F2P Salfir's Warlock Guide

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Salfir’s F2P Warlock Guide

Updated for WoD 6.0.2.

Table of Contents

I. Introduction
II. Races

a. Alliance​

b. Horde​

III. Spells
IV. Specialization and Talent Choice

a. Affliction​

b. Demonology​

c. Destruction​

V. Useful Links

a. Guides​

b. Videos​

VI. Gear

a. Preface​

b. Gear Choices​

VII. PvP Suggestions

a. General​

b. Specialization-Specific​

VIII. Macros, Addons, and Consumables
IX. Conclusion

Introduction
First of all, thank you for taking the time to read this guide! Hopefully it can provide insight or serve as a refresher. This was originally written in patch 4.3 and is currently updated for Warlords of Draenor patch 6.0.2. While its focus is mainly PvP there is some PvE information. This guide is intended for level 20 twinks on World of Warcraft Trial accounts.

Warlocks are traditionally one of the strongest DPS classes in the game, supported by great access to CC, an ability to deal consistent and constant poke damage, and a surprising potential for burst. As a lock, you can turn the tide of battle by controlling enemies with well-timed fears and with superior positioning, allowing you to burst hard at range.

Forewarning: I’m a bit verbose, but my intent was to include as much necessary information as I could. Skip around if you like, find the information you’re looking for, and have fun!

Races
As a disclaimer, my biggest suggestion when picking a race is to pick what you like. Racials may (will, and have!) change(d) over time, but the skin and lore stay relatively the same. If you plan on investing any serious time on your warlock, pick a race that you enjoy. It also seems that with WoD Blizzard really wants to even the advantages and disadvantages of the different races. That being said, at the moment there are races that support warlocks better than others.

Alliance

Dwarf

A solid choice, features a flat damage increase as well as an active defense ability.​

Stoneform - A general debuff clear on a 2m cooldown.
Might of the Mountain - Helpful in increasing burst damage.
Frost Resistance - Minor decrease in damage received from Frost Mages.

Gnome

Decent choice, helpful for kiting enemies.​

Engineering Specialization - Allows use of Large Copper Bomb
Escape Artist - Useful against many classes.
Nimble Fingers - Flat haste buff, equal to ~3 haste on gear.
Expansive Mind - More mana - with mana regen as it is, this is not really noticeable.
Arcane Resistance - Minor decrease in damage received from Druids, Hunters, and Mages.

Human

A very strong choice, especially if you have access to Arena Grand Masters. Powerful in battlegrounds and arenas.​

Every Man for Himself - OP. Provides a 2m cooldown trinket, opening up an extra trinket spot for AGMs or honor trinkets. Effectively a stat boost.
Diplomacy - Makes rep grinding easier. Faster access to Ambassador or the Diplomat.
The Human Spirit - another flat stat boost.

Worgen

A very strong choice. Powerful in battlegrounds.​

Darkflight - A 'sprint' that is all around useful, making a Demo lock even more mobile, or a destro lock better at securing a kill or making an escape. Great for goal-oriented play as well.
Viciousness - Great all around the board, as many of our burst skills scale off of crit chance.
Aberration - Minor decrease in damage received from other Warlocks, Priests, Druids, and Hunters.


Horde

Blood Elf

A very strong choice. Powerful in arenas and strong against other casters.​

Arcane Torrent - An AoE blanket silence. What’s not to love?
Arcane Acuity - Great all around the board, as many of our burst skills scale off of crit chance
Arcane Affinity - Not super helpful for warlocks, but +3 spirit has a cool color…
Bloodthistle Petal - Only available to Blood Elves, a nice Spell Power boost, must be farmed
Arcane Resistance - Minor decrease in damage received from Druids, Hunters, and Mages

Orc

A strong choice. Provides some nice extra damage.​

Blood Fury - 2m cooldown spell power “trinket”, useful for dotting up an enemy team or providing a little extra burst
Hardiness - Useful against BM hunters, the dreaded HoJ, and any other stuns

Troll

Probably the weakest choice for Horde, but definitely not bad.​

Berserking - Useful for having your dots roll faster, incinerate spam, or getting off a fear fast while in trouble
Da Voodoo Shuffle - Not immediately noticeable but I’m sure it’s saved lives
Regeneration

Undead

A very strong choice. Powerful in battlegrounds and arenas.​

Will of the Forsaken - Useful against Priests and Warlocks. Shares 30s cooldown with trinket, but allows you to save trinket for other CC
Touch of the Grave - A minor damage/healing spell on a 15 second ICD with a 20% proc chance. You will see this proc, but it will not often be game-changing.
Cannibalize - Yum.
Shadow Resistance - Minor decrease in damage received from Priests and Warlocks.

Goblin

A very strong choice. Powerful in battlegrounds and arenas.​

Rocket Barrage - Adds some extra damage, allowing you to burst even better.
Rocket Jump - A multitude of great uses. And tons of fun, to boot.
Time is Money - A flat buff to cast speed. No complaints. Equal to ~3 haste on gear.
Better Living Through Chemistry - The only thing this racial really does is allow you to craft your own Healing Potions. Not very notable.
Pack Hobgoblin - A minor convenience.





Archived

Mists of Pandaria:

Horde

Orc
Command - Slightly higher pet damage

Troll
Beast Slaying

Cataclysm:

Introduction
First of all, thank you for taking the time to read this guide! Hopefully it can provide insight or serve as a refresher. This was written in patch 4.3 and while its focus is mainly PvP there is some PvE information. This guide is intended for level 20 twinks on World of Warcraft Trial accounts.

Warlocks are secretly OP. They can comfortably top damage charts, utilize one of the best CCs in the game (Fear!), and despite wearing cloth have immense survivability (Soul Link!).

Forewarning: I’m a bit verbose, but my intent was to include as much necessary information as I could. Skip around if you like, find the information you’re looking for, and have fun!

Races
As a disclaimer, my biggest suggestion when picking a race is to pick what you like. Racials may (will, and have!) change(d) over time, but the skin and lore stay relatively the same. If you plan on investing any serious time on your warlock, pick a race that you enjoy. That being said, at the moment there are races that support warlocks better than others.

Alliance

Dwarf

Probably not the best choice for a warlock.​

Frost Resistance - Useful against mages
Stoneform - Useful for reducing incoming damage and removing crippling poison

Gnome

Decent choice, helpful for kiting enemies.​

Arcane Resistance - Useful against hunters, druids, and mages
Engineering Specialization - Allows use of Large Copper Bomb
Escape Artist - Useful against many classes
Expansive Mind - More mana!

Human

Generally the best choice for an alliance warlock, especially if you have access to Arena Grand Masters​

Every Man for Himself - OP. Provides a 2m cooldown trinket instead of the normal 5m trinket. Also opens up an extra trinket spot.
Diplomacy - Makes rep grinding easier. Faster access to Ambassador or the Diplomat

Horde

Blood Elf

A very strong choice. Powerful in arenas and strong against other casters.​

Arcane Resistance - Useful against hunters, druids, and mages
Arcane Torrent - An AoE blanket silence. What’s not to love?
Arcane Affinity - Not super helpful for warlocks, but +3 spirit has a cool color…
Bloodthistle Petal - Only available to Blood Elves, a nice Spell Power boost, must be farmed

Orc

A strong choice. Good for Demo locks and also provides some nice extra damage.​

Blood Fury - 2m cooldown spell power “trinket”, useful for dotting up an enemy team or providing a little extra burst
Command - Slightly higher pet damage
Hardiness - Useful against BM hunters, fire mages, and the dreaded HoJ

Troll

Probably the weakest choice for Horde, but definitely not bad.​

Beast Slaying
Berserking - Useful for dotting up enemy team or getting off a fear fast while in trouble
Da Voodoo Shuffle - Not immediately noticeable but I’m sure it’s saved lives
Regeneration

Undead

A very strong choice. Powerful in arenas and strong against priests and other warlocks.​

Shadow Resistance - Useful againsts Priests and Warlocks
Cannibalize - Yum
Will of the Forsaken - Useful against Priests and Warlocks. Shares 30s cooldown with trinket, but allows you to save trinket for other CC

 

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Spells
A list of active spells available to all specs with short explanations describing their ideal use.

Corruption
Damage over 18 seconds. Feel comfortable recasting at any time and spread liberally. However, keep in mind that the ticking damage from Corruption can break your fears. This is even more a concern on a Seduced target — be mindful of CC and plan accordingly before casting!

Create Healthstone/ Healthstone
Useful in a pinch and holds three charges. Heals for 588 at level 20 and 1147 at 29. I like to always have one in my inventory, but if you forget it it’s not the end of the world. 2m cooldown. The heal has a chance to crit as well!

Fear
THE warlock spell. Bind it to something near to your fingers and use it often. Can be used to CC an enemy healer, interrupt spellcasting (if you’re fast enough), give you time to reposition/run to help, peel off an enemy from a friendly caster; so on and so forth. Be mindful of its diminishing returns and of the fact that it typically breaks upon damage (will usually break on a direct damage spell or multiple dot ticks). You’ll get a ‘full’ fear on someone who is not receiving damage. That being said, it also gives you a great opportunity to inflict a lot of free-casting damage, such as taking the time to hard cast or focus on other targets.

