WOW - Warlock Guide

by Paul E. Web

The Warlock in World of Warcraft is a fun class to play. WoW Warlocks have pets, many different spells, and a multi-purpose reagent called Soul Shard, that is a requirement for some of their spells.

This means that the Wow warlock class is harder to master than some of the more straightforward classes. The Warlock has a lot of cool and fun abilities including Eye of Kilrogg, Fear, Curse Of Exhaustion and more. In World of Warcraft, the Warlock is a fun and versatile class, once you figure things out.

Strengths
• Pets can be use to hold aggro, and be used for fun ideas.
• Can create Soulstones that allow you to resurrect others or self.
• Can create Healthstones to restore health in combat.
• Can summon other players from far corners of Azeroth with Ritual of Summoning.
• Can breathe underwater using the spell of Unending Breath.
• Can summon a free mount: Felsteed or Dreadsteed.
• Can use Eye of Killrogg to scout.
• Can take control of Demons for a short amount of time.
• Can heal themselves in combat by using Life Drain, Siphon Life, and Death Coil.
• Can solo very well, by using a minion to act as a tank the warlock can cast free of damage so long as he watches aggro.

Weaknesses
• Can only wear cloth armor.
• Very fragile and easily killed in certain situations.
• Soul Shards take up inventory space.

Challenges
• Mastering Soul Shard collection and usage.
• Managing Monster Hate between you and your minion.
• Controlling both your minion and your own skills to ensure high efficiency.

II. Soul Shards

The Warlock requires Soul Shards for certain spells and minions. You receive a Soul Shard by using "Drain Soul" on a monster as it is dying. A catch is that you cannot get Soul Shards from monsters that don't give experience. So you can't go into a newbie region and kill easy monsters for Soul Shards. Each and every Soul Shard takes up one slot in your bags, which means you don't want to carry a whole lot of them. However, you do always want to have some in your bags so you can summon your minions. When using Drain Soul you cannot do anything else such as move, attack, or cast another spell, or be interrupted. If you do not stand still, the Drain Soul will not work. You will need to learn how to do this properly, which can be challenging.

Soul Shards do not stack. This is for balance reasons and so you won't hoard huge numbers of them.

If you find yourself without Soul Shards you will have to get them without the use of most minions, which can sometimes be a challenge. Imps can be summoned without the use of a Soul Shard so you can use them to get your Soul Shard along with DoTs, and then switch to a more powerful minion.

III. Warlock pets

Pets require skill to control. Learn which pet excels based on the situation. The channeling spell Health Funnel is useful with pets because while you channel the spell it gives your pet health. Use this ability by having your minion attack and then channeling health into the minion. Health Funnel drains your health to your pet, so if you need health, cast Drain Life, use a potion, or have someone who can heal you. These are ranged spells so they cancel if the pet/mob runs out of range or if the spell is interrupted.

Imp - The Imp you get from start and it is actually a good minion to use if you're in a party because of his reasonable damage output and the very nice Stamina buff his blood pact gives or solo for the same reasons. He blasts the enemy with a ranged attack called Firebolt. This is the only minion you don't need a Soul Shard to summon and don’t have to worry about aggroing mobs with because of Phase Shift an ability the Imp receives.

Voidwalker - At level 10, the quest to get the Voidwalker becomes available from the Warlock trainers. The VW acts as the tank, allowing the warlock to cast without interrupts.. The VW has massive hit points and can tank the mob for long amounts of time, and with the health funnel even longer, but its damage output is very low. VW requires a Soul Shard to summon.

Succubus - At level 20, your Succubus quest is available. This minion inflicts a high amount of damage on your foes, but is rather fragile. The Succubus has an amazing damage output, especially when attacking monsters with Lash of Pain. It is also good at crowd control with Soothing Kiss and Seduce to mesmerize a humanoid for a short while. In groups and for dueling this sometimes is a good choice. Personally, I don't use it solo as the Imp has turned out to be the most effective unless I am dueling certain classes. Requires Soul Shard to summon.

Felhunter - At level 30, you can begin the quest series which will reward you with the ability to summon a Felhunter. This minion is the best against enemy casters. Requires Soul Shard to summon.

Infernal - Summons a meteor from the twisting nether, causing 200 Shadow damage and stunning all enemy targets in area for 2 sec. The infernal rises from it's crater, under the command of the caster. The infernal is under the control of the caster for 5 mins, after which the warlock must either re-enslave the Infernal, or die. 

