Hi, my name is Deyman and I'm an altoholic.

[Tabu34]

Hey all, I actually made an account just to reply to this thread.

My warlock is level 24, with the BoA shoulders and staff from emblems.

I'm trying to level my warlock but I seem to be having trouble. I'm following the spec from the first reply, but I'm not exactly sure what I'm supposed to be using my pet for. Is it tanking the mobs like a hunter pet with you not getting attacked, or what? And what do I do about mana, my life tap/drain life combination doesn't seem very efficient, and I always feel like im low on one or the other.

I'm probably doing something wrong but I can't figure out what.

[gherkin]

After reading this thread I still have a zillion questions. There are a number of 'tips' suggesting running through mobs and 'nuking'. I'm assuming this is a matter of casting the various DoTs 'on the go' .... do you have to 'target' each mob as you run? Is the MO to 'tab target' or 'click target' or some other way? As you run, do you cast all 3 DoTs on each(?) ....

idk, this caster class is 'strange' to me, but I had a lot of fun last night. I was using my VW on defensive, (unfamiliar with abilities and lingo) then tab target, (keybinds) 1 (some auto attack macro - games down so can't go look what it is exactly), 2 Life Tap, 4 Corruption and 3 Shadow Bolt. When there were more than one mob i would use Rain Fire but am guessing from this thread that isn't the thing to do.

The Warlock is the most unique class in the game because instead of a static bar (rogue) or set of bars (dk, runes are simply bars that only operate once and take 10s to fill), or proc based bars (warrior/ret paladin), you have 2 bars that go up and down like a yoyo.  The class isn't about mana or damage, its about making sure that your hp is going up faster than your mp is going down. 

"On the go" = use your mouse to move (both buttons down to walk, move mouse to turn) and hit 2 (corruption) 3 (agony) and sometimes 4 (immolate) if your spell power is low.  Defensive is correct - right click the pet abilities to turn them off).  Don't use any aoe abilitites - you're not a mage

So hypothetical situation to explain myself here.  You run by by a pack of murlocs or some shit.  If you face pull (pull them by proximity) you got to close.  You select each one (I recommend getting to know your tab key quite well, but clicking is fine too) and put your two dots up.  Since your pet is on defensive, he'll run in.  Oh no!  That mob had two friends!  No problem, put both dots on each.  Pick up a few more then go back to your first target and review:

1) To get back to your first target, select your pet and press "F" - your pet will always target in a similar order as you did, or at least in the order you were attacked.
2) Whats his hp at?:

Mob almost dead?  Good for you, drain tank the one with the highest HP for a bit.
Mob around half life? You're a bit weak for these mobs. Add Immolate to your pull rotation and go a tad slower. You might consider weaker mobs next time.
Mob above half life?  Shit, you don't hit hard enough.  You might have pulled too many.


3) Review YOUR hp:

Near full?  Good for you, you heal more than you take damage from
60%?  It's getting dicey.  Stop and drain tank for a bit.
Sub 40%?  Healthstone and go to town.


If you ever run into the situation where you are at low hp and the mob is not, your spell power is too low.  You should be aiming for 100 at 30 and look to double it every 15 levels.  This means 200 at 45, 400 at 60, 800 at 75 (before fel armor).  Here's your escape options:  Howl of Terror, Pet AOE taunt, Drain Life spam, Healthstone, die and soulstone back :P

[gherkin]

Hey all, I actually made an account just to reply to this thread.

My warlock is level 24, with the BoA shoulders and staff from emblems.

I'm trying to level my warlock but I seem to be having trouble. I'm following the spec from the first reply, but I'm not exactly sure what I'm supposed to be using my pet for. Is it tanking the mobs like a hunter pet with you not getting attacked, or what? And what do I do about mana, my life tap/drain life combination doesn't seem very efficient, and I always feel like im low on one or the other.

I'm probably doing something wrong but I can't figure out what.

Your pet is on Defensive acting as another dot. He follows enemies around slowly smacking them for extra damage. The other function he provides is the Sacrifice bubble. This basically makes you invincible. You pull a crap load of mobs with corruption, agony, and Immolate. This will almost kill anything at your level. Then when you have 3-4 mobs beating on you, you pop the shield and drain life to full. Don't worry about your pet, the first talent in the demo tree will keep him alive.

