Warlock Guide: PvP

Post by Kobrakai

Kobrakai's Guide to Warlock PvP

Introduction: Having seen many, many threads created on the Warlock forums here asking "How do I beat (class X) as (spec Y)?", I decided to get my act together after playing a Lock for a couple of years and writing a guide for either those players newer to level 80, or to PvP in general. Hopefully those of you who read this can take something away from it and apply it to getting more success in the PvP aspect of World of Warcraft, which, despite its numerous flaws, is the best PvP system in any MMO i've played since the earlier days of Ultima Online circa 1998-99. This is the product of writings on and off over the past several months. Enjoy.

Contents:

1.1 - Important Notes.

1.2 - Note on changes since TBC

1.3 - Note on essential Talents and Glyphs

2.0 - Fighting a...

2.1 - Rogue
2.1a - General Tips
2.1b - As Affliction
2.1c - As Demonology
2.1d - As Destruction

2.2 - Warrior
2.2a - General Tips
2.2b - As Affliction
2.2c - As Demonology
2.2d - As Destruction

2.3 - Mage
2.3a - General Tips
2.3b - As Affliction
2.3c - As Demonology
2.3d - As Destruction

2.4 - Hunter
2.4a - General Tips
2.4b - As Affliction
2.4c - As Demonology
2.4d - As Destruction

2.5 - Priest
2.5a - General Tips
2.5b - As Affliction
2.5c - As Demonology
2.5d - As Destruction

2.6 - Paladin
2.6a - General Tips
2.6b - As Affliction
2.6c - As Demonology
2.6d - As Destruction

2.7 - Shaman
2.7a - General Tips
2.7b - As Affliction
2.7c - As Demonology
2.7d - As Destruction

2.8 - Druid
2.8a - General Tips
2.8b - As Affliction
2.8c - As Demonology
2.8d - As Destruction

2.9 - Warlock
2.9a - General Tips
2.9b - As Affliction
2.9c - As Demonology
2.9d - As Destruction

2.10 - Death Knight
2.9a - General Tips
2.9b - As Affliction
2.9c - As Demonology
2.9d - As Destruction

3.0 - Conclusion.

1.1 - Important Notes:

Before reading this guide, several important notes need to be made to ensure that it is not misinterpreted by people reading.

Some of these are:

This guide is solely intended for LEVEL 80 PvP, current as of Wrath of the Lich King, release 3.1.2. While many of the tactics and much of the advice given can be applied for lower-level PvP, at endgame the nature of WOW PvP changes drastically, as classes have access to all possible skills/abilities/talent specs. The endgame also heavily involves gear and the process of obtaining it that comes with it - the impact of endgame stats, ESPECIALLY Resilience alters everything that may have been considered proven in pre-80 PvP.

Given that most of the people who ask for advice here are new to Warlocks, or even WoW itself, the guide will focus MAINLY ON BATTLEGROUND PvP for a variety of reasons:
a) Battlegrounds are basically the "introductory" level of PvP and provide the widest variety of ways to deal with certain situations; the professions you take can have a much larger impact in BGs than in Arena for example. Battlegrounds, in my opinion, allow for much more creativity in handling PvP situations.
b) Arena fights largely depend on the makeup of both your team and the other team, with so many variables involved as to be nigh-impossible to encompass everything. I will, however, provide GENERAL tips where appropriate.
c) Battlegrounds are where you will earn the majority of your gear as you start PvPing.

This is NOT a guide on how to either Spec or "Gear Out" your character: For information regarding this, see the many helpful guides which are stickied at the top of this forum under the heading "Helpful Threads". The main goal of this guide is to provide advice/hints on HOW TO USE your character once you have it. The guide also assumes that you are specced AS ONE OF THE POPULAR BUILDS FOR PVP. While you may indeed obtain moderate success with a PvE build, since the introduction of Dual Specs a player has no excuse for not optimising his talents for PvP.

Before you head into PvP for the first time at level 80, BE SURE to at least buy the craftable Blue 80 (For Warlocks, titled "Frostsavage") PvP gear that was added for all classes. This gear is easy to obtain and provides you with at least SOME resilience heading into battlegrounds for the first time. It only requires a quick trip to the Auction House or knowing a high level tailor to get you started. Bare in mind that this gear can all be worn from level 78 onwards, so you have no excuse for not getting yourself prepared.

