Warlock (Full Guide)

Subject: Warlock (Full Guide) Tue 25 Nov 2008, 8:49 am

Warlock Guide:
-The Warlock class is a class that deals in demonic spells and rituals. They can summon demons from the void, afflict upon their enemies various curses and diseases, and use various shadow arts to directly attack. They are best known for their very efficient damage over time spells and their amazingly strong demonic pets.
-Unlike the Mage, the Warlock doesn't aim to kill the quickest but instead aims to kill the most efficiently. They can drain health and mana from their opponent while it dies from their various curses and diseases. Not only that, but their demonic pets serve as either tanks (taking the damage for them) or support (helping deal the damage). That's not to say a Warlock couldn't just focus outright on Shadow destruction, expending their mana to obliterate their opponents. They also can play a heavy role in support their group with things like health and soul stones.
Warlock (Full Guide) Warlock

Warlock Quick Info:
Races: Gnomes, Humans, Undead, Orcs, Blood Elves
Armor: Cloth
Starting Attribute Bonus: +2 Int, +2 Spirit, +1 Stamina
The Basics:
-Understanding the fundamentals of a class is the first step to fully mastering it. A building needs a firm foundation to stand tall and the basics are the best place to start when building your foundation of Warlock knowledge. What follows is a guide on not only how to build your Warlock but also some of the basics, such as pets. If you want more advanced reading then check out “Playing a Warlock” or my in-depth “Warlock Pet Guide”!
Getting Started:
-The first thing to consider is this: is the Warlock class right for you? The Warlock isn’t like other classes; it’s a master of patience and skill of combos. Warlocks aren’t well known for frontloading massive amounts of damage (however, this isn’t always the case; many Warlocks with enough spell damage can do amazing things with Shadow Bolt). They focus on using fear and Damage over Time spells to deal immense amounts of damage over periods of time. Along with their pets, they are fearsome and quite unique.
Here are some pros and cons to being a Warlock to help you with your choice:
*Warlocks use demonic magic to inflict damage, usually over time, to their enemies. Their damage comes mostly in the sustained form of Damage over Time debuff followed by their Shadowbolts and pets.
*Warlocks utilize pets to tank, damage, and lockdown their enemies. They have multiple types of pets with each one have a unique role. Their pets can learn spells and do all kinds of interesting things.
*Warlocks receive a free mount at level 40 and can quest for an an epic mount when they reach level sixty.
*Warlocks are very dependant on mana, but they can also turn their health into mana and then drain the health back from the enemy. This makes them nearly unstoppable in PvP.
*Warlocks can tap into the demonic energies to do various nasty things to their enemies, including slowing their casting time, slowing them down, taking their health away, or driving them into madness causing them to run around in fear.
*Warlocks, being a cloth caster, are very weak physically and lack any form of solid melee damage output. While they can drain the health of their enemies and use many other abilities to increase their survivability, they can't last forever when someone is attacking them directly.
*Much of the Warlocks damage comes over time. While it's a lot of damage, you won't be seeing too many big numbers in one hit until way later in your career.
-Basically, Warlocks use their pets and damage over time spells to inflict a constant stream of damage to their enemies. Followed in by their ability to turn their HP to Mana and their powerful direct damage Shadow Bolt they are truly fearsome.
Selecting a Race:
-Choosing a race as a Warlock can be tough. All available races will make a fine Warlock, so it comes down to what racial bonuses you will get the most use out of and what your want your avatar to look like. If you don’t use the active abilities of some races then those racial bonuses will go to waste, but that is meaningless if you prefer the looks of one race over another. Remember that all races are as viable as the others; it comes down to how you want to play and what you want to look like.
Alliance
-Human:Humans gain 5% spirit and the ability to actively seek out stealthed characters. They also gain faster reputation then other classes and get a bonus to swords (which is useless to a Warlock). Humans are a fine choice for a Warlock.
-Gnome:They gain more starting Intelligence, a passive 5% bonus to Intelligence, and can flee from certain effects with Escape Artist. Gnomes are another fine choice for a Warlock, if not better then Humans based purely on stats.
-Blood Elves (Burning Crusade):-Blood Elves may seem like the de facto choice for making a Warlock, but remember they aren’t the best… even with their addiction to magic. Their mana tap ability grants them extra mana, but the amount is only worth a few spells at best and Warlocks already have it good on mana. They do make excellent Warlocks though!
-Undead (Forsaken):The Undead lack any purely Warlock orientated racials, but are fine choices. Their cannibalize ability can decrease the time needed to regen after battles and the do look pretty cool! Will of the Forsaken is also VERY useful in PvP.
-Orcs:-While Orc Warlocks aren't the most fitting for the games lore, they do make alright Warlocks. If you are going for the "better" then you'll want to look at Blood Elves or the Forsaken. They have no racials that make a differnce for the Warlock, but they do look cool and are pretty resistant to stun effects (which is good in PvP).
Choosing a Profession:
*Herbalism and Alchemy
A perfect choice for a Warlock of any level. The ability to brew your own healing and mana potions can be very helpful. Not only that, but it's a great money making combo.
*Mining and Blacksmithing
As a Warlock it's best to avoid this combo until after level forty and then only take it up if you plan to make money off of it. Blacksmithing provides nothing, outside of the quests, for a Warlock.
*Mining and Engineering
Engineering is kind of useful for Warlocks. The grenades are useful for any class and many of the gadgets are helpful. Some Warlocks may not get as much use out of Engineering as some other classes, but it's still a fine choice.
*Skinning and Leatherworking
Like with Blacksmithing, Warlocks can not equip anything other then the cloth. So Leatherworking would be of no use to a Warlock. Only consider taking up after level forty and with a plan to make cash from it.
*Mining & Skinning or Herbalism & Skinning
A combination of gathering skills is often times the best choice when starting out. Selling everything you gather on the Auction House can create enough money to fund new armor, weapons, and even a mount! This is the BEST way to go before level forty! At level forty you can drop the second tradeskill and match it with one you like.
*Talioring & Enchanting
Talioring is a fine choice for a Warlock. You'll be able to turn cloth drops into gear that you can often use and it's far from the most expensive tradeskill. Enchanting is a good choice too, especially for Blood Elf Warlocks.
Mana:
-Mana works differently for a Warlock then other classes. Warlocks use mana the same way as everyone else, each time they cast a spell the required amount of mana is taken away from the pool. It then regenerates based on Spirit and can be restored much faster by drinking something after battle.

