"Please be aware that Blizzard does not offer support for any customized user interface modifications. Before speaking to a Game Master in-game, please
be sure to uninstall any User Interface modifications." (from the Policies section of the main website, I include this so you know you can't page a GM
over a bug with a mod). http://www.curse-gaming.com/mod.php?sectid=21 - Warlock Mods & Addons
To use an addon, open My Computer, then open the C: drive, then open Program Files, then World of Warcraft, then Interface, and finally the Addon
folder. Download the addon and drag and drop it into this folder.
"Warlocks were mages that delved too deeply into the roots of demonic power. Consumed by a lust for dark knowledge, they've tapped into chaotic magic from beyond the world. The Burning Legion now feeds them its powers, allowing them to channel destructive energies and call upon the powerful emissaries of their demon masters." (Quoted from Blizzard)
As Warlocks we will play differently in different situations, not to mention the great variety of play styles that the different talent builds will give us (explained in Talent Guide). There are, however, a few common themes that people look for when choosing a warlock for their group.
In PvE you'll find yourself striving for efficiency in combat. Careful use of Drain Life and Lifetap can ensure that you are always at or near full health and mana at the end of each fight, which reduces your downtime to zero. While the Voidwalker is generally the best pet for this, some talent builds will allow you to use other pets and drain tank for high efficiency.
In PvE group combat, you're going to be focused on utility and damage. Warlocks are loved in instances for their soulstones, which can revive the priest (and therefore the entire party) after a complete wipe and for our ability to banish the elementals found in the Molten Core. On top of that our imp, succubus, and felhunter step up to the plate as great assets to the group with the imp providing his health buff to everyone in our party, the succubus with her ability to seduce humanoids, and the felhunter with devour magic to remove negative magical effects and spell lock to interrupt enemy casters. On top of all that utility, warlocks can be formidable damage dealers with ranged nukes in the 1000-2500 range.
It is in PvP that our variety starts to play its biggest part. Our talent builds will make us range from ferocious damage dealers to highly defensive tanks. It is in PvP that claims are never made as to the playstyle you expect in a warlock.
There are some frustrations you will also inherit as a warlock. First and foremost are Soul Shards. These are reagents used in many of our spells, including almost all of the utility spells that raid/groupmates will ask us to cast (Ritual of Summoning, Healthstones, Soulstones, ect). The only way to get these shards will be to farm them off of enemies that grant xp or are honorable kills. This becomes a heavy burden when it takes a lot of time farming the shards since you'll need many, and inventory space since they do not stack.
Although this burden has been eased somewhat by Blizzard (see Patch Notes), it is still our chief frustration in the eyes of many. Another frustration is what some perceive to be a lack of defensive spells. While some will say that we have all the defensive spells we need, there are others who say we are the cloth wearing class that is most open to attacks.
There are a few main cookie cutter builds, and a few gimmik builds. Warlocks are blessed with tons of viable variation in their talents, so you'll have to find the niche that best suits you. All builds will have a few variations where people pick up this or drop that, so these are just samples. That being said...
(After each build description you'll find a list of Questionable Use talents.
These are talent points spent that either are made irrelevant by the purpose of the build, have no significant use, or are thought to be either of these things by many people.)
• Heavy Affliction-Dark Pact
This is hailed as the leveling build. Your DoTs will be very effective, you can drain tank for added damage, and your voidwalker will hold agro like a champ.
This build also features Dark Pact, which is handy in raid and group situations when you can afford to use different demons (especially the Imp) to suppliment your mana and avoid downtime altogether. Questionable Use: None
• Heavy Demonology-Soul Link
This is great for survival. If you want to be hard as nails to kill and you like demons, this is the build for you. For absolute survival, pull a voidwalker out with soul link on it to mitigate 40% of incoming damage, which you can sack for a 2000 shield (twice). The ability to add to your health through drain tanking is really useful here since your health is so hard for an enemy to take away.