Your 3 "Worst Enemies" as a Warlock in PvP will generally be, in this order: Will of the Forsaken (if Alliance), the PvP Trinket, and Cloak of Shadows (see Rogue section). Other fear immunities and counters are still prominent in WOTLK, but these 3 facts have not changed.

While many of the points listed in here may be extremely obvious to experienced Warlocks, they are not the focus of the guide. It is intended to provide strategy and advice to those new or having trouble with the class.

1.2 - Note on changes since TBC

Since the transition period between The Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King expansions, the general atmosphere of PvP has undergone quite a dynamic change. There has been a shift in the focus of PvP from longer, more drawn-out survival type fights to quick, burstier affairs, both in terms of damage AND healing. This has had a big effect on the Warlock class especially, as a class based around dealing damage OVER TIME, which does not fit in line with the current PvP climate. This has lead to a huge rise in the popularity of Destruction builds for PvP as they happen to provide some of the highest burst of any class in the game. However, bare in mind that Destro is also one of the least mobile and survivable specs in the game as well, with the burst coming at the cost of increased setup time. Coupled with the changes to Fear breaking far earlier on damage, it has had a big impact on the general "style" of PvP as a Lock.

This burst has also lead to even more of an increase of a reliance on the RESILIENCE stat, which was already important for warlocks before but is now even more so. As a general rule, you won't notice huge benefits from resilience until you surpass the 600 Mark. That may seem a lot, but once you consider the gains from trinkets, gear, gems and enchants, it is actually quite reachable with a little conscious effort. Don't be afraid to sacrifice some of your burst potential for the ability to live long enough to get it off.

We also received new spells and talents such as Chaos Bolt, Haunt and Metamorphosis, however the one key ability that is a mainstay of all PvP as a Warlock is now the Demonic Circle - Demonic Teleport combination. A 0.5 second cast summons a circle on the ground with a 40 yard range that the Warlock can instantly use to break snares and teleport back to the original spot. While a sometimes cumbersome spell, it has an endless variety of PvP uses that are limited only by terrain and the creativity of the Warlock using it. Learn to love your circle.

1.3 - Note on essential Talents and Glyphs

While your choice of specs is entirely up to you depending on which core playstyle you prefer (Affliction, Demonology or Destruction), there are talents which are considered nonetheless essential to Warlocks of any build for PvP success. This has lead to a spreading out of talents over different trees rather than a more focused approach of filling out a single tree. Also, with the introduction of the Glyph system, there likeweise becomes a priority for certain Glyphs that may be of no benefit in a PvE environment at all.

Talents:

- Demonic Embrace (Demonology tree, 3 points): with the reduction of this talent from a 5 point to a 3 point talent, there is simply no excuse for whatever spec PvP lock to not take it. 10% extra stamina that scales with gear is absolutely essential, no questions asked.

- Improved Healthstone (Demonology tree, 2 points): you should, at all times while PvPings, have a healthstone with you. Simply put, an instant heal that can crit for ungodly amounts (also boosted by Glyph of Healthstone) can save your life on countless occasions. Also neccessary for pushing further into the early Demonology tree.

- Fel Synergy (Demonology tree, 2 points): Warlock pets are, and have always been, squishy. While Blizzard promises to correct scaling issues in a future patch, for the time being we are forced to boost our pet's survivability in any way possible, for multiple reasons: a) we rely on our pet, no matter which one, for our Soul Link buff, which can be up to a flat 20% damage reduction when glyphed, b) our pet is our main form of Crowd Control since Fear was nerfed greatly, and can allow you take 2 people out of a fight at once if handled properly, and c) your pet is useful for stomping Shaman totems while allowing you to continue to DPS. Fel Synergy takes our damage and heals our pet, therefore greatly adding to its' survivability.

- Soul Link (Demonology tree, 1 point): the core "PvP talent" for any Warlock. If you skip this, stick to PvE, it's that simple. Honestly quite ridiculous how Blizzard bases our entire class around this single talent point.

- Molten Skin (Destruction tree, 3 points): Many will argue that their build cannot spare to go into the Destro tree to grab this talent. I'd say that you are nuts to turn up a 6% bonus damage reduction across the board, especially given the reduced cast time of nukes that 5/5 Bane gives us.

Glyphs:

It is up to you to choose 3 of the following -

- Glyph of Soul Link: Just kidding. Not optional. Get it.

