Warlock Leveling Guide
Last Update: Dec 2009 aka 3.3.0
This guide is still accurate as of 3.3.3 (Mar 2010)
This guide is simplified for people who want as much information as they can get as fast as possible. Good for you, this is how a Warlock works. If you want to discuss something or have a question not answered, post in this thread and we will get to it. I will reveiw this thread every couple days and update the main posts, but we have several extremely able members who can answer your questions.
If the warlock is your first character, this guide is not meant for you. It will help, but there are things in here that require a knowledge of game mechanics. I'm sorry. World of Warcraft - English (NA) Forums -> Forum Index will have more answers for you, especially in the Warlock Class section.
A quick reminder. If you have an opinion about this guide, or a response to a question, the phrases "retard" "l2play" or anything to do with someone's intellect are not appropriate responses and will be reported dealt with. We can be adults and give reasons for our disagreements.
Lastly, Jame's Alliance and Horde Leveling Guides (also available as an add-on!) are amazing and best of all free. I highly recommend the guide in conjunction with the new questing interface as they work very well together.
***CHANGE LOG***
3.3 Update - Changed 1-29 spec (more dps), updated all Affliction talents to include Improved Felhunter (now a dps boost), added a suggested 35-55 talent pick order, added some more information to leveling as Destruction.
3.2.2 Update - Renamed a bunch of sections to make more sense, moved "Nightfall" information paragraph from 1-29 to 30-54 section. Updated level 40+ pet use. Added macros and suggested ways to use your Felhunter better.
Skip this section if you don't know what I mean.
From 1-29
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#IZ0GchkZVM
Glyphs: Lifetap and Unending Breath
12 Points into Demonology, then move into Destruction
@30, respec to
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#IcxbbhMho
Glyphs: Lifetap, Siphon Life and Unending Breath
ending up at @54
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#IfxrbhMhoiA0hk
Preferred order of talent choices based on DPS gain:
Shadow Mastery, Eradication, Improved Fel Hunter, Contagion, UA, Pandemic, Malediction
Decision time: Do you want to try something different?
"Yeah, I hear a lot about Demonology." Give this spec a shot:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#IcbZ0GchkAdi0sxz
Glyphs: Lifetap, Felguard, Unending Breath, and Drain Soul
Getting to this @71
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#Ifxrbz0hoZ0GchkAdi0sxz
Glyphs: Lifetap, Felguard, Unending Breath, Drain Soul
Then whatever you want.
"NO WAY IM OP!" Don't respec.
Getting to this @70
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#IfxrburhoiA0hkt0M
Glyphs: Lifetap, Siphon Life, Unending Breath, and Drain Soul
Then do whatever you want.
This section of the guide is for people who want 1-79 as simply as possible with as little fuss as possible. The spec choices reflect this and will be explained. Yes, you can go ~ANY SPEC~ 1-79 if you'd like, but this is impractical for many reasons. See the level range to find out why. Here we go.
Do this, all the time, or you're a scrub:
Spellstone - we're using dots the whole way. Spellstone makes them better. Firestone is not as potent.
Demon Armor / Fel Armor - If you do not have your armor up, you fail. Its free buffs.
Healthstones - This is your first emergency button. We all make mistakes, this is how you learn from them without dying.
Soulstones - If you are smart and don't fight in the middle of spawn points, this eliminates your downtime.
Soulshard management: "Whine! I have too many!"
Macro:
Code:
/run i="Soul Shard"d=GetItemCount(i)-20 for x=0,4 do for y=1,GetContainerNumSlots(x) do if (d>0) then l=GetContainerItemLink(x,y) if l and GetItemInfo(l)==i then PickupContainerItem(x,y) DeleteCursorItem() d=d-1 end end end end
See this text "GetItemCount(i)-20"? Replace 20 with the number of shards you want to keep. Click this macro once to destroy all but this number.
