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Well in the previous post I spoke on in general things to keep in mind, fight choreography, etc. This post I'll give you more group related advice.
Sidenote: Some groups suck, you can't help it and neither can I. Some healers suck, same problem as groups in general. Don't sweat it, when things go wrong, just minimize your mistakes as much as possible. Spend some time talking to the healer, as a lock you don't really NEED healing, probably ever. So let them know that. If you are a hellfire freak like me and like to do that, let them know. A bubble and some HoT's make your hellfire a knockout punch for at least 5 mobs.
Sidenote #2: As soon as you start doing instance runs regularly, get Omen. Omen is a threat meter, and it isn't 100%, but it stays close for me.. roughly 90% of the time if I overcome someones aggro on a target.. it comes to kill me. As you can do a LOT of things, this is important cause while most people in the group need to focus on just 1 mob at a time, you can be a collective force on all mobs being engaged at the time. Gone poorly, this means 3 guys run at you while the tank continues to keep the initial guy busy. Only too late do they find out the lock is dead.
Instances with runaways:
Now this is really a tough call, cause new people will not know what instances have "runners". This is a major concern for all groups as the runners come back with "friends". We can solve that.. Curse of Recklessness (CoR). Try to do this as close to their "time to run" life point as possible. I'd say depending on the groups speed burning down the mob, adjust to the last 3 hits or so. Most people go for rank one to keep them in place, a note I'll throw in for free is.. if you have a rogue.. use the highest rank as possible and tell him before you do.. eviscerate on a target with no armor kills people FAST.
Big Mob Pulls:
Never push to be a puller. This is something tricky to be done correctly and let people wearing leather/mail/plate deal with that headache. Once the pull goes off, Crowd Control (CC) starts. Either Sheep or Sap.. makes no difference leave them. If you spec'd affliction to be like me, and have the talent points to reduce threat generated by dots.. you're golden. Assist the Main Tank (MT), and then the Offtank(OT). This helps everyone out, and you don't loose much in mana.
Healer Protection:
Once you get slomo, put that on the mob running for your healer. If the tank is busy or gets dazed. Drain tank that guy but first put a searing pain on him (this draws BIG aggro). Healers heal others better than themselves, and they'll love you for drain tanking cause then they just are "topping you off". Personally a renew usually does all I need for a drain tanking session.
Pets:
Always ask if the group would like your imp out (for the huge stamina) or if they'd rather you have something else. I typically show up with my imp out, cause being affliction that imp is just a mana battery for me and allows me to do more, and do it faster. Succubus has some CC ability, but not one I'd bank on for very long. I typically have my succubus on seduce only and invisible when not seducing. She can't deal damage like any other well geared person in a party, so her damage is negligable. Better to save that mana from lash of pain, to do seduce if needed. Felhunters are my favorite pet. They are just a nightmare to anyone that casts spells. If you are going into a cater heavy area.. pull him out and let him spellblock, devour magical buffs, etc. Just don't forget he can eat DEBUFFS on you and your party. I've never had luck with this, but I hear its possible. The voidwalker is only advisable for groups where you need an offtank, and you're stuck with casters. He can keep a guy busy for a while with almost no problem, but he
s not REALLY doing much damage to him. So if you do this.. only put on like corruption and agony and leave that mob alone. You Demon locks will have the felguard. He is a VERY capable offtank, no matter what anyone says. He looses life pretty quick tho so be ready to fuel him with health funnel (since the healer may be busy with the real tank).
I mentioned it before, but any lock should have a maxed out First Aid ability. If possible max out cooking too. There are some good recipes that help you out big time (basilisk that gives +spellpower anyone?), plus some that increase str/stam here and there that all good tanks love. The great thing about both First Aid and cooking, is that they don't require any real work to level. You can (as a lvl 60) run through a number of instances if you want to get the cloth for first aid (I prefer this as you get more green drops to put in the AH also :) ). Or you can go to the AH and drop a few gold to level that up.
If you are smart leveling cooking is a breeze. It requires you to fish though.. (this is good because there are some good things you can get from fishing that are much harder to get outside of fishing). I typically (meaning my last 2 alts) buy a strong fishing pole (+fishing skill) and sit them in SW and fish off the dock next to the fishing trainer. I started this at lvl 10. So I do this until my skill is maxed out. THEN I get the recipes (usually mailed from my main) for the smallfish, catfish, and the longjaw.. and I create a fire in the trade quarter and start cooking. You'll have a ton. I am incredibly unlucky and I leveled my cooking from 0-150 in like 5 minutes just doing this. Now these recipes aren't really very good, there are better ones, but to just LEVEL the darn thing this is great. After this you should see meats from the animals you are killing in zones dropping meats you need for recipes you already have since you are topped out on cooking. This seems to work pretty good. I took Mcgoo from 105-320 in like 3 hours of gameplay. All of which was to make a few things that I gave to my 49 hunter for both pet, and himself.
This is a bit of a rant for the cooking/fishing/firstaid, but you get the point its easy to level and is a "good thing". Like mining, fishing pays off in higher levels.. in the beginning its pretty lame though.
