- Purple Warlock DC

First Impressions
The Visionary Purple Warlock DC, released in June 1998, is a striking bowling ball that presents itself visually in a deep, shimmering violet. This model marked an important technological step for the manufacturer, as it was purposely designed for an aggressive backend reaction. The cover consists of a specially developed pearl reactive blend that comes with a very smooth, polished finish out of the box. This combination of pearl material and glossy surface is consistently aimed at giving the ball an absolute maximum of length through the heads. Inside the ball works the asymmetric DC Core it is named after, with the abbreviation DC standing for Differential Control. At a ball weight of 15 pounds, this core delivers a medium RG of 2.540 combined with a strong differential of 0.048 as well as a slight intermediate differential of 0.006. These specific technical specifications point to a ball motion in which forward energy is stored extremely long and released only very late. The interplay of the polished surface and the dynamically rotating, asymmetric core should make the ball glide completely clean through the front boards, only to then execute a sharp and sudden change of direction at the breakpoint.
Comparison Comparing the Visionary Purple Warlock DC to a modern, strong solid ball like the Storm Phaze II makes the completely opposing design philosophies clearly visible. The Storm Phaze II uses a strong solid cover in combination with a symmetric core that has a very low RG. This results in an early, arcing and exceptionally smooth reaction. The Storm ball reads the lane early and offers massive traction in oil. The Purple Warlock DC, on the other hand, is conceived as a classic skid-snap ball. It ignores the oiled areas in the heads almost completely and absolutely requires considerably more friction at the end of the oil pattern in order to develop its hook at all. While the Storm Phaze II finds a steady and predictable move to the pocket even at moderate to high oil volume, the Purple Warlock DC reacts far more extremely to dry areas and creates an incomparably sharper angle. If you also bring in the later Visionary Warlock DC Tour Edition as a direct in-house comparison, the orientation of the original Purple Warlock DC becomes even clearer. While the Tour Edition rolls extremely early and heavy with its matte surface, the violet original delivers far more length and a much more explosive end phase, which makes it noticeably more agile on dried-up conditions.
On the Lanes In practical use, the Visionary Purple Warlock DC proves to be an outstanding tool for medium to lighter oil patterns as well as for phases of advanced transition. When the heads are heavily played out over the course of a tournament and early-reacting balls lose too much energy, this ball can show its true strengths. Thanks to the extremely smooth surface and the asymmetric core, it glides completely effortlessly through the dried-out boards in the front part of the lane without losing steam early or burning up. If you like to play your balls far outside and depend on a strong rebound at the breakpoint, you should benefit massively from this late but very aggressive reaction. For bowlers with lower ball speed, the ball also offers the absolutely necessary length to keep it from turning toward the pocket too early. On fresh or heavily oiled conditions, however, the ball is only usable to a limited extent, since the pearl cover cannot build up enough traction here. In such situations the ball quickly loses its dynamic punch, often slides past the pins without effect, and carry suffers considerably. All in all, the Purple Warlock DC should be an excellent option when you're looking for clean length and an explosive, clearly defined path into the pin deck on heavily worn house patterns, without losing control over the late hook.