Class Guide Warlock

Warlock Class Guide: Index: 1.0 - Did thou misplace thy balance? 2.0 - Leveling 3.0 - PvP 4.0 - Dungeoning, Raiding, etc. 5.0 - Arena 6.0 - Talent Builds(Under Construction) 7.0 - Gear Guide 1.0 - Did thou misplace thy balance? You might think the title a joke, but seriously, I'm going to let you in on a well-known secret if you didn't already know yourself, Warlocks are what one might call the "powerhouse" class of World of Warcraft at the moment, not necessarily "over-powered" and thus in need of nerfs, just the powerhouse. Warlock's are, for the same reasons they're regarded as a powerhouse, extremely fun. The ability to not only summon multiple different demons, gaining new ones after the first imp pet at 10, 20, and level 30, each having it's own capabilities, strengths, and weaknesses, but also the numerous curses, nukes, etc. It's a quite powerful trinity of ability trees. As a good summary of warlocks, think high DPS, high survivability, and extreme solo-ability. 2.0 - Leveling Warlocks, as mentioned above, possess three main tree's, obviously the same as every other class. One little difference now would be how each and every warlock, regardless his or her build, can effectively use a number of each tree's ability. Demonology warlocks still use life drain, affliction still uses shadowbolt, everyone uses the demons even if it's just for demonic sacrifice, etc. It's quite nice having three extremely useful talent/spell tree's, each able to complement the others quite well. Some of the notable favorites, mine and what I've seen others use as well, is the nice combination of life drain and life tap to make yourself, with the improved life tap talent, a practically infinite pool of life and mana, very useful for grinding I assure you. Beyond that we have some things such as the various armor spells, although the best one(fel armor) sadly comes much later on in your warlock life than others. Healthstones, soulstones, etc. all are extremely useful for questing, grinding, pretty much anytime really, the ability for a self-ressurect/reincarnation is amazingly good when you've been randomly PK'ed by passing enemy players or died from terrain damage in the middle of nowhere. As for your main leveling talent builds you're probably going to want either demonology or affliction, affliction is for the dark pact ability and thus an even easier source of infinite mana than lifetap/lifedrain, this allows you to drain tank(life drain spam) opponents after putting on a few DoT's and progress quite quickly. Demonology focuses, obviously, upon your demons as the main tanks of your mini-party while you sit behind whatever gnarly demon you happen to have summoned, fel-guard or voidwalker, perhaps using a succbus at times, and fire ze missles(figuratively) at your opponents. This type of build is my favorite for the run from 1-30 and perhaps even 40, 30/40-50 is extremely fast as affliction as you get your main grinding talent(dark pact.) Finally you'll find demonology becoming a killing machine once you've hit level 50 and get your felguard, it's quite the change of pace I must say, having a mini-warrior as your chained pet to tank and deal a nice amount of damage to boot is rather fun. Now, at the lower levels you'll find it not quite as easy to level compared to a select few others(rogues, hunters,) but at the higher levels you definitely take the cake for grinding speed. 3.0 - PvP PvP as a warlock can be quite interesting, a variety of different strategies/techniques will allow one to avail in battle although a select few separate themselves as favorites. Due to the nature of a warlocks quite competent usage of all three spell tree's despite what build he or she is using at the time you'll find that adapting to the enemies playstyle may be more favorable to your emerging victorius rather than entering the battle with one specific plan in mind. Obviously you can't always have a plan either, at least I certainly hope I'm not the only one who plays a re-active style of PvP, fighting as opponents come upon me, rather than specfically going after any on target. In battlegrounds PvP this becomes even more urgent as you'll often be defending a flag/taking the flag when you really don't have a choice about who decides to try and take your head off right at the moment. Demonlogy warlocks may have an easier time with this due to the ability to nigh instantaneously summon a new type of demon to suit the situation, though fel-guard is almost always the best general usage pet if you happen