Warlock PvP guide

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Contents 1 General Tips 2 Rogue 3 Warrior 4 Priest 5 Warlock 6 Mage 7 Druid 8 Hunter 9 Paladin 10 Shaman

General Tips

A few general tips:

• There is no 'best spec' for PvP. Each line has its own styles, strengths and weaknesses. All 3 fully specced have ways to excel in PvP. Demonology makes you more survivable (Demonic Embrace, Soul Link) and gives your pets some nice buffs (Unholy Power, Fel Stamina, Fel Intellect, Improved Imp/Voidwalker/Succubus); a demonology warlock with the right pet out is nearly unbeatable in 1 on 1 combat (and you can summon a pet in 0.5 seconds every 15 minutes with Fel Domination and Master Summoner), Master Demonologist can help your damage or survivability depending on the pet you have at the time; group PvP isn't quite as strong since your survivability doesn't help out your friends. Destruction leans more toward a Mage style of a glass cannon. You dish out massive damage (Conflagrate, Shadowburn, especially with crits Ruin and you crit more often Devastation), but you don't really get any talents to help you stay alive; group or mass PvP is a strength here since you can drop enemies quickly (Rain of Fire or Hellfire with Intensity or Pyroclasm). Affliction is a bit of a middle ground; it certainly isn't a mix of the other two, but it gives you some ways to stay alive (Curse of Exhaustion on melee, Fel Concentration to drain life while being hit) and some ways to do consistent DPS (Improved Curse of Agony, instant Corruption, Nightfall) and it has some abilities that improve your ability to continue a sustained fight (Improved Life Tap, Dark Pact).

• Keep your First Aid skill as high as possible. Not only is it handy when you Fear/Death Coil/Seduce an enemy off you in PvP, but it is more handy than food to regen health after Life Tap in an instance with long fights, since it can be used in combat and heals faster (though it is slightly more expensive).

• Also consider taking Engineering. Getting 175 skill costs less than 50 gold, and gives you access to the awesome yet economical Iron Grenade. You can chuck a grenade to set up a Fear against some classes, or a Howl of Terror against groups; this is especially useful in Warsong Gulch to scatter flag trains. It helps to practice your aim against moving targets, since you will have to lead them by a few steps.

• There one big bonus of an Imp in PvP: you don't need a Soul Shard to bring them back. If you can keep them separate from the enemy, they can deal out some nice damage. Any class with a decent ranged attack or a way to use some form of crowd control on you will kill them pretty quickly. They shine a little more in group PvP due to Blood Pact.

• The Voidwalker has not much use in PvP; Sacrifice, for the damage shield. Their DPS is low when compared to any of your other pets, and the taunts have no effect on players. However, pets in defensive mode can be taunted. If you are full Demonology spec, Soul Linking with them plus the Master Demonologist buff from them (10% physical damage reduction) can be handy to help you survive against Rogues, Warriors, and Hunters.

• The Succubus is generally the best insurance while soloing when you are open to PvP attacks. Seduction works wonders. With you and your pet having a form of crowd control, you can tag-team the opponent in a way. If they attack you, Seduce, if they attack her, Fear. Unless she is in combat, your Succubus should be invisible, and therefore there should be almost no way for them to prevent at least 1 attempt to seduce (unless you are attacked by another warlock who can see her and Banish her; in which case you Banish their pet as well). Even if you are fighting a class that has the PvP trinket to remove Fear, they will use their trinket to remove the Seduction and won't have it again for another 5 minutes. With a 1.5 second casting time, recasting Seduction isn't hard. They will be open to your Fear as well, but since they are more likely focusing on you, any class that has an interrupt will prevent that. She also offers solid DPS once the fight actually begins and you don't have to worry about her DPS stopping if she is out of mana, as you would have to consider with the Imp.

• The Felhunter can make a fight a complete blowout in your favor or be the most useless pet, depending on what you're fighting. Any class that casts buffs/debuffs/heals will not like your Felhunter at all. It can help spot a Rogue or Druid in stealth before they hit you, but the range that you detect equal level players (especially if they have talents that make them harder to detect) you will probably still get hit by their Ambush or Ravage.

• The Infernal is fun in PvP, but not something you can really rely on with the 1 hour cooldown; if you're losing to someone and just really want to throw them a curve ball, or if you get attacked by multiple people (or just want to scare the sh** out of someone). Keep in mind that unlike the rest of your pets, the Infernal does NOT disappear when you die. It will continue to attack people (even your comrades if they're close). An interesting little trick to play when you know you're going to die to 1-3 people and you are Soulstoned, is to summon the Infernal right before you die and let it beat on them a bit while you watch. When it looks like they're in trouble or one of them needs a heal, pop up and rejoin the fight. Try to Fear the healer if there is more than one enemy to maximize the Infernal's hurt on them.

