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Blood Pact: How Mists of Pandaria will fix warlock PvP
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Pact for affliction, demonology and destruction warlocks. For those who disdain the watered-down arts that other cling to like a safety blanket ... for those willing to test their wills against the nether and claim the power that is their right ... Blood Pact welcomes you. Send questions, comments, or requests to tyler@wowinsider.com or via Twitter to @murmursofadruid. Greetings, warlocks. I know that I have generally focused heavily on PvE instead of PvP, but this is more so due to the fact that PvP is a difficult subject to generalize. Strategies are specific to the composition that you run and what you're up against, and they are exceptionally difficult to define in rote patterns. That's the draw that PvP has over PvE -- it's always changing, always different, always unpredictable, at least in the good cases. Yet there is one thing I can say about PvP: Affliction is the spec of choice. Then again, when are the few times where that hasn't been true? There might be small pockets here and there when demonology or destruction has some meager viability in the PvP world, but they've normally been rather short-lived. Affliction has generally been our default PvP spec, much as mages have relied on frost. No more! I know people are tied of hearing it, but Mists of Pandaria will fix it.
Blood Pact: The cost of talent consolidation in Pandaria
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Pact for affliction, demonology and destruction warlocks. For those who disdain the watered-down arts that other cling to like a safety blanket ... for those willing to test their wills against the nether and claim the power that is their right ... Blood Pact welcomes you. Send questions, comments, or requests for something you'd like to see to tyler@wowinsider.com or via Twitter to @murmursofadruid. Greetings, warlocks. It's that time of the week once again when we talk about all those dark arts and such that we do so love to practice. My original intention this week was to talk about many of the sweet items that you can pull out of the new dungeons coming out in 4.3. All of them are on the same ilevel as what you can get from regular Firelands, making them ideal for non-raiders or players who haven't gotten every drop that they've been looking for -- and in some cases, a few items are even better that what you could find from raiding. Alas, at the time of this writing, Wowhead's PTR servers aren't working for me and seem to be down -- a shame, but there's always next week! In lieu of that, I'll take this opportunity to discuss a different matter that's be on my mind of late dealing with the changes coming in 5.0. Talents are undergoing a major overhaul, and we know that many of the current talents are going to be baked into the base class. While this works well for other classes, it's a bit awkward when it comes to warlocks. Join me as I show you and toss in a bit of speculation for affliction.
Blood Pact: A warlock history
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Pact for affliction, demonology and destruction warlocks. For those who disdain the watered-down arts that other cling to like a safety blanket ... for those willing to test their wills against the nether and claim the power that is their right ... Blood Pact welcomes you. BlizzCon has since come and passed, and I am quite sure that epic adventures were had by all who attended. Despite the event's being done and gone, I am in the unfortunate position of needing to write this nearly a week in advance, which can be killer when there's so much juicy news floating around there now. At the moment, I'm probably hovering somewhere over the midwest, or I've finally gotten home and have crashed into my long-missed bed. But don't worry -- not even death would prevent my ego from finding a way to get my self-important words to your screen. If you happen to also follow my Shifting Perspectives column and read this past week's, then you would have gotten a nice brush of moonkin history. While I'm not generally the type to mix my colors with whites (at least, not after that bout of horrible pink underwear), I thought that the topic was rather appropriate, given the circumstances. I've spent much of the these past few weeks talking about the future of warlocks; it's only right that we now return to those things that have gotten us to where we are today.
Blood Pact: The new destruction in patch 4.3
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Pact for affliction, demonology and destruction warlocks. For those who disdain the watered-down arts that other cling to like a safety blanket ... For those willing to test their wills against the nether and claim the power that is their right ... Blood Pact welcomes you. This is a good week to be a warlock, my friends (although I would find myself hard pressed to find a week when it isn't). While there are all the usual means for celebration, today is a particularly special one; today is the day when we move one step closer to the ultimate dream. Yes, partially the dream of Blizzard's finally waking up to its mistake and deleting the mage class, though that one still needs a bit more work -- but I'm talking about a different dream here, the dream where warlocks are free to choose whichever spec they prefer in PVE without feelings of holding back their raid. The latest PTR build has held a number of delicious buffs for destruction, buffs that have been long past due. Will they be enough? Will warlocks be a pure class with three -- count them, three -- viable raiding specs? That's a matter still up for debate; what's worth mentioning is that Blizzard is making an effort. This week, of course, will be dedicated to that effort: what's changed, how those changes impact the spec, and what this means for destruction come 4.3. Hold on to your demons, lovelies -- things are about to get hot. Get it? Destruction ... fire ... hot. It's a funny.