to have him. One somewhat hilariously effective tactic is to place yourself(and pet) behind a tree/other barrier whilst in Alterac Valley and simply throw DoT's on any passerby's, either A: they spot you and at least you have your DoT's on them already or B: They continue on and either die or at least become quite injured if you have half-way decent spelldamage. Keep in mind that you are subject to random passing groups ire and a painful death should you be noticed. The Fel-Hunter will become your best friend against other casters, practically rendering them null in effectiveness should you follow it up with the proper barrage of spells to wipe out the poor offending spell user. You may however experience some diffculty against other warlocks, this sort of fight often starts with each sides pets being banished before nuking/DoT'ing the other warlock up and hoping they aren't using a better DD(Direct Damage) build than yourself, often times destruction wins in this sort of fight. 4.0 - Dungeoning, Raiding, etc. As a general rule in dungeoning you'll find yourself cursing your pet at times, much like hunters, due to the horrible pet pathing that truely shows it's colors during an important pull, often times the result being the entire dungeon converging on your party quite quickly and proceeding to slaughter everyone mercilessly. Yes it's painful and annoying, I did actually prefer a demonic sacrifice build purely due to this reason for quite some time, although in burning crusade it doesn't seem to be quite as bad it still happens so be careful. Demonology warlocks will especially find themselves hindered in overall effectiveness compared to affliction/destruction builds, I only found the felguard spec to be worth it should we need another off-tank/saving my butt should the main-tank himself die, yes it can main-tank bosses but it's rather painful and hard to do. Basically you'll be good for bad parties due to your ability to hold several mobs aggro on bad pulls and such, good parties however the felguard is almost useless. Affliction is a rather good instancing build, throwing a few DoT's on each mob in a pull can easily rack up the damage over-time but may subject you to frequent beating by angry elites should your Tank not have adequate aggro over you. Besides that it is nice to see some of the bosses with large AoE's, line of sight problems, etc. taking steady damage regardless whether you're feared/stunned/unable to catch them and so on. Finally as destruction, my favorite instancing/raiding build, you're just a damage machine. With a good tank you can go full out almost from the start of each fight and tear through mobs HP like paper, destruction often requires more +spelldamage than other builds to be effective but when it does work it's quite nice to see the amazing results. Your pet at this point will probably be rather useless for a variety of situations, it's a sad but true fact to realize, they only provide a small amount of DPS over-time and thats about it, the voidwalker is especially only good for soloing, utterly useless in instances really. 5.0 - Arena Arena wise you'll find that an exceptionally geared warlock truely can kick some ass, I'm hoping you're well geared at this point otherwise you'll be sorely out-matched simply gear-wise even if you have good skill, almost any of the competetive teams in the arena are geared out to one degree or another so be prepared. Potions, buffs, strategies, all of them need to be ready and waiting if you're truly interested in fighting against good teams and winning. A recent trend in Arena season two has been the usage of shadow resistance armor sets, making a popular combo of shadowpriest/warlock powerless, so that's just one more thing you'll have to watch out for now. Ignoring the resistance stacking teams the main opponents of a warlock are A: other warlocks, and B: Undead. One negates your pet, the other negates your fear, obviously fury warriors are still an extremely annoying threat but that's nothing new and is almost solved by the arena, fury warriors are extremely rare in good arena teams, MS(Mortal-Strike) is just to good to pass up. Horde generally have an easier time arena wise than alliance simply because if both sides have undead and thus the fear negation it's more of a fair fight than if only one does. Obviously the new PvP trinkets, the ones that remove anything on you essentially, are quite invaluable now as well, making it practically impossible to get a seduce off on anyone competent now but also allowing us