Ritual of Doom - Begins a ritual that sacrifices a random participant to summon a doomguard. The doomguard must be immediately enslaved or it will attack the ritual participants. Requires the caster and 4 additional people to complete the ritual. In order to participate, I would suggest at least 2 participants must be WoW Warlocks, being that if the warlock is killed in the summoning the demon will kill the rest with no hope of controlling it. 

Felsteed - Serves as a mount for the caster. Speed is increased by 60%. This mount is the result of a level 40 quest which is very short and simple. No shard required but requires mana.

Dreadsteed – Serves as a mount for the caster. Speed is increased by 100%. This is also given was a quest reward at level 60. No shard required but requires mana.

IV. Stones

The WoW Warlocks can create special stones that they can use on themselves or give to other players. Notable is that these Stones vanish when you log out, which means you can only use them in the same game session that they were made (similar to conjured Water from Mages).

Healthstone (requires Soul Shard) - Creates a Healthstone, works like a health potion. There are different ranks of these, from Minor Healthstone that gives 100 Health, up to a Major, which returns 1200 Health. Keep one handy should you make a mistake.

Soulstone (requires Soul Shard) - Creates a Soulstone. The Soulstone can be used to store one target' s soul. If the target dies while his soul is stored, he will be able to resurrect with X health and mana. Conjured items disappear if logged out for more than 15 minutes. When soloing place upon yourself, but if in a group place on a healer Priest/Shaman/Palaidin to help recover from a wipe.

Firestone (requires Soul Shard) - Creates a Firestone which can be equipped in the off hand. When equipped, enchants the main hand weapon with fire, granting each attack a chance to deal additional fire damage (Damage depending on rank of spell).

Spellstone (requires Soul Shard) - Creates a Spellstone. The Spellstone removes all magic effects from the caster and will also absorb up to X magic damage for the next minute.

V. Curses

The Warlock has several types of curses, each having a special propose 

Curse of Weakness - Damage caused by the target is reduced. Not incredibly useful but can be used in unique situations.

Curse of Recklessness - Increases the damage of the target but greatly reduces their armor. This is a good group-based spell that is especially good to cast on monsters that are trying to run away. If the group got a good tank that won't mind the extra damage output of the monster, then this can be the best Curse.

Curse of the Elements - Increase Fire and Frost damage. This ability is good to use when playing with other casters who use those types of spells. Personally, I use a lot combined with Immolate and a Wand that does Fire damage plus the Imp minion who also does Fire damage. This is also very beneficial on raids to increase Mage DPS.

Curse of Agony - Curses the target with agony. Damage slowly ramps up over time, best to cast during the start of an engagement.

Curse of Tongues - Suitable against enemy casters as it is slowing down their casting time.

Curse of Shadow - Increase Shadow and Arcane damage. Great for grouping increases your damage Shadow Priest damage and mage damage.

VI. Damage over Time spells (DoTs)

DoTs are damage-over-time spells. Because they do damage over time, you want to cast them at the start of a battle and have them deliver their full damage output before the monster dies.

Corruption - Inflicts a disease on a target that causes X damage over Y seconds. Corruption will stack with Shadow Word: Pain.

Immolate - Burns the enemy for X Fire damage and then an additional Y Fire damage over 15 seconds.

Curse of Agony - 

VII. Direct Damage spells (DD)

Shadow Bolt - Sends a shadowy bolt at the enemy. This is your direct damage spell, and you'll want to use it when you're not casting something else. It is useful for killing fleeing monsters, finishing monsters off, and so on. At higher ranks, this gets rather powerful even if I personally think the casting time of it is too long.

Searing Pain – Inflict searing pain on the enemy target, causing Fire damage. Causes a high amount of threat. This is a 1.5s cast time spell and is very effective with Curse of Elements.

Immolate – Burns the enemy for Fire damage and then an additional Fire damage over 15 seconds. With a cast time of 1.5s when you have 5/5 bane it can be very effective because of its higher default cast time.

Conflagrate - Ignites a target that is already afflicted by Immolate, dealing X to Y Fire damage and consuming the Immolate spell. An extremely effective and high damage spell to be used for mid fight damage or as a finishing spell. This spell is instant cast.

Soulfire – Burn the enemy's soul, causing Fire damage.

Shadowburn – Instantly blasts the target for Shadow damage. If the target dies from Shadowburn, and yields experience or honor, the caster gains a Soul Shard.

Death Coil - Sends a shadowbolt at the target for Shadow Damage and fears the target for 3 seconds, also heals the Warlock. The spell is Instant Cast and has a 2 minute cooldown. This spell is very good as a escape tactic and for getting a opening vs melee in PvP.

