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World of Warcraft: Class Overview: Rolling a Warlock
Stradden
Managing EditorMember CommonPosts: 6,696
MMORPG.com World of Warcraft Correspondent Brian McCann writes this overview of the Warlock class in Blizzard's massive hit game.
Jack of all trades, master of none pretty much describes a warlock in most people’s minds. The last part of the saying that is often omitted, according to Adam Sage, is “though often better than a master of one”. I think the figure of speech really sums up what a warlock truly is and what it adds to the game. I started playing a warlock when some of my friends that had picked all of the other classes asked me to join World of Warcraft and start a warlock so they could have one of every class in the guild. I soon thought they were more enemies than friends.
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Check out the Warlock Class Overview.
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
Comments
"jack of all trades" title belongs to Druids, healer/melee/caster/tank nuff said.
For people new to the game this is pretty accurate, warlocks are imo the hardest to lvl from 1-20, even tho they have a pet they are still physically defenseless untill they start getting more skills + gear.
I never played one past 20, not my cup of tea, i just cant stand playing a 'clothie'
gimme plate mail or bear form anyday.
Reading this tho does make me wanna make an alt warlock >_< they are becomming less and less common in the BGs nowadays. All these Ret Paladins came out of nowhere tho -coincedence?
[/quote] The demons (or pets as all the uneducated like to call them), add a level to the game that is even hard for most hunters to mimic. Warlocks are some of the best at demon/pet management because we die every time we make a mistake. This hard earned knowledge allows warlocks to succeed using their pets in raids where even hunters fail. An experienced warlock that rolls an alt hunter will have a blast because it’s like playing WoW in easy mode after leveling your warlock.[/quote]
Are you kidding????? Locs have MUCH more survivability then mages and even priests when solo, grouped or a raid. They have more hit points and lets NEVER forget the amount of Stamina if geared right. This post is a joke about Locs livintg when you compare them to other PURE CLOTH wearing classes. Go home and tell mommy that you need to L2P as a warlock because mages and priests do LESS damage, HAVE NO CONSTANT PET and HAVE no health to survive more then 2 hits from a rogue or warrior..
I started playing a 'lock when they were least popular of all the classes. I'd agree with the above poster that they are not really a 'jack of all trades' as they don't have the kind of healing spells at the disposal of some of the other hybrid classes. The variety of different spells and abilities available to a Warlock sure as hell makes them a lot of fun though.
P.S: Loving the new Drain Soul animation. Nothing like seeing twisted, screaming souls being sucked from your enemy.
Oh and I forgot to tell you I have a 70 mage, 70 loc, 70 war, 70 huntard, 70 priest. I also have 4 others that are 67+ since i have been playing since release so I have SOLO leveled all of the above due to working the night shift for a living.
even though Tandil might be a bit offensive, he does have a point, which is, out of all clothed classes, warlocks have the most stamina that I have seen, I am currently at 27, and got more hp then priests mages at 29-30, I got green gear, except the staff from VC.
I was actually thinking that Warlock is by far the easiest to solo, I have played 6 different classes to mid 30's, 1 to 60(before TBC), easier then the hunter. It is easier because of the soulstone, fear, and Voidwalker, great DoT's and regular damage spells.
Being able to res yourself, and not have to run across the map, is a huge benefit, also beneficial in pvp, when gankers are passing by, I did not see anyone actually wait 6 min for my soulstone to expire or for me to use it.
after the patch 3.0.2 .warlocks and hunters ,rogues have been made less lethal where as paladins and mages have been graded up .mages are very lethal now .
I have to disagree with a lot of points here. Warlocks, as others have mentioned, are not jacks of all trades. Healing your pet and/or yourself does not mean you're like the other classes that really can do everything.
Warlocks aren't hard to level up in the early levels either. If you stand around casting spells and picking your nose, then yes you'll have trouble, but I've leveled several Warlocks (every time an attempt of a friend to try and get me into the Horde) and none of them were difficult. But this is more of a personal view it seems.
As for survivability, Locks are just as capable as Hunters are. At least Locks can spread that survivability love around, whereas Hunters just get a get-out-of-repair-bill-free card.
Finally, Warlocks are not harder to play than a Hunter. Hunters must maintain a steady flow of damage while not pulling aggro from their pets. On my Warlock, I send my pet in, dot things up, and go look for my next target. Against harder mobs, the two are pretty equal... both have to find a balance between damage and healing their pets.
