Best Warlock Leveling Spec
86- Best Ret Paladin Leveling Spec updated Fri Sep 25 2009 12:07 pm EDT
Looking for the Best Ret Paladin Leveling Spec? Here's a 1-80 guide on how to spend your talent points while leveling a Ret Paladin. - 2 years ago
Best Hunter Leveling Spec for WotLK
- Gorilla Talent Spec
I'd like to make a quick post on how I recommend spending your Gorilla's Talent points. The gorilla is a great pet for leveling, and how you spend his talent points will make a big difference as to...
- Best Hunter Leveling Spec WotLK
I've found that the best hunter leveling spec in WotLK is still Beast Mastery. The reason for this is that you can maintain your range from mobs/enemies, while your pet holds aggro and does...
Introduction to the Warlock Class
In World of Warcraft, the Warlock class is great at dealing damage through their shadow and fire spells. Before I get started on the best warlock leveling spec, I'd like to get some basic information out of the way for the newbies out there.
Warlocks are a caster/ranged class, meaning that your damage will generally be done from a distance (while your pet keeps the enemies away from you).
Some of the advantages of being a Warlock include:
- Having a pet (good for dealing damage and tanking the enemies you're fighting).
- High damage
- The ability to Drain Life from enemies and transfer it to yourself
- Extremely easy to level up
The only real drawback that I can think of is that you have to wear cloth armor (does almost no damage mitigation).
Spending your Talent Points
I'd like to point out that this is NOT the standard 'cookie cutter' spec used by most people to level their Warlock. However, I've leveled two Warlocks to 80, and have used a variation of this spec each time... I'm in the process of leveling a 3rd Warlock at the moment, and this is the spec I'm currently using.
It is important to note that with this spec you will using your Voidwalker (the demon that I affectionately call 'Blueberry').
Talents
Levels 10-11
2/2 Improved Curse of Agony
Levels 12-14
3/3 Suppression
Levels 15-16
2/2 Improved Drain Soul
Levels 17-18
2/2 Improved Life Tap
Levels 19-20
2/2 Soul Siphon
Levels 21-23
3/3 Fel Concentration
Levels 24-28
5/5 Improved Corruption
Level 29
1/2 Grim Reach
Level 30
1/1 Siphon Life
Level 31
2/2 Grim Reach
Levels 32-33
2/2 Improved Fear
Level 34
1/3 Empowered Corruption
Levels 35-39
5/5 Shadow Mastery
Levels 40-44
5/5 Contagion
Levels 45-47
3/3 Malediction
Levels 48-49
3/3 Empowered Corruption
Level 50
1/1 Unstable Affliction
Level 51
1/1 Pandemic
Levels 52-54
3/3 Death's Embrace
At this point I switch over the Demonology Tree, as I don't care to pick up any more talents in the Affliction Tree.
Levels 55-57
3/3 Demonic Embrace
Levels 58-59
2/2 Fel Synergy
Levels 60-62
3/3 Fel Vitality
Levels 63-64
2/3 Demonic Brutality
Level 65
1/1 Soul Link
Level 66
3/3 Demonic Brutality
Levels 67-69
3/3 Demonic Aegis
Levels 70-74
5/5 Unholy Power
Level 75
1/1 Mana Feed
Levels 76-77
2/2 Improved Health Funnel
Levels 78-79
2/2 Improved Healthstone
Level 80
Respec to whatever you plan on using for PvP or Raiding!
Zygor Guide Review
- Zygor Guide Review
Is Zygor's the leveling guide for you? Does it live up to the hype? Find out in this in-depth review.
Spell Rotation
While leveling your Warlock you're going to go through a couple of different spell rotations. Your first one will go something like this:
- Cast Immolate
- Curse of Agony
- Corruption
- Life Tap
- Drain Life
- Drain Soul to finish them off when the mob's health gets down to about 15% (to get back mana)
When you reach Level 50 and get the spell Unstable Affliction, your Cast Sequence will go like this:
- Unstable Affliction
- Curse of Agony
- Corruption
- Life Tap
- Drain Life
- Drain Soul to finish them off when the mob gets to about 15% (this will restore some of your mana)
With this Spell Rotation you will finish every fight with just about full Health and Mana.
Suggested Glyphs
Honestly, I don't have a lot of advice to give you with this. At level 30 I would suggest using Glyph of Siphon Life for the improved health return while fighting. Other than that, just use whatever you find the most useful.
For the Minor Glyph I use Glyph of Unending Breath as it saves time when you have to swim. The rest of the Warlock Minor Glyphs are just about useless.
Macros
I use two macros while leveling my Warlocks. One is to start the fight using my Spell that has a cast time (i.e. Immolate or Unstable Affliction):
/petattack
/cast Immolate
/petattack
/cast Unstable Affliction
My other macro casts my DoTs and finishes of my rotation:
/petattack
/castsequence reset=target/combat Curse of Agony, Corruption, Life Tap, Drain Life, Drain Soul
You can have these two macros hot-keyed to make things simple (instead of constantly having to remember your cast sequence and control your pet).
Thanks for checking out my Best Warlock Leveling Spec Guide for WotLK! I hope you found it useful!
- Dugis Daily Guide Review
Can you really do 25 dailies in 2 hours? Check out our review of Dugi's Daily and Event Quest Guide to find out!
vote upvote downsharePrintflag
- Useful (13)
- Funny (2)
- Awesome (5)
- Beautiful (6)
- Interesting
CommentsLoading...
agreed
Thanks guys :)
thanks mate..that surly help me since i noob on the locks :)
Awesome, glad I can be of help! Remember, you don't have to follow my guide exactly... If there's some place that points would be better spent for you, then do it! :)
Thank you verry much for your time to wright this guide down.
