Warlock instance grouping guide

From WoWWiki

Instance grouping guide
Main Roles
Instance tanking (Tank) Instance healing (Healer) Instance damage dealing† (Damage dealer) † Currently a stub.
Other Roles
Instance leader Instance puller Crowd controller† Instance main assist Instance off tank Instance scout Instance rezzer† † Currently a stub.
Class Roles
Druid Hunter Mage Paladin Priest	Rogue Shaman Warlock Warrior
Other Topics
Marking up mobs Crowd Control Combat Cycle Dying and Wipe prevention Role Assignment How Not To Do Things Additional Tips
Related Topics
Aggro Crowd control Looking For Group	Meeting stone Pickup group Wipe

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Warlocks can be an extremely flexible and useful addition to almost any party. However, because the warlock doesn't fit neatly into any single stereotype, they require a bit of practice to use well.

Contents 1 A Warlock's Responsibilities 2 The Warlock in Instances 2.1 Damage Spells 2.2 Pets 2.3 Aggro/Threat Management 2.4 Crowd Control 2.5 Stones 2.6 Curses 2.7 Summoning 3 Working with a Warlock

A Warlock's Responsibilities

• Soulstones - A soulstone can save a group that has just wiped from a long run back to the instance, and in some cases, can prevent a wipe altogether. Warlocks should keep a soulstone on the party's healer at all times. In groups with multiple warlocks, it is preferable to use only one soulstone at a time.
• Healthstones - Healing items can be the deciding factor between winning a fight and losing it. Healthstones use a separate cooldown timer from potions, making them especially handy.
• Crowd control - Spells like Banish and Enslave Demon are excellent ways for a warlock to help lessen the difficulty of some pulls. The Succubus's Seduce ability is not as effective as Polymorph or Sap, but it can be very helpful in humanoid-heavy circumstances. Some instances, such as The Botanica and Karazhan, have pulls that virtually require a warlock's services. In extremis, a warlock's Fear, Death Coil, or Howl of Terror can give a party time to heal or escape.
  • Using fear spells and abilities can be extremely dangerous, and should only be used in particularly dire circumstances. One strategy involves casting a fear effect spell on the target mob, then using Curse of Recklessness to make sure the target doesn't run too far away. Curse of Recklessness does not remove a fear effect, but instead causes the mob to act normally. Using this technique, a warlock can keep a mob under permanent control. However, it forces the warlock to split his focus, and as suppressing then renewing the fear effect causes the mob to run in a different direction, it can be difficult to maintain.
  • Keep an eye out for Demons and Elementals to Banish. Demons are not always obvious. The most common attribute is an immunity to curses.

The Warlock in Instances

Damage Spells

• Affliction warlocks will most likely want to spread DoT's on as many targets as they can without pulling aggro. For most creatures, fast casting DoT's like Corruption (with Improved Corruption), Siphon Life, and Curse of Agony (if no other curses are needed, or would be more useful) will be the most useful, as enemies will be mostly dead or heavily damaged when longer cast time spells like Immolate land. If Nightfall is set off, a Shadow Bolt is always useful.
• Demonology warlocks will likely switch between DoT and direct damage spells, depending on the length of the fights. Demonology warlocks will also, of course, have more of a focus on their pet for damage.
• Destruction warlocks will likely play a role more similar to that of Mages, Balance Druids, Elemental Shamans, and other direct damage casters, though with curses mixed in as well, and possibly some DoT spells at the beginning of long fights.
• All warlocks should be careful with DoT's when crowd control is being used, or with single target tanks. DoT's make crowd control impossible to use, and single target tanks may have trouble keeping up with aggro from DoT's on lots of targets.

• In general, the longer the fight, the more efficient Damage over Time spells will be compared to direct damage spells, depending on talents. Short fights means that DoT spells will not have time to do their full damage. In such cases, direct damage spells such as Shadowbolt and Shadowburn may be prefrebale. Immolate (which immediately deals appoximatley 1/3 of its damage when it lands) may also be a viable option.

Pets

• Make sure your minion is on defensive or passive. Passive is preferable, just in case you break a sheep, shackle, trap, etc.

• The Imp is generally the preferred pet in parties and raids. They deal high DPS with fire bolt and fire shield, provide a stamina buff with Blood Pact, and are ranged so will avoid damage more easily. Phase Shift can also keep the imp from accidentally pulling an enemy.
• The Voidwalker is useful in a party with lower level or poorly-geared tanks. The Torment ability can keep large numbers of monsters controlled, and the Sacrifice shield can help the warlock avoid Hellfire damage. Otherwise, voidwalkers are not very useful, and another pet should usually be used.
• The Succubus is useful for DPS if another imp is already out, against fire immune or fire resistant enemies, and/or if extra crowd control from its Seduce ability is useful.
• The Felhunter can be useful against dangerous casters in instances.
• The Felguard is also a useful pet for DPS for a demonology warlock in groups. In addition to its damage, it functions very similarly to a Voidwalker.
• Demonology warlocks have additional considerations when choosing which demon to use. Demonic Sacrifice and Master Summoner give extra bonuses to the warlock that will affect the choice of demon.