to get past stun-locks and other such barriers. Most builds that actually come out successful are those emphasizing survivability, theres a reason you gain so much resilience and such through arena armor, a dead warlock is a useless warlock. Due to the insane damage some players can put out, especially assist-train targeter warriors, you're going to want soul-link and a few other invaluable talents/spells going to even have a chance of survival. Hybrid seems to be the key, felguard is worthless but soul-link is practically required, putting the points left over in affliction or destruction can make you viable and quite hard to kill. 6.0 - Talent Builds 7.0 - Gear Guide This gear is suited to a hybrid Demonology/destruction or demonology/affliction build Helm: Battlecast Hood - Crafted Demonfang Ritual Helm - Drop(Heroic Underbog) Exorcist's Silk Hood - Vendor(18 Spirit Shards) Neck: Pendant of Dominance - PvP Honor Reward Manasurge Pendant - Vendor(25 Heroic Badges) Charlotte's Ivy - World Drop BoE Back: Shawl of Shifting Probabilities - Vendor(25 Heroic Badges) Sethekk Oracle Cloak - Drop(Sethekk Halls) Baba's Cloak of Arcanistry - Drop(Mechanar) Shoulders: Mantle of Three Terrors - Drop(Black Morass) Spaulders of Oblivion - Drop(Shadow Laybrinth) Mana-Sphere Shoulderguards - Drop(Arcatraz) Chest: Imbued Netherweave Robe - Crafted Robe of Oblivion - Drop(Shadow Laybrinth) Stormspire Vest - Reputation Reward(Consortium Revered) Wrist: Crimson Bracers of Gloom - Drop(Heroic Ramparts) Shattrath Wraps - Quest Reward Hands: Gloves of Oblivion - Drop(Shattered Halls) Energis Armwraps - Drop(Botanica) Belt: Sash of Serpentra - Drop(Steamvault) Hierophant's Sash - Halaa PvP Reward Legs: Battlecast Pants - Crafted Trousers of Oblivion - Drop(Sethek Halls) Imbued Netherweave Pants - Crafted Boots: Imbued Netherweave Boots - Crafted Shattrath Jumpers - Quest Reward Rings: Seal of the Exorcist - Vendor(50 Spirit Shards) Seer's Signet - Reputation Reward(Scryers Exalted) Band of Dominance - PvP Trinkets: Scarab of the Infinite Cycle - Drop(Black Morass) Oculus of the Hidden Eye - Drop(Auchenai Crypts) Weapons: Continuum Blade - Reputation Reward(Timewarden's Exalted) Runesong Dagger - Drop(Shattered Halls) Mana Wrath - Drop(Mechanar) Off-hand: Hortus' Seal of Brilliance - Drop(Shattered Halls) Star-Heart Lamp - Drop(Black Morass) Lamp of Peaceful Radiance - Drop(Arcatraz) Wand: Wand of the Netherwing - Drop(Shadow Laybrinth) Nether Core's Control Rod - Drop(Arcatraz) Look and Feel Affliction Warlocks are the masters of killing an opponent at a distance while someone else does all the heavy lifting. With spells like Siphon Life and Drain Life, even your opponent helps you out a bit. Affliction warlocks are patient folk with some even taking a load off while their DoTs kill their target who is presently engaged with the Warlock's Voidwalker. Though some fights can take long enough to resolve, the efficiency of this tree allows the Warlock's mana to regenerate while the target dies. As of patch 2.0.1, all DoTs now receive the full benefit of spell power bonuses making this DoT enhancing tree viable for PvP along with insta-cast Howl of Terror and Unstable Affliction. Strengths Efficiency: While it is possible to finish a fight quickly, you don't have to. You also don't want to, because you're thinking ahead to the next fight, and the one after that. After applying DoTs, an Affliction Warlock will alternate Life Tap and Drain Life instead of using Shadow Bolt to help speed up the impending doom of your target. With Improved Life Tap and Improved Drain Life, you will net positive gains in both health and mana, all while doing around the same damage as a single Shadow Bolt. Doing this takes longer (6-7 seconds for the combo vs 3 seconds for Shadow Bolt), but you will be able to jump right into the next fight with no hesitation. Strong Vs. Adds: Because many of a Warlock's Affliction spells are of the "fire and forget" variety, a second or third mob will directly multiply your DPS. While you have to worry about pulling aggro off of your pet in these cases, Fear will allow you to juggle adds rather than having them do anything inconvenient like hitting you. Usually Have More: Affliction Warlocks are most effective when they take their time. This means that in a pinch you have a lot more where everything came from. If your pet is taking more damage than feels safe you can start spamming Shadow Bolts. By the time your pet dies/loses aggro, the mob is either dead or is very close. Strong Vs. Elites: Unless