I stoped playing wow 1 year ago and have just got a new acc and 1st char to lvl is a warlock i will give the guide a go and let you know how i got on :O) thanks again for your time and safe travels .
Great! I'm really looking forward to hearing how it goes for you!
I'm leveling another Warlock (at 76 atm) and used this spec up until 71... Then I switched to a hybrid spec to get Siphon Life and Felguard (in the Demonology tree) for a change of pace.
This guide is probably the easiest way though... I'm still getting used to my new spec. Haha
Ive almost always been Affliction so always look for them builds tbh might tinker a little around 70 aswell? my low char is now lvl 23 atm called (dotnrot) moonglade my main lock was Varolokkur b/e all moonglade also had a rogue Grimrip what server you on?.
Not bad advice at all. Affliction is good!
I've leveled a fair few to 60 (including a lock)and a couple to 70(pre-WotLK).
I'm currently leveling a lock now and I would add to this a few snippets of my (lack of..)wisdom.
Forget everything but spell power imho.
Intellect, stamina, locks really dont need them whilst leveling. HP and mana are dynamic for a lock and you can muck around with them during fights. Crit is also not dependable enough for consistent speed and ease.
4(5 at a push) mobs your level, all dead quick, finish with almost full mana and hp, thats the key - spell power will do that for you.
Grab anything that is "of healing" gear if you can, it's better than shadow wrath gear. Always look forward at least 20 levels of your level in AH for healing and shadow wrath gear so that you give yourself leeway to get the gear that matters (and it can be bought cheap!). Daggers of healing with spellstone on are just fine with a tome or anything that gives spell power on off hand (until latter levels..)
DEFINATELY get the glyph of life tap, even with no pluses to SPI you should still get 15-20 spell power from it for 40secs every time you life tap. Rotations become short whilst leveling with spell power as high as you can get because you tend to kill them too quickly to fit many spells in.Me at lvl 34, shadow power >140 = double damage on all talented spells, 102dmg a tick instead of 54 on corruption for example (and healing +64 every tick too!) and your pet gets attack bonuses based on your shadow power (I tend to use - Corruption, CoA, lifetap, drain life, drain soul, dead).
The only problem with 4(5) mobs at once is getting in drain soul properly to get the mana back. Even if they have only 2hp left, always get drain soul off if you can, talented, you get back at least double the mana for killing mobs.
I use Necrosis to manage soul shards, otherwise it just gets out of hand....
lvl < 20 ? Use a wand! they are powerful at low levels, especially the enchanter made ones.
I tend to get Fel Synergy 2/2 earlier, it helps Blue stay topped off = well, no healing peace of mind type thing..
Ermm, lots more in my head, but can't get it all down. Apart from I'm so convinced this is the best early level spec that I have my enchanted gold bloodrobe made and it went straight in the bank - staying with my +37 shadow dmg tunic.
REV.
Grim: Cool, I played a lot during vanilla and BC too. Then I quite for awhile when they nerfed warlocks at the beginning of WotLK. I'm on Alliance on the Frostwolf server.
Revenge: Awesome! Thanks for all of the input!
I didn't get into gear too much in this guide... but Spell Power is definitely the way to go. Of course, I'm on a PvP server, so I do stack a lot of Stamina, haha.
As for glyphs, I've heard a lot of people say good things about the Glyph of Spirit tap. I'm using the one that procs Nightfall (and I can't remember its name atm).
I'm actually using the Bind to Account gear on my leveling lock right now... so everything else just gets updated randomly from quest gear. I love the Heirloom Equipment!
No worries,
I was posting in the spirirt of adding to your wisdom, not trying to replace it, hope you took it this way.
As to the gear part - yeah, what I was always looking for was that one post where someone took the time to explain how others make it look so easy. Hard to find them posts...so I thought I would give a helping hand to your good outline, flesh it out some.
Ya, the Glyph of corruption procs nightfall, but it's not the full 10 secs I think.
I was using this too, but after listening to some wisdom decided to respec without nightfall and junk this glyph. It feels nice getting insta-cast shadow bolts all the time, but in practical day to day 20-60 PvE, they always come at the wrong time. Too early and you are busy applying dots, too late and you risk killing your mob before getting drain soul off (a real no-no!)
Completely agree on the "do things differently in PvP" thing and it's good to make the distinction clear.
I just hope I got the "dmg is king" thing across
properly, I see too many of my brother and sister locks with INT/STA gear whilst trotting through 1-60 and thats just wrong. With SPI affecting spell power through glyph of life tap and later FEL ARMOUR in lvl60s this might even have good potential at bumping spell power up several notches.
personally, I'm using drain life/life tap glyphs so far and am happy with these...
REV
Yeah, I definitely appreciate the additional information on here!
I use the drain life glyph too... You can't go wrong with more health back!
Also, I totally agree with the gathering 4 mobs at a time while fighting. I do it for the same reason you mentioned (keeps both of your bars topped off :)
For those of you that use the Spirit Tap Glyph, you'll want to switch your rotation and use Spirit Tap just before aggroing a mob when using Fel Armor because it adds to your spell damage for the fight's duration.
Thanks again Revenge!
Nice input Revenge thanks.
Im one of them who go int/stam :O( but id always done it that way tbh.
ALOT has changed in the year i have been away and all this info is vital to find out at this low lvl it could be a costly mistake if you build wrong or buy the wrong gear so all this is helping me out thanks can u put some info up for and good gear pre lvl 40?.
Im like a noob again im lvl 26 atm but my bro has chars to run instance's so any more info would help from both of you and thanks for the time .
Maybe newbie question but what should be your rotation in an Instance just dot up all mobs???
@Grim, sure no problem (Alliance though..)