Demons are pets. In fact, Hunter pets are more complex than demons because demons aren't customized like a second character with a ton of training.
I do not mean to be offensive, I have been a member of mmorpg for a long time and do not usually post. That said. I have found the warlock and hunter the two EASIEST classes to level. I am a Mage at heart and will never deny that, but Warlocks are the "Easy Button" for leveling due to stats, I mean really the more health you have is equal to the more mana you have, and you have a pet that does damage AND pulls taunt while you are getting mana. LOC and Hunters = EZbutton.
I loved playing a warlock and never really had the solo-ing trouble the article talks about. Once you get a voidwalker who can taunt just about everything you are good to go. My biggest obstacle was PvP, both because other players know better then to waste time fighting the demon and because I generally sucked at all forms of PvP anyway. Other then that I had no trouble out damaging my husband's mage once my dots kicked in.
Have to agree with Tandil: locks are not that hard to level. With Sacrifice you should NEVER have to die to a bad pull. Not too mention soulstone. Of course, that's assuming you have those spells. The voidwalker should take all aggro and keep you alive before level 20. After that, it's cake with Ms. SmurfLove.Managing aggro isn't hard. As stated, send PapaSmurf out, let him build a tad of aggro, dot up, finish with SB. K?Thx4daluutz.
And that chart? What the heck does that have to do with what you are talking about? Almost like, yeah, I need a chart, let me throw this in there! For the record, although you list the pet names, you don't really talk about who they are and what they do. (This part actually made me laugh: [The demons (or pets as all the uneducated like to call them), ] The general term is PET. Kind of like Xerox or Kleenex? Get it?) What do they do? What's their place in the scheme of combat? (Imp gives stamina and has a beat stick of a firebolt, Voidwalkers tank and allow you to survive (sacrifice), Ms. Sexy mezz additional mobs, Mr. UglyDog eats spells, etc.)
As far as raiding, the soulstone goes on the person that can res (Priest). Always. And if you are going to use hellfire, Sacrifice keeps you from dieing. Talking about raids, as stated, this last patch actually made the class a little less beefier but still fun to play IMO. People are not looking for locks in raids like they used to. Sad times for locks these days.
And you mention spells? What kinds of spells? What's their names? What do they do? Corruption, Shadowbolt, Siphon Life, Drain Life, Drain Soul, Curse of Agony, Incinerate, Seed, Soulstone, etc. etc. etc. That would have been much more interesting than a glossing over of the class with no real information.
Is worth rolling a lock? Why? Survival aspects? Free steeds saving a lot of money? Oh wait, you have to pay for that epic steed, don't you? What about healthstones? Dude, I could go on and on about warlocks.
It's sad that the potential for a good write up was wasted with this. The writer attempted to write "technical" aspects of the class all the while inserting his opinion of the "cool" aspects of the class. I honestly don't think this person understands the class as well as he/she should. I have been playing since Beta and have seen the Warlocks change much. It's sad that MMORPG can't find people with the technical knowledge to write good stuff. For those that wish to tell me, "Well Mr. Nieves, why don't you write something yourself?" If I get paid, sure. No more free love from me, thank you very much.
Hasta.
Playing a Warlock to level 10 is a challenge because your imp does nothing for aggro management. You have to kill, and kill fast. Which is difficult when most of your spells are Damage over Time.
As soon as you get your voidwalker, the whole game changes. A smart warlock will typically only use other pets for group play. If you're solo, you should always have your voidwalker out unless you have a damned good reason to do otherwise or you get the felguard. A trap to avoid (except with the voidwalker) is switching to whatever demon is the newest one you've learned. Remember: your demons get abilities slowly, and are weakest when you first learn them. The extra demons are meant to round out your class in special situations rather than being used non-stop.
The voidwalker does an excellent job at holding aggro from the moment you get it, and this only gets better with time. But you have to completely change the way you play once you get this pet.
The reason many warlocks have difficulty is because they don't understand aggro management. They start cutting loose with spells like they're a mage, and end up doing so much damage that the mob gets pulled off their voidwalker. Warlocks need to remember that they're deadly in a "sneak up on you" kind of way. Cast your DoT's, then sit back and relax for several seconds. This prevents the spell damage from outstripping the pet's ability to generate threat. You should only typically use Shadowbolt once when your first DoT's are getting ready to run out, and maybe a second time when the mob is almost dead and you just want to end the fight quick.
