GUIDE: How To Play A Warlock (2.0) (HUGE)

[Fault]

After the 2.0, many many warlocks switched over to demo. But many many of them suck. So this guide here will help you all have a better understanding of how to use your pets and warlock abilities with those pets. This guide is primarily for Demo Warlocks, but can be used by all.
1. Build
2. Pets
A. Imp
B. Voidwalker
C. Succubus
D. Felhunter
E. Infernal
F. Doomgaurd
G. Felguard (Demo only)
3. Spells
A. DoTs
B. Damage Dealing
C. Draines
D. Fears
E. Stones
F. Other Spells
4. PvE role
A. Crowd Control
B. DpS
C. AoE


1. Build
Build is what makes ur warlock, ur warlock. What really controls how your warlock acts in both PvP and PvE, is how ur talents are set up. This is primarily up to you, wether u want to be a PvP strong warlock, PvE, dpser, DoTer, or demons that rape people, it all depends. My suggestion is Demonology. Demonolgy makes ur pets virtually gods, to the point where they can solo some classes that are equal level. Demo also gives you boosts, such as demo tactics gives you 15% of ur pets stamina and mana, in the form of +spell power, or Master Demonologist, which gives you various buffs, or my fav, Soul Link, which 30% of the damage done to u gets split with ur pet. Another great thing is u get 6 sec summons (as apposed to 10), and you have an ability that u can summon ur pet in .5 secs (15 min cooldown) very very useful, if ur pet dies in combat, and need a new one. What ever build u take, make sure it suites u, not what others say.

2. Pets
Pets are virtualy what makes a warlock not a mage that cast shadow instead of gay ass frost. Pets are incredibly powerful, but are often over looked. Many times someone will see a warlocks pet, just ignore it, and attack something else, such as the rouge attacking their friend. Little do they notice, that Felguard is hitting them for about 150-200 damage, nearly every 2 secs, using stuns on them, amongst other things. With good knowledge of pets, you are well on ur way to becoming a great warlock.