-Life Tap works in combat too, making it highly attractive. Combined with First Aid Life Tap becomes even stronger (by the time you need to heal you can use a bandage and be to full quickly). Warlocks are rarely limited by their mana pool, except when their health is being directly assaulted and they can’t sacrifice their health for mana.
Spell Casting:
-Spells are cast by choosing the target and using the spell. The spell will begin casting. During the time it is casting the Warlock may not move or else the spell will fail. If the Warlock is attacked during the casting of a spell then the spell will reset some time off of the cast making it take longer to cast (some talents can change this for some spells). After the casting is finished, the spell is then slung at the enemy.

-Some spells do not have a cast time like many of the Warlock debuffs. These are instantly casted on the enemy and only incur the 2 second global cooldown on all skills before another one is cast. It's best to use these after spells with a cast time as it's more effective to lead into battle with something that takes time to cast.
Important Stats:
-Warlocks rely on two main stats, Intellect and Stamina. Their Intellect increases their mana pool and spell critical rate while Stamina increases health. Health is very important to a Warlock as the more health they have the more they can Life Tap.
Strength -Increases your Attack Power thereby increasing your damage. Strength also increases the damage that you can block with your shield. Not at all useful for a Warlock.
Stamina -Increases your health points. This is critical for Warlocks since it's the biggest bonus to defense you can get (outside of Armor which is hard to come by with cloth) and it is very important for Life Tap.
1 Stamina = 10 Health points
Intellect -Increases your mana pool and your critical hit chance with spells. It also increases the speed at which you earn weapon skill points. With Warlocks since mana is the most important stat they have, it is essential to max out as much as possible on Intellect.
1 Intellect = 15 Mana
And
100 Intellect = +1% to critically cast spells.
Spirit -Spirit raises your health and mana regeneration rate. While it is noticeable at higher levels, it takes a significant number of points in this to regain mana quickly enough that you will not want to stop and drink to gain it back. Life Tap though makes Spirit pretty useless when you can instead increase your health and get a better mana regen with Life Tap.
Agility -Agility increases the following: attack power with ranged weapons, armor, critical hit chance and your chance to dodge attacks. Useless for a Warlock, although the armor is a nice bonus.

