Alterac Volley » Warlocks

Warlock PvP Builds

Mike — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 16:58:22 +0000

Having an invincible Warlock PvP Build is really impossible considering the armor problems with wearing cloth. Then again, if you have your Toon with the proper specs you can overcome this most of the time. Today we’re going to give you a little help on your talent trees. Hopefully these combinations can help you when taking on other players.

The Affliction Tree

Most Warlocks end up using the Affliction Talent Tree first because it’s a great help during the lower levels of play. Anyone who loves the Corruption or Curse of Agony spells can enjoy a lot of help from this tree. It will allow them to cast faster, cause more damage (10% on Corruption & Agony), and even help with a little critical strike every now and again.

Other areas of importance will surround Drain Soul, Drain Life, Life Tap, and even your Fear or Howl of Terror casts. Even the Nightfall help is great for your Shadow Bolt. Having this will alleviate your Glyph of Corruption and allow you to utilize another tool you might find more helpful. If you reach the end of the tree you will see the Haunt spell that deals damage and increases other Affliction spells. Plus you’ll gain health back for the total amount of damage done.

The Demonology Tree

After listening to the few Warlocks that run around World of Warcraft, I think many of them are a little naive when it comes to the Demonology Tree. As you work your way towards the bottom of the tree you will want to have the Metamorphosis spell. This transforms your Warlock into a Demon that gains 600% of your total armor, and has spells that are virtually untouchable.

You will also find yourself able to summon a Felguard which is a great tanking minion and much better than the Voidwalker. In all the Demonology Tree helps both you and your pet, but takes away from the speed and possible damage of Affliction spells. However, you will find out that your death totals will decrease in a big way. We recommend those with more experience to build this tree up.

The Destruction Tree

If you love fire spells, then take a stab at the Destruction Tree. It can make your Immolate, Searing Pain and other spells decrease threat, gain more damage, and add additional abilities throughout the game. Those who enjoy Imps can gain a substantial amount of extra strength once you hit the hit 40 points on this talent tree. It’s called Empowered Imp and it increases his or her damage by 5% and it can also increase your crit hit ratings.

When you have maxed out this tree with various points, be sure to grab the last ability which will need 50 points in your tree. It’s the Chaos Bolt and you will need it against certain PvP players. See, it pierces through any absorbing shield and that in itself is worth having. Adding the 600-800 damage it usually hurls is essential for battlegrounds and arenas.

Mixing it Up

Since you’re going to be able to reach the end points of each tree with some talents left over, you need to figure out the best mix for you. For instance, those who max the Demonology tree will want to work on some Affliction areas as well. Getting your Shadow Bolt and Corruption times and totals to the best points will help during battle. There are many more scenarios, but you probably get the idea. Now it’s time to put them into action.

More info on Warlock talent builds.

Warlock Macros

Mike — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 00:19:22 +0000

Since most WoW players use macros for enjoyable emotes, there are a few for the Warlock that can change the outcome of your fight. We have all kinds of examples to throw out there, but today we want to give you a taste for how these would work if you were somewhere like Stratholme. Since there are several mobs, having the ability to heal instantly is very important (amongst other things).

Knowing Your Enemies (Fire Casting Macro)
Throughout the game you will come across certain enemies that are immune to many of your Warlock spells. When you see this, it is always good to have a few Warlock Macros that can combat the situation. A prime example is when you are taking on the undead. Obviously if you’re in trouble the Howl of Terror isn’t going to work. However, if you had a Fire Casting macro you probably wouldn’t be in that situation. Here is a good example below.

#showtooltip
/castsequence [mod:alt] Corruption; reset=10/target/combat Immolate, Incinerate, Reign of Fire

During this time you will probably need to pop a mana potion of some sort, unless you either take some from your minion. Then again, if your health is ripe you may just want to do a Life Tap or two to get enough back for another run. Speaking of Life Tap, have you ever thought about making a macro that uses different ranks for this ability?

Taking Advantage of Ranks (Life Tap Macro)
Since the Warlocks use a ton of mana, it’s important to have this in the Warlock Macros repertoire. Why? Well, the reason is simple. There are times when your health is low and your minion is out of mana to steal. Even all your potions are gone, which can put you in a real predicament. The Life Tap macro will allow you to choose if you want the higher level used or maybe a smaller rank. You can see this example below.

#showtooltip
/cast [mod:alt] Life Tap (Rank 1)
/cast [no modifier] Life Tap

Faster Farming or Grinding
If you are looking for a way to save some time farming goods or grinding for mats, then these Warlock macros will come in handy. It’s simple, everyone around level 10 and up can use it, and you can adjust it to fit your specific needs. However, we suggest making one that coincides with the location you are farming. You can find the example below.

#showtooltip
/petattack
/cast [mod:alt] Corruption
/cast [no combat] Curse of Agony
/cast [no combat] Immolate
/cast sequence reset=target/combat Drain Life, Drain Soul, Life Tap,

More Available

There are plenty more available in the Warlock Macros bucket, you just need to know what you use most. A great one that we didn’t cover is setting a Buff sequence for playing other players or when you’re in a party. It’s nice to be able to push one button and make it all happen, as opposed to hitting 5 or 6. We hope this helps you build your character for battle a little better. Once you start using them we know it will.

