06-28-2005, 09:10 PM
Intro Sections
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Intro 1: Version and future additions
Intro 2: About the Author
Main Sections
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Section 1: What is a Warlock?
Section 2: UI Modifications
Section 3: Race Choices
Section 4: Stats and Equipment
Section 5: A quick word on Soul Shards
Section 6: Talents
Section 7: Spells
Section 8: Pets
Section 9: Templates
Intro 1: Version and future additions
=====================================
This is the first pass at writing this guide. This section will be used for
future updates.
Version 1.0 - 2/2005 -The first version of this guide
Intro 2: About the author
=========================
I am currently playing a Gnome Warlock on the Stormreaver server. My character
name is Ryanoth, so if you feel like giving a shout in game feel free. I felt
like writing this since there really aren't any class guides out there for WoW
yet and I felt I could be of some assistance to aspiring Warlocks. If this
guide is useful to you I'd love to hear about it.
Intro 3: Glossary of Terms
==========================
I realize not everyone has played MMORPGs and a ****** may be reading this
guide. So for reference, I will give you a few of the terms I may use in this
guide and you may hear when playing the game.
MMORPG - Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game
******/Noob - A new player that is not experienced
DoT - Damage over Time spells
WoW - World of Warcraft
mob - A monster (comes from the old MUD days before graphical MMORPGs existed)
PVP - Player Vs Player combat
PVE - Player Vs Environment (Sometimes called PVM or Player Vs Monster)
nuke - A direct damage spell
nerf - When the developer changes something to make it less effective
rezz - Short for resurrection
DPS - Damage per Second
DD - Direct Damage spells
Ok, now that 99% of you scrolled by all that to get to the guide,lets go.
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Section 1: What is a warlock?
=============================
Warlocks are one of the 2 pet classes in WoW. They have the ability to summon
demons to assist them in combat. There are currently 4 "regular" pets in game
and several special pets that act differently. I will address all of the pets
in their own section. Warlocks are a good damage class that also has quite a
bit of utility. They are difficult to play in comparison to other classes, but
they are very powerful in the right hands. A good chunk of the power of the
warlock comes from Damage Over Time spells, or DoTs for short. Because of the
combination of abilities they possess, warlocks are very mana efficient when
compared to the other casters in the game. There are several play styles
available to the warlock, from a slow plodding style by letting the pet do the
majority of the work, to a faster style of burning down the mobs while taking
some of the damage yourself. Usually at lower levels you will begin with the
slower style and slowly move into the faster style as you start reaching the
higher levels.
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Section 2: UI modifications - You need one
==========================================
Blizzard was very smart when they developed WoW to allow for 3rd party custom
interface modifications. If you really want to play a warlock to the end, I
would HIGHLY recommend you take advantage of one. The most well known, and my
personal choice is Cosmos. It is however, not the only choice out there,
CTMod, Gypsy, and a couple more that spring to mind. Really, what you are
looking for is the ability to add more toolbars. They all offer some other
handy functions, but the extra bars are essential. Also, I have another add-on
installed called Shardcount that gives me a little counter to keep track of how
many Soul Shards I currently have. This saves the pain of opening all of your
packs constantly and counting. Here are some handy links for you to get you
going with a UI mod:
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Section 3: Race choices
=======================
First, your race choices depend on which side of the war you are on, Alliance
or Horde. There are 2 races per side that can play the Warlock. For Alliance,
you can choose from Gnome or Human. For Horde you can choose Undead or Orc.
On the Alliance side of things you basically should just pick which one you
like the look of. None of the racial traits are really all that great. Escape
Artist seems cool on paper, but in practice that 1.5 second casting time and
lack of immunity after it is cast make it pretty worthless. The rest of the
traits don't really make much of a difference either way, so just go with what
you like.
On the Horde side of things however, Undead is the clear cut winner. As it
stands at this time, Will of the Forsaken is far and away the best racial
ability in the game. It makes you immune to Fear and the Succubus Seduce for
20 seconds, is instant, and it can be used after you have been feared.
This gives Undead warlocks a great advantage over their Alliance counterparts.
I actually expect it may see the nerf bat soon, but for now it is very
powerful. That said, I still chose to be a gnome because I didn't want to play
a dirty horde.
Gnome
-----
Escape Artist: Activate to escape the effects of any immobilization or movement
speed reduction effect. 1.5 second cast. 30 second cool down.
Expansive Mind: +5% Intelligence
Arcane Resistance: +10 Arcane Resistance
Engineering Specialist: +15 Engineering Skill
Human
-----
Perception: Activate to increase stealth detection radius. Lasts 20 seconds.
2 minute cool down.
The Human Spirit: +5% Spirit
Diplomacy: Reputation gains increased by 10%
Sword Specialization: +5 Sword Skill
Mace Specialization: +5 Mace Skill
Undead
------
Will of the Forsaken: Activate to become immune to fear, sleep, and charm
effects. Lasts 20 seconds. 1.5 minute cool down.
Cannibalize: When activated, increases Health regeneration by 100% for 20
seconds. Only works on humanoid or undead corpses with 5 yards. Any movement or
damage taken while Cannibalizing will cancel the effect.
Underwater Breathing: +300% Underwater Breathing time.
Shadow Resistance: +10 Shadow Resistance
Orc
---
Blood Fury: Activate to increase Strength by 25%. Lose 5% Health every 3
seconds. Lasts 20 seconds. 2 minute cool down.
Hardiness: +25% resistance to stun and knockout effects.
Command: Pet melee damage increased by 5%.
Axe Specialization: +5 Axe Skill
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Section 4: Stats and equipment
==============================
So what stats should you focus on? In WoW starting stats don't matter much and
everyone advances at the same rate. While a gnome may have a little more
Intelligence to start and a Human more Stamina, it is such a small difference
in the end it hardly matters. It all comes down to where you focus your
equipment. Let me be clear on this, STAMINA > ALL. If you don't care about
PVP, it isn't quite as critical...but if you plan on doing PVP at all you
should be focusing on Stamina as much as possible. Stamina directly translates
into 10 health per point of stam. A warlock is in a unique position of not
needing a large mana pool in comparison to the other casters. There are
several ways for a warlock to regain mana, but one of the most common spells
you will be using is Life Tap. This turns some of your health into mana, so in
effect it makes your health pool an extension of your mana pool. Because of
this ability, having a large health pool will enable you to take a lot more
punishment while still having the option to convert it over to mana as needed.
As a bonus, spells like Drain Life and Siphon Life can refill your health. The
only other stat to worry about is Intelligence, which is your mana pool. A
good mix of stamina items and "of the eagle" items which give both stamina and
intelligence should be what you are looking for.
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Section 5: A quick word on Soul Shards
======================================
Soul Shards are needed to cast many of your most powerful spells. They are
received when a mob dies with Drain Soul being channeled at the same time. The
mob must give experience, so you cannot just go to any nearby creature to stock
up. They take up 1 inventory spot each and do not stack. They can be a real
pain when you start getting to higher levels and are PVPing or helping out
friends and are not near any high level mobs when you need some more. All of
your summons except the Imp and all of your stone spells require these to work.
Also, several other useful spells, like Enslave Demon, Soul Fire, and
Shadowburn need these as well. I am not sure what Blizzard's intent was with
these. They were originally sold as a trade-off for the warlock’s power, but
we don't really seem to be more powerful then other classes that don't have the
headache to deal with.
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Section 6: Talents
==================
Talents are what make each character unique. You will receive your first
talent point at level 10 and get 1 per level until you reach 60. Each class
has 3 trees to spend points in and you must work your way down each one. In
this section I will give a broad overview of the talents in general along with
my rating of each, if you are just looking for builds see the talent templates
section. My current build is mainly Affliction because I find it useful for
both PVP and PVE and it fits into my view of what a warlock should be.
Demonology is more for end-game and Destruction is too much like a mage to me.
If I wanted to be a nuker, I would have rolled a mage. That said, there are
useful skills in all of the trees and my build dabbles in all 3 a bit. Keep in
mind I play on a PVP server, so that goes into my evaluations.
Affliction Tree:
================
The Affliction tree mainly focuses on cursing and damage over time. It also
has several talents that are very handy in reducing your downtime. Affliction
is a great all-around tree and it does well in both PVP and PVE and is what I
recommend using while leveling to 60. Gems of the tree include Improved
Corruption, Nightfall, Shadow Mastery and Dark Pact.
Tier 1: No prereqs
------------------
Suppression: (5 points max)
---------------------------
Description: Reduces the chance an enemy will resist your affliction spells.
It is 2% per point spent. Overall not a great talent, as in PVP resists are
rare and there are better places to spend your points.
Rating: **
Improved Corruption: (5 points max)
-----------------------------------
Description: Reduces the casting time of corruption by .4 seconds per point.
At 5/5 it becomes an instant spell. This is a must have talent. Instant
spells are king in PVP and even in PVE it is handy to cast while on the move.
Rating: *****
Tier 2: Requires 5 points in affliction
---------------------------------------
Improved Curse of Weakness: (3 points max)
------------------------------------------
Description: Makes your Curse of Weakness more effective. CoW is rarely used
except for specialized situations. Not really recommended.
Rating: *
Improved Drain Soul: (2 points max)
-----------------------------------
Description: This adds an interesting element to your Drain Soul that will
temporarily give you double mana regen if you kill with Drain Soul. This is a
nice downtime reducer but warlocks don't have a lot of downtime anyways. As a
note, this is supposedly buggy and will rarely ever fire in a group situation.
Rating: **
Improved Life Tap: (2 points max)
---------------------------------
Description: This talent makes your lifetap give you more mana per use, up to
20%. This isn't a bad talent to have since you will be using Life Tap often.
Not necessary, but it is useful.
Rating: ***
Improved Drain Life: (5 points max)
-----------------------------------
Description: Increases your Life Drain spell by up to 10%. While 10% isn't
really that great, if you plan on playing the faster style as you gain levels
you will be using Drain Life constantly. Extra DPS and healing is nice to have
and it adds up over a longer fight with several Drain Life casts.
Rating: ***
Tier 3: Requires 10 points in affliction
----------------------------------------
Improved Curse of Agony: (3 points max)
---------------------------------------
Description: Increases damage done by CoA. The increase is so small this
talent as it stands today is pretty worthless. Don't waste your points.
Rating: *
Fel Concentration: (5 points max)
---------------------------------
Description: Gives you a chance to avoid interruption from taking damage while
casting any of your drains. Maxes out at 70%. If you plan on making Draining
a part of your game, which I recommend you do at higher levels this becomes a
must have talent. Also, this is either a all or nothing talent. Do not put
just a couple points in here, max it or don’t touch it.
Rating: ****
Amplify Curse: (1 point max)
----------------------------
Description: Makes your Curse of Agony hit 50% harder or your Curse of
Exhaustion slow 20% more with a 3 minute cool down. Really the only way to
make Curse of Exhaustion good is to use Amplify Curse before casting it. It's
a prereq anyways, so if you want Curse of Exhaustion you might as well pick
this up.
Rating: ***
Tier 4: Requires 15 points in affliction
----------------------------------------
Grim Reach (2 points max)
-------------------------
Description: Increases the range of your affliction spells by up to 20%. Very
nice to have and a good place to put 2 points as you go down the tree.
Rating: ****
Nightfall (2 points max)
------------------------
Description: This talent gives you instant shadowbolts. Incredibly useful in
PVP and good for pumping extra damage into a mob in PVE. With 2 points here,
it has a 2% chance to fire from EVERY tick of corruption and Drain Life.
2% may not sound like a lot, but it will fire almost every fight. In mass PVP,
just lay a corruption on every enemy you see and you become a shadowbolt
machine gunner.
Rating: *****
Improved Drain Mana (2 points max)
----------------------------------
Description: Drain mana is pretty worthless as it is right now, and this
talent isn't enough to save it. I wouldn't put points here unless you really
are set on using drain mana.
Rating: **
Tier 5: Requires 20 points in affliction
----------------------------------------
Siphon Life (1 point max)
-------------------------
Description: This is a DoT that gives you health for each point of damage.
The problem is, it's a really crappy amount of damage done and health returned.
It can be good in a fight with a lot of enemies to lay it on a lot of them to
give you a decent healing boost, but usually you have better places to spend
the mana. This is a prereq for Shadow Mastery however, so if you are going all
the way in Affliction, you will need this anyways.
Rating: ***
Curse of Exhaustion (1 point max)
---------------------------------
Description: This is our snare that we cast to slow an enemy, and it sucks.
The snare is very weak and lasts a short time. By itself this spell is
worthless. If you want it to be effective you need to invest in Improved CoE
and start with an Amplify Curse. Without casting Amplify it can be enough to
catch a runner in PVP. I still recommend taking this for PVP if you are
affliction, it will save your life against an Undead that has Will of the
Forsaken to give you enough space until you can Seduce or Fear them.
Rating: **
Improved Curse of Exhaustion (4 points max)
-------------------------------------------
Description: This talent takes Curse of Exhaustion from worthless to
semi-useful. If you have CoE you need to spend the points here to make it
worthwhile. Good to have on a PVP server, especially on the Alliance side to
have something to deal with undead.
Rating: **
Tier 6: Requires 25 points in affliction
----------------------------------------
Shadow Mastery (5 points max)
-----------------------------
Description: This talent increases your shadow damage by up to 10%. More
damage is always good!
