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Warlocks can wear [[Cloth armor]] only, and can initially use [[Dagger]]s and [[Unarmed]] combat in battle. They can also use [[Wand]]s for ranged combat, and equip off-hands to enhance various skills.
  
Warlocks can wear [[Cloth armor]] only, and can initially use [[Dagger]]s and [[Unarmed]] combat in battle. They can also use [[Wand]]s for ranged combat, and equip off-hands to enhance various skills.
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They can train at a [[Weapon Masters|weapon master]] for {{s|10}} to gain the ability to use [[One-Handed]] [[Sword]]s and [[Staves]]. More information regarding Warlock-specific armor can be found at [[Warlock Sets]].
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They can train at a [[Weapon Masters|weapon master]] for {{s|10}} to gain the ability to use [[One-Handed]] [[Sword]]s (Undercity, Silvermoon) and [[Staves]] (Orgrimmar, Thunder Bluff). More information regarding Warlock-specific armor can be found at [[Warlock Sets]].
   
 
== Attributes ==
  
== Attributes ==

Revision as of 01:35, 12 April 2007

Template:Lang

Classes Deathknight Demon hunter Druid Evoker Hunter Mage Monk Paladin Priest Rogue Shaman Warlock Warrior
Class races DK DH Dr Ev Hu Ma Mo Pa Pr Ro Sh Wl Wr
Quests DK DH Dr Ev Hu Ma Mo Pa Pr Ro Sh Wl Wr
Abilities DK DH Dr Ev Hu Ma Mo Pa Pr Ro Sh Wl Wr
Trainers DK DH Dr - Hu Ma Mo Pa Pr Ro Sh Wl Wr
Armor sets DK DH Dr Ev Hu Ma Mo Pa Pr Ro Sh Wl Wr
Useful macros DK DH Dr - Hu Ma Mo Pa Pr Ro Sh Wl Wr
Class Halls DK DH Dr - Hu Ma Mo Pa Pr Ro Sh Wl Wr
For a description of the role of warlocks within the lore of Warcraft, see Warlock lore. For related articles, see Category:Warlocks.

Warlocks were once Mages who, in pursuit of ever-greater sources of power, abandoned their studies of the Arcane and delved into darker Shadow-based magic. Warlocks still retain their skills in the manipulation of the Fire element, although their focus is on delivering excruciating pain, drawing out the suffering of their victims instead of the effective application of Arcane energies to efficiently dispose of their targets from a safe distance.

Warlocks are unique among the DPS caster classes because of their ability to convert health into mana. Warlocks have the most powerful Damage over Time spells, the most variety in debuffs and summonable minions. Just like a Mage, a Warlock’s Crowd control abilities appropriately used can stave off certain doom for the Warlock and their allies, and Warlock’s sustained Burst damage when suitably specced and geared can rival those of a Mage. However, the Warlock’s Area of Effect spells are not as varied as those of their Mage brethren, although when used appropriately they have powerful applications in group play.

Warlocks are well versed in the "shock and horror" tactics of warfare, and their manipulation of Shadow energies can send their opponents reeling in Fear. At low levels, Warlocks rely primarily on minions and Damage over Time (DoT) spells to deal out damage to their enemies while fearing their enemies to prevent retribution.

Endgame warlocks either choose to maximize the effects of their DoTs and Curses through the Affliction tree, increase the utility of their summoned minions and stones through the Demonology tree, or lay waste the opposition with Burst damage and Direct damage spells in the Destruction tree. In previous versions of WoW, the 8-debuff and 16-debuff limits prevented Warlocks from maximizing their damage output through Affliction spells, and Warlocks were relegated to chain-casting their Direct damage spells to maintain DPS in PvE raids. This has changed with the new 40-debuff limit, and Affliction DPS is now somewhat competitive in a raid environment.

The Warlock can learn to summon magical mounts. All other classes, except Paladins, must purchase their own mounts with gold or via PvP.

Being a Warlock demands certain things: being able to engage multiple targets simultaneously while keeping tabs on your minion, to make split-second strategic decisions on cast rotations depending on the situation, careful shard management and even more careful aggro management. Being a Warlock also rewards many things: they are PvP powerhouse due to naturally high stamina values, they have the ability to apply debilitating, even humiliating Crowd control abilities and in PvE their damage output in multiple target situations can rival those of other DPS classes who focus fire on a single target.

