Warlock Spec Talk - Lvl 60

[Dren]

Yes, new thread, old topic.

I just got my Warlock to 60 and wanted to take a look at my talent design for the high end.  I've concentrated on high dps for my DOTs and agro control from my tank pet for solo PvE purposes.  Now that I reached 60 I'm looking at the game from a different perspective.  Most of my time wil on that character will be spent in groups, so I'm wondering if I should change.

I may start working on some of the BG's too, but that would only be a side thing.  I know several of you have given your thoughts on this, but I wanted to start a fresh thread to take another look at this.

cevik, I know you have a good build from a PvP perspective or have had in the past.  What's working for you now and for what purpose?  Others?

[Zetor]

I'm not cevik, but I've been through so many respecs the next one would cost 300g if respec costs weren't capped. :p

My suggestion is to cut the PvP cookie and go soul link. When soloing (which should be rare) you can just demonic sacrifice a voidwalker; when pvping you soul link with a felhunter; in groups you either get the imp or demonic sacrifice a succubus, depending on what you're supposed to do. link. This is my build (actually switch 1 point in suppression for 1 point in improved firebolt) and it works pretty well in pve and pvp alike.

Alternatively you can use the standard dark pact build (link) which is a lot more efficient when soloing, a bit better when grouping, but sub-par for pvp. You can dump curse of exhaustion in exchange for improved drain life, if you want. This build always uses an imp on passive, using Dark Pact to essentially have infinite mana (imp recharges VERY fast). However, don't spec it if you are afraid of RSI. Dark Pact spamming is bad mojo.

Since you're a new level 60, you might not yet have the gear to use crit-reliant builds, so I'd avoid most builds with "ruin" in them. This includes SM/Ruin (the most widely used general purpose build), MD/Ruin (the best build for raiding pve, sucks for everything else), DS/Ruin. Also, SM/DS requires at least high-end blue gear, so don't spec that either at first (it's very good if you have a lot of purples though).


-- Z.

[Morfiend]

I agree with the above poster.

Any soul link build is a good build, but its a survivability build, not a damage build. SM/Ruin is a DOT/Shadowbollt build, or Conflag is a full out Direct damage DPS build.

I am not a fan of Soul Link myself, it just isnt my playstyle. I have been alternating between SM/Ruin and Conflag. I honestly have the most fun in PVP with Conflag build. I think I went 8 in affliction, for instant corruption and improved life tap, then 5 in demonology for the +15% stamina, and the rest in to Destruction.

This build is insanely fun in AV, so if you plan to do AV a lot I swear by this build. Its survivability is very limited so I mostly use my Imp for the HP buff. In decent level 60 blues and greens with a few purples thrown in and the imp im at 4600 hp. Also, the busrt damage potential for this build is VERY high.

Immolate is a 1.5 second cast and can crit for over 800, soulfire can crit for 600-800, and with the talant it crits a lot. If your talking pure damage in a 1v1 you can use the succubus.

You Immolate, Soulfire, Death coil, Shadowburn, Conflag. You have to potential of doing 800 + 2000 + 600 + 500 + 1200 in about 4 seconds. If a few of those crit. Also, in AV you have pyroclasm which is getting fixed in 1.10, I would skip Aftermath as it never seems to proc.

So, if you want a more straight up damage build with less survivability that is fun in BGs, this one is the way to go.

[Dren]

Good information.  Keep it coming. 

I'm not sure I want to pigeonhole myself into the PvP mode as I'm still not sure I'll be doing it a lot.  I'd like a little more flexibility I think.  More food for thought though.

[Calantus]

When you say PVE do you mean raidingMC/BWL et al, or do you mean strath/scholo/etc? If you mean the former I'd stay away from a conflag build, otherwise it doesn't matter.

[Evil Elvis]

20/31/0

'Nuff said.

[Zetor]

Yeah... conflag and destruction builds aren't too good for a fresh 60. It's a very mana intensive build needing either a lot of blue INT gear (which is sub-par for warlocks) or felheart/nemesis.
20/31 is basically 30/21 on crack... but faces the same problems in group pve / pvp, namely no bane or shadowburn. Spamming drain life instead of shadowbolts does work, though the reduced range hurts.

Unlike warriors (31/20 roflcopter), there's no single "best" spec for warlocks... go with the one that matches your playstyle. If you really like dots, dark pact or SM/DS is the bomb; if you like solo or small group pvp, one of the soul link builds will be best; if you are purely an instance person, MD/ruin or dark pact/intensity might be best. Also SM/ruin if you're horde and don't have to deal with wotf.


-- Z.

[Fabricated]

My guild's resident 60 'lock is 100% destructro-specced and loves it. I have never played a Warlock so I can't comment on the usefulness for sure, but stuff tends to die much quicker when she's in our group.

[Dren]

I took the plunge and tried 15/5/31.  That build is totally different than what I used to have.  I figured I'd play with it for awhile and see if I liked the mainly offense style.  I didn't get a lot of chance to use it yet, but I'll give it a week or so.

I did try it on lvl 50 undead in Western Plaguelands (closest thing to me before I had to log.)  I was taking out mobs in seconds, but my mana pool was screaming.  I'm used to never worrying about that with the use of mana tap and drain health.  That will take some getting used to.  Plus, my voidwalker can't handle the agro anymore with the lose of talents and my overuse of DD and DoT's.  So, I think my direction is to just kill stuff fast and pray my health outlasts theirs.  I could still use my sacrifice on the VW in a pinch.  That usually works well.

If I don't like it I'll go the safer routes talked about here.  I do think you guys are right though.  There really isn't one "perfect" build for locks.  I wish the other classes had this flexibility.

[Hoax]

Unlike warriors (31/20 roflcopter), there's no single "best" spec for warlocks...

Actually with truly uber gear 20/31 is argueably far superior in pvp to 31/20.  You do need to have the insane atk power needed to make bloodwhatever do more damage then MS but people are getting there.  Your burst dps gets better, your utility talents are better the only thing you loose is the healing debuff which has limited effectiveness if your killing anyone who can heal themselves in 3-5 hits (except shaman with their mail gear) but again in organized small scale pvp -which is the only time your going to see much healing done anyways- you should be calling a prime target and one FB+toep+zhc should be more then enough to make it a 2-3 hit kill on anyone.