This site makes extensive use of JavaScript.
Please enable JavaScript in your browser.
Live
PTR
10.2.7
PTR
10.2.6
Beta
PvP 101, How to get into PvP with Your Warlock
Post Reply
Return to board index
Post by
Infleto
Table of Contents
NOTE: All Info On Marks of Honor and Honor Points is Out Of Date.
Intro - Info on the guide and my self
Prepping for PvP - Covers specs, honor and arena point farming, and addons
Start Farming Gear - A indeapth look at Honor and arena point farming and speding
Playing Your Aff Lock in PvP
Playing Your Destro Lock in PvP
Abbrevations
Intro
In this guide, I assume you have leveled 1-80 and are in quest gear, have 0 honor, and have never pvped before.
Gearing a lock for PvP is not hard. I have done it 2 times. I PvP’d at the end of S5 and at the start of S6. I got ^&*!ed off at the world (of warcraft) and stopped. I needed bank space and trashed my deadly gear. Big mistake!
A few months ago I was leveling my hunter in Crossroads. An Alliance mage showed up and killed all the NPCs. Even the flight master. I could not turn in any quest and got *!@#ed off. I jumped on my Warlock and feared his face off. After that, in the face of painful battleground farming, I slowly turned back to PvP to get gear.
Quest gear should give you about 16k HP and 1.3k SP. This is not enough to be effective in BGs, But it is where you must start
Prepping for PvP
Step 1:
Get a PvP starter spec. Not an arena PvP spec. Arena specs take better gear to do, and if you still are in quest gear or even heroic gear you need a spec that will make up for your low resil. The 2 starter specs lets you run with the VW to give you a nice 10k shield to make up for your low HP. At 16k HP with the VW your Effective heath jumps to 26k for 20 sec. This gives you time to react to an attack.
Starter Destro
Starter Aff
Arena Specs
. If you have more than; 23k HP, 750 resil, 2.5k SP, and 4% hit then and only then should you try an arena spec.
Arena Aff
, the glyph of Shadowflame works best with teams with poor slows like teams with Druids or Shadow priest teams. Glyph of HoT is better for teams with good slows like teams with rouges or mages
Arena Destro Burst
added burst, better if you have a lot of crit and good for team like Rouge / lock / shaman
Arena Destro Succubus
this will take your Succubus CC's cast time to 0.5sec Yet, you can still run with the Succubus with out this spec. ( I want a incubus though)
Arena Destro for top end gear
Best spec If you have good gear as you gain freedom gear for more SP not Hit
Step 2:
Make a 2v2 and 3v3 team. Go to Dalaran sewers and find the goblin selling arena team charters and buy a 2v2 and 3v3 team charter. You will gain about 250 Arena points a week if you play 10 2v2 games a week with a rating of 0. You do not have to win any. When I was gearing I ran in the arena closed my eyes and spammed “/sit” to get it over faster. You are going to make crappy 2v2 and 3v3 teams just to for Arena points. Make sure your teammates know you are making a “/sit” arena team.
Step 3:
work with the gear you got. Stam is the most important until you have 20k , try to keep 1.3k SP or more when looking for Stam. The Frostsavage gear is nice but will only last you 2 weeks if you farm honor fast. 5 weeks top if you are slow.
Step 4:
Learn Each BG. Each one has tasks that must be done to win, the tasks are not to kill every one in the BG. When you win a BG, you get 3 marks of honor form that BG. If you lose, you only get one mark of honor from that BG. When you have 1 mark of honor from each BG you can turn them in to the battle master for 1460 honor. This is the fastest way to gain raw honor. The more you win the more honor you get. So,
read here
to learn how to win each BG.
Step 5:
Get consumables, You will need 15 or so Soul Shards. You can farm them from Training dummies in capital cities. Get your bandages too.
Step 6:
Set up your UI, you should use
Curse
to find all the addons you will ever need.
