warlock vs binder at wills

[CIDE]

Because that's how it's listed?

And JaronK does get corrected...? Ever?

Because JaronK, while compiling his list of Tiers, placed the Warlock there. He later admitted that he didn't entirely like the warlock, nor really saw it's full potential, and that while warlocks can be tier 3 in certain builds, that those builds don't make the Warlock tier 4. That said he did regard the Warlock as being high(est) tier 4, only just under the Warblade which is regarded as the lowest in Tier 3. he also made a distinction between binders with access to online vestiges (T32) and binders without access to online vestiges (T43).

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Tier 3: Capable of doing one thing quite well, while still being useful when that one thing is inappropriate, or capable of doing all things, but not as well as classes that specialize in that area. Occasionally has a mechanical ability that can solve an encounter, but this is relatively rare and easy to deal with. Challenging such a character takes some thought from the DM, but isn't too difficult. Will outshine any Tier 5s in the party much of the time.

Tier 4: Capable of doing one thing quite well, but often useless when encounters require other areas of expertise, or capable of doing many things to a reasonable degree of competance without truly shining. Rarely has any abilities that can outright handle an encounter unless that encounter plays directly to the class's main strength. DMs may sometimes need to work to make sure Tier 4s can contribue to an encounter, as their abilities may sometimes leave them useless. Won't outshine anyone except Tier 6s except in specific circumstances that play to their strengths. Cannot compete effectively with Tier 1s that are played well.

Even a Warlock 1-20 immediatelly falls into the description of tier 3. Their item crafting is already good enough to already put them into Tier 3 because of all the extra stuff while the rest of their 'build' focuses on the one good thing the Tier 3 description mentions.

History, as others have said. There's a lot of debate about whether Warlocks are Tier 3 or Tier 4. While they have a decent range of abilities, people debate whether that puts them in the same Tier as Rangers and Rogues (able to do several things, but none all that well) or Bards and Beguilers (able to do several things well enough to meaningfully contribute).
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Except the degree that the Warlock sits above classes like the Ranger or Rogue is huge. Outside of combat it's even more versatile than the ToB classes.

I would argue that the Warlock is correctly ranked at Tier 4 until they reach mid-high levels, and even then they require a high level of game mastery to get up to Tier 3. Warlocks just have very few resources to work with, and have a hard time filling any combat Niche in a meaningful way without lots of optimization. Having "at-will" resources is usually meaningless, unless you happen to be playing in "escape from the bottom of world's largest dungeon" and your DM bans Rope Trick. And even then, the Warlock has fewer resources and can fill fewer Niches then the at-will Binder, Dragonfire Adept, Totemist, Incarnate, Swordsage, Warblade, Crusader, etc.

I'm just not seeing it. Especially when compared to the bolded classes in regards to overall versaility. One of them is literally just a dragon-lock instead of a demon/fae/whatever-lock. Other's schtick is hitting things that I didn't know was really enough for all this (also considering out of combat usefulness since that's just as big). I can kind of understand the swordsage in certain builds but a warblade..? Aside from shenanigans that some people houserule or ban anyway...just not seeing it.

Oh no. I sense a "warlock is not t4" post coming *readies umbrella*

Oh shush. They started it by even bringing up the tier system.

I'm fine with and completely agree with the above statements about the Binder's performance over the Warlocks even if thematically I love both. Especially with the additional vestiges.

It does not mean I need to agree with them about it's tier placement made initially by a person that didn't even know or like the class.