VIII. Area of Effect spells (AoE)

Rain of Fire - Rather mana costly and hate generating spell. Be careful not to use this too much and probably only when in a big party so you don't end up with all enemies on you except the one the party tank fights. As it isn't used that often, it gets some coolness factor and there are times it will fit.

Hellfire - Ignites the area surrounding the caster, causing huge fire damage in waves to both the caster and all nearby enemies. This is a good spell to use when surrounded, but its effects will stay. You can kill yourself if you're not careful. You may have to use a potion, or cast "Life Drain", to keep yourself alive. Best is if you have a friend healing or protecting you. This AoE is the highest damage AoE in the game at the moment.

IX. Other Abilities

Eye of Kilrogg - This summons an eye that you can control. This eye can move away from your character and can be used for scouting purposes. The Eye cannot fly up in the air but is similar to running very fast on the ground. It can travel up stairs and other players cannot see the Eye unless they are grouped with you or have high stealth detection. Note: 

Unending Breath - Breathe under water for 10 minutes. You can cast this on other players too, and on certain quests it is almost a necessity to be able to have your whole party fighting under water.

Enslave Demon - Enslave a target demon for a limited amount of time. You can use this ability to take control over a Demon and use it to attack other monsters. This is very cool and useful even if you may only do this with demons up to a few levels (4) above the level at which you got the current rank of this spell.

Ritual of Summoning - Begins a ritual that summons a targeted group member. Requires 3 people to perform (2 + The Warlock Summoning). To use this ability, first target a person (usually the party icon) you want to summon. Next, cast the spell. You will then need two people (random people or friends) to right-click on the portal one time and then do nothing once their characters show the summoning animation. Once all three players are summoning (all have summoning animation), it will take a few more seconds. Then the player summoned will appear and the portal will disappear. If it doesn't work, try it again. Players cannot be summoned into an instance from the outside.

Drain Life - Transfers health from target to caster while channeling. This ability is used during battle both to damage the monster and to regain life. Once you land the spell, it will start draining life, it does damage the monster even if you don't actually need the life.

Life Tap - Converts health into mana. If you need mana, what you do is Life Tap, be aware that you can life tap yourself to death, life taping while getting wailed on is not advised. 

Drain Mana - Transfers mana to the Warlock every second while channeling. Once the monster gets out of range, the spell breaks, and the mana drain ceases. Use this ability on enemy casters to drain their mana and replenish your own.

Shadow Ward - Absorbs shadow damage. Usefull for fighting other Warlocks or Shadow Priests. 

Demon Skin/Armor - Increases health regeneration and armor. Self-Buff only very helpful, similar to the Priest buff Inner Fire.

Demon Armor - Increases armor, shadow resistance, and health regeneration. This ability replaces Demon Skin. It should always be active.

Detect Lesser Invisibility/Invisibility - Makes you able to see NPCs or players that are invisible. Usefull for finding stealthed rogues in PvP

Sense Demons - Use to locate Demons on the minimap. This is helpful in PvP for finding other Warlocks.

Fear - Send the monster/player running away. This is a good crowd control ability or escape spell. Be careful using this ability though, monsters tend to run in the directions of other monsters and will aggro them as well.

Banish - Banishes the target Demon or Elemental, preventing all action, but making it invulnerable for a few sec. Only one target can be banished at a time. This spell is a "crowd control" type spell which allows you to put one extra monster that comes to fight out of action. This spell is only usefull when fighting Demons and Elementals, d.

X. Equipment

Choose equipment that adds to Intelligence, Spirit and Stamina. Spirit can be less important for regen of mana due to life tap, but health regen is always nice. Since WoW warlocks like to hurt themselves Stamina is always important, and having Intelligence helps keep your mana pool nice and big.

Hate Management (also called Threat Management)
You will have to learn to be skilled at balancing the monster hate between you and the Tank (in groups or raids) or your minion (when soloing). You need to learn how to back off when the monster is attacking you so that your minion or tank can taunt the monsters away from you. Stop casting spells, and/or use whatever Taunt abilities your minion might have. Learn which spells really make monsters angry and factor that in before you use them. Searing Pain is a major aggro builder, use when the mob is at half health or less, or run the risk of the mob seeing you as a major threat can coming over to cave your skull in.

XI. Playing the Warlock

Now that you know the basics of the Warlock, you have to learn how to play the class. At the start of combat, you will likely want to cast your Dots and tell your minion to attack the enemy. Next, you will cast other spells and possibly Life Drain to bring your health back up. Then, if you want a Soul Shard, you will need to start channeling Drain Soul right before the monster dies.