Rating: *****
Tier 7: Requires 30 points in affliction
----------------------------------------
Dark pact (1 point max)
-----------------------
Description: This skill is incredibly handy. It allows you to drain mana from
your pet. The best way to use this is in conjunction with the succubus. Turn
all of her abilities on manual so she will not waste any mana. Her abilities
are all pretty unimpressive except for Seduce, which you should manually
control anyways. This gives you a nice mana battery the can still attack
without wasting mana. In raids, sometimes you may wish to use an Imp on
passive as your battery, but in normal PVE and PVP the Succubus will serve
you better. If you are on a PVP server, having the succubus out at all times
is the way to go, as seduce will save your life from those pesky rogues that
jump you.
Rating: *****
Demonology Tree:
================
Ah Demonology, the red-headed stepchild tree. This tree was written off as a
total waste for a long time, since the best ability was broken. Now that Soul
Link is fixed Demonology is actually a viable build. However, the tree still
has issues. It has a couple highlights, with Soul Link being the major one,
but a lot of sub-par talents. You basically have to sacrifice a ton of points
to get one or two standout abilities if you want to take this route. However,
it just may be worth it in a PVP environment. Soul Link makes you incredibly
hard to kill and being able to pull out a pet instantly can turn a fight in
your favor. It is a very interesting tree and it may be worth speccing into
this at level 60. Not as good for leveling as Affliction.
Tier 1: No prereqs
------------------
Improved Healthstone (2 points max)
-----------------------------------
Description: Makes your healthstones heal more. BUT, it only works for you.
If you hand out a healthstone to a group member they will only get the base
amount. Not a great talent.
Rating: **
Improved Imp (3 points max)
---------------------------
Description: This improves all your Imps spells by up to 30%. This is
actually really nice if you plan on running with an Imp. I prefer succubus
for seduce personally, and if you plan on taking Soul Link in this tree an
Imp is the last thing you want to use. But if you are Affliction or
Destruction based and use an Imp this may be a decent place to throw any
leftover points.
Rating: ***
Demonic Embrace (5 points max)
------------------------------
Description: Extra stamina is always a good thing! This can give you up to a
15% boost in stamina, and that is AFTER all of your equipment is figured in.
Very nice talent to have, even if you are not demonology spec. Stamina is by
far the most important attribute for warlocks and the small hit in spirit you
take from this is not even noticeable.
Rating: *****
Tier 2: Requires 5 points in demonology
---------------------------------------
Improved Health Funnel (2 points max)
-------------------------------------
Description: Makes Health Funnel more effective. Waste of points, as Health
Funnel already heals incredibly fast.
Rating: *
Improved Voidwalker (3 points max)
----------------------------------
Description: Makes your voidwalkers taunts and consume shadows more effective.
Well, this depends if you are going to use a VW or not. That decision depends
on several factors. Are you on a PVP or PVE server? How are you specced? If
you are on a PVP server I would say generally the answer is no. However, if
you are full demonology you can always sacrifice the Voidwalker, and then
instant cast a succubus when you get jumped. I still probably wouldn't take
this since VW tends to not be as effective at high levels.
Rating: **
Fel Intellect (5 points max)
----------------------------
Description: Gives your pets up to 15% more mana. Not very impressive
overall, but it's the best talent in this tier plus it is a prereq for Fel
Stamina. So, best of the crap it is
Rating: **
Tier 3: Requires 10 points in Demonology
----------------------------------------
Improved Succubus (3 points max)
--------------------------------
Description: Yet another so-so talent. Soothing Kiss is worthless, Lash of
Pain is weak for the mana it costs, and seduce lasts 15 seconds already unless
it breaks early by which time you will be breaking it with damage in a PVP
situation.
Rating: **
Fel Domination (1 point max)
----------------------------
Description: Activate this to make your next pet take 5.5 seconds less time to
cast. When combined with master summoner you can pop a pet up in half a
second. A nasty surprise in PVP when you shield yourself with a VW sacrifice
then immediately pop up a succubus for the mezz. One of the highlights of this
tree.
Rating: *****
Fel Stamina (5 points max)
--------------------------
Description: Increases the health of your pets by up to 15% Not bad if you
are going for Soul Link. This is a prereq for Unholy Power anyways, so you
might want to pick it up.
Rating: ***
Tier 4: Requires 15 points in Demonology
----------------------------------------
Master Summoner (2 points max)
------------------------------
Description: Reduces the casting time of your pets by up to 4 seconds. Not
the best by itself, but can be great when combined with Fel Domination.
Rating: ****
Master Conjurer (2 points max)
------------------------------
Description: Reduces casting time and mana cost of your stone spells. See,
this is why demonology gets a bad rep. This talent sucks. You shouldn't be
wasting time and mana in combat casting stones, so why would you need to even
have this? I can maybe see summoning another healthstone during a fight, but
healthstones are on a timer, so doesn't seem practical.
Rating: *
Tier 5: Requires 20 points in Demonology
-----------------------------------------
Improved Enslave Demon (5 points max)
-------------------------------------
Description: Makes your enslaved demons attack and cast a bit faster. Not bad
to have, especially end-game if you plan on running around with a doomguard or
infernal.
Rating: ***
Demonic Sacrifice (1 point max)
-------------------------------
Description: Sacrifice your demon to give you a buff that lasts 30 mins. The
buff is canceled if you summon another pet. Imp increases fire damage 15%,
Voidwalker increases health by 15%, Succubus increases shadow damage by 15%,
and Felhunter increases mana by 20%. I haven't done testing on this talent
yet, so am unsure if you enslave a demon if that will dispel the buff. I will
update this when I know for sure. I am assuming it does not, so this talent
would be handy for when you want to use an infernal or doomguard. Just summon
a voidwalker and sac it for 15% more health. It is a prereq for Soul Link
anyways, and if you are this deep in Demonology I hope you are going for that.
Rating: ****
Improved Firestone (2 points max)
---------------------------------
Description: Improves your firestone effectiveness. Another crap talent,
since firestones are pretty much worthless after you start getting up higher
in levels. There are much better bonuses on a good staff then on any sword.
Firestones are fun at low levels to play around with and they look neat, but
otherwise you sacrifice too much giving up a good staff. I guess you might
take this if you want to be different and like running around with a sword that
has a little ball of fire twirling around it. I went through that phase until
I found a great staff.
Rating: *
Tier 6: Requires 25 points in Demonology
----------------------------------------
Unholy Power (5 points max)
---------------------------
Description: Increases the damage done by your pets by up to 20%. More damage
is always good and since it's the only talent in this tier you will probably
be taking it.
Rating: ****
Tier 7: Requires 30 points in Demonology
-----------------------------------------
Soul Link (1 point max)
-----------------------
Description: The crown jewel of Demonology. You took a bunch of junk just to
get here, now was it worth it? It basically lets you split any damage you or
your pet take between each other. This can be nasty in PVP when they suddenly
have to do 8000 damage to take you down instead of 4000. Demonology certainly
has some nice bonuses end-game in PVP. Have a VW out, use Soul Link to take
all of the damage they are dishing, then sacrifice him for the shield...bandage
back to full health and instant summon a Succubus to seduce them. I will be
doing some experiments with this soon and will update the guide with first hand
observations.
Rating: *****
Improved Spellstone (2 points max)
----------------------------------
Description: Makes your spellstones more effective. Wow, really crappy for a
Tier 7 talent. Spellstones basically absorb 1 shot from a mage, and they strip
all your beneficial buffs when used. In addition, you must have them held in
the off-hand to use them and there is a timer when you equip them so you cannot
swap mid-battle. Not ever worth giving up a staff for such a situational
stone when we fare well against mages anyways.
Rating: *
Destruction Tree
================
This tree deals in all out nuking ability. The main highlights deal with
criting more often and harder. I don't deny that destruction builds are
viable, I personally just don't like playing more of a mage role. If I wanted
to sit back and nuke I would have played a mage. That said, there is some good
stuff in here and many non-destruction warlocks, myself included, will at least
go in enough to get shadowburn. As a note, the first two tiers basically suck,
I think it is to punish us people that just want shadowburn.
Tier 1: No prereqs
------------------
Improved Shadow Bolt (5 max)
----------------------------
Description: Tier 1 gives you a choice between 2 crappy talents. Imp Shadow
Bolt makes it so that if you land a crit with a shadowbolt the target becomes
more vulnerable to shadow damage for the next 4 hits. Due to the sporadic
nature of crits and the fact that most destruction locks that focus on crits
will not bother with shadow bolt, but instead use searing pain this isn't worth
it.
Rating: *
Cataclysm (5 points max)
------------------------
Description: 5 points gives you 5% reduction in mana cost for destruction
spells. Crappy talent, but not any crappier then Imp Shadow Bolt. I would
probably take this just since it is always helping, even though it is a tiny
bit.
Rating: *
Tier 2: Requires 5 points in Destruction
----------------------------------------
Bane (5 points max)
-------------------
Description: Reduces casting time of Shadow Bolt and Immolate by .1 seconds
per point. Wow, .1?! No way! Sucky, like all the first 2 tiers of
destruction, but probably the best bet in this tier since you will be casting
Immolate all the time.
Rating: *
Aftermath (5 points max)
------------------------
Description: Chance to daze for 5 seconds with any destruction spell by up
to 10%. Hmm, well that looks nice on paper at first. But in practice it isn't
so good. It's a daze, not a stun. All daze does is slow their movement speed
for a few seconds. Might be ok at catching a runner, if you happen to get
lucky and proc this before he gets out of range. Otherwise, pretty worthless.
Rating: *
Tier 3: Requires 10 points in Destruction
-----------------------------------------
Improved Firebolt (2 points max)
-------------------------------
Description: Reduces the casting time on the Imps firebolt by up to 1 second.
First, only useful if you are using Imp. Second, still not useful. Your Imp
burns all his mana out in like 30 seconds anyways. This just means it takes
him 20 seconds until he is staring at the mob doing nothing.
Rating: *
Improved Lash of Pain (2 points max)
------------------------------------
Description: Reduces cooldown on Lash of Pain. While not as useless as the
Imp Firebolt talent, still not a good place to put your points. LoP doesn't do
great damage to mana spent anyways.
Rating: **
Devastation (5 points max)
--------------------------
Description: Well, by now you must think destruction sucks. Look at all the
1 star talents before this. Well no my friends, here is a great talent. This
increases your chance to crit with your destruction spells by up to 5%. If you
are going heavy destruction, max this out. Crits hurt bad.
Rating: *****
Shadowburn (1 point max)
------------------------
Description: Another great talent, and one warlocks from Demonology or
Affliction may think about getting. This gives you another spell that is an
instant and does good damage. The only drawback is it eats a Soul Shard. It
supposedly returns one to you if it makes the kill, but it seems very buggy at
this time and doesn't work as advertised. This spell is extremely handy in
PVP.
Rating: *****
Tier 4: Requires 15 points in Destruction
-----------------------------------------
Intensity (2 points max)
------------------------
Description: Gives you a chance to avoid interruption while channeling Rain of
Fire and Hellfire. 1 point is worthless but 2 is ok. I wish Blizzard would
consider making this 100% like mages get with some of their abilities, then
this would be a 5 star. The problem is with an AoE spell like those, you
only cast it at a group. And when the group aggros you even 70% chance to
resist is nothing when you are hit by a ton of attacks. One of them will
interrupt you. Nice in certain situations, but could have been so much better.
Rating: ***
Destructive Reach (2 points max)
--------------------------------
Description: Increases range of your destruction spells. Always a good thing
to have.
Rating: ****
Improved Searing Pain (5 points max)
------------------------------------
Description: Increases the chance to crit with Searing Pain by up to 10%.
When stacked with Devastation that adds up to a decent amount of crits.
Rating: ****
Tier 5: Require 20 points in Destruction
----------------------------------------
Pyroclasm (2 points max)
------------------------
Description: Gives your Rain of Fire and Hellfire a chance to stun. Not bad,
if it works. As it stands now it appears to not work right. May be more
useful later after some patches.
Rating: ***
Improved Immolate (5 points max)
--------------------------------
Description: Increases the initial damage of your Immolate spell by up to 25%.
Pretty decent since you usually will cast Immolate every fight. 5 points here
is a prereq if you want conflagrate.
Rating: ****
Ruin (1 point max)
------------------
Description: Increases your crit damage by 100%. Think of a Soul Fire crit
with this, OUCH! Probably the best talent in the tree.
Rating: *****
Tier 6: Requires 25 points in Destruction
-----------------------------------------
Emberstorm (5 points max)
----------------------
Increases damage of your fire spells by up to 10%. A lot of stacking talents
like this is the tree. More damage is good.
Rating: ****
Tier 7: Requires 30 points in Destruction
-----------------------------------------
Conflagrate (1 point max)
-------------------------
Description: This is a DD spell that requires Immolate be cast on the target
already. It does decent damage and consumes the Immolate spell. When using
this you should time it to hit at the end of the Immolate so you get the most
damage out of both. A nice spell, but don't know if it's worthy of being this
deep in the tree. I may respec into this to do some testing later when I have
the gold to burn.
Rating: ****
**************************************************
**************************************************
Section 7: Spells
=================
Well, I could list all of the spells here and how much each does per rank, but
frankly that is a ton of work for something that is easily available online.