Power aures, OMG it will let you know whe it is safe to fear, when you should disple your self, your team mate, or even your target. it will let you know when you get trinket procs and nightfall / backlash procs
Necrosis, Turn off the fear warnnings, and the nightfall / backlash proc warnnings as power aures is better. other than that it is a good soul shard counter and cleans up your Ui and bars.
Bartender, Key bind all of your abilities using this.
Quartz, cuts down on cast times lost to lag
Grid, helps with seeing only buff or debuff on your team mate that you want to see. but you can do with out.
BigWigs boss, good for BGs, it gives you times on flag responds and when places are under attack.
Gladius, lets you see target frames of the other team with out having to target them. With this you need to set up your mouse over spell lock so you do not have to find the caster to spell lock him just click on gladius. it also shows CDs trinkets, cc, you name it. it is only for arenas.
Tidy plates, set this up to find shaman's tremor totem faster. It also stops Army of the dead name plate spam.
Post by
Infleto
Start farming gear,
Step 1:
Play your 10 2v2 matches and 10 3v3 matches each week. Win or Lose it is all the same, you will get your points.
Step 2:
Wintergrasp! Ever time there is a WG battle while you are online you better be in it. To see when the next WG battle starts open your battleground window. For Horde, you can click on the red symbol on your bar to open it. For the Alliance it is gold. At the bottom of the window there are 2 tabs, click on the Battle Ground tab. To get in Wintergrasp you need to join the queue talk with the Wintergrasp Battlemaster in any capital city or simply entering the Wintergrasp zone
There are 5 daily quests, make sure you get them. If you are attacking, they will be at the starting camp. If you are defending, the NPC will be in the fort. People in your group will do most of the quests for you. Ask people to share the quest in raid chat. When you turn in one quest you get 19g and 10 shards. You can use 30 shards to buy a commendation medal which gives you 2k honor. You also get 3 marks of honor for winning WG. Get 25 WG marks of honor ASAP and buy the WG PvP trinket that has 111 SP. To learn more
read here
Step 3:
BGs, this is the last place you look to for gear, But you will be spending most of your time in here so learn to love each one. There will be a PvP daily quest from the battlemaster. Try to do it!
Step 4:
Buying gear, use emblomes of triump for your Furious set save raw honor to buy the Furious off pieces. Do not get deadly, it is a waste. Every time you get a new piece of gear gem and enchant it, you will use it for some time. Use WG marks of honor to get your trinkets and ring.
Step 5:
If by some chance your team gets a arena rating high enough to get relentless set. Buy it ASAP. If you drop in rating you will not be able to buy it. Get it when you can. Save your arena points for this.
Playing your Aff. Lock in PvP
Note: This is not a step by step to get a kill on anyone you fight. I am trying to get you in the practice of using all of your abilities in the correct way.
Step 1,
Set up
Drop you Demonic circle! Every time you get off of your mount your circle should be placed right there! It will make you a better warlock. It is best to place it behind a LOS object. Yet, having your circle anywhere is better than not having it at all. If you see a enemy running in what may be your vicinity, drop your circle.
Step 2
, Gain control,
Using your CDs to prevent your target form attacking you is better than using your CDs to recover form a bad opening. DC or HoT works faster than casting fear. Faster is better.
Demonic circle is what you use when you need to get away not HoT or DC. You will not have time to use your CDs defensibly. Later when you get better gear you will learn when to save your CDs for defense.
As Affliction you should lock down your target first with DC.
Step 3
, Damage
As Aff. After you gain control get UA off then fear. UA will stop dispels and cover your fear and other dots. Next cast haunt, you will need its heal in a few sec. Now that you have cast all your non-instant DoTs sp start running away from your target as you cast Corr and CoA (CoEx if you are fighting melee).
You can recast (clip) UA and Corr too. Clipping your Dots is not as bad as not putting out pressure, just try not to clip CoA as most of its damage is in the last few ticks.