So advice for pre-40.....
Nightwatch pantaloons (legs)- reward from the morbent fel quest in darkshire +8int +11spwr
Torch of holy flame (offhand)- same quest as above +5spi +5spwr
Tome of the dawn and Mystic tome (offhand) - crafted +spwr items lvl20 and 15 respectively.
Any gear "of healing"
Any gear "of shadow wrath"
Amulet of truesight - JCmade, a massive (at lvl 29) 2.99% +hit (this is almost = to 3/3 in supression)
Citrine ring of rapid healing - JCmade +6spi +6spwr
Orb or Dar'orahil (offhand)- Warlock quest reward +5int +12spwr (Have to kill a 40 elite demon for it, but I managed this at 36)
use your firestone(until you get spellstone)/spellstone at all times. Keep raking the AH for better daggers/staves of healing/shadow wrath - they can be tricky to get hold of..
Stick as many +sta, +hp enchants on your gear as you can (low level scrolls are not that expensive on AH) and if you are rolling in money, you can get +40 (I think)spellpower enchant on a 1-h @lvl35. If you find nothing - stick the best armour kits you can afford on your gear.
Forget int imho, I don't see the point of mana that you never use and crit does little spikes in your dmg vs spwr which permanently multiplies it by x1.5-x2
Get that glyph of life tap ASAP if you go the dmg route. One quick tap before a battle and you'll get 40secs of +20ish spwr.
I was about +80 spwr and +150shadow dmg around lvl35. It kills things. Real fast.
I also recommend 0 tradeskills. If you want to be, say, a tailor - provide for it, collect the raw mats and store them, but don't start it. Do it much much later. I recommend skinning+ herb/mine. 100-300g by lvl 20 is doable with all the gear you need and 16 slot bags if you take the time to put all your goods in AH regularly.
Hope this helps.
REV
Thanks alot will have a better look 2morrow when i get on as been to football today thanks again for your time .
PS btw FORE THE HORDE :o)p will look for the horde side equiv when i have more time.
Awesome Calith!
I'm happy people are finding this useful :o)
Just an update .....
Finding the guide amazing ;O)
right up to lvl 47 atm getting there had to change my name mind someone tagged me :O( new name is Hikate (Moonglade) go have a look see what u think of the build only 1 i missed out was 2nd skill in fear Empowered Corruption i filled out early seems to be going well for me extra spell dmg is upto 187 atm without extras is that good for this lvl ?
Looks like you're doing good Grim!
I'd say 187 is pretty good spell power at level 47. I can't remember what mine was, but it starts jumping pretty rapidly once you get to Outland :o)
Hi again.
Ya , 187 is definitely good, it's hard and/or very expensive to go further at your level (I know, I'm there too ;-))
I'm at exactly the same level with 252 shadow dmg and 183 spell pwr.
If you don't have it yet, I highly recommend getting the amazing "clamette magnifique", I always do cooking and this level 40 quest reward will enable you to make food that is +14 spell power for 1 hr, you just need zesty clam meat to make them...
Did get the +30 spell dmg in 1h eventually, although in general, spl pwr enchants on pre 60 items are quite expensive due to where the formulas come from (MC for +30 on 1H and rare drop from nexus thief for +40 on 1H lvl 35 items or above).
Fairly low hps can be a bit of a prob, will reiterate what I said earlier on, put stm & hp enchants on everything you can..
Have reached what I call infinicast on mobs 3 lvls or lower than me. I Just watch my hps and mana and my pets hps, make sure they stay balanced, apart from that just run, dot, lifetap, chuck in the occasional sacrifice/lifeblood etc etc and I can just keep going, 0 down time. Doing up to 10 mobs at a time is common and more is no problem. Try it...it's fun 8)
@Wol. A few observations on running instances with a heavy PvE solo focused build...
This leveling build does work in instances, but you will find it hard/impossible being top in DPS/damage. Why ? Well because this spec is built to be no.1 for efficiency and speed, not DPS. What you will find if you like to look at the numbers is:
You might be 1st DPS (but any well specced and played pure dmg dealer will get ahead).
You will also find that you are 2nd/3rd for healing (because of all the DOT life leach)
You will probably be 1st for mana gained (I looked just recently after a zul farrak run and saw just me in the list 90k mana back). All the lifetapping does this.
You will probably find you are also 1st in the overhealed dept and the overhealer dpt due to the life you keep getting back. Work out a threshold with your healer where he/she wont heal you, otherwise they will keep trying to keep you alive and full hp (thats their job!) which mucks around with your drain, siphon and play style.
So, all the extra DPS you could get out is being replaced by your too efficient spec which is keeping you healed, your pet healed and eating everything alive at a moderate speed, but - you still will have a hard time equalling someone with good burst dmg. Also, Mass DOTing instead of proper AoE spells is a lot of work compared to the latter (I find 180+spell power and rain of fire to work really well actually). If you plan to run instances alot pre 60, you might consider 5/5 bane with 2/2 nightfall and the glyph of corruption to help get your DPS up through spell speed.
REV
hi all just fell across this post and i have to say it is really good i have a lvl 68 horde lock at the moment but i am still unsure wot build to go for as my other toons are melee so hard to move over to ranged so all the help i can get would be great i have tryed doin des build and dem builds but not tryed affi so which would u all say is the better 1 to go for thank you for takin the time to read my post
regards
pickleonion
pickleonion,
I'd say the best way to go is affliction for leveling (which is why I wrote this guide, haha).
At 71 I switched to Demo/Aff (got the Felguard and Siphon Life) because I wanted to try something different for awhile.
Basically, I'd just say experiment, Affliction is the easiest for keeping yourself alive without stopping to eat or drink. You can just run from fight to fight, or take on multiple mobs at a time. I've actually found that it works better if you take on 3+ mobs at a time instead of just one.