Questionable Use: Fel Stamina, Unholy Power, Demonic Sacrafice
• Heavy Destruction-Conflag
This is easily our most damaging spec. This spec is very much PvP oriented as being highly damaging is bad for agro reasons in PvE as well as fire damage not being as helpful in end-game instances. Questionable Use: None
• Nightfall/Conflag
This is a split shadow/fire build. It has no problem putting out damage, and when one class of spells is interrupted it can switch to the other. As nightfall is a cornerstone in this build, you'll want to land Corruption right out of the gate in a fight. Questionable Use: None
• SM/Ruin
This is a very balanced build. For PvP you'll do good damage with shadowbolts and your DoTs. For PvE you are doing shadow damage, which is effective in end-game instances. Some say that this build is somewhat dependant on +damage gear. Questionable Use: None
• SM/DS
This build is demonless. This makes it extremely shard efficient, since you'll only need a new pet every 30 minutes or when you die. Your damage potential is very high as you can sack a succubus for the biggest percent gains to shadow from talents available in any of the builds. The major drawback of this build is it's wasted talents. 10 talent points are spent buffing up your pets so that you have the points necessary to get Demonic Sacrafice, but you'll rarely have the pets out to enjoy their buffs. Questionable Use: Improved Imp, Improved Voidwalker, Fel Stamina
• MD/Ruin
This build is a sort of variation from the SM/Ruin build. While many do use the voidwalker sacrafice, this build allows you to sacrafice the succubus and then have her rezzed (or rez her yourself if you have jumper cables) and keep the
+15% buff from sacking her. Essentially what you trade from SM/Ruin is the added DoT damage from Affliction and the choice of pet when using the succubus trick in exchange for added survivability (you are a demonology build) and pet utility. Questionable Use: None
• Imp
This demon does not require a shard, grants boosted stamina to all groupmates, has moderate damage (awesome damage with improved firebolt), and has
awesome regeneration rates (making him ideal for Dark Pact users). His main drawback is his low health. Anything that casts AoEs will toast the little
guy, and regardless of him being your first demon his mana cost is still staggering.
• Voidwalker
This guy is a tank. He has the highest stamina and armor of all the pets, a strong taunt, and can be sacked for a damage shield (which is dispellable).
At higher levels he may have problems holding agro from us, but a few points in Improved Voidwalker will remedy that. He also serves a PvP role for
Demonology warlocks as his sacrafice buff (3% of total health every 4 seconds) is phenomenol, and he adds a lot to damage mitigation with soul link and
his demonology buff.
• Succubus
This pet has a dual use. Very reasonable damage is used sometimes in drain tanking for PvE purposes and her seduce ability is golden in PvP (she can
charm any humanoid for a small duration).
• Felhunter
This is our anti-caster pet. He has spell lock (interrupt and silence), devour magic (dispell), and high resistances to all schools of magic. This pet
is often used as a wingman in Warsong Gultch as his devour magic spell can remove almost all snare effects on the flag runner (the hunter ice block
trap, a mage's cone of cold, the druid root, a priest's mind control, ect).
• Infernal and Doomguard
These pets are acquired through special quests (see Useful Warlock Links) and are not worth the effort at this time. The Infernal cannot be used in
instances, and the doomguard requires the sacrafice of one of the people who help to summon him. On top of this, these pets will not remain under your
control and will periodically break free to attack you and your party. If you do insist on using these pets, keep in mind that Curse of Shadows will
decrease their resistance to Enslave Demon.
As a warlock, your main stat will be Stamina. Second to that you'll want intellect. A distant third is spirit, and all other stats are basically
useless.
Another major factor you'll want in gear is bonuses to spell damage. This is huge for us as with a good gear loadout and a talent spec focused on
damage, we can really put the hurt on our enemies.
Many people ask about this, so I'll include it in the guide. The short answer is that damage gear is almost always better than critical hit chance,
regardless of your talent specialization.
Since gear isn't changed in between shots in combat, you are looking for overall benefits. As such you'll want to look at the added damage per
shadowbolt from each of these types of bonuses. The easiest way to show this is to do an example. We'll compare 30 shadow damage to 2% critical hit
chance.
Assuming you have Ruin, then a critical hit will give you 200% of the base damage. Since 2% crit chance is making this happen 2% more often, then your
average bonus per shadowbolt is 2% of the ADDED damage which is 1% of the total (2 is 1% of 200).
Damage gear gives you roughly 85% of the number to each shadowbolt (see Damage Gear in the FAQ). So each shadowbolt will get 25 extra damage.