If you want to see a complete list of all stats and costs go to
www.thottbot.com can click on warlock. Rather then just list tons of stats, I
will give you my opinion on how each of the spells plays and the situations
they will be useful. I will also give each a rating of 1-5 stars.
Immolate
--------
Level Received: 1
Description: This spell does Direct Damage to the target and continues to deal
DoT for the next 15 seconds. It is going to be one of your primary spells as
you level. Mainly used as the last DoT cast before you start using other
direct damage or drains. Not quite as good as the other DoTs due to the longer
casting time, but still will be used almost every fight.
Rating: ****
Shadow Bolt
-----------
Level Received: 1
Description: Your basic nuke. Not really great unless combined with the
Nightfall talent. The slow cast time makes it a bad idea in PVP. You will be
using this at low levels when doing PVE since you have few other options.
Rating: ** (**** with Nightfall)
Demon Skin/Armor
----------------
Level Received: 1
Description: This is a self-only buff that gives you extra armor and speeds up
your health regen. It is not overly powerful, but there is no reason not to
have it up at all times.
Rating: ****
Corruption
----------
Level Received: 4
Description: This is your bread and butter DoT. It does good damage, and
becomes instant cast with 5 points into the Improved Corruption talent. It
also is one of the skills that makes Nightfall activate.
Rating: *****
Curse of Weakness
-----------------
Level Received: 4
Description: This makes it so that whatever it is cast on does not hit as
hard. It quickly falls off to not being very useful, since you can only have
one curse on an enemy at a time and there are better options. The amount of
damage it stops doesn't really scale well at all as you level up.
Rating: **
Life Tap
--------
Level Received: 6
Description: This spell instantly changes health into mana. It is a one to
one ratio unless you take the improved Life Tap talent. It is instant cast and
is very nice in conjunction with Drain Life. Instead of being a caster that
stands around with full life but no mana in a fight, you can be a caster with
half life and half mana and be doing some good. You can also combine this with
first aid for a quick recharge as well. This is a great utility spell that any
good warlock will learn to love.
Rating: *****
Fear
----
Level Received: 8
Description: This is our main crowd control spell, and is very useful in PVP.
It was nerfed recently so it breaks far easier then it used to. It also has
diminishing returns, so when you have used Fear on a target the next cast will
last half as long. It basically makes the target run around like a crazed
chicken. During PVE, you need to be very careful with this spell. If the
Feared mob runs near a buddy of his, it will aggro you. Can suddenly make you
have to turn and run if the Feared mob runs through a camp of his friends.
This would have been a 5 star spell without the recent changes and Will of the
Forsaken, which makes it useless on Undead. Still incredibly handy for getting
that extra mob off you or making an enemy in PVP unable to do anything for
awhile.
Rating: ****
Curse of Agony
--------------
Level Received: 8
Description: This is the other main DoT spell you will be using and is the
heaviest hitting. It slowly ramps up it's damage over the 30 seconds it lasts,
so it is hurting most at the end of the duration. When soloing, you will be
using this spell most of the time. It is a curse, so the 1 curse rule means
in groups you may have other curses you might want to use.
Rating: *****
Create Healthstone
------------------
Level Received: 10
Description: This spell turns a Soul Shard into a Healthstone. A Healthstone
is very similar to a potion, in that you just right-click it to instantly heal.
The Healthstone is consumed on use and you may only have one in your inventory
at a time. You can however, trade them to other people. It is on a separate
timer from the potion one, so you can use both this and a potion in the same
fight. Very useful and you should always have one in your inventory and on a
hotbar for emergencies.
Rating: ****
Drain Soul
----------
Level Received: 10
Description: This is a drain spell that does DoT to the target. If the target
dies while the drain is on, it gives you a Soul Shard. The spell itself isn't
great for damage, but it is the only reliable way to get Soul Shards, so you
will need to use this often. There is a talent that allows you to gain faster
regen after you make a kill with this spell, but it is not worth the cost
unless you might want it in a PVE only environment.
Rating: *** (required however)
Health Funnel
-------------
Level Received: 12
Description: This spell takes some of your life and uses it to heal your pet.
Useful at times to save a pet when it is getting pounded on and is about to go
down. It is useful on occasion to cut some downtime as well, but pets regen
very quickly so it is not a necessity.
Rating: ***
Curse of Recklessness
---------------------
Level Received: 14
Description: This spell reduces the armor of the target by a decent amount and
increases their attack power by a little. If that were all it did, it would
rarely be cast but it has one other side effect. Cursed creatures will not
flee. In an instance, this can be a life saver as the runners will not get
back to their camps and bring a bunch of their friends to the party. Very
useful in certain situations.
Rating: ****
Drain Life
----------
Level Received: 14
Description: This spell is a channeled DoT drain spell that gives you health.
The damage is not overwhelming, but the healing effect more then makes up for
it. Casting Life Tap then draining back the health is like getting a free
spell. At higher levels, you may also begin to Drain tank, which is where a
mob is beating on you but you are constantly draining health to stay relatively
even. To utilize that technique you need the Fel Concentration talent, which
greatly reduces you being interrupted while channeling the spell.
Rating: *****
Unending Breath
---------------
Level Received: 16
Description: Lets you breath underwater for 10 mins. Is kind of fun and
useful on occasion, but not a big deal. A fun trick is to use Seduce to hold
an enemy player underwater with you while they drown and you happily breathe
just fine.
Rating: **
Searing Pain
------------
Level Received: 18
Description: It's basically half of a shadowbolt. It does about half the
damage, for half the mana, for half the casting time. It also causes more
threat, so is a good way to get a mob to come attack you instead of something
else. If you go down the destruction tree it becomes far more useful with the
extra crits, but since I prefer the affliction build, it isn't really worth it
to me. On occasion you may run into a mob that is immune to shadow damage, so
this is a decent alternative.
Rating: ***
Create Soulstone
----------------
Level Received: 18
Description: This spell turns a soul shard into a soulstone. You right click
on the stone to cast a 30-minute buff on yourself or another player. This is
basically a free resurrection with more mana and health then you would get from
a regular rezz. In an instance it is wipe insurance. Always have the
soulstone cast on the rezzer of the party. There is a 30-minute cooldown on
using this spell, so you can only have one player with this effect at a time.
When you are not grouped, always have this on yourself.
Rating: *****
Ritual of Summoning
-------------------
Level Received: 20
Description: This spell is used to summon another party member to your
location. You must have 2 other party members present to complete this spell.
When cast, it summons a portal that 2 other people must right click on for it
to work. Pretty handy for gathering those stragglers to an instance, but not
as handy as it could be do to needing the other 2 people.
Rating: ***
Rain of Fire
------------
Level Received: 20
Description: This is an AoE spell that calls down fire to burn all of the
enemies. It is fairly difficult to use in most situations due to all the aggro
that will come your way when you cast it. Having 10 things beating on you will
make you go down fast. In certain situations it can be handy, especially when
fighting in conjunction with a mage doing AoE spells as well.
Rating: ***
Eye of Kilrogg
--------------
Level Received: 22
Description: This spell is fun. It summons a green glowing eye that you can
control. It moves your point of view to the eye and you can use it to scout
ahead and see what is around the corner. It is also fun for freaking out low
levels that don't know what it is and run away from it. The eye has decent
stealth abilities, so you can work your way through a bunch of mobs to scout
the area. Very handy when looking for a boss or quest area but don't want to
fight down a bunch of hallways to figure out which one is the correct path.
Really more of a toy since it doesn't come into play very often at all. To
stop using the eye at any time, just right click on the buff icon.
Rating: ** (***** for fun/cool factor)
Drain Mana
----------
Level Received: 24
Description: Pretty much what the name says, it drains a targets mana and
gives it to you. I first got the spell and thought, now this will kick ***.
Well, sorry to say that is not the case. It's really pretty useless due to
the tiny amount of mana drained. You get 5 seconds of mana draining and it
doesn't even pay for casting this spell until the 3rd second. It also is
interruptible, since it is a channeled spell. It is mildly useful when
fighting a mob that is almost out of mana and you want to insure it doesn’t
heal itself, but that is a rare circumstance. Very disappointing and I hope
they adjust it to be more useful in PVP.
Rating: **
Sense Demons
------------
Level Received: 24
Description: This lets you track demons on your radar. There are so few
demon areas this spell is basically worthless. Plus it interferes with any
tradeskill tracking you are doing.
Rating: *
Shadowburn
----------
Level Received: *** Rank 1 is gotten through talents, so it depends on your
build
Description: This is an instant DD spell. It eats a soul shard and is
supposed to return a shard to you if it delivers the killing blow, but it
appears to be a bit buggy and doesn't always give you back the shard. Anything
instant in PVP is good and this hits pretty hard. The shard cost can add up
fast so you have to make sure you keep an eye on your supply.
Rating: ****
Detect Invisibility
-------------------
Level Received: 26
Description: Since hardly anything is invis and this doesn't detect stealth,
it is worthless.
Rating: *
Curse of Tongues
----------------
Level Received: 26
Description: This curse slows casting time by 50% or more depending on the
rank. This is very nice on caster mobs or enemy mages. Note, that it doesn't
slow instant spells. I highly recommend using this on mage type mobs since
this will cut their DPS way down.
Rating: ***
Banish
------
Level Received: 28
Description: Banishes demons and elementals temporarily. It makes them unable
to do anything but you are unable to interact with them as well. Incredibly
useful, if somewhat limited in the situations it comes into play. Note, you
can banish enemy warlock pets as well.
Rating: ****
Create Firestone
----------------
Level Received: 28
Description: Turns a Soul Shard into a firestone. This is an item you can
hold in your off-hand that gives your weapon a fire damage proc. It looks neat
and adds a bit of damage, but in the end staves are too valuable to give up.
I had fun for a while playing with a sword and firestone purely for cool factor
reasons, but then I started finding staves with too good of bonuses to pass up.
A toy spell that is neat, but overall not very useful.
Rating: **
Hellfire
--------
Level Received: 30
Description: This is an AoE spell that uses the caster as the center. It does
tons of damage in a small area but also does the same damage to the caster.
Can be handy in situations where you are facing a ton of weak mobs and have a
healer to help you out. One tactic is have the mage freeze them all and you
run in the middle and let loose with this spell. It can be interrupted but
there are destruction talents to help with that if you want to go that route.
Very specialized and dangerous.
Rating: ***
Enslave Demon
-------------
Level Received: 30
Description: Enslaves a demon to be your pet. This uses a Soul Shard and has
a max 5-minute duration. When you cast it, it will unsummon whatever pet you
have out. This spell is what you use in the end-game to control your Infernal
and Doomguard. An enslaved demon is constantly making resist checks and may
break your control early. It is usually at a bad time, like when you are in
the middle of a fight. This is where banish can be very useful, since you can
basically put him away and deal with him after you have finished the current
fight. The main problem is there aren't a whole lot of demons worth dealing
with the headache to control. The Doomguard is an exception and is very
powerful, but I have no first hand testing as of yet. Once I get my Doomguard
and Infernal I will update the guide with experiences at the endgame. Pre-60,
it is more of a toy. As a note, Curse of Shadows makes this spell stick better
and should always be used when enslaving.
Rating: ****
Shadow Ward
-----------
Level Received: 32
Description: Absorbs a certain amount of shadow damage. Very limited unless
facing an enemy warlock or shadow priest. Even then, basically gives you one
shadow bolt worth of absorption. Not usually worth it.
Rating: **
Curse of Elements
-----------------
Level Received: 32
Description: Reduces Fire and Frost resists on the target. Nice in a group
with mages to make their spells hit harder, or nice to cast and follow up with
a soul fire for a big hit.
Rating: ***
Create Spellstone
-----------------
Level Received: 36
Description: Turns a Soul Shard into a Spell Stone. This is held in the
off-hand. When you right click it wipes out all magical effects on the caster
and absorbs a small amount of magic damage. Not worth bothering with since
you are giving up staves and it wipes out your beneficial buffs when used. The
amount of damage absorbed is about 1 spell, so not a huge life-saver.
Rating: **
Siphon Life
-----------
Level Received: ***This is a talent spell, so depends on your build
Description: A DoT spell that gives the damage it does back to the caster.
The problem with this spell is the tiny amount of damage and healing it does.
In normal circumstances, it usually is not worth casting. In group PVP
battles, you can get decent healing by sticking this on a ton of people but
usually you won't have the chance since this is not an instant.
Rating: **
Howl of Terror
--------------
Level Received: 40
Description: This is an AoE Fear spell that makes up to 5 enemies around the
caster run. It is handy in an emergency when you get a bunch of aggro and just
need to cast this and run. The main downfall is the casting time makes it hard
to get off quickly with multiple things beating on you.
Rating: ***
Death Coil
----------
Level Received: 42
Description: An instant DD spell that returns the damage done to the caster.
Hits pretty hard and is an instant so is very valuable in PVP. The major
drawback is the 10 minute cooldown time, so save it for bad pulls or PVP fights
where you need an extra punch.
Rating: ****
Curse of Shadow
---------------
Level Received: 44
Description: Lowers the targets shadow resistance. This is mainly used in
conjunction with Enslave Demon to get it to stick. It will also up the damage
a bit on your shadow spells, but not worth losing the CoA if you are an
affliction build. When grouped with another warlock it may be a different
situation.