Shadow Bolt
The warlock hard cast spell.

Drain Life (Affliction/Demonology only)
Does exactly what you think it would. Single target filler DPS that also serves as a very minor self-heal. Works similarly to a Mage's Arcane Missiles in that it will continue to cast after an enemy has gone out of line of sight. Can be talented to be stronger. Turns into Ember Tap for Destruction warlocks.

Life Tap (Affliction/Demonology only)
Sacrifice some health for mana. With mana regeneration as it is, you shouldn't even realistically need to put this skill on your bars. Becomes Chaotic Energy for Destruction specced warlocks.

Health Funnel (Affliction/Demonology only)
Exchange of own life for health of your pet. Pretty self-explanatory. Great in pve with a voidwalker.

Soulstone
Not the most useful spell in BGs (and unusable in arenas/skirmishes), but it can make for some nice revenge kills. It’s great in pve. Keep in mind that as of 5.04 the warlock no longer creates an item but the target receives a buff. Don't waste your cooldown!

Summon Demons
Has a 45s cooldown in PvP with a 5s cast time, so is difficult to cast but not impossible. Both Aff and Demo have instant summons available. Pets will always offer more to a player when the player takes their controls into their own hands. To this effect, binding all of their key abilities and setting them to passive will be more work (and increase the skill cap of the class) but can offer you more as a player.

Succubus
The succubus can actually burst relatively well — I've seen her Lash of Pain crit for as much as 450. Make sure to keybind this if you choose to use her so you can time your burst effectively. Her major downside is her susceptibility to being cleaved out in a battle. With such low health and the introduction of more AoE and cleave skills to the bracket, she tends to die quite easily. For this reason, it's important to bind her follow and move to pet control abilities.
With 6.0.2, you can now control Seduction! To do so, summon her, go to the pet spellbook, and turn off auto-cast for the spell. You will then need to macro the ability and place it on your bar. Taking this ability off of auto-cast increases the skill cap for the warlock, so this may be something that takes a while to get used to but is a phenomenal increase to the warlock's ability to control a battlefield (and a CC that doesn't DR with fear!).

Imp
Provides sustained ranged dps — if it is able to hardcast freely without having to reposition it will do the most damage over the longest period of time. Also provides the warlock with an uncontrollable Singe Magic that is set on auto-cast. A lot of people prefer the imp for this reason (it will dispel a HoJ, for example) but in my opinion the auto-cast and uncontrollability make it the second most desirable demon.

Voidwalker
Unfortunately, with WoD the voidwalker noo longer has Disarm, making this demon the least worthwhile. Situations in which one would consider using the voidwalker are mainly pve related, as he has a taunt and can tank. The only other thing of note is that he generates Demonic Fury for Demo locks much more quickly than the other pets; maybe someone can find a way to make use of this effectively.








Archived

Mists of Pandaria:

Curse of Enfeeblement
A catchall curse that should always be active on at least one target, preferably a key target such as a healer, a supported DPS, a target attempting to kill you, or a player whose CC has a cast time.

Life Tap
Allows warlocks to essentially ignore mana conservation. Use it carefully, but definitely use it. Fantastic with a healer and/or in long arena matches.

Imp
Used to be the best due to its 10% extra health but 5.2 severely nerfed the imp. Its biggest claim to fame is sustained ranged dps — if it is able to hardcast freely it will do the most damage but is otherwise second tier.

Voidwalker
Offers a 10s disarm on a 1 minute cooldown in exchange for the loss of extra hp. Consider utilizing the VW's disarm with a fear>summon>disarm or through other methods if opened on by a rogue or charged by a warrior. Deals comparable (slightly less due to melee range) damage to the imp, but offers pushback against casters as well as being less squishy than imp.
Additionally, steals aggro from enemy pets with its Taunt, forcing enemy players to have to manually recast pet attack.
This is the best pet for someone who is focusing mainly on utility or defense.

Succubus
She autocasts Seduce when a target stuns, silences, or fears you. You cannot control when she uses her cc, so it may be frustrating when she blows the cooldown needlessly, but it certainly can't hurt gameplay. The succubus can actually burst relatively well — around 300-350 damage in 3 GCDs, a deadly addition to a Destro lock's arsenal and a decent supplement to Demo's lesser burst. She is relatively defenseless though — keybind your pet control abilities!
This is the best pet for someone who is focusing mainly on dealing damage or bursting down targets.

Cataclysm:

Feel free to skip this section if you feel comfortable with your spells. I included it because warlocks simply have so many spells and many of them are often confusing, nuanced, and situational.
Affliction
You have your two main instant cast dots, both staples regardless of spec:
Corruption – Damage over 18 seconds. Feel comfortable recasting at any time.
Bane of Agony – Damage over 24 seconds, builds up from lower ticks to higher. Wait until it has run its course before recasting. Cannot be on the same target as Bane of Doom.

These two should be applied liberally to every enemy you see. If you only have time to cast one before an enemy dies, pick Corruption as its initial ticks are larger than BoA’s.

Bane of Doom
This spell is destructive. Honestly, Blizzard has probably messed up the amount of damage it should reasonably do. As Destro it comfortably ticks for ~225 and crits for ~450+. As Aff more like ~300 and I have had the fortune of seeing crits over 800. It’s a game changer. Mind you, the ticks only occur every 15s. Only one can be active at any time, so choose the wisest target. I tend to pick healers or EFCs or any enemy that will last for 15s or more in a 1v1. It’s also a great spell to cast on someone right before you die. (/rude)

Curse of Weakness
Not the most powerful of spells, but definitely worth the global cooldown. Reduces physical damage by 10%, so good to put on huntards in mid, a ret chasing you, or a rogue that won’t leave you alone. Only active on one target at a time. Can be used to enter combat.

Drain Life
Does exactly what you think it would. Becomes a decent filler spell as Aff when talented. For the other two specs, use situationally. Works similarly to a Mage's Arcane Missiles in that it will continue to cast after an enemy has gone out of line of sight.

Drain Soul
Very rarely should you be using this to inflict damage. This restores all of your soul shards when channeled on a dying enemy. Use on easy targets when they’re low if you are missing soul shards. Same line of sight mechanic as Drain Life.

Life Tap
Allows warlocks to essentially ignore mana conservation. Use it carefully, but definitely use it. Fantastic with a healer and/or in long arena matches. Consider pairing with Soul Harvest.

Fear
THE warlock spell. Bind it to something near to your fingers and use it often. Can be used to CC an enemy healer, interrupt spellcasting (if you’re fast enough), give you time to reposition/run to help, peel off an enemy from a friendly caster; so on and so forth. Be mindful of its diminishing returns and of the fact that it typically breaks upon ~100 damage. You’ll get a ‘full’ fear on someone who is not receiving damage. That being said, it also gives you a great opportunity to inflict a lot of free-casting damage, such as taking the time to cast Soul Fire.

Demonology
Create Healthstone / Healthstone
Useful in a pinch. Heals for ~120 when you have your SP stick. Interestingly enough, can crit. I like to always have one in my inventory, but if you forget it it’s not the end of the world. 2m cooldown.

Create Soulstone / Soulstone
Not the most useful spell in BGs, but it can make for some nice revenge kills. It’s great in pve.

Demon Armor
One of our many buffs. Keep it active whenever you can. Provides more survivability.

Soul Link
Evolve from a glass cannon clothie into a tank. Reduces damage incoming by a whopping 20%, as long as you have a pet up and the buff active. ALWAYS have this buff applied.

Health Funnel
Slight loss of own life in order to heal your pet. Pretty self-explanatory. Great in pve with a voidwalker.

Soul Harvest
Channeled spell that heals you for half your health and gives you a missing soul shard every 3s. What’s not to love? So many great situations for this spell.

Unending Breath
For lulz

Soulburn
Situational, but do not be afraid to use it. Causes spells to change, most useful for:

Summon Pet​

Instant Soul Fire​

Uber Searing Pains​

More often than not, people will only use it for an instant soul fire. It’s up to the player to determine whether it would be more useful to have the extra survivability of a re-application of Soul Link or instant damage. Furthermore, if you have a chance to free-cast, Soulburn-> Searing Pain does more total damage than soul fire. Demo locks may also choose to use Soulburn for their Healthstone, increasing their health by a large amount for a short period of time: this is useful when FCing or tanking.

Summon Demons
Imp
95% of the time your best choice. 180 extra health, ranged dps. Deals very decent damage.
Voidwalker
I really only use mine when I am assured to have PW: Fortitude. Deals comparable (slightly less due to melee range) damage to the imp, but offers pushback against casters as well as being less squishy than imp.
Succubus
Would be useful if she had Seduce. As it is… No reason to ever use this demon.

Destruction
Immolate
Your other bread and butter dot which comes with slight instant damage (unless affliction). Absolutely vital for a destro player to have on enemies as it allows the use of Conflagrate.

Rain of Fire
Hands down, the best AoE f2p spell. It just does great damage. Feel free to cast it on a group of enemies huddled together. When talented, has a 6% chance to stun. Serious mana drain. It is also simply the best way to get your DMF Grisly Trophies.

Searing Pain
Quick filler DPS. Probably won’t cast many as you work to keep up dots, but does ~80 damage in a 1.5s cast. Can time burst well with this spell.

