Elæsandrøs from C'Thun, has sent us a very complete guide on the PvP Warlock in Patch 3.3, with this guide we can know each and every aspect of the Warlock for combat, touching all aspects from potions and glyphs to demons and even videos on how to use this class.
What are we?
It may seem like a stupid question, but it is important to make clear the main points that might even be considered obvious. The Warlock is a cloth-wearing dps caster whose role in PvP is to provide control and damage. He has a demonic pet that supports him in these functions.
Basic concepts.
To play a warlock in PvP it is necessary to have these concepts assumed.
a) We are temple-dependent
This comes to mean that without mettle, a sorcerer is little more than nothing. Unlike the wizard, who due to his class design can afford to wear some PvE pieces, the warlock cannot lose even the slightest amount of mettle, as lacking other survival methods, this stat will determine his endurance for a meeting.
In the beginning, our team must always seek spell power y Temple. If we are Affliction, in addition to temper, haste, in view of the upcoming change to the branch.
If we are Destruction, in the beginning, critical, though some well-positioned warlocks are now seeking haste for this branch as well. An important point of the destruction is that, once we have reached a minimum of health and resilience (24-25k health, 800 resilience), it can be allowed to exchange some pieces of PvP for some of PvE. This is because the destruction is a branch of burst (explosive damage), in such a way that it must burst before they burst it. Hence, the change from PvP to PvE is worth it if we improve our offensive stats, even if we lose some temper or life. A very common change for example is that of two pieces of PvP tier for two pieces of tier 8,5, to obtain the bonus of% 10 damage to immolate, which ends up also increasing the damage of conflagrate by a similar percentage. If we add talent to that Ruin and increased critical target gem, we can increase critical conflagrate damage by more than 20%. Of course, it is a very beneficial change, but we must be careful lest we fall short of life or temper.
As of Patch 3.3, 4-part tier 9.x and 2 tier 8.x bonuses are now they do not affect the damage of the conflagrate (* sigh * shit happens), nor the glyph of immolate. If we add to that the new spell power bonuses obtained from the 2nd and 4th season bonuses, the use of PvE equipment for warlocks is quite restricted. Right now, it is only profitable to change one of the pieces of the season for a PvE one (so as not to lose much temper) for another one that has a hit rate, haste (if we focus our team on this statistic) or some extra gem slot. You could also rent to change a ring for another that gives us more favorable statistics to our team composition, or interesting bonuses.
This leaves us as interesting pieces the following:
- Hood of Smoky Aftermath, by the amount of haste and hit rating
- Merlin's Robe, for the haste and the extra gem gap
- Gul'dan's Leggings of Triumph for the speed
- The Rings of Onyxia and the Ashen Verdict (Ashen Band of Infinite Destruction), the latter especially for proc, haste, and gem gap.
b) Demons are good and bad at the same time.
Bringing a pet is both an advantage and a problem. The pet prevents the healers from recovering if they have it on them, and they have their own attacks and abilities that we can use even if we are disabled, such as Devour magic of the felhunter, which allows us to even dispel ourselves.
The problem is that, currently, the sorcerer needs the pet to survive since its damage mitigation is based on the combination of temper and Soul Link. If we add to that that many of the pet's abilities are decisive in certain encounters, and that it has a fairly low survival rate, it is a double-edged sword, since we depend on an NPC that is quite fragile and that, usually it will die multiple times during the course of the arena.
c) "Fear" is both the best and the worst control of the game.
It is an inheritance of the Burning Crusade to consider the warlock as "dots & fear", because today, fear is one of the most nerfied abilities in the game. However, it is still one of the best controls in the game.
In its favor it has to be a 10-8-4s duration control that shares diminishing returns with the Psychic scream of the Priest and with the Blindness of the Pícaro; although not with the Polymorph of the magician or with him Hex of the shaman. The spell makes the enemy flee, without recovering life or any other effect. It does not have a recharge.