Do not be afraid to run out of your casting range. Many locks feel as if their target is going to get away and they must stay in range or chase down feared targets. If you have your Dots up they will be hurting. Keep your pet on them and they will not get out of combat to eat. Stay close enough to be able to call your pet back and HF him quickly.
When your target is below 30 % fear them. Your dots will take them below 25% then cast DS and it’s 9k ticks will drop them even with a healer.
DC/HoT > UA > (Fear if you DC‘ed) > Haunt > run > Corr > CoA / CoEx > re-dot > DS for kill
To kite with out useing fear. First, stop running and pop VW’s shield. Next, cast Haunt > then run away > CoEx > Corr and keep kiting.
When you kite, run to something. A LoS object or friends, It can be anything, don’t just run for the sake of running. If there is not anything to run to, you are better off kiting to let fear protection end. Run one way for 1.5sec then make a 90º or greater turn. When , fear protection ends make a last turn and stop to cast fear. It is a pain for melee players to keep up with you and still mash keys to attack if they have to adjust to your new direction every 1.5sec.
Step 4,
Killing Healers. Yes the Fel puppy can help a lot., Yet, with your poor gear it is better to keep the VW out just in case another enemy shows up. If you are below 16k hp a healer in good gear can kill you himself.
First, Do not open with Fear save the diminishing returns on your Fear. Open with UA for the dispell protection then Haunt, now cast CoEx to slow them from getting to LoS or help. Now Drain Mana! If they try to run away DC them then cast fear.
When they are oom they are dead. When you fight a Healer you want him to cast his Heals on himself. You want him to go oom ASAP. When they run out of mana, a fear chain will stop them from regaining mana. That cc chain with a full stack of dots will kill them. The Fel puppy can help stop him from cc’ing you, letting you keep pressure up.
Try to only LT just before Haunt heals you so you do not LT yourself down to 10% HP. This is the only way a healer will get the chance to kill you.
Post by
Infleto
Step 3 Continued
To kite with out useing fear. Many times BGs you will not know you should kite somthing until melee is on top of you. If you find your self with melee on top of you Portal, Fear, DC, all can heap. Targets can gain fear protection dose happen and it is a pain. Demonic Portal is your answer to Fear protection. With the glyph, CoEx's range is longer than any other ability putting it on a target before thay can get in range of your other spells saves you a GCD.
If you messed up and for got to drop your Portal,
First, stop running and pop VW’s shield and Drop your Portal! Next, cast Haunt > then run away > CoEx > Corr and keep kiting.
When you kite, run to something. A LoS object or friends, It can be anything, don’t just run for the sake of running. If there is not anything to run to, you are better off kiting to let fear protection end. Run one way for 1.5sec then make a 90º or greater turn. When , fear protection ends make a last turn and stop to cast fear. It is a pain for melee players to keep up with you and still mash keys to attack if they have to adjust to your new direction every 1.5sec. When you can't gain space use your portal.
Step 4,
Killing Healers. Yes the Fel puppy can help a lot., Yet, with your poor gear it is better to keep the VW out just in case another enemy shows up. If you are below 16k hp a healer in good gear can kill you himself.
First, Do not open with Fear save the diminishing returns on your Fear. Open with UA for the dispell protection then Haunt, now cast CoEx to slow them from getting to LoS or help. Now Drain Mana! If they try to run away DC them then cast fear.
When they are oom they are dead. When you fight a Healer you want him to cast his Heals on himself. You want him to go oom ASAP. When they run out of mana, a fear chain will stop them from regaining mana. That cc chain with a full stack of dots will kill them. The Fel puppy can help stop him from cc’ing you, letting you keep pressure up.
Try to only LT just before Haunt heals you so you do not LT yourself down to 10% HP. This is the only way a healer will get the chance to kill you.
Step 1:
Set up
Drop you Demonic circle! Every time you get off of your mount your circle should be placed right there! It will make you a better warlock. See what I said in Aff for more.