• The Doomguard is a even more fun than the Infernal in one-on-one or small group PvP. It does respectable DPS and its abilities are extremely viable in PvP. However, its low health won't help it much in large scale PvP since it looks pretty damn scary and everyone will want to focus on it. If you have a healer with you, remind them to keep it healed and you can have lots of good times with it. It will have all of its abilities except Dispel on auto-cast when you enslave it; it is recommended to take Rain of Fire off auto-cast since it will not only stop it's movement if it's chasing someone, but it wastes its mana for a low amount of damage. If there is a nice group to cast it on, you won't need auto-cast since you can command it to use the ability itself. Cripple will help it catch anyone trying to kite it. War Stomp can interrupt casting and it works on a sizable area (same as Tauren racial ability). Dispel can be used just as the Priest's Dispel Magic ability can - to remove debuffs from friendly units or to remove buffs from enemies. One of the downsides of the Doomguard compared to Infernal is that it can itself be feared; one way to remedy this is to cast Rank 1 Curse of Recklessness on it right before you enslave it; this will only last 2 minutes but if you know you're going to PvP soon, it can help.

• If you get jumped by someone and take heavy damage early, attempt to Fear or Seduce them and bandage yourself. If at all possible, hold off using your potion or Healthstone until you've bandaged. Obviously there are exceptions, but it is generally better to do first. First Aid has a 60 second cooldown, while potions and healthstones have a 2 minute cooldown, so it is possible to bandage multiple times in a long fight if you use it early.

• Every caster has a defense against melee attackers. Priests have Power Word: Shield, absorbing damage. Mages use crowd control tactics with Polymorph and also use eluding spells like Frost Nova or Blink. Druids can use Roots and Travel Form to escape melee. Our main defense, Fear, is easier to remove or be immune to than some others. Make sure to remember Death Coil, Seduction, and Howl of Terror (when facing multiple enemies). Soul Link also helps reduce the hurt; if you have it, there should rarely be a time when you do not have it on (having an Imp out is one of those times, as it will die quickly). When you're being attacked by someone with many interrupts (namely a Rogue) or being attacked very quickly (namely a Hunter with a cat pet) it can be difficult to cast Fear. In these situations, open with Death Coil and follow it up immediately with Fear.

• Most of these tactics assume that your opponent will do the most common thing the class does. You will probably fight people with several different tactics. So if someone kills you, go back in the combat log and see what kinds of things they did that messed you up. Often the choice of pet makes a huge difference. Duels are a good way to practice and prepare for PvP.

• Drain Mana works fine against casters, especially healers. Draining their whole mana pool is almost impossible, but as soon as they are low on mana, you can easily keep their mana constantly near zero. Your DoTs can still tick, whereas the enemy will not be able to cause a lot of trouble. If your minion is still out, you can maintain a constant drain and watch as your pet whittles his or her health to nothing.

Rogue

The central problem with Rogues, from a Warlock's point of view, is the fact that Warlocks don't in general have any defenses against melee damage from other players -- Warlocks wear cloth armor and lack melee damage absorption. Some abilities of these types do exist but are interruptible (Fear, Howl of Terror), pet-dependent (Seduction, Sacrifice) or talent-dependent (Soul Link) -- moreover, all of them are easily dispellable. The same applies to Warriors, but Rogues' ability to prevent their target from taking any kind of action while doing massive melee damage is particularly devastating to Warlocks. A Rogue is a Warlock's natural enemy. More to the point, rogues even go so far as to specifically seek out warlocks as targets. Various PvP guides for rogues advise them to attack destruction warlocks in particular saying destruction warlocks are easy to defeat. Unfortunately rogues are a very tough class for warlocks but it isnt all doom and gloom.

DoT as soon as possible. Your goal is to use DoTs as a weapon against the rogue's famous ability of Stealth, while at the same time inflicting reasonable damage on the rogue. Rogues are frail at range so DoT as much as you can while kiting them, use Curse of Exhaustion to give yourself time to reinforce their damage taken with another DoT. Avoid melee as Rogues can stun or even cripple you when they finally do get their chance, focus on moving and using your pets to their outmost capabilities.

With the new patch rogues can now start pulling cloak of shadows on at level 66. This gives you even more incentive to put as much dots on him as you can to lure the CoS out of him. CoS removes all debuffs and boosts resists by 90% for 5 seconds, making them effectively spell immune for 5 seconds. With a 66+ rogue, try to get all your key abilities out when you can. If you wait too long the rogue will pull on CoS and attempt to burst you down you in those 5 seconds (or rack up enough cp and stunlock you during CoS, the impact of this however is largely reduced when you have enough stamina while having Soul Link up and your pets seducing or stun the rogue).

