First thing to consider is what role the pet would play. Everything but healer has been done already, and I don't want to even think about a Warlock with a pet healer. The Felguard is essentially a direct upgrade to the Voidwalker, so something like that is more likely. Personally, I think a Shivarra would fit the next demon well, and act as a direct upgrade to the Succubus.
Second thing to consider is whether it would make sense from a lore point of view. As fun as it would be to summon a pet Pit Lord whenever you want, that seems unlikely. Same with the Nathrezim or the Eredar. Shivan or something we haven't seen yet seems the most likely choice.
Its possible they could go a different route entirely, and despite my enjoyment of the shivan idea, this is my personal favorite theory. Instead of giving a brand new baseline demon to Warlocks, I'm in favor of giving them a more unique spell that would fall into this area. As a sign of their mastery of demonology, the Warlock becomes capable of summoning a great number of lesser demons, rather than simply one bigger one at a time. What I mean by that is something similar to the Moonkin's treants, or a Snake Trap. Place a summoning portal, and a train of low health imps flow out to rain firebolts at your enemy for awhile. I'll leave the numbers game to the devs. Unless they want to pay me to do it, of course.*
Why is this my favorite theory? For one, its quirky. Opening a nether portal in the middle of combat is pretty sweet. Its up there with fel fire for the 'locks on the hierarchy of awesome things. Two, its a fun and effective toy to give the Demonologists, which leaves room to rebalance the 'useless' pets. They can give the voidwalker, infernal, and the doomguard the love and polish they so desperately need without worrying about the new demon encroaching on their territory. Third, opening a nether portal in the middle of combat is pretty sweet. Did I say that already?
That's just my two cents on it, really. Most everyone has ideas they'd like to see or opinions on what their class needs or what color sparkles their class should have. Trying to guess what's around the corner is never dull.
*Psssst, mail me. I work for sandwiches.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
2-02-2008 @ 5:54PM
mattarin said...
i have a lvl 22 warlock. i like the idea with a new pet at lvl 70. i think a dreadlord would be fun to have. also as for the shivarra idea, i think female warlocks can summon that and male warlocks summon a dreadlord. also they should get a spell to summon a group of imps or a group of the giant glowing rock things, infernals i think. i don't think a pet that can heal the warlock is all that great. the warlock shouldnt be in melee range of thier target anyways.
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2-02-2008 @ 5:58PM
Kamileon said...
Careful, don't say things like "Warlocks with a healer pet" someone might hear you!
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2-03-2008 @ 1:28PM
Zaringu said...
With the obsidian statue from WC3, a healing pet isn't completely outside the lore but in order to make it balanced, the entire 41-51 points for demo would have to be a healing spec sort of thing. The lock would heal through his/her pet. Either this or the heals are very short term or the pet can only be summoned for a few minutes at a time on a very long cd. (Shaman elemental totems would be a good pattern .. 2 min summon 20 min cd.)
2-02-2008 @ 6:03PM
Finnicks said...
WFGF (Warlocks For Green Fire) is henceforth disbanded.
Behold the grand opening of WFHDP (Warlocks for Healing Demon Pets)!
Costs to join is just 1g. This covers marketing/advertising as well as shipping/handling for promotional materials. Mail me in-game on Cenarion Circle for details.
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2-02-2008 @ 6:18PM
Matthew said...
Five baseline demons? I count imp, VW, Succy, Felhound, Infernal, and Doomguard, with Felguard being the Demonology-spec pet. Granted, you will probably never ever have the Infernal or Doomguard out.
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2-02-2008 @ 6:45PM
Alex Ziebart said...
You're completely right, the felguard slipped my mind entirely.
2-02-2008 @ 6:49PM
Alex Ziebart said...
FelHOUND, rather. Durr.
2-02-2008 @ 7:51PM
Christian Stricker said...
FelHUNTER, not hound!
2-02-2008 @ 6:26PM
Imogen said...
Got to say that a healing pet would be awesome. But I would settle for a Summonable Flying Mount.