However, its range is short (20m) and it breaks very easily, usually with a Immolate or a couple of ticks of stickers has already been cut. In addition, it can be dispelled, and today, almost all classes have 1 or 2 additional abilities to the insignia to remove this effect, such as Examine Born of the Death Knights, the Raging anger of the Warrior or the Tremor totem of the Shaman (this one is especially very powerful, since it removes it in area, automatically and every 3s, being an ability with a very low mana cost and sparse). Also, all of our other controls (Seduction) share diminishing returns with it, so we have a very powerful control but due to the design of classes it can cost us victory if our opponent knows when to take advantage of their immunity.
Therefore, it is not a weapon to kill, but to control. To cut casts, give us time to cast another ability or give our healer time to heal / heal without pressure. Also, having so many benefits, it is practically our only control.
Any warlock must boost these stats in PvP:
• Spell power: It is the basis of our damage. The higher the amount of spell power, the more damage our stickers and direct damage spells do. At least 2,000 spell power is required. A warlock equipped with maximum PvP gear and buffed himself reaches 3000 spell power.
• Temple: It is the basis of our survival. Reduces damage taken and the chance to be critically hit. Therefore, we depend on this stat to last in an arena. It is important to note that the damage damage over time is not affected by temperance, so we have a branch, which together with the shadow priests, is immune to temperance.
• Hit rate: Hit rating is not exclusive to PvE. 4% is required to not miss spells in PvP. However, it is advisable to reach 6-7% since many classes have a penalty when receiving spells from certain schools. A good way to get the limit of this statistic is talent "Suppression”, Which gives us an additional 3%. In any case, to get that 4% you need 105 Hit Rating points. To get 7%, 184; not counting talents in both cases.
• Spell penetration: During the Burning Crusade, this stat was not very decisive, because the amount of resistances was less than currently. However, right now it's unthinkable do general PvP without any spell penetration. Magicians have with the Mage armor 80, without applying any talent, although with these applied the amount is greater. The druid mark also contributes a certain amount; and paladin auras, with one for each of our magic schools, provide 130 points. Additionally, nearly all of these classes have well-known talents in PvP that enhance this effect. Therefore, the essential minimum is 75, so as not to need the Curse of the elements. The advisable thing is between 110 and 130, and in general we will not receive resisted after 160.
• Operational: Since Patch 3.3, Haste is one of the most important stats for a Warlock in PvP. The Affliction branch goes almost exclusively to Haste, and Destruction is viable by stacking both Crit and Haste. Even though we have quite a bit of Haste through talents, it's a good thing we're still building up Haste, especially for Affliction, Haste-based Destruction, and "New Destro." However, we choose critical-based destruction, with what we get for talents and little else is enough.
• Endurance: This stat increases our amount of life. Since we are going to receive, and we will receive a lot of damage; Along with the fact that our mana regeneration system consists of exchanging life for it, it is important that we have a good amount of life. Less than 20,000 life is too little. Between 22,000 and 25,000 life is a good amount. With the current gear (Season 7), a well-equipped and buffed Warlock can hit 30,000 health or more.
• Critical: Both our cast spells and stickers have the ability to crit if they are correctly talented. Also, the destruction branch, for example, relies on critics. Since we don't have a crit boost for talents like Frost Mages, we have to equip crit to get it.
• Spirit: The benefit we get from this statistic is quite marginal. Increases our spell power by 30%, and gives us mana regeneration. It is not advisable to go for a spirit team, to be enchanted or enchanted with spirit, although the team that brings it should not be disgusted if it improves us in other aspects. In short, a statistic that is there, and that is not bad at all.
The sorcerer is characterized by taking demons as pets. Demons and their abilities usually depend on most of the encounters, especially the arenas.
Your skills and the ability to avoid rest are crucial. Furthermore, with the “Soul Link”Are one of our sources of damage mitigation, transferring 25 to 30% of the damage received to the pet. This only increases their fragility, but in return increases our resistance. The pet inherits a portion of its owner's spell power, intellects, and stamina; 100% of your mettle and 100% of your hit rate and spell penetration. Nevertheless, they are still very fragile, as they usually have less than 20,000 life and about 800 of temper.