Blood Pact: Encounter design, demonology, and tier 13
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Pact for affliction, demonology and destruction warlocks. For those who disdain the watered-down arts that other cling to like a safety blanket ... For those willing to test their wills against the nether and claim the power that is their right ... Blood Pact welcomes you. Patches are always trying times, more so for pure classes than any other. Hybrids benefit by generally only having a single DPS spec that Blizzard focuses on balancing; pures have to worry about which of their three specs is going to remain viable and scale well into the next raiding tier. While some of that is dependent upon the raw damage a spec is capable of putting out, many times the situation is far more complicated than that. Tier bonuses, encounter design, and gearing all play a vital role in determining which spec reigns supreme and which falls by the wayside. We've talked before about all of these topics, but it's time to focus that on how the game is shaping up for the next raid. While most of the encounter design is still slightly unknown to players, there are things that we do know and concerns that we have to be wary of. This week, we'll take a look at what might be in store for demonology, the part that tier 13 plays in that, and how the bosses themselves will be the deciding factor.
Blood Pact: Learning from the witch doctor
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Pact for affliction, demonology and destruction warlocks. For those who disdain the watered-down arts that other cling to like a safety blanket ... For those willing to test their wills against the nether and claim the power that is their right ... Blood Pact welcomes you. I have been grateful as of late to have been invited into the Diablo 3 beta. While this might just seem like some bragging that has no relation to WoW, you couldn't be more wrong. If there is one thing that I have learned while playing through Diablo 3, it is that the game has been heavily influenced by the many paths that WoW has taken over the years. While the ARPG and MMO genre may not appear to have much crossover at first glance, the fundamentals are all there, more so in a game such as Diablo. The witch doctor class in particular has been heavily inspired not just by the Diablo necromancer but also by WoW's warlock, even going so far as to have the Haunt spell, much in the same capacity that we do. As much as the development team has clearly learned from WoW, I think it is fair to say that there are quite a few things that went into creating such an amazing new game, and some of those things can also be brought back into WoW.
Blood Pact: The future of affliction warlock balance
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Pact for affliction, demonology and destruction warlocks. For those who disdain the watered-down arts that other cling to like a safety blanket ... For those willing to test their wills against the nether and claim the power that is their right ... Blood Pact welcomes you. As a pure DPS class, warlocks have something of a unique flavor all of their own, which brings along with it several different balancing challenges that hybrid classes generally don't face. On the surface, spec balance is a fairly simple concept. All specs should deal relatively within the same level of damage then you're basically golden. Alas, that's just not how it does. Raw damage is only a single factor in the equation. There's raid utility to consider, how the spec interacts with encounter design, and how complex a spec is to play. We've spend a large amount of time focusing on raw damage over the years, yet when push comes to shove, it is only a minor fraction of the whole. In the new age of Cataclysm-styled DPS where damage balance is closer than it's ever been, the secondary factors of balance are becoming more and more important. This week, we'll talk a bit about the future of affliction and how it can fill in what major roles still remain.
Blood Pact: The warlock multi-DOT rotation
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Pact for affliction, demonology and destruction warlocks. For those who disdain the watered-down arts that other cling to like a safety blanket ... For those willing to test their wills against the nether and claim the power that is their right ... Blood Pact welcomes you. If you remember last week, I did a little Twitter Q&A. There were a lot of fantastic questions, some of which I wasn't able to fit into the article; this week, I want to address one of those questions. Technically, the question was in regards to the last change to Soul Swap and the impact that it holds on multi-DOTing -- but the truth is that multi-DOTing is a concept that impacts all warlock specs. This raiding tier has really attempted to tone done the impact that multi-DOTing has on encounters, a vast difference from what we saw at the onset of Cataclysm. While I applaud Blizzard on its efforts to spot a growing problem and correct it, players are still better off knowing how to best spread their damage around.