That gut feeling when you think you're going to die:
Suppress it. Embrace it. Live it. A warlock lives by constantly taking damage and shrugging it off like nothing. If you ever feel comfortable of your survival, you are not pulling enough mobs, or are extremely overgeared for the area. A Warlock is the only class in the game who can pick a fight with 20% HP and come out with full Health, Mana, and a field strewn with corpses. The only specs who comes close to this are lvl 75 Prot Warriors with Enraged Regeneration and level 73 Shadow Priests with Dispersion and Meditation. Even then, you can mop the floor with both of them.
1-29:
I'm not going to lie to you. The first 14 levels of your life as a warlock will be a living hell. You will have mana issues, health issues, and you will die a lot. This turns around at level 14 when you get Drain Life.
Purchases:
Lesser Magic Wand http://www.wowhead.com/?item=11287
Greater Magic Wand http://www.wowhead.com/?item=11288
Bloodscalp Channeling Staff http://www.wowhead.com/?item=1998
Spec:
End up at level 29 with this spec
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#IZ0GchkZVM
Glyphs: Lifetap and Unending Breath
How to play:
The spec doesn't work until you get Sacrifice (16) and Drain life (14), so until then you will have to use your wand a lot. As I have said, the worst parts of leveling a warlock are these first levels. Here's how you manage:
-Only do green quests (this applies to all classes - it makes the first 20 levels that much easier)
-Do two starting areas, such as Tirisfal Glades until level 7, then migrate over to Silvermoon/Ghostlands until 11 or 12, then back to Tirisfal/Silverpine.
-Dot (Corruption) Dot (Curse of Agony) Wand till it's dead.
-Your wand is ridiculously overpowered at this level, it won't take long.
~If you are fast at moving and know the quests, you should reach 16 in 12 hours or less, not factoring in Heirloom gear~
Now that you're 16, the keys to this spec are your Wand, Corruption, Curse of Agony, Drain Life, and your Voidwalker. Leveling is all about synergy, so here is how this spec works together to make you a badass:
1) Your damage output heals your pet.
2) Your pet actively prevents damage being done to you by sacrificing part of its health.
3) Demon Armor prevents 25% of physical damage taken.
4) Your pet absorbs 20% of your damage taken.
Summary: You kill shit and heal your pet. Your pet uses this healing to make you take less damage. You kill more shit. It's a glorious cycle of violence.
Your voidwalker should have all abilities turned off and Soul Link active. "But Gherkin, he's a tank!" No. Smack yourself. Your pet is a dumb shit. He will stand in one place and tank the monster while you could be running around killing things. The second he gets aggro is the second you will a) wait for the mob to die, b) let him despawn because you go out of range, or c) pull more mobs because he stood in another mobs path. End result: if he gets aggro, you will have down time, either passively (you died) or actively (you wasted too much mana/hp trying to survive the **** up). Your pet serves two purposes: minor dps and shields. That's it.
Let's say you're doing a quest that requires you to kill boars for meat. You walk into an area with boars and it should go kind of like this: Corruption and Agony on 3 or so mobs. Your pet is running out to smack on the first one because he's set to defensive - remember that with his Taunt disabled, he will not put out enough damage to hold aggro over your dots. The other two boars are running at you, each with both dots. Hit Lifetap and Sacrifice to keep your mana up and prevent the damage. Cast drain life on the last one a few times until your hp is at or near full, then use your wand to finish him and the second mob off.
Boom, three mobs dead in around 24 seconds. Maybe a bit longer. Do this a few times until you get the hang of it, then start increasing the number of mobs you pull at a time. You should be able to handle 6 or 7 green-level mobs without heirloom gear. Key word - green mobs. Yellow mobs hit too hard, causing more damage (hit harder and more frequently due to less misses and more crits, i.e. tank mechanics) than you can safely handle in numbers.
If you happen to fight Casters (Defias Pillagers for example), they are your priority. Instead of Drain Life the last one, drain life the caster. Lastly, if you find that you can't pull this off, work Immolate into your first few mobs for extra damage.
