The real threat problem

I'm probably one of the biggest "make your tanks better" person when threat problems come to the boards. All four tank classes have the tools to pull through the sort of threat warlocks and mages put out on gimmick fights. Enough have done it that the only explanation for those that can't do the same on ungimmicked fights is a lack of skill.

But if it's so simple, then why do warlocks specifically get singled out as the agro whores? Well... There is a threat issue, but it's not with warlocks. It's with almost everybody else.

Let's go through a catalog of threat reduction in the game:

Death Knights have 20% passive in DPS presences, and can spec for another 25% for a potential 45% threat reduction
Elemental shamans have 30% for 3 talent points
Enhancement shamans have 30% for 1 talent point
Balance druids have 30% for 2 points

Feral druids have 30% passive in cat form
Retribution paladins have 30% for 3 points

Rogues have 30% passive reduction with a 100% drop
Shadow priests have 25% for 3 points
Warriors have 20% passive in battle/berserker stance, fury can spec for an additional 10% passive for a full 30%
Arcane mages have 40% for 2 talent points and a 100% drop on a long cooldown that's not always reliable


As you can see, all the specs above have at least 20%, most have at least 30% passive reduction, and none give up single target DPS talents to get threat reduction (you actually can't see this, but all I can say is check the spec threads on EJ or the individual class forums).



Now, for the rest of the classes:
Hunters have no threat reduction, but a relatively reliable 100% drop on a very short cooldown - it's not 100% reliable, but it really only needs to work once to get them through a fight. There are fights that it doesn't work on at all, or is very unreliable, and on those fights hunters have significant threat issues.

Demonology warlocks have none without sacrificing DPS talents, but split their DPS with a pet, so their personal threat generation is actually fairly low.

Frost mages have 10% for 2 points, but don't do DPS to make it a serious issue. 3.3 is improving their DPS significantly, but by way of making water elementals permanent pets in PVE, so their threat isn't going to be going through the roof, all the new threat will be on their pet.


Affliction has 10% for 2 points at the cost of DPS talents. Affliction's low DPS keeps it a nonissue right now, but that's likely to change in 3.3. Their slower ramp up time will be a considerable help, though. Back loaded DPS may generate the same threat as front loaded, but it generates a smoother threat curve that isn't likely to spike ahead of the tank suddenly. On the other hand, affliction has no "off" switch if it's in danger of pulling threat - half of it's DPS will continue undeterred if the warlock pulls off entirely.

Destruction has 10% for 2 points, 1 of which is at the cost of DPS talents in 0/13/58.

In addition, to set warlocks apart from fire mages, who are in almost the same situation, fel synergy, fel armor, and soul leech healing and life tap, dark pact, and improved soul leech (the immediate return, not replenishment) all generate healing threat.


So why not buff mage and warlock threat reduction to 30% like just about everyone else? Well, to be honest, that's probably the easiest option. It'll go down easier than an accross-the-board nerf to almost every class in the game. Even mages won't be untouched, as arcane has significantly superior threat reduction to fire or frost.


However, Blizzard's defense in the past about doing just this has been that they don't want raids to ignore threat. They want threat to be an important mechanic in raids, to influence what people do and how they handle certain encounters. And that's good, threat management is a major part of PVE and keeps DPS from blindly pushing buttons until loot falls out - buffing warlock threat reduction would put the game to the point that threat was just about trivial.


But on the other side of the coin, most classes are already to the point that they can simply ignore threat. Destruction warlocks and to a lesser extent fire mages can't, and can potentially be quite constrained by threat issues, especially with undergeared or underperforming tanks. Hunters feel the same pain on Razorscale, among other fights, where fein death doesn't work.


Blizzard really needs to decide whether threat's meant to be a serious raid mechanic, or only a serious raid mechanic for fire mages and destruction warlocks and nobody else.