Warlock (World of Warcraft)

File:World of Warcraft Human Female Warlock.jpg

Human Female Warlock with summoned Felhunter

In World of Warcraft, the Warlock is a magic-using class that wields much of their power by summoning demon servants. Warlocks also can harm enemies by cursing them as well as by casting spells that cause damage. Warlocks are somewhat similar to the Necromancer Class in the game Diablo II (also published by Blizzard).

Information

• Available to: Humans, Gnomes, Orcs and Undead/The Forsaken.
• Available equipment: Cloth armor
• Available weapons: Daggers, Swords, Staffs, Wands.

Warlocks are summoners, who summon demons and create magical stones (and when needed they can summon other players). They are much like mages, but focus more on summoning. To summon demons and stones, they need soulshards, which they get by draining the souls of their "victims." Although warlocks are thought to be evil, they are masters of their own will and are not controlled by the Burning Legion.

A good idea for warlocks is to buff Stamina as their main priority and Intellect second. With the ability Lifetap, the warlock can basically consume his or her own health to refresh their mana.

Warlocks mostly utilize Damage over Time (DoT) spells and curses (debuffs) as opposed to Direct Damage spells. While a mage may cast fireball (a spell that does an immediate amount of damage to its target) the warlock's spell (like Corruption) deals a continuous amount of damage to the target over a set period of time. While both spell styles have advantages and disadvantages, the warlock's damage over time spells generally causes the same amount of damage if the battle lasts long enough. If the monster dies before the spell runs its course, then the warlock has paid a higher price in mana for the amount of damage that was actually inflicted.

Summons

Warlocks can learn to summon a number of different demons as they advance levels.

• The imp is a tiny demon that has very small amount of health but can do a fair amount of damage with its firebolt attack. It is the only demon that can be summoned without the use of a soul shard. It also provides benefits such as a stamina boost for the warlock and all the members of the Warlock's party and a reduction in threat bonus to Warlocks with the Master Demonologist skill.

• The Voidwalker, obtained at level 10, has a large amount of hit points and acts as a tank by taunting its enemy. It attacks slowly, and does little damage, but it is good at keeping monsters from attacking the warlock. Warlocks with the Master Demonologist talent additionally benefit from a reduction in physical damage taken whilst the Voidwalker is his active summon. The Voidwalker can also be ordered to sacrifice itself, shielding the warlock against damage with its released power.

• The Succubus, obtained at level 20 via a series of quests, has only a modest amount of health but it does a good deal of damage with its attacks. The attack spell in the succubus arsenal is "Lash of Pain" which does a fair amount of shadow damage to a target. Succubus are also used for their seduce ability, which can charm a humanoid target for up to 15 seconds, or until the target is damaged, as well as a 10% damage bonus (15% when sacrificed) granted to a Master Demonologist. The combination of Master Demonologist and other talents to improve the Succubus (Improved Lash of Pain and Improved Succubus), will add substantial damage output of the warlock.

• The Felhunter, obtained at level 30 via a series of quests, attacks quickly and is good for disrupting casters. It can taint the blood of its attackers, lowering their attack power substantially and can cast spell lock, preventing casters from casting a spell and locking spells of that school of magic. It also has "Paranoia" which increases stealth detection, useful when questing in territory with stealthed foes like Rogues. Warlocks with the Master Demonologist talent benefit from resistances to all schools of magic when using the Felhunter.

• The Felsteed is the warlock's mount which is obtained as a quest without charge from a vendor. Only the warlock and the paladin are able to attain mounts free of charge. An epic Felsteed called the Dreadsteed can only be summoned after completing an epic quest which takes a great deal of time and effort[1].

• The Infernal is a powerful and destructive demon. Unfortunately the infernal will only remain under the warlock's control for 5 minutes before it turns and attacks the summoner. It can be re-enslaved but at the cost of diminished returns. The Infernal is a very situational pet and rarely used, but on the correct occasion can be put to good use by a skilled Warlock.