Races

The Warlock class can be played by the following races:

Alliance Crest Alliance

Horde Crest Horde

Weapons & Armor

Warlocks can wear Cloth armor only, and can initially use Daggers and Unarmed combat in battle. They can also use Wands for ranged combat, and equip off-hands to enhance various skills. They can train at a weapon master for 10 to gain the ability to use One-Handed Swords (Undercity, Silvermoon) and Staves (Orgrimmar, Thunder Bluff). More information regarding Warlock-specific armor can be found at Warlock Sets.

Attributes

The Warlock has no use for Strength. Spirit regenerates hp and mana for Warlocks, but very slowly. Besides that, the Spell shadow burningspirit [Life Tap] spell allows Warlocks to convert health to mana, thereby rendering Spirit quite obsolete. Thus the most valuable stats are, in descending order:

  1. Stamina
  2. +Spell Damage (especially valuable as it now boosts both DoTs and nukes as well as Spell shadow burningspirit [Life Tap] and Spell shadow deathpact [Dark Pact])
  3. Intellect
  4. Spell crit
  5. Spell hit
  6. Health regeneration (+X Health per Y seconds)
  7. Mana regeneration (+X Mana per Y seconds)
  8. Spirit
  9. Agility

Although Agility is not vital to a Warlock, it does add a little to the Armor rating. The value of Spell crit depends on the talent build. With Spell fire fire [Ruin] and the use of direct damage spells, it is very good. But for an Affliction Warlock that mostly uses DoTs, it is worth very little.

See also attributes, Formulas:Health Regen and Formulas:Mana Regen for more information.

Soul Shards

A large number of the Warlock's skills and spells rely on the reagent known as Soul Shards. Soul Shards are obtained by using the Spell shadow haunting [Drain Soul] spell. To create a soul shard, the warlock must be channeling this spell as the target dies. Only targets that would give experience (or honor in the case of a PvP target) to the warlock will yield a Soul Shard.

Spell shadow scourgebuild [Shadowburn] (talent) also creates a soul shard if the enemy dies within five seconds of casting it, but since it also costs a shard to cast, the net effect is zero shards (or less if the cast is mistimed or spell is resisted).

Abilities

File:UndeadWarlock.png

An Undead Warlock.

Find detailed information about the warlock's various abilities on the Warlock Spells page.

Minions

Warlocks can summon a variety of minions, each exhibiting different skill sets which are useful in different situations.

