[Warlock] Grind Tanking Like a Pro (Everyone else is wrong)

[thikr]

I. Intro

When someone hears "Drain Tanking" People jump to the conclusion that the warlock in question will be grinding one enemy at a time in an attempt to completely mitigate downtime by restoring health/mana using said enemy.

What most warlocks don't realize is the true potential of drain tanks. What I call "Grind Tanking" is drain tanking around 5+ enemies at ONCE with little or no downtime.

It is true that up to level ~40 your drain tanking abilities are very VERY limited, however most people don't realize that AT level ~40 warlocks become the fastest (yes faster than Beast Hunters) leveling class of all.

Before you move on, realize that this strategy is not entirely my own as that would be like claiming that every simple warlock strategy is my own. This is a little known stategy that I did not necessarily copyright but believe should belong to the public (at least here).

II. What is a Drain Tank?

If you already know then just skip this section completely. A Drain tank if you haven't already guessed it is:

A. A Warlock
B. A Grind Leveler
C. Popular yet ineffective strategy to level Warlocks.

Drain tanking begins with the Affliction tree. When a Warlock first learns "Drain Life" and "Life Tap" (abbreviated to DL and LT respectively,) drain tanking "Technically" becomes available as a pliable method of leveling. Basically, a drain tank tags an enemy with instant DoTs like "Curse of Agony," "Corruption," and usually "Immolation" or some other non-instant cast(these spells will be abbreviated to COA, COR, and IMM respectively for the rest of the guide.)

The drain tank (abbreviated to "DT" for the rest of the guide) will then either cast "Fear" or have his and/or her Minion attempt to tank the enemy. The DT then "Drain Lifes" the enemy to death while life tapping to keep his and/or her mana high.

DT-ing usually becomes more effective as people delve into the Affliction tree and learn spells like "Siphon Life (SL)" and "Night Trance (NT.)" Still, it never becomes very effective as a leveling tool.

III. What is Grind Tanking?

Grind tanking is DT-ing 5+ enemies at once. "But how does one do this?" you ask, or maybe don't. The traditional line-up of spells is all but devastatingly crappy because it does not carry a very good return for all that is put in. Grind tanking is different. Drain Tanking follows these points as stated earlier:


A. Minion mitigates damage and generates threat

B. Single enemy is focused on and drained to death

C. Return is relatively low.


Let us examine the errors with this... First, the minion is mitigating damage when it could be doing something else. We will talk about this a little later.


Second, we are focusing on one enemy and therefore, talents like NT are less effective because of less "Ticks" of damage. Also, we are focusing on ONE ENEMY which means any number of enemies could catch us off guard and defenseless.


Lastly, the return is relatively low which is in direct correlation with my first two points.


TRUE Grind tanking requires AT LEAST:


A. Improved Corruption
B. Siphon Life
C. Dark Pact
D. Howl of Terror

Though if you plan to be taking on more than three enemies at once you should want:

A. Improved Drain Life
B. Improved Life Tap
C. Night Trance
D. Improved Howl of Terror
E. Improved Shadowbolt
F. Unstable Affliction

Don't get me wrong, you can pick and choose but these are HIGHLY recommended. Grind tanking starts like so:

Find a group of enemies evenly spaced apart. Summon your IMP and put him on PASSIVE. Cast any non-instant like IMM or the like, begin running after you get aggro and dash towards the other enemies. Tag EACH enemy with AT LEAST Corruption, Curse of Agony, and Siphon Life. Get the enemies close to you and hit Howl of Terror. If you are dealing with > 5 enemies, use fear on the remaining few. Dark Pact your Imps mana till he is at ZERO and begin to Drain Life the FIRST enemy you targeted. As Night Trance activates, and it WILL, Shadow Bolt each enemy, though not the same enemy twice. Life Tap as you reach full health and continue until you mana reaches CLOSE TO FULL. After your mana is close to full, Drain life the last of the enemies to death and laugh at your victory. MAKE SURE Howl of Terror is close to cooled down when you begin again and enjoy your fast effective grinding.

IV. Why "Grind Tanking" is better than "Drain Tanking"

I went over the Drain Tanking weak points so here is how Grind Tanking fixes them...


A. Minion mitigates damage and generates threat

B. Single enemy is focused on and drained to death

C. Return is relatively low.

A. Minion is being used more effectively as a mana tank.
B. You are already expecting multiple enemies and should wish for more if anything.
C. Return is very high thanks to your Dark Pact and multiple enemies which are being drained.

For those of you who are lazy, here is a self made build...

The World of Warcraft Armory

Go down the Affliction tree first, then Demonology, then Destruction. Get Howl of Terror ASAP and go back for missed points in other talents.

Well thats it, hope you enjoy. Don't say anything like "This has been done before" because I couldn't find one anywhere else. Also, sorry about the long post.

[superprokop]

I thought this was just the standard grind technique for warlocks. This is how I would farm in Pre-BC. Didn't know it was anything special.

[dotOrion]

This is odd. From what I've read at various sources, drain tanking is where the warlock 'tanks' several mobs (though to minimize damage, Howl of Terror and the likes are used liberally as in what you are describing), but contrary to what you are doing, it uses the succubus as a damage pet instead of the imp as a mana battery pet.

[thikr]

I thought this was just the standard grind technique for warlocks. This is how I would farm in Pre-BC. Didn't know it was anything special.

I thought so too but surprisingly, the "Grind Tank" method has died and its name has been given to a truly useless technique

This is odd. From what I've read at various sources, drain tanking is where the warlock 'tanks' several mobs (though to minimize damage, Howl of Terror and the likes are used liberally as in what you are describing), but contrary to what you are doing, it uses the succubus as a damage pet instead of the imp as a mana battery pet.

Yes I have heard of the succubus, voidwalker, and felhunter being used though the imp mana battery is FAR more efficient, IMO