Patch 3.2 could be one of the most important in the history of arenas. But for warlocks, this is especially true. Directly, they have very few buffs, but the ones they are getting could potentially double or triple their SK100 representation in one fell swoop.

But to my own mind, warlocks are already ‘okay’. Not perfect, of course, but they are already on the rise this season. For all the doom and gloom around warlocks (and shamans for that matter), they are still above both hunters and mages in terms of high-rating representation. In fact, as the second WoTLK season draws to a close, the third is looking like it may well turn into a repeat of TBC’s.

The problem with this is that Blizzard has a well documented history of going overboard with class balance changes. Anyone who has played a warlock for a long time will be painfully aware of this. Back in the early, early days of vanilla WoW, warlocks were considered a free honour kill for most players. For a lot of season five it felt the same way and season six has seen more and more arena players move away from the traditional affliction build into the more RNG/crit-based destruction with a little success.

The irony is that despite claiming to work on stamping out RNG in arenas, Blizzard has simply shifted the emphasis – deliberately or otherwise. Traditionally, affliction was always one of the least random specs in the game. You knew what you were getting against a warlock team: DoTs, control and a mid-to-long game. The synergy with druids and their HoT style was strong and obvious. But with destruction being so reliant on crits the class has moved into elemental shaman and fire mage territory – not typically a good place to be in terms of arenas.

Now, in my eyes, the buff to warlocks (or should that be “nerf to classes that counter them?”) presents two problems. Firstly, I get the feeling that a lot of people already gave up on warlocks. As I said earlier, I don’t think the class is that bad right now – I could be wrong – but I do think that hardly anyone is playing them. After the awful state the class was in at the beginning of WoTLK, a lot of people benched their warlocks and haven’t returned. I certainly don’t see many around my own realm, even in raids and dungeons. My own warlock is currently sitting in Dalaran with full rest at level 71 gathering dust.

Secondly, improving the defence of a class which concentrates more on offense is a highly dubious decision. Yes, destruction warlocks do have problems with melee, I’m not debating that. But give strong defences to a class that can burst someone down in a few seconds without nerfing that damage presents a ridiculously obvious problem. Do we want warlocks to become the ranged version of a deathknight?

The buff to haunt/pandemic could help to bring the class back to its arena roots but is another RNG talent really what the class needs? Warlocks more than most classes walk on a razor’s edge when it comes to balance and just the slightest change can split the class down the middle. Remember ‘shadowcleave’ last season? In the middle of the warlock’s worst season ever, a couple of changes that were quickly fixed meant that the class was on top of the world and many TR teams qualified for the next phase based purely on that strength. For a short time warlock/deathknight/paladin was the new WLD.

The point is that a few changes can push the class from below average to near God mode and that equilibrium is rarely found. While it will be nice to see affliction make a return, doing X amount more damage than everyone else (where X = resilience) is sure to put warlocks back on the ‘most hated’ list. But hey, at least we might see some casters in 2v2 now!

The world's first weekly esports column, The Zechs Files, returns next Tuesday.