Blood Pact: What to do once you hit level 85
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Pact for affliction, demonology and destruction warlocks. For those who disdain the watered-down arts that other cling to like a safety blanket ... For those willing to test their wills against the nether and claim the power that is their right ... Blood Pact welcomes you. A few months ago when I first took over writing Blood Pact, one of the first things that I wrote was a leveling guide for new warlocks. While the vast majority of what was written there still holds true today (and I certainly am not about to rewrite history), I've realized that the scheme of how to level, or at least how to proceed once you first reach the level cap, is different from what it was then. As an MMO, WoW is constantly changing. There are times when these changes alter the way in which we do things. Old news as it might be by now, 4.2 had a drastic impact on more than you think at first glance. This week, we'll be going into detail on those changes, looking at the new way of handling your first time at the level cap. It's a brand new world out there; get ready to dive in head first.
Blood Pact: Quashing misleading rumors about warlocks
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Pact for affliction, demonology and destruction warlocks. For those who disdain the watered-down arts that other cling to like a safety blanket ... For those willing to test their wills against the nether and claim the power that is their right ... Blood Pact welcomes you. Rumor has it, dearest warlocks, that we're pretty much the best pure caster class in this raiding tier. Now I'm not one to give in to such hearsay, but there's a pretty reliable source to support it. That said, I think it is safe to say that this is one thing that we all pretty much knew. Despite that, there are still other whisperings going around the DPS water cooler that need to be put out of their misery. This week, we're going to talk about some of those things that you may have heard in passing by, possibly even from a pretty reliably source, that simply aren't true (or aren't quite as true as those supporting them would have you believe). If you recall, as few weeks ago, I went into a few tips and tricks for warlocks to adhere to during their adventures into the Firelands. Predominantly, the focus there was on staying alive. Those suggestions should always be taken to heart. Staying alive is always the best policy -- but there are times when it's killing things that you're really interested in. Let's get started on those tactics.
Blood Pact: How to build a better warlock UI
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Pact for affliction, demonology and destruction warlocks. For those who disdain the watered-down arts that other cling to like a safety blanket ... For those willing to test their wills against the nether and claim the power that is their right ... Blood Pact welcomes you. As the most recent raid on the block and still relatively new, Firelands is a rather popular pastime these days. Who can blame players, either? The place is stunning, the encounters are actually fun and engaging, and it's a blast to run. As a DPSer, a part of that joy is being able to deal the highest amount of damage that you possibly can. It also involves keeping yourself alive. More than all that, you want to look good while doing it. This week, we'll explore some of the common addons that you can utilize as a warlock in order to maximize both your damage potential and your survivability. While a number of people work with the standard Blizzard UI, there are just some things that it isn't capable of doing (nor does it look nearly as good doing them). Ready to go all out?
Blood Pact: How to trounce through Firelands as a warlock
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Pact for affliction, demonology and destruction warlocks. For those who disdain the watered-down arts that other cling to like a safety blanket ... For those willing to test their wills against the nether and claim the power that is their right ... Blood Pact welcomes you. Being relatively newish to writing Blood Pact, I'm not sure if I've yet said this. On the off chance that I have, well, then it at least bears repeating: I am a raider. What I do, what I care about, is going into the most relevant content and kicking butt. Not only am I a raider, but I raid as a DPSer. Though my main might be a hybrid-capable for healing or tanking, I have absolutely no interest in either of those concepts. There's a reason that the first four alts that I pushed to level 85 were the pure classes. That being said, even I know that damage cannot be -- is not -- everything. The tired phrase that dead DPS is zero DPS certainly holds true. More so than that, very encounters are even about raw damage potential, anyway. Although Firelands is a lot less gimmick-based than tier 11 raids were, nearly every boss encounter is going to require some non-DPS related task that has a much higher chance of wiping the raid than anything else. Are you prepared to deal with every situation? Let's find out.
Blood Pact: Goodies for warlocks in patch 4.2
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Pact for affliction, demonology and destruction warlocks. For those who disdain the watered-down arts that other cling to like a safety blanket ... For those willing to test their wills against the nether and claim the power that is their right ... Blood Pact welcomes you. Today, class, we will begin coverage of the upcoming 4.2 patch. This patch contains the Firelands raid. It also has a new daily quest hub, both of which offer new rewards for you to work toward. There is also the introduction of the game's second caster legendary, Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa's Rest. Before we can begin, let me take attendance to ensure everyone is present. Bueller ... Bueller ... Bueller ... Bueller. Right. Now that we got that out of the way, perhaps it's time that we can take a look at just a few of the things that you'll find in the next patch, which should be coming out the day after this post goes up. Even though this patch will involve quite a bit of saving cute, fluffy animals, we can still participate just like every one else. After you've finished running the new dailies, though, you may want to go bathe yourself in the blood of virgins or something to get the sweetness off.