• The Doomguard is another powerful demon that combines a melee attack with some devastating spells such as cripple. A warlock can learn the ritual of doom to summon a Doomguard. This requires a group of 5 players, where one of them (randomly) will die. The doomguard also occasionally appears when the Warlock uses the spell called Curse of Doom. In either case it must be enslaved by the warlock and the enslavement will wear off after a short time. In practice, Warlocks rarely summon Doomguards.

Summons and 5-man instances

• The most common pet Warlocks use is the Imp, due to the high DPS and stamina buff it gives to people around it, making the pet great for instances. Because of that, it is not unusual that the Warlock's party requires the Warlock to summon the Imp.
• Another popular pet is the Succubus. While there is no stamina buff given, the Succubus will add more damage output and allow the Seduction spell to be used to put enemy mobs out of action for a short while. Rogues that sap or mages that sheep are usually preferred, but Seduction can be a good complement.
• The Voidwalker is, while a primary tanker, is almost never used, as it can't hold aggro well in the higher levels because many warlocks tend to do high amounts of burst damage.
• The Felhunter compliments a party when used in a dungeon with a high population of casters, such as the Cathedral part of Scarlet Monastary and most of Zul' Farrak.
• The Infernal and Doomguard are used the least, as they are considered not always worth the effort.

Summons and 40-man instances

The warlock pets don't improve after level 60. The warlock itself will improve with better equipment, but this does not generally help the pets. That means that pets have a more passive role in high-level instances, or they will be killed quickly.

• Using an Imp will provide the stamina buff, and also allow some offensive damage from a distance (keeping it away from danger). Note however that the stamina buff has a limited range. For example, if the Imp is too far from the tanking warrior, there will be no effect.
• The Felhunter can sometimes be used. It will provide resistances to all magic schools (if the talent Master Demonologist is used), and it can remove magic buffs.

Sacrificing pets can give good advantages (if the talent Demonic Sacrifice is used).

Summons and PvP 1v1

• For this case, the Succubus is generally preferred. The idea is to Seduce the opponent, and then use Soul Fire or Shadow Bolt. Seduction is then applied immediately again. This is not always easy, as there are trinkets and other means to avoid Seduction. The spell Fear can be used in a similar way as Seduction, but the latter has the advantage that it can be fired off independent of warlock actions.
• If it is possible to choose pet before the fight starts (as in duels), a Felhunter can be used to great advantage against spell casters. It also has a chance to detect stealthed rogues.

Summons and Battlegrounds

The choice of pet here is more depending on personal preferences. As the pet is resurrected after death, usage of Soul Shards is not a big issue for summoning pets.

• The Imp provides a stamina buff to the team (5-man group).
• The Succubus will provide higher damage and the possibility of Seduction. It is sometimes difficult to use Seduction in chaotic fights, as it is not unusual that a friend hits the player that was seduced, and so breaks the spell.
• The Felhunter can be used for blocking spells, removing spell buffs and for magic resistance (depending on talent Master Demonologist).
• The Infernal can be used for instilling fear in your enemy and causing them to fall back. This is especially useful in the battleground Alterac Valley.

Summons and solo PvE

Using a Succubus can be very efficient for high level warlocks. The trick is to let the Succubus start the fight, and gain aggro. Do not use Soothing kiss. The warlock either applies DOTs immediately, or waits a little and spams Shadowbolts. The idea is to take over aggro from the Succubus after a short time, making the mob run against the warlock. If perfectly timed, the warlock will manage to kill the mob after only a little damage. That way, damage will be split between the Succubus and the warlock, allowing quick recovery. Another good way of playing solo is going to zones with Demons and sacrifice a voidwalker for health regen and enslaving a demon to act as a pet for 5 min, enslaving doesn't remove fel stamina from the player. This way there will be almost no down time.

Strengths

Warlocks have pets (like Hunters) which are powerful and never have to be fed or kept happy. The demons add a great deal to the combat power of the warlock and if they are defeated in combat, it costs warlocks another "Soul Shard" as mentioned above to resummon a fallen demon, with the exception of the imp which does not require a "Soul Shard". The demons are good at specific tasks and (unlike hunters with their pets) it is easy to replace one demon for another depending on the needs of the coming battle.