Rating: ***
Soul Fire
---------
Level Received: 48
Description: This sucker packs a punch. Does huge damage but has a six second
casting time. It also uses a Soul Shard. Still, the damage done per mana
point is 3 to 1, which is great efficiency. Is nice to use every other fight
in PVE as long as you let the pet have aggro to start and then take the aggro
with this spell. Whenever you do, be sure to finish the fight with a drain
soul to get the shard back. In PVP, use your succubus to seduce them. Then
cast Curse of Elements and wind up the Soul Fire. You can even follow this up
with a death coil and shadowburn to do huge damage in the space of a few
seconds.
Rating: *****
Conflagrate
-----------
Level Received: ***This is a talent spell, so depends on your build
Description: This is a DD spell that requires Immolate be cast on the target
already. It does decent damage and consumes the Immolate spell. When using
this you should time it to hit at the end of the Immolate so you get the most
damage out of both. Good if you plan on playing a destruction warlock.
Rating: ****
Dark Pact
---------
Level Received: ***This is a talent spell, so depends on your build
Description: This spell drains mana from your pet and gives it back to you.
It is instant and can be cast repeatedly to fill yourself. This spell is
incredibly useful and almost completely eliminates downtime. The best way to
use this is to have a succubus as your pet with all of her abilities turned off
autocast. She then becomes a decent melee pet that acts as a nice mana
battery. Lash of Pain isn't worth it for the mana it uses, soothing kiss
sucks, and seduction should be used manually anyways. Pets also regen mana
much faster then you do. Some warlocks also have an Imp on passive as a mana
battery, but I like having the seduce available and letting the succy pitch in
some DPS with her whip.
Rating: *****
Curse of Doom
-------------
Level Received: 60
Description: This curse will sit on a target for 1 minute, at which point it
will deal 3200 damage in one chunk. If the target dies there is a chance it
will spawn a Doomguard. Mainly used for getting a Doomguard to appear. I
have no first hand experience with this yet and will update the guide when I
do.
Rating: Unknown
**************************************************
**************************************************
Section 8: Pets
===============
So, this is probably the reason you chose warlock in the first place. You
wanted to walk around town with your own personal demon. Warlock pets are a
bit different from other MMORPG pet classes, in that they each have specific
roles to fill. In some other games you just move up the ladder of pets, so
what you get at level 20 will always be better then the level 10 pet. Not true
in WoW. I will give a brief overview of each pet and the situations you should
be using them in.
Imp
---
The Imp is your first pet and he specializes in dishing out the pain. His main
attack is a ranged firebolt that hits pretty hard. He also has a good group
stamina buff and can cast Fire Shield, which does a bit of damage to enemies
that hit you. He has a unique ability to phase shift, which makes him
invulnerable when he is not attacking. He has very few hitpoints so can be
taken down quickly so don't expect him to do any tanking for you. He burns
through his mana fairly quickly in a fight and then just stands around cursing
in demonic. He has fast regen time for his mana pool however, which makes him
a good invulnerable mana battery for Dark Pact if you leave him on passive.
He is not a bad general pet for PVP and is good in a group situation with his
stamina buff. Not usually recommended for soloing, but it is doable if he fits
into your play style. He also doesn't cost a shard to summon, so he is your
default backup pet.
Pros: High DPS, Good Group Stamina Buff
Cons: Low health, Small mana pool
Voidwalker
----------
This is your tank pet. He can take a ton of punishment but he hits like my
grandmother. He has a regular taunt and a AoE taunt to help keep the mobs on
him instead of you. He has a sacrifice ability, which destroys the Voidwalker
but puts a shield around you that absorbs a certain amount of damage and makes
you uninterruptible. Consume Shadows gives him a heal in between fights. This
guy will be your bread and butter at the lower levels. He holds aggro pretty
well early on and takes a good beating. Sacrifice will save your life when a
pull goes wrong. As you start getting up in levels he steadily becomes less
effective and no longer will hold aggro as well. You may eventually stop using
him entirely, but some warlocks seem to stick by him. He makes a good pet to
Soul Link with if you are Demonology specced and need the health boost. If you
are not a Demonology Warlock, he is generally a horrible choice for PVP and
doesn't really offer anything in a group situation besides a questionable
backup tank. Good for soloing when your are not going to drain tank.
Pros: High Health, Sacrifice
Cons: Under performs at higher levels, Nothing to offer groups
Succubus
--------
The Succubus is an interesting pet, and is my general pet of choice. She
dishes out very good melee DPS and on the upside can do so without spending
any of her mana. She has Lash of Pain which actually doesn't do the greatest
damage for the amount of mana it costs her. Soothing Kiss is like a reverse
taunt, which makes her lose aggro. It's pretty worthless overall as you can
easily pull aggro from her whenever you want. She is not a tank by any means
but isn't made of paper like the Imp. She can off-tank an add you may get in
an emergency. Her best ability is Seduce, which makes a humanoid stand there
with little hearts over his head for up to 15 seconds. Using seduce takes the
succubus out of the fight as well, since she stands there and smacks her butt.
Any damage will break seduce as well, so you can't have DoTs running. This
ability is very helpful in instances and is downright deadly in PVP. My combo
of choice in PVP is to seduce, then cast Curse of Elements and Soul Fire to
start the fight with a huge chunk of damage done. She also makes the best
Dark Pact pet since she can still contribute to the fights without mana by
swinging her whip. If you are going to use Dark Pact with her, be sure to
turn all of her abilities on manual so she doesn't waste her mana. When using
this pet to solo, you will be doing the majority of the tanking, so you really
need to have Fel Concentration so you can drain as you need to. She also has
the ability to turn invisible. The only downside of the invis ability is you
cannot set it to auto so you constantly have to reinvis her after every fight.
It is only really useful in PVP so the enemy can't see her until she strikes.
Great choice for general soloing at higher levels, especially on a PVP server.
Pros: Seduce, Good DPS with no mana use
Cons: You need to do the tanking
Felhunter
---------
Our final pet is specialized for anti-caster duties. He is an in between pet.
He can take more damage then the Succubus but cannot do as much damage. With
his decent health, he is not a bad choice for the Demonology Warlock looking
for a Soul Link. He has a group buff that improves stealth detection to let
you see those pesky rogues before they put the knife in your back. He can eat
buffs or debuffs and will heal himself while doing so. He also has spell lock,
which counters the current spell being cast and makes it so they are unable to
cast for a few moments. He also lowers attack power on anything that hits him.
The main knock against felhunters is they are so specialized. They will eat
mages alive and are able to strip all the seals and buffs off of paladins, but
are pretty worthless against everything else. For a demonology spec, they are
not a bad choice to run with since you can Soul Link them and they have better
abilities then the Voidwalker. But for everyone else, unless you know ahead of
time you are going to be facing a mage or paladin, you would be better served
with a succubus.
Pros: Good anti-caster, nice to be able to see rogues easier
Cons: Far too specialized
Enslaved Pets
-------------
In addition to our regular pets Warlocks have the ability to enslave demons.
This also includes our Infernal and Doomguard, which when summoned do not want
to be your friend. Always, always, always cast Curse of Shadows before using
enslave. It will make the enslave stick much better and last closer to the
duration. The way enslave works, the enslaved demon will become your pet for
up to five minutes. They are constantly making resist checks to try and break
free, and they always seem to do it at inappropriate moments. Remember, if you
get in a bad situation when a pet turns on you, you have the option to banish
it to give you some breathing room. Enslave is also subject to diminishing
returns, so every time your recast it the demon will break free in half the
time. There have been reports if you banish the demon 3 or so times it will
eventually reset it's enslave resist to normal so you can hold it for the full
duration again. Enslaved demons get a penalty to attack and casting speeds for
balance reasons.
Pros: Doomguards and some elite demons make awesome pets
Cons: Very dangerous pets can turn on you at a bad moment
**************************************************
**************************************************
Section 9: Talent Templates
===========================
Here are several different builds with descriptions. I hope these are helpful
to you and I will gladly accept any constructive feedback on these.
Affliction Build with Dark Pact - No downtime grinding machine
==============================================================
Description: This build is great for soloing and leveling to 60. Don't think
it is weak in PVP though, it can be very deadly. I would concentrate on
completing the Affliction tree, then go for Shadowburn, and finish off with
Demonic Embrace. This build leaves 3 points unspent, so do whatever you want
with them after you finish the template.
Strategy: Once you complete the Affliction talents you are basically going to
be drain tanking using the Succubus as your pet. Turn all of her abilities off
autocast. I would recommend binding Dark Pact to any easy to hit button, as
you will be spamming it a lot. Basic PVE strategy is as follows:
Send in Succubus
Curse of Agony
Corruption
Immolate <--- At this point the mob will come at you
Cast Drain Life as needed to keep your health near max, you can also throw
shadowbolts when Nightfall procs if desired
After the fight spam Dark Pact while you move to the next target
This will give you very little downtime. Another great tactic is to send is
the succy, let her get a few hits then cast Curse of Elements and wind up a
Soul Fire. After that the mob will come for you, do the same pattern as normal
after that, DoT, DoT, DoT, Drain. However, be sure to finish the fight with
Drain Soul to reclaim the Soul Shard you spent. Soul Fire gives you tremendous
bang per mana point so it is not a bad idea to mix into your pattern.
Affliction Talents (32 points)
------------------------------
Improved Corruption - 5/5 points
Improved Drain Life - 5/5 points
Amplify Curse - 1/1 point
Fel Concentration - 5/5 points
Nightfall - 2/2 points
Grim Reach - 2/2 points
Curse of Exhaustion - 1/1 point
Siphon Life - 1/1 point
Improved Curse of Exhaustion - 4/4 points
Shadow Mastery - 5/5 points
Dark Pact - 1/1 point
Demonology Talents (5 points)
-----------------------------
Demonic Embrace - 5/5 points
Destruction Talents (11 points)
-------------------------------
Cataclysm - 5/5 points
Bane - 5/5 points
Shadowburn - 1/1 point
Demonology Build with Nightfall - Super tank with instant pet summoning
========================================================================
Description: This build makes you very hard to take down. Very nice for PVP
while still holding it's own in PVE. I view this as more for end-game with
improved enslave demon to help with the Doomguard and Infernal a bit. For
general leveling work you may be better served going Affliction, at least until
you get high enough to respec directly into Soul Link. I have Improved Imp
on here since he makes a good group pet for raiding with his stamina buff and
this talent only makes it better. The build still gets you to Nightfall and
to help make up a bit for missing the mana of Dark Pact I included Improved
Life Tap. You still have the ability to drain tank with Fel Concentration and
Improved Drain Life.
Strategy: In PVP Soul Link gives you a huge pool of health to work with. The
pets to start off a fight with are either the Voidwalker or Felhunter combined
with Soul Link. Voidwalker gives you the most health with the shield to fall
back on while the felhunter has decent health and is handy for seeing rogues
and anti-caster work. Basically you want to DoT the target and fight as normal
with Soul Link making you take half damage. When the DoTs wear off and your
pet is getting down in health, depending on how the fight is going it may be
a good idea to hit the instant pet summon and whip out a Succubus. You can
then hit them with a quick seduce and bandage yourself or hit them with the
Curse of Elements/Soul Fire combo for big damage. Just remember, the DoTs
have to be expired before you can Seduce.
Affliction Talents (18 points)
------------------------------
Improved Corruption - 5/5 points
Improved Drain Life - 4/5 points
Improved Life Tap - 2/2 points
Fel Concentration - 5/5 points
Nightfall - 2/2 points
Demonology Talents (33 points)
------------------------------
Demonic Embrace - 5/5 points
Improved Imp - 3/3 points
Fel Intellect - 5/5 points
Fel Stamina - 5/5 points
Fel Domination - 1/1 point
Master Summoner - 2/2 points
Demonic Sacrifice - 1/1 point
Improved Enslave Demon - 5/5 points
Unholy Power - 5/5 points
Soul Link - 1/1 point
Destruction Talents (0 points)
------------------------------
None
Destruction Build - Lots of nukage with AoE ability
===================================================
Description: This build is if you want max DPS at the expense of some
efficiency. You can burn down targets quickly. I included Imp Life Tap to
help somewhat with mana use, but to replenish your life you do not have the
option of drain tanking, so care must be taken with aggro. Makes a good PVP
build but will have more downtime when leveling. Works well, but personally
am not that interested in being a magelock. Even if you want to go destruction
endgame, I still recommend you think about leveling using affliction for Dark
Pact so you can avoid downtime as much as possible.
Strategy: Basically, lay your DoTs as normal and start nuking. Spamming
searing pain is not a bad way to go since your will be landing crits with it
often. This build is all about trying to take a target down as fast as
possible.
Affliction Talents (7 points)
-----------------------------
Improved Corruption - 5/5 points
Improved Life Tap - 2/2 points
Demonology Talents (5 points)
-----------------------------
Demonic Embrace - 5/5 points
Destruction Talents (39 points)
-------------------------------
Cataclysm - 5/5 points
Bane - 5/5 points
Devastation - 5/5 points
Shadowburn - 1/1 point
Destructive Reach - 2/2 points
Improved Searing Pain - 5/5 points
Intensity - 2/2 points
Ruin - 1/1 point
Improved Immolate - 5/5 points
Pyroclasm - 2/2 points
Emberstorm - 5/5 points
Conflagrate - 1/1 point
--------------
Intro 1: Version and future additions
Intro 2: About the Author
Main Sections
-------------
Section 1: What is a Warlock?
