1. #1

    Warlock spells: Holy shiz buttons galore

    I haven't touched my warlock since WotLK. I logged back on him today to see if I could get into him again for end-game pvp. He's level 73 and still going through Northrend at the moment.

    First thought that came to me was "Holy shit, wtf is all this...?"

    Can some one give me some basic pointers or tips for affliction for pvp/leveling? From what I remember, you would dot your enemy up then sit there with drain life going. Now I have these soul shards that I guess buff a small handful of my spells but from what I can tell, random corruption procs are the only thing that replenish them. Also, do I really need to blow a GCD using curse of elements just to try to maximize my damage in any situation? I feel like most other classes get their DPS-increase debuff for free through other spells (like increase physical damage taken from a pali or DK come to my mind first).

    All of the spells wrapped up in a warlock's pets could become an entire class in and of itself with all the shit that they can do or can be augmented by other spells. What pet do I want to use? (I used to like the fel hunter for it's silence and buff stealing and it seems it still has those core abilities).

    Lastly, am I expected to keep Haunt on my target in pvp at all times? It is such a dps booster as it increases all my DOT damage on a target. The scenario I fear is setting up all my dots on an enemy, then all they have to do is silence or interupt that single spell (haunt) and negate a huge portion of my dps on them, leaving me gimped.

    All I have is 1-0 on my keyboard, and a logitech mouse with 2 side thumb buttons. The first 1-6 on my keyboard are easy enough for me to hit, and I've bound some of the other ones to my mouse. Am I supposed to go buy a 12-button mouse, giant macro gaming keyboard, foot pedals, and a mind control device just so I can use all my spells?

    TL/DR: Warlocks have way too much shit in their spell book. What's the most efficient way to use numbers 1 through 0 on the keyboard and a couple mouse binds so I can play this class in a leveling and pvp environment?

  2. #2
    High Overlord Ambereldus's Avatar
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    To answer all your questions in one sentence, go here.

    To answer your questions specifically:

    1) Rotation: Drain life is no longer your filler, its a situational spell if you need the healing. You use Maelific Grasp once you have dots on the target. At your level, use Curse of the Elements if your target is going to last longer than 20 sec. Even then its questionable. Honestly, there isn't much you need to keybind to play affliction at a low-medium level. AoE will be a pain, but single target consists of Corruption+UA+Agony on target, Haunt if you can, Maelific Grasp to fill. Thats pretty much it.

    Aside from Haunt, the only other thing you'll likely be using shards on is Soulburn: Soul Swap (lvl 79) or Soulburn: Seed of Corruption (for AoE)

    2) Pets: Yes they have a lot of abilities, pick the one you like best or the one who's abilities are useful. The imp has a self dispel for you, the voidwalker is a good tank, the felhunter lets you inturrupt and purge magic, and the succubus has a CC and knockback. The difference in dmg is pretty minimal.

    3) Haunt: No, you are not expected to keep 100% uptime on haunt. Most raiders (barring encounter mechanics) manage about 60% uptime, I expect the same to be true in PvP. Use it whenever you can, or save them for when you have strong dots or a +dmg modifier. Don't sit on 4 shards, you could end up wasting several.

    4) Button Bloat: You can cut the very-situational spells if it makes your life easier. I use a shift modifier so I have access to 24 buttons on a moments notice which is more than enough for me. Otherwise, activating multiple action bars and just click-casting the spells you don't use often will work for you up to LFR.

  3. #3
    I have 31 quick hit key binds and could probably use a couple more.

    I don't use a MMO mouse either or anything special, prefer FPS mouses and have used MX518s forever.

    My key binds are 1-6, Shift 1-5, Alt 1-5, QWR, Mouse Forward, Mouse Scroll Wheel Click (Button 5), and then Shift & Alt modifiers for all of those. My mouse back key is PTT for Mumble/Vent.
    I used EADF for movement if you were wondering why W is a hotkey, picked it up from playing FPS when I first started gaming, have long fingers and opens up more keybinds.

    It's just muscle memory after a while really, but using modifiers like Shift, Ctrl, or Alt with 1-5 should be simple enough. And even if you use WASD movement you should have things like Q and E open and a couple extra mouse buttons. This should easily open up at least 30 keybinds for anyone without having to move their hands. But yes, basically you want to do things in combat that requires no hand movement and can be easily hit with your fingers only so you can react faster.

    Generally I use 1-4 for the spells you constantly use (i.e. Aff dots, Incin, Immo, Conflag etc.), Shift 1-4 for AoE and high use spells (i.e. RoF, Soulburn, Soulswap, Chaos Bolt etc.), then Alt 1-4 for defensive cooldowns. Q and W I use for stuns and interrupts and r and modifiers are for offensive cooldowns and pots, etc. Then I'll generally use less used stuff but stuff I still use regularly on things like 6, shift 5, alt 5, such as my focus macro, soulshatter, healthstones, etc. Basically just set things up in areas where it will be easy for your brain to quickly reference and after some practice it's second nature. I pretty much follow the same scheme for all classes, so I always know where my interrupts are, where my defensive cooldowns are, where my offensive cooldowns are, AoE, etc.