In patch 3.3, they increased the evasion of demons to 90%, but made it not work in PvP, so now more than ever when we face a warrior, death knight or paladin, our pet will die in a few seconds . Then we depend on some very fragile pets to win.
The warlock possesses four demons usable in PvP environments, in addition to the Infernal, which can only be used on Battlegrounds or in the open field, so I will refrain from commenting on that.
Imp: It is the least useful of all. Its usefulness lies in providing a benefit (Fire shield) before entering the arena. It has no other use in PvP.
Abyssal: Many like this pet for PvP, but it's pretty useless for this purpose. It gives us a debuff to the hits received from melee, and two other activatable abilities. The first is Suffering, allows the voidwalker out of combat to regenerate health and increases our invisibility detection. Sacrifice It gives us a shield of about 10,000 points of life with approximately 1 minute of cooldown. Suffering It is a useful skill, but it is not foolproof. Although we are using it, a rogue can stun us without us seeing him, in addition to being restrictive against enemies which is useful.
Sacrifice, with a 1 minute cooldown, gives us a 10,000 damage shield that is purgeable and dissipable. Also, nowadays, 10,000 points of damage is a mere 10 seconds of survivability, which leaves us with a useless pet most of the time. The utility of the deep-seated lies in arenas against certain configurations at certain times and only to later take out another pet. In PvP in the open field, the same, since if we are attacked by surprise, we will sacrifice it and we will remove a pet that is useful against our opponent.
Succubus: This talented mascot with his glyph It is one of the most useful, especially against rogues, since we can use its main ability, Seduction, being stunned, so when a rogue opens us with Low blow or with GarroteDespite not being able to do anything we, the pet can. With glyphs and talents it is also almost instantaneous and removes damage over time that could cause it to break. In addition, while out of combat she remains invisible, although it is easily seen from afar. However, it is by far the most fragile pet of all (the Voidwalker is resistant to melee but weak to magic, the Felhunter vice versa, but the Succubus is weak against everything), so it usually dies a lot and very quickly. It is not a good pet for sands of attrition because in the end it ends up wearing down your healer by having to heal it. What's more, Seduction shares diminishing returns with Fear.
Felon: In the Burning Crusade it was THE PvP Mascot. Now, although the others are also used, it continues to be so. The felhunter provides a Spirit and Intellect Buff, lower than that of Priests and Mages and does not stack with them. However, it has a silence of 3s with a 24s recharge, and a device that recovers life every 8s. Can dispel friendly debuffs and enemy buffs. Just saying this is enough: Your Devour magic saves us and our healer from crowd control, wears down priests and druids; and his silence is crucial against casters and healers. In return, it is a very fragile pet, less than the succubus, but we have no option to be invisible. Also, it is especially weak against melee in arenas where they are the most common role.
Curses
Before, the witcher possessed about a dozen curses, but little by little, they have been unified in a few, and others have disappeared. Today in PvP, 4 are used, but we can only have one active per target.
- Curse of the elements: Indispensable for destruction. Increases damage dealt by 13% and grants us 165 spell penetration.
- Curse of agony: Deals 1,740 points of shadow damage over 24 seconds, scaling with spell power. Its damage is pretty poor even when it is talented. In Destruction it is not used, and there is currently debate whether Affliction gets more out of the Curse of the Elements than it does.
- Curse of tongues: Slows spell casting by 30%. It is no longer what it was (50%), and being previously indispensable against casters, now it is useful but not essential. Lasts 24 seconds. As a cool addition, during those 24 seconds our opponent will speak in demonic.
- Curse of exhaustion: This curse is obtained by talents in the Affliction Branch. I personally don't use it, because for an entrapment skill, it leaves a lot to be desired. A 30% movement reduction in exchange for losing one of the previous curses is not worth it, and more when, passively, a mage slows down by 50%, the rogue by 70%, the warrior at a ridiculous cost 50% (or 100% if proc.), the DK by 95%, the hunter with the trap by 50%, etc.
There are three Talent Branches, each with its own different play style.