something is immune to Fear, if an Affliction Warlock can't kill it, no one can. This is done through Fear kiting, in which a Warlock keeps a target Feared while their DoTs slowly but surely drain away the target's life. DoT-and-Kite: Even if something is immune to Fear, if an Affliction Warlock puts talent points into Curse of Exhaustion, then they can defeat any melee elite not immune to slowing effects. DoTs are applied while running the target around beyond melee range. Even some mobs immune to slowing effects can be killed through clever use of terrain and line of sight. Dot-and-run tactics are the staple for PvP affliction locks. There is nothing more humiliating than being ambushed by a warlock, getting tons of Dots stacked upon you, and slowly die unable to do anything while the warlock runs away cackling at your demise. High "Fault Tolerance": For those of you non-nerds, that means lots of stuff can go wrong before you reach total failure (in the case of a Warlock, death). One of your DoTs get resisted? No big deal, cast it again. Get an add? Or two? You can handle it. Pet miss a taunt? You're always near full health, so you can take a few shots before he gets aggro back. Pet about to die? You can hit Sacrifice and finish off the battle from behind your nice new shield or run for the hills. For other classes, when a battle goes horribly wrong, it usually means their death. For an Affliction Warlock, it usually means you just have to re-summon your pet. Strong Against Multiple Targets: Both in groups and solo skilled Affliction Warlocks will easily outdamage any other class short of a skilled Mage. Because multiple DoTs can be stacked onto a single target in far less time than it takes for them to actually deal their damage a Warlock can easily DoT up a second (or even third, depending on your group's composition) target and watch their DPS skyrocket. [edit] Weaknesses Vulnerable to Dispels: In PvP, if it can cure enemies of your DoTs it can usually do it far more efficiently than you can put them back on. However, individual opponents can only dispel either magic effects or curses, but Affliction Warlocks can cast both types, meaning that they can still be somewhat effective. Fortunately Unstable Affliction (and Malediction to a lesser degree) in patch 2.0.1 help with this matter. Vulnerable in PvP: Affliction Warlocks don't kill fast. That means that if something with good burst damage like a Mage or a Rogue gets you in their sights, there isn't much you can do about it. Howl of Terror or Death Coil followed by Fear is one ways to deal with high damage dealers like this assuming they don't have some way of mitigating the fear effect. Weak Against Single Targets: The long duration Affliction DoT spells - especially Curse of Agony - do not work fast enough to be effective in a group situation against non-boss targets as coordinated/well-geared groups will mow down trash mobs too quickly for DoTs to run their course. [edit] Analysis Some of the Affliction talents are better than others. The following is intended to be a consensus of opinion on the various talents in this tree. Suppression - In PvP versus characters the same level as you, 2 points gives your affliction spells a 99% chance to hit (the maximum the game allows). More points are only useful against mobs/players that are higher than you. (See Formulas:Spell hit chance for detailed information.) Improved Corruption - 5 points makes Corruption instant-cast. Incredibly useful, and all Warlocks with any points in the Affliction tree usually max out this talent. Like Curse of Agony, an instant-cast Corruption can be cast while moving, and without facing the opponent. Improved Curse of Weakness - At level 60, 2 points here will reduce a mob's damage per hit by a mere 6 extra points. On mobs that hit in the hundreds to thousands of damage, it's completely unnoticeable. This talent can be somewhat useful against enemies with very fast attack speeds such as Hunter Pets, Druids in cat form, and certain Rogue builds. There are usually much better places to spend points. Improved Drain Soul - With 2.0.1 you now receive 7/15% of your maximum mana, which alleviates the two problems this talent had previously: the 5-second rule and that few warlocks had any significant spirit. Also, 5/10% less threat could be useful in 5-man instances or when using the pet to tank. Improved Life Tap - Arguably one of the best talents for warlocks; it increases the efficiency of your health to mana conversion by a whopping 20%. At level 60, this