Shadow Bolt
Only worth casting as Affliction. Just too long a cast time for not such great damage. You should really consider using this spell situationally. For example, if you've got a chance to sit and cast, you'd be better off going for a soul fire, as you'd do more damage per second of casting. If you're under heavy fire and the enemy is fully dotted, you should typically go for Drain Life or even Searing Pain. Save Shadow Bolts for times when you need to burst and cannot get off a full Soul Fire.

Soul Fire
Long cast, good reward. Can make up some serious burst with a fear>Soul Fire> Soulburn > Soul Fire combo. (Time it with a Bane of Doom tick if you’re a pro!).

 

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Specialization and Talent Choice

Ultimately, talent choices come down to preference. Play what you enjoy playing and you can make it work well! Some players love certain talent trees' spells and playstyles and understand them extremely well. As such, they are able to play powerfully in numerous situations. That being said, each of the warlock specs at level 20 are slightly better suited to different scenarios.

Specialization

Affliction
Affliction is conceptually the most DoT oriented spec for warlocks. Choosing it provides the player with a secondary resource, Soul Shards.

Currently, Affliction is arguably the weakest of the three choices, as the uses for Soul Shards are limited and the damage is relatively low. However, in large group battles, arenas, or against cleanse trigger-happy healers it can still shine. Affliction's biggest strength is in providing blanket DoT damage to a massive group of enemies. Unfortunately, with the 6.0 removal of Drain Soul, the spec has difficulty in finishing people off, so you really should only consider playing this in a large group environment (coincidentally, f2p now have access to Alterac Valley...) Choosing Affliction gives the player -

Unstable Affliction
A DoT to add to the arsenal. Also has a powerful incentive that stops Holy Paladins, Mistweaver Monks, Restoration Shamans, 22+ Resto Druids, Warlocks with imps out (? this is untested! If someone would like to test and see if the Imp auto cleanses UA that would be awesome!) and 22+ Holy/Disc Priests from dispelling magic effects on the target. This is your main damage dealer, so you should put it on practically everything you see.

Soulburn
As of 6.0, f2p can only use Soulburn to enhance their Summon Demon spells, so it effectively has a minute long cooldown. Use Soulburn to quickly switch to your Succubus for a Seduction or whenever any of your demons die; aff locks have a surprising amount of pet control due to this — this is an opportunity to make use and really master the limited number of skills that Affliction has access to.


Demonology
Demonology allows one to embrace demonic energies in order to transform into a powerful entity. Traditionally, Demo locks have been regarded as a strong support, cc, or team oriented play spec, though with WoD they are also quite capable of providing serious burst while maintaining solid damage over time.

Currently, Demonology has the highest skill cap of the three specs, hands down. Demo provides the player with some nuanced offensive, defensive and control abilities whose strengths are dependent upon a player's ability to manage their resources (which is not an easy feat!). Demo is most suited to playing with a group or with objectives in mind, though is also quite successful when running solo. The spec is especially rewarding for those who wish to be relatively inventive with their play. Personally, I think Demo is currently the superior warlock spec due to its extreme versatility. It does falls short to Destro when comparing turret-style burst and dps — but who wants to just stand there and cast? Choosing Demonology gives the player -

Metamorphosis
An ability on a 10 second cooldown that increases damage dealt by 24%, increases armor by 250%, and changes the functionality of a number of skills while under its effects. Metamorphosis' restrictions lie most directly with your resource management, not with its cooldown. A player should become, ideally, comfortable switching in and out of Metamorphosis regularly so as to optimize damage without wasting Demonic Fury as you are capable of your greatest burst within Meta form — keeping up your demonic fury and therefore having access to demon form as often as possible becomes a tiny warlock mini-game. Long story short, it turns you into a freaking awesome demon!

Demonic Fury
The resource you learn to manage as Demo. Gained in caster form, spent in meta. Be mindful of how much you have before going into meta!

Demonic Leap
A leap in your current direction of movement on a 10 second cooldown that activates Meta when used. Be inventive with this spell! It works somewhat like a combination of a hunter's disengage and a mage's blink. Very fun, and very open to interesting directional and practical uses (such as negating fall damage if timed right!). Can also be used while in Meta. Demonic Leap costs 50 Demonic Fury.

Bizr offers: "Demonic Leap is amazing. It's like the Goblin racial on a 10 sec CD. This spell has sooo much potential." In other words, Demonic Leap is one of the biggest selling points for Demo. Use it often!

Molten Core
Halves the cast time of your Soul Fires, making them worthwhile. You will naturally trigger this passive while playing, though you can intentionally trigger it by casting Chaos Wave. Caps at 2 stacks, giving you two 2 second Soul Fires in a row.

Soul Fire
An additional hardcast spell that is always a guaranteed crit. It is typically not worth using unless under the influence of Molten Core, though with 2x Molten Cores up, this adds a lot to your dps rotation, burst, and generates a decent amount of Demonic Fury. Soul Fire costs 160 Demonic Fury, so is most likely best used when in caster form as it generates 30 fury.

Touch of Chaos
When in Meta form, Shadow Bolt turns into Touch of Chaos, an instant cast damage spell that refreshes the duration on Corruption while dealing about half the damage of a regular Chaos Bolt. Touch of Chaos costs 40 Demonic Fury​.

Doom
For those of you who played Warlock back in Cataclysm, this is a truly exciting spell to have once again. When in demon form, Corruption becomes Doom, a minute long DoT that ticks for ~200 (crits for ~400) once every 15 seconds. Not as powerful as it once was, but still an extremely strong addition to an already strong arsenal and unlike its original version can be cast on an unlimited number of targets. Timing your bursts with these 15 second marks (guess what other spell has a 15s cooldown ) becomes the sign of a very experienced warlock. Doom crits also spawn Wild Imps. Doom costs 60 Demonic Fury​.


Hand of Gul'dan/Chaos Wave
With WoD, this spell has changed from being a slow with a minor DoT component to becoming a major spell in the Demo lock's burst arsenal. The spell has 2 charges, each of which are successively refreshed after 15 seconds. This means that you can either use the ability once every 15 seconds or two times in succession every 30 seconds. Learning how to effectively use this spell is part of what makes Demo nuanced.

When in caster, Hand of Gul'dan falls from the sky and hits an enemy, applying a DoT. When in Meta, the initial hit deals about 50% more damage than that of the caster form version (with critical hit chance/damage calculated, this can get to be quite impressive; I've landed 1k Chaos Waves) however without the DoT portion, Chaos Wave does about 15% less total damage than Hand of Gul'dan. Both versions of the spell apply a 50% slow to all enemies within the blast radius. This slow is additive, so two successive hits will immobilize the target. Chaos Wave costs 80 Demonic Fury.


Destruction
Destruction is aptly named, known for its powerful burst damage potential and extreme single target damage.
Currently, it does the most consistent damage of the three specs — grab a nice vantage point and rain absolute dps hell upon some poor unsuspecting souls. Unfortunately, it is missing many of the higher-level spells that make the build interesting or nuanced to play. That being said, a Destro Lock has strong damage and applies incredible pressure, inarguably the highest burst of the three specs, and a slow. Choosing Destruction gives the player -

Chaos Bolt
The reason for going Destruction. Uses up one of your four Burning Embers (the Destro lock resource gained from casting other spells) to unleash a metric fuckton of damage. In upscaled BGs I typically see 700-1000 Chaos Bolts. Timed together with a Succy's Lash of Pain and/or a Conflagrate you're looking at a lot of damage in one global cooldown.

Ember Tap
The other Burning Ember spender. With such little resource generation at this level, I would typically suggest not using up a Burning Ember on a measly 5% heal and in turn missing out on a 850 crit, though in rare circumstances it can save your life. Your talent choice can buff this spell, though I still don't suggest using it (or picking that talent). Good positioning will set you up to not be forced to use this spell.

Conflagrate
An instant cast high damage spell with two charges that are successively recharged every 12 seconds. This means that you can either use the ability once every 12 seconds or two times in succession every 24 seconds. When the target has an Immolate on them, Conflagrate slows.

Incinerate
A hard cast spell that does strong damage. Due to the spell mechanics, the fire 'weaves' its way towards the enemy, taking a short time to actually deal the damage. This can be used both favorably as well as against one's favor, depending on how well you time your damage.

Immolate
A casted fire DoT that has a high initial tick on impact and lower subsequent ticks that lasts for 15 seconds. This spell replaces Corruption, meaning that Destruction does not have an instant cast DoT, making Destro slightly weaker against Rogues and Druids, further setting the spec in its role as an immobile yet deadly cannon.

Chaotic Energy
A passive that replaces Life Tap. At the moment it is useless as mana is generally unlimited.


Talent Choice

F2P only get one decision in their talent trees. Unfortunately, the warlock options are not super fantastic. There is some slight room for distinctive play though.

Dark Regeneration
A heal over time that also increases healing received while the HoT is active. Generally the best choice in most situations, especially for those playing with a dedicated healer or possibly the best choice in an arena setting. Strong for a pugging lock as when chained with healthstone it can effectively be a mobile 50% self heal on a 2m cooldown. Keep in mind that the 20% heal associated with the talent is not an instant heal, but a heal over time. Remember to use your healthstones/healing potions after popping Dark Regeneration, as they can crit and be buffed to include the 25% heal bonus.

