I've only played up to level 60-ish, so can't comment on top-level raiding and stuff. I'm also not someone who uses the target dummies to "tweak my DPS" to max levels, and pretty much every random who "inspects" my build says I'm doing it wrong, so what follows is mostly what I've used for fun and for levelling.
Warlocks
'Locks are versatile spellcasters who can deal large amounts of ranged damage like a sniper, or inflict creeping diseases causing damage over time on many enemies like a necromancer. Many spells have additional effects which can be used to debuff (reduce stats/abilities) or even control the enemies in various ways, including the ever-popular
Fear spell. In addition Warlocks can summon various demons under their control, whose abilities are equally diverse. Warlocks have a spell or ability for almost every situation and are a great choice for solo questing or PvP.
Talent Trees
The three Warlock talent trees are as follows, while you will end up with a mix of two or more trees at level 60+,
I find it's best to concentrate on one to start with and build your play style around it, and I use the not-very-scientific method of picking the one where I most like the look of the talents higher up and work wholly towards
them. Note that you get most of the spells at a basic level as you progress, whatever talents you choose, but the talents reduce the cost or casting time, increase the range or effect and give you access to more powerful versions.
- Affliction. These are your basic curses and diseases. These deal damage over time and are most effective when used on multiple enemies, they have a short or instant cast time. They favour a patient playstyle, where you are content to manage the demon to keep the mobs (enemies) away from you and wait until everything falls down dead. You can only have one curse (per mob) active at a time, plus a disease (which will be
Corruption for the most part) so it's useful to select the most effective for the situation.
Curse of Agony is the utility one, used for most enemies,
Curse of Weakness is good against melee-types, while
Curse of Tongues stops magic-users in their tracks.
Curse of Elements is good if you have a mage blasting away beside you,
Curse of Recklessness is a great one to slap on those pesky mobs that always run away and
Fear is most useful in emergency situations or PvP. A fully affliction-specced Warlock is probably the best debuffer in the game.
- Demonology. Not spells so much, but a set of buffs and abilities you learn to make your demons more powerful. As the name suggests, this play style is all about the demon - your job is to keep him alive and bashing the mobs, making sure you moderate the damage
you cause so that they don't come after you. You should direct your early talents towards improving only the demons you use most, then go for the general demonology talents that give you added bonuses, plus the awesome
Fel Domination/Master Summoner combo which effectively allows you to instantly (re)summon a demon. The creation of Health, Fire and Spell stones also falls within demonology, but I think any points spent in them are wasted - the first is good enough at it's lowest level to get you out of a scrape, but the other two create items which you apply to weapons, which you mainly don't ever use. Of limited use, but unquestionably fun is
Enslave Demon - there aren't too many around at the start of the game, and you have to forfeit your regular demon to use it, but you can enslave an elite mob in a crowd and sit back while it obliterates all the regular ones around it. Similar fun can be had with the Infernus and Doomguard, but beware that unlike your regular demons, enslaved ones go apeshit bananas on you once the timer runs out. A fully demonology-specced Warlock has very high survivability, in questing, instances and PvP.
- Destruction. This lot's all about damage. Half shadow, half fire, these talents boost the effectiveness of your ranged and AoE (area of effect) spells. They have medium to long casting times, typically. The play style is basically geared towards dropping anything before it gets anywhere near you, leaving the demon to keep the stragglers busy. While it can be a lot of fun to play, and extremely effective if you are in a group with a proper tank (someone who makes the enemies attack
them) it can go wrong quite badly if the mobs get close as your demon will have a hard time pulling them back off you with the damage you're causing. A fully destruction-specced Warlock can cause among the highest levels of DPS (damage per second) for a spellcaster.
Demons
Demons are what differentiate Warlocks from other spellcasting classes, but are distinct from Hunter's pets as they are (near) instantly interchangeable and (mostly) do as they're told without having to be looked after. A recent patch removed the requirement to buy spells for each demon, they now learn automatically as you level.
-Imp. The first demon you get, the only one to have a ranged attack. He also has two party buffs and a non-combat invisibility buff. Sacrificing him gives a buff to fire-based spells. (As with all demonic sacrifices, the effect lasts 30 minutes, or until another demon is summoned). Probably most useful with a powerful destructionist using fire-based spells, periodically resummoning and instantly sacrificing him. He goes down quickly, but doesn't require a Soul Shard to summon. In instances with parties, you should probably get him out - he causes no threat when invisible, leaving you free to DoT (use affliction spells) or nuke (use destruction spells) without getting in the way of the tank.
-Voidwalker. The keystone of the demonology Warlock's strategy he has two spells which taunt the enemy into attacking him, giving you a little more leeway in the damage you cause. Has an out of combat, self-heal ability, plus a self-sacrifice spell that grants a shield bubble to the Warlock, which isn't dispelled by resummoning. The regular sacrifice gives health restoration. Certainly one for the demonologist, great for crowd control and questing/grinding through pretty much all levels. Can be a nightmare in instances with a party as he likes to pull mobs from all over, meaning the
real tank has to chase them.