Step 2:
Gain control,
Shadowfury and DC, work faster than casting fear. Faster is better. Do not be afraid to use your CDs to gain control. You lock down with Shadowfury, every time! 20sec CD is great, the faster you use it the faster you can use it again.
Step 3:
Damage
As Destro. After step 1, cast Immo then fear. Getting Immo on your target is everything. Without it you lose your burst and your only slow, Aftermath.
To get the most out of fear do not conflag right after Immo. Put up CoEl and Cast CB giving your fear time to send your target far away. Then conflag to proc aftermath also this means CB and Conflag should hit at the same time. This is where Destro’s un-healable burst comes from. Then spam Incinerate until you’re in danger of getting beat on.
Start recasting fear when they get in range (20yards) if you can‘t cast fear blow a CD to get them under control again. Remember a dead target is better than a cc’ed target. Use your burst, it is a priority over cc.
Do not go chasing after your target when they are feared. What will you do if you catch up to them, melee them? Use that time it let your conflag or CB come off CD. Fear is leashed so they can’t run too far. Stay close enough to be able to call your pet back and HF him quickly.
To kite a target with out the use of fear,
Again Portal is your answer to kiting with out useing fear. Yet with out portal you must. . .
First stop running and pop VW’s shield. next Cast Immo > then run away > conflag > Soul burn > corr - all while on the run. When conflag is off CD use it again.
When you kite, run to something. A LoS object or friends, It can be anything, don’t just run for the sake of running. If there is not anything to run to, you are better off kiting to let CB and Conflag come off CD. Run one way for 1.5sec then make a 90º or greater turn. When your CDs are up, make a last turn and stop to cast. It is a pain for melee players to keep up with you and still mash keys to attack as they only have 2 Hands to play the game with.
Shadowfury > Immo > Fear > CoEl > CB > Conflag > Incinerate spam or kite > Fear > Immo > CB > conflag.
Step 4:
Killing Healers. Yes, the Fel puppy can help a lot. Yet, with your poor gear it is better to keep the VW out just in case another enemy shows up. If you are below 16k hp a healer in good gear can kill you himself.
If you have good SP (<1.6k) the Fel puppy’s spell lock with your Shadow furry, DC, and fears can make a cc chain long enough for your burst to drop him without driving him oom.
If you can’t lock the healer down then playing the mana game is the way to go and you should save the DR on your Fear. Keep Immo up on him and use Conflag every CD. Aftermath will slow them from LoS’ing or finding help. Then Drain mana. If he does los you, keep your pet on him. Blow cds to stop him from getting away.
Try not to LT, you do not have heals so LT’ing yourself down to 10% HP is the only way a healer will get the chance to kill you. When he hits oom still do not fear. Get Immo up then Conflag > CB . Then Fear until Conflag is off CD then burst again. Repeat until you kill them. (or until DR on fear kicks in and if that happens you need more SP bad)
Step 5:
Pick your fights, When you have low to no gear knowing who to avoid and save you a lot of time chatting it up with the rez healer. Who to kill? Pallys, mages, priest, shaman, moonkin, and trees Who to run way from? Rogues, warriors, DK, feral cats, BM hunter when using BW. You should duel rogues and warriors whenever you can to learn how to stop them. They will hurt in 2v2s and 3v3s.
I cannot give you a step by step on how to kill them. PvP is too fluid. If you practice my advice above you will learn how to kite and how to live via your slows and your circle. Just save your circle for when the warrior uses blade storm and when the rogue use CoS.
Real arena,
So now that you have good gear. It is time to lose your old 2v2 and 3v3 teams. By now they will be good friends with you and all, but if your comp is bad you will get nowhere.
Comps in order form best to almost the best
Desrto
2v2, Mage; Rogue; Elm shaman.
3v3, Mage - healer; Rogue - healer; Elm Shaman - healer; MS warrior - healer.
Aff,
2v2 Resto Druid; Resto shaman.
3v3 MS warrior - Resto Druid; Shadow priest - Resto Shaman;
Post by
Infleto
Reserved, I still have some work to do.