- Glyph of Shadowflame: An extremely useful glyph for an extremely unreliable spell. A 70% movement speed reduction on your enemies, especially melee, is godly, and when coupled with your Demonic Teleport spell, can win fights by itself. HOWEVER, the graphic for Shadowflame does not seem to match the range of its' damage cone, and can often leave you wondering how the spell missed. An amazing glyph with a variety of applications that you would be crazy to pass up (instantly slowing down 4 enemies in Warsong Gulch trying to carry the flag simultaneously is orgasmic, for example.)

- Glyph of Unending Breath: A minor glyph that lets you swim 20% faster can come in handy for Arathi Basin and world PvP. There are no other decent minor general glyphs for Warlocks anyway. Get it.

Optional (will often depend on spec/playstyle):

- Glyph of Healthstone: A bonus to what already has a bonus from talents, this can make your healthstone heal for huge amounts if it crits. Often comes down to chance though.

- Glyph of Conflagrate: If Destro, allows you to keep either your immolate DoT or your Shadowflame snare on your target while using conflagrate for big burst damage. Teams that can do so will often dispel it however.

- Glyph of Curse of Exhaustion: If you are Affliction, get it. It's a minor Glyph that allows you to slow down people from a huge range away.

- Glyph of Howl of Terror: Allows you more chances to use your instant "GET OFF ME FFS" ability as Affliction.

- Glyph of Fear: Far less useful than what it once was, still allows for slightly more damage to be dealt as Affliction, or reduces the likelihood of it breaking early as a CC.

- Glyph of Felguard: A must for Demonology PvP builds.

- Glyph of Felhunter: Bonus healing for Affliction builds, however small.

- Glyph of Metamorphosis: Allows you extra time in Demon Form, coupled with deep Demo talents which grant you a reduced cooldown on the ability, can be quite effective.

2.0 - Fighting a...
This section is a rough breakdown of class by class, spec by spec, fights you will often encounter. Of course, there are so many variables in WoW, including: Race/Class/Spec/Professions/Gear, that is impossible to take everything into account. That said, WoW players are creatures of habit and imitation - the prominence of "Cookie Cutter" specs and people trying to obtain the optimum results (known as "Min/Maxing") has lead to a stagnation and predictability in PvP that is easy to exploit once you have experience with it.

Post by Kobrakai

2.1 - Rogue
2.1a - General tips:
Ahh, the Rogue. Easily the most-maligned class by Warlocks the world over, and the source of much grief for frustrated Locks in PvP. They are seen as our "counter-class" (though at time of writing it could be argued that they are counter to many, many specs and classes.) Why is this? Rogues are designed around incapacitating an opponent, disabling control of the character and silencing their ability to cast spells. This, coupled with the high-level scaling of melee damage and a skill which, from level 66, removes all Damage over Time spells every 1 minute leads to many Warlocks calling for nerfs to the Rogue class. The current most common PvP spec for Rogues at time of writing is a Mutilate build owing to great burst damage that can floor a Warlock within seconds if not countered properly. Since TBC it has become a rarity to find deep Subtletly Rogues which were all the rage last expansion for PvP. But is the situation really that bad for Locks vs. Rogues? Let's take a look...

2.1b - As Affliction
One of the key things to master for all Warlock builds, but especially as Affliction (UA), is NOT TO BLOW YOUR PVP TRINKET EARLY. The trinket is on a 2- minute cooldown, and if you use it at the wrong time, you will have blown your one "Get out of Jail card" for the fight. Why is this so important as Affliction? Affliction is especially weak when jumped by a Rogue due to a single reason - Cloak of Shadows. You rely on DoTs, and the ability to instantly clear all of your DoTs can cripple your attack and defenses. Thus, placement of your Demonic Circle is crucial. You need to be AWAY from a Rogue with Cloak of Shadows active as soon as possible. Exploit line of sight when placing your circle so that the Rogue can't instantly tell where you've teleported to and Sprint/Vanish right up to you in order to open up again and finish you off quickly. Pillars in Arena, different levels of Warsong Gulch flag rooms, line of sight buildings in Arathi Basin, use them ALL when placing your circle. Now, obviously, we can't always have our circle placed at an ideal spot vs. Rogues; you will often get jumped when unexpected while out of range of your circle, etc. Don't hesitate in this circumstance to Fear the Rogue and drop your circle right on top of yourself in order to remove their Crippling Poison snare. If you can get THEM snared either through Curse of Exhaustion or your Glyphed Shadowflame, you'll have ample time to wear them down.