Aggro/Threat Management

• In an emergency, Searing Pain can be used to pull monsters away from healers and other casters.
  • When the healer isn't being mercilessly pounded, heals are easier to cast.
  • Warlocks generally have higher Stamina bonuses, meaning they can take more punishment than other casters.
  • When using the Voidwalker, using the Sacrifice ability can give the tank more time to pick up the offending monster, as well as allowing the healer a chance to keep you alive.
  • Any target which is attacking a Mage has normally suffered fairly heinous damage (or else the mage wouldn't have pulled aggro), and pulling the mob off the mage can allow the two of you to finish the job. With stronger elite monsters, the two of you can continuously exchange aggro and watch it run back and forth until dead. Combine with Curse of the Elements for extra fun.
  • In very high level instances, your chances of gaining aggro before the caster dies are reduced, so you may well find it necessary to use Fear, but given the risks involved (see below), it is probably only worth doing so in order to save a priest.
• AoE belongs at the end of the fight, not at the beginning. Leave some time for DOTs to do their dirty work, and for Tanks to build threat. If you are Destruction specced, and have a Paladin in the party, the combination of Intensity and Concentration Aura can make your AoE options much, much more mana efficient.
• At level 66, warlocks gain the Soulshatter ability which reduces threat to all mobs in a 50 yard radius.

Crowd Control

• The following are a warlock's crowd control abilities: Fear, Enslave Demon, Howl of Terror, Seduce(succubus), Banish. Sometimes Death Coil is lumped in here as well, especially in PvP. In PvE, the Voidwalker's AoE taunt Suffering can sometimes be used to engage/distract several mobs if you consider off-taking to be crowd control.

• Be extremely careful with fear. If you decide it's absolutely necessary, keep Curse of Recklessness on hand. This will not remove the fear effect, but will cause the mob to act normally. Replacing the Curse of Recklessness with another curse will make them start running again. You can use this to permanently lock down a mob if you have room to work with. Another thing to note is that the suppression and renewal of the fear effect will cause the mob to change the direction they are running.
  • If the priest is low on health and is getting pounded on. If your tank isn't getting aggro and you can't kill in time, go ahead and fear but try and nuke it while it's feared so it will come to you and not priest.
  • If there is no chance to aggro any adds. The more thorough the group is being clearing the instance, the more opportunities you will have to use Fear.
  • If it's your only chance of surviving. If you are 100% going to die if you don't fear, do it. A small chance is better than none.

• Learn to look for Demons and Elementals to banish. You may be very surprised what sometimes constitutes a demon in WoW. Check out Sunken Temple for example. One tell-tale sign is that they tend to be immune to curses.

• Though not as reliable as the mages' Polymorph, your pet Succubus' ability seduction can help occupy a humanoid mob.

• Just about all of a warlock's crowd control abilities are shadow based. On mobs and players with high amounts of shadow resist, Curse of Shadow may aid in helping the spell hit and stick for the entire duration of the spell. Curse of Shadow can also help mages' Polymorph stick better on mobs and players resistant to arcane magic.

Stones

• Create a Soulstone for the healer. That way, should she die and be the only one capable of rezzing, you can bring her back. The Warlock should pay close attention to the timer, and ensure a new Soulstone is placed as soon as the previous one runs out. It is better to Soulstone a Paladin than a Priest if you have one in your party as they usually live longer then the priests.

• When you have more than one warlock in the party, it's not advisable to have all Soulstones active at the same time. It's enough to have one Soulstone "in action" (cast on a healer) and all others "in reserve". This way, after a wipe and a rez, someone can immediately cast a new Soulstone.

• Create Healthstones for your party members. In instances it is easy to use Drain Soul fairly often, so it shouldn't be a problem to keep everyone around supplied with healthstones all the time. Don't forget to tell everyone to ask for a new one, if they used theirs.

Curses

• Curse of Recklessness is a useful spell in crowded instances, as it will stop the normal 'run and get help' reflex of enemies when they reach low health, instead forcing them to fight to the death. This can go a long way toward wipe prevention. Also, each rank of this curse reduces the targets armor a little more, with increased AP as a minor drawback. When running with a melee heavy group, this is one of the best curses to use due to the armor reduction.
• Whenever you have multiple warlocks, mages, or a shadow priest in your party/raid, Curse of Shadow becomes a very useful spell that contributes to damage of every shadow/arcane spellcaster. It is also notable because it does not interfere with crowd control - when cast on frozen or polymorphed target, it does not break freeze/polymorph. If for some reason you find yourself targeting a sheep, consider quickly putting Curse of Shadow on it before you move on, as this saves you the trouble of applying a curse later when you do get round to killing the target, and it reduces the chances that the mob will resist a refreshing of the Polymorph. Curse of Shadow is also appreciated by Shadow-specced Priests (see Priest talents for more information on the Shadow tree).

Summoning

• The meeting stone has largely replaced the need for a warlock to summon party/raid members to the major instances. However, occasionally, summons are used inside instances to bring latecomers to the party, or outside instances if there are a lot of monsters between the meeting stone and instance entrance. NOTE: As of patch 2.4, warlocks can now summon persons outside of instances INTO the instance. This makes the spell invaluable should you lose a party member mid-instance and need a replacement. You no longer need to send a group to the meeting stone if you have a warlock in the group. Zul'Aman is the only exception to this rule.

Working with a Warlock

• You will often see a Warlock's health rapidly dropping in the middle of combat. Don't be alarmed, this does not necessarily mean that they are being attacked and in immediate need of healing. It is quite common for Warlocks to use Life Tap spell to convert health to mana if they run out of mana. It is usually not necessary to heal a Warlock unless he/she draws aggro or his health falls below 50%. On the other hand, during long encounters ( more than 2 minutes without resting ), actively spellcasting Warlocks may run out of both health and mana and will depend on healing for continued DPS.

• If a Warlock is scouting using the Eye of Kilrogg (a little floating green ball), watch their body--they can't see or hear what is happening to them because they're off elsewhere. Don't forget that they use it to help you too. Nothing worse than scouting for the group to come back to see they've left you behind and now you're being attacked. This spell doesn't stop once under attack, and the Warlock doesn't hear anything. In essence, the Warlock is only there physically, similar to Hunters using Eyes of the Beast.