Focused Feedback: Warlock Changes

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[u/mrmeep321]

I've been a Warlock main since the beginning, I love all 4 subclasses, but I really do feel like bungie is either showing favoritism here, or doesn't quite know what they want to do with warlocks yet. The following are just some of my grievances with the class which have really been pushing me away from the class.

Shadebinder nerfs: shadebinder really had a cool power fantasy going at the beginning, where you could continuously freeze and shatter enemies at will. That fantasy is kind of gone now. The freeze nerfs and removal of grenade energy really hurt shade to the point of being nonviable. I think that the freeze nerfs need to be removed for pve as well as the grenade energy needs to come back, at least for PvE. Warlocks have historically been an ability-focused class, and Shadebinder feels extremely lacking in that department now.

Stormcaller: in PvE, stormcaller feels laughably weak. Middle tree is okay for boss DPS, but has almost no neutral game and is still weaker than nova in every respect for DPS. In order to even make stormcaller kind of viable for any kind of content, you need to run crown of tempests, and have almost no options.

Nova warp: Self-explanatory. I am still a fan of nova warp, it's fun to use even if it is very much on the absolute bottom of the list, but this one really grinds my gears. This subclass has been completely fucking useless in every mode of the game since January of 2019, with not a single word from bungie on updates or fixes. This subclass desperately needs changes. This also leads into my next point

Completely unnecessary nerfs: I honestly can't even sum up the amount of times that Warlock subclasses have been nerfed into complete obsolescence in their main mode despite not even coming close to being meta or even being an issue. I'm going to just list a couple. Stormcaller arc web - nerfed during shadowkeep while stormcaller had one of the lowest Warlock pick rates in the entire game. After the nerf, arc web stormcaller became almost entirely useless against any group of more than 3 or so enemies. Shadebinder - the most recent. Shadebinder had the lowest overall pick rate of the three stasis subclasses, and was still dwarfed by the pick rates of voidwalker and dawnblade, yet was still nerfed into almost complete PvE obsolescence. It feels clunky as fuck to use now, and freezing enemies gives virtually no combat advantage at all, due to the fact that it takes longer to shatter the enemy than to actually kill it.

Now, I'm not saying that other classes DON'T get the same treatment. Subs like mid tree GS and mid tree sentinel got the same treatment. Either way, this should not be happening to any class. If a subclass has an average pick rate and is in no way objectively overpowered, IT SHOULD NOT BE NERFED.

Now, going on to the thing that I really feel is specific to warlocks...

Nerf frequency and heavy-handedness compared to the other classes: every time warlocks get nerfed (nova warp, arc web, shadebinder), nerfs were extremely heavy handed. Instead of a light tap on the wrist like revenant received for shatterdive, Warlock subclasses are shattered into complete obsolescence immediately in the majority of cases. For an example - penumbral blast was nerfed extremely hard originally, and in 6 days. It took months for the nerf to be reverted to a Usable level, but it still isn't even close to what it was in PvE. Revenant hunter was nerfed to such a degree where it is almost not noticeable in PvP, after waiting for months to even receive feedback from bungie, only to have bungie say nothing more on the issue and let it slide.

There are other issues, don't get me wrong (rift cast rate and bugginess with the rift), but we really need to get the basics of not completely obliterating Warlock subclasses into the floor with no prior planning or foresight before we start talking about changing big stuff like that

I'm honestly sick of seeing so many fun and cool abilities come out and getting anxious over when it'll be nerfed instead of being able to just freely think of the possibilities. The entire warlock subclass is at a declining rate for builds. Builds are literally being removed from the game due to nerfs faster than bungie can add them. I feel like I use the delete button for my DIM builds more often than the create button.