More info on Warlock builds.

Top 5 Glyphs For Warlocks

Mike — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 16:17:06 +0000

Even though we are about to give you five of the top Warlock Glyphs out there, your list could be different. One of the biggest reasons is because everyone has different specs and basically play a different game. So take a look at the ones we have below and if you don’t use them, you may feel as though they could work better then the ones you are using now.

The Short List

Glyph of Corruption (Major Glyph)
Listen, it doesn’t matter what talent tree you build when it comes to the Glyph of Corruption. Since this is one of your early spells we believe it is a must have at some point in time during the game. It allows you to have a 4% chance to gain the Shadow Trance, which will allow you to throw a Shadow Bolt instantly.

Glyph of Curse of Agony (Major Glyph)
Another one of your beginning spells, the Curse of Agony will continue to increase it’s overall damage. Granted you will have to level up to get the continuation, but think how four more seconds could help you. World of Warcraft revolves around time and if this glyph adds 4 seconds to the Curse of Agony spell then you should take it.

Any Glyph of Your Summoning Pet (Major Glyphs)
If you plan on summoning an Imp, Voidwalker, Succubus, Felhunter or Felguard, there is a glyph for each one of them. We wouldn’t necessarily put all of them in the top five based on their additions, but when you are questing for a long time before heading back to a major city you might want to add one. Just make sure there isn’t anything better out there for you.

Glyph of Drain Soul (Minor Glyph)
By now you have probably checked out your glyph area and realized you can use Minor glyphs. Out of all the Warlock Glyphs out there, the Glyph of Drain Soul is essential to your character. It gives you the opportunity to gain an extra Soul Shard, which is definitely a nice benefit considering 75% of your abilities require one.

Glyph of Enslave Demon (Minor Glyph)
Even though many players won’t use the Enslave Demon ability throughout the game, they might with this glyph. It allows the caster to take off 50% of the time required to capture a demon. This is great in sticky situations, especially if you are taking on the same enemies as the one you enslaved. Plus, it will be nice to play around with new pets as opposed to your same old summoning ones.

All the Rest

After reading over the five we listed, you probably have others you used around the Lexicon of Power. However, we specifically chose these because of what you have available in the beginning. Many of the openings for your glyphs will be locked until level 80, so it was important to give you options for what you might have right now. The best way to decide is to find your statistics and see what you use the most. Once you figure it out, get the Warlock Glyphs that work best for you.

More info on Warlock talent builds.

Warlock Pets

Mike — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 16:24:46 +0000

It seems over the years that Warlock builds have become a dying breed. In fact, I think they were on the endangered species list last year (I know corny joke). The truth of the matter is, there are still plenty of us out there that should enjoy the same amount of information all other classes do while playing WoW. So today we wanted to throw out a nice list of Warlock Pets that are available in the game.

Imp
For those of you who have just started playing with your Warlock, the Imp is your first summoning pet. It’s easy to obtain, the voice overs are annoying after awhile, and the lack of armor is evident. You do get a little boost in HP (Bloodpact for all members in group), and the good old Fire Shield. In the end the Imp is best used to distract other enemies, nothing more.

Voidwalker
The first time I took a Warlock to level 80, the Voidwalker was a constant companion for about 40 levels. One of the biggest reasons is the Aggro it attracts, as well as as the substantial amount of HP at such an early level. Just keep in mind you will have to run quests in order to learn the summoning of this one. It’s a great tank, but as your Warlock becomes stronger, there will be better Warlock Pets available.

Succubus
While the Succubus is an interesting part of the Warlock Pets, it just doesn’t live up to the hype. Many players believe this is a great crowd control pet, but her abilities don’t work on everything. Just something to keep in mind if you use her. Also, you may want to mute the Succubus with an addon after awhile. Her voiceovers can be irritating to some.

Felhunter
One of the downfalls to being a Warlock is you don’t have a plethora of buffs to help out your group. However, if you want to be a team player then you should definitely summon the Felhunter. It will give the other players a nice boost of “Fel Intelligence” where their intellect and spirit will be dramatically increased. Overall it’s great for groups, but not as much for soloing.

Felguard
If I have a favorite of the bunch it has to the Felguard. Unfortunately most people don’t even use a Felguard due to the fact that their talent tree isn’t set up for it. If you want a major tank running around with you all the time, then this should be #1 on your list. He is much better than the Voidwalker, and his “Run n’ Stun” approach is classic. Make sure you build your Demonology tree to get him.

Extras Out There

While all of the Warlock Pets above will stay with you as long as you survive, there are others out there on occasion. The Doomguard is available for those that use the Curse of Doom (requires 4 other party members), but hard to come by. The Inferno (requires Infernal Stone) drops a huge meteor on the enemies before meleeing them to death, but only lasts a minute and a half. Then of course you have the Enslave Demon ability that can chain certain enemies and keep them as pets for 5 minutes.

Which One Will You Choose

Almost every single one of these Warlock Pets have specific talents for certain situations. It’s your job as a Warlock to figure out what works best for you at any given time. Then of course you have to wait until you reach certain criteria in order to bring some of them out. Hopefully with a little help like this it can make your WoW experience more enjoyable.