[Tabu34]

Alright, I had the dot and pull bit down and now I get what the pet is for. But, I'm still not sure what to do about my mana. By the time I've got 4 mobs dotted and hitting me I'm down near 20% mana. Do I drain life and life tap back and forth and hope for the best? And then what about recovery, I'm not a fan of sitting to eat and drink but is that what I have to do?

[gherkin]

If you're 30+ you should be starting with less than 100% hp every single fight.

If you're 29 or lower, hit lifetap immediately after you hit Sacrifice.

The point here is to maximize your effective healing, just like an actual raid healer does. Think about it this way - if you have less than 100% mana but are at 100% health, all healing done to you is wasted mana. If you are not being healed, you are not being 100% effective.

[MestHoop]

Hey there,

Hit 33 the other day and been going with affli for the last 3 levels, something that's been a great help for downtime is hitting soul drain JUST as mobs die. I have the heirloom trinket twice and which both give me 33 something mana back each time a mob dies and I get 350 from the drain life talent.
This however puts me with a fuckload of shards in my bags, but I can just delete one when I need to pick something up important (someone told me you can have necrosis auto kill shards that no longer fit in your shard bag?).

How do you target your fellhound's debuff thing anyway? Because right now he's just eating frost armor off mage type mobs on autocast (I once got polymorphed and it went and kept on eating frost armor )

As for the person with the pre-30 demonology spec: when I got low hp with it (hard to do with good sacrifice use) I tended to have cannibalize up (UD of course T_T) which kept me going most of the time (I never had use for health pots so I started using them randomly just to get rid of em). So I reckon a bandage every now and then would help out a lot. You can send your pet in on the next mob while you heal up to save downtime. Most of the time I had my VW on every mob until they hit like 20% where 1 wand shot and the DoT's would finish em off.
If I pulled too much: sacrifice and pull more

[Tabu34]

I must be missing something because when I kill 4-ish mobs at the same time I tend to end up with ~75% hp and like 10% mana. This would be okay but my health pool is only a little bit more than half of my mana pool, so I have to eat/drink or cannibalize/Lifeblood/Bandage to bring my health back up, just to life tap again for more mana. I'm level 26, do I need to just suck it up and push through to 30 where everything changes anyway, or am I doing something wrong?

[Staalie]

All my locks ran with affliction all the way, dotting, fearing and moving on (not even looting ... this was b4 fear nerf though... i was lucky to spec one lock affliction and the other demo, so one lock would be "tank" while hte other dps'ed in g-quests... multibox ftw

[MestHoop]

I must be missing something because when I kill 4-ish mobs at the same time I tend to end up with ~75% hp and like 10% mana. This would be okay but my health pool is only a little bit more than half of my mana pool, so I have to eat/drink or cannibalize/Lifeblood/Bandage to bring my health back up, just to life tap again for more mana. I'm level 26, do I need to just suck it up and push through to 30 where everything changes anyway, or am I doing something wrong?

I'm not an expert on this, but what is making you go down to 75%?
Voidwalker not holding aggro? Or maybe need to use sacrifice more?

I tended to be able to pull mobs with 30% health and get out with more than I went in with (just normal regen, not drain life).

[GUESSWHOIAM]

Hi, Deyman.

From 1-29
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#IZ0GfhkZV
(A friend of mine, in a few Deadmines gear, was able to solo stockades at 26 with this build)

@30, respect to
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#IcxbbhMho

ending up at @54
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#IfxrbhMhoqAohk

@55, respec to
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#IcbZ0GchkAdi0sxz

Getting to this @71
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#Ifxrbz0hoZ0GchkAdi0sxz

Then do whatever you want. Note that the level 30 build will take a massive change in playstyle from what you just did 1-30. Get used to it, and aim for about 100 spell power by lvl 35 and you will completely destroy everything.

from 55 to 68, then at lv68 go for destro, you can os all mobs usually.

