Imp Mana BatteryFollow

I did things a bit differently when I was your level. I used the Succubus, and turned off all her abilities (sometimes using Lash of Pain on manual). Send in Succubus, cast Immolate, Corruption, CoA, Siphon Life, pull aggro with Searing Pain (if I didn't have it already), Drain Life while the DoTs tick down and the Succubus is wailing on the victim. End of fight, I had full health and used Dark Pact to get back my mana. I liked using Succubus over Imp because she'd provide a bit of DPS on her own, without using mana, and she'd tank for a few seconds so I could get off Immolate. Plus she could distract unwanted adds while I ran for the hills...

Do you need to use Howl in your rotation? Seems unnecessary to me, and a bit risky (what if the fleeing mob brings back friends?). Try: SB, Immolate, DoTs, Life Tap/DP, Drain Life, Tap, Drain Life. Typical mobs of your own level should be dead by the end of that rotation, and it saves your IHoT for emergencies (such as when you get multiple adds).

Took a look at your talents... looks pretty good, but I'd make a couple small changes. Move that point in Imp. CoA to Improved Drain Soul; it'll give you a nice little mana boost when you need to get shards. I'd also drop the solitary Shadow Embrace point since SE doesn't have an effect on Soul Siphon anymore; maybe move that point into Impr. Drain Soul as well. Otherwise looks quite good! :)

Don't worry 'bout it, I think we've all done that a time or two. Great minds think alike, ya know... ^_^

I am level 48 and have found that each minion has it's own use.

Void walker - when questing mobs higher than my level or bosses / elites (also an off tank for instances. send void walker to attack coa, cor, taunt, sl, taunt, immolate, dl until dead. if more than one same but replace first taunt with the group taunt and only throw 1 dot on the 2nd mob in the beginning. all else goes to primary mob until dead. I will slip in an immolate after like 3 taunts sometimes before dl but that usually means I pull aggro and i'm gonna be DL the rest of the fight. dark pact and convert your life to mana (forget spell) during & between fights to keep mana full.

Succy - farming low area's - shut off all abilities except lash of pain on auto. Run around and single/double dot 5-6 or more mobs. by the time you hit #6, the first one or 2 are dead from dot and succy. dl them 1 at a time while succy kills with you. Makes for very fast low level farming or running lowbies through instances.

felhunter - similar to voidwalker except mobs same level as you, vs casters or any battlegrounds. Regens mana fast, does not hold agro, silences casters & detects those damn invisible rogues. Better than void for = level mobs as you don't need to waste time sending and taunting plus regens mana quicker. does more damage also. Send him in, 3xdot then Dl till dead then regen your mana. (slip in an immolate after the dot's if he has not aggro's you yet. Make sure you keep your life just under 100% and felhunters mana just below 100% so they are always regenerating. 3 sources for mana and since you are always DL, you are getting one of them repleneshed very quickly as well as the felhunters rapid regeneration. I can kill for 10 minutes straight living on the edge until i finally have all my bulbs dangerously low and need to take a break. Makes for rapid grinding.

Imp - group / instance - shut everything down. Never gets attacked. Party stamina increase and mana battery. Very good.

In all, I rarely use shadow bolt unless nightfall procs for the instant cast. Any other time I am damaging it's DL so I refill while damaging. Oh and Backing up while DOTing is a great tactic especially for PvP. I get 4 Alliance comming at me and I move just within range and 3x dot one then start backing up. When they chase, I tab and 3xdot the next, tab and 3xdot etc. Sometimes I get 4 doted before they get to me and the damage is really starting to pile up on the first one because it took that much longer to get to me. If I have any party memvers around it makes their job much easier.

The other day I as a 48 took out a 49 Paladin and a 47 ? just by using this. When they got to me I focused on the 47 with Dl while they pounded me. Once he died, I death coiled the 49, dot, fear, dot x 2 and Dl till dead. (actually took longer as he healed but you get the point) At 48 I lead damage in literally every warsung and AB I go in and am usually near the top in kills. Maybe I have been lucky but over the last 2 days 13-0 in warsung and about 20-3 in Ab. Nothing better in group PvP at these levels than a Warlock.

You all have given me some great new things to try. Thanks!

Edited, Nov 21st 2007 6:20pm by wallpad

ok, julies, a question for you. at level 42 I have tried a similar strategy of just dot dot dot etc. Now while I understand the strategy that the multiple siphon life's will keep your health up, there is NO way, in my experience, that siphon life ticks of 25 health on multiple mobs can save you from multiple mobs that are ALL on you and hitting for 60s or so every 2 seconds. Even with Howl of Terror I am getting absolutely trashed. thoughts?

The first time I can remember doing this was when I was in 1k Needles fighting the Galaks (Centaur type guys).

The really important thing is (as one guy said to know your limitations), is to run a test first to check the suitability of the mobs. Kick off 3-dots on one mob only, don't do any more damage. See if he dies from your 3 dots. If he doesn't you got a problem.

The use of siphon life isn't intended as some powerful spell that will stop you dieing - it just makes the whole process more efficient, as it's topping up your health a little.


The other memory I have that really stands out was farming rep/xp in Felstone Field (WPL). It was funny because I thought I was the master warlock who had this idea that no-one else had ever had. Then I saw another warlock doing it. It's then I realised I was not as smart as I thought I was :D


EDIT : almost forgot to mention that you need to do this against mobs a few levels lower than you - it's lower xp per mob ofc - but the total yield is much more than one-on-one against any higher level mob.

I also levelling 60-70 in outlands using this method exclusively, although that's not entirely relevant.




Edited, Nov 22nd 2007 4:29am by juliesdagger

Like i've said before, the amount of mobs you can fight depends on lvl and gear. You gotta kinda test it out for yourself. Depending on how powerful the spells are, what lvl the mobs are, how hard they are hitting you.

If you are lvl 43 and find that your dots aren't doing enough just drain tank 1 at a time, but when you hit 44 you corruption goes up from 324 to 486 so then you might be able to take a few at a time. It's just testing the waters and finding what works best for your lvl and the mobs you are fighting.

Some people dot dot dot, next constintly and never stop to drain mana because thier gear and build is for that, others pick 4-5 dot, howl, drain, and still other just drain-tank one at a time real quick and move to the next. It all depends on what works for you.

Succubus might be better for you due to the added dps to help em go down quicker, same with felhunter. I just prefer to use the imp due to the stamina buff as i'll constantly get to 25% health before I howl and bring it back up.

This will be fun to try. My question is, when you're laying all these DoTs and Fears on 3-5 mobs at a time, how do you keep up your mana? Are you using Dark Pact? If so, are you using an Imp or Succubus or Felhunter? What else?

Quick follow up.

I meant 30%hp/20%mp -- not points! Try to keep up at least some HP, 30% is cutting it close even with a lot of mana, so try to get monsters off you a second and either Bandaid or pick one of em to Drain Life.

As for Dark Pacting, I liked Imp for his STA increase and his high Stamina. Keept him Phazed, with affliction he's not worth the trouble in this situation to be casting.

Also as a point, I don't know why it is since Technically the Imp isn't casting when you use Dark Pact, but it seems like it takes him a few seconds to get his Spirit working on that Mana regen again. It's for this reason that I'd usually wait until I was at about 30-50%m and drain him completely, then allow him some time to get it all back -- if you leave him alone he gets a full pool in like 35 seconds lol.