The Succubus (as mentioned above) is the ideal pet for situations that you are jumped by a rogue. If they try to stun lock you with the succubus out, it will be much easier than if they crit Ambush followed by a Backstab before you move. Seduce them ASAP, move away, and bandage. If possible avoid using your potion or healthstone at this point unless they break out of the seduce. If they use their trinket to break it, recast it right away. Curse of the Elements and Soul Fire are handy on a seduced target regardless of the class (if you have Ruin and get a crit it can pretty much set you up to win). Immediately after the seduction breaks hit them with Curse of Agony (or Corruption if you have it as an instant-cast from affliction) to keep them from stealthing. It's ideal to keep 2 DoTs on them throughout the fight so they can't use vanish. They will most likely use Sprint to close the distance, which is your cue to begin casting fear. Their speed bonus will turn against them when they're running away from you and opening up the distance again. If they manage to gouge you before you can cast fear, hit them with death coil as soon as they hit, followed by fear.

No rogue in his right mind would focus his attention on your Voidwalker, but sacrificing it for the shield should give you some time to fear. Remember they can still gouge, stun and kick you through the shield, so try to fear them before you bandage.

The Imp dies quickly when confronted with the extreme DPS a Rogue dishes out, so it's best if you can put some distance between yourself and your imp before you have it start firebolting the rogue. If you should happen to have your Felhunter out, its Paranoia ability may allow you to spot the stealthed Rogue early enough to prevent an ambush from stealth, but you still won't detect stealth very well if the Rogue comes up behind you, which they almost always do.

If you are a Warlock with the demonology tree maxed out, then you will have a Felguard. Now a Felguard can be used in your advantage agaist a rogue. When you know you're about to be attacked by a rogue this is the best situation to be in. First put the Felguard on defensive mode then put your Felguard on stand, you will then want to get a little distance from the Felguard. Then you jump around in the same spot trying to avoid a Ambush or Backstab, natually the rogue is gonna attack! Once the rogue does it's first hit (don't worry it won't hurt to much because of Soul Link), Bam the Felguard has locked on and used Intercept and therefore stunned the rogue for 3 seconds and disabling the rogue to hit you twice. The good Thing about this is the rogue stunned you before you stunned it!! therefore you will be free to run, as you're running use some dots to make the rogue use CoS, the rogue will naturally stealth again cause it can't catch up. Once the rogue does this the pet will disengage and go back to where it was. at this point it is optional to use a Health Stone while you run in circles so the rogue has a hard time catching up. By the time the rogue attacks again you pets charge should be cooled down if so the rogue is royally boned.

You must then wait again for the rogue to make his next move then Bam!! (not again he cries!) this time he can't CoS! so run back dot and Death Coil then Fear and finish him of by running in circles and dotting or Drain Life. If your pets charge is on cooldown you will just have to take the first 3 or 4 shots which if you have plenty of health should be fine (if you don't believe you can take 3 to 4 shot then use a Health Stone or Potion ), then use death coil. Then fear and dot spam fear or run in circles and dot or dot and drain health.

If you're an Affliction Warlock, instant-cast Corruption should be your DoT of choice, because of the chance that it'll trigger Nightfall, giving you an instant Shadow Bolt; Curse of Exhaustion will make it easier to kite the Rogue. A Destruction Warlock should try to get Immolate off as soon as possible, because this will allow you to cast Conflagration.

Keep your distance, placing any instant DoTs you can. Kiting is the way to go. If the rogue gets upset enough about the seductions to focus on the succubus, take the opportunity to fear. Keep in mind that Undead Rogues will have Will of the Forsaken, and many opponents may have items that can cancel fear and charm effects. Rogues are all leather, so melee damage of the sort that the Succubus can dish out will actually be somewhat effective. They tend to have a fair amount of Stamina, but not a huge amount, so a well-timed Immolate plus Shadow Bolt will hurt them. Chances are high that he'll now try to gain on you, stun, and heal. Try not to expose your back to him - this allows you to avoid backstabs, which do a lot of damage. Also try to avoid facing him, as the rogue's gouge ability only works from the front. The best (and hardest) place to be is facing his back. Try running through him, jumping and spinning around if necessary. If you're stun-locked AND don't have out a succubus AND your death coil is on cooldown (even the best stun-lockers slip up for a split second sometimes) you could be in trouble. The hitpoints gained from a Healthstone might help get over the initial Ambush or similar attack, but don't count on it. There isn't much you can do against the poisons Rogues are so fond of putting on their weapons, and don't try to outlast him in melee. He'll win.

Destruction warlocks in general have a tougher time against rogues than affliction or demonology locks. Affliction and demonology trees have talents that either heal the lock or split the damage with the pet. In the destruction tree, there is Soul Leech which will return health on a dest spell hit when it procs, Aftermath and Pyroclasm might daze an enemy when they proc and Shadowfury will stun a target when it hits. Note that all these talents only proc on a successful spell cast and there is only a chance at that anyway (aside from Shadowfury). The problem is that if a dest lock is incapacitated by a rogue before the lock can strike then none of these talents will matter at all because no spells are cast and the warlock becomes a pin cushion for the rogue. So what's a destruction lock to do?