In order to prepare for fighting Rogues, your basic motto should be "Don't Trinket on the Cheap Shot" - the Rogue's opening stun that they will, without fail, open on you with. I know, I know, the instinct is to want to get away from the Rogue ASAP, but it's far better to sit there and eat the damage from their opening stunlock than it is to simply get re-stunned in a matter of seconds and have nothing to do about it (NOTE since WOTLK - if you have a well-placed demonic Circle away from the Rogue, you MAY want to instantly use your trinket and teleport. This can be very risky however as if you get Kidney shot, you will be at the Rogue's mercy. A macro for Trinket - Teleport can be very handy in this situation) Depending on if the Rogue lands many crits, you should try and wait for the Rogue to blow Blind before using your trinket. The idea is GET THE ROGUE TO BLOW HIS COOLDOWNS AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

Once the initial stunlock breaks, use your insta-cast Howl of Terror to get the Rogue off you - run in the opposite direction to the Rogue, or teleport, to create as much distance as possible, he will if Undead use Will of the Forsaken to break fear - if he is NOT Undead and he uses his PvP trinket, you suddenly have a great advantage in the fight. Once you have obtained max distance from the Rogue, Curse of Exhaustion (preferably glyphed) is your first prority. This is because, while Rogues will often try and Sprint back to you, it forces them on the defensive and to blow a cooldown they may have wanted to keep - don't ever stop moving as Affliction. Start stacking your DoTs and get him to blow his Cloak of Shadows ASAP. When he does, you may be in danger - in this situation, I ALWAYS use the "Warlock's Best Friend" - the Frostweave Net in Battlegrounds. Words cannot express how much this little Tailoring goodie (although you can use Engineering grenades for the same effect) can save you in all fights vs. melee classes, but ESPECIALLY against Rogues. The Net roots the target to the spot for 3 seconds - cloak of shadows lasts for FIVE seconds. I have obtained much joy from watching Rogues sit there with a "WTF" look as they try to figure out why they can't move - it's literally often the last thing they expect.

Once CLOS is over, the fight is in your hands - your main goal from here is to kill him as quickly as possible and aim to STOP HIM FROM USING VANISH. If the Rogue vanishes, it basically resets the fight - a Rogue looking to vanish will often Blind you in order to get away - lucky you saved your trinket, isn't it? Remember to only use your Death Coil to ensure victory or to get away to safety. Taking control of the fight away from the Rogue as a Warlock is most key as Affliction. Your Haunt spell will often prove useful only if you can cast it while the Rogue is feared, as the cast time, coupled with the healing reduction of a Rogue's Wound Poison and the chance he will simply Cloak of Shadows it off, can often make the spell not worth casting. An Affliction Warlock locked out of his Shadow school is a dead Warlock.

Note for UA Locks: Cloak of Shadows will NOT cause Unstable Affliction to go off as other dispels would.

2.1c - As Demonology
A fight with a Rogue as Demonology (Felguard) can either be relatively easy or very difficult depending on the intelligence of the Rogue you fight and the situation in which it takes place, and finally and most importantly - COOLDOWNS. If you have Metamorphosis up, it is your one trump card against a Rogue as Demo. If you don't, and he has his cooldowns, you will probably lose. Ideally, when using your Felguard in a Battleground or Arena, you should position the Felguard with the "/petstay" command far enough from you so that when/if a melee class jumps you, you can use the Felguard's Intercept ability to provide a valuable stun for opening the fight. Careful use of the /stay command and Intercept ability is important throughout the fight, as your Felguard CANNOT intercept the Rogue from melee range, thus making it much more difficult to get the Rogue off you.

As a FG build, you have some advantages and disadvantages when fighting a Rogue. The advantages are obviously the melee damage and Intercept of the FG itself, but also the damage reduction demo talents provide. The main disadvantage is that you are almost entirely dependent on your pet, and a good Rogue can exploit this quite easily. Basically, if a Rogue Blinds your Felguard, you are in trouble. Another disadvantage is the lack of strength of your DoT spells as Demo, and a reliance on using spells that are NOT instant cast, like Immolate or Shadowbolt . Take advantage of any time you can Intercept stun the Rogue to cast a non-instant cast damage spell. Keep him on his toes, or he will murder you. Snares and other stuns should be countered with Intercept or Demonic Teleport whenever possible as they both share a 30 second cooldown. If the Rogue Blinds you and burns your Felguard, you will be at a huge disadvantage, and need to decide whether blowing your Fel Domination cooldown is worth it to near-instantly resummon your pet back. A FG spec Lock without a pet is one of the most gimped things you will ever encounter in PvP. Smart Rogues know this, but luckily most Rogues aren't smart. In Arena you will instantly be able to tell whether a team knows what they are doing by if they focus fire/CC your pet or not.

