This is the first of a new series of articles on the warlock class that will show you how to DOMINATE as a Warlock in Raids and Instances. I’ll be covering the various builds that a Warlock can use, weighing the pros and cons of each, enabling you decide just how to DOMINATE the rest of the competition.

I have to mention that the builds that I will be covering are for PvE (PvP builds may be covered at a later date).

Getting to 80 started here for me: 70 Warlock Leveling Build

As I leveled , I added (In this order): Improved Life Tap(x2), Improved HealthStone(x2), Bane(x5) and Soul Siphon(x1) as my final Talent. This is based on my style of play and is by no means the only way.

The key talents in this build include:
Demonic Aegis: increases the effectiveness of Fel Armor by 30%.
Mana Feed: critical if you want to be able to just keep on keeping on. (OOM pet = Dead Warlock)
Demonic Knowledge / Fel Synergy: great win-win combo that gives you more DPS.
Improved Demonic Tactics / Demonic Pact: again a winning talent combo. More crit for your pet and your DPS gets a 10% boost.
Metamorphosis: the all-in-one “Oh S*&^!” button (600% armor + 20% DPS)

How to use this build:

This build is very reliant on your Fel Guard and uses him as a main tank. His main purpose is Agro and buffing your stats with DPS as an added bonus. Emphasis is on survivability with Metamorphosis as your ace-in-the-hole.

Send in the Fel Guard, then start DoTs (Curse of Agony first, Corruption followed by Immolate). Once the DoTs are on, you have a few options:
- Finish it faster with Shadow Bolt: Good for named (Non-Elite),single pull mobs, or a bad pull.
- Life Tap/Drain Life while you send your pet on the next target. If mobs are close enough you can do this all night and never stop to eat or drink, and still finish the fight at 95% health and mana.

When you focus on a single mob at a time, your Fel Guard should virtually never loose agro. If you are picking up mobs back to back, then they should be agroing on you at 15-20% health and practically dying at your feet (decreasing the “travel time” to go and loot them :)   ).

There are only 3 reasons that you should be getting hit:

  • Mobs are under 15% health and they are bringing their loot to you as they die.
  • A bad pull.  One trick is to get close to your demon since he will AoE hit and Taunt them off of you. Remember that both Cleave(/6sec) and Anguish(/5sec) only have melee range.
  • Dead demon, in which case you want to Metamorphosis and re-summon using Fel Concentration before DoTing them all up. With ~10K armor (at level 70) he can take a licking and keep on ticking. Besides a dead pet is preferable to a dead Warlock. Note: newly summoned demon has 0 agro built up, act accordingly.

For Bosses and Elites,

The strategy is slightly different. Again, your Fel Guard is tanking them but this time you have to slow down your DPS and stretch out the fight. Start with Demonic Empowerment, this will give your pet a head start with agro generation. After your 3 DoTs are on (CoA, Corruption and Immolate), concentrate on healing your pet and wait for your DoTs to run their course. Healing your pet doesn’t count towards global agro and he should be able to keep the Elite on him. Renew your DoTs as they expire, rinse and repeat until the mob is dead. If you happen to draw agro, you should immediately hit SoulShatter. If you do it a 2nd time, Metamorphosis and let loose with everything you’ve got. The key to this type of fight really is LESS DPS.

Timed properly, the above strategy can easily take down Mobs that have 2, 3, even 4 times your health. And still leave you with almost full health and mana at the end of the fight.

Let’s face it, the Fel hunter is weak, Succubus is useless, the Imp has no armor and Big Blue(Voidwalker) is about as fast as molasses going uphill in -30 weather and he just can’t hack it! … Go Fel Guard ! ! ! Truly a DOMINATING Solo Build, and as far as I’m concerned, the fastest way to get to 80.

Macros

To this you might want to add the following 2 macros that will help maximize your DPS and get you out of a tight jam.

This macro will pop both of your trinkets, your racial special (if you’re an Orc) and cast Metamorphosis. Note: 1) that trinkets and racial specials do not trigger the global cool down so they can be chained in a macro, while instant cast spells cannot; 2) if any of the spells/trinkets are on cool down, they simply will not pop and the macro moves on to the next line. Basically another enhanced version of the “Oh S#*@!” button.
————————————–
#showtooltip Metamorphosis
#show Metamorphosis
/use 13
/stopcasting
/use 14
/stopcasting
/cast Amplify Curse
/stopcasting
/cast Blood Fury
/stopcasting
/cast Metamorphosis
—————————————-

This will allow you to get the most out of your pet in prolonged fights and allow you to maximize your  DPS in the long run.
—————————————-
#showtooltip Shadow Bolt
#show Shadow Bolt
/cast Demonic Empowerment
/stopcasting
/cast Blood Fury
/stopcasting
/cast Shadow Bolt
—————————————-

This should get you to 80 faster then you can say “Arthas, I’m coming for YOU!” … well maybe not, but it will definitely increase your survivability along the way and help you knock down every quest in record time.

Next week I’ll be covering Armor selection, discussing its pros and cons as well as the viability of a Demonology build in Raids and instances, so go out and DOMINATE!