Warlocking or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

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Warlocking 101 â€"

1-1 What is a Warlock

1-2 Hit rating and you

1-3 Requirements for raiding

2-1 PVP vs PVE

2-2 PVP Specs

2-3 PVE specs

2-3 PVE Tier Sets


1-1 WHAT IS A WARLOCK

A Warlock is a pure DPS class that specializes in direct damage (DD) and damage over time (DOT) spells with both fire and shadow magic with a few support spells that increase damage for casters (Curse of Shadows, Curse of Elements) decrease damage from mobs (Shadow Embrace, Curse of Weakness), provide wipe-protection (Soul Stone) and a summonable consumable for health (Healthstone).

Compared to other caster classes (mage, moonkin, shadow priest), warlocks have some of the best survivability through gearing and talents as well as the potential for some of the highest damage per second (dps) of any class in the game.

Warlocks also excel in self-sufficiency because they are able to Life-Tap, Drain Life, Drain Mana, Dark Pact (when specced for it), and sacrifice a pet for mana/hp regeneration (also dependant on spec).  Due to the self-sufficiency of a warlock and their larger-than-normal hitpoint pool, warlocks are fantastic farmers and can farm nearly endlessly without needing to eat or drink.


1-2 HIT RATING AND YOU

Hit rating is the chance to hit for spells on mobs that are level 73 or bosses (all bosses are considered level 73 for purposes of calculating spell/melee hit including old-world ones).

From WoWWiki:

Chance to hit can be increased by talents or gear with spell hit rating up to a cap of 99%. Spell hit rating is a stat found on gear that increases spell hit chance by a certain percent per point, based on level. At level 70, 12.6 spell hit rating is equivalent to 1% spell hit. Because the highest level mob currently present is level 73 (all BC raid bosses, for instance), a level 70 caster has an effective spell hit rating cap of 202, assuming no other spell hit sources.

Basically, to reach the “hit cap” you need 202 spell hit to reach 99%.  You cannot get any higher than 99% because there is always a 1% chance to miss/resist that cannot be overcome no matter how much +hit you have.

For purposes of raiding, the “hit cap” is something to be worked for but is completely unnecessary in pvp.  As a raider you should look to be hit capped by the middle of T5 content (SSC/TK) or earlier.  There are some ways to be hit capped pre-Kara but, in the opinion of this warlock, the costs outweigh the benefits.  Even so, it is entirely possible to be hit capped in Kara after a few key drops (and being Scryer helps too).

Warlocks have a talent to increase the chance to hit with Affliction spells by up to 10% (Suppression).  This talent is entirely overrated.  Roughly 40-50% of your damage output will continue to be from Shadow Bolts, and while your DOT spells will be landing consistently, your Shadow Bolts won’t.


1-3 REQUIREMENTS FOR RAIDING

The requirements for starting raiding as a warlock are quite easy.  As a tailor you can meet them simply by using quest gear and crafting the Frozen Shadowweave Set.  As far as stats go you should be aiming for (just key stats shown)

HP: 7500+ (should be easy)
Mana: 7500+
+dmg: +600 to shadow or all

As a note: These are the base stats for walking into Kara for the first time.  You will not clear to Prince if everyone is similarly geared and there is a good chance that there will be struggles without an optimal group setup (CC for undead).  These stats are quite easy to get to with just quest gear and it doesn’t require much in the way of expensive gems, crafting professions, or farming to get to.

As you progress these stats will obviously go up (and depending on racials, scale differently…silly gnomes). If you are farming Kara (without badge gear) you should have around 8.5-9k hps with about 8000-8500 mana easily and be over 800 +dmg (up to almost 1000 +dmg if drops fell in your favor). This should be accompanied by some spell hit (through gearing or gemming). If Prince is on farm for a while it should be VERY easy to have 100-140 spell hit with AT LEAST 900 +dmg (or over 1000 +shadow dmg from FSW set). If you crafted the FSW set it will likely be a staple piece of gear until T5 replaces it. There is, honestly, nothing better for sheer damage output at that level of gear.

It is possible to raid using PVP gear but it lacks much of the +hit necessary to raid well into later encounters. Consider it your backup gear or starting gear, not your “raiding” gear. Even so, there may be some upgrades that are available only through PVP (PVP caster dagger for example) with no real upgrade or PVE alternative till much further in end-game content.


2-1 PVP vs PVE

PVP is playing versus people. PVE is fighting the “game.”

The stats that are necessary for PVP and PVE differ substantially.

As a warlock in PVP you want to stack stamina, resilience, and +damage. The more of each, the better. Hit rating is completely unnecessary for PVP. Additionally, some +crit is required for a destro specced warlock.

In PVE you want to stack +dmg, +hit, and a fair balance of stamina and intellect.


2-2 PVP SPECS

21/34/0 + 6:
Definition of the SL/SL spec. Siphon life and soul link for maximum survivability. You are still very vulnerable to melee, but you take substantially less damage due to soul link and you are very easy to heal (26% more healing from Fel Armor). Additionally, you have +70 to all resistances which makes spells hurt much less. Great farming spec.

