Warlock Class Guide
The Warlock can be one of the best damage casters in World of Warcraft, but it's also a very complicated class with its damage-over-time (DoT) spells and minions for any occasion. You learn a variety of curses that you will use depending on your situation, and you also gain the ability to send your enemies running away from you in terror.
Warlocks can be a difficult class to play, but if you can do it well you will be the envy of all other damage dealers. Most people will despise you in Player vs Player battles.
The Warlock can be one of the best damage casters in World of Warcraft, but it's also a very complicated class with its damage-over-time (DoT) spells and minions for any occasion. You learn a variety of curses that you will use depending on your situation, and you also gain the ability to send your enemies running away from you in terror. Warlocks can be a difficult class to play, but if you can do it well you will be the envy of all other damage dealers. Most people will despise you in Player vs Player battles.
Warlock Talents
At level 10, when you open your talents, you'll find 3 different talent trees. Each has certain advantages and disadvantages, strengths and weaknesses. At lower levels you can safety spend your points to improve the spells and effects that you use often, you can return to your Warlock Trainer at any time for a refund of your talents points, however this will cost you gold.
Regardless of your talent specialization, you will have all of the basic spells that you learn from your trainer, but you can improve some of them and learn a couple new ones when you spend talent points on them. In general, your choices are:
Affliction – This tree will focus on improving your curses and other DoT spells like Corruption, as well as your abilities to steal health and mana from your opponent. You can also gain the Nightfall effect which will sometimes allow you to cast a Shadowbolt instantly.
While you can do an incredible amount of damage if you specialize in Affliction, it is built up over time with your DoTs. You can generate a lot of aggro this way without a doubt, but you can learn to control it so you don't pull a mob away from your minion (when you solo) or the tank in your group.
It can be fun to play solo as an Affliction-spec Warlock, but your minions are fairly weak so it's easy to create more aggro than your Void walker for instance. Your Drain Life spell becomes essential to your survival, so it's a good thing that skill can also be improved in your Affliction tree.
Demonology – This tree mostly improves your minions, improves your ability to heal them, and can also increase the effect of your Armor spells. You can learn to gain a buff from your minion or from sacrificing it. For spending 40 points in the Demonology tree, you earn an entirely new minion that other Warlocks will not have; the Felguard.
The Demonologist Warlock is more able to survive while soloing; you're not as likely to draw a mob off of your minion and get yourself killed. However, that's because you may not be able to do as much damage as an Affliction or Destruction Warlock can. In a group, you're less likely to be the top damage dealer, but you still have some useful skills to offer; your Void walker or Felguard may be able to effectively hold a mob while your group is defeating a different one, or your Succubus may be better able to Seduce one of your enemies, effectively controlling it and keeping it from going after your healer.
Destruction – Almost everything in this talent tree improves your ability to do massive damage, plain and simple. Using this specialization you can easily surpass the damage-per-second (DPS) of any other equally-geared damage dealing classes. To go "all out" however, will get you killed quickly unless you have a superb tank to keep the baddies away from you.
For leveling, this talent spec may be the most frustrating. You will not be able to keep from getting aggro off your Void walker, you may not have the improved Armor buffs from the Demonology tree, and you might not be able to Drain Life as well either, so saving yourself is difficult.
This spec is probably most popular among level 70 players, who may be playing with others more than they solo. In high-end raiding, many say this is the path to glory for any Warlock.
Warlock Minions
You have a few minions to choose from, depending on the role you want them to fill.
Imp – This is your caster minion. He will shoot fireballs for you and also buff you and your party with Stamina or a fire shield. It's usually better to summon your Imp while in a group rather than questing solo. Many Warlocks do not even tell their Imp to attack, that way he can remain Phase-Shifted and will not be damaged by spells that affect multiple targets in an area (AoE). He will also have some funny remarks when you summon him or assign him to attack a target.
Void walker– This is your big blue guy, he generally has more health and armor than your other demons and he also has a spell that will help keep an enemy's attention on him (Torment, I believe). This minion can tank for you, and may be your favorite minion to quest with for this reason. However, he may be your least favorite when you're trying to visit a mailbox, as he tends to get in the way often.
Succubus – This sleazy demon can seduce an opponent, making them unable to attack for a short amount of time and can also deal melee damage with Lash of Pain. She has little health however, so she will not last long if a mob turns their attention toward her, or if you don't instruct her to seduce her target again quickly enough when the effect breaks.
Felhunter – This "puppy" of yours is an excellent tool against casters primarily and is often used in Player vs Player battles. It can Devour Magic, effectively eating any buffs on its target, or Spell Lock to silence them and keep them from casting.