2 Agility = 1 Armor point
Playing a Warlock:
-Warlocks are a very unique class because their damage can come in multiple ways and their skills allude to a very rough yet sophisticated style of playing. Where other classes may deal outright damage, Warlocks are presented with a myriad of choices ranging from casing direct damage spells, using Damage over Time spells, or a combination of both to completely destroy their enemy. That’s even before factoring in the various pets that have skills that no other classes have access to.
Combat Tactics:
-Warlocks have a few various playstyles, one of them focuses more on direct damage and the other focuses more on the Damage over Time spells (DoTs). Both of them use the DoT spells extensively, although while an Affliction Warlock may apply another DoT, a Destruction Warlock would simply Shadow Bolt.
PvE Combat
-In PvE combat, after level 10 (when you have your Voidwalker) combat should look like this. You pull an enemy with Curse of Agony (or have the Voidwalker attack the enemy himself then cast Curse of Agony). Then use Corruption followed by Immolate. As the enemies health ticks down calmly wait while your Voidwalker builds more and more aggro (aggression, making the enemy want to attack it more and more).

-If you’re good on mana or Destruction talent spec’d at about 50% health you can begin nuking it with Shadow Bolt, Conflagrate, and at higher levels follow up with either a talent DD spell from Destruction or Incinerate. If you’re not good on mana (and especially if you’re Affliction spec’d) then Life Tap and Drain Life are used to deal additional damage while replenishing your health and mana.
Group Combat
-In groups the role of the Warlock can be difficult to describe. Most the time the Warlock will be focusing on doing direct damage to non-elites/DoTs to elites and using its curses to benefit the group.

-For non-elites the Warlock is generally best just outright Shadow Bolting it. The enemy will probably die way before the DoTs can do any real damage. For elites, they generally live long enough that the DoTs are a great way for the Warlock to do damage AND to avoid pulling off the tank.

-For curses, in instances against any enemy that runs away rank one Curse of Recklessness (rank one is good enough) is very helpful in keeping enemies from running away. Curse of Tongues is great against spell casters and Curse of Elements will generally make any Mages in the group REALLY happy.
PvP Combat
-When you begin talking about PvP you start to get into the very deep tactics that can only be learned through experience. Generally though in PvP your average Warlock will fear an enemy then apply as many DoTs as possible while gaining distance. Unaided, the majority of players will die from the DoTs as the Warlock is a safe distance away. If, of course, they have the ability to remove the DoTs then it comes down to either doing direct damage while fearing or using various combinations of pets (for instance the Felhunter against casters) and any openings to reapply the DoTs.

-If you're demonology, you work best in a small group, since heals will do way more to you and your pet will be sharing damage with you. This makes you a very strong presence in the battlefield who can DoT away and nuke some like the rest, albeit with lesser damage. Well-geared demonology warlocks are very hard to defeat in PvP due to the sheer amount of HP they have.

Subject: Re: Warlock (Full Guide) Tue 25 Nov 2008, 8:52 am

I disagree about orc racial, Blood Fury is AWESOME in PvE, like a free spelldamage trinket

Subject: Re: Warlock (Full Guide) Tue 25 Nov 2008, 8:56 am

Lisyhalath wrote:: I disagree about orc racial, Blood Fury is AWESOME in PvE, like a free spelldamage trinket

but 15% resistance to stuns here is broke and last time i checked so was Blood fury :<

Subject: Re: Warlock (Full Guide) Tue 25 Nov 2008, 9:00 am

Balendin wrote:

Lisyhalath wrote:: I disagree about orc racial, Blood Fury is AWESOME in PvE, like a free spelldamage trinket

but 15% resistance to stuns here is broke and last time i checked so was Blood fury :<

I'm talking in general, regardless of the server.

I didn't know they're bugged here pale

Subject: Re: Warlock (Full Guide) Tue 25 Nov 2008, 9:03 am

Lisyhalath wrote:

Balendin wrote:

Lisyhalath wrote:: I disagree about orc racial, Blood Fury is AWESOME in PvE, like a free spelldamage trinket

but 15% resistance to stuns here is broke and last time i checked so was Blood fury :<

I'm talking in general, regardless of the server.

