Warlock FAQFollow

This Warlock FAQ is designed for players who know the basic concepts of the class (ie Soul Shard system, what Warlocks can wear, etc). It is not made to be a "beginner's guide" to the Warlock, more like a "reference guide" to those who have questions about the class.

Eventually, I may include more basic information in this FAQ, as Shadowbolt's raid FAQ covers most "advanced" PvE information.

Please feel free to add any links, information, questions, and feedback to this FAQ post. This is meant to represent the opinions and ideas of the Warlock community, not just myself.


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Warlock FAQ (8/29/06)
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Table of Contents
A. Creating a Warlock
B. Leveling a Warlock
C. Speccing a Warlock
D. Gearing a Warlock
E. Other issues

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Section A: Basics


Q: What is the best race of Warlock?

Short answer: For PvP, Gnome, Orc, or Undead. For PvE, Human, Orc, or Undead.

Long answer: First of all I will state that the stat differences between the races are pretty much negligible at level 70. Thus the factors in choosing your race for your Warlock are in its appearance and the racial abilities. I also want to state that it is probably a bad idea to base your choice of race by a specific talent spec, as you WILL respec eventually and the difference isn't really THAT big.

For more information regarding racial skills, check the official website.

The best two races for PvE are Humans and Orcs - one being good as a time saver and the other having higher potential raid DPS. For PvP, it's a toss-up between Gnomes, Orcs, and Undead for their anti-CC abilities and the Orc's two DPS racials.



Q: Warlock or Mage?

Short answer: Try them both out and see which one fancies you better.

Long answer: Both play similar roles in PvE. Currently, Warlocks have higher raid DPS but this can change in the future.

Both also play similar roles in PvP. Mages tend to favor anti-melee crowd control and burst damage while Warlocks favor anti-caster crowd control and longer, drawn out match-ups. Mages do much better against melee, Warlocks do much better against casters.



Q: I like to deal shadow damage. Warlock or Shadow Priest?

Short Answer: Warlock for DPS, Shadow Priest for support/DPS

Long Answer: In terms of PvE, Shadow Priests are taken mostly because of the health/mana regeneration they provide through their damage, and for their synergy with Warlocks. In terms of raw, personal DPS, equally geared Warlocks generally beat Shadow Priests.

For the arena, Priests are extremely vulnerable targets, but are very popular healers due to their instant options and buffs in as Disc/Holy, and their synergy with Warlocks as Shadow.



Q: Can you tell me what each of the pets are good for?
A: I'll be brief:

Imp - In groups for Blood Pact and also for general PvE use with Dark Pact.

Voidwalker (VW) - Used by Destruction and <lvl 50 Demonology Warlocks for solo grinding. Used sometimes in PvP by Demo Warlocks for the physical damage mitigation and the Sacrifice damage shield.

Succubus - Used to crowd control humanoids with Seduction.

Felhunter - A PvP oriented pet, used for dispelling (Devour Magic) and counterspelling (Spell Lock) casters. Paranoia is also very useful for detecting Rogues. Rarely used outside of PvP.

Felguard - Demonology 41 point talent. In PvE, he basically replaces the Voidwalker as a tank; he has a taunt like the Voidwalker and also very good DPS. In PvP, he's like a Hunter pet - good DPS and pressure against cloth opponents, with enough toughness to survive basic AoE's.

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Section B: Warlock Leveling Guide

INTRODUCTION
Stop asking what the best spec for leveling is. AFFLICTION is the best grinding spec at least up to 56. Affliction is taken at these levels because it has the strongest early and later talents for providing solo DPS.

Demonology suffers because it obtains very little solo DPS talents until level the later levels, but even then it lacks versatility until Felguard gets all of his skills and you have more space for talents (ie around 60). Destruction suffers from poor management of mana and health.

Keep this in mind: Demonology and Destruction are VIABLE leveling talent builds, BUT they are LESS EFFICIENT than Affliction if you plan on soloing. Boredom causes you to check your myspace instead of leveling up your Warlock. If Affliction causes you to be bored to tears, you can try out Demonology or Destruction for grinding.


SPEC
A build like THIS is your immediate goal to 50:

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=IAMrVMrkVtbo

Here is the order which you will place points if you want to level EFFICIENTLY.

5/5 Imp Corruption
2/2 Improved Drain Soul
2/2 Soul Siphon
1/2 Improved Life Tap
5/5 Fel Concentration
2/2 Nightfall
2/2 Grim Reach
2/2 Improved Life Tap
1/1 Siphon Life
1/5 Shadow Embrace (only 1 point; for Soul Siphon)
3/5 Suppression
5/5 Shadow Mastery
1/1 Dark Pact
5/5 Contagion
2/2 Improved Howl of Terror
2/3 Empowered Corruption
1/1 Unstable Affliction

After that point, it doesn't really matter where you put them. I recommend going for Bane asap to maximize instance DPS. You can also choose to get Demonic Embrace if you're paranoid, but it's better to increase DPS. Finishing up Emp Corruption helps, and Improved Curse of Agony if you refuse to move outside of Affliction.