The Imp's main role is a support minion, designed to do additional damage alongside the caster via its Spell fire firebolt [Firebolt] attack. The Imp is very fragile and will die very quickly if attacked, but it requires no Soul Shard to summon, and is often used to farm new Soul Shards when you run out and cannot summon a different minion. Other Imp abilities include Peticon-magical Spell shadow impphaseshift [Phase Shift] (allowing the Imp to shift out of phase and cannot be attacked by enemies), Spell shadow bloodboil [Blood Pact], a powerful stamina buff for everyone in your party, and Spell fire firearmor [Fire Shield], a Thorns-like damage shield (with FR at higher levels) which he will cast on you and your teammates that enter combat. With the Spell shadow summonimp [Improved Imp] and Spell fire firebolt [Improved Firebolt] talents, the Imp is the most damaging minion in the warlock's arsenal (with the notable exceptions of the Infernal and Doomguard); at least until he runs out of Mana. The Imp is also useful as a mana battery for affliction warlocks using dark pact due to his ability to stay out of harms way and his fast mana regeneration.
This demon deals little damage, but has very good armor and good hit points. The Voidwalker's main ability, Spell shadow gathershadows [Torment] is a taunt that causes enemies to lose interest in the warlock and instead attack the Voidwalker. There is also a PBAOE version of Torment called Spell shadow blackplague [Suffering]. This makes for an excellent soloing minion, and is also great for farming additional Soul Shards. Additional Voidwalker spells include Sacrifice, which kills your Voidwalker but creates a 30-second damage absorption shield for the warlock, and Spell shadow antishadow [Consume Shadows] which is an out of combat self-heal for the Voidwalker.
The Succubus is replete with spells that deal damage and mesmerize the enemy in different ways. Her first ability, Spell shadow curse [Lash of Pain], is a direct-damage, low-mana cast that deals shadow damage to her target. Other spells include Spell shadow soothingkiss [Soothing Kiss], which will reduce threat (the reverse of the Voidwalker's Spell shadow gathershadows [Torment] ability) and Spell shadow seduction [Seduction], which mesmerizes a target for 15 seconds (or until attacked). The Succubus also has a self-only Spell magic lesserinvisibilty [Lesser Invisibility] spell. Succubus deals the most damage of all the basic minions, without talent upgrades.
The Felhunter is your anti-caster minion. Where the Succubus deals lots of melee damage, the Voidwalker is a great tank and the Imp deals lots of ranged damage, the Felhunter has high magic resist and has abilities to Counterspell (Spell shadow mindrot [Spell Lock]), remove buffs from enemies and remove debuffs from friendlies (Spell nature purge [Devour Magic]). The Warlock employing a meleeing Felhunter can also use Tainted Blood to reduce the Attack power of enemies when they land hits on the minion. One could also use Spell shadow auraofdarkness [Paranoia] to greatly increase the stealth detection of all party member close to the demon.
While it deals better melee damage than the Succubus, has higher HP, fire immunity, and more AC than a Voidwalker; it needs to be enslaved (with the Enslave Demon spell) after the first five minutes. This demon can break loose unexpectedly, causing it to turn on its former master. It can be enslaved again (at the cost of one Soul Shard per attempt), but Enslave is subject to diminishing returns -- the duration decreases with each successive casting on the same demon. The Infernal deals strictly in melee damage, combined with an immolation effect that hurts all enemies nearby. It also requires an Inv stone 05 [Infernal Stone] to summon.
The Doomguard is the most powerful Warlock minion. It has the highest HP and AC, as well as having Spell shadow rainoffire [Rain of Fire], Dispel, Spell shadow cripple [Cripple] and Warstomp. A properly used Doomguard can take out entire camps of enemies at a time before perishing. However, like the Infernal, it requires Enslave Demon to be cast on it to stay within the Warlock's control, but unlike the Infernal, it MUST be enslaved right away, or it will start attacking you or your party/raid. It can be re-enslaved after but the Enslave's duration diminishes after each casting. Spell shadow auraofdarkness [Curse of Doom] has about a 10% chance of summoning a Doomguard if it deals the killing damage. Warlock sacrificial pact [Ritual of Doom] will summon a Doomguard 100% of the time, but requires the assistance of your party, and will kill one member of your group. That one party member could be you, thus unleashing an angry Doomguard on your group mates with no one to enslave it unless another Warlock is in your group. Ritual of Doom requires a Inv misc orb 05 [Demonic Figurine] reagent.
  • Felguard was added in the 2.0.1 patch (Obtained: from 41 point tier of the new demonology talent tree)
The Felguard is the most powerful non-enslaved Warlock minion. Overall effectiveness compared to other warlock minions is in a rapid state of flux. As of patch 2.0.3, it has similar DPS to the succubus, while tanking almost as well as the Voidwalker (having less armor but very similar or slightly better single target aggro generation (this appears to be changing however, with armor increasing). This demon has abilities that help a lot in PvP as well as when soloing. It uses the standard single soul shard to summon.

Mounts

File:Dread.jpg

An Undead Warlock mounted on a Dreadsteed.

  • Felsteed (Level Obtained: 40, from trainers)
The Felsteed is the 'free mount' that Warlocks receive at level 40. Other than Paladins, all other classes must pay 10 for a mount and 90 for training to ride it (these prices can be lowered by being Honored with the mount's city (and pre 2.0 by obtaining the Sergeant rank)). This is a great help since Warlocks must purchase spells for their summoned minions as well. You also gain riding skill 75.
The Dreadsteed is the Warlock Epic level 60 mount. This minion is obtained though a long quest line. It is not free, but it is still available to Warlocks at a significant discount compared to other classes (406, compared to ~600 for everyone else). This cost can be further reduced by another 250 if you have another warlock who already has the materials. This cost however does not take into account the three materials collection quests you are tasked with which can be very costly, particularly if your Warlock does not posses any of the trade skills required to do them. By completing the quest line you also gain riding skill 150.