Demo is great, but there's a lot of cast time involved and you go out of mana more often, so it's like playing a mage. Which is hard while leveling.
Hi again :O) was just woundering if you have any good pvp builds think im gonna do some lvl 59 pvp's for a bit just for a change to lvling thanks?.
ty for getting back to me tryed out your build matey and it works great but got to wait untill i can afford to get duel spec as this build doesnt work in instances :(
Grim,
This build is relatively good for pvp at 59 actually, especially against OP Death Knights. I use improved fear on them and warriors (since neither one can do much ranged damage to you).
The other good option is Demonology at this level, although I like getting health back through Affliction.
Pickleonion,
Yeah, this build won't do massive damage in instances. It's more based for quick leveling. The current DPS spec is Destruction, but I don't have too good of an idea what the rotations are, or how to spec it... sorry :(
This is a very well put togather guide with all the positive support, tyvm. I have 53 demo lock but I always liked afflic 2 yrs ago when I stopped playing him. I will be picking up my lock again tonight and trying out this spec. Tyvm again and happy hunting!
I'm very happy with this guide! Just started to level a lock, but as a retridin I'm used to melee dps and I find it rather difficult to get into my rotations and staying away from the actual fight instead of running in and smashing everything with a big hammer.
So I tested out this spec/guide last night and I have to say it was great! I was way more mana/healing efficient and able to move from mob to mob with out stopping even for a band aid! But i'm having a little trouble keeping my bb's mana up so he can hold mobs. I was demo spec before with FG maybe I'm just used to that. But do u have tips on keeping him topped off before I get into my 60s/70s to have the points for talents in the demo tree? Thx again
Oh, my lock is: joekar-lightbringer if u could check my gear maybe?
Awesome guys! I'm glad you're liking the spec :o)
Joeker,
Yeah, Blueberry can be a pain in the but because of how much mana he uses, especially when you're used to having the demo tree's Mana Feed talent...
Unfortunately, I don't really have a good solution for this, but here's what I did...
Get an addon to manage your Soul Shards and set it at 6 or so, then everytime Blueberry ran out of mana I would summon the Imp, then resummon Blueberry. Which is time consuming, but works out ok (I didn't have to do this very often).
The other way to go is to switch 3 talent points around and spec into Improved Felhunter and Dark Pact in the affliction tree. You'd have to use Felhunter as your main pet, but he always stays topped off on mana (and you can take his in case of emergency). I think people refer to this as using him as a 'Mana Battery'.
Hope that helps!
Yeah, I'd say your gear is fine at them moment. It's a lot like what I had at that level. I just focus on Stamina, Intellect and Spellpower.
Sadly, your gear won't make any major improvements until you hit Outland... then it gets much better pretty quickly. Too bad the mob's HP improve too, haha.
Thx for tips. I did forget to metion I was in felwood so i was almost always in combat. Not much down time there. But I'll pace mself a lil bit more, it wasn't a real big issue when he lost a mob or 2. But I'll keep u posted on my progress. Just a side note I went 1/2 Imp fear and 1/1amp curse. It makes your dot rotation just a lil bit faster, which adds up in long run.
U metioned sum-imp then vw, u could put him on stay and run out range to get ur shard back or just dismiss and recast for mana also (to save a lil time. But I do have a shard addon called askshardmax. It'll notify u of deleted shards and delete xx to make more bag space when ur full ( which always happens when quest grinding).
Just an update mate ..
And for ALL who are woundering weather to change to aff build i must say PLEASE do this is an awsome guide and i am now lvl 65 and going well cant fault this guide at all see you all at the top F-T-H
@Joeker
Yeah, dismissing and resummoning works too, that's how I usually did it, but every once in awhile he'll come back with the same amount of low mana as when you dismissed him, haha. Not sure if it was a glitch or what.
And that's the same addon I use, very handy. Another good Warlock addon is Necrosis :o)
@Grim
Awesome! You're flying through the levels man!
I've been using a mixture of demo and destru, just to help my VW withstand alot of damage. I tend to pull 3 or 4 mobs, dot them, rain fire and hell fire. Costs alot of mana and hp but mobs die within 5 secs!
Thanks for the info guys, I'm gona change to aff spec to try it out! Have 2 level 80's and a lock at 34. Wana level the lock asap!
Hi im back ;O) can anyone post a nice 69 pvp build been looking but none i seem to like thanks for help :O)
Great guide thanks I am going to use this to level my BE lock on Ravenholdt Thanks again :D
Hi all.
I like the guide will give it a try. I am having a hard time with aggro management atm. I can do ok with one but if I pull 2-3+ the original target stays off me and the rest are pulled by my DoT's particularly the Curse of Agony. Guess they dont like pain haha. It may be my noobness as I play a pally as my main warrior as my gold guy and dk as my "own your face" guy lol. having a hard time going to the cloth. Went mage for a while and never made it past 20. tanking is a habit I guess. Anyway, nice guide will try it out. The spell power thing is a nice fyi. Never knew it helped that mutch. Just as a side note, I have tailoring (225atm) is that gear even close to the drop/AH gear? Im not really money deprived but my 80s are not fully geared yet and they take a crap load i.e. titansteel /shudder. Thanks again guys and happy hunting!
Grash
I can confirm this guide works Amazing i got from 1/70 in 2 weeks this guide is amazing u should easy be able to pull 3/5 mobs a time but then again if your not used to the warlock then will take some getting used to but u wont look back when u get the hang of the locks .
