Blood Pact: Locked and loaded
by V'Ming Chew 
Dec 19th 2007 at 9:00AM
Between Arenas, V'Ming spends his time as a lock laughing ominously in AV, tanking Olm with his own minions and pondering troll fashion from Zul'Aman.
Sweet 70! Time to rest on your shadowy laurels, or press on into "endgame"? Stripping it down, WoW endgame is raiding and PvP. You may have reputations to grind, heroic instances to run and daily quests to complete, but raiding is truly the only way to experience content you haven't seen before, at least from the perspective of a Warlock. Similarly, PvP - with unpredictable opponents, ever-changing scenarios and the thrill of competition - is another way to keep things fresh and challenging.
Most players engage in a little bit of everything, and the choice really lies with you. Since The Burning Crusade, PvP has become a good alternative means of progression, with rewards that rival those from PvE. Many raiders also dip into PvP as a reliable source of gear upgrades to improve their raid performance.
Regardless of what you choose to focus on, the game at 70 definitely involves more group work. If you have soloed all the way to 70, your lone wolf days are over, if you wish to progress further. Let's look at some of endgame expectations for warlocks.
Getting into a guild
Endgame is all about group work. A guild should ideally offer you like-minded individuals to play with, and thus progress with. Keep these in mind while looking for a guild:
- Is the guild's objective in line with yours? Are the guild member focusing on PvP or raids? Can you work your goals around them?
- What stage of progression is the guild at? If the guild is already working on The Eye, your fresh 70 toon would definitely be out of place. While a few established level 70s might help you out, can you really count on having nine such players consistently helping you with Karazhan?
- When does the guild play? Obviously you want a guild that is largely online when you play. At the same time, you also want to be able to consistently show up for raids. Many raids fall apart simply because of no-shows.
- Can you fit into the guild's culture? Are guildmates friends or more like colleagues?
Gear
Love it or hate it, gear is a large component of your PvP and PvE performance. Getting a good set of pre-Karazhan gear from PvE or crafting should be your immediate priority. Battlegrounds and Arenas are also good ways to get great gear for both PvP and raiding.
A PvE warlock's most important stats are: spell damage, spell hit, spell crit and spell haste. Spell hit is generally an easier way to increase DPS than spell crit, up till its cap of 202 for raid bosses (more doesn't help). Warlocks who have 5/5 Suppression need a spell hit rating of just 76 to maximize the chance of their DoTs landing on raid bosses, although they'll probably want more as Suppression does not affect shadow bolts and other destruction spells. Spell haste benefits Destruction warlocks the most, by shortening the cast time of their nukes. A spell haste of 15.7 improves your casting time by 1%, but obviously does nothing for instant spells.
As a pre-Karazhan Warlock, you should aim for a spell damage of about 700 (with Fel Armor), a crit chance in the early teens, and a 30-ish spell hit rating.
PvP warlocks focus on a different set of stats: stamina, resilience, and spell damage/crit. Since you're fighting targets of equal level (other players), you need a spell hit rating of just 38 to achieve the 3% needed to max out your hit chance at 99%. For affliction locks, just 2 points in Suppression (2% spell hit per talent point) will max out the hit chance for affliction spells.
Naturally, your choice of gems and enchantments should be focused on these respective stats. Some obvious gem choices are Veiled Noble Topaz and Runed Living Ruby. Consider Steady Talasite and Solid Star of Elune for your PvP gear. You may also want uncommon equivalents of these gems. Chaotic Skyfire Diamond is a good metagem choice for destruction and demonology locks, while Swift Starfire Diamond is great for afflliction locks.
Raid DPS
Your main job in a raid is to kill stuff. To have an idea of how you are performing, get a damage meter like SWStats. A DPSer playing without a damage meter is like a driver racing without a speedometer. A damage meter isn't meant to stroke your DPS epeen - it's a tool to show you where you are, with respect to other DPSers. It also highlights problems: if your total damage and DPS is significantly lower than other similarly geared DPSers, it means you're not fully exploiting what your class can do.
Generally warlocks should be among the top five in the DPS charts. If you're not, look at other warlocks: how are they specced? How are they geared? What enchantments and gems do they have? Talk to them about their spell cycles.