Damage over Time Spells

A Warlock's DoTs are the bread and butter of her arsenal, regardless of talent specialization.

Direct Damage Spells

The Warlock's direct damage spells are either Shadow or Fire based. While a Warlock's direct damage alone does not compare to the Mage, when coupled with their DoTs and a minion they can achieve strong, steady DPS to rival other classes'.

Channeled

Some of a Warlock's most important spells are channeled, and they can be protected from interruption by damage, using the Spell shadow fingerofdeath [Fel Concentration] and Inv staff 95 [Intensity] talents.

Curses

The Warlock has available variety of curses, but only one can be cast upon an enemy at a given time. This creates the need for determining an appropriate Curse in a given situation.

Conjured Items

Another powerful ability of the Warlock is to create beneficial items from Inv misc gem amethyst 02 [Soul Shards]. Some of these stones are used from the wand slot and others are used from the inventory. All conjured items disappear 15 minutes after logging off.

  • Warlock healthstone [Create Healthstone] - Creates a consumable stone that will heal its owner. It can be given to other players and used like a health potion, but is on a separate timer.
  • Inv misc orb 04 [Create Soulstone] - Creates a consumable stone used by the warlock to cast a spell that allows the grouped player to self resurrect if they die while the soulstone is active.
  • Inv ammo firetar [Create Firestone] - Creates a stone that cannot be given to other players, which adds Fire damage to your wielded weapon and increases Fire spell damage.
  • Inv misc gem sapphire 01 [Create Spellstone] - Creates a stone that cannot be given to other players, which when equipped increases the warlock's critical strike chance, and when used, will remove all negative magic effects. It also has a three minute cooldown.

Healing

While a Warlock is by no means a healer, they do have some limited ability to heal themselves, their minions and others while in combat, and even resurrect.

To heal themselves there are Spell shadow lifedrain02 [Drain Life], Spell shadow requiem [Siphon Life] (Affliction talent) and Spell shadow deathcoil [Death Coil] which, conveniently, also damage the target. Spell shadow psychicscream [Demonic Sacrifice] (Demonology talent) also restores 2% of total Health every 4 sec, at the cost of a summoned Voidwalker. The Spell shadow ragingscream [Demon Armor] spell also provides a small health regeneration effect, including during combat. The newer Spell shadow felarmour [Fel Armor] spell, included in the 2.0.1 patch, increases healing done to the Warlock by 20%, from any source (even bandages and potions), but does not stack with Spell shadow ragingscream [Demon Armor]. Warlocks can also regain health equal to 20% of damage caused by Shadowbolt, Spell shadow scourgebuild [Shadowburn], Spell fire fireball02 [Soul Fire], Spell fire burnout [Incinerate], Spell fire soulburn [Searing Pain], and Spell fire fireball [Conflagrate] though the talent Warlock siphonlife [Soul Leech] (Destruction talent).

To heal others (or himself), a Warlock can create a Healthstone and hand it to another member of their party. These can be improved through talents. Burning Crusades introduced the Spell shadow shadesofdarkness [Ritual of Souls] which creates a Soul Well from which 10 Master Healthstones can be extracted by any person in the raid or party.

To heal their minion they have Spell shadow lifedrain [Health Funnel]. This can be improved through talents.

To resurrect a target a Warlock may use a Soulstone on the target before it dies (30 minutes Buff duration and Cooldown), allowing it to resurrect on death.