After your Felguard has Intercepted the Rogue, you want to pop Metamorphosis and turn on your Immolation Aura as soon as possible while IMMEDIATELY following it with CHARGE. If you do NOT charge him, he can simply CLOS/vanish and wait for your aura/metamorphosis to fade before coming back to kill you. KEEP HIM OUT OF STEALTH AFTER HE JUMPS YOU.

2.1d - As Destruction
The most heavily gear-dependent and often-criticized spec for Warlock PvP, I find Destro to be slightly underrated when dealing with melee classes, Rogues especially. While Resilience has indeed changed the landscape of PvP, Destro still provides adequate burst when timed properly to devestate a Rogue in the initial stages of a fight. Basically, as you are a glass cannon, you need to get that cannon firing as early as possible. Your best defense as a Destro build in BGs is to have your Succubus out - her Seduce is invaluable, and seeing she is invisible most of the time, impossible to focus on after you get jumped by a Rogue. If the Rogue trinkets or uses Will of the Forsaken to break the seduce, great - he has just blown the advantage. Use the opportunity to stun him using Shadowfury and create some distance, then seduce him again.

When the Rogue is seduced you basically want to pack in as much damage as possible, and you have a couple of choices... For me, I usually use Curse of Elements -> Immolate -> Incinerate -> Conflagrate, because even if the spells don't land before the Rogue has blown his Cloak of Shadows, you have max distance between you which gives time for CLOS to run out and make him vulnerable again. This is especially true with the new effect of Aftermath reducing movement speed by 50% since WOTLK, coupled with the increased casting speed received after using Conflagrate. Remember the best strength of Destro in PvP is that it DOESN'T rely on DoTs, so you are free to use seduce as much as possible to create space, keeping in mind the effecf of diminishing returns. However as always, be sure to keep him from using Vanish after his CLOS is blown.

As we have received Chaos Bolt as our attempt at a "counter" to Cloak of Shadows, it is recommended not to randomly throw the spell around during the fight as if it's on cooldown when you need it, you can either lose the fight or blow the victory. Chaos Bolt penetrates through Cloak of Shadows and should be saved to be used for that situation. Nothing is more frustrating than outplaying a Rogue only to have him use Cloak of Shadows and run off while immune to your spells because your Chaos Bolt is on cooldown.

Note on Arena: Destro has become far more viable as an arena spec since WOTLK, especially when coupled with another class that synchronizes well with Warlock burst or provides opportunities to set up that burst. Whereas in TBC a double-DPS team featuring a Destro Warlock would have been laughed at, right now they have great synergy with other classes and their damage specs such as Elemental Shamans (benefits from Bloodlust/Heroism, Totem of Wrath, shared Curse of the Elements damage bonuses, etc.) and Frost Mages (roots/CC allow time to set up coordinated burst).

Post by Kobrakai

2.2 - Warrior
2.2a - General Tips
As it stands, Warriors are the class that scales the best with gear in the entire game of WoW. As Arena seasons progress, Warriors therefore become more and more difficult given their access to weapons with huge top-end damage and high amounts of DPS. While many people will say that the Rogue is the Warlock's hard counter class, I believe that Warriors are just as much, if not more, of a challenge to take down as a Lock. Generally the only DPS class that will prove more difficult against a Warlock than a Warrior is, right now, a Feral Druid. They key thing to exploit in this matchup is the fact that Warriors KNOW this, and often single out Warlocks as easy pickings in PvP. They are therefore mostly overconfident, and expect all Warlocks to act in a specific way, panicking and trying to escape. The biggest and best skill to master when fighting a Warrior, is PREVENTING HIS INTERCEPT AND CHARGE. Warriors who are specced Arms (aka, almost all PvP Warriors) can now use their Charge in combat, so it becomes doubly important to master the "Warrior deadzone".