Your next move is dependent on what sort of crowd control you can get off on the rogue. If you are able to get a seduction or fear off then he is primed for Curse of Elements followed by Soul Fire and Immolate. Bear in mind though that at higher levels rogues wont allow themselves to be CCd for the approximately 10 seconds it will take to cast those spells. It might be necessary to skip Soul Fire and go straight to Immolate followed by another DoT and then Incinerate. Keep an active DoT on him at all times.

Some dest locks have Curse of Exhaustion. If so, that is a good first cast once the stun is broken as it will allow you to move away from the rogue. Many of the destruction spells have longer casting times than those in the afflic tree. Rogues are aware of this. That is one reason they will seek out dest locks because they realize they have a better chance of interrupting spell casts. It's best therefore to open up with instant casts and the DoTs with the shortest cast time if the rogue is merely slowed down. Curse of Agony and Improved Corruption (hopefully you have it) should be cast ASAP as well as Soul Siphon if available. Obviously, Immolate is the destruction lock's preferred DoT as it is the most powerful, enhances Incinerate, and opens the window for Conflagrate but as stated earlier it is vital to get a DoT on the rogue as quickly as possible. If you can get to a safe distance then by all means cast Immolate but you dont want to him to close the gap on you.

If the rogue is not affected by a type of CC then expect it to be a DPS race and unfortunately that is advantage: rogue for the simple reason that a dest lock's spell casting can be interrupted while the rogue's attacks won't be. All efforts should be made to get space between you and the rogue. Remember that throughout WoW there are various items that have CC effects such as Netherweave Net. It's a good idea to always have an item in your inventory that has CC ability. Backlash comes in particularly handy when fighting rogues but that alone will not be enough to defeat him.

In the end, the best defense against a rogue for a dest lock is likely attacking first because that will give you the best chance of maintaining distance between you and the rogue. Felhunter's Paranoia and the human trait Perception are all useful in this regard. Make no mistake, rogues are difficult for destruction locks but a well-prepared destruction lock can take the rogue down just as easily as he can take the lock down.

Warrior

Warriors become more and more a challenge to Warlocks as you progress in level.

As with Rogues, your chances of success are increased the more you can stay out of melee range. Run around a lot -- run through them if they're on top of you. Warriors can't attack you if you're behind them. Anything that's instant-cast is good, because Warriors can Pummel to interrupt your casting, and having all your Shadow spells shut down is crippling. So the most likely way to win is to keep them covered with instant-cast DoTs and stay out of melee range.

Your primary defense, Fear, is all but useless against warriors. It's perfectly reasonable to want to kite a Warrior with Fear in the lower levels or when their abilities are on a cooldown -- although the problem is that pesky diminishing returns counter. Undead Warriors with WotF also make Fear less useful, as do Fear-canceling items. The 3 most annoying abilities they can use against your Fear (not horror from Death Coil or charm from Seduction however, see next paragraph) are:

• Berserker Rage, usable only in Berserker Stance every 30 seconds, breaks Fear and makes them immune to Fear for 10 seconds. The warrior also gains triple rage from taking damage while affected. This is the most common method used to break fear because of its quick cooldown and its fear-breaking action.
• Recklessness, usable only in Berserker Stance, will make them immune to Fear, increases their damage taken by 20%, and all of their hits will be criticals for 15 seconds. Has a 30 minute cooldown and is a level 50 skill. If you do not seduce the warrior, Recklessness will generally kill you.
• Death Wish (21 point Arms talent) breaks Fear and makes them immune to Fear, increases their damage dealt by 20%, but increases damage taken by 5% for 30 seconds (3 minute cooldown). If you do not chain-seduce the warrior, Death Wish will generally kill you.

Remember that when a warrior breaks your fear with one of these skills, your next seduce will also be halved in duration. Thus, it is better to open with seduce and avoid fearing the warrior. It is quite possible (and entertaining!) to catch a warrior in Battle or Defensive stance and fear him, although on the occasion when said warrior has Death Wish, you will wish you had just seduced him instead.

Also note that a warrior will also try to either hamstring, fear or stun you pet.

If you have it, Curse of Exhaustion can help you keep one step ahead while running away, but it is likely to be countered with Intercept (30 second cooldown). There is also a trinket that blacksmiths get from the Thorium Brotherhood that makes them immune to fear for 20 seconds. So if you're against any high level warrior that has any skill at all, your fear will not be much use. Curse of Weakness may seem tempting, but it makes little difference when taking into account the melee DPS of a warrior and the cloth armor of a warlock.

The Succubus is the ideal pet for warrior encounters; although the Voidwalker sacrifice has its perks, you can still be shield bashed and pummeled through the absorption shield. The Imp can do some damage if you can keep it away from you and thus the warrior. The Felhunter offers nothing but its meager melee damage. If you get the jump on them with a Succubus: Seduction, Curse of the Elements, Soul Fire is a nice way to start any fight (especially if you are Destruction spec). Also, all those fancy abilities that prevent fear do NOT prevent charm (remember you will likely have DoTs on them by the time they use their fear immunity abilities, so plan ahead). As with the Paladin bubble, coaxing them to use their fear immunities early in the fight (namely before you DoT them) will work to your advantage if you have a succubus out.