Felguard – A minion available only to Demonologists, he can do great melee damage with abilities such as Cleave which attacks multiple targets (be careful with this spell around mobs that are subject to crowd-control effects) and it can also stop a target from attacking you or another player with its Intercept skill, which can stun the target for a short time. It can be useful for solo as well as group situations.
Warlock Stats
The stats that you choose to focus on can depend on the talent tree you've specialized in, but in general your main stats should be Intellect, Stamina, and Bonus Damage, Spell Crit, and Spell Hit.
Intellect increases you total Mana, the more you have the more spells you can cast before running out, however the Warlock can use Life Tap to convert some health into Mana. Your Intel can also increase your chances of a critical hit.
Stamina increases your total health which is important for all classes, but especially for a Warlock because of their ability to Life Tap.
Bonus Damage will increase the amount of damage your spells can inflict. An Affliction Warlock may be most concerned with this since their damage depends mostly on DoTs which do not "crit".
Spell Crit increases your chances of having a single spell inflict much more damage than average. This is especially important for Destruction Warlocks.
Spell Hit is vital for Warlocks regardless of talents. This stat improves your ability to effectively hit an opponent that is higher level or "Elite". Without this stat you can end up wasting a lot of mana casting spells repeatedly when they are resisted by your target.
In Player vs Player battles, Resilience and Spell Penetration are also important.
Warlock Professions
You have several options in choosing your professions as a Warlock.
Tailoring is very popular, since you can wear only Cloth armor. Many Warlocks craft the Frozen Shadow eave set for themselves when they near level 70 and 360 or so in Tailoring. There is no other way to get this gear.
Enchanting is also a good option for any class, Warlocks included. This allows you to enchant your gear with useful stats that will improve your performance, and you can also disenchant items to get materials that Enchanters need, which you can choose to use or sell.
Herbalism is a gathering skill that you can use to earn money in the game, or combine it with Alchemy to craft potions and elixirs that can be helpful to yourself and others.
Engineering can help you craft many cool toys and at level 70 you can craft head armor that will be better for you than many items you can find in dungeons and elsewhere. If combined with Tailoring, you can use your mote-extractor to get Primals (Primal Shadow, Primal Air, etc.) that you need in order to craft many Cloth items.
Jewel crafting is an excellent choice for any class, but is best when combined with mining; otherwise you can expect to spend thousands of gold increasing this skill. This can also be a great money-making profession however.
Blacksmithing and Leather working are generally not good professions for a Warlock, since most of what you craft will be completely useless to you.
Skinning is best when combined with Leather working, but as a gathering skill anyone may use it and sell what they gather to other players.
If there is any missing information, please email: [email protected]
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Warlocks can be a difficult class to play, but if you can do it well you will be the envy of all other damage dealers. Most people will despise you in Player vs Player battles.
The Warlock can be one of the best damage casters in World of Warcraft, but it's also a very complicated class with its damage-over-time (DoT) spells and minions for any occasion. You learn a variety of curses that you will use depending on your situation, and you also gain the ability to send your enemies running away from you in terror. Warlocks can be a difficult class to play, but if you can do it well you will be the envy of all other damage dealers. Most people will despise you in Player vs Player battles.
Warlock Talents
At level 10, when you open your talents, you'll find 3 different talent trees. Each has certain advantages and disadvantages, strengths and weaknesses. At lower levels you can safety spend your points to improve the spells and effects that you use often, you can return to your Warlock Trainer at any time for a refund of your talents points, however this will cost you gold.
Regardless of your talent specialization, you will have all of the basic spells that you learn from your trainer, but you can improve some of them and learn a couple new ones when you spend talent points on them. In general, your choices are:
Affliction – This tree will focus on improving your curses and other DoT spells like Corruption, as well as your abilities to steal health and mana from your opponent. You can also gain the Nightfall effect which will sometimes allow you to cast a Shadowbolt instantly.
While you can do an incredible amount of damage if you specialize in Affliction, it is built up over time with your DoTs. You can generate a lot of aggro this way without a doubt, but you can learn to control it so you don't pull a mob away from your minion (when you solo) or the tank in your group.
It can be fun to play solo as an Affliction-spec Warlock, but your minions are fairly weak so it's easy to create more aggro than your Void walker for instance. Your Drain Life spell becomes essential to your survival, so it's a good thing that skill can also be improved in your Affliction tree.
Demonology – This tree mostly improves your minions, improves your ability to heal them, and can also increase the effect of your Armor spells. You can learn to gain a buff from your minion or from sacrificing it. For spending 40 points in the Demonology tree, you earn an entirely new minion that other Warlocks will not have; the Felguard.
The Demonologist Warlock is more able to survive while soloing; you're not as likely to draw a mob off of your minion and get yourself killed. However, that's because you may not be able to do as much damage as an Affliction or Destruction Warlock can. In a group, you're less likely to be the top damage dealer, but you still have some useful skills to offer; your Void walker or Felguard may be able to effectively hold a mob while your group is defeating a different one, or your Succubus may be better able to Seduce one of your enemies, effectively controlling it and keeping it from going after your healer.