Blood Pact: On armor spells and warlock survivability
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Pact for affliction, demonology and destruction warlocks. For those who disdain the watered-down arts that other cling to like a safety blanket ... For those willing to test their wills against the nether and claim the power that is their right ... Blood Pact welcomes you. I believe that somewhere along the line, I promised that I would write more this week about how terrible mages are -- which, you know, that's entirely possible, but I say lots of things. Trusting that what I said was accurate or true, well, that seems like a pretty big lead of faith; I personally wouldn't take it. Besides which, I feel that Archmage Pants does quite a good enough job of that for me. Why should I bother? It's like kicking a wounded puppy. Although I'm not entirely against that, either. No, no, there will be no puppy kicking today -- well, perhaps minimal puppy kicking. Instead, we're going on an adventure -- a literary adventure! I know, get excited, because those are the best kinds. This week is all about keeping yourself alive. If you recall, a while back I wrote on the art of surviving as a warlock. This time, I'd like to take a look into exactly how this works, what's paying off, and what's better left off being passed down to mages.
Blood Pact: On the sustainability of mastery
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Pact for affliction, demonology and destruction warlocks. For those who disdain the watered-down arts that other cling to like a safety blanket ... For those willing to test their wills against the nether and claim the power that is their right ... Blood Pact welcomes you. When it comes down to mastery, Blizzard can be a little bit hit or miss. There are some classes or specs that love it, while there are plenty more that find it near worthless. When it comes to warlock specs, there isn't much of a difference. Well, so maybe there is a little bit of a difference; no warlock spec particularly loves or stacks mastery. From an outsider's prospective, it would seem rather odd that mastery wouldn't be a better stat; after all, every warlock spec has nothing more than a flat boost to their damage for their mastery bonus. The problem, however, is in the dual nature of warlocks. With more focused or limited mastery, will warlocks be able to continually sustain themselves throughout the expansion? Further, will the scaling of affliction's mastery cause new issues once again?
Blood Pact: Questioning Drain Life's position in the affliction spec
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Pact for affliction, demonology and destruction warlocks. For those who disdain the watered-down arts that other cling to like a safety blanket ... For those willing to test their wills against the nether and claim the power that is their right ... Blood Pact welcomes you. I know that I had originally promised to continue on with the next edition of the Art of Staying Alive this week; however, I just really couldn't put it off any longer. You see, I have a confession that I must make: I'm ... an afflock. It's true, and I'm not ashamed to say it either. Destruction and demonology are fun past times that I've "experimented" with, but I'm 100% affliction. I've tried forcing myself to change. I've told myself it's just not normal to be affliction. But I can't help it. I can't change who I am. Really though, I do have a deep love for affliction, and the changes that have been made to it on the PTR so far are fairly interesting, and I think that they are worth talking about. For the dark types who wish they were more like mages, well, I'm sorry, this week isn't going to focus on you. Maybe another time.
Blood Pact: A brief primer for the Cataclysm warlock
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Pact for affliction, demonology and destruction warlocks. For those who disdain the watered-down arts that other cling to like a safety blanket, for those willing to test their wills against the nether and claim the power that is their right, Blood Pact welcomes you and invites you to take a seat. Since Cataclysm falls on our heads next week, I thought it'd be a perfect time to give some leveling ideas to folks who want to roll a new warlock in the expansion. Why would anyone roll a new warlock, you ask? Well, four good reasons: trolls, dwarves, goblins, and worgen. If you aren't inclined to spring for the $25 character recustomization that includes a racial change, you might want to consider rolling a new warlock from scratch. For some people who have never played a warlock before, the new races might be push they need to finally dabble in the demonic arts (with the succubus around, I honestly don't know why you'd need the extra push ... but hey, whatever works!). As of Patch 4.0.3, you can now choose to play a troll or dwarf warlock. If you activate Cataclysm next week, you'll be able to play either a worgen or a goblin, too. If you haven't rolled a new warlock but plan to, it only makes sense to try out the new races. There isn't a lot of lore to explain why dwarves can suddenly become warlocks, but with the Dark Iron matriarch Moira Thaurissan née Bronzebeard sitting in Ironforge, it isn't too much of a stretch to imagine the dwarves trying out all sort of dark and devious things. Trolls, on the other hand, aren't hard to imagine getting involved in the fel arts. Besides, a whole bunch of warlock-like troll NPCs have been running around Azeroth under the guise of witch doctors, anyway.