While it might be human "fight-or-flight" nature kicking in, many Warlocks will try to gain distance from a Warrior, only to be Intercepted/Charged, stunned and hit with a flurry of attacks that leave you close to death almost instantaneously. The key here is noticing the gap between you and the Warrior and monitoring it intently - if he ever backpedals, run TOWARDS him, NOT away. He is backing up to Intercept you, and if he does, it's mostly GG. Exploiting this "Warrior Deadzone" has become, imo, the key way a Lock can surprise a Warrior and cripple his ability to keep you locked down. Lastly, always, always, ALWAYS save your demonic Teleport for when he uses Bladestorm. You have no way to get out of Bladestorm except for this - Death Coil, Fear, Seduce, nothing else works. You will thank me later.

Note on Warrior specs: if you ever encounter a PvP Warrior that is NOT specced for Mortal Strike in PvP outside of gimmicky Prot comps, tell me.

2.2b - As Affliction.
I won't lie to you, this is one of, if not the, hardest fights you will encounter in PvP as an UA Lock. Your lack of burst damage potential, added to the fact that Mortal Strike reduces the effect of ALL healing (including your Syphon Life talent and Drain Life) as well as UA spec's overrealiance on Fear combine to make the Warrior as much of an anti-UA Lock class as you are going to find. Warriors have several ways to break Fear, and when you couple this with the PvP Trinket and Will of the Forsaken, Fear becomes near-useless. Thus, exploiting the aforementioned "Warrior Deadzone" is unbelievably important. Curse of Exhaustion or your Shadowflame can help you do this, as it will limit the speed at which he can back up far enough to Intercept you. Stack your DoTs on him, and save your Howl of Terror for when he has Intercepted you or otherwise close the gap to melee - making sure to NOT blow it when he is Immune to fear.

You will inevitably be hit with Hamstring at some point, drastically slowing your movement speed... you can either use your Trinket/Racial here (or even better, items such as Netherweave Net). Personally I prefer to save my Trinket as UA against Warriors for Intimidating Shout, however if you are Undead, you can use Will of the Forsaken in this case and save Trinket for either Piercing Howl or Hamstring to get diminishing returns kicking in. A Voidwalker or Succubus is the best pet to have in this situation, the void for the melee to-hit debuff, and the succubus to seduce and get in a Shadowbolt for max damage before your DoTs kick in. Either way, you will be facing an uphill battle as UA vs. an MS Warrior.

2.2c - As Demonology
This can be an interesting fight, as it often becomes a sort of "Intercept-battle" with your Felguard and the Warrior doing charges every so often. However, the Warrior clearly has the advantage here - his Intercept is on a 20-second cooldown (10 less from talents which practically every Warrior has, reduced to 15 secs with a PvP set bonus) while your Felguard's is 30 seconds (plus he can now charge you as well. Gulp.) This, coupled with the fact that Warriors mitigate a lot of melee damage with their high armor, making your Felguard's damage a lot less potent, creates a fight that is once again quite difficult for the Warlock. Your Soul Link provides some protection, however many Warriors have so much burst and Armor Penetration that it can seem to be non-existent - therefore, your focus should be on NOT GETTING HIT.

You will most likely only be able to utlize Curse of Agony and Corruption as your DoTs in this fight, so keep them on the Warrior while monitoring your Felguard intently is key. You should ALWAYS have macros for "Pet Stay" and "Intercept" commands when you are Felguard spec; when the Warrior begins to backpedal to wind up an Intercept on you, you set your FG to stay and head towards the Warrior - once enough distance is created between the Warrior and the FG, you Intercept HIM instead of the other way around. Any time the Warrior is stunned, use the opportunity to squeeze in some kind of cast-time-damage-spell, whether it be Shadowbolt or even a smaller one like Searing Pain. If you are specced for Shadowburn - and as Felguard, imo, you should be - you want to use it every time the cooldown is up to add as much damage to the Warrior as possible. Managing your pet and monitoring your distance are the keys to this fight.

There are basically 2 modes of play against a Warrior 1v1 as this spec: "Balls to the Wall try and Outdamage Him" or "Tiptoe around and try to carefully Survive". In the first approach, you want all your cooldowns used as soon as possible. Demonic Empowerment for your Felguard to prevent snares/add damage, chuck your DoTs on him then turn into demon form with Immolate Aura and hope for the best. The second approach will depend entirely on your ability to maneuver your character and watch the distance between you and the Warrior (many addons which show distance between you and your opponent can be invaluable here). Dance boy, dance!