Start thinking about your gear. You should be able to obtain 100 spell power by lvl 32 without much work, and it is highly recommended that you do so. Here's a link for things you can get between 20 and 30: http://www.wowhead.com/?items=4&filter=qu=2:3;minle=30;maxle=42;ub=9;cr=123;crs=1;crv=0#0+3-2+1
EDIT: Some people are having a hard time getting 100 spell power by lvl 32. Scroll down to the advanced topics if you are as well.
RULES OF DOT-DOT-TAB - DO NOT:
-Go below 50% health
-Go below 50% mana
-Let your pet go below 50% health
-Cast Sacrifice before a mob reaches you. Only when you have 2+ beating on you
-Fight inside a spawn point. Sometimes respawns are instant, which can get painful very fast.
-Cast Fear. Ever. It causes the mobs to unpredictably run off in a random direction, usually grabbing more mobs in the process who you did not necessarily want, see, or prepare for. Same with instances.
Why not Affliction?
Affliction's talent tree features minor damage upgrades with zero survivability options. You rely on spell power gear, and there isn't a lot of it this early on. You need to get used to being hit, because despite wearing cloth a warlock gets hit a lot. If you go affliction 1-29, you are learning how to be a shadow priest, not a warlock.
Some people advocate sticking with Affliction the whole way up, because its simpler and doesn't force you to respec. I disagree with this because of how lvl 30 works. You play Affliction and intentionally gimp yourself from 1-25 until you get all of your main arsenel of spells, and these spells become powerful enough to matter. Then you start getting spell power gear and have a few less problems. Suddenly you hit 30 and you're invincible. I don't like playing this way, as the transition is alarming and hard to get used to. If you have heirloom gear and run dungeons frequently, or if you don't mind dinging 30 and wondering if you missed a "GOD MODE ENABLED" message, feel free to stick to affliction the entire way. Scroll to the next post for your spec.
Why not Destruction?
Destruction's talent tree features major damage upgrades with zero survivability options. You will run out of mana all the time, use fear far too often, and only kill one monster at a time (two if you're good). If you go destruction 1-29, you are learning how to play a very bad mage, not a warlock.
30-54:
Respec time. You now know how to dot multiple mobs and survive, now its time to turn on extreme mode.
Purchases:
Demons Deck (new weapon at 40)
Dreamweave or Shadoweave armor
Spec:
Respec to
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#IcxbbhMho
And it should look like this at 55
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#IfxrbhMhoqAohk
Glyphs: Siphon Life, Lifetap and Unending Breath
Edit: If you feel like it, you can swap the points in Dark Pact and Improved Felhunter to Improved Howl of Terror. This makes it instant, but still falls under the "Try not to use fear" category. A good emergency button, but chances are you won't need it. At 42 you will use the Felhunter instead of the Succubus. Improved Felhunter means he never runs out of mana. Dark Pact means you can eat his mana and watch him fill it up again for you. Less net health cost. You only need one point in Improved Fel Hunter - two points means he shadow bites so frequently that he may pull aggro on you, and this is not the goal. One is sufficient.
How to Play:
You will be doing the exact same thing as you did before, except now you have the Succubus out. Turn off Seduction but leave her other abilities on. Pet mana has been fixed enough that she will not go OOM, and Soothing Kiss will ensure she's not tanking. Remember, pet tank = downtime so if she holds aggro even with Soothing Kiss going off, disable Lash of Pain as well. The major difference here is that now instead of pressing a button to stay alive (Sacrifice) it happens passively (Siphon Life) and you can get more healing out of Drain Life (Fel Concentration, Soul Siphon) and more mana (Imp Life Tap, Imp Drain Soul). There is no change to your strategy.
At 42, switch to your Felhunter. Keep Devour Magic and Shadow Bite on auto. Spell lock is turned off (in case you need a silence!). Shadow Bite is a good damaging ability that hits harder because you dot everything.
A word on Spell lock: If you use this ability on a caster, they will run towards you making you have to run less distance to loot them. Efficiency!