A DPS discussion is never complete without talking about its evil twin - threat. The Warlock has one of the highest threat-to-damage ratios. In other words, for an equal amount of damage, the Warlock can generate more threat than other DPSers. An overzealous Warlock can pull aggro from the tank, leading to his or her demise at best, or at its worst, wiping the raid. Get a threat meter like Omen, and learn to use Soulshatter pro-actively to correct your threat level before bad things happen. Using soulshatter intelligently can also maximize your damage output.
Raid utility
As a Warlock, you offer more than DPS to the raid. Expect to do crowd control, whether it's seduce, banish, enslave, fear-kiting or even pet off-tanking. Be aware of your CC limitations and durations; you're generally expected to still deliver damage, even while you're CCing.
Some raid encounters will demand very specific abilities from warlocks - don't be caught not having a critical spell on your interface. Learn the encounters and have the appropriate pet summoned all the time - don't let the raid play the game for you.
Offer healthstones without being asked, particularly before a boss encounter. Soulstone a rezzer intelligently, keeping in mind that soulstones aren't only for wipe recovery, but for battle rezzing as well. In certain situations, the raid will benefit more with a soulstone on a Druid, on a squishier DPSer like a Mage, or even yourself!
Work out curse assignments among warlocks, especially debuffs like Curse of Elements, Shadow, Exhaustion, Weakness and Recklessness. A separate Warlock channel is great for this purpose. Remember that what benefits the raid benefits you as well - don't get DPS tunnel vision.
Other useful references
Besides the warlock column here, there is a wealth of information out there - if you are keen to play this amazing class to its full potential, read on ...
The Warlock's Guide to Raiding
Warlock PvE Raiding Compendium
Wowwiki.com
Filed under: Warlock, Guilds, Raiding, Guides, (Warlock) Blood Pact
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Diabla Dec 19th 2007 9:42AM
This is THE guide for any warlock gearing while leveling up and for the pre-raiding warlock. The lvl 70 Gear will have you at 1000 spell damage before you even step into a raid and pushing 1100+ if Demo specced.
http://www.wowmb.net/forums/showthread.php?t=15357
Honestly, the entire site is a warlock must (if you haven't heard of it already.)
Diabla Dec 19th 2007 9:55AM
I forgot to add.. even more important than a Damage meter is a Threat meter. It lets you know how threating you are to a mob/boss in relation to the MT and OT. If you see your name above the tank on a Damage Meter, you're doing your job. Rock on. If you see you name above the tank on the Threat Meter, oh noes! U gonna get squished-n-ate.
Pzychotix Dec 19th 2007 10:01AM
Err... what was that about threat?
Warlocks have the same amount of threat reduction as any other ranged (10% threat reduction).
Mages have 10% (40% only for arcane).
Shamans have 10%.
Hunters are unique in having a 30 sec CD aggro wipe, so threat is nonexistant for them.
Melee all have around 30% threat reduction, but they pull aggro at 110%, while ranged pull at 130%. Saying that locks do more threat than any other DPS class is completely irresponsible.
Diabla Dec 19th 2007 10:15AM
:O I soo overlooked that.. hell, I raid Demo/Destro sometimes. 20% from imp..10% from DR..30% for Salvation (always get Salv!). A Warlock can reach up to 60% threat reduction from jump just by spec/buff...
Rob Dec 19th 2007 2:21PM
Not irresponsible, b/c locks can also be at the top of the damage meter readily, in most situations. More damage == more threat. We hunters have so many threat management tools, so we never worry about threat too much (that is if you know what you are doing). You locks not only wear cloth, but have limited threat-reducing capabilities.
Dotixi Dec 19th 2007 11:00AM
I have 15%+ spell crit but I have had a hard time getting my Spell Hit up. Any suggestions?
Rich Dec 19th 2007 12:12PM
Gems mostly. Throw a couple Great Dawnstones (or Great Golden Draenite) in your sockets and then replace a couple +7 or +9 spell damage gems with Great Golden Draenites and your good to go.
There are only a few +spell hit enchants (one I know of for sure, I think there might be another.)
The gear as you progress starts to add +spell hit so that will reduce your need for the gems and/or suppression.
