Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Warlock class tips part 1

Regardless of your talent specialization, warlocks are king of damage and in most cases mana efficiency. Demon locks, seem to be more durable.. but suffer with lower damage cumulatively. Destruction locks are almost fire/shadow mages. And affliction locks enjoy watching you fight while their dots tick your life away.

A few things are in common for all locks. and the spells are pretty standard. Most Affliction/Destruction locks start out the same.. Instant corruption. This is your money maker if you are a affliction lock, if you are destruction, this pads your casting time for shadowbolts by ticking away good amounts of damage. There is a lot you can do that changes things up. For this post I'm going to hit on soloing.

Soloing. First and foremost as soon as you turn 10 get your voidwalker. At this level you are still pretty squishy and the blue marshmallow keeps mobs occupied while you drain/bolt/wand them to death. In the end he has shortcomings, such as he does almost no damage at all. He's a protection spec warrior. He is there to be hit on, and to taunt. I personally endorse Affliction locks. I do this for 2 reasons:
  1. almost no downtime
    1. you get improved lifetap to turn life to mana
    2. you can drain life to refill yourself health wise.
  2. kiting
    1. This sounds lame, but honestly when mobs break loose, knowing you don't have to be looking at him to renew Curse of Agony (CoA), Corruption ("C") makes things nice.
Demon locks get the same hype as the BM spec hunters, but frankly I don't see it as viable.. Oddly enough all my lock friends are Demon locks, so go figure. I hit 60 in 14 days I think (played time). I wasn't setting a land speed record or anything, but that includes about 4 weeks of PvP only ( I love killin folks, what can I say). Destruction locks are good, but it (to me) seems like being a mage without mage abilities (sheep/blink, etc..). So Destruction didn't appeal to me right off.

My personal belief is.. Do everything you want till you have enough talent points to get shadowburn, and instant corruption. Shadowburn is your only insant attack for direct damage as a warlock and it takes a shard to do (unless the target dies). This reason alone makes it a must have for me.

So goof around, see what works for you if the tank(VW) and bolt strategy works for you, go destruction, you'll love it! If you like me like to take on 5 guys at once and walk away at full life, then I'd say afflcition is your best bet. As a 62 (now) I have solo'd 63 elites. I'm nothing special as a lock either. My damage is way up (compared to some I see) but it is also less than half of others. I don't really enchant, and I don't socket (unless I have the jewels and know a JC that'll do it for free). What I'm saying is it takes no great gear/ability to do what I do.

Fight choreography:

What I do, and this works like a charm for me, is I pull with curse of shadows. I do this because it does no real damage, but does pull. So my VW can pick up aggro quick and I can dot the daylights out of that guy and get the next while my VW deals with the rest of him. I have run the numbers, and I am gimping myself with this strategy. You should use curse of agony. It does damage, and the damage goes up over time. Anyway once I have mob1 dotted, I get another one, this time using agony, then siphon life, then corruption. Then.. FEAR. Let that fool run around, do lifetap to get your mana back and then drain the life from the rest of mob1 while mob 2 runs around and runs back to meet your VW. VW won't pick up aggro, cause you just did a buttload of damage, but he helps. If you go affliction, empowered corruption is a MUST. It makes corruption a VERY powerful spell that is an instant cast so love it.

At early levels, when leveling is more slower paced. Send VW, dot up.. lifetap, then drain life to refill. The affliction talents to improve life drain and soulsiphon are required. They do things that decrease your downtime (mana regen, and larger health drain). This should end most fights.

****Sidenote, all locks should max out bandages ASAP. sometimes mobs are coming and you need to heal and the drain life won't work fast enough. This rules, and should just be expected of you.

Shards:
Shards are evil.. I hate them. They don't stack. They take up valuable loot spaces.. man.. screw shards. Ok I'm done with that. You need shards. As a solo'er you need a healthstone ready at all times. Possibly a soulstone if you are going for an elite. This being said, you don't need to take 20 shards with you. I said it, and I'm on the record. I take about 5 with me anywhere. If I am planning on grouping I try to get another 3. So in a group I can dish out 5 healthstones for everyone and a soulstone ready for the healer. Don't wait to be asked for this by the way, they might forget, but having everyone with an instant heal outside of pots is great and can save your bacon. Healers LOVE soulstones. It means they can res the group, and having a healer who can res now.. I love saving time and just bringing the group back..

More to come on this subject

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