Wrath of the Lich King: Warlock roundup

Having fun yet? I know I am, and I'm not even playing Wrath yet, even though it's already out. The changes to the game have brought the Warlock to a different level of playability -- not quite as overwhelmingly powerful as before, but a whole lot of fun nonetheless. That's the point of this game, isn't it? To have fun? Well, congratulations for playing a Warlock, because from here to Level 80, I think you'll have a lot of fun. Let's see what we've got...

STATE OF THE CLASS

• If you're only checking in now, you might be a bit surprised to see how much of the game has changed from The Burning Crusade. Our coverage of Patch 3.0.3 and the associated Warlock changes should get you up to speed.

• You can learn the Dreadsteed spell without doing the quest now. Cheater.

• Did you know that DoTs can now crit?

• You might need to set your demon to Passive, by the way. The new Defensive for pets works somewhat differently now... kind of a passive-aggressive that gets us into trouble.

• Speaking of pets, did you hear about that time when a big blueberry actually tanked Illidan? True story. Too bad the threat component has been nerfed somewhat.

TALENT TREES

• Blizzard definitely shook things up when they unleashed Patch 3.0.2 upon Azeroth and I really took a liking to Affliction (I lie, I've always liked Affliction) and didn't quite get the hang of Demonology. My thoughts on the two trees can be found in an old Blood Pact.

• I surprised myself by actually enjoying Destruction. Give it a shot. You might surprise yourself, too.

• We ran through some talent choices for Affliction when 3.0.2 came out.

• We also took a look at, ugh, Demonology.

• And then there's Destruction.

GENERAL TIPS

• Have a look at our Demonology 101 series, which gives an overview of the different Warlock pets such as the popular Voidwalker, the sexy Succubus, and even the conditional-but-now-usable-indoors Infernal.

• Learn how to unleash the full potential of a skill with our Skill Mastery. We took a look at Haunt, one of Affliction's staple spells.

We have a plethora of stuff on Warlocks, but you'll probably have to wade through all the other posts just to get to them. That's not so bad, actually... so get reading!