A word on Devour Magic: Devour Magic will automatically remove painful buffs from enemies as well. If you get adventurous, disable this ability and use it on yourself to dispel harmful effects such as DoTs or debuffs. Will not remove Curses, Poisons, Stuns, or Diseases. Macro:
Code:
/cast [target=player, modifier:alt] Devour Magic; Devour Magic
Alt Click for self dispel. Click for target dispel.
The limitation of this spec is a big reliance on Spell Power gear. Spell power is your most important stat because it increases your damage AND healing. Your goal should be 100 spell power by level 32 (extremely easy to achieve if you know where to look). You should already have a good start on it, but heres the link again.
http://www.wowhead.com/?items=4&filter=qu=2:3;minle=30;maxle=42;ub=9;cr=123;crs=1;crv=0#0+3-2+1
Here's your next step:
http://www.wowhead.com/?items=4&filter=qu=2:3;minle=42;maxle=55;ub=9;cr=123;crs=1;crv=0
Note that you can get 100 spell power without going into a dungeon. It is just as easy, but requires you to think about where you will be questing more. You will use the Demons Deck weapon until Outland, so if you want to enchant it you can.
You should be seeking to double your spell power every 15 levels. This means getting to 200 spell power at 45-47, 400 at 60-62 (this is a bit tougher) and 800 at 75-77 (very easy).
Nightfall Procs:
When your Corruption or Drain Life tick, they have a chance to give you a buff called Nightfall. It has a sound effect and displays these awesome black flecks on your character. It means your next Shadow bolt is instant. You will get a lot of these. A LOT. Here's when to use them:
-When you are comfortable with the amount of damage you are healing
-When you are comfortable with your current mana level
-When you want another mob to pull
A word of caution - Nightfall makes shadow bolt an extremely attractive button to press. Resist this urge because like many things it can get you killed. Shadow bolt is the least efficient single-target spell in the game. (This is intentional but I won't explain why as it requires another post by itself). When spec'd correctly with sufficient gear, this is an amazing spell. Unfortunately, this is not the case while leveling. It provides a decent burst of damage but is not your main source. As such there are times to use it and times where you shouldn't. Here's a few "shouldn't" scenarios to get you thinking the correct way.
Scenario 1: You have a lot of mobs on you and are spamming drain life. Your health is slowly dropping. Sacrifice is on cooldown. Pressing shadow bolt means 2 seconds of no heals, which can be unrecoverable if your hp is low enough.
Scenario 2: You have a lot of mobs on you and are spamming drain life. Your health is fine, but your mana is low. If you cast shadow bolt, thats 2 drain life spells you no longer have the mana for. Which means you life tap. Which means 2 seconds of no heals and a chunk of your HP missing.
Play with it. If you find that you have a lot less mana than normal, then the way you just used it is not a good idea. Myself, I use it like my pet - added damage if I need the target to die a bit sooner. So if I Corruption and Agony first, the pet will do the rest of the damage. The second can have Immolate as well to do the rest of the damage. The third I can drain. The fourth I can shadow bolt if I get a proc. The rest I drain as well.
As you level, you will reach a point where you can choose between two or three talents in order to fill out the "template". There is no right answer, pick what you like, but this order will result in more damage:
Shadow Mastery (More damage output, all spells)
Eradication (More spells out)
Improved Fel Hunter (More pet damage)
Contagion (Prerequisite to UA/Pandemic, minor dps upgrade)
UA / Pandemic (Replace Immolate with a better dot, two hardest hitting spells can crit)
Malediction (Minor dps upgrade, major crit upgrade with Pandemic)
Why not Demonology?
You start to get a lot of spell power in the 30's, and your pet doesn't increase as fast as you do. Buffing your pet at this point is like taking your stats and saying "Hi, can you make these worth less to me? I think they're too strong." It's still viable, but you will get more out of an Affliction build.
Why not Destruction?
At this point, Destruction starts losing its mana problems because you hit harder. It's just as viable as Affliction if you like that playstyle, but I just showed you how to dot and run and drain tank. This is the easymode guide, so why should I retrain you? One more thing about Destruction is that it's very crit focused - the more crit you have, the better it works. The problem is that as soon as you gain a level, your crit % goes down. This is how scaling works, and its working AGAINST you as a Destruction lock. More in the hardmode section.