A. Imp
The imp is the basic warlock pet. Its small, fragile, but very useful. An imp is a great thing to have in a PvE group, as it gives Blood pact, which can be over 500-700 health, depending on armor and such. Also the imp allows for a firesheild, which does damage to attackers if either the imp or the warlocks gets damaged. Its not a catastropic amount, but damage is damage. Also imps have phase shift, so they dont get damaged while passive, which is great for keeping a warrior with some extra stamina, but not worrying about ur imp dying. The imps basic attack is a fireball, with some talents, can shoot very fast and very hard, but its based on mana, and mana runs out eventually. Another thing is with Master Demonologist, your imp and you also recieve 10% less threat, which is good for people who dps like crazy
B. Voidwalker
Viodwalkers are the big badass blue things. They are virtually the warlock's personal tank, and are the greatest thing for leveling. Voidwalkers have very, very high armor, high health, and can taunt/pull agro. VW (voidwalker shortened) are very useful for long PvE, because they will pull most damage, and hold aggro. When i go farming Devilsaurs, i use a VW all the time, because those SoBs hit HARD. VWs also have sacrifice, which gives the Warlock Master a temporary sheild, of around 2k damage that itll absorb, depending on gear and talents. MD(Master Demonolgist) buff from VW is 10% less damage, which is very nice, because not only you get it, but so does ur pet.
C. Succubus
The delicious succubus. This is that little sexy demon with the leather bikini, whip, tail, and wings. The Succubus has many uses, primarily for mass damage dealing. A succubus can actually turn invisible, a useful thing to get thejump on an unexpecting enemy. A rouge might jump you, but with a invisible Succ (short for succubus), you can get a jump on them too. Succs also have lash of pain which does a handful of damage. Succs also have Soothing Kiss, which is kind of the anti taunt, which makes the enemy target more likely to attack something else. Succs are often used for Crowd Control by using seduce, which keeps a target trained on the succubus, unable to do anything, unless it is attacked or the spell is ended. This ability is great if a warlock seduces a paladin, then drains the mana of a paladin, then no more bubble . The MD buff for succs is 10% more damage, which is great for damage dealing, like fighting Vael, which requires crazy Dps.
D. FelHunter
Ah, a pet that used to be way to over looked, and now has become one of the most popular warlock pets. This pet i always used pre-2.0 (I use felguard now) because its amazing. My felhunters (FH for short) could solo quiet a lot of mages, without anything from me except maybe 2 instant cast DoTs. FH have the great abilitly of spell lock, which silences the target, ad if they are casting a spell at the point of spell lock, that whole school of magic has a temporary extra cooldown, which can be very helpful, especially using this against a holy priest thats healing, no more heals for the group . FH also have paranioa, which increases stealth detection. This ability is often over looked , but is absolutly amazing. I can see rouges loads of times b4 they even get to me, or at least my pet will, and itll even pull them out of stealth for me, so i can blast them. FH also have tainted blood which lowers the enemies attack power when the FH is hit, and it even stacks 5 times. FH also have devour magic, which will actually get rid of positive buffs on targets, or negative buffs on you, so if ur target just used demon armor, or something like that, stip them of that buff . FH MD ability is +(your level) in resistance to all schools. This is great, because +60 resistance takes a way a hand ful of damage, and it takes away from ALL spells.
E. Infernal
Ahh yess the infernal. The infernal is a well, interesting pet, fun, but not really pratical. Infernals can be an absolute powerhouse, they have VERY high dps, an immolate ability that effects any1 within a certain range, and some other interesting things. Also their summon is very cool though. The summon consists of comanding a meteor to strike the ground, causing a AoE stun and 200 damage to every1, and looks much like the intro cinematic. Though there is a price to this power. infernals are not even really summoned, but more 'called upon', as they dont stay loyale forever. Infernals are enslaved, and they do break being enslaved. U can reenslave, but is a hastle to be fighting someone, and mid fight have ur huge infernal turn towards you and try to kill you, then trying to fight ur infernal, ur enemy, and reenslave ur infernal. The spell also requires an infernal stone, which must be bought for 50s at a reagant vendor. The cooldown on the summon spell is 1 hour. The quest for this is hilarious, because at the end, you fight a giant chicken, really funny. Also there is no MD buff
F. Doomgaurd
OOOOOOOOO!!! Now we get to something tasty. Very few have ever had to suffer under a doomgaurds wrath, and even fewer have been able to control it. Doomgaurds can only be summoned through 2 methods: 1, you use Cure of Doom, which has a very very slight chance, on killing a target, that the doomgaurd will be summoned. Ive only had this happen once, one time while i was sitting in burning steps, i casted it on a low level mob, walked away, and i saw doomgaurd get summoned, and then it killed me. The other was i was showing my friend WoW, and he was killing the ghost in the UC. He used CoD and one summoned, so i shoved him out of the way, enslaved it (it took me like 10 secs and 3/4 of my health to find out where enslave demon was). I took a SS, and as soon as i did, it turned on me. The 2nd way to sumon a doom gaurd is the ritual of doom. You need 4 other people to do this, and then it becomes a game of russian roulete, because ONE OF YOU WILL DIE! I CANT STRESS THIS ENOUGH. Also u need to get this spell through a quest. Doomgaurds do CRAZY damage, they have quiet a bit of spells, and can even cast Reign of Fire. They hit for alot, so if you see one, banish his ass.
G. Felgaurd
Felgaurds are demo only, and they are awsome. Felgaurds can be best described as Jacks of All trades, because they take bits from all other pets. Felguards are much like VW, in the sense that they are ur own personal warrior. But VW are more like protection warriors, were felgaurds are furrry or arms, because of the mad dps. Felguards have the tanking abilities of a VW, the DPS of both a FG and a Succ, the +spell damage of a Succ, and the +spell resistance of a FH. Felgaurds have an arcanite reaper, and they hit, and hit hard. They have an ability called intercept, which is much like a warriors charge, and it stuns the target for a sec. They also have cleave which does extra damage (much like lash of pain), they have demonic frenzy which increases attack power, they also have anguish which pulls aggro. Another cool thing is avoidance, which increases ur pets chance to avoid AoE attacks, great against stupid mages that just Arcane Explode in BGs. Felgaurds are the best IMO in BGs because they are good against virtually everything. Warriors literally seen my felgaurd, and ran away from me, and im talking full t2 warriors.