I didn't know they're bugged here pale

ah true elsewhere i'd go Orc or UD for looks.

Orc in t1 and 2 was just... win.

Subject: Re: Warlock (Full Guide) Wed 10 Dec 2008, 12:40 am

since that guide was made for retail, lets just sum it up right here

shadowfury-> fear
shadowbolt shadowbolt shadow bolt
death coil
shadowbolt
fear
shadowbolt shadowbolt shadowbolt

dont forget to add in shadowburns and conflagrates while running

Subject: Re: Warlock (Full Guide) Wed 10 Dec 2008, 12:48 am

awesome guide, even though it's more retail type. it works on vcn for me Wink

Subject: Re: Warlock (Full Guide) Fri 12 Dec 2008, 11:50 pm

Quote :: -Orcs:-While Orc Warlocks aren't the most fitting for the games lore

Subject: Re: Warlock (Full Guide) Sat 13 Dec 2008, 12:26 am

Did you really just say Orc Warlocks aren't fitting to the lore?

...................wow.

Subject: Re: Warlock (Full Guide) Sun 12 Apr 2009, 10:47 am

I think this guide is more for afliction locks.My lock dos 10k chaos bolt and 14k soul fire Very Happy

so they do deal alot of damage

Subject: Re: Warlock (Full Guide) Sun 12 Apr 2009, 11:36 am

wow this is a nice guide!

Subject: Re: Warlock (Full Guide) Sun 12 Apr 2009, 11:41 am

-Unlike the Mage, the Warlock doesn't aim to kill the quickest but instead aims to kill the most efficiently.

This made me lol extremely IRL ya forgot 24 k Soul Fire ?

Subject: Re: Warlock (Full Guide) Thu 16 Apr 2009, 7:38 pm

Yes. this guide is very much for Affliction warlocks, and lets get one thing straight i NEVER see Destruction warlocks use shadow bolt and using soul fire does cost soul shards which can be a pain to get in retail. All in all though great guide for the beginer warlocks.

Subject: Re: Warlock (Full Guide) Fri 17 Apr 2009, 2:32 pm

i know better lock guide, listen and lern, spec destru>get hastegear>bind soulfire and fear>spam fear>soulfire>fear>soulfire repeat until target is dead>youre epic lock skillzor now copyright > me <

Subject: Re: Warlock (Full Guide) Fri 17 Apr 2009, 2:46 pm

A true warlock goes affliction.

Subject: Re: Warlock (Full Guide) Fri 17 Apr 2009, 3:17 pm

Keep in mind that this was written during patch 2.4.3.

Subject: Re: Warlock (Full Guide) Sat 18 Apr 2009, 10:05 am

meatballkeeper wrote:: Keep in mind that this was written during patch 2.4.3.

hm...then spec sl/sl get hp/resil gear dotdotdotdrain run dotdotdotdrain run -.-.

Subject: Re: Warlock (Full Guide) Sat 18 Apr 2009, 11:11 am

Destro locks deal insane damage when geared right..like mine

Subject: Re: Warlock (Full Guide) Sat 18 Apr 2009, 12:07 pm

brillster13 wrote:: Destro locks deal insane damage when geared right..like mine

geared right? ´´OH +HASTE HERE IT ROX I BUY IT SO I CAN SPAM FEAR AND SOUlfIrA BETTAH´´ ....

Subject: Re: Warlock (Full Guide) Sun 03 May 2009, 10:34 am

Just stack SP and make +26 SFs ^^ 1 hit almoust all..

Subject: Re: Warlock (Full Guide) Sun 03 May 2009, 10:35 am

old guide is old.

Subject: Re: Warlock (Full Guide) Sun 03 May 2009, 10:35 am

teenANGST wrote:: Just stack SP and make +26 SFs ^^ 1 hit almoust all..

Awesome necro.

Subject: Re: Warlock (Full Guide) Sun 03 May 2009, 10:56 am

GaHmeler wrote:

teenANGST wrote:: Just stack SP and make +26 SFs ^^ 1 hit almoust all..

Awesome necro.

Subject: :O Wed 13 May 2009, 3:19 am

WoW at one shotting necro... Anywho, Very good Block Of Text, Worth reading and really helpful for wana-be warlocks.

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