Levelling a Warlock 70-80

[Pointyfern]

I've never played my Warlock much. I also haven't been playing WoW since about 5 months ago. So, I don't know what the quickest way to level an Alliance Warlock is from 70-80.

If I remember, one Warlock had a dedicated healer out-of-group and got the 80 world first, other than the whole Athene thing (Unless I'm mistaken). He did it by running around dotting everything while the healer just healed him.

Of course, lets assume I don't have a dedicated healer to heal me, and my gear is only around a SSC level. What would the quickest way to level from 70-80? What spec, doing what (Instancing, questing, grinding like mad).

I tried grinding (Outside Valgarde) as Affliction spec and levelled to 71 pretty quickly, able to take multiple mobs at once and having to sit down and drive every 15 mins or so. However, I know there isn't exactly always an ideal location like outside Valgarde (Or those Ruins in Grizzly Hills).

I know there may be a guide on this, but I always prefer a person's response - Getting the different points of view from everyone who decides to chime in.


So, what do you think is the best way to level quickly from 71-80, as an SSC-geared Alliance Warlock?

[Trollpatrol]

I recently leveled my warlock from 71-80 as affliction. My gear was mostly T4/early T5 quality, with FSW and a couple of ZA pieces from when I started playing again around the end of BC.

I was on a low-pop server, so I couldn't instance as much as I'd like to (only got Gundrak, Drak'Tharon and Nexus before 80), but it didn't really matter too much in the long run. I ended up just questing, and I'll tell you firsthand it goes at a good pace. You can solo most 2-3 person group quests, and just cruise through the "Kill 15 of X" quests. Furthermore, Haunt and the new Siphon Life make it so you can pull, tank and kill a nearly infinite amount of monsters and still be at full health at the end of the fight.

So basically, if you can get groups, try instancing with questing; otherwise, pure questing works fine.

[qae]

yeah Haunt + Siphon life + Soul link = win

Just using CoA+Corr on every mob you see and use connect.. let them die while you pull others.

If you ever get low on life just Dark pact instead of Connect

If your pet run out of mana (use imp fellpuppy if you don't want that to happend) just start using Haunt ;D

[Imbashiethz]

30/41/0 is the best spec, it gets special at 71 where you can have siphon life AND felguard, you never need a break and you can nonstop pull 10 mobs at a time and you can solo any quest! Your gear does not have to be special at all.
Continue down into affliction with the +shadowdmg talents.

[arcain87]

siphon life/felguard was/is the cookie cutter leveling build. With current trees it would look something like this:

http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?warl...0&version=9901

A lot of the talents higher up in aff and demo are kinda filler, or useful for soloing group quests. Also, as you get more talents dump them into affliction for increased range, nightfall, or whatever you find useful. Once you hit 25 points in aff. pick up shadow mastery.

General strategy will be to dot everything in sight, not sure what dots will be needed to kill mobs, but when siphon life was still its own dot it was corr/sl and MAYBE coa to kill questing mobs if you were equal or lower level. Should just be corr/coa but a few seconds longer to die, and immo if you need a little more than just those too. howl of terror if you have a bunch beating on you and drain life. Shadowflame for an extra dot once you have a bunch on you before you HoT.

Fastest leveling will be questing, while mass grinding during travel. Mount up if you cant pull atleast 3-4 mobs as your single kill time is far too slow.

Haunt is nice for group quests, but things dont live long enough for it to see a whole lot of benefit, fg cleaves and utility is much better spent leveling. Even is lower level 70 epics/questing and dungeon gear you should be able to solo almost all 5 man quests up until ice crown ones.

[arcain87]

oh you mentioned ssc gear, if you happen to have 2 pc t5 it is op until 80 for group quests.

[qae]

Yeah but I dont like Felguard that much.. make me feel like I'm his pet and I have to feed him mana all the time!

I personnaly prefer somthing like that, but yeah I'm an affliction lover :

http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?warl...0&version=9901

that's for a lvl 71

gogo faceroll you way to 80!

[gherkin]

I did 70-80 in black temple gear, but i specifically equipped things that boosted my instant damage and survivability. I hit 80 first (warlock) on my server, 36 hours played.

-I was Haunt/Soul Link, and didn't actually use Haunt until Zul'Drak when the mobs started having 12000 hp.
-I used 2pc T5 for pet healing so he could be on auto
-I used Timbal's for instant proc damage rather than useless "On Use" or "On Hit" buffs
-I used Ashtongue trinket for almost CONSTANT 220 spell power

If I stopped moving for more than .5 seconds to loot or grab a quest, I was grabbing more Red Bull or alt tabbed in Wowhead seeing what changed since beta.

[arcain87]

not liking FG is fine, but siphon life/fg WILL be better for grinding and quests, as the talents spent to even get to haunt are an absolute waste for questing/grinding on regular similar level mobs.

Haunt will be a good leveling spec, will FG be better? yes, will it be a night and day difference? no (except maybe on some group quests)
Another benefit of fg is he will tank 1-2 mobs while being kept at full from fel synergy, which is a nice relief of damage you take.

Oh also with sl/fg looting will be your downfall for leveling time as you will kill at an insanely high rate if the area can sustain it (think infinitely pulling every mob spawn within your leash range never going oom or low on health)

And since it was mentioned, gearing for this method of leveling should be Spell power more than any other stat hands down. Your dots wont benefit from crit, and haste wont make as big of difference as sp will. of course dont pass on 30 haste on an item because another item has 4 more spell power :P