While typical warlocks do not quite have the power of the Mage in dealing out damage, they are good at dealing damage and their curses can help make battles much easier. Warlocks do have some area-effect spells which come in handy in every dungeon.

Warlocks are especially good at fighting demons and elementals, however such creatures are rarely found except in Dire Maul and Black Rock Depths.

Warlocks can summon other members of a group from anywhere in the world (outside of instances) and this makes them very helpful at gathering large groups prior to the start of a raid. Warlocks can also summons players to his/her location inside an instance as well. As long as the player is inside the same instance and a member of the same group. This is useful if a player dies, and no one was able to resurrect them. I.e. your main healer can release, run to the instance entrance, and be summoned back to group.

Warlocks can cast a spell (Soul Stone) which allows one person per half hour to come back from death. This ability is hugely useful in some raids when the party has advanced deep into a dungeon and monsters have "respawned" behind them. Having a priest, paladin or shaman "soul-stoned" often spells the difference between a raid that is defeated and a raid that can continue.

Weaknesses

Warlocks are soft targets with little armor and poor ability to control the movement of enemy monsters (unlike mages with their ice spells). If their demon servant is defeated, the Warlock is in grave danger. Demonologist Warlocks with the Soul Link talent are an exception to this rule, particularly as those specialising in Stamina bonus equipment can add many thousand health points.

Warlocks must constantly use up soul shards to summon demons, cast soul stone, create health stones, etc. Soul shard management is a bothersome problem for Warlocks as they can only be gathered from monsters that would give experience or by honor killed players. This means warlocks operating in a low level area for PvP or the like must sometimes travel to another part of the world to gather more shards to keep their efficiency up. As of the patch 1.9.0, characters in the profession Tailoring will be able to create special "Soul Shard" Bags that will make it easier to store them as Warlocks collect them. The first recipe is a 20 slot bag learned by a Vendor in Gadgetzan, a larger bag can be found in the instance Scholomance and the largest is found in the end game instance, Molten Core.

The most powerful demons are almost never used by Warlocks because of the limited time that they remain under control (and then they attack the Warlock). Warlocks have complained ever since the game was released about the problems with summoned Infernals but Blizzard has not made substantial changes to this aspect of the game. From patch 1.9, the damage output from Infernals are expected to increase.

A killed warlock needs time after resurrection to regain the strength. A pet has to be summoned (except for play in Battlegrounds), Demonic Shield reapplied, Health Stone and Soul Stone regenerated. This takes some time, and will also consume soul shards. The result of this is that a warlock killed (outside of Battlegrounds) usually is killed outright again.

Conclusion

Warlocks, as of mid-2005, are the least played class in the game, alongside with Druids. Why this is so must be a matter of speculation but several reasons are likely:

- Because they seem to be inferior to other classes in terms of damage inflicted, (which is incorrect, the gradual nature of Damage over Time Spells (DoTS) makes it less obvious to other players but Warlocks can potentially do much more damage than other classes, especially when spreading their DoTS amongst several enemies) as well as crowd control (Warlocks have a very powerful crowd control spell, Fear, but it must be used carefully as it has the potential to backfire and draw in even more enemies).

- While the specialization of each summoned demon gives the Warlock more versatility, it has given the class an appearance of being a "jack of all trades, master of none." (The druid has a similar reputation but is still valued for their healing abilities.)

- Because they cannot effectively use their most powerful demonic summons: the Infernal and the Doomguard, and their talent trees are considered, perhaps correctly, to be underpowered relative to other classes.

- Because they are arguably the hardest class to play. A warlock's effectiveness is heavily dependent on the player's micromanagement skills and the character's gear.

The warlock has been improved during the few last client patches. Developers seem to be working hard to bring balance to the class. It is supposed that after patch 1.8 this class finally became a well-balanced one. Blizzard has also said that Infernal's and Doomguard's game mechanics will be improved in upcoming patches.

However, in one versus one PvP, Warlocks are considered by many to be slightly imbalanced, with a "fear-lock" similar to a rogue's "stun-lock", while afflicting the opponent with an array of DoT and big damage spells.

External links

• Template:Wowwiki
• http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/warlock.html
• http://www.thottbot.com/?c=Warlock
• http://www.wowmb.net