Good luck and see your lock sometime look Hikate (MOONGLADE) up lvl 70 not got WOTLK so been doing pvp and god he hurts in the pvp if i dot you up u better hope to god u have a LOT of hp or can heal fast haha ..just do as he says in the guide and go for spell power not stam int i cant praise the lad enough for this guide really ...
Haha, thanks Grim! I can't find your character on the armory! What spec are you using for PvP at 70 that's working so good? :)
@ Grashander
What I would recommend doing is to apply a spell that takes some cast time first (like Immolate or Unstable Affliction if you have it). When you're doing this, make sure it's macroed with /petattack like so:
/petattack
/cast Immolate
/petattack
/cast Unstable Affliction
Always cast that one first, so your demon will have a little time to gain aggro while you apply your DoTs. After that, if you're using this spec, it won't matter if he loses aggro on different mobs because you'll be using Drain Life and keeping your health up... and most of them will come after you when they're close to death anyway. They won't have much time to do any damage :)
Thanks Ebriel,
I played him some yesterday and I think that may be my biggest problem. I have my /petattack macro seperate from my spells so sometimes I mess up and hit something Old Blue isnt even looking at. I havnt respeced yet so my talents are not quite right I dont think. I am the only Grashander in the armory right now as of last night if anyone wants to look.(shattered halls) I wonder if it would help to crowd control some of the adds or would it just waste mana? Im sure my dps would suffer some but outside instances I really am not so worried about that as long as it makes my life more enjoyable. In fairness Blue is a good tank. If I just send him in and let him go till he dies he can last a good while. I beleive it has been asked before but, in an instance (where noobness=flamed=bad times)does the rotation change or just stay the same? Imp or blue? Succy maybe? Do you ever use a shadowbolt or anything or just DoT till you cant and then crowd control? Sorry for all the questions but when in the presence of greatness one must learn all he can or forever be ignorant. And, it is better to be an educated failure than a wanabe without a chance. Word of wisdom for the day haha.
Haha, thanks Grashander.
Oddly enough, I haven't ever even done an instance with any of my Warlocks (except for soloing lowbie instances for achievements). I usually just run dailies and do PvP... which is pretty fun.
After you respec, don't worry about crowd control. Here's how I do it:
1. Pick up first mob by Applying DoTs (using the /petattack command at the beginning of the macro).
2. After you've applied all of them, move on to the second and third mob in the same fashion throwing in Drain Life whenever you need it. I try not to let my health get below 75% before I use Drain Life. (I use the macros I have up in the article, and hotkey Drain Life to my number 3 button).
3. If Blueberry isn't holding aggro, and I'm getting ganged up on by the mobs, I use his 'Sacrifice' Spell and give myself a shield while I get myself back up to 100% Health. I'll also throw in a Healthstone if it's going badly.
Hope that helps :)
In an instance, I would suggest pulling out either Succubus or Imp because they do the most damage. I guess I'd just keep my rotation and make sure all of my DoTs are constantly up and running, Drain Life, then reapply them when they're out. I actually DO use Shadowbolts a lot... whenever I proc Nightfall. You could also try nuking randomly instead of Life Drain to increase your damage. At end game, the DPS Spec is Destruction (and I have no idea how to play it, haha).
Generally, when I do instances with any of my casters, I don't worry about topping DPS (especially in a PuG where the tank and healer might not be very good). I'll usually wait until the tank has been on the mob for 3 or 4 seconds, then start attacking... because I don't want to tear aggro while wearing cloth as I don't like being 2 shotted, haha.
Haha. I don't like it either. Thanks for the info. I should greatly improve my game with this. I think ill just play grash for a while and get myself used to being a caster and should be ok. I havnt ran many instances on my guys either. I think Nexxus was the last I ran and we couldnt take the boss so I never got the achievement. Good thing there is more to do than raid. Ill keep ya posted on how it works. this is the only guide iv found that takes the talents lvl by lvl. Its great. Do you have any for other classs like mages or rogue? (rogues terrify me in pvp so im going to make one hehe)
I made one for Paladins, but I don't know how good it is (since I got bored and stopped leveling... but I did have it all planned out).
I could make one for Mages, since I have one sitting at 63 right now. I've found that Frost Spec is best, but there's a lot of downtime with a Mage. Also, you can't do much in PvP until you're at level 80. Before then you're just a free HK, haha.
Rogues, I'm completely lost with them nowadays. My first character was a rogue during Vanilla WoW... and I've leveled a couple up since then. I know it's easiest to level up in the Combat Tree, but I don't know what to do with them for PvP and stuff at 80. Plus, they actually take damage while leveling, unlike my Warlock and Shadow Priest, haha.
Well, I can tell you that you have a very good writing style and personality for making guides. I would certainly love to see more. As always I can help all I can as im making a pally as my main. They are a fairly tedious class to play well and new players can always use some good advice. The mages and sutch im no help with but plate sporters I can at least lend a hand. I guess the whole reason for giving mages free food and drink is the downtime and the way they burn mana. But anyway im no theory crafter and my math is terrible but whatever you write ill be sure to check it out.
If you would like to look, my paladin spec is linked up at the top of this page. It's in a grey box on the upper right just below the title. It says, "Best Ret Paladin Leveling Spec updated Fri Sep 25 2009 12:07 pm CDT"
If you're interested in a mage guide though, I'll go ahead and write one.
I also have a Hunter guide on a blogger account somewhere... I'll have to figure out where I put it, haha
Don't feel bad, I have no love for the theory crafters myself. I just like to run around leveling characters up. It drives my guild crazy because I don't like raiding that much... I did it for about two months with my Shadow Priest in Ulduar, got a bunch of gear and stopped raiding just before the new raids got launched.