Crabladder wrote:I hate you, Kongrave
-Succubus. Produces a high amount of melee damage compared to the earlier demons, but struggles to hold aggro (enemies want to attack her), indeed has two spells which
reduce her threat (likelihood of retaining aggro). She has a powerful debuff
Seduction which only works on humanoids, which I feel should have been extended to all enemies, but as it is she provides decent cover for a careful afflictionist, though sacrificing her gives a good shadow buff, so is good for the shadow bolt nuker destructionist who's happy to work without a demon out. An okay choice for partied instances, with her
Soothing Kiss on manual should she accidentally steal aggro, and can provide a crafty one-time trick for PvP with her invisibility fooling oppenents into thinking you have no demon - Rogues particularly hate the fact you've used
their trick on
them - if you're lucky her
Seduction will do them in.
-Felhunter. Useful chiefly against spellcasters - if NPCs could be afraid, they'd be afraid of this mutant puppy. Its basic ability is to eat buffs and debuffs, from the enemy and you respectively, making it a seriously useful PvP tool where everyone's trying to cast nasty stuff on you all the time. It's weak against melee-characters, though - so you should avoid them. Sacrificing one regenerates mana.
-Felguard. Awesome damage and good threat generation make this a great choice for questing. A sacrifice yields all the benefits of the previous demons put together. Two damage-boosting effects, plus a taunt and a defense move. Good for sending out fighting in PvP while you observe the carnage from afar.
-Infernus/DoomGuard. Like an enslaved demon, these are never fully under your control in the way your minions are - you can try to re-enslave them but it gets harder each time the timer runs out and in my experience almost never works. Infernus require an Infernal Stone (from a reagent seller) to summon. Good for fun, but be sure to let any friends know when it's about to break free. You can put them on stay put and leg it as the timer gets close and they usually get dispelled.
The rest of this guide is focused on Warlocks with the Demonology spec, but may be of help to others.
Casting Cycles
-PvE. For general grinding you should send out your pet and start casting a Curse at the same time (see the Affliction section for the requisite curse). They should hit at about the same time (as the demon needs to travel - I'd recommend a Voidwalker for this, until you get a few spells on the Felguard). Then give it the insta-casting
Corruption. If anything's heading towards you, switch targets and do this again. Once everything's on the demon, you could risk a
Shadow Bolt if you're impatient, otherwise use the combo
Life Tap, Drain Life, Health Funnel - this converts some of your health to mana, sucks health back from the mob, then gives it to your demon. Finish off by shooting your wand at it, or use
Drain Soul if you're short on Soul Shards. When the mob drops you should both be ready to carry on almost indefinitely. Here's a handy macro to do it for you:
Code: Select all
/petattack
/cast [nocombat] Curse of Agony
/castsequence [nomodifier,combat] reset=target/combat Corruption,Life Tap,Drain Life,Health Funnel,Shoot
-Instances. In parties you'll likely have a tank, so sacrfice your minion for the half-hour bonus, or keep one on defensive for protection only. Either spam each mob with
Shadow Bolt until it dies, or put a Curse and
Corruption on everything in sight. The latter is probably more useful to a group, even one with multiple Warlocks, as they stack with other Warlock's Curses and can thin a crowd pretty quickly.
-PvP. These usually boil down to a series of duels, and while the ideal combination differs for each class, it's inconvenient to switch minions in mid-battle. You should be using the Felhunter, as it will eat any nasties they put on you and maybe remove their buffs, to make it harder for them to do the same put
Detect Invisibility and
Unending Breath on yourself, they won't help you but with luck they'll dispell those instead of anything useful.
Basically you should try to get a
Death Coil (fear+damage) off as soon as you can, while sending the demon to attack the other player. If they have a pet, or initially resist your spell, then use your regular
Fear spell, or
Howl of Terror (AoE fear) if they get in your face. If they have a demon,
Banish it. Now they're happily running around like a headless chicken, Curse them and blast them with
Shadow Bolt, being ready to re-fear them as needed.
A sneaky tactic in PvP capture maps is to get out the Infernus, then hide - under a bridge is good if you have
Unending Breath. People tend to overestimate him and without a softy clothy in evidence will usually find somewhere else to go capturing, also he'll keep going even if you die.
-PvP
vs Warlock (for other classes). Not sure I should give tips on this, but it's useful for a Warlock to know what to watch out for. Basically all spellcasters hate being punched in the face while trying to cast spells, so ignore their demon and attack
them. Rogues can stun-lock, Warriors can do roars which knock you about and can break fear, Hunters can paralyse you, Shamans can stomp out totems which keep hurting you when you're trying to cast and worst of all Priests and other Warlocks can fear you right back.
