Cap'n Kobold
Hero
Not arguing for anything as much as explaining that one of the reasons you may find your warlock underperforms is due to your group's playstyle not being very compatible with the way the class was designed.Your arguing for what here? I have no complaint about the warlocks not having the same spell power as standard full casters (they don't but that's fine), I also never said warlocks should do more damage. I also never said to give warlocks more spell slots ( can see the argument for 6 up front and recharge on long rest, but I don't think its necessary)
Hopefully what I've said will also come in handy if you have to advocate to your group about a houserule to rectify this: either introducing a new defensive ability at level 6 or getting Thirsting Blade for free as you suggest, or just changing the warlock to a long rest refresh like I did.