Warlock PvE guide

Things Warlocks want Non-Warlocks to know

 * Ask for Healthstones! They're on a different timer than potions, mana gems, spells, or anything.  It's a free, instant minor heal.  However, they do cost the Warlock a Soul Shard and mana to make, and no one can have more than one of these at a time anyway, so don't ask for a stack of them.  Usually opening a random trade with a Warlock means he/she is in need of a HS.  This saves time and effort on both sides instead of making the warlock look for the person asking, make the Healthstone, as well as opening the trade window.  Discuss this plan with your grouped Warlock before attempting to avoid confusion. End-game Warlocks can make a soul well, that will spit out 25 healthstones, healing from roughly 2000 to 2400 health. This saves a lot of soul shards, and should be used in any PvE instance.


 * If you're a class that has buff spells, remember to put them on our Demons now and again. Our pets die sometimes or we swap pets because of a new situation and they benefit from those buffs just as much as we do: in fact, if the Warlock is a heavy Demonology spec, the buffs to the pet's Intellect and Stamina directly amplify the Warlock's spell damage. However, if we are a 0/21/40 destruction warlock, don't bother, as we will be sacrificing that demon to keep us high up there in DPS.


 * Don't sheep the mob with a DoT on it - you are wasting your mana. If you sheep a mob and it unsheeps right away spend half a second to see if it has a DoT on it, and stop wasting mana. If the group or raid planned to sheep it ahead of time, chew us out.


 * Don't attack what the Voidwalker, Felhunter, or in some cases, Felguard is attacking; if you allow them to build aggro, you'll save tons on armor repairs, diseases, poisons, and curses cast by mobs. And if a Felhunter can take five melee hits, the attacker's power is much, MUCH lower.


 * If a Warlock has used Banish on a demon or elemental, don't bother to attack it, unless you're trying to build aggro against it. Unlike Polymorph, there is no way to break the Banish with damage; the Banished creature is totally invulnerable to all attacks and spells, but still keeps an aggro list.  If all the other mobs in the same battle have been defeated, it might make sense to start attacking the Banished one with melee weapons so you're prepared when it returns to life (it is also possible to increase weapon skill by attacking a Banished target), but definitely don't cast any spells at it; you'd be wasting your mana.


 * We can only Banish Demons and Elementals. We can banish for either 20 or 30 seconds exactly. We can only banish one thing at a time. We can now break our own banish but it requires us to Recast the spell on the Banished target.


 * Warlocks can heal themselves; it's better to conserve your mana and not heal them if they're above 60-70% health. It's quite possible they just replenished their mana with Life Tap (which converts health to mana) and are about to bandage themselves, eat some food, or Cannibalize a nearby corpse - we won't mind you saving your mana for those who really need it. Having said that, Warlocks will appreciate HoT spells if they have low mana, as this will allow them to Life Tap more often - and, of course, any sort of heal will still be welcomed if you have spare mana to burn =).


 * If you're able to resurrect, and grouped with a Warlock, you should probably be Soulstoned. Read the Soulstone chapter for correct use of them. If you have no resurrection ability, don't expect a soulstone, and if you notice your Soulstone wore off and the warlock has not put up a new one let them know (it would be really nice to let them know when you've got about 5 mins left just as a reminder). If you ask for a soulstone, and you are a class that cannot resurrect, then we just may want to keep the rest of the party back, and then fear you into a 4-mob pull of elites that will rip you to shreds in a second or less.


 * Warlocks CANNOT resurrect people the same way as a Priest or Paladin can. If you die, don't ask a random Warlock for a resurrect because even if he/she wouldn't mind resurrecting you, they won't because the Soulstone doesn't work that way. You'll end up looking like a noob, and the warlock in question will talk in general chat about how " asked me for a rez, when I'm a warlock!"


 * Warlocks CAN 'resurrect' people in a slightly different way without use of a soulstone. If enough group members remain alive to help cast ritual of summoning, the player who died can re-enter the instance and ress, (or at the graveyard, but this is expensive), and be summoned past the respawns to the warlock's location, acting as an effective ress.