Soul Leech
A passive which buffs some of your hard cast spells to return 15% (30% for Aff) of the damage they deal as an absorb shield. Arguably the weakest choice, as this is most useful when one is able to free cast for long periods of time, such as in PvE. PvP requires too much movement for this to really be a serious option.

Harvest Life/Searing Flames
Considerably buffs your Drain Life by increasing damage dealt and healing received. Only an ok choice for your talent point. In order for this talent to be better than Dark Regeneration, Drain Life needs to be a consistent part of your spell rotation; most often, your time can be better spent casting other spells. I could see someone making a convincing argument for taking this talent as an Aff lock. Searing Flames is in a similar category — spending your Burning Embers on a 7.5% heal still isn't as worth it as spending your resource on a nuke spell.

Archived

Mists of Pandaria:

Specialization

Affliction
Affliction is conceptually the most DoT oriented spec for warlocks. Choosing it provides the player with a secondary resource, Soul Shards.
Currently, Affliction is arguably the weakest of the three choices, as the uses for Soul Shards are limited and the damage is relatively low. However, in large group battles, arenas, or against cleanse trigger-happy healers it can still shine. Choosing Affliction gives the player -

Unstable Affliction
A DoT to add to the arsenal. Also has a powerful incentive that stops Paladins, Restoration Shamans, 22+ Resto Druids, and 22+ Holy Priests from dispelling magic effects on the target.

Drain Soul
A channeled spell that reenergizes your Soul Shards and can be used as a weak version of a Warrior's Execute.

Soulburn
A spell with a minute cooldown that has a much lessened effect than in Cata. However, it still has its uses. Use it to quickly switch to your Voidwalker to disarm a melee opponent quickly OR combine with a Drain Life or Harvest Life for a more serious heal.

Demonology
Demonology allows one to embrace demonic energies in order to transform into a powerful entity. Traditionally, Demo locks have been regarded as a strong support, cc, or team oriented play spec.
Currently, Demonology has the highest skill cap of the three specs, hands down. Demo provides the player with some interesting defensive and control abilities, as well as offering somewhat decent damage. Demo is most suited to playing with a group or with objectives in mind, particularly battlegrounds, or for those who wish to be relatively inventive with their play. Choosing Demonology gives the player -

Metamorphosis
An ability on a 10 second cooldown that increases damage dealt by 24% while under its effects. Disallows use of Hand of Gul'dan and Corruption (R.I.P. Aura of Enfeeblement as of 5.3). Metamorphosis' restrictions lie most directly with your resource management, not with its cooldown. A player should become, ideally, comfortable switching in and out of Metamorphosis regularly so as to optimize damage without wasting Demonic Fury. Long story short, it turns you into a freaking awesome demon!

Demonic Fury
The resource you learn to manage as Demo. Gained in caster form, spent in meta. Be mindful of how much you have before going into meta!

Demonic Leap
A leap in your current direction of movement on a 10 second cooldown that activates Meta when used. Be inventive with this spell! It works somewhat like a combination of a hunter's disengage and a mage's blink. Very fun, and very open to interesting directional and practical uses (such as negating fall damage if timed right!). Can also be used while in Meta.

Bizr offers: "Demonic Leap is amazing. It's like the Goblin racial on a 10 sec CD. This spell has sooo much potential." In other words, Demonic Leap is one of the biggest selling points for Demo. Use it often!

Soul Fire
A skill that is just not worth its cast time. Deals slightly more damage than Shadow Bolt, but the increase is not noticeable to warrant its use — in fact, you can cast 3 Shadow Bolts in less time than it would take for you to cast 2 Soul Fires and you would do more damage. What's more, a Shadow Bolt crit will deal considerably more damage than a Soul Fire (even though it is a guaranteed crit). Currently the only times to ever use this spell are when timing up burst on an enemy that is unable to react and when you are in the rare situation where you are attempting to have someone waste their silence. If you're facing an intelligent opponent they will likely not use their kick or counterspell on Soul Fire, so this spell is highly situational.

Hand of Gul'dan
A slow with a small area of effect that applies a DoT to its target and any others affected. Takes a second for the casting animation to hit the enemy. Has two renewable charges that if timed well can put a doubly charged DoT on an enemy.

Destruction
Destruction is known for its powerful burst damage potential and general single target damage.
Currently, it does the most damage of the three specs. Unfortunately, it is missing many of the higher-level spells that make the build interesting or nuanced to play (they don't even have access to their secondary resource, unlike the other two specs). That being said, a Destro Lock has strong damage — inarguably the highest burst of the three specs, a slow, and probably the highest 1v1 capability. Choosing Destruction gives the player -

Chaotic Energy
A passive that replaces Life Tap. At the moment it is useless as mana is generally unlimited.

Conflagrate
An instant cast damage spell with two renewable charges that has the potential to slow.

Incinerate
A hard cast spell that does strong damage. Due to the spell mechanics, the fire 'weaves' its way towards the enemy, taking a short time to actually deal the damage. This can be used both favorably as well as against one's favor, depending on how well you time your damage.

Immolate
A casted fire DoT that has a high initial tick on impact and lower subsequent ticks. This spell replaces Corruption, meaning that Destruction does not have an instant cast DoT.

Talent Choice

F2P now only get one decision in their talent trees. Unfortunately, the warlock options are not super fantastic. There is some slight room for distinctive play though.

Dark Regeneration
A heal over time that also increases healing received while the HoT is active. Probably the best choice in most situations, especially for those playing with a dedicated healer or possibly the best choice in an arena setting. Strong for a pugging Destro lock as you'll spend most of your casting time on Fear and Incinerate. Keep in mind that the 30% heal is not an instant heal, but a heal over time. Remember to use your healthstones/healing potions after popping Dark Regeneration, as they can be buffed to crits of up to 1k.

Soul Leech
A passive which buffs your Shadow Bolts, Incinerates, and/or Drain Souls to return 10% of the damage they deal as self-healing. Arguably the weakest choice, as this is most useful when one is able to free cast for long periods of time, such as in PvE. PvP requires too much movement for this to really be a serious option.

Harvest Life
Considerably buffs your Drain Life by increasing damage dealt, healing received, and allowing it to hit every target in range (up to a max of 3 targets healing you). A good choice for your talent point. Excels in group battle situations as well as provides another decent 1v1 filler. Harvest Life also builds up Demonic Fury extremely well for Demo locks. For Demo and Aff locks, this is a very strong talent choice and should be considered with respect to your playstyle. In order for this talent to be better than Dark Regeneration, Harvest Life needs to be a consistent part of your spell rotation.

Cataclysm:

Ultimately, talent choices come down to preference. Play what you enjoy playing and you can make it work well! Some players love certain talent trees' spells and playstyles and understand them extremely well. As such, they are able to play powerfully in numerous situations. That being said, each of the warlock specs at level 20 are slightly better suited to different scenarios.

Affliction is generally the best at dealing sustained multi-target damage. I believe it to be the best group-play or well geared pugging battleground spec.

Demonology is the weakest of the three specs in terms of damage output but offers slightly more survivability. When playing as demo, a player is best suited to play with support and defense in mind.

Destruction does the best single-target damage and offers much more control of burst than the other specs. As such, it’s typically the best arena spec, but is also on par with affliction for battleground pugging.

Affliction
Affliction offers Unstable Affliction, a dot that should replace Immolation and does some serious mojo. The spec also boasts a whopping +30% increase to shadow damage, which is the majority of what you’ll be dealing. This is the spread dots and /lol spec.

In my opinion, this is the best Affliction build.
Tier 1
2/2 Doom and Gloom
0/2 Improved Life Tap
3/3 Improved Corruption

Tier 2
0/2 Jinx
1/2 Soul Siphon
0/2 Siphon Life

A note on Jinx v. Soul Siphon:

Jinx will increase Rogue Backstab to 63 energy, Piercing Howl will become 10.5 rage, Explosive Shot becomes 52.5 focus, so on and so forth. It's not immediately noticeable but will, in 2m time, decrease a player's DPS to more like 12% reduction.

Soul Siphon does NOT increase healing received (don't worry, this one tricked me too - thanks to Tentacleman for this clarification). However, it adds 9% damage to Drain Life to a fully dotted enemy, making Drain Life a spammable filler spell that also heals you.

Both are worth trying out to see which suits you best.​

Demonology
Demonology gives the player the ability to summon the Felguard. Aside from having melee attacks that are decent for spell pushback, the Felguard does not offer much as a player will – and should – usually be using the Imp. The main reason people choose Demo is for the large buff to health. This talent tree also gives a +15% buff to all shadow and fire damage.

The general purpose Demo spec
Tier 1
3/3 Demonic Embrace (selling point of Demo)
3/3 Dark Arts
0/2 Fel Synergy

Tier 2 (None)
0/2 Demonic Rebirth
0/2 Mana Feed
0/2 Demonic Aegis
0/2 Master Summoner

People have suggested and use other specs, primarily focusing on going 2/2 Fel Synergy. Play around with it and see what you like.

Destruction
My personal favorite, Destruction, teaches the player Conflagrate. The only instant cast f2p lock damage spell, Conflagrate deals considerable damage. Destruction’s (and Conflagrate’s) downside is that the Immolation dot has to be active on a target in order to use Confl. Destruction also buffs Fire spells by 25%.