For these two bonuses to be equal, then 25 would have to be 1% of the total critical hit damage or 2500. So whenever your critical hits from
shadowbolts are under 2500, the +25 gives you a better bonus. This is without even considering that your DoTs will benefit from the added damage, but
not from added critical hit chance.
If you wish to figure out these calculations when you have some damage gear and some crit gear, simply compare the difference in spell damages to the difference in crit percentages for each loadout. For example, if you're deciding between a loadout with 200 shadow damage and 6% chance to crit and a loadout with 300 shadow damage and 3% chance to crit you would redo this calculation using 100 spell damage vs. 3% to crit (100x0.85 divided by 0.03/2, or 5,667 as the point where these bonuses are equal). If you are not using Ruin, then divide the percentage by 3 instead of two (such that the calculation would be 100x0.85 divided by 0.03/3, or 8500 in our example). For spells other than shadowbolt, use the formula provided in the FAQ to find what percentage of the spell damage will play a role in actual damages.
8) Resistances and Percent Chance to Hit with Spells
If your target is the same level as you, a spell has a base chance to hit of 96%.
If the target is +1 level compared to you: 95%
+2 levels: 94%
+3 levels: 83% if the target is a mob, 87% if the target is a player.
+4 levels: mob: 72% player: 80%
+5 levels: mob: 61% player: 73%
Etc...
If you wear a +1% spell hit chance item, the above percentages will increase by 1. +2% gives +2.
Etc...
For binary spells only, there is an additional modifier for the resistance of the victim to your particular spell school: fire, frost, shadow, nature,
arcane. That modifier is multiplied by your hit chance to get your actual chance to land. This is done with binary spells only, because they never do
partial damage.
Example:
Eyonix the Mage (level 60) fires a frost bolt at Yeti of Doom (level 63). Eyonix is also wearing a total of +6% spell hit gear. Yeti of Doom has frost
resistance such that he takes 50% from level 60 frost attacks. So, here’s the hit calculation:
0.83 (83% for +3 levels mob) + 0.06 (+6% spell hit) = 0.89
0.89*0.5 (50% damage from frost) = 0.445.
The game will roll a number between 0 and 1, and if it’s less than 0.445, the frost bolt will hit for full damage. Otherwise, a resist message will
appear.
2nd Example:
After the resist, Eyonix decides to fire a fireball at Yeti of Doom. Eyonix still has +6% spell hit. Fireball is not a binary spell. Here’s the
calculation:
0.83+0.06= 0.89
The game will roll a number between 0 and 1, and if its less than 0.89, the fireball will hit. Otherwise, a resist message will appear. After the
fireball lands, the game will then apply spell resistance to determine a partial resist, if any. Assuming the yeti also has 50% fire resistance, on
average, 50% of the damage will be resisted. (quoted from Eyonix as per another poster)
• Can I be interrupted with a voidwalker shield on?
Yes and no. You can't be interrupted by damage, because it is all being absorbed, but you can be interrupted by interrupt abilities (like a rogue's
kick).
• What is meant when people type 11/31/8, 31/21/0, ect?
This is a way of saying what talent build you are using. It is the number of talents put into Affliction/Demonology/Destruction, in that order.
Frequently people will leave out any zeroes, and for those you just have to guess.
• Why do my fears seem to never last very long?
Diminishing returns were added to the game such that the Succubus Seduce and/or your fear can only really be used on a player 3 times before it's
completely ineffective. Also damage breaks fear, and whatever you are fighting likely has DoTs on them.
• What is Drain Tanking?
This is using Drain Life in conjunction with all of your other DoTs to hold agro off of your pet while it is free to continue to do damage. This is
next to impossible without Fel Concentration from the Affliction talent tree.
• How much damage does my +damage give?
The calculation is Casting Time divided by 3.5 times the amount of damage added. So on a 3 second shadowbolt, +90 damage will add 90x(3/3.5) or 77.
Instant cast spells use a 1.5s casting time for this calculation, and therefore get 42% of the damage modifier. These casting times are the base time
of the spell, before talents or nightfall procs.
DoTs are calculated differently. They get the full 100% benefit from +damage gear divided between each tick of the dot.
• What is the best race for warlock?
