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Blood Pact: Looking at warlock spec 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. This week's Blood Pact comes at you from the road. To celebrate this whole freedom thing, I took a trip with small-town writer Fox Van Allen to visit friends in Philly. It's a neat city. They have a bell or something; I was told there were some kind of papers signed here a while back that people cared about. All of it seems a little over the top for my liking. The newest patch has been out for a nearly a week now. It's been a fun little time. There's been some raiding, some dailies to do, even a few great quest chains. I've had a blast. Warlocks saw only a few changes this time around, but the change in encounter design itself has altered the way that we look at our specs in general. Here's a quick little ditty on how we're adjusting to this new life.
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: How to be a true 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. I've been out in something of an adventure this past week. You know, the tired, old digging-through-musty-caves-and-dark-forests-type deal. So it might have actually been closer to walking down concrete sidewalks in a bright city, possibly some singing munchkins were involved as well, but I swear that I wasn't wearing ruby slippers. I stumbled on some killer bookstores which had loads of occult books -- none of which I bought, sadly -- and it got me thinking that warlocks should have a book. Well, perhaps not a book because I think that our editors would flay me alive should I write that much, so we'll just settle for a solid leaflet. Let's be real here, not all warlocks are true warlocks. Sure they may walk like a warlock, talk like a warlock, and summon up demons and hellfire like a warlock, but they're just imposters. Some of them are even wicked mage spies undoubtedly sent by the no good Pants. In an effort to educate the faithless and to root out the fakes, I've created a guide of sorts to warlockery. Let's share and do some of that learning thing. And bears, we also teach how to avoid bears. Bears are mean, they'll eat your face. I like my face.
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: Leveling a warlock from 60 to 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. I know that it has been an extra week since the last portion of the guide was posted, but if you happened to have missed it, or just plain forgot, then here it is: leveling from 1 to 60. It's pretty sweet, so you kinda should go read it if you haven't already. I'm just sayin'. This week, we'll be tackling Outland, Northrend, and finally, the home stretch of Cataclysm content. It may only be 25 levels, but it eats up far more time than just getting to level 60 does. No matter what spec you play, though, reaching the higher levels is always where the fun starts. At that point, you finally start getting the key spells that make life awesome.
Blood Pact: First look into warlocks and 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. Welcome back once again to another rousing day of warlockery lessons. Yes, once again, warlockery is a word because I say it is. All the dictionaries in the world are free to disagree with me, but it's not as if I read them anyway -- and to be fair, it's only because they refuse to read me. Although, I have to say, I so don't understand the word "warlock." I mean, you got two parts: "war-" and "-lock." "War" is fairly obvious, and it makes total sense -- but "lock"? Are we expected to prevent others from entering a war unless they have the proper key? That doesn't sound very much like us. I just don't get it. I think these English people are just a bit nutty; that's why I speak Drow. In other news, we'll be taking a small quick break from the leveling guide this week -- I know, I know, you were looking forward to it, but now you have to wait, I'm crying, really -- to do a quick little talk about what we've seen coming for warlocks in the latest patch. Thankfully, not too much has yet changed for us. (I say "thankfully" because warlocks are doing rather well right now, so changes are more than likely going to end up being nerfs.)
Blood Pact: Leveling a warlock from 1 to 60
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. More so than anything else, I am an altaholic. I am addicted to alt-ahol. It's a terrible disease, I know, and I make sure that I go to my support group in the basement of a local comic book shop every Saturday night, but those meetings usually end up in a StarCraft LAN party, so I'm thinking that I might skip it this time around. In all honesty, though, I really do have an alt problem. I've got three different severs that have reached their character limit -- and yes, a vast majority of those toons are actually 85, or at least in the 80s. It's a tough gig, but it's what happens when you quit your job to work exclusively on WoW. Suffice to say, leveling is a concept I know pretty darn well. Taking a break from my newest project -- reaching the Classy guild achievement in a guild with only my alts -- I figured I might share a few of the things that I have learned in my time. Sit back, relax, and enjoy.
Blood Pact: Patch 4.1 analysis for 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. While the patch may have been out for almost a week now, I get the fortunate/unfortunate position of writing on Mondays. It's awesome, really; I love Mondays, and I love having Blood Pact on Mondays. It's like a bright ray of sunshine on an otherwise dreary day -- assuming your sunshine is also dark, bloody, demonic, and encourages slavery. Sadly, Blizzard doesn't seem to like Mondays; in fact, I'm quite sure that it has started a campaign to have Monday officially removed, but everyone else just calls me crazy. The patch may have been out for a while, but that doesn't mean it still isn't worth mentioning, yeah? After all, there were quite a few major changes for warlocks, and most importantly, those around us. Day late, dollar short, all that jazz -- nothing can stop a rampaging demonic lord, and that's kind of what we are.