Or perhaps the ability to tame a demon like hunters can tame pets. Obviously the same shrinking and standardising of skills abilities goes on and the tamed pet would just be a different looking version of an existing pet. But it would still be cool.
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2-02-2008 @ 6:32PM
Aaron said...
a Shivarra upgrade is a nice idea, seeing as I grind in affliction spec drain-tanking with the succy out for the additional dps. While succy doesn't have as good mana regen as the Imp for dark pact, it still works out well
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2-02-2008 @ 6:39PM
Mike said...
I think the next step should be for the warlock to be able to transform him or her self into a demon of some form. This would be only for a short time like an infernal t with a short duration like five min with an hour cooldown. Maybe into a pit lord or something really tough. But have it not be useable against players.
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2-02-2008 @ 6:55PM
Meira said...
Well, the only thing locks are missing is a healing minion! It would give Destro locks the survivability they need atm.
But it can't be any healing bot (you don't want candy in your mouth just to be taken by the "That's OP!" flames, now do you?): it must have Phase Shift while is not acting, the health of a succubus (not paper-like, but not great either), it can only begin healing when the Warlock's health is below X% (I would say 35% is balanced) with 1,5 sec casts and HoT's (these with large cooldowns, giving the chance to others counter those healings).
I think it would keep everyone happy and would be balanced.
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2-02-2008 @ 8:22PM
whoisblargh said...
i doubt we will get a eredar as a pet as they are a incredibly powerfull race but i'd like to see something like shadow form for the lock, something like merge were you form with your demon pet to increase dmg and armour by a number of %
it does kinda fit with with wotlk with arthas forming with ner'zhul
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2-02-2008 @ 10:01PM
Gnomelock said...
Imp - 4
Voidwalker - 10
Succubus - 20
Felhunter - 30
Felsteed - 40
Infernal - 50
Felguard (Demonology) - 50 (earliest)
Doomguard - 60
Dreadsteed - 60
I'm sad we didn't really get a level 70 demon, even a mount.
(Btw the idea of summoning multiple imps from a portal is awesome. Hell yes!)
2-02-2008 @ 9:34PM
Chip said...
I was thinking the same thing - a shivarra as a 51 point demonology talent is perfect. I was playing around with the Unleashed Gaming talent tree calculator and fleshed out what I think is a well balanced set of trees for WotLK: http://www.war-tools.com/?p=vt&i=37687
Of course, the shivarra is included. My thoughts were that she could be a high DPS pet, with a fast dual-wield attack, and a rain-of-fire-like AOE. Pretty much just like the shivarra on Blade's Edge Plateau. Less health and armor than the felguard (and no taunt), but more melee and magic damage.
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2-02-2008 @ 9:40PM
fLUx said...
As long as its not some half assed minion which lasts 5 mins, has a cooldown of an hour, and costs me around 50s, it will do...
Healing pet would be awesome, but people would only say its OP OP OP!!!!!
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2-02-2008 @ 10:25PM
winterimute said...
@Chip
That's a nice talent tree. I thought about the ability to take an enslaved demon and become it, and decided to switch out the Summon Shivarra for it.
I like the idea of the "Demonic Pact" talent for two reasons.
1) It makes the Enslaved Demon spell a lot more useful than it is now.
2) It gives Warlocks a chance to do something different with a demon
Otherwise I think what you already did in the talent trees are great, and can't think of anything much I'd really like to change.
Here's what I came up with http://www.war-tools.com/?p=vt&i=47289
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2-03-2008 @ 12:06AM
Jack Spicer said...
Its not that a warlock healing pet would be OP. Its more that no one would ever want to use it unless it was OP.
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2-03-2008 @ 3:06AM
Verit said...
As a warlock I can't wait to get another 10 points - possibly another pet. Let the qq'ing begin.
Then again I can't imagine how broken the game will be with all classes get another 10 points.
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2-03-2008 @ 6:08PM
hoviboy said...
Yay for optimism !