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I mentioned previously that I've only taken a warlock to level 7. At that point, you won't have a good idea of the full playing style and potential of a class. However, my new warlock is at level 33 and I'm slowly getting used to the play style. This class definitely has to be one of the harder classes to learn because you'll initially be faced with a lot of abilities and understanding which ones to use and when  takes time.  I do think that this class edges out the hunter slightly in terms of being harder to play because of the poor armor allowed for this class.  Also, for me at least, it wasn't exactly obvious which talent trees nor pets to use, especially considering that I started out as Demonology for my spec.

Compared to my hunter, my warlock has died more.  I think part of it is that he doesn't have the same aggro dropping abilities compared to the hunter. Also, in using the voidwalker, Felguard and Felhunter even, I have a great deal of difficulty lowering my threat. I never use the so-called dot-dot-dot-fear tactic that supposedly has made some warlocks (in)famous.

Besides, that it's definitely one of the more resource intensive classes.  You have to essentially manage up to four different pools: health, mana, your pet's health and your soul shards.  This can be very tricky as you might be tempted to do things like sacrifice your health to keep your pet or mana up.  But in some cases, I found that I simply lacked the mana or health to overcome an encounter. Given another class like a paladin, I might've had a far simpler time just with the armor and health buffs.

However, as I moved towards the upper 20's, I found that the flow was a lot smoother.  I don't know if this was a direct result of the way I spec'd my talents, the addition of glyphs or just getting used to the game play. But I have noticed that the vast majority of your core abilities are gained at the lower levels. Perhaps at those levels with the lower mana pool, mobs having less health and the warlock missing some talent points, you might experience some frustration. I found myself initially wanting to use my entire range of dots and capabilities. However, I read that at lower levels at least, this might not be necessary and in fact more than likely is a complete waste of mana.

In my 30's now, I've managed to establish a rotation and don't find myself being completely depleted of mana. One thing I did do though was purchase dual specialization and added the Affliction talent tree. I switched over temporarily to test out this tree and use the voidwalker as my tank. Right now, I do have problems establishing initial aggro with my voidwalker compared to the Felguard (because the Felguard receives the pursuit ability) and quite often find myself establishing too much threat.  At any rate, I'll have to play with both trees to see which I like better. At the moment, I'm leaning more towards Affliction as my glyphs generally are more focused towards that.

Regardless, the bottom line is that I definitely would not suggest taking a warlock for a new player. It's a lot to handle and may seem overwhelming compared to something simpler like a paladin, mage or warrior even.