Blood Pact: Total destruction
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. Getting some higher-grade medication than what I've been previously taking has seriously paid off, which is a huge benefit. I may still be a little hazy, but at the very least I have focus enough to give destruction its due. Frankly, not doing so just wouldn't be justice. As much as I am a fan of affliction, destruction holds a bit of a soft spot in my heart. Something about doing what a mage thinks he can do only better must be part of it. While affliction has certainly been a viable choice this raiding tier -- all of our specs have, actually -- destruction has really taken the popular stance. In a general sense, it has the overall highest DPS potential of all the specs, which explains why many people play as destruction. Also, it's fun! Affliction may have multiple DoT juggling and all that business, but nothing is more exciting than watching enemies just explode in bursts of fel flames. There's just something enticing about controlling the uncontrollable blaze. For all the good it has, nothing is perfect. Even destruction has its flaws, so let's get to work at breaking them down. In case you missed the last two weeks in the series, this is where you can find our posts on affliction and demonology.
Blood Pact: Witching around with demonology
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. Oloth plynn dos, brother and sisters. Last week I started an informal mission of sorts to go about "correcting" the various minor irks within our specs. The first of these was affliction, which may be seen as an odd choice to many since once 4.1 comes out, it should be our highest DPS spec. Before heading into the world of demons, which I am excited about, I want to take a little side trip. Warlocks are excessively lucky at this point in the game. Out of all the pure classes, most generally only have two of their three specs considered "viable" (though I use the term loosely) for raiding. Warlocks are different in that regard. You do still see all three warlock specs raiding, and all three specs actually don't have that large of a DPS difference between them. Affliction in 4.1 may simulate as being the highest, but a better-played destruction or even demonology warlock will still out-DPS affliction. I like to think that this versatility is simply because warlocks are better people, but who knows the real reason why warlocks have hit that sweet spot Blizzard has been looking for?
Blood Pact: Why the affliction spec needs tweaking
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. So, I was a flipping through the WoW Insider posts today, as is often the case, when I stumbled across something. I'm not often a huge reader of Arcane Brilliance -- for some strange reason, the ramblings of a deranged mage don't quite appeal to me, but I figured I would take a peek just this once. As per usual, nothing written actually made sense to me; seriously, I don't think those people understand simple English, but I thought the topic Mr. Belt was trying to convey wasn't a bad one. You see, AB has taken to looking deep into the flaws of the mage specs (if you can call them that, since I consider the entire class flawed), and it got me to thinking. As glorious as warlocks are, as near perfect we may be, I feel that we simply deserve something a little bit more. Everything can always be improved, so why not warlocks? I see no reason not to.
Blood Pact: Do warlock pets need to be redesigned?
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. We hear the talk all the time about how the Blizzard development team sits around in their comfy chairs all day long, puffing on cigars, sippin' G&Ts and generally discussing the finer points of how they can further prove that mages just don't have a place in this game and, really, it was a mistake to add them in from the beginning. I mean, honestly, wouldn't have just been easier to have an NPC to port players around the major cities? There are already drink vendors, so I'm not sure what other purpose mages serve. Aside from all that, the developers also toss around ideals, thoughts, and generalized feedback on the game. This is something that I have always been a huge fan of. While GC (Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street, lead systems designer) may have his illustrious Watercooler Blog, I have Blood Pact. So stuff it, spectral crustacean -- I'm gonna talk about warlock pets, and you can just stand there, leaning, drinking your "water." I get an awesome chair, sweet computer, and wicked coffee on my gig. Top that! Oh yeah, about those pets ...
Blood Pact: Who is the best choice to link with Dark Intent?