Kiting is the name of the game at higher levels. When they hamstring you, jump around them like crazy and use instant-cast abilities to minimize the damage you take. If you manage to get enough lead time, make the most of it with an Immolate or Shadow Bolt. Don't die without using your Healthstone and Death Coil.

Priest

Priests can be a challenge, but there are some tools warlocks have to help out (namely the Felhunter). If you have a Felhunter out, it will be hard for you to lose if you use it properly. If you don't, managing to fear them and summon one will change your odds drastically (remember that the priest PvP trinket will remove fear though). The Felhunter can not only fulfill its usual role of interrupting healing, but it can devour Shadow Word: Pain from you and devour their Power Word: Shield. With its innate mage resistance, it is also less likely to be feared, or if it is, it doesn't usually last as long. (It can also devour Mind Control if they try to use you for some twisted purpose.) The Voidwalker sacrifice will be dispelled by any good priest, and the Imp or Succubus will fall to Shadow Word: Pain pretty quickly.

They will have the ability to dispel your Immolate, Corruption, and Siphon Life DoTs, so your curses are the only debuffs you can rely on, unless you are specced for Unstable Affliction. Using Immolate is still useful, as it does also direct damage, so even if the Priest removes the DoT, they will take damage. Curse of Tongues is the ideal curse to use against them, as it slows their Flash Heal to the speed of a paladin's Holy Light. If you use the succubus, Curse of Shadow may be of more use, as a PvP priest very likely uses Shadow Protection. If using the felhunter, it can be dispelled easily. Curse of the Elements can also be helpful in certain situations. Change the curse on them throughout the fight as fits the situation.

If the priest is already low on mana, Drain Mana is very valuable. Although it can be dispelled, doing so will cost the priest mana, providing the same result.

Use your Shadow Ward, and Spell Stone if things get out of hand (which is very handy when you know you’re going to PvP), to stop a considerable amount of damage; make sure to use shadow ward before a spell stone however, since it is possible to use it more than once in a fight. Try to use your Shadow Ward shortly before the Priest gets off a Mana Burn or Mind Blast, as it can and will be dispelled. An advantage you have over them is that your fear does not have a cooldown as their's does, so unless they break your fear with WotF, it is possible to recast on them right away. You can use Death Coil as a spell interrupt. Try to interrupt their heal (if you don't have a Felhunter) and their Mana Burn.

Without a Felhunter, a fight with a priest can go either way depending on the spec and skill of the players involved. If you do have your devious little buddy out however, you should have no difficulty laying them out quickly.

Warlock

Pop up your Shadow Ward before they do. If you are Demonology a Felhunter brought out with Fel Domination can help out. They can banish your pet and any warlock whose worth his salt should, but the high resistance of the Felhunter can make them waste precious time and mana when they have to cast it several times for it to stick. With both of the pets out of the fight, your spec will play a major part in the difficulty of the fight. Destruction warlocks will probably have the greatest advantage in this situation and demonology will have the most trouble. The same curses work on them as the ones for priests, Curse of Tongues, Curse of Agony, Curse of the Elements/Curse of Shadow. All your shadow spells are subject to getting through their Shadow Ward, which takes usually ~1.5 Shadow Bolts or 5 ticks of Corruption for Rank 4, which means countering a Shadow Ward with a Devour Magic will often put you ahead. Landing a fear will help turn the tide, especially if your pet comes out of banish to use its abilities while they are feared. There is no specific strategy to use or tactic to expect. The bag of tricks is too deep to take everything into account. Practice dueling with fellow warlocks and it gets easier. An undead warlock will have a slight advantage due to Will of the Forsaken.

Mage

The mage vs warlock setup heavily favors the warlock, especially if he has the felhunter out, and obscenely so if the warlock is also soul link-specced with the Master Demonologist's resistance bonus. Most of the mage's defensive abilities are about kiting melee targets and blowing them up before they can do harm, not about a caster that does comparable damage, has more crowd control options available, and potentially huge stamina and resists.

Curses can be removed instantly by mages, though if you catch them off-guard you may slip one in while they're trying to figure out what to do first (Curse of Tongues is ideal). Furthermore, removing the curse comes at the cost of time, which works in your favor (DoTs). Fear is handy, though they can remove it once with their PvP trinket (and again with WotF if they are undead). Corruption is the most reliable DoT to use on them since they can remove your curses and use Fire Ward to weaken (or completely absorb) the damage of Immolate.

Expect to be counterspelled early, as such you often should first place your instant cast spells on them. Dequeuing a fear will often make them waste their counterspell. Counterspell has a 24 seconds cooldown.