Spec used most often
Tier 1
3/3 Bane
0/3 Shadow and Flame
2/2 Improved Immolate

Tier 2
1/2 Aftermath
0/2 Emberstorm
0/2 Improved Searing Pain

However, I think that any of the tier 2 talents are good choices. Aftermath is probably the best for pugging, but when playing with a friend who has a consistent slowing spell (rogue, frost mage, etc.), Emberstorm is great. Again, play around with it.

 

[rsq]

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Useful Links
These are other references that are generally very helpful.

Guides and Indexes
Deadvulcano’s Mage Guide, which this guide is loosely based on.
Yde’s Fantastic Collection. Duh.
Dorigon’s 19 warlock guide. Contains a lot of applicable information.
Pinochet’s Profession Guide.
Rhae’s Darkmoon Faire guide, for getting boas you don’t feel like honor farming or for getting great vanity items.
Solvogero's Crowd Control Index.
Hashbrown's Gear Scaling Index.

Videos
To see all of the videos that have been made in the F2P bracket, check out Hiidden's master F2P Movies Thread for a massive list. It can always be helpful to see how other people play, even (especially!) if it's a class with which you're unfamiliar. Better understanding the strengths of weaknesses of other classes will make you an overall stronger player. Also, some of them are just plain fun to watch!

These are videos that show what f2p warlocks are capable of. MoP and Cata videos are within the spoiler. Very excited to see what people come up with in WoD!





Archived

Mists of Pandaria:

Salfir 2
Bizarre's - WSG, meet Demonic Leap
Xansey's Destruction PvP
Allkazar's Destruction PvP
Ctm's Destruction PvP

Cataclysm:

Videos by yours truly
Salfir - WoW F2P Warlock
WoW F2P 2v2 Arenas by Salfir - YouTube
WoW F2P 2v2 Arenas by Salfir - YouTube

Deadvulcano showcasing warlock PvE strengths. A must-watch!
Wailing Caverns - solo lvl 20 trial Warlock - YouTube

Hu's PvP videos, with arena/battleground and general PvP footage
[WoW] Battlegrounds level 20 affliction warlock Trial twink [F2p] - YouTube
[WoW] Gurubashi arena f2p twink warlock - YouTube
[WoW] f2p Warlock 3v3 arenas trial account - YouTube
WoW F2P 20-24 bracket pvp 2v2 arenas Hue Ft. Sliceyall Trial Twink - YouTube
WoW F2P 20-24 bracket pvp 2v2 arenas warlock warrior comp trial twink - YouTube
[WoW] f2p Warlock 2v2 arenas trial account - YouTube

Dubbs' Destro lock PvP
Mortaldubbs f2p lvl 20 Destro Warlock PvP Teaser - YouTube
Mortaldubbs Part 1
Mortaldubbs Part 2
Mortaldubbs Part 3

 

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Gear
Preface
“Best in Slot” is often a preferential term. There are gear sets that prefer certain stats and in turn cater to specific players’ playstyles. I’m not going to just go ahead and tell you what is ‘best’ but rather list the most viable choices, as well as include good options to use while waiting for rarer or more expensive items. Supplementally, Deadvulcano does a great overview of cloth gear choices, organized slightly differently, here.

Make multiple gear sets for different situations! For example, at the moment I have for use a Balanced set, a Stamina set, a full crit set, a haste set, etc.

Here's a list of f2p warlock armories. Use them as references to build your gear sets. Grayed out armories are outdated, but kept on in the hope they will update.

Also keep in mind that when in a battleground, gear now scales up to level 29, so some values and choices can be misleading. I will try and include all of the upscaled versions of gear that I can (as not all have been updated). An immeasurable amount of thanks to Hashbrowns for his great work cataloguing gear here.

Alliance
Hü
Lockinfree
Viancoresist
Spearroronoa
Redruby
Revpreyer
Nineteen

Horde
Salfir
Bizarre
Tentacleman
Watriox
Faelqt
Jumpstreet
Dïpndöts
Winnqt
Tbagr
Lazertag
Mortaldubbs
Deleted
Goldendais



Gear Choices
Upscale Stats are listed underneath the respective item.

Head

Lucky Fishing Hat
10 Armor
20 Stamina

Flying Tiger Goggles
7 Armor
7 Stamina
7 Crit

Weather-Beaten Fishing Hat
5 Armor
6 Stamina
6 Spirit

(A) Keeshan’s Bandana

(H) Faded Wizard Hat – vanity item

Neck

Thick Bronze Necklace
5 Stamina

Brilliant Necklace
1 Stamina
3 Intellect
3 Spirit
3 Strength
3 Agility

(A) Sentinel’s Medallion / (H) Scout’s Medallion
8 Agility
3 Stamina

Shoulder

Exquisite Sunderseer Mantle
9 Armor
9 Intellect
9 Stamina
6 Crit
9 Resilience

Tattered Dreadmist Mantle
9 Armor
9 Intellect
13 Stamina
9 Crit

Magician’s Mantle
7 Armor
5 Intellect
18 Stamina

Feline Mantle

(A) Shoulderwraps of Honor

(H) Mourner’s Stole
7 Armor
5 Intellect
6 Stamina

Back

Tumultuous Cloak
of the Sorcerer
5 Armor
5 Intellect
5 Stamina
5 Haste

of Stamina
5 Armor
10 Stamina

of the Elder
5 Armor
5 Intellect
5 Stamina
5 Spirit

of the Soldier
5 Armor
5 Strength
5 Crit

(A) Caretaker’s Cape / (H) Battle Healer’s Cloak
5 Armor
5 Intellect
5 Stamina
3 Spirit

(A) Stitches’ Stitchings
5 Armor
5 Intellect
7 Stamina

(H) Lushwater Cloak
4 Armor
3 Intellect
3 Stamina
3 Crit

(H) Tranquilien Champion's Cloak

Chest

Tattered Dreadmist Robe
12 Armor
12 Intellect
17 Stamina
12 Crit

(A) Robe of Kelris / (H) Jeneu’s Robes
10 Armor
8 Intellect
13 Stamina
8 Spirit

Noble’s Robe
10 Armor
8 Intellect
8 Stamina
11 Crit

Tree Bark Jacket
10 Armor
13 Intellect
9 Stamina

Gorestained Garb
10 Armor
4 Intellect
15 Haste

Wrist

Crystalline Cuffs (Grandfathered) / Cuffs of Black Elements
4 Armor
5 Intellect
5 Stamina
3 Spirit

Mindthrust Bracers
4 Armor
5 Intellect
4 Stamina
4 Spirit

(A) Hovel Digger Bands
4 Armor
3 Intellect
3 Stamina
3 Haste

Ivycloth Bracelets
of the Eagle

of Stamina

of Intellect
4 Armor
7 Intellect

Hands

Serpent Gloves
6 Armor
8 Intellect
6 Stamina

Gold-Flecked Gloves
5 Armor
8 Intellect
6 Stamina

Magefist Gloves

(A) Gloves of Anguished Cries
6 Armor
4 Intellect
6 Stamina
4 Crit

(H) Red Riding Gloves
6 Armor
6 Intellect
6 Crit

Waist

Ghamoo-Ra’s Bind
5 Armor
9 Stamina
9 Intellect

Girdle of Nobility
5 Armor
10 Intellect
4 Stamina
4 Crit

Enumerated Wrap
of the Sun
5 Armor
6 Intellect
6 Stamina
6 Crit

of the Sorcerer
5 Armor
6 Intellect
6 Stamina
6 Haste

of the Eagle

of Stamina
5 Armor
13 Stamina

of the Vision
5 Armor
9 Intellect
2 Stamina
5 Haste

Keller's Girdle
5 Armor
11 Intellect
4 Stamina

(H) Belt of the Hero

(H) Joanna’s Sash

Legs

Silk-Threaded Trousers
9 Armor
13 Intellect
10 Stamina

Godfrey’s Britches
8 Armor
7 Intellect
10 Stamina
7 Crit

Gaze Dreamer Pants
9 Armor
13 Intellect
7 Stamina
4 Spirit

Darkweave Britches
8 Armor
9 Intellect
5 Stamina
8 Spirit

Leech Pants

Feet

Corpse Rompers
7 Armor
10 Intellect
7 Stamina

(H) Slippers of Unturned Loyalties
6 Armor
4 Intellect
7 Stamina
6 Crit

(H) Conspirator’s Slippers
6 Armor
5 Intellect
5 Stamina
5 Crit

(H) Merger Boots
6 Armor
5 Intellect
5 Stamina
5 Crit

(A) Ablution Slippers

Walking Boots (Grandfathered)

Finger

Seal of Argas
9 Intellect
7 Stamina

Lavishly Jeweled Ring
6 Intellect
4 Crit

(H) Garrosh’s Pardon (Grandfathered) / (H) Ring of Pardons
6 Intellect
6 Stamina

(A) Gloaming Band (Grandfathered)
7 Intellect
5 Stamina

(H) Stillwater’s Signet
3 Intellect
5 Stamina
4 Crit

(A) Ello’s Band
4 Agility
6 Stamina
4 Crit

Stendel’s Wedding Band
7 Crit

(H) Gorka’s Band
4 Stamina
4 Crit

Dread Pirate Ring
6 Stamina
9 Crit
5 Haste

Trinket

(A) Insignia of the Alliance / (H) Insignia of the Horde

(A) Inherited Insignia of the Alliance / (H) Inherited Insignia of the Horde
11 Resilience

