One for the Warlocks, PvP tactics

Fenster

I figured it was needed in the face of moping of our PvP woes.

The original thread is here.

Here's the body:

I recently changed my template and tactics, and have found that I can kill nearly anyone 1v1 in PvP.

I've seen a few brag posts on the Blizzard boards to this extent, but I didn't take them seriously until I re-spec'd.

You can find my template details in another thread below, but the short of it is this:

32/19/0

Affliction with CoEX, Demonology through to Fel Domination. I've made the tweaks suggested in the thread as I have a crapload of cash from lots of resourcing.

I'll start by saying that I realise there are several powerful PvP builds for Warlocks-SM/Ruin is popular for Battlegrounds. That Warlock in those series of videos was Dest/Demon, and so on. This thread concerns my template.

Next, I owe apologies, I guess, for my earlier badmouthing of CoEX and the Voidwalker. With points in Demonology, I've found its shield the keystone of winning.

I typically start fights with no pet out. I'm always out herbing and mining and even with the increased pet run speed, despawning is pretty frequent, so I just don't bother.

Equipment wise, I've nothing special. A few pieces of Dreadmist and a Felheart Belt for armour, Argent Avenger and Spellstone (important piece) for weaponry, two Int/Stam rings and a Barov Peasent Caller and Warlock Insignia for trinkets.

Out and about, I will always have a Soulstone on and a Spellstone equipped. They're just too handy for the inevitable PvP/PvM fights I get into.

Ho hum. Anyways, if its a melee class I'm figting (Rogue, Warrior, Shaman), I'll lead with a CoEX, fear, Siphon, Corruption, CoA and Immolate, in that order. If at this point they're still feared, I'll recast fear and start spamming Searing Grasp. I've probably won at this point.

But the above is a minority of fights, I have to say. More often they'll see me coming, trinket or WotF on me and lay in. This is where yon Voidwalker comes in. With three points of Improved VW, I have a 30-second, 2.7k shield that blocks all interrupts. This is insanely powerful, I've found.

Rogues can't kick you. Shamans can't shock you. Warriors can't bash you.

Priests and Mages can still silence you, but that's another matter.

If I have a VW out and I'm expecting an attack, I'll just sac it to start with. You have nothing to lose by sacing it later in the fight and gain a few seconds of being able to act with impudence. Take the inititive.

I'll then cast spells as above. I'll note now that its very, very rare an occasion in which I'll get a Shadowbolt off. Takes too long to cast unless I've a clear shot on a feared target.

Lastly, I'll pop my Healthstone if I drop below 50%. Once again, I've nothing to gain by holding off until later in the fight, epsecially as all the melee classes have high-damage instant attacks that can kill you below 1.5-2k health. Don't want to chance it, do you?

Range is the key. If a melee class can't hit you, they can't hurt you.

Ranged classes, next (Warlocks, Mages, Priests, Hunters).

Fights against Warlocks are suprisingly easy-whoever gets Banish, Curse of Tounges and Fear off first generally win the fight, end of story.

You can't sacrifice a banished Voidwalker, Curse of Tounges cripples Immolate, Fear, Searing Grasp, Shadowbolt, etc.

Other than that, just DoT away.

Mages can be troublesome. Its a case of dealing enough damage to them before you die.

Curse of Tounges doesn't help much as most of what they'll throw against you is instant-cast.

Try and start with a Fear and follow with DoTs as needed. Other than that, you just have to worry about outlasting them. A Spellstone and Voidwalker gives you the best part of a 4k shield against them, not counting your Healthstone.

If you have to, use Fel Domination, sac a VW and flay them some more.

Priests aren't too bad, imo. They're defensive, not offensive. I will say that they have lots of effective HP, so the whole fight is outlasting their mana (not easy) to kill them.

Hunters are cakewalk. CoEX their pet, DoT its master and fear if you have to for good measure.

Next up, in a category of their own, are Druids. These are a uniquely pain in the ass. They can break out of your CC, heal non-stop, run away like the wind if it goes against them and regen their entire mana mid-fight (Innervate).

Fights against Druids are true endurance fights. They can purge your Curse also, though I've found them less likely to purge a non-damaging curse, so Curse of Tounges helps against them. Once again, DoTs/fear is the key to winning. Having a mana pot is also essential as they can easily outlast your mana pool. If you can keep him feared long enough, use Shadowbolt/Searing Grasp to take chunks out of his health. Whittling down a Druid doesn't really work that well, especially if he shifts into bear form.

Lastly, if he runs, spam CoEX and DoTs and hope you can kill him before he's gone.

Add your tactics.

Ivan

I play a druid, alot, and I've yet to kill a warlock in a straight up, fair fight.

Only time I win is when I get a stab off and a few seconds of ravage damage.

Fear is just insanely good against us, cos as you pointed out already, if a melee class cant get close enough, they cant hit you. And I'd call the druid as a melee class, as his dps is so low to begin with, that you could beat us 10 times over, if we try having a casting war with you.

In saying that, I still havent made it to grunt so I dont have my anti-fear trinket. Fights will go alot better, once I have that.

I also play a mage, the only time I lose to a warlock is if he attacks while I'm doing something else. Then I see 3-5 DoT's just appear, so I run. I blink away, and remove curse. I try to fit in a counterspell also, more often than not, in that circumstance, I die.

If I fire first, then I generally win.

These are my observations, I dont really know enough about warlocks to comment on your spec.

BKtje

druids aint bad damage dealers as casters. Nothing spectacular but certainly not sommmet too ignore.

Just make sure u got high spirit (imo vital for druids/priests) as this will help your mana regen very fast while u mele.

Outta curiosity what build do you have Ivan as this can be vital for a druids survivability in pvp.

My druid build was something like 7/11/33 (i think) so i had all the important pvp talents..

Fenster

Oh yeah, I have a level 47 Druid myself, so I know the class from the other side, so to speak. The key to killing them is draining all their mana.

On the other hand, until you get past 55 and start picking up gear like Wildheart stuff, its pretty hard to get a good "all round" set of gear. Right now, I mostly solo in feral form, so I've a heavy stam/str/agil bias to my gear, so I die pretty easy, hah. I've seen high-end Rest-spec Druids with Cenarion gear, etc., pretty much never run out of mana. It was impressive.

Caliden

at high levels, a good warlock with succubus out can beat most mages.
myself, a mage, i can't beat druids/shamans/priests/paladins. basically any class that can heal itself as i just end up out of mana unless i have no cooldowns and get 2 lucky crits on frost nova+CoC with cold snap.
but cold snap is still messed up and sometimes doesnt remove all the cooldowns on my frost spells.
have a look at those drake dog videos and dont forget to get yourself a skullforge reaver -.-

Fenster

Drake Dog was/is Destruction spec, where I'm Affliction/Demon

Matt Simis

Scrap all that, the next patch has rather sweeping changes for Warlocks, to say the least:
http://forums-en.wow-europe.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-warlock-en&t=47307&p=1&tmp=1#post47307






Matt