55+:
This is where you can branch your playstyle. Blizzard nerfed the shit out of Outland so mobs that used to be challenging can still be steamrolled. You can continue the Affliction path or swap to a Felguard build. I'll explain how they both work, but the recommendation of people in this thread is Affliction, providing you can maintain your spell power (i.e. enchants and dungeon or heirloom gear). You can do Elite quests in both specs.
Purchases:
Nothing. Quest rewards will kick the ass of anything you can buy, or is worth buying at least.
Demonology Option:
Respec to
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#IcZ0GchkAdi0sgz
And it should look like this at level 72
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#Ifxrbz0hZ0GchkAdi0sgz
Glyphs: Felguard, Lifetap, Drain Soul and Unending Breath
How to Play:
You now have the Felguard. He will do exactly half your damage from now on. The main reasons for this build are Elite quests and an excellent stat boost. First, in Outland there are a lot of elite quests, such as the Matriarch, Terrokarantula, Drillmaster, and the Nagrand Mastery quests. In these cases your Felguard will be your tank and you defeat these mobs through attrition - one dot, spamming Health Funnel, taking care of adds yourself. Secondly, the talent Demonic Knowledge lets you hit just as hard as you did in Azeroth despite the health increases mobs get in Outland.
For the Felguard, you can keep everything except Anguish (the aggro button) on auto. He will never need healing on normal mobs and if left to his own devices will usually win 1v1 against mobs. Your strategy is the exact same as it was - Corruption, Agony, (sometimes Immolate), and Drain Life as necessary. Since the quests in Outland are very different from what you were used to, killing gobs and gobs of enemies is not as important. However, it is still important to kill everything in your path, rather than run around the mobs to avoid fighting, as it is a direct experience gain with zero loss. Seriously, your Felguard hits like a truck.
One strategy that may become fun is the use of Decimation. The combo starts like this: Dot the mobs, have the pet attack one, then when a mob hits 40% hp, wind up a shadow bolt. It will impact the mob as they cross the 20% threshold and sometimes kill it. You get Decimation and have the ability to Soul Fire crit for 60% of a mob's life. Soul Fire a new mob, and hit Agony, and Shadow Bolt. This will require a bit of experimentation, but you will find a groove where you are casting Soul Fire on every single mob. Plus, if you play on a PVP server, those nasty Death Knights and Ret Paladins won't know what hit them. If this does not appeal to you, fill out the Affliction tree with these two points as per above. It means you reach Siphon Life at 71 instead of 73.
Don't forget to start using Fel Armor when you get it.
There are a lot of questions about why I choose 55 as the switchover point, here they are with answers:
Q: Why not go Felguard at 50?
A: He has no abilities and scales poorly. Thus he has no HP and dies a lot.
Q: Why don't you pick talents like Molten Core or Demonic Resilience?
A: You don't have incinerate until 64, and it relies on Immolate to prop it up. Molten Core sucks. Demonic Resilience is a no brainer because the options are 10% crit or ~200 spell power.
Q: Why Felguard at all? I was doing just fine.
A: Elites are easy mode, and you might want a change of pace. It's also kind of fun if you can learn how to chain Decimation procs.
Elites are easy for you now. Here's how to down a simple one, such as the Rock Flayer Matriarch.
Send in your Felguard with all abilities up. Wait until he is at 75% life and start channelling Health Funnel. If he seems to be taking a lot of damage, cast Curse of Weakness on the elite. Otherwise, cast Curse of Elements. Continue Health Funnel until the elite is at 75%, then start casting dots, filling the felguard to full anytime he hits 50% hp. After 2 minutes you should win.
The harder ones, such as Overlord or the dual naga's in Zangarmarsh require more finesse from you, but its a fun learning experience. I won't ruin it for you. Always be aware of the ground (your pet standing in stuff means it might die) and the abilities of the target in question. The south Naga has a knockback, so make sure the area is clear, or figure out how to reposition your pet so he gets knocked in the correct direction. The north Naga is a caster, so be careful of the frozen circle spell. Overlord summons Infernals.