Section 2: UI Modifications
Section 3: Race Choices
Section 4: Stats and Equipment
Section 5: A quick word on Soul Shards
Section 6: Talents
Section 7: Spells
Section 8: Pets
Section 9: Templates
Intro 1: Version and future additions
=====================================
This is the first pass at writing this guide. This section will be used for
future updates.
Version 1.0 - 2/2005 -The first version of this guide
Intro 2: About the author
=========================
I am currently playing a Gnome Warlock on the Stormreaver server. My character
name is Ryanoth, so if you feel like giving a shout in game feel free. I felt
like writing this since there really aren't any class guides out there for WoW
yet and I felt I could be of some assistance to aspiring Warlocks. If this
guide is useful to you I'd love to hear about it.
Intro 3: Glossary of Terms
==========================
I realize not everyone has played MMORPGs and a ****** may be reading this
guide. So for reference, I will give you a few of the terms I may use in this
guide and you may hear when playing the game.
MMORPG - Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game
******/Noob - A new player that is not experienced
DoT - Damage over Time spells
WoW - World of Warcraft
mob - A monster (comes from the old MUD days before graphical MMORPGs existed)
PVP - Player Vs Player combat
PVE - Player Vs Environment (Sometimes called PVM or Player Vs Monster)
nuke - A direct damage spell
nerf - When the developer changes something to make it less effective
rezz - Short for resurrection
DPS - Damage per Second
DD - Direct Damage spells
Ok, now that 99% of you scrolled by all that to get to the guide,lets go.
**************************************************
**************************************************
Section 1: What is a warlock?
=============================
Warlocks are one of the 2 pet classes in WoW. They have the ability to summon
demons to assist them in combat. There are currently 4 "regular" pets in game
and several special pets that act differently. I will address all of the pets
in their own section. Warlocks are a good damage class that also has quite a
bit of utility. They are difficult to play in comparison to other classes, but
they are very powerful in the right hands. A good chunk of the power of the
warlock comes from Damage Over Time spells, or DoTs for short. Because of the
combination of abilities they possess, warlocks are very mana efficient when
compared to the other casters in the game. There are several play styles
available to the warlock, from a slow plodding style by letting the pet do the
majority of the work, to a faster style of burning down the mobs while taking
some of the damage yourself. Usually at lower levels you will begin with the
slower style and slowly move into the faster style as you start reaching the
higher levels.
**************************************************
**************************************************
Section 2: UI modifications - You need one
==========================================
Blizzard was very smart when they developed WoW to allow for 3rd party custom
interface modifications. If you really want to play a warlock to the end, I
would HIGHLY recommend you take advantage of one. The most well known, and my
personal choice is Cosmos. It is however, not the only choice out there,
CTMod, Gypsy, and a couple more that spring to mind. Really, what you are
looking for is the ability to add more toolbars. They all offer some other
handy functions, but the extra bars are essential. Also, I have another add-on
installed called Shardcount that gives me a little counter to keep track of how
many Soul Shards I currently have. This saves the pain of opening all of your
packs constantly and counting. Here are some handy links for you to get you
going with a UI mod:
**************************************************
**************************************************
Section 3: Race choices
=======================
First, your race choices depend on which side of the war you are on, Alliance
or Horde. There are 2 races per side that can play the Warlock. For Alliance,
you can choose from Gnome or Human. For Horde you can choose Undead or Orc.
On the Alliance side of things you basically should just pick which one you
like the look of. None of the racial traits are really all that great. Escape
Artist seems cool on paper, but in practice that 1.5 second casting time and
lack of immunity after it is cast make it pretty worthless. The rest of the
traits don't really make much of a difference either way, so just go with what
you like.
On the Horde side of things however, Undead is the clear cut winner. As it
stands at this time, Will of the Forsaken is far and away the best racial
ability in the game. It makes you immune to Fear and the Succubus Seduce for
20 seconds, is instant, and it can be used after you have been feared.
This gives Undead warlocks a great advantage over their Alliance counterparts.
I actually expect it may see the nerf bat soon, but for now it is very
powerful. That said, I still chose to be a gnome because I didn't want to play
a dirty horde.
Gnome
-----
Escape Artist: Activate to escape the effects of any immobilization or movement
speed reduction effect. 1.5 second cast. 30 second cool down.
Expansive Mind: +5% Intelligence
Arcane Resistance: +10 Arcane Resistance
Engineering Specialist: +15 Engineering Skill
Human
-----
Perception: Activate to increase stealth detection radius. Lasts 20 seconds.
2 minute cool down.
The Human Spirit: +5% Spirit
Diplomacy: Reputation gains increased by 10%
Sword Specialization: +5 Sword Skill
Mace Specialization: +5 Mace Skill
Undead
------
Will of the Forsaken: Activate to become immune to fear, sleep, and charm
effects. Lasts 20 seconds. 1.5 minute cool down.
Cannibalize: When activated, increases Health regeneration by 100% for 20
seconds. Only works on humanoid or undead corpses with 5 yards. Any movement or
damage taken while Cannibalizing will cancel the effect.
Underwater Breathing: +300% Underwater Breathing time.
Shadow Resistance: +10 Shadow Resistance
Orc
---
Blood Fury: Activate to increase Strength by 25%. Lose 5% Health every 3
seconds. Lasts 20 seconds. 2 minute cool down.
Hardiness: +25% resistance to stun and knockout effects.
Command: Pet melee damage increased by 5%.
Axe Specialization: +5 Axe Skill
**************************************************
**************************************************
Section 4: Stats and equipment
==============================
So what stats should you focus on? In WoW starting stats don't matter much and
everyone advances at the same rate. While a gnome may have a little more
Intelligence to start and a Human more Stamina, it is such a small difference
in the end it hardly matters. It all comes down to where you focus your
equipment. Let me be clear on this, STAMINA > ALL. If you don't care about
PVP, it isn't quite as critical...but if you plan on doing PVP at all you
should be focusing on Stamina as much as possible. Stamina directly translates
into 10 health per point of stam. A warlock is in a unique position of not
needing a large mana pool in comparison to the other casters. There are
several ways for a warlock to regain mana, but one of the most common spells
you will be using is Life Tap. This turns some of your health into mana, so in
effect it makes your health pool an extension of your mana pool. Because of
this ability, having a large health pool will enable you to take a lot more
punishment while still having the option to convert it over to mana as needed.
As a bonus, spells like Drain Life and Siphon Life can refill your health. The
only other stat to worry about is Intelligence, which is your mana pool. A
good mix of stamina items and "of the eagle" items which give both stamina and
intelligence should be what you are looking for.
**************************************************
**************************************************
Section 5: A quick word on Soul Shards
======================================
Soul Shards are needed to cast many of your most powerful spells. They are
received when a mob dies with Drain Soul being channeled at the same time. The
mob must give experience, so you cannot just go to any nearby creature to stock
up. They take up 1 inventory spot each and do not stack. They can be a real
pain when you start getting to higher levels and are PVPing or helping out
friends and are not near any high level mobs when you need some more. All of
your summons except the Imp and all of your stone spells require these to work.
Also, several other useful spells, like Enslave Demon, Soul Fire, and
Shadowburn need these as well. I am not sure what Blizzard's intent was with
these. They were originally sold as a trade-off for the warlock’s power, but
we don't really seem to be more powerful then other classes that don't have the
headache to deal with.
*************************************************
*************************************************
Section 6: Talents
==================
Talents are what make each character unique. You will receive your first
talent point at level 10 and get 1 per level until you reach 60. Each class
has 3 trees to spend points in and you must work your way down each one. In
this section I will give a broad overview of the talents in general along with
my rating of each, if you are just looking for builds see the talent templates
section. My current build is mainly Affliction because I find it useful for
both PVP and PVE and it fits into my view of what a warlock should be.
Demonology is more for end-game and Destruction is too much like a mage to me.
If I wanted to be a nuker, I would have rolled a mage. That said, there are
useful skills in all of the trees and my build dabbles in all 3 a bit. Keep in
mind I play on a PVP server, so that goes into my evaluations.
Affliction Tree:
================
The Affliction tree mainly focuses on cursing and damage over time. It also
has several talents that are very handy in reducing your downtime. Affliction
is a great all-around tree and it does well in both PVP and PVE and is what I
recommend using while leveling to 60. Gems of the tree include Improved
Corruption, Nightfall, Shadow Mastery and Dark Pact.
Tier 1: No prereqs
------------------
Suppression: (5 points max)
---------------------------
Description: Reduces the chance an enemy will resist your affliction spells.
It is 2% per point spent. Overall not a great talent, as in PVP resists are
rare and there are better places to spend your points.
Rating: **
Improved Corruption: (5 points max)
-----------------------------------
Description: Reduces the casting time of corruption by .4 seconds per point.
At 5/5 it becomes an instant spell. This is a must have talent. Instant
spells are king in PVP and even in PVE it is handy to cast while on the move.
Rating: *****
Tier 2: Requires 5 points in affliction
---------------------------------------
Improved Curse of Weakness: (3 points max)
------------------------------------------
Description: Makes your Curse of Weakness more effective. CoW is rarely used
except for specialized situations. Not really recommended.
Rating: *
Improved Drain Soul: (2 points max)
-----------------------------------
Description: This adds an interesting element to your Drain Soul that will
temporarily give you double mana regen if you kill with Drain Soul. This is a
nice downtime reducer but warlocks don't have a lot of downtime anyways. As a
note, this is supposedly buggy and will rarely ever fire in a group situation.
Rating: **
Improved Life Tap: (2 points max)
---------------------------------
Description: This talent makes your lifetap give you more mana per use, up to
20%. This isn't a bad talent to have since you will be using Life Tap often.
Not necessary, but it is useful.
Rating: ***
Improved Drain Life: (5 points max)
-----------------------------------
Description: Increases your Life Drain spell by up to 10%. While 10% isn't
really that great, if you plan on playing the faster style as you gain levels
you will be using Drain Life constantly. Extra DPS and healing is nice to have
and it adds up over a longer fight with several Drain Life casts.
Rating: ***
Tier 3: Requires 10 points in affliction
----------------------------------------
Improved Curse of Agony: (3 points max)
---------------------------------------
Description: Increases damage done by CoA. The increase is so small this
talent as it stands today is pretty worthless. Don't waste your points.
Rating: *
Fel Concentration: (5 points max)
---------------------------------
Description: Gives you a chance to avoid interruption from taking damage while
casting any of your drains. Maxes out at 70%. If you plan on making Draining
a part of your game, which I recommend you do at higher levels this becomes a
must have talent. Also, this is either a all or nothing talent. Do not put
just a couple points in here, max it or don’t touch it.
Rating: ****
Amplify Curse: (1 point max)
----------------------------
Description: Makes your Curse of Agony hit 50% harder or your Curse of
Exhaustion slow 20% more with a 3 minute cool down. Really the only way to
make Curse of Exhaustion good is to use Amplify Curse before casting it. It's
a prereq anyways, so if you want Curse of Exhaustion you might as well pick
this up.
Rating: ***
Tier 4: Requires 15 points in affliction
----------------------------------------
Grim Reach (2 points max)
-------------------------
Description: Increases the range of your affliction spells by up to 20%. Very
nice to have and a good place to put 2 points as you go down the tree.
Rating: ****
Nightfall (2 points max)
------------------------
Description: This talent gives you instant shadowbolts. Incredibly useful in
PVP and good for pumping extra damage into a mob in PVE. With 2 points here,
it has a 2% chance to fire from EVERY tick of corruption and Drain Life.
2% may not sound like a lot, but it will fire almost every fight. In mass PVP,
just lay a corruption on every enemy you see and you become a shadowbolt
machine gunner.
Rating: *****
Improved Drain Mana (2 points max)
----------------------------------
Description: Drain mana is pretty worthless as it is right now, and this
talent isn't enough to save it. I wouldn't put points here unless you really
are set on using drain mana.
Rating: **
Tier 5: Requires 20 points in affliction
----------------------------------------
Siphon Life (1 point max)
-------------------------
Description: This is a DoT that gives you health for each point of damage.
The problem is, it's a really crappy amount of damage done and health returned.
It can be good in a fight with a lot of enemies to lay it on a lot of them to
give you a decent healing boost, but usually you have better places to spend
the mana. This is a prereq for Shadow Mastery however, so if you are going all
the way in Affliction, you will need this anyways.
Rating: ***
Curse of Exhaustion (1 point max)
---------------------------------
Description: This is our snare that we cast to slow an enemy, and it sucks.
The snare is very weak and lasts a short time. By itself this spell is
worthless. If you want it to be effective you need to invest in Improved CoE
and start with an Amplify Curse. Without casting Amplify it can be enough to
catch a runner in PVP. I still recommend taking this for PVP if you are
affliction, it will save your life against an Undead that has Will of the
Forsaken to give you enough space until you can Seduce or Fear them.
Rating: **
Improved Curse of Exhaustion (4 points max)
-------------------------------------------
Description: This talent takes Curse of Exhaustion from worthless to
semi-useful. If you have CoE you need to spend the points here to make it
worthwhile. Good to have on a PVP server, especially on the Alliance side to
have something to deal with undead.
Rating: **
Tier 6: Requires 25 points in affliction
----------------------------------------
Shadow Mastery (5 points max)
-----------------------------
Description: This talent increases your shadow damage by up to 10%. More
damage is always good!