[gherkin]

This however puts me with a fuckload of shards in my bags,

Make the following a macro, single line

/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

Change "20" to however many shards you want to keep. Press this button and it deletes all but this many.

I must be missing something because when I kill 4-ish mobs at the same time I tend to end up with ~75% hp and like 10% mana. This would be okay but my health pool is only a little bit more than half of my mana pool, so I have to eat/drink or cannibalize/Lifeblood/Bandage to bring my health back up, just to life tap again for more mana. I'm level 26, do I need to just suck it up and push through to 30 where everything changes anyway, or am I doing something wrong?

This is fine. Lifetap a bit sooner, and drain life a bit more. You'll be fine

You should aim to never drop below 50% mana, unless a lifetap will get you killed. It sounds like you're playing it safe. Live dangerously and you'll have no problems.

[Ravasha]

'Hi Deyman!!'

'I.. I think this is my second alt ... already.'

'WOAH! That's great! Well done Deyman!, Let's all applaud for him.'

[MestHoop]

Make the following a macro, single line

/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

Change "20" to however many shards you want to keep. Press this button and it deletes all but this many.
This is fine. Lifetap a bit sooner, and drain life a bit more. You'll be fine

You, my sir, are a god

[notintheface]

As the title of this thread reads I have decided to lvl a warlock soon

I would appriciate if someone could make a lvling spec in the affliction tree for me! (That's the best one for lvling a lock, is it?)

Ty.

Title says you're an altoholic, not that you have decided to lvl a warlock soon.
Tsk tsk

[Tabu34]

A true altoholic has one of every class...

like me! =D

[Carolainz]

'Hi Deyman!!'

'I.. I think this is my second alt ... already.'

'WOAH! That's great! Well done Deyman!, Let's all applaud for him.'

I just imagined that happening irl, made me lol

[amaric]

If you ever run into the situation where you are at low hp and the mob is not, your spell power is too low. You should be aiming for 100 at 30 and look to double it every 15 levels. This means 200 at 45, 400 at 60, 800 at 75 (before fel armor). Here's your escape options: Howl of Terror, Pet AOE taunt, Drain Life spam, Healthstone, die and soulstone back :P

The unquoted portion of this reply will be very helpful to me - thank you.

My question atm is about spell power. My understanding is that spell power = bonus damage. (?)

I'm level 39 (almost 40) and my char screen shows bonus damage = 24 ....... eeeekk!!!

If statement one is true and statement two is accurate, I'm >120 or 130 SP behind the curve!! How do i increase my spell power please?

[Tabu34]

I'm in a similar boat as amaric as well...but slightly better off. I'm at 31 bonus damage, and I'm not sure where to get +damage gear at level 27.

[gherkin]

Here is a list of gear levels 25-35 (or so)
http://www.wowhead.com/?items=4&filt...;crv=0#0+3-2+1

A lot of these are blue, which means instance drops. Don't worry too much about that, but definately run them if you can.

For example, at lvl 25 the average for good "spell power" gear is around 6. 12 slots x 6 = 72 spell power. Moving up to 30 the average is 8 or 9. 8 x 12 = 96.

Spend a bit of cash on the Aurora set to start you off (tailoring) and the Blazing Citrine Ring, Wicked Moonsoul Ring, and Jade Pendant. After that, the rest should come from quests.

@Amaric - Since you're higher level, here's a link for you:
http://www.wowhead.com/?items=4&filt...23;crs=1;crv=0

Spend your money on Shadoweave, Red Mageweave, or if you can afford it Dreamweave.

[Geckomayhem]

@gherkin That was very informative. Thank you for posting those builds.

I just played around with affliction talents with my own warlalt when I started playing her. I quit the game more than three months ago, leaving my lock at level 30-ish. Might jump back in sometime around patch 3.2 since we get our dreadsteed at level 40!

I am a true altoholic. My warlock was my last toon to roll and is my lowest. Everything else is 68+ (two 80s). Had I kept playing, who knows how many eighties I'd have, heh. O_O

Getting spellpower gear can be an issue. But if you are determined to enjoy levelling as much as possible, you will replace your gear without too big an interval between each upgrade. Gold is no object, right?