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 there are any of you there are like me and play the wonderful combination of both a balance druid and a warlock -- or you just happen to be one of my fans -- then you might have noticed a little snippet in the latest balance edition of Shifting Perspectives regarding Dark Intent. While half of it was tongue-in-cheek hilarity, there was a small portion of truth in there as well. I wouldn't want to make a habit of crossing subjects within Blood Pact and Shifting Perspectives, but I feel that Dark Intent honestly does deserve a good discussion. Throughout my many adventures on all of my toons, I've noticed that warlocks seem to be in the middle of a little bit of a spat when it comes to the issue of Dark Intent -- rather, other players are having a spat and warlocks, the uncaring beasts that we are, just toss up our hands in dismay and give it to whomever wins the brawl. There are many benefits and sides to Dark Intent; it's time that we explored them all. As with many things in WoW, one size does not fit all. A fair warning regarding this edition of Blood Pact: Thar be maths ahead! Theorycrafting will be kept to a minimum where it can, but some will be unavoidable. If this isn't your cup of tea, then you have my apologies in advance.
Blood Pact: The fine art of staying alive, part 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. The first installment of Blood Pact: The fine art of staying alive, published two weeks ago, was more leveling/PvE-focused. This time around, we'll explore the PvP side of making sure that you come out of the fray still ticking (at least with all your limbs that were intact before still there). Before starting on that, I want to bring up one other thing. I've mentioned it a few times in comments now, and I'm sure that most of you have already figured it out on your own, but I would like to take this time to say that, yes, I am now going to be the new writer for Blood Pact until a horde of screaming demons chases me off into the Nether.
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: The fine art of staying alive, part 1
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. It's another week, warlocks -- and, yes, it's another week that you will have to spend with me. Well, in a figurative sense at least; I mean, some of you could spend the week with me literally if you'd want, but I caution you that I do steal souls outside of WoW. For those of you who are merely interested in our cyber-relationship, I'm glad that you came back. I just don't know how to quit you. Ahem, that out of the way -- have you ever noticed that the dungeon finder is nearly as deadly as it can be awesome? Perhaps it's just me, but I have a knack for a queue popping up right in the middle of a quest; I come back, and suddenly there are four or more giant fury/scaly/slimy critters that want to eat my face off. Not cool. I also have the strange talent of finding tanks that love to just randomly drop group right after they've pulled a pack of mobs, or a healer -- they love doing that, too. Needless to say, my adventures have been rather harrowing from time to time, but one of the fantastic things about warlocks is the uncanny ability to stay alive. Thus, I come with gifts this week, the gift of my experience in the art of not dying in fires ... or from large, nasty things beating me senseless.
Blood Pact: The failure of Soul Shards
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. Greetings again, warlocks. For the past few weeks, we've been discussing raiding strategies for the various raids of this tier. In this week's edition, I would like to take a slight change of pace and discuss warlock mechanics at a more basic level. I understand that most come here for guides or reference materials -- and I promise to get back on track with those soon -- but I also like to highlight what I view as flaws within the game in order to bring about dialog within the community on how to adjust these issues. When playing as a warlock, the most unavoidable mechanic that you run into is that of Soul Shards. For years, warlocks pretty much hated Soul Shards; they were annoying, took up vast amounts of bag space, and had to be farmed for every raid. In Cataclysm revamping, Soul Shards was one of the major goals for warlocks. Now we have a system in which warlocks only have three shards usable in conjunction with the new Soul Burn ability, which can be used to alter certain spells in a variety of ways. But is this really an improvement? Did Blizzard actually fix the problems associated with Soul Shards?
Blood Pact: Warlocks vs. Cho'gall
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. Here we are, once again, on the final leg of our journey. Dark brothers and sisters, at least we reach the final (non-heroic) challenge of raiding content; Cho'gall! Alas, he isn't all that he is cracked up to be. If you have managed to clear the rest of the Bastion of Twilight -- which you rather have to in order to get this far -- then you shouldn't have many issues with this encounter. As with everything in raiding, certain battles are more difficult in one raid size than they are in others. For Cho'gall, going along with 24 other makes the encounter far easier than doing it with only 9 other people. It's just another one of those things that you have to take it for what it is. I wish you luck in this encounter. Oloth plynn dos!
Blood Pact: Warlocks against the Twilight Ascendant Council
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. So we are back once again, bringing a darker enlightenment to the raiding scene. After tromping through the first two bosses within The Bastion of Twilight last week, we'll continue the adventure by tackling the third encounter of the instance. Unfortunately, the Twilight Ascendant Council is easily the most difficult encounter within this zone, offering up a lot of raid awareness checks as well as a very rough DPS check at the end. Which spec you choose to run on this encounter is mostly a wash, no matter how you slice it. Destruction or affliction might perform better overall; however, both affliction and demonology have very strong sub-20% damage, which is where the majority of the DPS race comes into play. As an overall generalization, you can play whichever spec you prefer for this encounter, though there is some give and take.