Affliction
The affliction branch is based on stickers (dots = damage over time), so its task is to fill everything with stickers and hold on until our enemy dies. It is a branch of attrition, and its main niche is in 2v2 accompanied by a healer. Virtually any healer pairs well with the affliction warlock. In 3v3 it is somewhat below the Destruction Warlock, but it is still useful. In 5v5 it is not widely used because the word wear does not exist there. As of Patch 3.3, the Affliction branch goes almost exclusively to Haste, so the Glyph of Pressurized Decomposition it is essential. The good news is that with this change, we also have some options in 3v3, with teams like Unholy DK-Druid Rest-Affliction Warlock, Shadow Priest - Rest Shaman - Affliction Warlock, or Rest Shaman-Rogue Poison-Affliction Warlock.
- Recommended Talent Branch: 54/17/0
Talents in affliction are not as clear as in destruction, and there are many variants of the branch. I put one as an example, but this changes a lot depending on the sorcerer who wears it. The glyph issue is another open debate. Typically, one that remains constant is Hasty Decay, and two are chosen from Corruption, Howl of Terror, Flame of Shadows, and Soulbinding.
Destruction
The Destruction Warlock as a viable PvP branch is recent. Until now, she was pigeonholed within the PvE. The destruction wizard is similar to the wizard, only to alleviate the lack of crowd control that he has compared to this one (the frost wizard has much more control than a warlock, especially in the face of melee), he has much higher explosive damage. The destro is therefore the branch of the big numbers. Personally, it is my favorite.
In 2v2 his ideal partner is the rogue, although he is also viable with a priest and shaman. In 3v3, it is used more than Affliction, in settings like rogue-destroyer-shaman or mage-destroyer-shaman. In 5v5, it is together with the shaman a must have (almost all teams have a destro, an elemental or both). While the Conflagrate damage nerf has been a heavy blow to this branch, it is still a viable branch.
There are two recommendable talent configurations for destruction, according to your partner. In 2v2 with rogue the succubus is used (although it can also be used with felon) and to go with healer or 3v3, with felon.
As in the previous case, there are viable variants. Destruction Warlock gear can be targeted to haste or critical, both being viable.
With the patch, a new hybrid combination of talents of destruction and demonology has emerged known as “New Destro”. This branch is based on getting procs from Magma Core starting to put many corruptions with the glyph of pressurized decomposition and launch incinerate at the speed of light. The team must be oriented exclusively to speed, even the spell stone should be used in place of the Firestone (the classic for destruction). This branch is still being tested, but for now it is viable in 5v5 and on Battlegrounds.
- Talents "New Destro": 0/28/43
Demonology
Currently, this branch is not used for PvP (actually, it is not used for almost anything except for leveling up). Despite that, during Season 5 it was a very played branch, since it gave enough survival, and before, by transforming into a demon, someone used to die. Right now, its damage has been stagnant, player resistance has increased, and the other branches are more profitable with higher survivability, as Resilience replaced the benefits of this branch. In case anyone wants to try it, I'll drop a few talents.
- Talents: 0/55/16
Glyphs
There are a multitude of glyphs, but not all of them are useful for PvP, some are not even useful at all. Next I will discuss the most common and most useful glyphs for the Warlock in PvP. Those that are not commented directly is that they are not very useful for PvP, they are for PvE or they are not useful at all. Basic, of minor glyphs, only Curse of Exhaustion is useful. With the major glyphs, I'll give them a score of 1 to 3, from low to high utility, for each branch.
- Glyph of Corruption: This glyph gives us the same effect as the Nightfall talent, stacking with this talent as well, giving us an 8% chance to get a free Shadow Bolt in affliction.
Affli: 3 - Destro: 1 - Demon: 2 - Glyph of Shadowburn: Being demonology or destruction we obtain a very high critical probability with this ability, which with about 3k of spell power are critics of about 4k. A good source of burst to end the fight. However, there are other more interesting glyphs for both branches.
Affli: - Destro: 2 - Demon: 2 - Glyph of Succubus: Very useful for 2v2 and 3v3 when playing destruction with Succubus to be able to re-enchant the target. However, for affliction and demonology it is of little use.