Tab dot tab dot and so on i use most of the same build as this for 70 pvp m8 dont have any points in imp fear heres my Aff build
http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-talents.xml?r=Mo
and my destruction build ...
http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-talents.xml?r=Mo
Both are amazing in there own way but i just love the instant cast dots and with my spell power on almost 1400 with buffs they go down pretty fast yes even some 79 ofc i get owned from ALOT of 79's also but Hikate does verry well im over the moon with this build ..
I dont have amazing gear but with my pvp stuff now i am slowly getting there spell power is the way to go for locks trust me its funny to see them run off and try heal haha
Ohh and also dont forget to use curse of tongues on casters slows casting time down 30% but remember to not use curse of agony aswell because u can only use 1 curse ofc im sure u already know that?.
Most importantly enjoy your lock i for 1 think there the best class in the game ...
Ohh the Aff build im going to change the Eradication point and put in Everlasting Affliction..
Grim,
Thanks for linking your specs! I probably couldn't find you because I wasn't checking the Eu servers, haha
Yeah, both of those specs look good!
How do you like Shadowfury in the Destruction tree? I hate it when a Destro Lock hits me with that in PvP, haha.
Good call on switching out Eradication for Everlasting Corruption. How does Improved Drain Soul work for you in PvP? Or do you keep that for when you're running your dailies?
If it's a strictly PvP build, I'd switch that out for Improved Fear (there's nothing funnier than chain fearing a Paladin so their run speed increase is useless to them, haha). If it's for both PvP and running Dailies, I'd say keep it. I gave Improved Drain Soul up in my current PvP build and running quests is weird without getting the mana back.
Here's a link to my current Warlock. I'm still working on gearing him up (takes forever to get all of the Honor for gear, haha):
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Fro
I have one Affliction spec and one Demonology Spec (both for PvP) that I'm still testing out. Still need to get my Spellpower up, yet again, it comes down to gearing up (and actually getting some enchants put on would probably help, haha).
You look like you're doing really well getting your gear together and getting good enchants! Awesome stuff Grim!
Shadow fury is awsome in groups stunning them i love it on palas.
Eradication unfortunatly wont let me put the talent in as i need 1 more skill to use that talent i put it on here before actually trying :O( so gonna put it in imp howl of terror i think ? Imp drain soul is a must keeps mana right up there and takes more dmg from them = down even faster :O)
I honestly dont really need the imp fear atm i dot them cast cot and then fear drain life then if there almost dead then drain soul works for me this way anyway m8 might eventually try imp fear im loveing the Aff build so much atm tbh so why change what i like ;O) .
Improved Howl of Terror is a great talent... to bad I always forget to use it! Haha
Yeah, I love affliction too. Which is the reason I quit playing them when WotLK was released... they nerfed Aff locks into the ground (for PvP), so you had to be Destro or Demo to survive, and I couldn't get the hang of either one. I'm happy Aff is viable again :)
great article! last night created my first lock and hit 10. I wasn't sure what to spec in but now I do!! keep up the great work and thank you for providing this info :)
Awesome Fred, glad to help out. I'm sure you'll have fun leveling your lock! :)
Hi m8 just an update finally got to lvl 80 a couple of days ago afteer getting the addon loved your guide was awsome worked a treat no downtime at all .
I have now moved to a new Aff build here http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-talents.xml?r=Mo 62/1/8
And also use a Destruction build here http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-talents.xml?r=Mo 0/17/54
Still not sure witch i like best both verry good builds i was just woundering if you have any links to some att rotations i use ........shadow bolt /haunt /corruptiion/ unstoppable aff /and a coa if you wanna do some extr dmg and some advice what pets best to use for pvp? i use voidy atm as sacrifice gives me the bubble but i just dont think i should?.
Was looking at your gear for 80 and we have alot the same tbh and i love your name haha good work m8 keep it up and thanks again for all the help to get me to lvl 80.
Haha always skip the Spell Rotations sorry didnt see them there thanks soon as i hit 80 i went and changed to the pvp builds maby i should pay a little more attention haha .
Awesome Grim!
As far as rotations go, I'm really not sure. I only use my guy to run daily quests and do PvP.
My PvP rotation is usually Unstable Affliction/Haunt/Curse of Agony/Corruption and the I run around and use Life Drain and chain Fear or Shadowburn since I'm partially in the Destro tree. I usually only use Shadowbolt if it procs Nightfall, as I feel really naked when I'm casting and standing still, haha.
Personally, I do use Voidwalker in PvP for the shield. If I wasn't using him, I would probably spec into Improved Felhunter and Dark Pact and use him as a mana battery :)
Yep, you have to love the PvP starter gear, it's a great help while you build up you Honor Points to buy the epics! I'm jealous, you got the ring and the necklace... I haven't had much luck getting those made yet! There is also a PvP starter cape as well, Cloak of Bloody Snow or something like that.
I haven't been playing as much recently, think I've only logged in enough to get my free penguin last week, haha.
Bloody hell u aint played much... is the cloak the cloak of crimson snow? i make all them now i diched the pvp gear 70's saveing for the 80 stuff now like will take a lot of time to get but will be worth it i only have 17half k life atm most in there have 23/25 k hp fully geared pvp there was a lock in alliance side :O( Called Stlucius omg same build but shows his gear makes all the diff and the way he plays his lock . have a look at what he has awsome gear
Haha, yep. In PvP gear makes a TON of difference. I ran into a warlock in a battleground with 25k HP (before the latest big patch). Don't know if he was buffed or not, but he was impossible to kill. It took 2 DPS and my Shadow Priest to finally kill him. Wish I could remember the name. He was awesome.
Me again changed build yet again there was something not right about the aff build for me so i changed to 56/15/0
http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-talents.xml?r=Mo here
Suits my game play best and it seems to be doing well for me so far apart from the imber pvp's .