3. Spells
Ur pets cant do all the work! So well review how to hold up your end.
A. DoTs (Damage over Time)
Warlocks have 3 different DoTs so far (save for ones revieved from talents). The 3 are Curse of Agony, Corruption, and immolation. Curse of agony and curruption are shadow based, and immolation does innitial fire damage, along with some extra damage done over time. If you didnt get it, put 5 talent points in affliction to get instant cast curroption. The reason is you can cast 2 dots, instant cast, and thats rougly 2.5k damage over time, so if u see someone flying by on a mount, cast those 2 things, and if they already have some health taken down, watch them die as they ride away. With all 3 dots alone, you do about 3.2k damage, depending on ur armor and talents. Very effective, and very fast.
B. Damage Dealing
When i mean damage dealing, i mean your dps. There is 3 main ones for warlock. One being shadowbolts, your most basic, and also the first spell you have as a warlock. This deals a handful of shadow damage, and with the right stuff, can hit hard. I have no spec in crit or hit, and i have 10% crit, and crit for 1.6k sb. Now i know that isnt super good, but when u have pets that have amazing dps, and u get those crits, its very nice. The second is searing pain. Searing pain is half the cast time, roughly half the damage, but much more threat. This is great in pvp where threat has no matter, but cast time does. This can hit for a handful damage, but it isnt meant for crit at all. Now onto the 3rd, Soulfire. Soulfire requires a soul shard, and hits for alot. It has a 6 sec cast, 1 min cool down, but with a trinket, high crit chance, right build, will hit for rougly 2.5k-4k firedamage. This is great spell, if you know how to use it
C. Draines
There are several drain abilities that a warlock has. One is drain health. This is fairly basic, as it drains the targets health, and gives it to you. This is always good if ur target has a handful of health, and you dont. There is also drain mana, which requires manam but gives you more back over time, and steals ur targets. There is also drain soul, which is used for getting soul shards. There is also health funnel, which drains your health, giving it to ur pet. Something to not is all these abilities are channeled, and they all can be shortened or even stopped while being attacked. So the good idea is to only use this when ur target is not attacking you.
D. Fears
Warlock are HATED for their fears, nothing is more annoying than fighting, and then all the sudden flying around the BG, not sure what ur doing, till you see a warlock feared you. Warlocks have 3 primary fears. The first is, Fear obcviously. Ur target can be feared to up to 25 secs, which is awsome. Lets say ur sitting there, and all the sudden, theres a paladin and a warrior. Well since paladins are retarded, you fear the warrior, so u can destroy the paladin, then when the warrior breaks ur fear, the paladin is dead, then kill the warrior. Fear is very useful, well talk more about it in Crowd Control. Then there is Howl of Terror, a great ability, as its an AoE 20 sec fear. If ur affliction, you even can have instant cast howl of terror. Nothing is better when 3 alliance at once are caping a flag, then u just fear bomb (another term for AoE fear) the flag, and there all running in different directions. Now the final, and greatest fear ability, deathcoil. Deathcoil, also known as skillcoil, is an instant cast, fears the target for 3 secs, undiminishable (meaning they cant cancel it at all), does around 600 health, and gives that health to you, and only has a 2 min cooldown. This is great for when that mage is casting that POM pyroblast, nothing annoys him more than that instant fear. Deathcoil is also a great opening thing. When im fighting, this is actually my normal battle method: Deathcoil, CoA, Currpotion, fear, Immolate, shadowbolt, (they break fear around here) searing pain, (they deffinatly have now), fear again, and searing pain till they die (pet was attacking the whole time). This way, they can hardly do anything, because they are feared the whole time, and receiving constant damage.
E. Stones
Stones are often over looked. Ill admit it, it wasnt until 2.0 that i started using them. There is 4 major stones that ull use, and they all require sou. The first is soulstone, which alows the person who has the buff from it to rez after they die, great if you wipe in a instance, then ur healer rezs and rezes u all. The next is healthstone. I dont use the health stone much, but it can be very use full for warriors or such. Healthstones work just like health potions, in that they give you health. There is also spellstones, which can now be held in the wand slot. Spell stones can absorb about 600 spelldamage (3 min cooldown) and give about +1% crit. There is also firestones, which can too be held in the wand slot. Firestones do +21 to fire damage, and do +80-120 fire damage melee, which isnt benificial for warlocks, but still funny sometimes. NOTE Only healthstones can be given to other players, soul stones are used on other players (via targeting), other are just for you/
F. Other Spells
There are some other useful spells warlocks have, like Lifetap, which converts health into mana. This is great if u run out of mana, have health, and need to cast spells NOW. Another is banish. Banish makes any demon or elemental unable to move, attack, or recieve damage, this is a great thing to use against mage elementals, or warlock pets. There are obviously tons more, but i cant cover them all.