Affli: 1 - Destro: 3 - Demon: 1 - Glyph of Incinerate: This glyph is only useful for the “New Destro” talent combination.
Affli: 1 - Destro: 2 - Demon: 1 - Glyph of Pressurized Decomposition: A must for affliction and "New Destro". For the other two, it doesn't have much.
Affli: 3 - Destro: 2 - Demon: 1 - Glyph of Unstable Affliction: Previously, this glyph was very useful for affliction because it reduced the cast time of the unstable affliction. However, these days, with the PvP haste offset, it's no longer as useful as it used to be.
Affli: 2 - Destro: - Demon: - - Glyph of Dread Howl: Reducing fear in the afflicted area is very useful, as it is one of your main CC tools as it is an instant fear. However, in destruction and demonology, not being instantaneous, it loses a lot. Almost all its usefulness we go.
Affli: 3 - Destro: 1 - Demon: 1 - Glyph of Conflagrate: Almost all destruction damage depends on having immolate asset, and one of its main problems is, in addition to the dispell, that when it is conflagrated it dissipates. This glyph allows us to keep it active. A must have for almost any combination of destruction talents.
Affli: - Destro: 3 - Demon: - - Glyph of Immolate: Previously, this glyph also increased the damage of the conflagrate, which was an increase in brutal burst, especially when attached to two tier 8.x pieces. However, after the 3.3 changes, it is a totally useless glyph.
Affli: 1 - Destro: 1 - Demon: 1 - Glyph of Demonic Circle: A recharge reduction in our main escape route is always very interesting, but the problem is that it has to compete with very juicy alternatives.
Affli: 2 - Destro: 2 - Demon: 2 - Glyph of Chaos Bolt: After the conflagrate nerf, it is our main source of explosive damage, due to its high damage and skipping damage reductions (important note: it cuts through the layer of shadows). With the Glyph, its recharge time matches that of conflagrate, allowing us to better combine these two abilities.
Affli: - Destro: 3 - Demon: - - Glyph of Soul Link: An additional 5% damage reduction is very suggestive. However, nowadays we must be careful since with the disappearance of the evasion of the pets in PvP they receive much more damage, so despite increasing our survival it also reduces that of our pet in the same proportion.
Affli: 3 - Destro: 3 - Demon: 3 - Glyph of Shadowflame: This glyph gives usefulness and meaning to an ability that is not very useful due to its high cost and its meager damage, although it can be used to catch some rogues. This is a very useful glyph for all branches.
Affli: 3 - Destro: 3 - Demon: 3
(The following lists do not include profession objects).
The gems that we will use will be of power with spell (red), temper (yellow) and penetration with spell (blue), in addition to some endurance if we have excess penetration. Any combination of the above is also valid in order to enhance a particular statistic.
There are 5 different meta gems suitable for warlocks, although there are variants of them (for example, instead of resisting stuns, it gives silence reduction). This list should not be exclusive if you want to try another goal, although these are the most used.
- Powerful Earth Diamond: +32 Stamina and + 10% Resist Stuns. Ideal to enhance supervivencia.
- Chaotic Celestial Flame Diamond: + 21% critical damage and + 3% increased critical damage. Target gem for destruction fully dps oriented.
- Biting Earthsiege Diamond: +25 Spell Power and + 10% Resist Stuns. Good for everything.
- Tireless Celestial Flame Diamond: +25 spell power and minimum speed increase. Target gem for those who prefer Icewalker versus Tuskillarr Vitality in boots.
- Destroyer Celestial Flame Diamond: + 25% crit and chance to reflect spells. I personally haven't tried it, but I know people who say it jumps a lot. More suitable for destruction.
In general, all the enchantments we will use will be those that grant us spell power, stamina, or spell penetration. The following enchantments are the most common, it depends on each player how they want to focus their team.