Post by
Infleto
Abbrevations
provided by asakawa
DPS - Damage-Per-Second. A measure of damage done, also a term used to describe the act of doing damage and a character who does damage ("doing DPS", "I am a DPSer")
PvE - Player versus Environment. Any area of the game that doesn't involve playing against other players.
PvP - Player versus Player - Playing in direct competition with other players (some consider playing the Auction house to be the ultimate PvP game ^^)
DoT - Damage over Time - lots of warlock spells do damage over time instead of all at once.
DD - Direct Damage - the counter part to DoT.
AoE - Area of Effect - spells that do damage to more than one target.
SB - Shadow Bolt
SiLi - Siphon Life
SL - Soul Link (sometimes used to describe Siphon Life depending on context)
iSL - (improved) Soul Leech (another "SL". Look for context, this is destro)
i - A lower case 'i' is generally used for talents that start with "improved"
SF - Soul Fire (sometimes used to describe shadowfury depending on context)
LT - Life Tap
DS - Drain Soul
DL - Drain Life
UA - Unstable Affliction
DP - Dark Pact/Demonic Pact depending on context
VW - VoidWalker(pet)
FH - Felhunter(pet)
FG - Felguard(pet)
ISB - Improved Shadow Bolt
CoA - Curse of Agony
CoE - Curse of Elements
CoEx - Curse of Exhaustion
CoW - Curse of Weakness
coD - curse of Doom
MD - Master Demonologist
DT - Demonic Tactics
SnF - Shadow and Fire
FnB - Fire and Brimstone
Meta - Metamorphosis
BD - Backdraft
CB - Chaos Bolt
DPCT/DPET - Damage Per Cast Time / Damage Per Execute Time. This is a measure of the amount of damage a spell does in comparison to the time it takes to make it happen.
CD - Cooldown
GCD - Global Cooldown
MC - Molten Core
RoF - Rain of Fire
SoC - Seed of Corruption
GoX - Glyph of <spell name> (i.e. GoLT = Glyph of LifeTap)
Post by
369601
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Infleto
There all ready is grate Info on wowhead on what locks should gem and enchant for. Orloxgr's PvP Guide for beginners 3.2 is a nice place to look.
http://www.wowhead.com/?forums&topic=98519
Post by
silo
Great work so far! I'm awful at pvp and it's something I want to be better at and this is going to come in very handy ty.
Post by
asakawa
i don't know PvP but this is a good start to a guide.
some layout advice to help people get to the information easier:
try naming your links -(url=http//link)link name(/url)- and see if you can do anything to keep the paragraphs short. i understand that it's all important info but when forum-goers start seeing more then 3 lines of text in a row they start to skim-read.
using lists (ul)(/ul) for titles doesn't make them stand out enough. perhaps (u) and (b) for titles and list elements for the steps? also, try not to put more info on the same line as the title.
run a spellchecker and grammar checker and it's best not to use words that wowhead auto-censors in a guide like this.
generally, remember that people won't want to read the whole thing. give them as much opportunity as you can to pick out the info they think is relevant to them and just read that. lots of headings. lots of short paragraphs. maybe some sort of index or way for people to find specific sections quickly.
Post by
327363
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
278544
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
278544
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
asakawa
other sticky writers should feel free to link to the abbreviations post in the FAQ. it's a separate post in that thread so can be linked directly. if the extra traffic to that glossary throws up any missed common abbreviations feel free to let me know.
i may even separate the post into headings to make it easier to find things.
Post by
Infleto
asakawa, I will link your abbreviations post. Also I will try to steam line most of my paragraphs
jeremiahfira, thank you. I have no Ideal why I missed that.
Thank you all for the look over, I will edit to night. let me know if I can do any thing else to improve.
Post by
413955
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
413955
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
278544
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
413955
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
413955
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
413955
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post Reply
You are not logged in. Please
log in
to post a reply or
register
if you don't already have an account.