Rich Dec 19th 2007 12:13PM
oops! replace the +7 and +9 spell damages with Veiled Noble Topazs not great goldens... lol damn editing feature!
Diabla Dec 19th 2007 12:23PM
If you are just getting started in raiding or gearing up to go raiding, then Auchenai Anchorite's Robe from a quest line in Crypts has like 23 hit, Mantle of Three terrors from and the Star Heart Lamp from BM have a combined 25-30 hit and the Great Sword of Horrid Dreams from Murmur in Slabshas around 14 hit
There are actually a good couple of places to get hit from if you are already started in raiding and looking for stuff that aren't drops then: Ashyen's Gift from Exalted CE, is a ring with 21 hit/ 29ish spl dmg. Scryer's Blood Gem: Exalted with Scryer's, trinket with 32 hit on it and an 'on use' of increased spell dmg. Spell Strike set: Both the hood and the pants have 16ish hit on each, more crit if you're looking for that. This set is BOE, so you can have someone craft it for you. If you find it on the AH, each piece runs around 1000G-1200G, depending on server. Also, If you run Heroics, then the new belt is available for some 60 badges. It has 17 hit on it. ( I really really still like my Girdle of Ruination though lol)
If you're already well into Kara, then the Trisfal Wand, the Ruby Slippers, Risttyn's Pendant and that Curator staff has some more of that +hit goodness. Heck, the Gladiator's Staff if you farm BGs is even great too :)
Naix Dec 19th 2007 11:21AM
Damage meters are useless. I only use 1 mod. WorldMapInfo.
Here is the best damage meter to use.
If mob is not dead apply more damage. If mob is dead your damage was more than enough.
tada!
FriendlySoviet Dec 19th 2007 12:06PM
Some one is specced demonology.
ErsatzPotato Dec 19th 2007 12:46PM
Dotixi, here are some ways to get your hit up pre-raid:
Ashyen's Gift (ring, exalted CE)
Scryer's Bloodgem (trinket, revered Scryers)
Terokkar Tablet of Vim (trinket, lvl 65 quest in Bone Wastes)
Starkiller's Bauble (trinket from a hidden quest named The Horrors of Pollution)
Enchant Gloves - Spell Strike (+15 hit enchant)
Frozen Shadoweave set (crafted armor, shadow tailoring required)
Spellstrike set (crafted armor, tailoring not required)
Robe of the Crimson Order (very cheap world drop BOE)
Veiled Flame Spessarite (green quality orange jewel)
Veiled Noble Topaz (blue quality orange jewel)
Great Golden Draenite (green quality yellow jewel)
Great Dawnstone (blue quality yellow jewel)
Finally, most pieces of the Oblivion dungeon set have some hit one way or another. There are more instance drops with hit but this list was long enough already.
Hope that helps. Get out there and fry some bosses!
Kraki Dec 19th 2007 2:24PM
by SWStats i assume you mean Recount?
Naix Dec 19th 2007 2:19PM
Affliction
Lori Dec 19th 2007 2:35PM
Um...lots of race cars don't have speedometers.
Arnold Dec 19th 2007 3:39PM
V'Ming,
good article. However, I do want to point out that your analogy about car racers is flawed--a lot of modern racing cars don't actually have speedometers when they race...
See e.g. http://www.formula1.com/inside_f1/understanding_the_sport/5287.html
However, despite all that, I do agree with you regarding damage meters, and especially regarding threat meters...
best wishes,
Arnold.
THJ Dec 19th 2007 7:56PM
Spell Hit is the #1 PvE stat, point for point, that will improve your DPS.
Suppression is a crutch, as it does not affect shadow bolt (30-50% of an afflock's damage, and 80+% of a Demo or Destro lock's damage), nor does it affect Soul Shatter or Banish (resisted soul shatter is your death at best, raid wipe at worst).
Anyone who says that 'you don't really need 202 spell hit if you have enough damage and crit' is not hit capped themselves, and is making excuses.
I post as Gritz over at the Warlock's Den wowmb.net so head on over to the BEST warlock site on the web (and arguably the best WoW class site).
Also, check elitistjerks.com for high end theorycrafting for all classes.