Rune of Perfection
5 Stamina
13 Crit

Arena Grand Master
12 Stamina
1032 Absorb

Discerning Eye of the Beast
11 Intellect

Swift Hand of Justice
11 Haste

Inherited Mark of Tyranny
11 Resilience

Weapons

Dignified Headmaster’s Charge
47 - 71 damage (20.34 dps)
13 Intellect
16 Stamina
10 Crit
66 Spell Power

Grand Staff of Jordan
60 - 90 damage (20.27 dps)
17 Stamina
12 Crit
12 Resilience
66 Spell Power

(A) Staff of Justified Sins / (H) Staff of the Left Hand Path
33 - 50 Damage (12.58 dps)
7 Intellect
10 Stamina
7 Critical Strike

(A) Riot Stick
48 - 73 Damage (18.33 dps)
9 Intellect
13 Stamina
9 Crit

Emberstone Staff

(A) Lorekeeper's Staff / (H) Advisor's Gnarled Staff




(H) Wind Rider Wand / (H) Suppressor’s Wand
5 - 10 Nature Damage (4.69 dps)
3 Intellect
3 Stamina
3 Crit

Firebelcher
6 - 11 Fire Damage (5 dps)

Cookie’s Stirring Stick

Cookie's Stirring Rod

(A) Searching Wand

(H) Durak’s Wand
5 - 11 Nature Damage (5 dps)
7 Crit

Thrukk's Fillet Knife
7 - 14 damage (5.83 dps)
5 Intellect
4 Haste

Eerie Stable Lantern
5 Intellect
5 Stamina

Furbolg Medicine Pouch
12 Stamina

Enchants / Item Enhancements
I don’t want to list all of the enchants, as that would be tedious. Here are the best enchants for each slot. And here is a guide to getting these enhancements.

People have been saying that enchants are currently not affecting your stats. This may be a bug or may have to do with the way we upscale. Stay tuned for more info.

Back
+10 Armor
+1 All Resistances (Grandfathered)

Chest
+15 Health

Bracers
+1 Stamina

Weapon
+3 Intellect

Gloves, Legs, Feet
Medium Armor Kit









Archived

Mists of Pandaria:

Keep in mind that in order to hit cap for spells against other level 20s, one needs 12 hit rating. Hit capping is a must, summed up nicely here.
Notes on Gearing
Logical Ways to Hit Cap:
* Indicates the most widely accepted 'end-game' ways to hit cap
% Indicates .04% away from hit cap which, while not ideal, is a common choice

Again, hit capping should be a necessity for every warlock. That being said, a .04% chance to miss against level 20s is about 1 miss in an entire WSG. However, When you add 24s into the mix, numbers change. Consider having gear sets for casual battlegrounds, battlegrounds with an abundance of 24s, and arenas.

As of 5.1, Rune of Perfection was altered to offer 10 hit. This has made hit capping much easier for newer players. It also provides alternative sets for players with other +hit items. Using the trinket requires you only make up 2 more points of hit.

Alliance
Grand Staff of Jordan / Hovel Digger Bands / Lavishly Jeweled Ring*
Rune of Perfection + (GSoJ / Hovel Digger / Lavish / Ello's / Goggles / Staff of Justified Sins) *
Grand Staff of Jordan / Hovel Digger Bands / Ello's Band *
Grand Staff of Jordan / Flying Tiger Goggles %
Staff of Justified Sins / Hovel Digger Bands / Flying Tiger Goggles %
Staff of Justified Sins / Hovel Digger Bands / Lavishly Jeweled Ring / Ello's Band

Horde
Grand Staff of Jordan / Lushwater Cloak / Slippers of Unturned Loyalties *
Grand Staff of Jordan / Lushwater Cloak / Lavishly Jeweled Ring *
Rune of Perfection + (GSoJ / Slippers / Lushwater / Lavish / Goggles / Staff of the Left Hand Path) *
Grand Staff of Jordan / Slippers of Unturned Loyalties %
Grand Staff of Jordan / Flying Tiger Goggles %
Staff of the Left Hand Path / Slippers of Unturned Loyalties / Lavishly Jeweled Ring
Staff of the Left Hand Path / Slippers of Unturned Loyalties / Lushwater Cloak %
Staff of the Left Hand Path / Flying Tiger Goggles / Lavishly Jeweled Ring
Staff of the Left Hand Path / Flying Tiger Goggles / Lushwater Cloak %
Resilience
With MoP, every character in PvP has a 40% baseline resilience. This makes resilience a stat worth stacking, which is something that didn't hold true in Cata. For example, reducing the damage of an incoming attack by 48% will have a much greater impact than by reducing the damage by 11%, as it was in Cata.

With this is mind, it is useful to note that for a fully BiS character, Magician's Mantle is no longer Best in Slot. Now, Exquisite Sunderseer Mantle is the best shoulder piece. If someone wants to check the math, this thread will prove interesting.

That being said, MM is only not BiS if a character has otherwise perfect gear. So if you do not have your Inherited Insignia but do have both shoulders, you should pick MM. In other words, use MM if you are lacking a health pool, but use ESM if you are extremely well geared.

Cataclysm:

Preface
Keep in mind that in order to hit cap for spells against other level 20s, one needs 8 hit rating.

Logical Ways to Hit Cap:
* Indicates the most widely accepted end-game ways to hit cap

Alliance
Grand Staff of Jordan / Hovel Digger Bands*
Grand Staff of Jordan / Lavishly Jeweled Ring
Grand Staff of Jordan / Flying Tiger Goggles
Staff of Justified Sins / Flying Tiger Goggles
Staff of Justified Sins / Lavishly Jeweled Ring
Grand Staff of Jordan / Ello’s Band

Horde
Grand Staff of Jordan / Wind Rider Wand (or Suppressor's)*
Wind Rider (or Suppressor's) / Slippers of Unturned Loyalties / Lavishly Jeweled Ring*
Flying Tiger Goggles / Slippers of Unturned Loyalties
Staff of the Left Hand Path / Flying Tiger Goggles
Staff of the Left Hand Path / Slippers of Unturned Loyalties
Staff of the Left Hand Path / Lavishly Jeweled Ring

Spell Penetration
When fighting Draenei or Undead, a Rune of Perfection is a better trinket choice than even AGM. Additionally, considering most twinks will be using +1 All Resistances to cloak, in a more intense setting (such as arenas) Rune of Perfection is a legitimate “BiS” choice in order to avoid any chance of resistance.

Resilience
Unfortunately, resilience is generally not a stat worth stacking. I will work through the math if people wish me to, but when making a Stamina or FC set Grand Staff of Jordan and Inherited Insignia of the Alliance are the only resilience pieces worth wearing. The stamina on Magician’s Mantle outweighs the resilience on Exquisite Sunderseer Mantle. In my opinion, Exquisite Sunderseer Mantle is, in turn, an “in between bis” item – certainly not bad but not the best – neither putting out the damage of Tattered Dreadmist Mantle nor providing the survivability of Magician’s Mantle

 

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PvP Suggestions
Instead of giving a rundown on how to 1v1 certain classes (because 1v1 in f2p is so unbalanced), I wanted to gather general tips and suggestions for playing a warlock.

General
Warlocks excel at controlling a battlefield. It is your duty to fear enemy healers or to use fear to peel off DPS harming your own healers. Using a fear is often more beneficial than inflicting damage. When a huntard is barreling down on your FC, dotting him up won’t do much, while fearing him and allowing your FC precious moments to escape will. Similarly, fear can cut someone out of the equation. If the enemy team is turtling with a healer and you zerg them, fear the healer so that (s)he can’t just comfortably sit back and keep all of the turtlers alive.
That being said, be careful when you use fear and who you use it on. It’s an interesting form of CC. A bit unreliable, fear will often break on damage. Don’t use it on someone who is getting pounded by the entire team unless your intent is to interrupt their spellcasting (which is another nice trick of a well-timed fear). Additionally, if you fear someone while all of your dots are on them, the fear will break short. If you want to get the full time out of fear, use it on someone receiving no damage. You can definitely make up the damage in the time that they are CCd.

A huge part of PvP is knowing what your enemy is capable of doing. Do yourself a favor, research the other classes (or just practice in-game) so that you know how to fight them well. For example, you should know that a Druid's Starfire has a 3s cast time, so that if you start casting fear quickly enough after they start casting you can interrupt it. Similarly, you can usually expect certain classes to start healing themselves when they reach a certain point in their health. You can fear a Priest's Flash Heal preemptively if you time it well. Also, you should know that while Rogues have Kick, Warriors typically don't have a silence or interrupt ability, which means that you can cast fear when they’re on you without worry.