Hey, this is a great guide, but i have one problem :( i have been trying to make that same macro u use ( the second one) but i cant make it work :/ how sould i write all that ? :b
Hey Lookalock,
You should be able to just copy and paste the macro that I have listed here. If that doesn't work, type it in the way I have listed above.
Line 1: /petattack (then press enter)
Line 2: /castsequence reset=target/combat Curse of Agony, Corruption, Life Tap, Drain Life, Drain Soul (make sure there is only one space between the comma and the name of the next spell)
Hope that helps! :)
Awesome guide, I was stuck at 40 and not sure how to play effectively - I was always oom! The build is working well for me so far!
I'm glad to hear it Jake! Keep us updated on your progress!
Also, read the comments... we had some really great people add some great help and ideas!
hi, the spec is awsome! and the marco is nice =) only thing is u get alot of soulshards, and it's taiking alot of bag space, is there a way to controll how many shards u can collect ?
Hey gonnyto, there are a couple of different addons that you can use. Just search under addons for Warlocks at wow.curse.com. I use Necrosis, but there are a couple that only deal with shoulshard management.
What they let you do is set a maximum number of shards to keep, then they destroy them when you accumulate extras.
I hope that helps :)
ye i found out=) works great now =) thanks
Its all good, am 44 at the moment. Soloing is good, but I struggle against multi target enemies. What should I do? Pick them off one by one or use Rain of Fire?
What I do to fight multiple mobs is cast my DoTs on each mob, but don't use Life Tap until your mana starts running low. After you have them all dotted up, start using Life Drain.
If you're using your Voidwalker, use his Sacrifice spell if you're taking too much aggro off of him.
Ah ok, cool stuff. Im just a few levels from unstable affliction. BTW I like your hunter + gorilla guides - my sister is a hunter (and she sucks), and this helped her play with ease.
Cool! I'm glad those helped her out... I love playing Hunter with a Gorilla, too. Although, I don't have as much insight into that as Warlock or Shadow Priest :o)
Just a thought, which rotation/pet do you use in dungeons? the same one as before or something else? spec is working well for me :3
Hi it all depends on what the group are after for each instance ie imp=stam buff is usually the 1 its always best to just ask when you go in which they prefer.
My lock in pits atm haha lvling a pala from the build linked here also a good build up to lvl 44 atm but its awsome exp in the battlegrounds i have been going in from lvl 28 and must have got most of the other lvls from there good easy way to lvl and a good pala guide to boot.
What Grim said :) Usually the Imp is best because of the Stamina buff and added DPS.
Glad you liked my Paladin Guide Grim... I just wish they weren't so damned boring to level! It always feels like pressing a button once or twice and then watching him auto attack until you're finished... haha Although it does get better in the 40s and 50s!
Pally doesnt really start getting good until you get CS and divine storm tbh.
Found a good AoE tactic - DoT one then keep health funneling to keep demon up - should have healthstone and corruption heals you. then just pick them off like that keeping your demon alive.
Awesome guide! Thanks a lot... I usually suck at playing my lock but now i might just get the hang of it ;)
Thanks a ton! Think I'll make a lock now.
Hey thanks for the macros, they have helped me out a ton, as for the spec build I'm playing a round with it a little. I'll be sure to post if I discover something worthwhile. Really wish I had made my lock on the same server as my main so I could get the heirloom gear >.
Ive Been Following ebriel's advice on talentry and i must say its incredibly useful.so useful in fact that i lvled my lock from 1-64 in 5 days :) cheers ebriel! FOR THE HORDE!
Awesome Hub, thanks. I play also and I've just published one new Hub on WoW as well. Currently I'm playing a warlock too.
Hey i still cant get the macro to work, you think it is the patch?
hey i was playing a lock the way i thought i was supposed to but i was dieing a lot and having difficulties so i looked some of these sites up to try and help and so far this one has been the best I have followed it as best i can and I'm loving it it's made me want to keep on trucking with my lock thanks for the advice and help
I am new to wow and currently have a level 80 lock and i was wondering how to spec her for maximum dps btw im duel spec so I can spec for pvp also......
At 80, the standard spec for max DPS is usually Destruction or Affliction (in a raid environment).
I would suggest this build:
If you're a power-player, you'll want to consider the various Racial Traits when choosing what race to play. You might also consider the racial Attributes, but after the first 20 levels or so these become largely irrelevant, as the items you've gained will outstrip any racial bonuses.
Yeah, I agree, if you're Alliance, I usually go with Humans for the "Every Man for Himself" trait and the rep bonus. On the Horde, I usually go with Undead for the "Will of the Forsaken"
WoW still rules ;)
Good Guide bro, its helping a lot :)
Just checked out your guide and it helped a lot for my new Lock. I am a first time user of a lock and Affliction has been very fun to use. Horde Undead Warlock.
Good guide. I would add that I love to use the succubus while leveling over the other pets. Some people like the VW because he can tank I guess but when your affliction id rather put a lot of dots and run around while I have a pet that does some real damage :)
Thanks Vaalion :)
I love the damage that the succubus puts out, but I have a tendency to stand there when I'm not doing pvp or raiding. It would also help if I learned a lot more about using the succubus (like macroing her abilities with my own)
M8 when i cast the second macro i have to keep clicking it for it to do the next move so how do i change it to i click it once and it goes and does all moves or do i have to keep doing manualy plz tell me :) need help xD
You have to keep clicking the macro, Blizzard has it set up so you can't have a single click button that will cast all of your spells. That's why it's written as a cast sequence.
Hope that helps!
Hey :p first of all .. ty :P
and second: what Pet should I use from all lvl's?
I usually use Voidwalker because he can tank (so you don't get hit). He also has his sacrifice (which will give you a temporary shield from damage).