If you try to solo with anything other than the voidwalker/felguard, you're asking for big trouble. None of the other pets hold aggro. This means that you put yourself in the position of any other clothie, having to kill the mob before it can get to you. An extremely skilled warlock can manage this with some good kiting, but it's rare to see anyone who can do it well. Honestly, the imp is best for dungeons when you're in a group that doesn't need the voidwalker to serve as an off tank. The succubus and felhunter are best for PvP, or if you're grouped in a dungeon. In this latter case, the succubus adds more dps to the fight while the felhunter is magic for making life miserable for healers and casters.
Another thing about your demons is that with the exception of the imp you very rarely want to leave all the pet abilities on auto-cast. For example, the voidwalker has both a single-target and an AoE taunt. The voidwalker will by default cast them one right after the other. If you get an add, then the second taunt isn't available because it's still on its long cooldown. Turn off that second taunt, and use it only when necessary. The succubus and felhunter have similar situations where you need to micromanage your pet rather than let it do its thing.
My final recommendation is to spec very heavy in Affliction for most of your career. Only respec if you decide to go with the felguard, and then only when you are high enough level to get that demon AND all of its abilities. If I remember right, that means something like level 50 or 55. Affliction is an amazing leveling spec, maximizing your DoT's while also improving your life and mana drain abilities.
Ultimately, the secret to playing a warlock well is to have already killed your enemies before they realize it. Use those DoT's to best effect! By the time the enemy realizes it's actually in trouble, there's nothing that it can do to survive.
In conclusion, warlocks are an exceptionally versatile class. They can solo extremely well, and they can also round out any party by choosing the pet that does what the group is weakest at.
Wow.. this is a featured post?
Soo many wrong things said. So many false ideas.
If this is seriously how you played a warlock.. DONT ever play it again.. your an embaressment to the class.
"Running back to a body every 5 seconds?" fail. "hardest thing to do " ? fail. "wide array of weapons"... huh? "weapons for warlocks are important because they can give you an edge"... oh dear.... "we die every time we make a mistake".. we? you ... "where you place your talent point can make you versatile and deadly".. kind of.. the player skills do that..
Folks if you have never played a 'lock.. and this post put you off... do what any sane person who HAS played one would do.. /ignore it. really.
*heads back to soloing raid mobs on his 'lock..
You dont "Roll" a character in wow......
This guy is not talking about warlocks, ....he can't be.... jack of all trades? Wide array of weapons..? You die if you make one mistake?
Like a poster earlier, I've been playing WoW since beta, plenty of 70's yada yada, my lock is still my main, and I've been playing them since they've been gimped. A warlock is in no where near a jack of all trades, a warlock is a debuffer with a pet, thats what they were originally ment to be, after level 10 leveling is pretty simple once you learn how to micro manage your pet to be your mini tank. Hunter is still and will always be easier to level then a warlock, hunter is WoW on easy mode, end of story. Fear is in the warlocks arsenal because its our only saving grace while we were underpowered, when the burning crusade came out, blizzard buffed warlocks dps up, gave us burst damage, and then everyone started crying that we were overpowered. Now I hate pvp, but most locks go afflic and use fear so they can fully dot someone and just kit them around till their dead, people call this overpowered, if you cant get out of fear its your own fault, by level 60 theres atleast 3 diffrent ways to get out of fear, and the fourth fear you become immune to it. Now with the new patch, locks have been taken back to being gimped, which I'm personally happy for it, we are no longer the top dps, we are upper middle which is where we should be, and hopefully people will stop saying we are easy mode and OP, we arnt, we play the class because its fun, WoW itself is easy, all classes can be OP if played correctly.
P.S If anything complain about Ret Pallys and Balance Druids being OP, CrossBreed Classes shouldnt do more DPS then a Pure Dps class can.
Mess with the best, Die like the rest
LOL!!!
- Jack of all trades, master of none pretty much describes a warlock in most people’s minds.
- Soloing a warlock is probably the hardest thing to do, because you die all the time, well at least in the beginning.
- One advantage that a warlock has is its ability to use a wide array of weapons. ... Do not overlook the ability to use wands. For a warlock, you can generally deal more damage with a wand than a weapon, especially at low levels. You also get nifty little spells that can add fire damage to your weapon and it gives the weapon a very cool look.
- “all daggers are rouge weapons” players.