You will play the race that you start out with all the way to 60, choose the one you think looks the coolest or fulfills any RP reasons you might have. That being said, Undead has Cannibalism (regen 35% of your health over 10 seconds) which does wonders with lifetap (not to mention Will of the Forsaken to break
fear) and would be my choice. For the alliance, the gnome is the way to go. We need to stay at range, and their ability to get out of snares/roots is useful as is their increased intelligence.
If you do want to go with one of the other playable races, you'll enjoy +5% to pet damage and +25% stun resistance (good against rogues) as an Orc or Perception (also good for detecting rogues), +5% bonuses to Spirit, and +10% bonus to faction gain as a human.
Ultimately I chose Undead/Gnome over Orc/Human due to the Orc/Human traits being defensive against a single class (Rogues) while Undead/Gnomes bonuses are geared towards more classes (anyone who uses fear, sheep, snares, or roots).
• Should I use a staff or a sword?
This depends entirely on the gear you have available. Keep in mind that staves are two-handed, and will not let you use a spell stone for the added
critical hit bonus.
• What professions should I get?
Alchemy/Herbalism, Tailoring, and Engineering give the best bonuses that are usable by our class. You should, however, choose the one you'll have the
most fun with. Definately don't pass up First Aid, as it works wonders with lifetap.
• Is Nightfall useless (4% seems like a small number)?
Definately not. Those who have nightfall praise it as a very useful talent, and here's the math to back it up.
The probability of an event happening is equal to 1 minus the probability of it not happening. In this case we can find out the probability of having nightfall process once in the duration of Corruption or Drain Life. There are
6 ticks in a corruption cast, and 5 in a Drain Life (nightfall has a chance to process per tick), so the chance of getting nightfall to process in a single drain life cast is 1-(0.96x0.96x0.96x0.96x0.96) or 18.5% and for Corruption it is 21.7%. This means you should expect nightfall to process once in every 4-6 castings of these spells.
This is reserved for people who add to this guide.
• Chiron of Kilrogg (Primary Author and Content Moderator)
• Xanj of Alleria (Site Publisher)
• Dajir of Gurubashi (The MD/Ruin build)
• Coronalight of Shattered Hand (The alliance portion of the leveling guide)
• Aladine of Dragonblight (+damage calculation for instant spells)
• Aenon of Stormreaver (The Nightfall/Conflag build)
• Eyonix of Blizzard (Resistance information)
• Emoroan of Nathrezim (Additional Warlock links)
-11/12/05 Added BML Formatting for easy reading, What is Drain Tanking? to the FAQ, and the Class Roles section.
-11/13/05 Added the MD/Ruin build to the talent guide and gave credit to Dajir, Added a leveling guide, and gave credit to Coronalight for the alliance
portion, Added a demon guide, Alphabatized the Abbreviations section, Added the calculation for +damage gear on instant spells with credit to Aladine,
Added the Nightfall/Conflag build with credit to Aenon, added a link to player videos in section 1, added Resistances section.
-11/14/05 Expanded the Class Role and Equipment sections, re-organized the sections, added calculations in Damage Gear vs Crit Gear for comparing loadouts with some of both of these and for instances when Ruin is not a factor. Guide published and credit given to Xanj. Added "Back To Top" Links for easier navigation. Added Contact Us section.
-11/15/05 Added "Is Nightfall useless?" to the FAQ section. Added additional racial information to "What is the best race for warlock?" FAQ. Added Warlock Patch History section. Made leveling guide 51-60 more accurate. Various links added to Useful Warlock Links with credit to Emoroan. Content added to Class Role and Talent Guide sections. Reworded the Heavy Affliction build to be less confusing.
-11/28/05 Changed last paragraph of Class Role section, added Felwood to leveling guide, and added SS to abbreviations.
"Warlocks were mages that delved too deeply into the roots of demonic power. Consumed by a lust for dark knowledge, they've tapped into chaotic magic from beyond the world. The Burning Legion now feeds them its powers, allowing them to channel destructive energies and call upon the powerful emissaries of their demon masters." (Quoted from Blizzard)
Another major factor you'll want in gear is bonuses to spell damage. This is huge for us as with a good gear loadout and a talent spec focused on
damage, we can really put the hurt on our enemies.