If he runs low on health during battle, use your Health Funnel spell. :)
Hi I havent played my lock in about 2 years and just got back on today and all my specs reset automatically....for free...im lvl 70 goin to 80 hopefully as quick as i can I need to please know how should i use my talents...all of them
much appreciated
Just spend the points like the guide and you should be fine! Affliction is the easiest way to go in my opinion :)
I can't believe I spent so much time reading this entire guide and all the commentary! Not that it was bad at all, but it just got me hooked! Ebriel and Revenge, great advice. I've been leveling my lock (up to 62 now) demonology all the way but I think tomorrow after work I'm gonna have to respec to affliction. Thanks so much for all the time you spent writing all this. Really helpful!
Oh yeah, for the Alliance.
lol
Haha, thanks!
I'm in the process of writing one for each class. I've got one for Mages and Druids so far on top of the other ones that you can find in the RSS feed next to the article for Paladins and Hunters. You can find them at http://zygorguidereview.org/class-leveling-guides
I'll be updating two a week :)
I know this is slighty old but worked out fine for my lock, Great guide >.<
Thanks :)
I think the talents are still the same... I guess that could really change when they start getting ready for the Cataclysm expansion and updating the talent trees, etc.
yeah thats true cata will change alot, my 5 year old druid is finaly going to lose its tree form for a worthless CD lol, was thinking when I read this entire thing you said something about the Felguard highpred spec any chance you could write it down + clyphs and Rotations for me and is it half this spec? still power leveling me lock able to get like 6-9 mobs with void and taking 0 dmg due to its bubble >
Great tips!
Haha, yeah, I'm sure some of the Cata changes are gonna be... "special". Like riding the shortbus kind of special.
It's been awhile since I leveled with the Felguard Hybrid spec, so I made a quick spec for it at WoWHead.
I would go straight through Demo and get the Felguard, then go through the Affliction tree and spend all the points that I was going to spend there before going back and finishing off whatever you want in the Demonology tree.
At 50, I'd spec like this:
http://www.wowhead.com/talent#IZ0GchkAdi0sxz:oTZ0
At 71, I'd spec like this and replace Life Tap with Siphon Life as my Second major glyph:
http://www.wowhead.com/talent#Icxrd0MhoZ0GchkAdi0s
It's not perfect, so you can change around a lot of the points as you see fit.
After that, I'd just spend points wherever I felt like improving things in the Demo Tree (3/3 Demonic Resilience). I play on a PvP server, so I love having 2/2 in Improved Fear...
Mobs are going to die quick with this spec, but it's a bit harder to pull mass groups. I think I usually stuck to 3-4 at a time with the Felguard, but you'll have to play around with it to see what works for you.
I would macro your petattack to Immolate. Then my cast sequence would be something like:
Immolate to pull, Corruption, Curse of Agony, Life Tap then Drain Life/Drain Soul until dead. Most of the time, the mob will be dead before you get the chance to really benefit from Drain Life or Drain Soul though.
I hope that helps! Let me know what you think.
wonderful seems to look nice, I will go give it a build see how it work out. wil lreply back to let you know the story =}. cant wait for cata though its going to be like DKs call over again but with worgens and goblins Grr >.
Sounds good!
Yeah, the low level areas are going to be packed again!
This spec is much better for me, stil able to pull 5-9 mobs and slame lods of dmg, again thanks for another great spec =). Yeah tell me about it soon to see worgen ths goblin that asking for guilds/raids >.< for the poor people who cant do ICC atm hopefuly they will when they hit lvl cap again lol
Cool! I'm glad to hear it's working for you!
What level are you at? I think I switched from Affliction to Demo at 50, thinking it would be awesome... and I couldn't get the hang of it (mana issues).
So I switched back to Aff until later, then I just dual specced so I could do whatever I wanted while I leveled, haha
my locks 63 atm and soloing the group quests in outland no boa gear just the basic shiz will do lol. I dont seem to be having mana problems really tbf I dont have any problems at all with my lock now ^^. only ever had my druid for 5 years and few days ago I said to my self im gona make a lock and here he is >.
It's actually REALLY Tough to go Wrong with Affliction TBH ;) But your guide helped a ton TY! ^.^
Hey thanks man! i just switched my spec and all and i love it! my lock is 24 atm and i only have mana probs. when i incounter groups of 4 and more so far, i love the spec
Great to hear Noshards! In a couple more levels you won't have mana problems at all!
Hey thanks alot for the talent spec. the spell rotation i figured out myself is the exact same to yours so i was doing somthing rihgt ^^ but the talent spec isnt what i had any idea about till i saw this! Good job!
Hey thanks alot for the talent spec. the spell rotation i figured out myself is the exact same to yours so i was doing somthing rihgt ^^ but the talent spec isnt what i had any idea about till i saw this! Good job!
Awesome! Glad it helped you! The rotation helps a lot while leveling... so having that down was an awesome way to start!
Definatly. Only lv 18 atm but this is making things much easier. Wish i could slap some of my unused spells on my pet and work on that buggers rotation :D
this guide helped me back in WOTLK but now in cata i found the best way to level up from 1 is to use the demonology spec so you get your felguard which does way moer damage then your voidwalker (:
I disagrew, I recently rerolled lock and finding affliction the best for living, you get 3 dots you can use at 14, use your imp. Dot up Target move on to next I find I can do 15-20 mobs in a row b4 need mana
Great guide for new warlocks. It still amazes me how many retarded 'locks you still run into nowadays in raids. As one of the tougher casters to play this should be on any new 'locks must read list.
Great Guide, if you happen to have a rogue, take a look at http://roguelevelingguidez.com
Warlock 2 years ago
Good Guide especially for a new player.