Rating: *****
Tier 7: Requires 30 points in affliction
----------------------------------------
Dark pact (1 point max)
-----------------------
Description: This skill is incredibly handy. It allows you to drain mana from
your pet. The best way to use this is in conjunction with the succubus. Turn
all of her abilities on manual so she will not waste any mana. Her abilities
are all pretty unimpressive except for Seduce, which you should manually
control anyways. This gives you a nice mana battery the can still attack
without wasting mana. In raids, sometimes you may wish to use an Imp on
passive as your battery, but in normal PVE and PVP the Succubus will serve
you better. If you are on a PVP server, having the succubus out at all times
is the way to go, as seduce will save your life from those pesky rogues that
jump you.
Rating: *****
Demonology Tree:
================
Ah Demonology, the red-headed stepchild tree. This tree was written off as a
total waste for a long time, since the best ability was broken. Now that Soul
Link is fixed Demonology is actually a viable build. However, the tree still
has issues. It has a couple highlights, with Soul Link being the major one,
but a lot of sub-par talents. You basically have to sacrifice a ton of points
to get one or two standout abilities if you want to take this route. However,
it just may be worth it in a PVP environment. Soul Link makes you incredibly
hard to kill and being able to pull out a pet instantly can turn a fight in
your favor. It is a very interesting tree and it may be worth speccing into
this at level 60. Not as good for leveling as Affliction.
Tier 1: No prereqs
------------------
Improved Healthstone (2 points max)
-----------------------------------
Description: Makes your healthstones heal more. BUT, it only works for you.
If you hand out a healthstone to a group member they will only get the base
amount. Not a great talent.
Rating: **
Improved Imp (3 points max)
---------------------------
Description: This improves all your Imps spells by up to 30%. This is
actually really nice if you plan on running with an Imp. I prefer succubus
for seduce personally, and if you plan on taking Soul Link in this tree an
Imp is the last thing you want to use. But if you are Affliction or
Destruction based and use an Imp this may be a decent place to throw any
leftover points.
Rating: ***
Demonic Embrace (5 points max)
------------------------------
Description: Extra stamina is always a good thing! This can give you up to a
15% boost in stamina, and that is AFTER all of your equipment is figured in.
Very nice talent to have, even if you are not demonology spec. Stamina is by
far the most important attribute for warlocks and the small hit in spirit you
take from this is not even noticeable.
Rating: *****
Tier 2: Requires 5 points in demonology
---------------------------------------
Improved Health Funnel (2 points max)
-------------------------------------
Description: Makes Health Funnel more effective. Waste of points, as Health
Funnel already heals incredibly fast.
Rating: *
Improved Voidwalker (3 points max)
----------------------------------
Description: Makes your voidwalkers taunts and consume shadows more effective.
Well, this depends if you are going to use a VW or not. That decision depends
on several factors. Are you on a PVP or PVE server? How are you specced? If
you are on a PVP server I would say generally the answer is no. However, if
you are full demonology you can always sacrifice the Voidwalker, and then
instant cast a succubus when you get jumped. I still probably wouldn't take
this since VW tends to not be as effective at high levels.
Rating: **
Fel Intellect (5 points max)
----------------------------
Description: Gives your pets up to 15% more mana. Not very impressive
overall, but it's the best talent in this tier plus it is a prereq for Fel
Stamina. So, best of the crap it is
Rating: **
Tier 3: Requires 10 points in Demonology
----------------------------------------
Improved Succubus (3 points max)
--------------------------------
Description: Yet another so-so talent. Soothing Kiss is worthless, Lash of
Pain is weak for the mana it costs, and seduce lasts 15 seconds already unless
it breaks early by which time you will be breaking it with damage in a PVP
situation.
Rating: **
Fel Domination (1 point max)
----------------------------
Description: Activate this to make your next pet take 5.5 seconds less time to
cast. When combined with master summoner you can pop a pet up in half a
second. A nasty surprise in PVP when you shield yourself with a VW sacrifice
then immediately pop up a succubus for the mezz. One of the highlights of this
tree.
Rating: *****
Fel Stamina (5 points max)
--------------------------
Description: Increases the health of your pets by up to 15% Not bad if you
are going for Soul Link. This is a prereq for Unholy Power anyways, so you
might want to pick it up.
Rating: ***
Tier 4: Requires 15 points in Demonology
----------------------------------------
Master Summoner (2 points max)
------------------------------
Description: Reduces the casting time of your pets by up to 4 seconds. Not
the best by itself, but can be great when combined with Fel Domination.
Rating: ****
Master Conjurer (2 points max)
------------------------------
Description: Reduces casting time and mana cost of your stone spells. See,
this is why demonology gets a bad rep. This talent sucks. You shouldn't be
wasting time and mana in combat casting stones, so why would you need to even
have this? I can maybe see summoning another healthstone during a fight, but
healthstones are on a timer, so doesn't seem practical.
Rating: *
Tier 5: Requires 20 points in Demonology
-----------------------------------------
Improved Enslave Demon (5 points max)
-------------------------------------
Description: Makes your enslaved demons attack and cast a bit faster. Not bad
to have, especially end-game if you plan on running around with a doomguard or
infernal.
Rating: ***
Demonic Sacrifice (1 point max)
-------------------------------
Description: Sacrifice your demon to give you a buff that lasts 30 mins. The
buff is canceled if you summon another pet. Imp increases fire damage 15%,
Voidwalker increases health by 15%, Succubus increases shadow damage by 15%,
and Felhunter increases mana by 20%. I haven't done testing on this talent
yet, so am unsure if you enslave a demon if that will dispel the buff. I will
update this when I know for sure. I am assuming it does not, so this talent
would be handy for when you want to use an infernal or doomguard. Just summon
a voidwalker and sac it for 15% more health. It is a prereq for Soul Link
anyways, and if you are this deep in Demonology I hope you are going for that.
Rating: ****
Improved Firestone (2 points max)
---------------------------------
Description: Improves your firestone effectiveness. Another crap talent,
since firestones are pretty much worthless after you start getting up higher
in levels. There are much better bonuses on a good staff then on any sword.
Firestones are fun at low levels to play around with and they look neat, but
otherwise you sacrifice too much giving up a good staff. I guess you might
take this if you want to be different and like running around with a sword that
has a little ball of fire twirling around it. I went through that phase until
I found a great staff.
Rating: *
Tier 6: Requires 25 points in Demonology
----------------------------------------
Unholy Power (5 points max)
---------------------------
Description: Increases the damage done by your pets by up to 20%. More damage
is always good and since it's the only talent in this tier you will probably
be taking it.
Rating: ****
Tier 7: Requires 30 points in Demonology
-----------------------------------------
Soul Link (1 point max)
-----------------------
Description: The crown jewel of Demonology. You took a bunch of junk just to
get here, now was it worth it? It basically lets you split any damage you or
your pet take between each other. This can be nasty in PVP when they suddenly
have to do 8000 damage to take you down instead of 4000. Demonology certainly
has some nice bonuses end-game in PVP. Have a VW out, use Soul Link to take
all of the damage they are dishing, then sacrifice him for the shield...bandage
back to full health and instant summon a Succubus to seduce them. I will be
doing some experiments with this soon and will update the guide with first hand
observations.
Rating: *****
Improved Spellstone (2 points max)
----------------------------------
Description: Makes your spellstones more effective. Wow, really crappy for a
Tier 7 talent. Spellstones basically absorb 1 shot from a mage, and they strip
all your beneficial buffs when used. In addition, you must have them held in
the off-hand to use them and there is a timer when you equip them so you cannot
swap mid-battle. Not ever worth giving up a staff for such a situational
stone when we fare well against mages anyways.
Rating: *
Destruction Tree
================
This tree deals in all out nuking ability. The main highlights deal with
criting more often and harder. I don't deny that destruction builds are
viable, I personally just don't like playing more of a mage role. If I wanted
to sit back and nuke I would have played a mage. That said, there is some good
stuff in here and many non-destruction warlocks, myself included, will at least
go in enough to get shadowburn. As a note, the first two tiers basically suck,
I think it is to punish us people that just want shadowburn.
Tier 1: No prereqs
------------------
Improved Shadow Bolt (5 max)
----------------------------
Description: Tier 1 gives you a choice between 2 crappy talents. Imp Shadow
Bolt makes it so that if you land a crit with a shadowbolt the target becomes
more vulnerable to shadow damage for the next 4 hits. Due to the sporadic
nature of crits and the fact that most destruction locks that focus on crits
will not bother with shadow bolt, but instead use searing pain this isn't worth
it.
Rating: *
Cataclysm (5 points max)
------------------------
Description: 5 points gives you 5% reduction in mana cost for destruction
spells. Crappy talent, but not any crappier then Imp Shadow Bolt. I would
probably take this just since it is always helping, even though it is a tiny
bit.
Rating: *
Tier 2: Requires 5 points in Destruction
----------------------------------------
Bane (5 points max)
-------------------
Description: Reduces casting time of Shadow Bolt and Immolate by .1 seconds
per point. Wow, .1?! No way! Sucky, like all the first 2 tiers of
destruction, but probably the best bet in this tier since you will be casting
Immolate all the time.
Rating: *
Aftermath (5 points max)
------------------------
Description: Chance to daze for 5 seconds with any destruction spell by up
to 10%. Hmm, well that looks nice on paper at first. But in practice it isn't
so good. It's a daze, not a stun. All daze does is slow their movement speed
for a few seconds. Might be ok at catching a runner, if you happen to get
lucky and proc this before he gets out of range. Otherwise, pretty worthless.
Rating: *
Tier 3: Requires 10 points in Destruction
-----------------------------------------
Improved Firebolt (2 points max)
-------------------------------
Description: Reduces the casting time on the Imps firebolt by up to 1 second.
First, only useful if you are using Imp. Second, still not useful. Your Imp
burns all his mana out in like 30 seconds anyways. This just means it takes
him 20 seconds until he is staring at the mob doing nothing.
Rating: *
Improved Lash of Pain (2 points max)
------------------------------------
Description: Reduces cooldown on Lash of Pain. While not as useless as the
Imp Firebolt talent, still not a good place to put your points. LoP doesn't do
great damage to mana spent anyways.
Rating: **
Devastation (5 points max)
--------------------------
Description: Well, by now you must think destruction sucks. Look at all the
1 star talents before this. Well no my friends, here is a great talent. This
increases your chance to crit with your destruction spells by up to 5%. If you
are going heavy destruction, max this out. Crits hurt bad.
Rating: *****
Shadowburn (1 point max)
------------------------
Description: Another great talent, and one warlocks from Demonology or
Affliction may think about getting. This gives you another spell that is an
instant and does good damage. The only drawback is it eats a Soul Shard. It
supposedly returns one to you if it makes the kill, but it seems very buggy at
this time and doesn't work as advertised. This spell is extremely handy in
PVP.
Rating: *****
Tier 4: Requires 15 points in Destruction
-----------------------------------------
Intensity (2 points max)
------------------------
Description: Gives you a chance to avoid interruption while channeling Rain of
Fire and Hellfire. 1 point is worthless but 2 is ok. I wish Blizzard would
consider making this 100% like mages get with some of their abilities, then
this would be a 5 star. The problem is with an AoE spell like those, you
only cast it at a group. And when the group aggros you even 70% chance to
resist is nothing when you are hit by a ton of attacks. One of them will
interrupt you. Nice in certain situations, but could have been so much better.
Rating: ***
Destructive Reach (2 points max)
--------------------------------
Description: Increases range of your destruction spells. Always a good thing
to have.
Rating: ****
Improved Searing Pain (5 points max)
------------------------------------
Description: Increases the chance to crit with Searing Pain by up to 10%.
When stacked with Devastation that adds up to a decent amount of crits.
Rating: ****
Tier 5: Require 20 points in Destruction
----------------------------------------
Pyroclasm (2 points max)
------------------------
Description: Gives your Rain of Fire and Hellfire a chance to stun. Not bad,
if it works. As it stands now it appears to not work right. May be more
useful later after some patches.
Rating: ***
Improved Immolate (5 points max)
--------------------------------
Description: Increases the initial damage of your Immolate spell by up to 25%.
Pretty decent since you usually will cast Immolate every fight. 5 points here
is a prereq if you want conflagrate.
Rating: ****
Ruin (1 point max)
------------------
Description: Increases your crit damage by 100%. Think of a Soul Fire crit
with this, OUCH! Probably the best talent in the tree.
Rating: *****
Tier 6: Requires 25 points in Destruction
-----------------------------------------
Emberstorm (5 points max)
----------------------
Increases damage of your fire spells by up to 10%. A lot of stacking talents
like this is the tree. More damage is good.
Rating: ****
Tier 7: Requires 30 points in Destruction
-----------------------------------------
Conflagrate (1 point max)
-------------------------
Description: This is a DD spell that requires Immolate be cast on the target
already. It does decent damage and consumes the Immolate spell. When using
this you should time it to hit at the end of the Immolate so you get the most
damage out of both. A nice spell, but don't know if it's worthy of being this
deep in the tree. I may respec into this to do some testing later when I have
the gold to burn.
Rating: ****
**************************************************
**************************************************
Section 7: Spells
=================
Well, I could list all of the spells here and how much each does per rank, but
frankly that is a ton of work for something that is easily available online.