- Helmet
- shoulders
- Chest:
- Back: Piercing with spells
- Bracers:
- Gloves: Exceptional spell power
- Trousers: Sapphire spell thread
- Boots:
- Arma:
- Mighty spell power (1 hand)
- Greater spell power (walking stick)
Obtained from WarcraftMovies and translated to the Spanish client by me.
Anti-Stealth: The function of this macro is to stealth rogues and ferals. Its operation is to select the closest enemy and apply a CoE. Personally, I don't use it, although if I did, it would be with Corruption instead of CoE.
/ targetenemy [noexists]? / cast [target = target, harm] Curse of the Elements;
Fear: If we don't press any additional buttons, use fear on the target. If we press ctrl, on the focus. If we press shift, on the mouse target.
#showtooltip Fear
/ cast [modifier: ctrl, target = focus] [modifier: shift, target = mouseover] [] Fear;
Vile Domination: No additional buttons, succubus; with a capital, felhunter; with ctrl, abyssal; all of them employing vile domination. Furthermore, it also uses soul link on the new pet.
/ castsequence [nomod] Fel Domination, Summon Succubus, Soul Link;
/ castsequence [mod: shift] Fel Domination, Summon Felhunter, Soul Link;
/ castsequence [mod: ctrl] Fel Domination, Summon Netherworld, Sacrifice, Soul Link;
Totem Kill: This is the closest there is to a macro to kill totems. Since the change in lua, this is our top pick for killing totems. Unfortunately, they get faster than they kill themselves.
/ petattack [target = mouseover]
All-In-One-Pet-Macro: All the abilities of the demons condensed in a single button. This macro is VERY useful, almost essential I would say. If we have the imp out, use the fire shield. If we have the deep-seated, base, sacrifice, with a major, consume shadows. If we have succubus, base, seduction; with ctrl, to focus; with a shift, to what we have the mouse over. If we have felh, base, spell block; with shift, spell lock to focus; with ctrl, call us (player), with alt, target. This macro may take a bit of getting used to at first, but once you get the hang of it, it becomes a great tool.
/ cast Fire Shield;
/ cast [mod: shift] Consume shadows; Sacrifice;
/ cast [mod: ctrl, target = focus] [mod: shift, target = mouseover] [] Seduction;
/ cast [mod: ctrl, target = Player] [mod: alt] Devour magic; [mod: shift, target = focus] [] Spell lock;
All-In-One-Curse-Macro: This macro I have created to have all the curses in one button. If you press Shift, cast a Curse of Exhaustion; if you press alt, curse of the elements; if you press control, curse of tongues; and you do not press anything, curse of agony. This can also be adapted for destruction: I, for example, as a tailor, have the networks instead of CoEx, and the curse of agony and alternate elements.
#showtooltip
/ cast [modifier: shift] Curse of Exhaustion; [modifier: alt] Curse of the Elements; [modifier: ctrl] Curse of Tongues; Curse of agony;
All-In-One-Drain-Macro: This macro, like the previous one, joins all the drains into a single button. If you press alt, drain soul; his pulsas mayus, drain mana; if you do not press anything, drain life.
#showtooltip
/ cast [modifier: alt] Drain Soul; [modifier: shift] Drain Mana; Drain life;
addons
Today, there are addons for almost everything. On this website You can see a list of the most useful addons for a sorcerer and how to configure them. In spite of everything, below I will put a list with some addons that in my opinion are almost essential:
Gladius: This addon is an arena frame, that is, within an arena, it allows us to target and know the life and mana of the members of the opposing team. It also warns of important trinkets and abilities, such as the Paladin's Divine Shield or the Hunted's Inner Beast.
OmniDC: It indicates our cooldown times in a very visual way. Very useful.
Necrosis: Perfect for keeping track of the stones, especially when managing the weapon and health stones.
Xperl + Dominos: Allows you to configure the user interface, in such a way that more space is used, the keys are more easily binded, etc.
One way to learn is by watching other witches play. Personally, I have found the following videos quite instructive when it comes to playing with the witcher (especially the first one). There are obviously a lot of good videos, but these are recent enough that the playstyle and skills are similar to the current patch (3.2)