 * Warlocks need 2 other people to summon you with Ritual of Summoning. You, the Warlock, and the 2 assistants must all be in the same party or raid group, and the assistants have to be standing near the Warlock. If you're blindly asking a Warlock in some other zone to summon you, be aware that they may not be anticipating having to do so: they may not be in a party (and may be out in the middle of nowhere in Desolace or Tanaris with no one anywhere near them).  It may require great amounts of patience, and probably payment, to convince a Warlock in this situation to form a party just to summon you.  Your chances will be improved if you arrange the 2 helpers yourself so the Warlock doesn't have to. Still, you probably shouldn't even ask for a summon under normal circumstances. Unless the warlock is advertising it (unlikely), or they are in a dungeon group with you and they are in the middle of the instance with the rest of the group with them, then you usually shouldn't bother; asking for a summon without a decent reason can be considered rude.  If you must, be polite about it. Don't assume a warlock's job is to be your public transportation (it's really killing the crap that you can't). Be tactful and be considerate when asking. Remember that the warlock is doing you a service that you have to earn, like any other. Bribes are usually accepted.


 * As of 2.4 Warlocks can now summon a player into an instanced area from outside. If a Warlock is in an instanced area, he/she can only summon you if you are eligible for the dungeon: meaning the instance isn't full, you have access (level range, heroic keys, attunements) and aren't bound to another raid/heroic instance id. Beside summoning players from outside the instance, summoning inside instances is also a powerful ability; if you're stuck, have fallen to a lower floor, or if you've just joined the party, have the Warlock summon you to his/her current position. This could save you and the rest of the group a lot of time and trouble.


 * Warlocks have spells to detect invisibility, and they can cast them on you. However, invisibility detection does not help you detect Stealth, which is a completely different effect, so don't ask for Detect Invisibility to help you see Rogues.  There aren't very many invisible mobs in the game, but they do exist.


 * Don't ask a Warlock to put Blood Pact on you. If you don't already have it, one of the following is true: the Warlock doesn't have the Imp out, meaning that you'd effectively be telling the Warlock how to play his/her class; you're not in the Warlock's party, in which case asking for Blood Pact only makes you look like a noob; you're too far away from the Imp and just need to stay closer; or you have PvP enabled while the Warlock doesn't. Same applies for the Fel Intellect buff (re-read the above, replacing 'Imp' with 'Felhunter').


 * Some warlocks can actually tank. It's not nearly as effective as a real tank, but in case of dire need, a Demonology warlock soul linked has enough hit points and enough threat inducing abilities to tank pretty well, especially against magic casting classes.  There's another form of tank for Affliction build Warlocks called "Drain-Tanking" where the warlock uses DoT spells to deal damage and hold aggro, and Drain Life to compensate for the damage he takes.  It's a crude form of tanking, but it does work effectively with proper healing. Warlocks do not normally tank, nor would they want to unless a boss demands it, such as Illidan when he is in his demon form, with that AoE Shadow Damage Aura.


 * Warlocks are NOT mages, and cannot portal you anywhere, conjure you water or food, cast intellect or stamina buffs. Nor are they healers. Asking them to do these things is bad for your image, and frankly makes you look like a noob.  Some of us will be tempted to cast Unending Breath on you and tell you that you'll get the buff after staying underwater for 11 minutes.


 * If a Warlock is casting Seed of Corruption as an AoE attack, do not attack the mobs that it is placed on. They have a purple swirling glow around them. If a mob with a SoC on it takes about 1k damage, the spell explodes and all mobs nearby will be hit with a 1k+ AoE. This in turn makes them attack the Warlock, who will need the healer's attention immediately. Demonology warlocks can take it for a period of time, but they will still need heals sooner or later (preferably sooner).


 * Don't tell us what minion to use. It's telling us how to play our class and is quite rude.
 * Also, don't pester us about using an Infernal, Doomguard, or Enslaved demon when we don't want to. We'll either ignore you, or do what you say and have fun wiping when the Infernal dies halfway into the fight or the enslaved demon breaks out and goes hog wild on the raid.


 * Warlocks can not dispel curses. Yes we can cast them, but to undo our magic would be to heal the boss, as a warrior.

Things Non-Warlocks want Warlocks to know

 * Please keep your pet under control while in instances or generally mob heavy areas. The excuse: 'I forgot i had it on aggressive lol' isn't going to refund your group's repair bills. Likewise, if you're using a Voidwalker, please make sure auto Torment is turned off, as this will help the tank hold aggro.


 * Don't Life Tap below 50% without telling your healer. We're often looking at your health bar and not at what you're doing and we don't like to throw a big heal at you if you're just going to bandage anyway. Along the same line, don't expect your healer to be your mana battery. We're happy to drop you a heal over time now and again, but asking us to burn our mana just to fuel yours is rude.
 * Make sure you tell the group when your going to use seduction on someone with your Succubus before the battle starts. That way we won't attack it.