Your last talent point before the final stretch will be Siphon Life. The final talent that matters. You now have Siphon Life AND a Felguard. Effectively, you are invincible. There's nothing I can say or do that won't tell you more than you already know. The rest of your points can be spent as you like (I recommend Improved Demonic Tactics, Decimation, and then Demonic Pact - these are the only "quick wins" for dps gain). ENJOY!
Affliction Option:
You will already be:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#IfxrbhMhoqAohk
And it should look like this at level 65
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#IfxrburhoiA0hkt0M
Glyphs: Siphon Life, Lifetap, Drain Soul and Unending Breath
You know how to play this, so I won't bore you with details.
One thing to note is that the transition to Outland will mean you pull fewer mobs at a time. This is because they gain more HP and hit harder (25% more each, approximately). For example, Yetis in Winterspring hit me for 250-300 or so. Bonechewer Orcs will hit you for 350-400. Your gear won't improve right away, but will improve. Just take it a bit slow until you approach 300+ spell power, then let her rip. If you already have 300+ spell power, then enjoy being a steamroller.
Elites: You will have a harder time with Elites, but don't worry too much. Skip them, move to the next zone, then come back and solo them. Send in your Voidwalker, wait until the void has 50% hp, Health Funnel once and fully DoT the mob (Elements > Agony for elites). Spam Shadow Bolt. Your pet will heal to full and you will get aggro. Keep Corruption and UA on the target, use Haunt on Cooldown once you get it, and spam Drain Life. You will win.
Unstable Affliction. Use this instead of Immolate from now on, and keep your playstyle the same.
Haunt. When you hit Northrend, the mobs jump up in difficulty again, so you will need a bit more healing. Corruption, Agony, Pet. Corruption, Agony, UA. Corruption, Agony, Haunt. Life Tap once or twice so that haunt heals the tap. Repeat forever.
Your final talents are up to you. Death's Embrace is useful 75+ when the mobs have 12000 hp. Improved Shadow Bolt is useful if you enjoy Nightfall procs. Soul Link and Demonic Aegis are more spell power and more survival.
Why not Destruction?
Destruction works well in Outland, but again it's a matter of ease and learning. You already know how to play two specs, why learn a third where you single target mobs really quickly? Seriously though, if you want to play this spec for a while don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Between mana cost reduction early in the tree to Improved Soul Leech the spec is more viable now than it ever has been. The only reason its not more popular is because once you figure out Affliction... well, you've seen it in action.
Start with this:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#IZZEbhVbcuVsVd
Glyphs: Conflagrate, Life Tap, Unending Breath, Drain Soul
End with this:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#IcZ0MZEbhVbcuVsVfot
Glyphs: Conflagrate, Life Tap, Unending Breath, Drain Soul
Playstyle: Immolate, Conflag, next target. Immolate, Chaos Bolt (replace with Shadow Bolt if you don't have it yet), next target. Repeat until OOM and dangerously low on HP (30%). Add Curse of Agony after Immolate if you need extra damage. Use Succubus as you did 30-54. Grab food instead of water because food returns more hp than water does mp at this level, and life tap makes this more efficient.
Don't take Empowered Imp - 3 Talent Points for 3% crit or less is not very good. (Imp has 5% unbuffed, which translates into ~3% for you) Also, Imp has to stand to cast - this is the same as a Succubus or Voidwalker tanking, and we know how that part works.
The First Goal: 100 spell power by 32
This ensures that you will have zero problems leveling the rest of the way through to Outland. While this is not a required number, it is a ballpark figure illustrating the important of Spell Power on your gear. Spell Power not only increases the damage you do, but also decreases the damage you take. If you can kill a mob faster, it does less damage to you. If you hit harder, Siphon Life heals harder. If you have very low spell power at level 32, you will take a lot of damage, spend mana re-casting Corruption on targets that should have died already, and Life Tap more to regain this mana. It becomes very inefficient. The more you can get, the better. If you can't get 100 by 32, don't fret, but Spell Power should be the only stat you look at.