Get lots of +shadow gear, but don't completely neglect your stamina stat. SPIRIT is WORTHLESS. Intellect is NOT VERY GOOD. Just mass +dmg and +sta.


PROCESS
For most of your Warlock's career after ~30 or 40, your Warlock will be leveling through a method called DRAIN TANKING.

HERE IS HOW YOU DRAIN TANK:
Use Succubus with all auto-casts off or Imp with Fire Bolt turned off. Imp if you have +dmg; Succubus if you have practically none, OR if you're on a PvP server grinding in a terrible place like STV.

-Locate mob
-Start Immolate/UA/Shadow Bolt, generally you'll only have time for one
-Apply instant DoT's
-Drain Life until mob is dead, using Nightfall Shadow Bolt procs as they occur
-Mash Dark Pact as you confront your next mob

This is for single mob grinding. For multiple mobs, you will be applying your instant DoT's to all of them, and you will kite them by running. MAKE SURE YOU KEEP APPLYING DOTS ONCE IN A WHILE, OR THEY WILL DEAGRO. When they get close, Howl of Terror if you're in a safe area.


Multi-mob DoTing
Simple. Open up on one mob with 4 DoTs, then start running around DoTing more mobs up, with Siphon Life first for the health regeneration. Try to pull them away from where they'll call for help. When all of the mobs round up to your position, you can either wait for them to die or go for a Howl of Terror to keep them off of you. Drain Life if your health goes low, try to use Dark Pact over Life Tap.


AFTER 60
You can either spec Felguard or stay Affliction. Try it out and spec accordingly to playstyle.

Edited, Jun 22nd 2008 10:02am by hybrand

Section E: Spell Effects


Q: What is the debuff limit?
A: The current debuff limit is set to 40. I don't believe the current Blizzard UI allows you to see all 40 debuffs at the same time, but they're there.


Q: How do curses and/or DoTs stack?
A: Corruption, immolate, CoA and CoD can be cast by as many warlocks as you like, taking into account the debuff limit.

There can, however, only be one CoS, CoEl, CoW or CoR be on each mob at once. If another Warlock tries to cast CoS, CoEl, CoW, CoEx, or CoR on the same mob, it will overwrite the previous Warlock's curse. The effects of CoS and CoEl apply to anybody dealing the related schools of damage.


Q: If I fire a Shadow Bolt, and then Curse of Shadows the target before the bolt lands, will that Shadow Bolt benefit from CoS?
A: No. The Shadow Bolt's damage is calculated the moment you finish casting the spell, meaning the damage has already been determined while the bolt is moving towards the target.


Q: Why would you ever cast Hellfire?
A: Hellfire doesn't see quite as much use anymore, now that we have Seed of Corruption. However, before 70 and in certain situations after 70, you may find a time to use it. Hellfire is made to be a secondary AoE - you use it to support the Mage's damage while he has the AoE agro. In many situations this helps despite the damage from Hellfire; you're finishing the battle earlier and it will be easier on the Mage's mana pool.


Q: Why would you ever cast Searing Pain?
A: Searing Pain is considered by many to be a primarily PvP spell. However, it still has its uses in PvE since you can use it to tank certain encounters and pull agro off the healer or your pet other situations.


Q: Why would you ever cast a high ranked Drain Soul?
A: Don't bother, it's a waste of mana. Drain Soul has a high +dmg coefficient, but keep in mind that it is a channeled spell that lasts 15 seconds - the DPS will be far lower than that of a Drain Life.


Q: Why would I ever want to use Fear in an instance?
A: Fear is actually a decent CC in instances, but it's a hassle. It's usable against a lot of mobs and can save your group from a wipe in certain situations. When you cast Curse of Recklessness on a Feared target, the target will act as if it isn't Feared. However, the Fear debuff remains on the target, so if you replace the CoR, it will start running away again. By using this trick to your advantage, you can make sure your Feared mob does not run into another pack. The best curse to replace CoR with is Curse of Exhaustion.


Q: Once I get Fel Armor, is Demon Armor still useful?
A: Demon Armor will net you about 5% physical damage mitigation at 70. In most situations, this is not worth the healing bonus and the damage from Fel Armor.


