Warlock help

[Naewae]

Given the free 1.6 respec tomorrow, I'm ready to try to sort out my nagging problem that I'm doing something wrong...

I've searched the net for hours and dug up loads of builds. The problem is that Warlocks have 3 talent trees (as do all classes) and also 4 (or more) pets so there are dozens of conflicting builds, none of which seem to fit the style I currently play.

I am willing to change how I play my Warlock so what spec do you recommend? and once I have that specific spec, what is the best method of attack? (I currently have pumped demonology and the quick affliction talent & use voidwalker, curse, dot1, dot2, bolt, wand, wand, wand as a basis.)

Sorry to sound lazy but I simply don't know where to go from here. Although I currently can play quite quickly with my warlock I do feel I'm doing something wrong.

I'm level 29.

Oh and finally, I want to PvE ONLY - don't care about PvP whatsoever.

[Archeon]

I just put this together quickly, bare in minds it's 2am - so don't expect my shit to be golden and my worlds rivaling those of Jesus at the Last Supper or anything like that... But!

Originally Posted by Archeon

Affliction Talents (33 points)

# Suppression - 5/5 points
Reduces the chance for enemies to resist your Affliction spells by 10%.
# Improved Drain Life - 5/5 points
Increases the Health drained by your Drain Life spell by 10%.
# Improved Life Tap - 2/2 points
Increases the amount of Mana awarded by your Life Tap spell by 20%.
# Fel Concentration - 5/5 points
Gives you a 70% chance to avoid interruption caused by damage while channelling the Drain Life, Drain Mana, or Drain Soul spell.
# Amplify Curse - 1/1 point
Increases the effect of your next Curse of Weakness or Curse of Agony by 50%, or your next Curse of Exhaustion by 20%.
# Nightfall - 2/2 points
Gives your Corruption and Drain Life spells a 3% chance to cause you to enter a Shadow Trance state after damaging the opponent. The Shadow Trance state reduces the casting time of your next Shadow Bolt spell by 100%.
# Grim Reach - 2/2 points
Increases the range of your Affliction spells by 20%.
# Siphon Life - 1/1 point
Transfers 13 health from the target to the caster every 3 seconds. Lasts 30 seconds.
# Curse of Exhaustion - 1/1 point
Reduces the target's speed to 90% of normal for 12 seconds. Only one Curse per Warlock can be active on any one target.
# Improved Curse of Exhaustion - 3/4 points
Increases the speed reduction of your Curse of Exhaustion by 15%.
# Shadow Mastery - 5/5 points
Increases the damage dealt or life drained by your Shadow spells by 10%.
# Dark Pact - 1/1 point
Drains 150 of your pet's Mana, returning 100% to you.


Demonology Talents (18 points)

# Improved Imp - 3/3 points
Increases the effect of your Imp's Firebolt, Fire Shield, and Blood Pact spells by 30%.
# Improved Healthstone - 2/2 points
Increases the amount of Health restored by your Healthstone by 20%.
# Improved Voidwalker - 3/3 points
Increases the effectiveness of your Voidwalker's Torment, Consume Shadows, and Suffering spells by 25%.
# Improved Health Funnel - 2/2 points
Increases the amount of Health transferred by your Health Funnel spell by 20%.
# Fel Stamina - 5/5 points
Increases the maximum Health of your Imp, Voidwalker, Succubus, and Felhunter by 15%.
# Fel Domination - 1/1 point
Your next Imp, Voidwalker, Succubus, or Felhunter Summon spell has its casting time reduced by 5.5 seconds and its Mana cost reduced by 50%.
# Master Summoner - 2/2 points
Reduces the casting time of your Imp, Voidwalker, Succubus, and Felhunter Summoning spells by 4 seconds.

Basically, the 'best' PvE tree is without arguement Affiliation.
With Improved Lifetap and Dark Pact, you can restore Mana at will - leaving little or no downtime.
And with Improved Drain Life, Fel Concentration, and Siphon Life - HP for the afore mentioned LifeTap isn't an issue.

And of course, you still have Shadow Mastery to give your Shadow Bolt (which you will use at higher levels, especially 'endgame' instances much more regularly than your wand) an extra kick
I didn't bother getting Improved Curse of Agony again, because really at higher levels Curse of Shadows is much better suited for Warlocks


I used Demonology as the secondary tree, mostly putting points into aiding your Voidwalker - and more importantly, giving you the ability to get another pet up straight away in the event you have to sacrifice your Voidy.


Overall, it's just the basic 'SM/Ruin' build - only with Demonology replacing the destruction tree, and a few points shifted around. You'll have reasonable DPS, and in instances - given that the Imp is going to be your pet of choice I decided to go for Shadow-Mastery over Master Demonologist, simply because even though MD is better - it relies on your Succy being out, which isn't always the best choice.

Hope that gives you some ideas anyway, I used the talent calculator Here because WoW-Vault havn't updated theirs to reflect the 1.6 changes yet.

[Whisperess]

Originally Posted by Naewae

I am willing to change how I play my Warlock so what spec do you recommend? and once I have that specific spec, what is the best method of attack? (I currently have pumped demonology and the quick affliction talent & use voidwalker, curse, dot1, dot2, bolt, wand, wand, wand as a basis.)

I'd recommend going with something similar to what Archeon posted, heavy affliction is what I found the most useful for solo leveling. Although, seeing as how you're not interested in PvP whatsoever, I'd recommend getting Improved Corruption instead of the curse of exhaustion and improved such talents. It's very convenient to have Corruption being an instacast spell. Curse of Agony (possibly Shadow at higher levels) > Corruption > Immolate > Siphon Life then lifetap back to full mana and start using Drain Life. Rinse and Repeat.

Aim for getting Siphon Life at your next level - it'll help both you killing stuff faster as well as keep you alive a bit longer (which shouldn't be a problem at all with affliction spec anyway). Nightfall might not sound tempting from the description, but keep in mind that it's triggered per tick on the dots that apply - not per cast. It usually triggers roughly about once per fight, sometimes more, sometimes less. Getting that extra insta shadowbolt in really helps put the mobs down.

Personally I never liked Fel Domination > Master Summoner, but I'm sure there are times where those are convenient. With the recent changes to Drain Mana, I prefer Improved Drain Mana and Curse of Agony - but that's just me.

With heavy affliction spec, you won't have to use your wand to keep mana up, Life Tap/Drain Life are your friends.

These are just my observations, your mileage might vary.

[Naewae]

Some really good advice there guys, many thanks.

It seems I do need to change my style, I was just sending the VW in to tank while I dotted and blasted like a mage with no aggro.

I'm going to try Archeon's spec but with the first mod Whisperess suggested; I can't imagine not having the second insta DOT.

I've never respecced and I've a high level priest so retrying isn't going to bankrupt me.

Time will tell