Here is a list of gear that you can get, and where to get it, by level 30. Most of it is attainable by 27. Note that there will not be Dungeon or Heirloom gear here because not everyone has uber 80's or assistance.
This is a wowhead profile I created showing easy to find gear from either the AH, Quests, or Tailoring. The profile shows 93 spell power but it is possible to have upwards of 116 using only AH, Quest, or Tailoring gear.
http://www.wowhead.com/?profile=14373828
Here is the link I used to find these items:
http://www.wowhead.com/?items&filter=qu=2:3;maxle=40;ub=9;cr=123;crs=1;crv=0;gm=3;gb=1;wt=123:77;wtv=10 0:-100
You can make more than enough gold by simply mining Copper Ore while riding around to your farm/quest locations.
Most of the time, money should not be too much of an issue, but availability is. If you are having a hard time with finding some of these items, there are several things you can do instead.
Enchant Weapon: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=18259
Oil: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=20746 (Stacks with enchants!)
Lastly, here is one more profile fully decked out with the best you can find, including enchants. 204 Spell Power.
http://www.wowhead.com/?profile=14373869
Glyphs, and why the suggestions are the right ones:
Here is a list of every possible glyph you might use in your quest to 80 and why you shouldn't use them. If you feel it in your gut that I am wrong here, I suggest you give it a go, as it just might work for you.
Corruption - More free shadow bolts means more desire to cast shadow bolt. I said above, I'll say it again. Without all the talents to prop up Shadow Bolt, it's the worst spell in the game. Casting it is stupid without the spec (usually raid spec), a loss of mana (extremely inefficient), and a loss of health (to recover the mana). More time life tapping is less time staying alive via drain life.
Curse of Agony - Mobs won't be alive longer than 24 seconds, so why extend it to 28 seconds?
Haunt - This is a raiding glyph.
Health Funnel - Just kill the things surrounding you while/before your pet tanks the elite, then you don't have to worry about pushback.
Healthstone/Soulstone - If you died, you failed. An extra 30% should not save you - this is a crutch, and you should not rely on crutches.
Immolate - Periodic damage won't tick fully to get maximum benefit from this glyph
Incinerate/Shadow Bolt - Direct damage is not how you level.
Voidwalker - He should not be getting hit.
Why Affliction will ~always~ beat out Destruction and Demonology:
Quite a simple answer, if not immediately obvious - looting. Destruction and Demo have the capability of killing a mob from range, thus forcing you to walk to it. Affliction lets the mobs beat on you, guaranteeing close proximity to loot quest items, gold, etc. Then you mount up, run into the middle of another camp, and repeat.
And since half your quests require you to walk to point A and get items B, Affliction lets you leave a trail of bodies going there for you to loot going back. Destro would force a zig zag pattern that is not efficient to retrace.
Other Topics:
Suppression (Talent)
When you level before Felguard, you have a 5% chance to miss. Less since you should be killing things at least a level below you. This is no big deal because you can simply recast your spell and continue. When your Felguard shows up, he does half your dps. This means you effectively have twice the chance to miss (him missing and you missing). This is why we take this talent now instead of earlier.
Pawn:
Some people use this tool to compare gear and have mentioned its use. You can download it from curse:
http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/pawn.aspx
And the values you want to use are here:
Haste Rating=1, Crit Rating=0.7, Spirit=0.5, SpellPower=1.6, Stamina=0.5
And the copy paste code is here:
Code:
(Pawn: v1: "Warlock: Leveling": SpellHasteRating=1, SpellCritRating=0.5, Spirit=0.5, SpellPower=2.0, YellowSocket=10, RedSocket=10, BlueSocket=10, Stamina=0.5 )
This isnt wrote by me;
Credits goes to:
Jame's Leveling Guide
Gherkin @ MMO Champion for this article/guide
Me for the layout etc.
NOTE: THIS IS JUST A LEAK!!
Post a Comment