will increase your Life Tap mana gain from 426 to 511.2. Free mana is always good. Soul Siphon - A 2 point talent that significantly improves the effects of Drain Life. The more Affliction spells that are on a mob, the greater the effect. This talent greatly enhances the ability of a warlock to Drain Tank. Improved Curse of Agony - This also didn't scale with gear, and used to provide a flat increase of 62 damage at level 60. In the recent patch this was changed which increased the viability of this talent considerably. Fel Concentration - Makes Drain Tanking viable, and can also make it easier to collect shards. Affliction Warlocks should max this talent. Amplify Curse - Has a very fast cooldown, and greatly increases the power of your next Curse of Agony, Curse of Exhaustion or Curse of Doom. For 1 point it's a great spend, and can be nicely worked into a macro so you don't forget about it. Grim Reach - Great for PvP (it increases Fear range as well), and arguable for group PvE. More range always has utility. In raids, the power enables you to attack from outside of AOE range of a boss. Solo, your drain spells will break on feared mobs less often. Most Warlocks that spend 20 points in Affliction pick up this talent. Nightfall - This is at its most useful when used in conjunction with Drain Life spam as it will proc regularly rather than infrequently (like with Corruption (spell) and Shadow Bolt spam). Empowered Corruption - Corruption normally receives 96% of your bonus (Shadow) Spell Damage, spread over the duration of the spell. With three talent points, you can make this 132%, or 136% more. This could become a staple of the Affliction Warlock. For more information, see Formulas:Plus damage and Plus healing. Shadow Embrace - A passive "Curse of Weakness" effect that appears as an additional debuff when any of the specified DoTs are cast on the target. Only one effect will appear per target, and it does not stack with Shadow Embraces from other warlocks. The 5% physical damage reduction is generally considered not to be worth the 5 points you have to spend to get it. Because it's an "affliction effect", however, this talent works in conjunction with the Soul Siphon talent, allowing an additional 5% of life or mana to be drained. For this reason warlocks who do a lot of draining will drop 1 point here. Siphon Life - This instant DoT costs only 1 talent point and is required for Shadow Mastery. It drains a modest amount of life from the target to the caster, and like all affliction effects adds to Soul Siphon's bonus draining, giving an overall nice boost when Drain Tanking. Curse of Exhaustion - This is the only snare available to a warlock. Highly situational, but very powerful when it does apply (like when that Fury warrior is barreling toward you with nothing to fear but fear itself). Improved Curse of Exhaustion was removed in the 2.0.1 patch and its effect was merged into the base talent. Shadow Mastery - Scales with gear, so it will stack with nearly every spell you'll want to cast if you are this far up the tree. More life, damage and mana for you. Several builds are built around this talent. Contagion - 5% damage on your Affliction spells is nice, and 30% chance to resist dispel addresses some of the problem Affliction-specced Warlocks have with dispelling in PvP. Dark Pact - Turns your minion into a mana battery, allowing you to tap less life and still maintain an endless mana pool. You thought your mage friends had a drinking problem before? Wait until they see this! Improved Howl of Terror - Reduces the cast time on Howl of Terror from 1.5s to Instant Cast. Very useful in PvP, less so in PvE. This talent means that Howl of Terror can be effectively cast while more than one enemy is smacking you around, can be cast while running and can be cast without risking Counterspell, Shield Bash or Kick shutting down your whole Shadow tree. Malediction - Increases the damage bonus of Curse of Shadows and Curse of the Elements by 3%. Also, though it probably won't become an issue in 25-man instances in The Burning Crusade, the third Warlock in a raid that has this talent will not be able to use it. Unstable Affliction - Cast one of these on someone in PvP and their healers will be need to think twice about hitting the dispel button. The extra dot adds significant damage to combat, particularly on long running fights like those against bosses and on fights where the warlock can't stand in one spot spamming Shadowbolt. The extra DoT also counts twords boosting the effect of Soul Siphon.