aFollow

Guide.

1. Why Affliction?
2. Talent Build.
3. Soloing
4. In groups
5. Pvp
6. Tips

1.First of all while many will tell you to become demonology to level(agree it's not bad) but affliction is both leveling as end-game the best choice, because it will enbale you to both improve damage and mana giving you longer and better battling capability's as even when not in demonology spec your voidwalker can easily hold aggro on several mobs. I used this to level 1-70 in 10 days and with leveling herbalism and alchemy to 375.

2. The Talent Buidl you will need is:

Improved Corruption 5/5
Improved Lifetap 2/2
Improved Drain Soul 2/2
Soul Siphon 1/2
Amplify Curse 1/1
Fel Concentration 5/5
Grim Reach 2/2
Nightfall 2/2
Siphon Life 1/1
Curse of Exhaustion 1/1
Shadow Embrace 3/5
Shadow Mastery 5/5
Dark Pact 1/1
Fel Contagion 5/5
Improved Curse of Agony 2/2
Improved Howl of Terror 2/2
Unstable Affliction 1/1

This is a perfect 41 points talent build, after this i reccemond a sub-build in demonolgy but thats up to you.

3. Soloing

1-10: Just Shadowbolt and first curses

10-20: Send in Voidwalker and curse your target then drain mana or life back( this will givce you excellent grinding skills and is great for quick killing)

20-30: Now you can either keep doing the above thing or do a very affective method also, wich is that you let your subbucus take a mob and you chain fear a mob wich you fully DOT. you mon will die earlier so you still get full xp for both mobs.

30-50: Same Method, use Felhunter against mages.

50-60: Same as above again but you now have an infernal and soulfire to pull or save yourselves out of risky buisness.

60-70: Stays same, you get way better stuff now but tactic same.

General Solooing Tips:

- If you are about to cast drain life, make sure you do enough life tap's so our drain life makes any sence.

- When sending in a voidwalker on a group, make sure he casts suffering to get full aggro. Then cast lots of dots on all usely after a suffering they will drop to 60% before breaking loose.

- Use Dark pact if pet has +40% Mana and Life tap if you either have 50% life out of combat or 70%+if in combat unless critical.

- Pull with immolate, only long spell and does instant damage insuring your
kill.

-Death coil will save you. Drains life equal to drain life about and fears stopping casting and removing from combat for 5 sec. Best spell

3. In Groups

In a group dark pact makes all the difference.
Get up your imp and put him on passive, he has a good stamina buff. Just use him as your second mana pool, by using dark pact. Phase Shift him when he gets attacked. Ensure you have demon armor always up and soulstone on healer.

For the rest just Dot all the mobs with steady aggro on the tank and drain and many health needed from the mobs, you are not only a good dps from the group, but also their savior. You should be always on 60%+life and mana( except boss fights). You should be able to solo 1 or 2 elite mobs in an instance using all your cd's and fears. This will often save your group.

Use lifetap also between fights or if you see your healer isn't under stress of healing alot of people atm. The lock lifetapping is not his primary target but his last targe. So lifetap what u want but dont blame the healer if you lifetap to 100 health and get one-hitted by a loose mob.

Only fear when you are ensured the mob can never run in other groups of mobs, and even then don't use it if a melee class is hitting on it.

4.PVP.

- Affliction Warlock's are amazing in PVP. Because of their dark pacts and life tap's.

-Just Dot your ennemies, be sure to also get an unstable affliction on them, this will make debuffing painful, so one way ore another he will probably take alot of damage, then send in your subbucus and on agressive he will always be attacking. Fear enemies and dot them or drain life, if needed.( never drain mana, life will get you more. make sure to fear and use howl of terror enough and death coil if needed.

- You nearly only need stamina , ensure you go for asmuch stamina as possible, you don't need a big mana pool, just ensure that on 70 you have like 6-7k mana and you should be fine. Just life tap back your mana or darkpact it.

- Your PVP pet is the subbucus, it will not only charm, pulling enemies out of combat, it will also deal the most damage, and has a steady mana base to darkpact. Their invisibility is great for their survival too. always put them on agressive stance and put on lash of pain and soothing kis on autocast.

- Use curse of doom on groups without curse-debuffers, with amplify curse if possible. It will smack for about 4-6k damage and maybe gibe you the most awsome pet their is with massiive AoE stun and damage abilities.

- When you want cast an infernal on a sizeable group you can't handle. It will fight after your death. Try to do a howl of terror and dot them all before your decease, then go down with a hellfire, while your infernam whacks all of the full-dotted mobs. If you had a soulstone wait until, either your ifnernals is about to dieand few of them are left then use soulstone and fear them, redot and healthstone and maybe lifetap. You can get massive groups solo down like this. I once got 14 men down in alterac valley down with this.

- Always have enough Soul shars in PVP or stuff.

- Always have a healthstone with you, its like a free health potion wich saves money in PVP.

Solo Pvp tips against

A Fellow Warlock: Just Kill him faster then he kills you.

A Plated Warrio: Plainly Fear and Dot's with some shadowbolt's should bring him down. If he could charge in either use howl of terror or death coil.

A Sneaky rogue: Same as Warrior

A Freaky Mage: Curse of tongues on him and try to fear while he casts and dot agai, drain life if needed while or use a soulfire if needed.

A Holy Priest: Curse of tongues should enoy him together with anunstable affliction. For the rest same as mage.

A Hunter:dangerous enemy, try to fear him while your pet takes on his. Dot both pet and him, and try to survuve.

A Feral Druid: Same as warrior or rogue depends on form, if balance mage tactic.

A Shaman: Quite plainly fear and Dot and drain, but be careful for his shocks and chain lighting. keep as far as possible and just kill him.

5. Tips

- full gladiator is a beautiful set for a warlock, with only stamina gems in socket and nice enchants should make you the full ownage on the battlefiel.













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Edited, May 29th 2008 4:12pm by Silentius

While I tend to agree that Affliction is the best choice for leveling, I also think that a "one size fits all" build is not what should be touted in a guide (not that yours is bad). The plain fact is that different people have different playing styles and whatever build they choose should complement the way they play, not the way you play.

Warlocks have three viable trees, and the way people play dictates what talents are chosen. An Affliction 'lock will never be a nuker, an insta-summoner, or a sacrificer, yet all of them are good choices for leveling. They may not be optimal, but this is a game. Emphasis should be placed on enjoyment, not necessarily speed-leveling.