Dorigon
Alpha and Omega
DISCLAIMER: THIS GUIDE IS OLD AS DIRT AND I EDITED MOST CONTENT OUT TO KEEP IT "CURRENT" TO KEEP GUIDE AUTHOR RANK WITH MINIMUM EFFORT. IT HAS SOME GOOD INFO BUT IS VERY OUTDATED.
Foreword
Foreword
During the last year of Cata, especially toward its end, warlocks were increasingly played as a viable class. Now, with MoP released, warlocks have survived the changes and are still one of the top damage dealing classes. They are still not popular, but that is business as usual.
Updated for 5.4
A Note on Gear
Priority One: The Hit Cap
Get capped for hit. Ten rating leaves you just 0.08% short of the cap, so that works, as does 11+ rating.
Priority Two: Your Choice
After capping for hit, it's a matter of preference on what stats you want to gear for. There are obvious BiS enchants for some slots, but you will just have to find a level of sta that you're comfortable with and then choose some combination of spellpower, crit, and haste. Test it out, see what you like.
Horde Example Gearset:
Visit www.wowhead.com and filter by gear to make your own decisions on BiS items. For enchants, look at this thread: http://www.twinkinfo.com/forums/f12/5-4-enchants-shortcut-52722/
Alliance Example Gearset:
Visit www.wowhead.com and filter by gear to make your own decisions on BiS items. For enchants, look at this thread: http://www.twinkinfo.com/forums/f12/5-4-enchants-shortcut-52722/
A Note on Races
Alliance: At the top for alliance races are gnomes, humans, and worgens. Your choice for race really depends on your own priorities and areas of comfort. Gnomes have high base int, having 4 more than humans and 7 more than worgens, and can get instant cast bombs with engineering. Humans have a two minute trinket, which is clutch these days with priests popping psyfiends all over the fucking place. Worgens are nice because they have extra mobility. My general opinion is that gnome and human are the best, with worgen slightly below, and dwarf way below. That said, dwarf locks get ultimate style points.
Horde: There are also several good choices for horde, with blood elf, goblin, and undead at the top. Both blood elf and goblin have the high base int, and both get some extra incentives. As a long time belf, I know how nice bloodthistle can be for a nice bump in damage. That said, as a recent convert to goblin, nothing beats rocket jump, and the 1% haste racial helps a ton when gearing. Undead are the third good choice. The undead racial raises damage by a good 3-4%, and WotF is really nice when psyfiends are around. Last, cases can definitely be made for orc and troll, but they are iffy compared to the other races. Orc's racial, between blood fury and pet damage, should also raise total damage by about 3-4%, and the stun reduction can be nice with 30% runspeed paladins zooming around. I really want to like troll, and the racial is super neat, but there are two knocks on trolls. For one, their base int is super low, something like 8 lower than belf/goblin. Second, the racial is on a long 3min cd. In the end, only consider belf if you will stay stocked up on bloodthistle, otherwise goblin or undead is probably the best bet.
A Note on Profs
When choosing professions, always go with herbalism and skinning. They give you the most benefits.
A Note on Specs
If you want to put out any pressure at all, go destro. It is powerful. Demo can put out good damage too, but has no burst. Really, it's a matter of having either burst or mobility. In today's game, with burst how it is, most people will want to go destroy.
The Mid Chop
As we know, slaughtering the other team in midfield at the start of games and at other times during the game is a common strategy. Warlocks are especially vulnerable during this time, but also especially dangerous. For starters, the mid chop is a great time to use lifeblood offensively. You want to let the forces collide without being the first to come in range yourself, then creep in from a sneaky angle and start tabbing your lifeblooded dots on to the enemies. During this time, minding your position is vital. You need to be keeping track of both your team and the enemy team. Self-preservation should be your first priority. Your other priority during the mid chop should be to fear rogues and ferals off your teammates, as well as any other melee that managed to find its way across. Don't worry about fearing enemy healers unless they get out of position and are reasonably close to you. Don't risk death to fear enemy healers during this time, since you will probably die yourself.
All About Imps
These little critters are almost always our most useful pet at 19. Even then, they have their drawbacks. Sadly, a single Imp bolt can break one of your fears, so you will want to make macros of some sort to keep your imp off of feared targets. Here is my recommendation: for each of your offensive damaging spells, macro '/cast [target=target] !Fireball' in to it so that the imp attacks your current target. Macro '/petfollow' in to Fear so that your imp always stops casting when you cast fear. This backfires rarely if a firebolt is in the air, but using these macros will let your pet get a lot of casting uptime rather than just standing around as a sta buff.
Final Word
Remember, have fun! Do not get frustrated, either. Warlock is a very gratifying class to play well. You will probably get beat up early and often as a young Warlock, but keep at it and you should see your damage and kills rise, your deaths fall, and enemy healers cower in fear of your presence.
Last edited by a moderator:
I just wonder if there's any more advice you could give on this type of situation?