- and rouge went do
- an arsenal that won’t create agro
The funniest article I've ever read!
ya this article was astounding...there's just so much wrong/inaccurate information in it. I've been playing a lock for about 2 years now (actually my 2nd is lvl 62 now--rerolled horde on a pvp server so i've got recreate my characters) and so far i've got a total of 10 lvl 70 characters on 2 servers.
a lock is EASY to level, a hunter is easier--you can't get easier than a hunter to level, love the class, but honestly you can level half asleep with a hunter. if you're dying all the time with a lock, then you're doing something wrong, sure before you get the voidwalker it's a little bit harder than some of the other classes--but come on you can probably level to 10 hitting stuff with a stick if you wanted. as everyone else has said, after 10 use the blueberry (voidwalker)--every other pet (unless you get the felguard at 50+) is mostly situational: in a group, in a bg, etc.
for my first lock i actually used the imp for most of my leveling after 30, around lvl 30 i found out how much spell dmg helps a lock and so i stacked that and had over 200 shadow dmg by the mid 30's, but only a little over 1k health, so i used the imp for the health buff because just my dots would pull agro off of the blueberry. it worked well actually, i was affliction spec'd, and i'd just drain tank (dot up the mobs and siphon life my health back) and actually i'd get so much health back that i was able to lifetap without worrying about dying. i didn't even consider doing that for my new lock since i'm on a pvp server. another way to look at situational pets would be the succubus, it's seduction ability is very good--but it's usually not a very good pet for an affliction lock, but it's good for a destruction lock who doesn't rely on dots too much.
wide range of weapons?!....
count with me--staves, daggers, 1hand swords, wands...that's 4
mages--staves, daggers, 1hand swords, wands...that's 4
priests--staves, daggers, 1hand maces, wands...that's 4
so all the cloth classes get the ability to use 4 different types of weapons
and "You also get nifty little spells that can add fire damage to your weapon and it gives the weapon a very cool look." is outdated--the firestone now is applied to the weapon increasing your spell crit rating and dmg done by direct dmg spells by 1%. they changed it with that latest content patch, which i'm sure most every lock is grateful for--because spell stone & firestone were both pretty worthless previously, they had some limited use and some situational use, but mostly they were just a waste. and that makes me wonder...why would you promote a worthless spell? just cause it looks cool on the weapon? that's what enchanting is for, get a minor beastslaying enchant (red glow) or a fiery enchant (firelike glow) instead and give me a useful spell.
there's a lot more that can be said about locks, but i don't have the time right now--if you haven't played it, give it a try, locks are not fun for everyone but you'll never know unless you try. that being said i've found locks to be one of my favorite classes so far and the only class i've not gotten to 70 yet is priest (63 on my old server).
This has been said way too often already, but I do fully agree this article is very inaccurate.
1 Warlocks are definitely NOT hard to level. Sure, they're not exceptionally easy, but dying all the time does mean you're doing something wrong. I've never (read: from level 10 onwards) had trouble with 3 equal level mobs at a time and a fourth adding near the end of the fight. My voidwalker can pretty much tank through that ordeal with a few (improved) health funnels, three DoTs on every mob (careful managing the aggro division between you and your voidwalker there), a Herbalist's Lifebloom, my (glyphed) Healthstone, and my Cannibalism racial. That is WITHOUT using Fear, due to mob-heavy areas!
2 The careful managing of the aggro division between you and your voidwalker brings me to another point: Hunters are far from Warlocks on easy mode. A good warlock knows how to handle his demons, when to switch, when to sacrifice the voidwalker, and which enemy to attack. Apart from the switching and the sacrificing, there isn't that much of a difference with Hunters, in my opinion. When I play on my Hunter, I use my soloing pet to keep aggro on three mobs at a time just as I do with my Warlock.
3 On another note, Hunters and their pets are a lot harder to play in instances than a Warlock and his pet. Per default, you don't have a Warlock's pet off-tank. There are some occassions in which it is absolutely necessary to have an off-tank. A Warlock can be used here. On the other hand, a skilled Hunter could use his pet for off-tanking on similar occassions, but is much better at it due to a Hunter's crowd control abilities. This also means it's much easier for a Hunter to make a fatal error in these cases, thus leading to the coining of the word "Huntard" and the lack of the word "Warlol".
4 Generally speaking, people don't mine their arses off to afford a mount. The fact that you mentioned level 30 as a mount requirement and not level 40 shows me you've been playing recently, so recent changes are no excuse there. I bought my level 30 mount on my two most recent characters with money to spare due to smart selling my finds on the auction house and knowing where to look for cash. My level 60 mount was a bit more of an issue, but I eventually got enough money for it (without missing out on any class skills etcetera to save money) at level 63. It would have taken a Warlock more effort to get that epic class mount of theirs than it took me to get my epic mount.