41/0/11 + 9:
This is a spec with versatility. It’s an Unstable Affliction build to stop those annoying cleansers but it still provides some burst from Shadowburn and faster Shadowbolts (and the good ole nightfall procs). There is some loss of survivability with this spec but it is effective with mass PVP (battlegrounds) and 5v5 teams.

7/5/44 + 5 or 7/7/47:
Standard destro specced warlock build. The burst output from this build is amazing at times and 2 or 3-shotting people is very possible. Most of your damage output will be fire (immolate, conflag, incinerate, soul fire, searing pain) but don’t dismiss shadow. Spells like Shadowfury and Shadowburn are invaluable for burning down people quickly as well as controlling them to prevent healing or escaping. This is the only build on the list that can kill someone while they are being healed. This is also the only build that can result in your death without doing any damage as you are VERY squishy.

5/41/11 + 4 (6/44/11 is how I roll with it):
This is the standard PVP Felguard build. The Felguard is basically a DOT that can’t be dispelled and that isn’t affected by resilience. The intercept and cleave is just a bonus (cleave can crit for over 1k on cloth) and, if used well, a well-timed intercept can stop a heal just in time to force a bubble or kill the healer. This build has the great finisher of a Shadowburn but lacks interrupt/pushback avoidance.


2-3 PVE SPECS

41/0/15 + 5 OR 41/0/16 + 4:
Affliction spec for dps. Get Unstable Affliction (UA) and Dark Pact for help with mana. Running with imp is the norm so additional points can easily go into Improved Imp for a larger stamina boost. When not keeping DOTs up just Shadow Bolt spam. Adjustments in points can be to add points into Shadow Embrace or get Malediction.  Shadow Embrace and Malediction don't stack as you can't have two Curse of Shadows or Curse of Elements up and only one Shadow Embrace can be up on a given mob.

0/41/15 + 5:
This is the standard Felguard raid spec. Some extra points (at least one) should be put into Mana Feed to keep the cleaves going as well as one point into Improved Corruption to keep it closer to the global cooldown (gcd). Pet control is key for this build to make sure that boss/mob cleaves don’t kill your pet. Even though all aggro reducing talents are basically gone from this build, since a decent chunk of damage is coming from your pet you can basically unload without too many problems.

0/21/40 (fire and shadow friendly) or 0/21/40 (shadow only, basically) :
The “standard” destro specced raid build. This build is key for when you are not on Imp duty (since it relies on you saccing your pet). There is some variation available in this build (basically, fire or shadow dmg) but the most important thing is getting 5/5 in Shadow & Flame (S&F). A couple benchmarks you should reach before considering this spec are: At least 1000 +shadow/fire dmg (or all dmg), over 25% crit (5% crit from destro spells doesn’t appear in the character screen and I don’t know if that’s factored into the 25% you are supposed to have) and hit capped (202 +hit). This spec is the highest DPS available in any build when with the right classes (shadow priest or fire mage), although shadow is higher when both are available.


2-4 PVE TIER SETS:

Tier 4:
Tier 4 gear is aimed toward an affliction spec. It has +dmg, +hit and +crit. The crit just seems like a bonus to the gear. The 2-piece bonus is nice for either shadow or fire but the 4-piece bonus is fantastic for affliction (one free tick of corruption). Fundamentally this tier allows for either affliction or destruction, but due to UA doing more damage than Ruin at this gear level I think that is why affliction is preferred.

Tier 5:
Tier 5 gear seems to be aimed at a demon specced warlock. The healing from the 2-piece bonus allows for AOE damage to be healed up with relative ease due to your damage and the 4-piece bonus gives a good reason to keep corruption going. Items like the [wowitem]Void Star Talisman[/wowitem] (Solarian drop) help make demon even more attractive and help limit the spell damage your pet takes. The key here (as mentioned in the demon spec summary above) is keeping your pet alive through pulling him back for a bit or adjusting him so he’s behind a target. You don’t want to health funnel since it takes away from DPS time.

Tier 6:
Tier 6 is the true crit set. It provides the most +crit of any of the sets in quantities that could make anyone smile (as well as 6 yellow sockets in the full Hijal/BT set, or 9 yellow sockets in the 2.4 full set). The set bonuses allow for easy self-healing with immolate and/or corruption up (although both are often considered a waste due to lack of damage and a wasted GCD unless you are going with fire spells) and for DPS/enrage timer sensitive fights, corruption is inefficient. Longer fights allow for it but you shouldn’t require more than an occasional renew to keep life-tapping away.  Even so it is valuable for a 25 man raid to have at least one affliction lock (likely 40/0/21) to keep debuffs on the boss (namely CoEl or CoSh).  The result is lower dps from that lock, but higher overall dps from the raid.


Any additional questions please put here and I will do my best to research and answer them to the best of my abilities.  I will be adding some useful links (thanks Gren) and other info as it is requested, given or realized.

-Capn

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Warlock Resourses:

Gearing: Link (Thanks Gren)

Raiding with a Felguard: Link

Enslavable outland demons: Link Note that this list isn't condensed and is spread over a total of 9 pages (it's a pain to read)

Warlock Talent Guide: WoW Warlock Forums

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