Blood Pact: The warlock study guide for Cataclysm
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Pact for affliction, demonology and destruction warlocks. In a dark and hidden place, the true masters of the arcane arts share secrets and swap stories. For those who disdain the watered-down arts that other cling to like a safety blanket, for those willing to test their wills against the nether and claim the power that is their right, Blood Pact welcomes you and invites you to take a seat. Didn't we mention that the position of the warlock writer here at WoW Insider is something akin to the Defense of the Dark Arts teacher position at Hogwarts? Well, our current warlock Adam has taken a brief leave to attend to dark, sinister forces, which means that in the meantime, you guys are left with me to deliver your weekly dose of felfire and brimstone. That's like leaving the sorcerer's apprentice to clean the workshop all by himself, and well, you all know how that one turns out. Anyway, let's see what we can get away with this week. Let's face it, playing a DPS class is a bit of a chore. It's challenging, certainly, and there's an unspoken need to be competitive, always measured by your performance on the meters. For some players, this is a motivation for playing their class -- diving into loads of data, crunching numbers, and testing against target dummies. It's a lot of hard work. For some players who pick up the warlock class mostly because they like the flavor -- it's still a roleplaying game, after all -- all that can be a little daunting. In fact, there are still many players who aren't hardcore enough to troll forums, read blogs, or pore through spreadsheets to squeeze the most DPS out of their class.
Blood Pact: Warlock soloing instance bosses for fun and profit
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Pact for affliction, demonology and destruction warlocks. In a dark and hidden place, the true masters of the arcane arts share secrets and swap stories. For those who disdain the watered-down arts that other cling to like a safety blanket, for those willing to test their wills against the nether and claim the power that is their right, Blood Pact welcomes you and invites you to take a seat. Did you know that warlocks can do more than bask in the tears of the weak and cowardly as we blaze a trail to supremacy? It's true! While tears are their own reward, it's sometimes good to take a moment to pad your purse or pick up a hot new ride or just earn the respect you know you're due. "But," I hear the doubters in the back exclaim, "those things are not the rewards of one man. It takes a well-honed team of friends five, 10, even 20 strong to wrest some of those treasures from the enemies who hold them." This might be true for most heroes, but warlocks are not "most." Quite aside from knowing that "friend" is another word for "disposable minion," warlocks are masters at daring alone what once took many hands. The dungeons and raids of the previous eras of World of Warcraft have many rewards to offer, and it's never been easier for an enterprising warlock to go after them. There's gold, achievements, titles, and for the patient, even pets and mounts to be won. By readying yourself to run these solo, you can save yourself the hassle of coordinating with other retro seekers, as well as avoiding the agony of having to roll off when that dreamed-of 1 percent drop finally pops up in the loot window. All you need is to equip yourself with the right tools and use a few of the right tactics. After the jump, all you need to know to take down instance bosses as well as a list of which ones to go after now before they are gone when Cataclysm launches.
Blood Pact: Soul Shards, talent specs and the 4.0.1 warlock
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Pact for affliction, demonology and destruction warlocks. Today, Zach Yonzon fills in while the new warlock columnist dusts his robes off after his trip from the Twisting Nether. A new warlock columnist? Why, yes -- holding the warlock columnist position here at WoW Insider is akin to holding the Defense of the Dark Arts teacher position at Hogwarts, you know. Let's get this one out of the way: The game isn't balanced for level 80. You can't cry about being broken or your spec not being viable or your DPS not being up to par because, right now, everything is in flux. The new mechanics are balanced for level 85 and some values in the game aren't properly scaled for this level, so none of the numbers you see will be truly representative of how it's going to be a couple of months down the line. You won't even get a feel of how important mastery is because there just isn't the proper gear to support it. Unless you're hell bent on being on top of the meters at a time when it's largely meaningless, you're better off using this period to get a feel for how the class plays.
