I'm trying out a nightfall/soul link build now that I've hit level 60 (as of yesterday, woot), but I'm the kind of lock who just likes to burn things up. Should I respect to something like nightfall/conflag, or SM/ruin where I can get more damage?
I really have no experinece with other builds, so i cant answer this question other than to say the NF/conflag is one of the best pvp builds from what i read. Its supposed to provide very high burst damage which is ideal for pvp. Reading about it, and from my experience, im pretty sure its what the very good Onyx locks used while i was playing.
What about the mana it uses? I have about 3700 health and 3900 mana roughly unbuffed.
It is very mana intensive. There is a link in the other thread that explains the pros and cons of it. It says to make sure you have improved life tap and bring many bandages and pots :P The upside is it deal out high damage in a short period of time. This is what you need in pvp. Dying isnt a bad thing either in pvp. You rez with almost full health and mana.
k, my PoV for warlock specs PvP
nightfall/conflag: you'll kill 1-2 people, get the killing blow but burn all your mana...after that, you'll prolly die...
SM/Ruin: you'll DoT 5-10 people, get HKs for all of them (unless they never die...) and still have some mana for SBs and re-applying DoTs. You may get 1 killing blow (potentially more if you get lucky ticks on your DoTs) and if you use Siphon Life, you are getting 50-70 life every 3 seconds per person it's on (although it's a mana-heavy spell)...you will still die prolly, but it will take longer, and you'll have hit more than 2-3 people
anything/Soul Link: You are a tank among casters...melee could be forced to eat through 10k hps just to kill you (VW sac, .5 sec VW cast, sac again...each sac is around 2.2k hps shield) and have the potential to have sustained dmg, but not massive numbers (1.3-1.5k crits with non-set blues and a shadow bolt i think...). You don't die unless you trip and hurt yourself... the only downfall is locks that banish your pet...