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You can have 2 Primary Professions. As a first character I suggest at least one be gathering. The best 2 professions for you are most likely Tailor and JewelCraft (which without Mining is extrodinarily expensive), but both are expensive to level up. I highly suggest you go Mining and Tailor.

Mine nodes, smelt it into bars (so that others can use it), and sell on Auction House. Leveling tailor as you go will give you some nice options including bags and a few random upgrades. It will also serve you very well in higher levels - which BTW when you get up higher you may want to chose to give up your Mining, up to you. For now, Copper will be a great source of income.

Hold onto extra greens that are "Bind on Equip" as they can be sold on AH for some decent cash - especially when you're selling a lot of them. Just check your AH for similar items and get a price comparison -- also utilize the "Buy Now" since many at that level do not intend to be that level for long, and don't want to have to wait for gear.

Having money will make your trip up much, much nicer.

Make sure to get your Imp as soon as possible (might be 4, or it might just be a quest I don't remember.) At very low levels (sub-10) Imp is definatly your best friend. Let him get agro for a few seconds using Fireballs and then try to get it off him mostly with Shadowbolt spams. By sharing damage intake and mana use you will even out to give yourself shortest downtime. Remember that your pets all get spells, but you must teach them their new spells (or upgraded old spells) through Grimoires. Look for the Demon Trainer.

Once you hit level 10, you can get your Voidwalker (big blue guy that has insane armor and great tanking skills.) Every 10 levels he'll get a new taunt, and right after he gets em he will be very very good at keeping agro. As you get higher through the levels though (say level 18 - where hes using level 10 taunts) it will be harder and you may pull some monsters on yourself. If you're having trouble with him keeping agro makes sure you let him engage the monster first, and maybe get a few hits or a taunt off.

Also at level 10 is your first Talent point. I suggest you get Improved corruption, and continue moving up the Affliction Tree picking up things you would consider useful for tanking. Make sure to pick up Improved Lifetap, Soul Siphon, Fel Concentration, and Siphon Life. I also suggest Nightfall, Amp Curse, Curse of Exhaustion, and 1/5 Shadow Embrace. Stay away from Improved Curse of Agony, Empowered Corruption and Improved Curse of Weakness for now.

Level 20 is Succubus, shes great for PVP as she has a technique at level 26(?) called Seduce, which freezes the target in place unless they are damaged. Use her for PVP situations, but keep using Voidwalker to tank when grinding.

Once you're about level 20, you should start to see some real choices on gear. Your primary stat at this level is going to be STA (and probobly throughout the rest of your course as a Warlock.) Stamina gives you health, your pet health, and through techniques like Life Tap and Health Funnel, it gives you much more versatility and strength. Other stats to look for are Int and +Shadow Spell Damage.

30 Will be your Felhunter (aka Felpup.) He has limited uses, but makes for a great anti-caster because he can eat magic effects and silence enemies. For normal grinding at 30 I still recommend Voidwalker. It is about this time that if you feel comfortable with your gear, you can start tanking monsters yourself while your Voidwalker does the same. You will notice your DoTs doing great damage, but having way too much Mana/HP - so start taking on 2 monsters at once! If it's a big area, Fear can be helpful, but most of the time simply having your Pet tank one while it's dotted and tanking another while Draining Life is a great way to duo. Eventually you will figure out how to do 3 at once.

At 40 you will notice your Voidwalker starting to drag with Affliction. His new spellset is too mana-heavy. This is a good time to start considering either of the other Specs, although I assure you Affliction is the quickest choice for just leveling (and very viable for PVP.)

With Demonolgy make SURE you get some points in the "Mana Feed" talents, and use your Voidwalker to Drain Tank (DoT up, LT, LT, Drain Life, Drain Life). These Lifetaps will get you AND your pet mana back, giving your pet the ability to simply "Gather Shadows" his HP back making a very efficient team.

With Destuction you're looking at bad mana efficiency and less survivability -- but you still make a fine group person. You also start to excell at certain jobs in PVP, such as playing Defense in the Battleground "Warsong Gulch." I'd stay away from this if you want to grind, though.

At 41, Affliction gets a Talent called Dark Pact (DP) but it might as well be called "grind forever button." By 41 and leveling with Affliction thus far, you should have learned how to drain tank by now, and not just one but possibly multiple monsters. You no longer need the services of your poor Voidwalker. Instead, get out your old pal, the Imp and put him in Phaze shift mode and out of combat. The imp has the highest spirit and decent Int compaired to the rest of the pets, and he is the perfect recipe for what is generally known as a Mana battery. Leave your imp alone about 45 seconds and he will have a full manapool (true at any level.) This means you can DoT up a monster or 2, fear if you want, or just tank it/them using Drain Life (will get better effects because of Soul Siphon) and tear through enemies quickly. You can Lifetap for mana, OR you can DP for mana. Alternating will result in litteraly a nonstop grind.

Whatever the case, for PVP you're still going to want to look for STA. Destro likes STA > Spell Crit > Int > +Spell Damage. Demo and Affliction like STA > Spell Damage > Int. Destro is going to be more balanced (2hp for every 3mp) where Aff and Demo are going to be almost a 1:1 ratio.

I just realized how much crap I wrote. Ask again when you hit 41 =P

The Shadow Compendium
Warlock Guide and FAQ

Awesome post tzsjynx! Thank you.