 * Don't ever, EVER, DoT adds, unless you are certain the tank can pick them up. A Mage polymorphing an add is far more useful than the DoT.


 * Warlocks are squishy, even fully geared ones, and they also generate possibly the highest amount of aggro, even getting over the tank, please keep an eye on your threat meters and slow down your DPS if you start to get too high.

Things Warlocks want New Warlocks to know

 * Your CC, Soulstone, high damage output, and Ritual of Summoning are your main selling points for getting into groups, learn how to manage all 4.
 * DoT (Damage Over Time) planning. This is primarily Corruption, Immolate, and Bane of Agony. Look to see which mobs are focused on their target. This will primarily be the off tanks, such as paladins, hunter pets, berserker warrior and your own VW. Even with the targets of the pure DPS classes, DoTs can be handy. They increase the speed that health bar drops, and even if you don't get maximum damage/duration out of them, it's normally in that last quarter bar or so of life that mobs turn to go after the mage/warlock.
 * Being a good Warlock requires micromanagment. Keeping track of all DoTs and debuffs, maintaining high health and mana, effectively controlling your demon, renewing up to four kinds of Crowd Control, constant adjustments to positioning, on-the-fly alternating of your Curses, all while inflicting high damage; Warlocks are the most complicated of all DPS classes, and have a large amount of utility. It is not unusual for Warlocks to install many addons and use several macros per fight.  Our bag of tricks is deep, if you can master it, you can provide more aid to a party or raid than any other class.
 * Learn how to use all of the different pets. You'll often find in groups that people will tell you which pet to use, and more often than not, they'll be wrong. Your pet can be used to "fill in" abilities that the party is lacking, or accentuate other party members abilities.
 * The Imp is ideal when multiple party members are in melee, IE with a paladin/shaman or hunters pet off tanking. He not only boosts Health, making the healers job that much easier, he also increases damage with his fire shield, as well as his Firebolts. If you are specced for Dark Pact, the imp provides unsurpassed mana regeneration. Turning off fireballs and rather using him as a mana battery will increase your damage, especially in long fights.
 * The Voidwalker acts a very valuable off tank. Facing off against one less opponent makes it that much simpler to stay in control. Also can be used if you lack a mage as a form of sheep. He'll keep one mob out of combat for about 30 secs. The only difference is that the healer will be renewing his health, instead of you recasting sheep.
 * The Succubus adds to DPS if your group is overly defensive. Her seduce ability can also serve as a temporary fix when one of the casters draws aggro.
 * The Felhunter can very effectively take a casting mob out of the combat(when combined with curse of tongues), and unlike the Voidwalker, they'll be applying some damage as well. His Devour Magic spell is also a good thing to have; not only will he help save the healer's mana by removing Magic debuffs, he gets health back when he dispels Magic debuffs.
 * Don't Life Tap right down in instances, even between pulls. When the unexpected happens at best you'll make your healer grumpy when he has to stop drinking to save you, and it will quite likely get you killed. Generally speaking, try to Life Tap only if you have a plan for getting the health back, be that bandaging, cannibalising, draining life, potting or getting healed. If your plan involves the group's healer make sure they're happy with that. Expecting your healer to cater for all of your mana needs is rude, especially if they had to buy the water they're drinking to do it.
 * While it seems nice to get, Warlocks for the most part don't need +Int, +Spirit, etc. The main items are +Stamina and +Spell Damage.  You're using Life Tap to recover Mana at the expense of the large health pool all that +stamina is giving you.  It's hard to find an item with just those stats at low levels, so find what you can at the low levels.  At higher levels, though, you should have little problem finding items with just +stam and +spell damage.
 * Please not that this is ONE possible warlock playstyle. The flipside is that if a warlock has a lot of intellect, he/she does not need to worry about life tapping as much. Whichever suits you, pick one and don't deviate from it.
 * Don't waste too much time summoning people you don't know. It's not worth the hassle and sets up bad habits for them in the future.  If you ran somewhere, they can too.  The obvious exception to this rule is if the person requesting a summon is there to help you do a quest. Summoning services can also be a good way of making money.
 * Summoning macros may be amusing the first time someone hears them, but after the 3rd or 4th time they get irritating and sound immature. Save yourself from getting uninvited from a group later, and delete any that you may have now. If you haven't made one then don't. Ever. Summoning macros qualify as the worst spam in the game in many opinions, so don't be surprised if you get griefed or /ignored for having one. If you have Necrosis, turn off the auto yell options. Everyone in yell range doesn't need to know you've just gotten on your mount. This is especially true on PvP servers, where hostile players will be alerted to your presence.
 * Inversely to the previous note, making a macro for your Ritual of Souls or Ritual of Summoning can be useful. It lets people in your party know that you're wanting to summon a party or raid member, or give them delicious healthstones. That said, don't go overboard with it or you'll be right back at square one with the previous note. Make it simple and to the point, and try not to make it a hilarious joke, because not everybody shares your sense of humour and you may just end up annoying people. Example: "Attempting to summon . Click the portal please."