Miscellany

The Warlock has other valuable spells at their disposal

  • Spell shadow possession [Fear] - sends an enemy fleeing for a period of time,and is key to prevent the warlock from receiving damage. Unlike Mage’s Spell nature polymorph [Polymorph] ability, the Warlock’s key Crowd control ability does not increase health generation of the target, so they are able to Fear a target while still doing damage.
  • Ability warlock howlofterror [Howl of Terror] - sends enemies around you fleeing in terror for a period of time.
  • Spell shadow cripple [Banish] - freezes a demon or elemental - preventing them from attacking, though they are also immune to all damage while banished. Can also be used in PvP against enemy demons and Treeform Druids or Treants summoned by Druids.
  • Spell shadow twilight [Ritual of Summoning] - a ritual requiring 2 other party members which allows you to summon another party member to your location.
  • Eye of Kilrogg - a fragile but speedy eye that allows you to scout out dangerous areas from a safe distance. It is possible to aggro some bosses with an Eye.
  • Spell shadow demonbreath [Unending Breath] - allows a target to breathe underwater
  • Spell shadow detectlesserinvisibility [Detect Invisibility] - allows a target to see invisible units.
  • Spell shadow metamorphosis [Sense Demons] - shows demons on the minimap.

Melee

Although the warlock is a ranged class, it does have some provisions for fighting at melee range. Warlocks can equip swords, as well as Firestones to bolster their melee attack power. Defensively, a warlock can share his damage with his pet via Soul Link, and counter melee attacks with Spell fire firearmor [Fire Shield]. With crowd control abilities such as Fear, Death Coil, and Howl of Terror, the warlock can help deter melee engagements.

Talents

Talent builders can be found at Official Blizzard site, Panda Hideout, WoW Vault, Thottbot, Merciless Talent Calculator. See the Warlock talents page for detailed information and talent trees.

Suggested Professions

Some suggested professions that go along with the warlock class the pairing of Herbalism and Alchemy you can use potions for buffs and sell the remaining herbs on the Auction House, most of which sell for more than they vendor for. Secondly Enchanting works equally well and since no gathering profession is needed leaves you open to choose any other profession. Tailoring is also a wonderful profession for Warlocks, allowing them to make gear better than that of some instances. As of Burning Crusades, the specialty tailoring recipies(Shadowcloth, Spellfire, and Primal Mooncloth) have many pieces of gear that Warlocks such as the Shadow's Embrace and Wrath of Spellfire sets.

End-Game Expectations

DPS, Soulstones, and Minion Tanking. A Warlock's abilities can bring a lot of support to parties, and they are an excellent source of DPS. Inv misc gem amethyst 02 [Soul Shards] should be put to good use in order to Summon late comers and give out Healthstones. They should be prepared to banish a lot of elementals, since they're the only form of Crowd Control in Molten Core except on Majordomo Executus. Also, a Spell shadow soulgem [Soulstone] should be used on the main tank or healers, it may make the difference in whether the party lives or wipes.

When doing 40-man high level instances, the Warlocks normally assign the responsibility of curses among each other. Effective use of applying those curses are usually expected. It's a Warlock's responsibility to know what curse to use unless the raid leader requests otherwise.

Due to a demonology Warlock's high magic resistance, they are used temporarily in tanking Vek'lor in Temple of Ahn'Qiraj who is immune to physical damage and does mostly magical damage.

Macros

Main article: Useful macros/Warlock

Addons

Many warlock addons used to revolve around sorting shards. However, as of patch 1.9 this functionality was integrated into soul shard bags.

  • Healthstone Trader is designed to automate the process of handing out healthstones by warlocks, and can be initiated by the user or a whisper. This can be very useful in raids where large amounts of healthstones may need to be handed out. Its various features can be trigged by either a hotkey or through a whisper. This mod has not been updated for Bc icon
  • RaidSummon will queue group/raidmembers that request to be summoned (by whispering you a specific keyword) and notify the warlock with an audio signal and a text message. Casting "Ritual of Summoning" will then summon the first player in the queue and - if the ritual succeeded (RaidSummon detects failures) - remove him from the list. Casting again will summon the next player and so on. Additionally, using the "Ritual of Summoning" action while targeting a raid/group-member will perform a normal ritual of summoning on him - preferring the target over already queued raid/group-members. This mod has not been updated for Bc icon
  • Necrosis LdC is based on Necrosis 1 by infernal. It is described by its author as "a mod to help Warlocks managing their stones, shards and demon summoning. No more, but no less..." It is a very useful addon and perhaps the most widely used of the Warlock specific addons.

See Also

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