Bottom line: If you post an analysis, at least make sure you know what you're talking about. It is quite obvious that you have not delved into the class as much as possible by reading up on sites like wowwiki.com, talking to other Warlocks about their strategies and tactics, and investing time in finding out how Warlocks relate to other classes (as a previous post mentioned: Warlocks do not excel when it comes to weaponry). A little self-reflection ("Am I sure I know enough to write an extensive guide?") goes a long way here. A learned man knows he knows far from everything.
Warlock was quite a nice class to level up- you get given a horse, and you have a nice variety of spells and never really having to drink up every minute like say with the mage. It does get boring PvE later on as you're doing the same thing over and over without any incentive of new, interesting abilities. Tho, this could be said of all the other classes.
Pvp wise they can be fun also as you have different ways of playing, and it isn't always the easy-mode people think.
OMG, are some of you people KIDDING ME ???
warlock was my first class i ever made when i started playing WOW. It was a gnome, and i was killing the level 11 elite that lived in the cave for people when i was level 10 because no one else could do it or find a group to do it with .. nice lil way to make some beginner coin at the time, the NPC isn't elite anymore but back then it was fun.
I'm sorry, but LOCK is one of the easiest to play IMHO .. u send ole blue in and he gets agro and all u do is sit and dot .. how hard is that .. and maybe use a wand now and again .. after a few levels he can keep agro on more than a few mobs so its really easy; throw dots, use a heal funnel once in a while not too often so u don't draw agro, wand, rinse and repeat .. to me they are a lil easier than hunter but hunters can kill a lot faster.
I cant believe anyone saying that lock is hard to play, ive got 2 now, my ally one and my horde one all level 70 and in Negrand they are LEET .. i solo'd the elephant with it .. try that with any other class .. wont happen, and i was one level lower than it. just enslaved an elite demon and Wa'La ... Locks are very versatile and there isn't many situations that they cant handle .. very tough in PVP also but there i found they don't really shine till level 42 when you get your first instant fear ... anyways .. that's my opinion ..
I couldn't help but reply to this oveview. I never post on forums , i don't troll, but... sorry but this overview is way off. I have a 66 Warlock i have been playing as a casual WOW player. He is a gnome and was my first and main character. I don't pvp much so i won't comment there but PVE Locks rule hands down. Demon speced my VW can tank multiple yellows while i pick them off. I can even solo some level 65 Elites. I hardly ever die nor have i died much 1-66. Our first horse is cheap but our 2nd is my no means easy to get. And it is not FREE. You have to buy all kinds of compents and travel all over creation to complete the quest to get it.
Nothing personal , im giving this overview a 1 outta 10
playing a warlock is fun, but didn't really fit my style. I never got him past 30. Only druids (and now pallys) are jacks of all trades. Warlocks are pure dps, specializing in dots. For the LONGEST time, it was thought that warlocks were the most overpowered class in the game. Sure some classes stood out, usually when a new patch was released, but warlocks held the title of overpowered for a very long time. In the last patch, they are now much more gimped and used much less in arena. Paladins now hold the spot as the wrecking balls in pvp.
When people start hitting 80 then things will be different (probably).
Warlock , Voidwalker + Curses = easymode
Hunter with beast mastery = easiest mode in whole game and fastest.
Easy mode for leveling maybe. But leveling doesn't make up the whole game. BM hunters, and hunters in general are the least represented class in arena. The ones that break 2000 are the very skilled players. Hunters really only shine in pve. BM hunters are usually top on the dmg meters, but that's because of their ability to cycle in steady shot through auto shot. In arenas, they do not have the luxury of their opponent being at a constant distance and not attacking them.
I actually found my fury warrior to be a faster leveler then my bm hunter.
As other people have stated, this article is frought with error, and with opinion that goes against the mainstream experience of most Warlocks I know.
Warlocks are not difficult in the least to level, I have only died a handful of times, and that was in instances against elites when I mistakenly pulled aggro. Solo? Have not died once at L22 playing solo. Did this guy not remember to turn his armor on? For the first several levels, the health regen of the armor out-regens the damage inflicted on you. I'm not sure how this guy played to die so much, but it is obvious he was not playing his character intelligently. Perhaps this was his first forray into the game, and as such, inexperience with the mechanics of the game caused him some trouble. Barring that, I can't imagine what his issue was.