If you want to see a complete list of all stats and costs go to
www.thottbot.com can click on warlock. Rather then just list tons of stats, I
will give you my opinion on how each of the spells plays and the situations
they will be useful. I will also give each a rating of 1-5 stars.
Immolate
--------
Level Received: 1
Description: This spell does Direct Damage to the target and continues to deal
DoT for the next 15 seconds. It is going to be one of your primary spells as
you level. Mainly used as the last DoT cast before you start using other
direct damage or drains. Not quite as good as the other DoTs due to the longer
casting time, but still will be used almost every fight.
Rating: ****
Shadow Bolt
-----------
Level Received: 1
Description: Your basic nuke. Not really great unless combined with the
Nightfall talent. The slow cast time makes it a bad idea in PVP. You will be
using this at low levels when doing PVE since you have few other options.
Rating: ** (**** with Nightfall)
Demon Skin/Armor
----------------
Level Received: 1
Description: This is a self-only buff that gives you extra armor and speeds up
your health regen. It is not overly powerful, but there is no reason not to
have it up at all times.
Rating: ****
Corruption
----------
Level Received: 4
Description: This is your bread and butter DoT. It does good damage, and
becomes instant cast with 5 points into the Improved Corruption talent. It
also is one of the skills that makes Nightfall activate.
Rating: *****
Curse of Weakness
-----------------
Level Received: 4
Description: This makes it so that whatever it is cast on does not hit as
hard. It quickly falls off to not being very useful, since you can only have
one curse on an enemy at a time and there are better options. The amount of
damage it stops doesn't really scale well at all as you level up.
Rating: **
Life Tap
--------
Level Received: 6
Description: This spell instantly changes health into mana. It is a one to
one ratio unless you take the improved Life Tap talent. It is instant cast and
is very nice in conjunction with Drain Life. Instead of being a caster that
stands around with full life but no mana in a fight, you can be a caster with
half life and half mana and be doing some good. You can also combine this with
first aid for a quick recharge as well. This is a great utility spell that any
good warlock will learn to love.
Rating: *****
Fear
----
Level Received: 8
Description: This is our main crowd control spell, and is very useful in PVP.
It was nerfed recently so it breaks far easier then it used to. It also has
diminishing returns, so when you have used Fear on a target the next cast will
last half as long. It basically makes the target run around like a crazed
chicken. During PVE, you need to be very careful with this spell. If the
Feared mob runs near a buddy of his, it will aggro you. Can suddenly make you
have to turn and run if the Feared mob runs through a camp of his friends.
This would have been a 5 star spell without the recent changes and Will of the
Forsaken, which makes it useless on Undead. Still incredibly handy for getting
that extra mob off you or making an enemy in PVP unable to do anything for
awhile.
Rating: ****
Curse of Agony
--------------
Level Received: 8
Description: This is the other main DoT spell you will be using and is the
heaviest hitting. It slowly ramps up it's damage over the 30 seconds it lasts,
so it is hurting most at the end of the duration. When soloing, you will be
using this spell most of the time. It is a curse, so the 1 curse rule means
in groups you may have other curses you might want to use.
Rating: *****
Create Healthstone
------------------
Level Received: 10
Description: This spell turns a Soul Shard into a Healthstone. A Healthstone
is very similar to a potion, in that you just right-click it to instantly heal.
The Healthstone is consumed on use and you may only have one in your inventory
at a time. You can however, trade them to other people. It is on a separate
timer from the potion one, so you can use both this and a potion in the same
fight. Very useful and you should always have one in your inventory and on a
hotbar for emergencies.
Rating: ****
Drain Soul
----------
Level Received: 10
Description: This is a drain spell that does DoT to the target. If the target
dies while the drain is on, it gives you a Soul Shard. The spell itself isn't
great for damage, but it is the only reliable way to get Soul Shards, so you
will need to use this often. There is a talent that allows you to gain faster
regen after you make a kill with this spell, but it is not worth the cost
unless you might want it in a PVE only environment.
Rating: *** (required however)
Health Funnel
-------------
Level Received: 12
Description: This spell takes some of your life and uses it to heal your pet.
Useful at times to save a pet when it is getting pounded on and is about to go
down. It is useful on occasion to cut some downtime as well, but pets regen
very quickly so it is not a necessity.
Rating: ***
Curse of Recklessness
---------------------
Level Received: 14
Description: This spell reduces the armor of the target by a decent amount and
increases their attack power by a little. If that were all it did, it would
rarely be cast but it has one other side effect. Cursed creatures will not
flee. In an instance, this can be a life saver as the runners will not get
back to their camps and bring a bunch of their friends to the party. Very
useful in certain situations.
Rating: ****
Drain Life
----------
Level Received: 14
Description: This spell is a channeled DoT drain spell that gives you health.
The damage is not overwhelming, but the healing effect more then makes up for
it. Casting Life Tap then draining back the health is like getting a free
spell. At higher levels, you may also begin to Drain tank, which is where a
mob is beating on you but you are constantly draining health to stay relatively
even. To utilize that technique you need the Fel Concentration talent, which
greatly reduces you being interrupted while channeling the spell.
Rating: *****
Unending Breath
---------------
Level Received: 16
Description: Lets you breath underwater for 10 mins. Is kind of fun and
useful on occasion, but not a big deal. A fun trick is to use Seduce to hold
an enemy player underwater with you while they drown and you happily breathe
just fine.
Rating: **
Searing Pain
------------
Level Received: 18
Description: It's basically half of a shadowbolt. It does about half the
damage, for half the mana, for half the casting time. It also causes more
threat, so is a good way to get a mob to come attack you instead of something
else. If you go down the destruction tree it becomes far more useful with the
extra crits, but since I prefer the affliction build, it isn't really worth it
to me. On occasion you may run into a mob that is immune to shadow damage, so
this is a decent alternative.
Rating: ***
Create Soulstone
----------------
Level Received: 18
Description: This spell turns a soul shard into a soulstone. You right click
on the stone to cast a 30-minute buff on yourself or another player. This is
basically a free resurrection with more mana and health then you would get from
a regular rezz. In an instance it is wipe insurance. Always have the
soulstone cast on the rezzer of the party. There is a 30-minute cooldown on
using this spell, so you can only have one player with this effect at a time.
When you are not grouped, always have this on yourself.
Rating: *****
Ritual of Summoning
-------------------
Level Received: 20
Description: This spell is used to summon another party member to your
location. You must have 2 other party members present to complete this spell.
When cast, it summons a portal that 2 other people must right click on for it
to work. Pretty handy for gathering those stragglers to an instance, but not
as handy as it could be do to needing the other 2 people.
Rating: ***
Rain of Fire
------------
Level Received: 20
Description: This is an AoE spell that calls down fire to burn all of the
enemies. It is fairly difficult to use in most situations due to all the aggro
that will come your way when you cast it. Having 10 things beating on you will
make you go down fast. In certain situations it can be handy, especially when
fighting in conjunction with a mage doing AoE spells as well.
Rating: ***
Eye of Kilrogg
--------------
Level Received: 22
Description: This spell is fun. It summons a green glowing eye that you can
control. It moves your point of view to the eye and you can use it to scout
ahead and see what is around the corner. It is also fun for freaking out low
levels that don't know what it is and run away from it. The eye has decent
stealth abilities, so you can work your way through a bunch of mobs to scout
the area. Very handy when looking for a boss or quest area but don't want to
fight down a bunch of hallways to figure out which one is the correct path.
Really more of a toy since it doesn't come into play very often at all. To
stop using the eye at any time, just right click on the buff icon.
Rating: ** (***** for fun/cool factor)
Drain Mana
----------
Level Received: 24
Description: Pretty much what the name says, it drains a targets mana and
gives it to you. I first got the spell and thought, now this will kick ***.
Well, sorry to say that is not the case. It's really pretty useless due to
the tiny amount of mana drained. You get 5 seconds of mana draining and it
doesn't even pay for casting this spell until the 3rd second. It also is
interruptible, since it is a channeled spell. It is mildly useful when
fighting a mob that is almost out of mana and you want to insure it doesn’t
heal itself, but that is a rare circumstance. Very disappointing and I hope
they adjust it to be more useful in PVP.
Rating: **
Sense Demons
------------
Level Received: 24
Description: This lets you track demons on your radar. There are so few
demon areas this spell is basically worthless. Plus it interferes with any
tradeskill tracking you are doing.
Rating: *
Shadowburn
----------
Level Received: *** Rank 1 is gotten through talents, so it depends on your
build
Description: This is an instant DD spell. It eats a soul shard and is
supposed to return a shard to you if it delivers the killing blow, but it
appears to be a bit buggy and doesn't always give you back the shard. Anything
instant in PVP is good and this hits pretty hard. The shard cost can add up
fast so you have to make sure you keep an eye on your supply.
Rating: ****
Detect Invisibility
-------------------
Level Received: 26
Description: Since hardly anything is invis and this doesn't detect stealth,
it is worthless.
Rating: *
Curse of Tongues
----------------
Level Received: 26
Description: This curse slows casting time by 50% or more depending on the
rank. This is very nice on caster mobs or enemy mages. Note, that it doesn't
slow instant spells. I highly recommend using this on mage type mobs since
this will cut their DPS way down.
Rating: ***
Banish
------
Level Received: 28
Description: Banishes demons and elementals temporarily. It makes them unable
to do anything but you are unable to interact with them as well. Incredibly
useful, if somewhat limited in the situations it comes into play. Note, you
can banish enemy warlock pets as well.
Rating: ****
Create Firestone
----------------
Level Received: 28
Description: Turns a Soul Shard into a firestone. This is an item you can
hold in your off-hand that gives your weapon a fire damage proc. It looks neat
and adds a bit of damage, but in the end staves are too valuable to give up.
I had fun for a while playing with a sword and firestone purely for cool factor
reasons, but then I started finding staves with too good of bonuses to pass up.
A toy spell that is neat, but overall not very useful.
Rating: **
Hellfire
--------
Level Received: 30
Description: This is an AoE spell that uses the caster as the center. It does
tons of damage in a small area but also does the same damage to the caster.
Can be handy in situations where you are facing a ton of weak mobs and have a
healer to help you out. One tactic is have the mage freeze them all and you
run in the middle and let loose with this spell. It can be interrupted but
there are destruction talents to help with that if you want to go that route.
Very specialized and dangerous.
Rating: ***
Enslave Demon
-------------
Level Received: 30
Description: Enslaves a demon to be your pet. This uses a Soul Shard and has
a max 5-minute duration. When you cast it, it will unsummon whatever pet you
have out. This spell is what you use in the end-game to control your Infernal
and Doomguard. An enslaved demon is constantly making resist checks and may
break your control early. It is usually at a bad time, like when you are in
the middle of a fight. This is where banish can be very useful, since you can
basically put him away and deal with him after you have finished the current
fight. The main problem is there aren't a whole lot of demons worth dealing
with the headache to control. The Doomguard is an exception and is very
powerful, but I have no first hand testing as of yet. Once I get my Doomguard
and Infernal I will update the guide with experiences at the endgame. Pre-60,
it is more of a toy. As a note, Curse of Shadows makes this spell stick better
and should always be used when enslaving.
Rating: ****
Shadow Ward
-----------
Level Received: 32
Description: Absorbs a certain amount of shadow damage. Very limited unless
facing an enemy warlock or shadow priest. Even then, basically gives you one
shadow bolt worth of absorption. Not usually worth it.
Rating: **
Curse of Elements
-----------------
Level Received: 32
Description: Reduces Fire and Frost resists on the target. Nice in a group
with mages to make their spells hit harder, or nice to cast and follow up with
a soul fire for a big hit.
Rating: ***
Create Spellstone
-----------------
Level Received: 36
Description: Turns a Soul Shard into a Spell Stone. This is held in the
off-hand. When you right click it wipes out all magical effects on the caster
and absorbs a small amount of magic damage. Not worth bothering with since
you are giving up staves and it wipes out your beneficial buffs when used. The
amount of damage absorbed is about 1 spell, so not a huge life-saver.
Rating: **
Siphon Life
-----------
Level Received: ***This is a talent spell, so depends on your build
Description: A DoT spell that gives the damage it does back to the caster.
The problem with this spell is the tiny amount of damage and healing it does.
In normal circumstances, it usually is not worth casting. In group PVP
battles, you can get decent healing by sticking this on a ton of people but
usually you won't have the chance since this is not an instant.
Rating: **
Howl of Terror
--------------
Level Received: 40
Description: This is an AoE Fear spell that makes up to 5 enemies around the
caster run. It is handy in an emergency when you get a bunch of aggro and just
need to cast this and run. The main downfall is the casting time makes it hard
to get off quickly with multiple things beating on you.
Rating: ***
Death Coil
----------
Level Received: 42
Description: An instant DD spell that returns the damage done to the caster.
Hits pretty hard and is an instant so is very valuable in PVP. The major
drawback is the 10 minute cooldown time, so save it for bad pulls or PVP fights
where you need an extra punch.
Rating: ****
Curse of Shadow
---------------
Level Received: 44
Description: Lowers the targets shadow resistance. This is mainly used in
conjunction with Enslave Demon to get it to stick. It will also up the damage
a bit on your shadow spells, but not worth losing the CoA if you are an
affliction build. When grouped with another warlock it may be a different
situation.