The interrupts that people have access to in this bracket are:
Rogue - Kick
Rogue - Sap (only if you are out of combat)
Druid - Wild Charge (talent, daze in feral form)
28+ Balance Druids - Solar Beam
Paladin - Hammer of Justice
Protection Paladin - Avenger's Shield and Holy Wrath when in Metamorphosis
Priest - Holy Word: Chastise
Mage - Polymorph
Mage - Counterspell
Shaman - Wind Shear
Warrior - Warbringer (talent)
Warlock - Fear (hopefully you guessed this one)
Windwalker Monk - Fists of Fury
Blood Elf - Arcane Torrent
Tauren - War Stomp
Pandaren - Quaking Palm
Engineers - Rough Copper Bomb

Keep in mind, the list above is comprehensive. Many of the interrupts listed are very rarely run — this is just helpful information to have. For the most part, the most dangerous and most common interrupts to look out for are Kick, Hammer of Justice, Wind Shear, and Fear.

Use line of sight to your advantage. This is a real game changer as you can avoid incoming damage and CC while still inflicting dot damage. A good player becomes a great player when they utilize line of sight mechanics.

Always keep in mind your positioning relative to your teammates, enemies, and environment. If you continually charge into a group of 4, don’t expect to win. Try to enter even matches. If you are the one being attacked, try to move the enemies to a more friendly area, whether that be closer to a mage who can poly, a healer who can top you off, or a spot to get behind line of sight with.

Kite. While Hand of Gul'dan and Conflagrate are the only slow abilities, you can often make up ground during fears. Your dots will do work, refresh them while you reposition so you can avoid incoming melee damage. Unless you are in a position to do so, standing still and free casting can often get you killed.

Fake casting. Very difficult to do, even harder to master. In this bracket, I tend not to fake cast on an enemy before I know whether or not they use their silences. Too many rogues do not kick. When you face the ones that do, if you begin to cast and then stop casting and they use their kick on you (same with mages and so on), they will have effectively missed the silence and your spells of that tree will not be locked out. Fake casting can mean the difference between life and death, but is again very difficult to do. Worth the time spent practicing!

Get a dot on enemy rogues/druids before they can stealth. Putting the dot up also puts you in combat, disallowing you from being sapped.

Affliction
Typically, you'll want to stand far away from the action, somewhat hidden or defended by teammates. You'll spend your casting time fearing and keeping UA and corruption up on as many targets as possible. In big groups, they tick away faster than one would expect, so be mindful!

Keep UA on targets that are being healbotted or on healers. Can not emphasize this enough. Considering there aren't many Aff locks in the bracket, and that someone's immediate reaction to receiving a dispellable debuff is to... dispel it... you can wreak havoc against an inexperienced healer.

Inexperienced healers aside, keeping UA on critical targets is a huge asset to your team. It allows your team's mage to keep a frostbolt on that target, for example, as the enemy healer will typically be too afraid to be silenced for 4 seconds to dispel your UA. The classes that can dispel UA in this bracket are Holy Paladins, Mistweaver Monks, Restoration Shamans, 22+ Restoration Druids, and 22+ Holy/Disc Priests. Keep this in mind as you use it.

Demonology
While you'll want to have a similar mindset for positioning as Aff, Demo is a much more mobile build.

Play around a lot with Demonic Leap. On a 10s cooldown, you can feel comfortable using this spell all the time. It is a great way to get some distance as well as close gaps. One can also use it to leap out of line of sight of a spell, either behind a structure or behind the player. Additionally, timing it right can negate falling damage. Finally - you can dramatically jump off of LM and survive the fall! The mechanic for the leap is a bit strange (Some people have even reported it not triggering a cooldown occasionally), so get a lot of practice. Combine it with goblin rocket jump for some major distance.

Get comfortable going in and out of Metamorphosis. You should feel comfortable going into Meta for even just a single Chaos Wave, if the situation permits. Remember to cancel your form when it is no longer necessary, so as to save as much Demonic Fury as possible.

Remember that when in Meta, summoning a demon is instant cast. And it costs 200 Demonic Fury, so you can enter meta, switch demons, and continue on your merry way. This is a fantastic way to switch to Succubus to Seduce somebody.

Keep an eye on your Demonic Fury bar, and know how much your spells cost in Meta. For example, don't expect to Demonic Leap > Chaos Wave > Summon Succubus unless you have an appropriate amount of Fury. Figure out which spells net you a lot of the resource; with WoD, it is harder to keep up Demonic Fury than it has been in the past, making the ability to manage your fury even more important.

Hand of Gul'dan hits multiple targets at once, in a 6 yard radius - so it's great for slowing a bottlenecked team at a tunnel entrance. However, you can also double the Shadowflame dot ticks and immobilize the target when you hit the same target with Hand of Gul'dan twice. In fact, if you time it well enough you can get the first Shadowflame to do all of its ticks and THEN apply the second - worth practicing to optimize your slow and damage dealt.

Destruction
As with the other two specs, positioning is of the utmost importance. With less defensive utilities available to you, making sure you can avoid damage through superior positioning is what determines your survivability. Also, the better placed you are, the more free you are to drop Chaos Bolts left and right.

Try to save your Burning Embers and Chaos Bolts for the right situations. The resource doesn't fill all that quickly, so making sure you can hold on to it for the right moments is key.

Remember that the slow from Conflagrate only procs when the target is suffering from Immolate. Utilize this to kite effectively!



Archived

Mists of Pandaria:

Affliction
Use Soulburn mainly to switch your summoned demon. For example, if a rogue jumps you, you can switch quickly to your Voidwalker and Disarm them, disallowing them from finishing you off.

However, don't be afraid to use it before casting Drain Life / Harvest Life. In perfect circumstances (a 3 person Harvest Life), it will do 6% healing every second, up from 4.5%.

Use Drain Soul as a finisher of sorts. You should generally only use it when an enemy is below 20% health and when you have UA and corruption on the target. With this method, Affliction is surprisingly good at claiming kills, as on the first tick you will deal around 200+ damage.

Cataclysm:

Warlocks excel at controlling a battlefield. It is your duty to fear enemy healers or to use fear to peel off DPS harming your own healers. Using a fear is often more beneficial than inflicting damage. When a huntard is barreling down on your FC, dotting him up won’t do much, while fearing him and allowing your FC precious moments to escape will. Similarly, fear can cut someone out of the equation. If the enemy team is turtling with a healer and you zerg them, fear the healer so that (s)he can’t just comfortably sit back and keep all of the turtlers alive.
That being said, be careful when you use fear and who you use it on. It’s an interesting form of CC. A bit unreliable, fear will often break on damage. Don’t use it on someone who is getting pounded by the entire team unless your intent is to interrupt their spellcasting (which is another nice trick of a well-timed fear). Additionally, if you fear someone while all of your dots are on them, the fear will break short. If you want to get the full time out of fear, use it on someone receiving no damage. You can definitely make up the damage in the time that they are CCd.

A huge part of PvP is knowing what your enemy is capable of doing. Do yourself a favor, research the other classes (or just practice in-game) so that you know how to fight them well. For example, you should know that a Paladin’s Holy Light has a 3s cast time, so that if you start casting fear quickly enough after they start casting you can interrupt it. Similarly, you can usually expect certain classes to start healing themselves when they reach a certain point in their health. You can fear a Priest's Flash Heal preemptively if you time it well. Also, you should know that while Rogues have Kick, neither Warriors (typically) nor Feral Druids have a silence or interrupt ability, which means that you can cast fear when they’re on you without worry.

Use line of sight to your advantage. This is a real game changer as you can avoid incoming damage and CC while still inflicting dot damage. A good player becomes a great player when they utilize line of sight mechanics.

Always keep in mind your positioning relative to your teammates, enemies, and environment. If you continually charge into a group of 4, don’t expect to win. Try to enter even matches. If you are the one being attacked, try to move the enemies to a more friendly area, whether that be closer to a mage who can poly, a healer who can top you off, or a spot to get behind line of sight with.

Kite. While Aftermath is the only slow ability, you can often make up ground during fears. Your dots will do work, refresh them while you reposition so you can avoid incoming melee damage. Unless you are in a position to do so, standing still and free casting can often get you killed.

Practice timing your damage to get the best burst possible. Any warlock can Soul Fire > Soulburn > Soul Fire to burst. The good ones also match it up with a Bane of Doom tick, or can do it on an enemy when they are low enough to actually be killed. There are far too many warlocks who Soulburn > Soulfire on a Holy Paladin with 80% health who is currently healing up.

Fake casting. Very difficult to do, even harder to master. In this bracket, I tend not to fake cast on an enemy before I know whether or not they use their silences. Too many rogues do not kick. When you face the ones that do, if you begin to cast and then stop casting and they use their kick on you (same with mages and so on), they will have effectively missed the silence and your spells of that tree will not be locked out. Fake casting can mean the difference between life and death, but is again very difficult to do. Worth the time spent practicing!

On a similar note, you can attempt to intentionally lock out a specific spell tree. If you're fighting a rogue that just simply is great at kicking at the right time, you could consider going straight for a Soul Fire. More often than not, they will kick you, as letting a Soul Fire hit is painful. With their kick on cooldown and only your fire spells locked out you are able to more freely cast shadow tree spells, such as Fear. This is a particularly nice tool for Affliction warlocks as most of their spells are shadow. Consider your spells and know which tree they are in so that you can intentionally lock out a tree, wasting an enemy's silence.

Always have Soul Link active.