If you have the Felhunter out, use Devour Magic regularly to remove any magic debuffs on you and then heal the Felhunter. The Felhunter can remove the two specifically annoying abilities. Namely it can remove Polymorph, which is something mages usually use early in the fight, and it can remove the 4 second silence if they have Improved Counterspell. The frost effect from any frost spell can also be devoured. Use Spell Lock to shut their casting down. When possible, pay attention to their spells and try to figure out where they have their talent points. Spell locking a line they are fully specced in is obviously much more useful.

The Succubus can use her seduction on mages if you are polymorphed, and it is a good idea to seduce several seconds after they polymorph you (your succubus should be invisible anyway). This way, polymorph will break before seduce does and you will have the upper hand. Your PvP trinket will break polymorph, but they can recast it right away (though for a lower duration of course) and set up a Pyroblast or take out your pet. The Voidwalker is relatively useless, apart from Sacrificing him. The Imp is somewhat useful, while it can be killed with an instant-cast Fire Blast (if they have a good amount of fire damage) or arcane explosion, two points in the talent "improved firebolt" (1s casts) will provide a serious amount of damage and a good number of interruptions to the mage, if he fails to take out the imp early on - and many do.

Many mages will try to get close to you. It is best to avoid this, as many close range spells (Frost Nova, Dragon's Breath, Cone of Cold) are deadly. Additionally the mage will be confused and disrupted. Additionally, some mages have been recorded repeatingly attacking the Felhunter (as will be used in duels and similar against mags) untill the death of it, and then, when summoning a new (using the demonology talent Fel Domination using Counterspell to interrupt the summon, and then Spellstealing the Fel Domination buff. To prevent the summoning of a new pet, and the usage of Soul Link.

This, however, can be prevented by instantly buffing up with Detect Lesser Invisibility, right after using Fel Domination, to make the mage spellsteal the wrong buff.

Druid

This is an interesting fight because a druid's bag of tricks is almost as deep as a warlock's...almost. As with all healers, the Felhunter will give you a nice advantage.

The Druid's ability to rapidly recover mana as they melee in bear or cat form, then heal themselves when needed makes them difficult for some casters to fight, because the druid can keep healing and fighting until the caster runs out of mana. They do, however, have little defense against fear, so abuse it. The Succubus has a major weakness against this class, as you cannot seduce them while they are shapeshifted.

They are not easy to kill no matter what form they are in, so it is important that you keep them from healing, you can't afford to have to take down their whole health bar more than once (if the druid has any skill). Most druids fight in one of their feral forms and only switch back to their caster form to renew Moonfire or heal themselves. They will usually use Bash or Maim before switching into caster form. Use Death Coil; or drop Curse of Tongues on them when they try to heal: they can remove it, but many druids don't. Luckily for you, their main form of crowd control Entangling Roots, doesn't really affect you much.

If possible, try to save your Death Coil as an interrupt for their heal, though you may have to use it early if they are really tearing you up with cat Form, and you're most likely going to have to try to drop enough DoTs on them to out damage the healing from their Rejuvenation or Regrowth. If you're fortunate enough to have your Felhunter out, you can stop their secondary form of healing by devouring Rejuvenation from them. You can remove Moonfire from yourself (though that is a limited help when they decide to spam it).

The Imp will likely be quickly moonfired to death, but the Voidwalker sacrifice loses no usefulness here: The majority of a PvP specced druid's DPS comes from his feral forms, and the shield will protect you from interruptions.

Drain-tanking works fine against druids, especially in bear form. As with all healers, try to drain their mana if there is not much left. Be aware to dispel their Innervate, if you have the felhunter out.

Though not encountered often, a druid in Tree of Life Form counts as an elemental, and it is possible to Banish them. It's most likely to encounter a Tree of Life druid in group pvp, but also where this trick is most effective.

Hunter

Since patch 2.3 the hunters dead zone has been removed, this basicaly means that the hunter can either melee you or shoot you at all times except when under a form of crowd control. The best way to deal with a hunter is to stick as close to their melee range while puting Curse of Weakness on the pet, reducing it's damage considerably.If you're a destruction warlock consider using a Succubus to pull of a Soul Fire if you managed to fear the pet, if not just aply Curse of the Elements and Immolate. When fighting an experienced hunter expect to be kited with traps/instant shots/pet abilities while he unloads quite massive damage.To avoid beeing kited consider Curse of Exhaustion and Death Coil along with Seduce.

An inexperienced or lazy hunter might just give up on trying to kite you and attack with their melee weapon(s) after you get close. In this case, Drain-tanking works fine to keep you alive, while your DoTs damage him. Or start to run away from them, if they follow you, just keep running, if they stop and try to use ranged again just turn back around. It may seem stupid since they will still be landing melee hits on you when you get close or might get a shot off if you get too far, but the time spent changing between the two while your DoTs are ticking will give you the advantage.