Rogue
Give them a Healthstone.

Have your pet seduce or offtank additional mobs.

Versus one opponent, Curse of Weakness can help the rogue survive longer, or just cast your DOTs, Curse of Elements and Shadow Bolt to death.

Warrior
Give them a Healthstone.

Casting a Curse of Weakness on the mobs attacking them can help them take less damage, especially if there is a large number of mobs attacking them. Also, casting Curse of Weakness on the one mob the warrior is currently attacking will significantly decrease the mob's armor (5%) and increase the damage the warrior is doing.

Priest
Give them a Healthstone.

Soulstone them if they are your main healer. This will get your party up and running after a wipe. Your priest (or paladin, druid or shaman) resurrects with the soulstone and then resurrects everyone else.

If they are a Shadow priest, putting Curse of the Elements on whatever they're attacking can help them kill it faster.

In groups if they draw aggro, you can step in with Seduction, Searing Pain or the Voidwalker to save them. It is better for them to be healing you than themselves.

Watch their mana bar. If its full, you can afford to tap your life into mana and blast away with Shadow Bolt, if it's running low stick with more efficient spells like Curse of Agony

Warlock
Give them a Healthstone, unless they've already made one for themselves. If you have different numbers of points in the Improved Healthstone talent, you can trade Healthstones that give different amounts of health. No longer true as of patch 3.0, healthstones have their own unique category, and you can only have one no matter the rank.

Collaborate with them as to what pets and what curses to use - no use having two imps out.

Mage
Give them a Healthstone. If they hesitate, remind them it's on a different cooldown from their mana gems.

Casting Curse of the Elements on the mob they're attacking is good for both of you, as it will increase both of your damage.

Standing near the mage and combining your Hellfire with their Arcane Explosion (especially if the mage has the Arcane Impact talent) can take down large numbers of nearby mobs at once. Do not try this on elite mobs, but against normal mobs of your level this combination can take out large groups quickly.

Druid
Give them a Healthstone (they can use them in animal forms now).

You can Soulstone them, because Druids now have an out of combat rez. Alternatively, a druid could take the soulstone mid fight, heal, and brez someone else.

If a Druid is fighting in bear form, see Warrior above. If a Druid is fighting in cat form, see Rogue above.

Hunter
Give them a Healthstone.

Consider putting Curse of Weakness on whatever the hunter or the hunter's pet is attacking, as with warriors, as it will die faster with the 5% armor decrease.

Some hunters have Arcane-based ranged weapon attacks included in their shot rotation. In those case, Curse of the Elements may also amplify their damage.

Paladin
Give them a Healthstone.

In raid, if they are tanking, they will love to have you (and your imp) in their group for the huge stamina bonus from the imp.

When they are tanking, casting a Curse of Weakness on the mobs attacking them can help them take less damage, especially if there are a large amount of mobs attacking them, and it decreases armor by 5% which helps kill them faster

Soulstone them if they are your main healer. Sometimes, it's better to Soulstone a Paladin than a Priest because of their survivability if a mob were to aggro after they resurrected.

A note on looting: Paladins are casters. Expect them to want caster items, but no need to get too wary. You share caster swords with them. However, caster daggers and staffs are more plentiful and they can't use those. If they are protection, they would like low-level one-handed caster weapons, end-game tanking weapons. If they are retribution, they will use two-handed weapons with attack power and strength. Only Holy paladins use end-game one-handed caster swords.

Shaman
Give them a Healthstone.

Shamans already have a self resurrect ability, but are still often good characters to Soulstone as they have a cooldown resurrection.

All damage dealing shamans will appreciate Curse of Elements. At higher levels Enhancement does a fair amount of Nature and Fire damage along with their physical damage.