For one, warlocks are actually a difficult class to play well. We have a ton of different dots, curses, and pets at our disposal which is great, but also makes it very challenging to do the right thing at the right time. Proper management is something few attain.
Fear is a powerful form of cc "if" used correctly. In pve, the actual usefulness is quite limited. The vast majority of mobs are social creatures and are therefore linked in combat if near another mob. That makes it a challenging form of cc as instead of providing you with a form of defence, it can cause greater damage upon yourself. If you are skilled enoigh, you can fear ping pong a mob by alternating CoR with another non-damaging curse, but that almost effectively takes your damage abilities out of the equation really quick.
One of the more challenging aspects of being a warlock is the time factor. Most toons in wow have the ability to either burst an opponent down or mitigate damage enough to outlast them. Warlocks have neither. We are a very fragile class and our spells take a minimum of 15-24 seconds to take effect. And that is only after you have applied them. If you are uninterupted, you can apply enough dots to kill someone with low-medium health in 9-12 seconds, but reality rarely allows you that luxury. In most situations we are far too busy trying to run away/getting interupted that we don't get the time to cast enough dots. That leaves us with little options at that point. We can try get a fear off, but that is far too often silenced, sheeped, pummeled, kicked, etc., or we can use death coil. Death coil is an instant cast 3 second horror effect that can only be used once every 2 minutes. It really only provides us with a window to try one last effort.
On average, if I'm being attacked, I am dead in 6-10 seconds. Not enough time to kill my opponent. Even if I do manage to apply enough dots, I'm still likely to die before my opponent does. A quick heal, pot, or bandage and anyone can survive through my dots.
With the deminishing returns on fear, it is nothing more then an interupt or a very short lived cc. Fear is broken, unreliable, and for the most part useless spell.
Pets are an interesting topic. We have an immense amount of potential with them, but again, only in certain situations. The imp has fireball which when used, serves as another dot. He is extremely fragile though and the slightest damage will put him under.
The voidwalker is a pve tank. That is it. It can be used as an extra 30 second 1000 damage shield, but then you lose it.
The succubus is a pretty lass who can put out decent dps and can seduce. She also is extremely fragile. Seduce shares the deminishing returns of fear and is even less reliable.
The felhunter is a caster killer as it has high magic resistance, increases casting time with its damage, and can silence. To be effective though, it takes intense micromanagement. It doesn't do much damage.
The felguard is great dps, medium armor, and can charge. To get him you have to spec down demonology though. It is ok for undergeared locks, but you lose most of your effectiveness if it is cc'd. Plus you don't have much talents to work with either.
We also get the doomguard and inferno which were unreliable, costly, and ineffective at 60 and have never scaled beyond that.
If you have the right pet at the right time and you know how to use them, they can be a good asset.
Can we do lots of damage? Yes, in the right situations. But really, we have nothing else.
Fear is a powerful form of cc "if" used correctly. In pve, the actual usefulness is quite limited. The vast majority of mobs are social creatures and are therefore linked in combat if near another mob. That makes it a challenging form of cc as instead of providing you with a form of defence, it can cause greater damage upon yourself. If you are skilled enoigh, you can fear ping pong a mob by alternating CoR with another non-damaging curse, but that almost effectively takes your damage abilities out of the equation really quick.
One of the more challenging aspects of being a warlock is the time factor. Most toons in wow have the ability to either burst an opponent down or mitigate damage enough to outlast them. Warlocks have neither. We are a very fragile class and our spells take a minimum of 15-24 seconds to take effect. And that is only after you have applied them. If you are uninterupted, you can apply enough dots to kill someone with low-medium health in 9-12 seconds, but reality rarely allows you that luxury. In most situations we are far too busy trying to run away/getting interupted that we don't get the time to cast enough dots. That leaves us with little options at that point. We can try get a fear off, but that is far too often silenced, sheeped, pummeled, kicked, etc., or we can use death coil. Death coil is an instant cast 3 second horror effect that can only be used once every 2 minutes. It really only provides us with a window to try one last effort.
On average, if I'm being attacked, I am dead in 6-10 seconds. Not enough time to kill my opponent. Even if I do manage to apply enough dots, I'm still likely to die before my opponent does. A quick heal, pot, or bandage and anyone can survive through my dots.
With the deminishing returns on fear, it is nothing more then an interupt or a very short lived cc. Fear is broken, unreliable, and for the most part useless spell.
Pets are an interesting topic. We have an immense amount of potential with them, but again, only in certain situations. The imp has fireball which when used, serves as another dot. He is extremely fragile though and the slightest damage will put him under.
The voidwalker is a pve tank. That is it. It can be used as an extra 30 second 1000 damage shield, but then you lose it.
The succubus is a pretty lass who can put out decent dps and can seduce. She also is extremely fragile. Seduce shares the deminishing returns of fear and is even less reliable.
The felhunter is a caster killer as it has high magic resistance, increases casting time with its damage, and can silence. To be effective though, it takes intense micromanagement. It doesn't do much damage.
The felguard is great dps, medium armor, and can charge. To get him you have to spec down demonology though. It is ok for undergeared locks, but you lose most of your effectiveness if it is cc'd. Plus you don't have much talents to work with either.
We also get the doomguard and inferno which were unreliable, costly, and ineffective at 60 and have never scaled beyond that.
If you have the right pet at the right time and you know how to use them, they can be a good asset.
Can we do lots of damage? Yes, in the right situations. But really, we have nothing else.