Destruction – Almost everything in this talent tree improves your ability to do massive damage, plain and simple. Using this specialization you can easily surpass the damage-per-second (DPS) of any other equally-geared damage dealing classes. To go "all out" however, will get you killed quickly unless you have a superb tank to keep the baddies away from you.
For leveling, this talent spec may be the most frustrating. You will not be able to keep from getting aggro off your Void walker, you may not have the improved Armor buffs from the Demonology tree, and you might not be able to Drain Life as well either, so saving yourself is difficult.
This spec is probably most popular among level 70 players, who may be playing with others more than they solo. In high-end raiding, many say this is the path to glory for any Warlock.
Warlock Minions
You have a few minions to choose from, depending on the role you want them to fill.
Imp – This is your caster minion. He will shoot fireballs for you and also buff you and your party with Stamina or a fire shield. It's usually better to summon your Imp while in a group rather than questing solo. Many Warlocks do not even tell their Imp to attack, that way he can remain Phase-Shifted and will not be damaged by spells that affect multiple targets in an area (AoE). He will also have some funny remarks when you summon him or assign him to attack a target.
Void walker– This is your big blue guy, he generally has more health and armor than your other demons and he also has a spell that will help keep an enemy's attention on him (Torment, I believe). This minion can tank for you, and may be your favorite minion to quest with for this reason. However, he may be your least favorite when you're trying to visit a mailbox, as he tends to get in the way often.
Succubus – This sleazy demon can seduce an opponent, making them unable to attack for a short amount of time and can also deal melee damage with Lash of Pain. She has little health however, so she will not last long if a mob turns their attention toward her, or if you don't instruct her to seduce her target again quickly enough when the effect breaks.
Felhunter – This "puppy" of yours is an excellent tool against casters primarily and is often used in Player vs Player battles. It can Devour Magic, effectively eating any buffs on its target, or Spell Lock to silence them and keep them from casting.
Felguard – A minion available only to Demonologists, he can do great melee damage with abilities such as Cleave which attacks multiple targets (be careful with this spell around mobs that are subject to crowd-control effects) and it can also stop a target from attacking you or another player with its Intercept skill, which can stun the target for a short time. It can be useful for solo as well as group situations.
Warlock Stats
The stats that you choose to focus on can depend on the talent tree you've specialized in, but in general your main stats should be Intellect, Stamina, and Bonus Damage, Spell Crit, and Spell Hit.
Intellect increases you total Mana, the more you have the more spells you can cast before running out, however the Warlock can use Life Tap to convert some health into Mana. Your Intel can also increase your chances of a critical hit.
Stamina increases your total health which is important for all classes, but especially for a Warlock because of their ability to Life Tap.
Bonus Damage will increase the amount of damage your spells can inflict. An Affliction Warlock may be most concerned with this since their damage depends mostly on DoTs which do not "crit".
Spell Crit increases your chances of having a single spell inflict much more damage than average. This is especially important for Destruction Warlocks.
Spell Hit is vital for Warlocks regardless of talents. This stat improves your ability to effectively hit an opponent that is higher level or "Elite". Without this stat you can end up wasting a lot of mana casting spells repeatedly when they are resisted by your target.
In Player vs Player battles, Resilience and Spell Penetration are also important.
Warlock Professions
You have several options in choosing your professions as a Warlock.
Tailoring is very popular, since you can wear only Cloth armor. Many Warlocks craft the Frozen Shadow eave set for themselves when they near level 70 and 360 or so in Tailoring. There is no other way to get this gear.
Enchanting is also a good option for any class, Warlocks included. This allows you to enchant your gear with useful stats that will improve your performance, and you can also disenchant items to get materials that Enchanters need, which you can choose to use or sell.
Herbalism is a gathering skill that you can use to earn money in the game, or combine it with Alchemy to craft potions and elixirs that can be helpful to yourself and others.
Engineering can help you craft many cool toys and at level 70 you can craft head armor that will be better for you than many items you can find in dungeons and elsewhere. If combined with Tailoring, you can use your mote-extractor to get Primals (Primal Shadow, Primal Air, etc.) that you need in order to craft many Cloth items.
Jewel crafting is an excellent choice for any class, but is best when combined with mining; otherwise you can expect to spend thousands of gold increasing this skill. This can also be a great money-making profession however.
Blacksmithing and Leather working are generally not good professions for a Warlock, since most of what you craft will be completely useless to you.
Skinning is best when combined with Leather working, but as a gathering skill anyone may use it and sell what they gather to other players.
If there is any missing information, please email: [email protected]
<-Go Back
