spamming grenades, than I'm sure you're happy. Besides Void really, Light 3.0 has brought mostly nerfs and has been boring and unoriginal it seems otherwise. Thank you for your times.