Q: How does Shadowburn work?
A: The shard-gaining mechanic of Shadowburn was changed in patch 1.8. Shadowburn now adds a debuff to the target for 5 seconds, and if that target dies while the debuff is it, you will gain a shard. Using this effect with Drain Soul will allow you to gain two shards (...with a net gain of ONE).

Shadowburn used to deal its damage, then deal a 1 damage "check" soon after, and if the damage fails to hit the mob (as in it's dead), you gain a shard. This system was pretty unreliable and made Shadowburn slightly frustrating to use in PvP. It's not 100% fixed still, though - there are still situations where you can cast Shadowburn and not gain back your shard, even if the target is dead.


Q: How does Curse of Doom work?
A: Curse of Doom is basically a DoT with a single tick. This means a couple of things:

-Curse of Doom CANNOT crit. I know you hit Curator for 50k with CoD. No, that was a HIT.
-For CoD to benefit from DEBUFFS like Improved Shadow Bolt and Misery, the debuff has to up when it ticks (as opposed to when you first cast it)
-When CoD to benefit from BUFFS like trinkets and Power Infusion, the buff has to be up when you cast the spell (as opposed to trinketing just before the damage occurs)


Q: How does Dark Pact work?
A: Dark Pact simply drains a portion of mana from your pet and adds it to your mana pool. It scales with +shadow gear [Note: Need coefficient]


Q: How does Seed of Corruption work?
A: Seed of Corruption starts off as a DoT, but with a missle graphic. After the target takes 1044 damage (from almost ANY source besides Life Tapping, falling, and other random things), Seed of Corruption deals AoE damage to enemies near the target. A few other notes:

-The target does NOT take the AoE damage, only enemies around him
-The damage from one SoC will NOT count towards the 1044 damage to proc other SoC's, so one SoC cannot proc another.


Q: How does Life Tap scale with +shadow gear?
A: Both the health cost and mana cost are increased, meaning you lose more health, but your mana regeneration rate is much faster.

Other things


Q: What about shard bags?
A: They're just big bags that can only hold shards and sort them out for you. They come in the 20, 24, and 28 slot variety. The average cost of them is about 4g, 50g, and over 1000g, depending on how much raiding the server does. No, that is not a typo - the 28 slotter requires lots of MC and ZG mats that really bump the cost to near or over 1000g.

Shard bags currently have a "shard counter" on them, but they only show the number of shards in the bag, and not in the rest of your inventory. Shard Tracker Ressurection FTW.

You can only equip one shard bag at a time.

In a somewhat recent patch, they have added shard bags as additional rewards for the Warlock pet quests at level 20 and 30. Yay!

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Section F: Expansion questions

NOTE: As of 10/30/06 I am NOT in the beta and thus any information I write here is based solely on the posts made by people who are in the beta. Just as everything in beta is subject to change, so is this section of the FAQ.


Q: Will The Black Book work for the Felguard?
A: Yes, it will.


Q: Does Incinerate have a "missle" graphic?
A: Yes, it does. Supposedly it has a "snake" made from rising flames move towards the target, somewhat like Inferno from Diablo.


Q: What are the Felguard's abilities?
A: From what I know so far he has Cleave, Intercept, a taunt, a "Flurry" type personal buff that increases attack rate, and a constant self buff that gives him a 50% chance to ignore AoE damage. The Intercept has a minimum range, just like the Warrior's. Cleave supposedly doesn't add very much damage to a single target but obviously does well otherwise. I'm not too sure about the taunt and how it works atm.


Q: Threat reduction talents? Where?
A: Improved Drain Soul reduces Affliction threat by 10%. Destructive Reach reduces nuke threat by 10%. MD still shows it having a threat reduction effect with the Imp, meaning that we potentially have superior threat reduction already over Mages, without taking in account Invisibility vs Soul Shatter.

****.

Nevermind...


Edited, Jun 22nd 2008 3:22pm by hybrand

Hi, you're in class=4 right now, otherwise known as the rogue forums.

I vote we leave this thread here, in this forum ... just for the humour factor :-D

OMG STICKY PLOX

Sticky this before it's too late!

Along with everyone above said...

HAHAHAHAHAHHAA *cough* ahem...

lolwut?

That's a nice macro. I personally don't have problems with locks that much at all. I do things a little differently then this though. I normally shadowstep, CS, build up combo points and then KS. I build up more CP and put up EA, and as my timer for my KS is about to be over with I pop cloak of shadows. This prevents the lock from Death Coiling me. I know its kind of early for CoS, but it works well for me, and normally they are at half health or less before they can even really do anything. I'm going to try out this macro and see how it works. Thanks Theo.

CS/KS locking can work in BGs pretty well for any clothie. I'm guess that's to what he's referring.

Lol, whine to nerf warlocks please?

rofl.
just, plain funny.