Emergency situations (PvE)
Sometimes you get a bit cocky and take on too much, but it's important not to panic. If your demon's about to expire, but you have health, use the
Health Funnel to heal him. If you're low on health, use
Drain Life, on mana use
Drain Mana or
Mana Tap (if you have the health for it). If all these fail, pop a potion and carry on and if you already did that, then a
Healthstone can help you out of a squeeze, provided you made one in advance - your DoT spells really creep up on the enemy (including
Shadow Bolt, to a degree) so just staying alive a few more precious seconds could see you unexpectedly victorious.
When it's gone bad though, is when you're surrounded by enemies beating on you instead of the demon - this is usually because you let him die, which you should never do, but can be because they snuck up on you. You could maybe risk a
Hellfire, but it's a lottery as to whether you'll survive.
As I said, it's bad form to let your demon die, but actually it's also wasteful. That's because if he's definately about to buy the farm, you should
Demonic Sacrifice him. This gives you various bonuses as mentioned in the Demons section, which may help you to get away, but usually don't. What you need is another demon, pronto, and with the
Fel Domination/Master Summoner talent combo mentioned earlier, you can summon one almost instantly. He'll have full HP and mana and instantly cast any threat-generating spells he has, hopefully leaving you clear to carry on - but since
Fel Domination has a cooldown, you'll likely only get away with this once.
Help is at hand, though - because if you use the Voidwalker, instead of using the regular
Demonic Sacrifice, you can use his own
Sacrifice spell. This surrounds you in a nice protective bubble, free of attacks, to cast another Summon - and you can continue this cycle until you run out of Soul Shards. Handy macro time:
Code: Select all
/cast [nopet] Fel Domination
/castsequence [nopet] Summon Voidwalker(Summon);[pet] Demonic Sacrifice
/cast [pet] Demon Armor
If this all fails though, then it's time to scarper. Drop a
Fear, Death Coil or
Howl of Terror if there's more than one mob on you, and put the demon on passive to stop him chasing after them. While the demon is expendable in these situations, there's always something that comes to bite your bum as you run away - so put him straight back on defensive and start running away. Hopefully he'll keep up with you and catch anything that attacks you - get clear then passive-defensive him again so he keeps up.
Fj, to Chickenz after unleasing a horde of undead into a Southshore filled with L??s wrote:Leg it
Cool Toys
Apart from the fun already discussed with enslaved demons Warlocks have a few more tricks up their (ahem) sleeves.
Detect Invisibility is more a parlour trick than anything else, as it helps not a jot with stealthed enemies, which the majority of invisible foes
are, but it can be cast on anyone so is good for giving newcomers to the Ruins of Lordaeron (Undercity entrance) a scare.
Unending Breath gives you 30 minutes worth of breath. While there are only a handful of quests that require it, they can be a pain in the scrote if you're not a Shaman, undead, a stupid-face-seal druid or potion-maker. I've made quite a few pals for life with the simple application of this spell, which too can be cast on anyone, party or no.
Eye of Kilrogg makes a glowing green orb you can drive and see through. Very useful for finding what's inside buildings and scouting out where the NPCs you want are, without having to kill everything on the way.
Ritual of Summoning can summon a party member anywhere, with the help of two other party members. Occasionally Warlocks recieve requests from people who've looked at the 'players on line' screen and want you to summon them to where you are, for payment. While this is annoying if you then have to ask randoms in your location to form a party, is an easy gig if you're in one already. Did this in Ratchet with Crabladder and Chickenz once, and the dude chucked them some gold, too.
Crabladder wrote:You whore
Soul Shards are actually a
not cool toy. You need them for summoning, and Stone creation. You just have to accept that you lose a bag slot to them and carry at least 10 around always. They can be made from any dying enemy you gain XP from, with
Drain Soul.
Create Soulstone creates a volatile (disappears past 15 minutes of logout) item that you can apply to any party member (once every half-hour, whether activated or not) which allows them to self-ressurrect. Nifty.
Kill yourself, but not your friends.
Hellfire and
Mana Tap are two Warlock spells which along with disobedient enslaved demons actually allow you to kill yourself on demand. Can help you ghost through locked doors, very occasionally.
Horses. Warlocks get (nearly) free horses at L30 and L60. Win.
Round them up, put them in a field, and nuke the bastards. Your demon can be sent out to attack any foe within visible range. When set back to passive, he'll then move directly back towards you. With careful application of these two commands, he can round up a whole collection of mobs and drag them all back to you, for a nice demonstration of your
Rain of Fire spell. You can stop him getting too close by putting him back on defensive. Fun on low-level mobs you or a lower-level friend need to do a big collection quest on.
Equipment and Enchants
Go with anything that boosts your stamina, as it boosts the demon's health too, as well as giving you a larger pool of health to convert to mana with
Life Tap as needed. Later on, spell damage is good.
Professions
Tailoring can make you some okay clothes, but is mostly a feeder for
Enchanting - make yourself a decent wand and put Stamina+ chants on everything you posess. Make friends with an Inscriptor who can create scrolls to make your enchantments portable, and thus, sellable without hawking your skills all the while.