Especially troublesome to a warlock is a hunter fully spec'd in Beast Mastery. The final talent in that tree is The Beast Within. That talent when activated makes both the hunter and his pet immune to fear AND increases their damage output. The effect lasts 18 seconds. You will recognize when this talent is active because the hunter and pet will grow in size and turn a slightly reddish color.

You must recognize when The Beast Within is active so that you do not waste time attempting to cast fear. The hunter has complete immunity to it so attempting to cast it only lowers your health because you will be taking damage while casting it and it won't land anyway. Surviving the duration of the effect is your goal. Typically drain tanking a hunter is your best bet but with his and his pet's damage increased considerably, the chances of you surviving through drain tanking only is lower.

Curse of Weakness on the pet will help and should be cast. Having health pots and healthstones are a must as well. The usual tactic of running up to the hunter and using Drain Life might not be enough depending on how much longer the effect has to last. If you can get out of the hunter's LOS, do so ASAP and do your best at drain tanking the pet. If you cannot get out of LOS, then it is better to treat the hunter as you would a warrior that is close. Keep moving around the hunter. He cannot shoot you while he is moving. His melee will pack more of a punch but it is still less than his shots. Jump around, turn unexpectedly, etc., but stay close to him so that he has to move. Get your instant DoTs on him. Throw in a Drain Life here and there. Siphon Life the hunter and the pet so u have some health coming in. You have up to 18 seconds of having the tables turned against you so watch your health and use your health pots and healthstones accordingly. It is not a fun experience tackling a hunter with The Beast Within but just like recognizing when a rogue pops CoS, you need to adjust your tactics quickly and if you do so, you have a good chance of winning. The surest way to die is to not notice TBW is active and to waste time casting fear.

You need to watch for the moment the effect ends (the hunter and pet return to their normal size) and then do your thing. Instant HoT is perfect here and immediately consider bandaging even though you wont get the full benefit. The hunter and his pet are both fearable and you can fight them as you normally do.

The last wrench in the plan is if the hunter's pet dazes you allowing the hunter the opportunity to move away and shoot you. No way to sugar coat it--it stinks because the damage caused is considerably higher than normal. Trinket out of it and proceed according to plan. It will be a tough fight. But this goes back to recognizing whether TBW is active. If you see a hunter, your first instinct is likely to run towards him while he sends his pet to you. If that pet grows in size en route to you, you know that it's more important to get out of LOS so change course and run behind that rock nearby. If you get dazed there, at least you are out of LOS or can try to remain out of LOS.

Again, the most important thing to realize when fighting a hunter who activates TBW is to understand that fear is off the table.

When facing a TBW hunter in the arena be sure to utilize the environment. Scramble behind a pillar, jump down off the bridge, etc. It will take time for the hunter/pet to follow you or to get LOS. You want the hunter to waste time looking for you.

Paladin

The popular paladin thing to do is to wait until they are low on health, bubble and heal themselves, but it is possible to coax them to use their bubble early. If you get a fear off on a paladin, don't hit them with heavy damage since that is much more likely to break the fear, but let Corruption and Curse of Agony tick away on them. Usually these will not break fear. Unless they have the trinket that makes them immune to fear for 20 seconds from blacksmithing, you should be able to recast a fear on them if it breaks. Their only defense is to bubble (the earlier the better), but just kite them around (their 6 second stun can get in the way of this plan a bit, unless you have your Felhunter out, in which case you can remove the debuff). Also, bandaging yourself (if you're wounded) while they are feared (or seduce with the Succubus) will perhaps get them a little upset and provoke them into bubbling early. It's a nice twist to sacrifice your Voidwalker when they bubble up to give them a taste of their own medicine and basically pause the fight for a bit. The role of the Imp is about the same as the rest of the PvP fights, in that it tries to not die while blasting them.

It is advisable to keep distance, permanently staying away will not be possible, but temporarily doing so is, especially if you are using Curse of Exhaustion.

Generally when they bubble it signals that it is a brief time out in the fight. Take the opportunity to stand a bit away from them and use a bandage (if you stand right next to them they may interrupt your bandaging with consecration).

Depending on their spec, they normally will do either quite a lot of damage at the cost of mana, or negligible damage with awesome mana-efficiency. In both cases, Drain Mana really excels, especially when used in conjunction with the Felhunter's Devour Magic, as the Paladin will regularly recast their seals and therefore prevent mana regeneration. As soon as the paladin is out of mana, their damage will drop considerably.

There are various curses which can help you. Curse of Shadow and Curse of the Elements can be very effective if the Paladin uses the Shadow or Fire resistance aura. Curse of Weakness will lower their damage, which is especially useful if you try to drain-tank him. Curse of Tongues should be used before the Paladin heals.

Watch out for Lay on Hands, it's pretty annoying. All paladin spells are holy. All of them. Using Spell Lock on them, assuming you have the Felhunter out, will give you a pretty good advantage.