    I would never resort to skill clicking, it's so bad :x
    Last edited by Strifey; 2013-11-06 at 12:12 AM.

  4. #4
    If your just looking for a leveling spec, go destruction + supremecy.

    1)Send voidwalker into a group of mobs.
    2)Nuke
    3) Profit.
    4) repeat.

    I main a destro lock and i really like the playstyle. I use to play affliction but its gotten so dependant on timing and procs that it becomes more of a mechanical gameplay then an super enjoyable one. Raiding normal , I can top the meters with a minimal amount of watching trinket and special procs. It's not that its a super easy playstyle its just got alot of fun built into it. Huge numbers, movement while casting is a huge contribution to my fun factor, even if its just incinerate now, and lots of utility.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Oh btw.

    Get a UI like Bartender. I have all 10 bars up on my screen so i actually have every lock ability available no matter how rarely i have to use them.

  5. #5
    There do seem like there are a lot of buttons to press - and there are - but a large majority of them are quite situational. Each spec has at its simplest form 5-10 buttons to press. Everything else is something you can use to react to the encounter better than by just moving. My advice - take it slowly. Get used to a core set of abilities that you have no issue keybinding. Then add extra things as time goes on.

    Armory - http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...ronic/advanced
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  6. #6
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by Xyronic View Post
    There do seem like there are a lot of buttons to press - and there are - but a large majority of them are quite situational.
    Exactly. Looking at PvE I have 7-8 buttons on my 1-4/Shift1-4 rotational keys. The others are on my MMO mouse (F1-F9 and shiftF1-F9), or on A/E/whatever. I use Opie (the popup icon wheel) for professions/mounts/buffs/pets, nothing I need in combat (unless pets die, foolish pets). It might seem like a button overkill, but in reality a lot of them are indeed very situational.

  7. #7
    i have so many keybinds its crazy. I still believe locks are the hardest class to master in this game

  8. #8
    I used to have six huge bartender bars filled with spells and abilities and it was a pain to use. I decided to limit the amount of bars to two, with a few buttons with spells outside my rotation. It's going great so far, love the difference. Here's a screenshot: i.imgur.com/02R6eHq.png

  9. #9
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    Button bloat? Since cata ended I have too much free keybinds...

  10. #10
    Immortal Raugnaut's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ambereldus View Post
    1) Rotation: Drain life is no longer your filler, its a situational spell if you need the healing. You use Maelific Grasp once you have dots on the target. At your level, use Curse of the Elements if your target is going to last longer than 20 sec. Even then its questionable. Honestly, there isn't much you need to keybind to play affliction at a low-medium level. AoE will be a pain, but single target consists of Corruption+UA+Agony on target, Haunt if you can, Maelific Grasp to fill. Thats pretty much it.
    At a low level, Drain Life + Harvest talent will deal ~25% MORE damage then Malefic Grasp- up to lvl 80, when you get mastery buffs, at which point Malefic Grasp deals better damage. In addition, when combined with the Drain Life glyph, heals for 7% of the warlocks health per tick, and if empowered, 11% of the warlocks health per tick. For leveling, Drain Life>>>Malefic Grasp.

    As for OP, in terms of the buttons, well, its NOT as bad as during Cata, and its NOT as bad as shamans now if you keybind all the totems.
    Quote Originally Posted by Moounter View Post
    I think your problem is a lack of intellect.

  11. #11
    I agree we have tons of spells but you can always ALWAYS have free keybinds.

    My bottom row looks like this
    1-5, Mouse button, F, z, x, g, shift+g
    then top row
    shift 1-5, Shift F, shift z shift x control-g
    then you can even add a third row

    control 1-5 control F, control z control X, this doesnet include what i use for pvp trinket (t) and FnR (c+r)

  12. #12
    I feel the same I'm leveling my warlock (83) who was 70 for a long time and collecting dust.

    I have 1 to 9 bound to my razer mouse
    on the keyboard I use Q, E, R, T, F, G, H, X, C, V, B, `, F1, F2, F3, F4

    and I still fell it isn't enough.

    My main is a rogue and I have the same keybinds but it's more than enough on the rogue for the usual abilities.


    I guess you have to be an octopus to be a good warlock...
    "I win because I'm a ninja. I kill everybody else because they suck ass. To even play a rogue takes an enormous amount of skill beyond what noobs like you could even imagine." Kishkumen, World of Roguecraft 2.

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