Rating: ***
Soul Fire
---------
Level Received: 48
Description: This sucker packs a punch. Does huge damage but has a six second
casting time. It also uses a Soul Shard. Still, the damage done per mana
point is 3 to 1, which is great efficiency. Is nice to use every other fight
in PVE as long as you let the pet have aggro to start and then take the aggro
with this spell. Whenever you do, be sure to finish the fight with a drain
soul to get the shard back. In PVP, use your succubus to seduce them. Then
cast Curse of Elements and wind up the Soul Fire. You can even follow this up
with a death coil and shadowburn to do huge damage in the space of a few
seconds.
Rating: *****
Conflagrate
-----------
Level Received: ***This is a talent spell, so depends on your build
Description: This is a DD spell that requires Immolate be cast on the target
already. It does decent damage and consumes the Immolate spell. When using
this you should time it to hit at the end of the Immolate so you get the most
damage out of both. Good if you plan on playing a destruction warlock.
Rating: ****
Dark Pact
---------
Level Received: ***This is a talent spell, so depends on your build
Description: This spell drains mana from your pet and gives it back to you.
It is instant and can be cast repeatedly to fill yourself. This spell is
incredibly useful and almost completely eliminates downtime. The best way to
use this is to have a succubus as your pet with all of her abilities turned off
autocast. She then becomes a decent melee pet that acts as a nice mana
battery. Lash of Pain isn't worth it for the mana it uses, soothing kiss
sucks, and seduction should be used manually anyways. Pets also regen mana
much faster then you do. Some warlocks also have an Imp on passive as a mana
battery, but I like having the seduce available and letting the succy pitch in
some DPS with her whip.
Rating: *****
Curse of Doom
-------------
Level Received: 60
Description: This curse will sit on a target for 1 minute, at which point it
will deal 3200 damage in one chunk. If the target dies there is a chance it
will spawn a Doomguard. Mainly used for getting a Doomguard to appear. I
have no first hand experience with this yet and will update the guide when I
do.
Rating: Unknown
**************************************************
**************************************************
Section 8: Pets
===============
So, this is probably the reason you chose warlock in the first place. You
wanted to walk around town with your own personal demon. Warlock pets are a
bit different from other MMORPG pet classes, in that they each have specific
roles to fill. In some other games you just move up the ladder of pets, so
what you get at level 20 will always be better then the level 10 pet. Not true
in WoW. I will give a brief overview of each pet and the situations you should
be using them in.
Imp
---
The Imp is your first pet and he specializes in dishing out the pain. His main
attack is a ranged firebolt that hits pretty hard. He also has a good group
stamina buff and can cast Fire Shield, which does a bit of damage to enemies
that hit you. He has a unique ability to phase shift, which makes him
invulnerable when he is not attacking. He has very few hitpoints so can be
taken down quickly so don't expect him to do any tanking for you. He burns
through his mana fairly quickly in a fight and then just stands around cursing
in demonic. He has fast regen time for his mana pool however, which makes him
a good invulnerable mana battery for Dark Pact if you leave him on passive.
He is not a bad general pet for PVP and is good in a group situation with his
stamina buff. Not usually recommended for soloing, but it is doable if he fits
into your play style. He also doesn't cost a shard to summon, so he is your
default backup pet.
Pros: High DPS, Good Group Stamina Buff
Cons: Low health, Small mana pool
Voidwalker
----------
This is your tank pet. He can take a ton of punishment but he hits like my
grandmother. He has a regular taunt and a AoE taunt to help keep the mobs on
him instead of you. He has a sacrifice ability, which destroys the Voidwalker
but puts a shield around you that absorbs a certain amount of damage and makes
you uninterruptible. Consume Shadows gives him a heal in between fights. This
guy will be your bread and butter at the lower levels. He holds aggro pretty
well early on and takes a good beating. Sacrifice will save your life when a
pull goes wrong. As you start getting up in levels he steadily becomes less
effective and no longer will hold aggro as well. You may eventually stop using
him entirely, but some warlocks seem to stick by him. He makes a good pet to
Soul Link with if you are Demonology specced and need the health boost. If you
are not a Demonology Warlock, he is generally a horrible choice for PVP and
doesn't really offer anything in a group situation besides a questionable
backup tank. Good for soloing when your are not going to drain tank.
Pros: High Health, Sacrifice
Cons: Under performs at higher levels, Nothing to offer groups
Succubus
--------
The Succubus is an interesting pet, and is my general pet of choice. She
dishes out very good melee DPS and on the upside can do so without spending
any of her mana. She has Lash of Pain which actually doesn't do the greatest
damage for the amount of mana it costs her. Soothing Kiss is like a reverse
taunt, which makes her lose aggro. It's pretty worthless overall as you can
easily pull aggro from her whenever you want. She is not a tank by any means
but isn't made of paper like the Imp. She can off-tank an add you may get in
an emergency. Her best ability is Seduce, which makes a humanoid stand there
with little hearts over his head for up to 15 seconds. Using seduce takes the
succubus out of the fight as well, since she stands there and smacks her butt.
Any damage will break seduce as well, so you can't have DoTs running. This
ability is very helpful in instances and is downright deadly in PVP. My combo
of choice in PVP is to seduce, then cast Curse of Elements and Soul Fire to
start the fight with a huge chunk of damage done. She also makes the best
Dark Pact pet since she can still contribute to the fights without mana by
swinging her whip. If you are going to use Dark Pact with her, be sure to
turn all of her abilities on manual so she doesn't waste her mana. When using
this pet to solo, you will be doing the majority of the tanking, so you really
need to have Fel Concentration so you can drain as you need to. She also has
the ability to turn invisible. The only downside of the invis ability is you
cannot set it to auto so you constantly have to reinvis her after every fight.
It is only really useful in PVP so the enemy can't see her until she strikes.
Great choice for general soloing at higher levels, especially on a PVP server.
Pros: Seduce, Good DPS with no mana use
Cons: You need to do the tanking
Felhunter
---------
Our final pet is specialized for anti-caster duties. He is an in between pet.
He can take more damage then the Succubus but cannot do as much damage. With
his decent health, he is not a bad choice for the Demonology Warlock looking
for a Soul Link. He has a group buff that improves stealth detection to let
you see those pesky rogues before they put the knife in your back. He can eat
buffs or debuffs and will heal himself while doing so. He also has spell lock,
which counters the current spell being cast and makes it so they are unable to
cast for a few moments. He also lowers attack power on anything that hits him.
The main knock against felhunters is they are so specialized. They will eat
mages alive and are able to strip all the seals and buffs off of paladins, but
are pretty worthless against everything else. For a demonology spec, they are
not a bad choice to run with since you can Soul Link them and they have better
abilities then the Voidwalker. But for everyone else, unless you know ahead of
time you are going to be facing a mage or paladin, you would be better served
with a succubus.
Pros: Good anti-caster, nice to be able to see rogues easier
Cons: Far too specialized
Enslaved Pets
-------------
In addition to our regular pets Warlocks have the ability to enslave demons.
This also includes our Infernal and Doomguard, which when summoned do not want
to be your friend. Always, always, always cast Curse of Shadows before using
enslave. It will make the enslave stick much better and last closer to the
duration. The way enslave works, the enslaved demon will become your pet for
up to five minutes. They are constantly making resist checks to try and break
free, and they always seem to do it at inappropriate moments. Remember, if you
get in a bad situation when a pet turns on you, you have the option to banish
it to give you some breathing room. Enslave is also subject to diminishing
returns, so every time your recast it the demon will break free in half the
time. There have been reports if you banish the demon 3 or so times it will
eventually reset it's enslave resist to normal so you can hold it for the full
duration again. Enslaved demons get a penalty to attack and casting speeds for
balance reasons.
Pros: Doomguards and some elite demons make awesome pets
Cons: Very dangerous pets can turn on you at a bad moment
**************************************************
**************************************************
Section 9: Talent Templates
===========================
Here are several different builds with descriptions. I hope these are helpful
to you and I will gladly accept any constructive feedback on these.
Affliction Build with Dark Pact - No downtime grinding machine
==============================================================
Description: This build is great for soloing and leveling to 60. Don't think
it is weak in PVP though, it can be very deadly. I would concentrate on
completing the Affliction tree, then go for Shadowburn, and finish off with
Demonic Embrace. This build leaves 3 points unspent, so do whatever you want
with them after you finish the template.
Strategy: Once you complete the Affliction talents you are basically going to
be drain tanking using the Succubus as your pet. Turn all of her abilities off
autocast. I would recommend binding Dark Pact to any easy to hit button, as
you will be spamming it a lot. Basic PVE strategy is as follows:
Send in Succubus
Curse of Agony
Corruption
Immolate <--- At this point the mob will come at you
Cast Drain Life as needed to keep your health near max, you can also throw
shadowbolts when Nightfall procs if desired
After the fight spam Dark Pact while you move to the next target
This will give you very little downtime. Another great tactic is to send is
the succy, let her get a few hits then cast Curse of Elements and wind up a
Soul Fire. After that the mob will come for you, do the same pattern as normal
after that, DoT, DoT, DoT, Drain. However, be sure to finish the fight with
Drain Soul to reclaim the Soul Shard you spent. Soul Fire gives you tremendous
bang per mana point so it is not a bad idea to mix into your pattern.
Affliction Talents (32 points)
------------------------------
Improved Corruption - 5/5 points
Improved Drain Life - 5/5 points
Amplify Curse - 1/1 point
Fel Concentration - 5/5 points
Nightfall - 2/2 points
Grim Reach - 2/2 points
Curse of Exhaustion - 1/1 point
Siphon Life - 1/1 point
Improved Curse of Exhaustion - 4/4 points
Shadow Mastery - 5/5 points
Dark Pact - 1/1 point
Demonology Talents (5 points)
-----------------------------
Demonic Embrace - 5/5 points
Destruction Talents (11 points)
-------------------------------
Cataclysm - 5/5 points
Bane - 5/5 points
Shadowburn - 1/1 point
Demonology Build with Nightfall - Super tank with instant pet summoning
========================================================================
Description: This build makes you very hard to take down. Very nice for PVP
while still holding it's own in PVE. I view this as more for end-game with
improved enslave demon to help with the Doomguard and Infernal a bit. For
general leveling work you may be better served going Affliction, at least until
you get high enough to respec directly into Soul Link. I have Improved Imp
on here since he makes a good group pet for raiding with his stamina buff and
this talent only makes it better. The build still gets you to Nightfall and
to help make up a bit for missing the mana of Dark Pact I included Improved
Life Tap. You still have the ability to drain tank with Fel Concentration and
Improved Drain Life.
Strategy: In PVP Soul Link gives you a huge pool of health to work with. The
pets to start off a fight with are either the Voidwalker or Felhunter combined
with Soul Link. Voidwalker gives you the most health with the shield to fall
back on while the felhunter has decent health and is handy for seeing rogues
and anti-caster work. Basically you want to DoT the target and fight as normal
with Soul Link making you take half damage. When the DoTs wear off and your
pet is getting down in health, depending on how the fight is going it may be
a good idea to hit the instant pet summon and whip out a Succubus. You can
then hit them with a quick seduce and bandage yourself or hit them with the
Curse of Elements/Soul Fire combo for big damage. Just remember, the DoTs
have to be expired before you can Seduce.
Affliction Talents (18 points)
------------------------------
Improved Corruption - 5/5 points
Improved Drain Life - 4/5 points
Improved Life Tap - 2/2 points
Fel Concentration - 5/5 points
Nightfall - 2/2 points
Demonology Talents (33 points)
------------------------------
Demonic Embrace - 5/5 points
Improved Imp - 3/3 points
Fel Intellect - 5/5 points
Fel Stamina - 5/5 points
Fel Domination - 1/1 point
Master Summoner - 2/2 points
Demonic Sacrifice - 1/1 point
Improved Enslave Demon - 5/5 points
Unholy Power - 5/5 points
Soul Link - 1/1 point
Destruction Talents (0 points)
------------------------------
None
Destruction Build - Lots of nukage with AoE ability
===================================================
Description: This build is if you want max DPS at the expense of some
efficiency. You can burn down targets quickly. I included Imp Life Tap to
help somewhat with mana use, but to replenish your life you do not have the
option of drain tanking, so care must be taken with aggro. Makes a good PVP
build but will have more downtime when leveling. Works well, but personally
am not that interested in being a magelock. Even if you want to go destruction
endgame, I still recommend you think about leveling using affliction for Dark
Pact so you can avoid downtime as much as possible.
Strategy: Basically, lay your DoTs as normal and start nuking. Spamming
searing pain is not a bad way to go since your will be landing crits with it
often. This build is all about trying to take a target down as fast as
possible.
Affliction Talents (7 points)
-----------------------------
Improved Corruption - 5/5 points
Improved Life Tap - 2/2 points
Demonology Talents (5 points)
-----------------------------
Demonic Embrace - 5/5 points
Destruction Talents (39 points)
-------------------------------
Cataclysm - 5/5 points
Bane - 5/5 points
Devastation - 5/5 points
Shadowburn - 1/1 point
Destructive Reach - 2/2 points
Improved Searing Pain - 5/5 points
Intensity - 2/2 points
Ruin - 1/1 point
Improved Immolate - 5/5 points
Pyroclasm - 2/2 points
Emberstorm - 5/5 points
Conflagrate - 1/1 point
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