Shaman

As with the Paladin and Druid the Felhunter is your best friend for fighting these healers. However, Shaman can make life a little harder for you by using Tremor Totems (which pulses once every 4 seconds)to get in the way of fear kiting, using Earth Shock to interrupt your casting and lock that school out for 2 seconds, and many shaman have much better DPS then paladins or druids. It is also pointless to cast Demon Armor since any good shaman will just purge it right away. Therefore (as with priests), be careful with any mod that auto-casts your buffs, as casting demon armor multiple times in a fight is an embarrassing way to go.

The first thing you need to when fighting a shaman is to check the ground for a Tremor Totem (they are green) and get rid of it ASAP. If you haven't cast anything yet, hitting it with your melee weapon is often the fastest way. They also might use a Grounding Totem (dark blue). It is possible to create a macro which targets a Grounding or Tremor totem and then sends your pet to attack it. This kind of macro can be used even while channeling a spell like Shadow Bolt.

Both totems work using similar mechanics - they 'pulse' at regular intervals. Using this knowledge to your advantage usually catches a shaman off guard, most consider themselves immune to fear with their totems up. The Grounding Totem will pulse when it is cast, and then every 10 seconds, adding a "Grounding Totem" buff to the shaman and his nearby party members. The next spell cast against the shaman will remove the buff, and redirect the spell to the Totem. The totem is immune to all debuffs, so that if you cast Fear or Corruption, the totem will tell you that it is Immune. However, Grounding Totems have 5 health, so any direct damage spell (Immolate, Shadow Bolt, esp. Searing Pain) directed at the shaman will redirect to the grounding totem and destroy it. A wand is useful for destroying a totem, or it can be handy to try to have your pet hit it, since the pet is usually right next to the shaman attacking when the totem is dropped.

GROUNDING TOTEM NOTE: Grounding Totem is now removed by ANY spell including DoTs regardles of the immune tip which pops.

The Tremor Totem is not a constant protection like the Grounding Totem, but it too 'pulses' at intervals of 4 seconds if the shaman is within its range. The first pulse is right after casting. Each pulse removes any of your crowd control debuffs (namely Fear, Seduce and Sleep), but the pulses are 4 seconds apart. On occasion, it is possible to fear (with some duration) a shaman with a tremor totem because your fear lands right after a pulse. Another interesting bit of info is that tremor totems cannot remove horror (the effect inflicted by death coil) so it is possible to use Death Coil to get them out of their totems range. Tremor Totem now has a 40 yard range, making it even more important to destroy the totem, rather than force the shaman out of its range.

After the totem has been taken care of - other shaman totems are of considerably less importance - try and see if you can get them to "waste" their earth shock on an immolate or other fire spell. If they fall for it cast fear as their earth shock is cooling down then fear kite/nuke them as you would most other classes.

A simpler strategy is to just kite the shaman out of the range of his totems, however any shaman worth their salt with frost shock you when they see you doing this. Get your Felhunter to eat this debuff, allowing you to run at full speed again. This also causes their Earth Shock to cool down, letting you freely Fear them without fear of interruption.

The main shocks you will have to worry about are Earth Shock, which will interrupt you, and Frost Shock, to stop you from kiting. However the strength of one is the weakness of the other. If you are frost shocked, fear them (mind their totems). If you are earth shocked and they are not right on you, you can kite them and let your dots tick away, which will most likely lead them to frost shock you (then: see above).

Sometimes a Shaman that is losing or low on health may try to shift into Ghost Wolf form to escape. If you have your Felhunter out, you're in luck. The Ghost Wolf effect is considered a magical effect and can be devoured. Their Lightning Shield can also be devoured, and should be if you are low on health since you will take damage from the next 3 spells that hit them when it is up. Be wary of the cooldown on your devour magic however, since it is handy to remove frost shock to stay out of range of those nasty windfuries. Unfortunately, Windfury is a buff they cast on their weapon and cannot be removed.

With a Succubus out: The seduction can be helpful, but keep in mind that it is also affected by the grounding and tremor totems. Lash of Pain on auto-cast is also quite useful against Grounding Totem, as it is a Shadow (and therefor, magic) attack.

With a Voidwalker out: Your pet is going to do little more than tickle them, since shamans can purge the sacrifice shield.

With an Imp: Try to keep it away from them, if you kite them or have a few moments before you engage, tell your imp to 'stay' so the shaman is less likely smack it in melee (although if they shock it and get a crit your poor imp may be doomed anyway). An imp can be very handy for quickly taking out totems however.

With a Felhunter: Kiting is much more viable when you can remove frost shock from yourself. If you can land some dots on them and keep your distance you can hurt them a bit while minimizing your own pain (there is a 2 second difference between their shocks and your fel hunter's devour magic, so keep that in mind before deciding to try to win only by kiting. You have one of the most important abilities available when fighting a class that can heal itself, spell lock (so make sure to turn off auto-cast).

Overall, shamans are easy to deal with when you got the proper pets and decent kiting experience.