Use Bane of Doom to pressure enemies. I mentioned it a bit in the Spells section, but considering it’s on an enemy for 1 minute, it’s easy to always keep it on at least someone. Put it on crucial enemy targets. Or, just be a jerk and only put it on Hunters and 24s.

After a fight and when you have a second to recover, use Life Tap to recover mana and then Soul Harvest to recover any lost health or Soul Shards.

Get a dot on enemy warriors before they can charge you, or rogues/druids before they can stealth. Putting the dot up also puts you in combat, disallowing you from being sapped.

Curse of Weakness also puts you and your target into combat, if you plan on fearing the target and are afraid of damage breaking the fear.

Rain of Fire can be used to get rogues and druids out of stealth. Alternatively, use it on a small space to stop people from entering (such as tunnel entrance). Even further, use it around corners to keep enemies in combat when they are out of line of sight, such as behind the boxes in the Dalaran Arena.

A note on Hunters: A well-geared lock is not hopelessly lost against even a decent hunter. You are capable of inflicting enough damage, while also avoiding theirs. Soul Link makes this possible. In my experience, if I can survive the first 15s I need to wait before Bane of Doom hits, I’ve often won. In the meantime I’ve got an Immo and Corruption active, eating up their health. I try to time my fear>soulfire>soulburn>soulfire>conflagrate to match the 15s of Bane of Doom. Most don’t know what hit them.

 

[rsq]

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Macros, Addons, and Consumables
Macros
Some Warlock-specific macros that can help maximize your play.

/petattack

Self-explanatory.

/petfollow

It’s pretty obvious what this does. You can add a /petpassive to the second line if you don’t already keep your pet on passive.

#showtooltip Move To(Pet Command)
/click PetActionButton3

Moves your pet to the desired location. Useful for keeping your pet where you need it and/or causing an enemy to have to decide between you and your pet.

/use healthstone
/use healing potion

Uses both at once. Makes for some decent healing!

#showtooltip Fear
/cast Fear
/petfollow

Stops your pet from breaking fears.


For a more complex version of that macro…

#showtooltip
/use Fear
/stopmacro [@target,noharm]
/tar YOUR_NAME
/targetlasttarget
/assist NAME_OF_VOIDWALKER
/assist NAME_OF_IMP
/targetlasttarget
/stopmacro [@target,harm]
/targetlastenemy
/petpassive

Stops your pet from breaking fear by putting it on passive if you are fearing the same target it is attacking. However, your pet does not go on passive if you are fearing a different target than it is attacking. Thanks to Pinochet for this gem of a macro.

#showtooltip Seduction
/cast [pet:succubus] Seduction

The only way you can have complete control over your Succubus' cc. Remember to turn off auto-cast in the pet spellbook.

/cast [pet: succubus] Lash of Pain

GIves you control over your pet Succubus' burst. Really helpful for when you just need a little more damage.

/cast [nochannelingrain Life] Drain Life

Recasts Drain Life when it is finished with its current drain.

/cast [mod:alt] Dark Regeneration; Healthstone

Puts your talent and your consumable on the same key. Can replace the modifier with any of your choosing.

Demo Specific Macros
Some macros to help move quickly out of Meta form.

/cancelaura Metamorphosis
/cast Corruption

/cancelaura Metamorphosis
/cast Hand of Gul'dan

Addons
If you're on Twinkinfo, it's safe to assume you know about the F2P Addon, but just in case —
Yasueh's F2P Addon, which has made it possible for the f2p community to exist. An absolute requirement and a simply brilliant addon.

Some general addons that help in PvP. For a full list of unrelated addons, check out Imbao’s thread

BattlegroundTargets – for general BG use
Capping – for general BG use
Cooldown Count – To watch CDs carefully
OmniCC – Same thing as Cooldown Count
Gladius – for general arena use
Icicle – View enemy cooldowns
Last Second – VERY USEFUL - to carefully watch your diminishing returns on fear.
Recount – Besides helping your epeen, you can tell which spells are doing what
SaySapped – Self-explanatory

For chest farming
GatherMate2/GatherMate2Data – (more here and here)

Consumables
For a comprehensive guide to consumables, check out Solvogero’s guides:
All About Consumables
Farmed Consumables

This is that list, reduced to the common, the best, Warlock-appropriate, or comfortably attainable items.

Weapon Enchants
Minor Wizard Oil

Food Buffs (Only one can be active)
Rumsey Rum Dark
Rumsey Rum Black Label
Halaani Whiskey

Guardian Elixirs (Only one can be active)
Elixir of Minor Fortitude (42 with Mixology)
Scroll of Stamina II

Battle Elixirs (Only one can be active)
Scroll of Intellect II
Elixir of Wisdom (11 with Mixology)

Potions (Share cooldowns)
Healthstone (Does NOT share a cooldown!)
Healing Potion (Farm these in Stocks!)
Lesser Mana Potion
Swiftness Potion

First Aid
Heavy Silk Bandage
Mageweave Bandage
Anti-Venom (difficult to farm, especially as Horde, but useful for escaping Rogues)

Misc.
Chipped Power Core
Cracked Power Core
Battle Standard (shares cooldown with Power Core)
Bloodthistle (Blood Elf only) (Can get without Herbalism with Saltheril’s Haven Party Invitation)
(A) Irradiated Crystals
Condensed Mana Powder

 

[rsq]

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Conclusion

Thanks to all of TI, AP, and Yasueh for establishing and supporting such a fantastic community and encouraging me to roll a warlock as well as write this guide. Hopefully it will be of use. Thanks also to all of the writers of the other guides or film-makers I referenced: Deadvulcano, Yde, Dorigon, Pinochet, Rhaellia, DubbsBegins, Hue, Kore nametooshort, Imbao, Solvogero.

Hopefully this guide will encourage others in creating warlocks and getting to experience the master class

If anyone has any suggestions, additional information, useful links, or criticism, feel free to comment. This guide should be a work in progress, so please contribute to make it better!

 

[Yde]

1. Awesome!

2. Now I will actually read and then edit in my reply. <3



EDIT:

3. Awesome!

4. If i had any more time I'd be gearing a lock right now. ^^

5. Awesome!

6. The PvP Tips (and the whole guide) are a great read. Love the Spell discussion, macro and addon section, and the entire layout!



EDIT 2:

7. Okay I read it again and I'm in still love with the colours and layout! And the index linking to each section. Wish I had thought to do that for the FAQ!
And I love that you linked imbao's addon thread!

 

[Hue]

Amazing guide

ahh darn that Yde for beating me to the post lol

 

[Klinda]

Pretty nice guide, keep up the good work

 

[Nariel]

I think that serpentis gloves(5sta, 4int, 4spi) is better than seprent gloves(4 sta, 6 int). You lose only 2 int, but gains 1 sta and 4 spi (not imortant). What do you think?

 

[Broken]

I think that serpentis gloves(5sta, 4int, 4spi) is better than seprent gloves(4 sta, 6 int). You lose only 2 int, but gains 1 sta and 4 spi (not imortant). What do you think?

Serpentis Gloves is a leather item. Warlocks can't wear it.


But excellent guide, rsq. Loved it. I was actually planning on making a new character and I think it'll be a warlock now!

Keep it up and well done!



EDIT: Make sure to get this guide validated! This deserves to be in the proper guide section!

 

[DubbsBegins]

Awesome guide. For some reason, Dwarf Demonology warlcok with full resilience and stamina gear imagination got me excited for a second.

Is that over 60% melee dmg reduction? With almost 2k health? Now that could pwn hard

 

[Nariel]

Serpentis Gloves is a leather item. Warlocks can't wear it.


But excellent guide, rsq. Loved it. I was actually planning on making a new character and I think it'll be a warlock now!

Keep it up and well done!



EDIT: Make sure to get this guide validated! This deserves to be in the proper guide section!

oh, ye, my fault

 

[Mialo]

One of the best and most thorough guides I've seen/read so far on TI!

 

[kwatee]

Ty for putting up Deleted .... nice to know my work is worthy lol ....

 

[solvogero]

hrere's another cloak Tranquillien Champion's Cloak - Item - World of Warcraft for Horde until they get the +8 stam

 

[solvogero]

also on the power cores... Cracked Power Core - Item - World of Warcraft is unique also, but different than the chipped core. if you're going to farm one, you should get both while you're at it.

...on that same note, Condensed Mana Powder is also in Ghostlands...and these aren't unique so you can farm up plenty.

I don't get up there very often, but when I do go to Ghostlands, I farm up all three consumables. All three are on the same cooldown, but the powder is a nice backup that gives you an extra cast or two when you've already used up your cores....for those admittedly rare instances when you actually go OOM in a BG and would rather not lifetap.


nice guide​

 

[rsq]

Thanks for all the replies everyone!

I don't get up there very often, but when I do go to Ghostlands, I farm up all three consumables. All three are on the same cooldown, but the powder is a nice backup that gives you an extra cast or two when you've already used up your cores....for those admittedly rare instances when you actually go OOM in a BG and would rather not lifetap.​

Good point, it definitely makes sense to get all three if you're going to make the trip in the first place. Added the others



Edit: After testing (wanted to see for myself!), added in Tentacleman's point about Soul Siphon and Jinx. Drain Life does NOT improve healing received when talented, despite how deceptive the wording is. Thanks for the really great piece of information!