4. PvE role
Warlocks can play several roles. They can play the dps, the crowd control, big hitter, AoE, or in rare cases, their pets can tank. Believe it or not Ive actually offtanked with my VW very often. And on 3 ocassions, ive had to main tank, but that was only because we had very good dps, and good healing. So lets discuss the primary roles of a warlock
A. Crowd Control
Warlocks are MADE for Crowd Control. CCing is used so that every mob doesnt have to be fought at once. A obvious way is fear. A mob might be coming in with a friend, so you fear the extra mob, so the dps can be focused on the other. IMPORTANT: When fearing a mob, sometimes that mob will pull more mobs, trust me, ive done it alot. Itll normally happen that i absolutly need health now, so i deathcoil, but the mob moves much faster then i anticipated, and bam, 3 more mobs inc now. Another way is a Succ's seduce. Seduce will stop a target in their tracks, not allowing them to do anything, much like a sheep. The final way is banish. Lets say ur mob ur fighting has a pet, maybe an elemental or a demon. Well you can banish that demon, not allowing them to do anything, while you take care of its master, then once its all clear, u kill the banished target.
B. DPS
Warlocks are great at dps. This part is gonna be short, because it doesnt take much. As a warlock, make sure to DoT all the pulled mobs (unless they are somehow CCed), so that u just put 3.2k on all of them. Then start SBing which ever one you want, till its dead, then continue with the others. Make sure your DoTs stay up, if one goes down, recast, because its a big favor for the main tank to go from one target, then go to one with half health already.
C. AoE
Little do many people know but warlocks are actually fairly Decent at AoE. There is 3 AoEs, but im only going to cover 2, because one is talent based. The first is reign of fire, which, as the name says, rains fire from the sky on the area, and is very helpful. This does a handful of fire damage in any selected area within 30 yards. The other is Hellfire, which does A LOT of damage, all directly around the caster, and does that damage to the caster too. NOTE: This is one of the very few abilities that WILL KILL YOU. This is a suicide ability, unless you have good heals, or high health. If you use a spellstone with this ability, itll absorbs some of the damage.

Now if u have mastered all of this, you are well on your way to becoming a master warlock

Wow i cant believe i wrote that all, that took me at least 3 hours. This is i believe my 18th guide, so yea, gg

[0-0-7]

Wayy too long for me to read, but longer the better +rep!

[Fault]

Yea ty, BTW for all of u lag spike made me triple post

[Eratoc]

I read it all. I'm a 60 lock, and I've had 2 locks in my WoW history (Don't ask, got banned).
This is an great tutorial man. Keep up the great work...
+rep definetly, cheers.

[Fault]

Yeppers

[Nolixz]

Omg nice man, great succses (Borat)
+ rep

[Gidge]

Damn nice guide +rep

[dungee]

Read it all to... very very usefull... not lv 60 yet.
GJ and +rep!

[iPod]

very useful guide. 9.7 on a scale of 1-10.

Read everything: +rep :]

[Adde]

You could write about Spell Stone (Absorb) + Hellfire too... its a nice trick to avoid death by hellfire

[Lorokaz]

nice man im working on my 30 warlock right now +rep

[Fault]

You could write about Spell Stone (Absorb) + Hellfire too... its a nice trick to avoid death by hellfire

Didnt think about that, adding it now

[Froz3narr0w]

:yourock2: NICE GUIDE KEEP UP D GOOD WORK!!!




+1 rep

[DemonDJ]

Hey Cheers Fault that heaps me alot am only level 14 or 15 tho

[Sativ]

im working on a Rogue guide But i loved this warlock guide, GREAT Read.