2.2d - As Destruction
The outcome of this will usually determined by who opens fire first, the Random Number Generator giving you/him crits, and what pet the Warlock has out at the time. As stated earlier, as Destro you basically want to have your succubus out at all times, creating any window for you to unleash hell on the Warrior, and is extremely useful for getting him off you if you are Intercepted. You can also get her to use "Soothing Kiss" to reduce the Warrior's melee attack speed. Destro Warlocks actually have quite a good chance in this matchup, as the burst they have access to coupled with a Warrior's general lack of healing skills can put the fight in your hands from the get-go.

Again, up-front damage is key. In fights against Warriors as this spec, I would advise that you do NOT keep a DoT on him other than Immolate as you will probably not have access to any other than Corruption (if talented) that would make up for the amplification of your burst damage provided by Curse of the Elements. Any damaging DoT will break your succubus' seduce and give the Warrior opportunity to get into melee range and splatter you all over the pavement. You want to make use of as many of your damaging abilities in the shortest time possible - unlike when fighting a healer where timing is critical, Warriors possess little ability to recover from burst. Curse of Elements -> Soulfire (he will Intercept you if you arent careful, this is OK, Shadowfury and seduce him again), Immolate -> Incinerate -> Conflagrate -> Chaos Bolt -> Shadowburn should provide you with a LOT of upfront damage, after this point it is a matter of surviving long enough to finish him off via either seduce/fear and larger spells or simply using Searing Pain as many times as possible (especially if you are talented for Imp. Searing Pain.) Backlash procs can also be a godsend in this matchup, giving you a free insta-cast Shadowbolt or Incinerate. (Note - BE CAREFUL OF SPELL REFLECT AS DESTRUCTION! If a Warrior equips his shield in the fight and you see a large glowing shield above his head, DON'T cast one of your big direct damage spells - recast Curse of Elements or a random weak instant DoT on him to use up the reflect charge, otherwise you will embarrass yourself by nuking the hell out of yourself with one of your own big spells.)

2.2e - A note vs. Protection Warriors

Prot Warriors have become increasingly common in PvP recently due to their large hit point pools and huge degree of control in fights. Prot Warriors have a big group of silences and stuns they can chain together to keep casters locked down, and will use spell reflect at any opportunity. I usually just avoid them in BGs if I can as they usually aren't worth the time to focus. If you must focus them, try and only cast your big spells while they are Seduced or Feared. They are capable of surprising burst and I tend to find that most of the Warriors who play Prot in PvP are the crafty ones bored of MS spec looking to go against the grain. Keep an eye out for them. Fury Warriors are fairly gimped in PvP once again and decent ones are thus almost nonexistant.

Post by Kobrakai

2.3 - Mage
2.3a - General Tips: In TBC, Mages often complained about Warlocks being their absolute bane in PvP - as much of a counter-class to them as Rogues or Warriors are seen to be to Warlocks. While this was partially true, the combination of their spec and your spec can go a HUGE way in determining the outcome of your fight, and smart mages can now take out Warlocks efficiently owing to their burst, cooldowns and control. The most popular spec in PvP for Mages is Frost, with at least 44 points in the Frost tree, although some Mages tend to put quite a large deal more in what is possibly the "purest" talent tree in the game. Arcane Mages briefly saw a huge surge at the start of WOTLK owing to a spammable slow and ridiculous burst from Arcane Barrage, this has subsequently been nerfed, although they are still far more common now than in TBC and Slow can be extremely frustrating. You will much more rarely encounter a Fire Mage in PvP as it is generally seen as their "PvE spec" with low survivabilty (although capable of amazing crit damage if lucky). Mages are heavily reliant on their cooldowns in PvP, however in the Frost tree they have a talent called Cold Snap which resets all the cooldowns of their Frost skills every 10 minutes. This, coupled with the ability Ice Block (grants immunity to all damage, wiping all DoTs and debuffs but making the Mage unable to act for 10 seconds) coupled with the Mage's ability to summon a Water Elemental (pet that does decent damage and has a couple of extra abilities) and now Mirror Images which can slow you, drop your target and cause extra damage, means that the fight is not as nearly as one-sided as it once seemed.

Ideally, when facing a Mage you want to have your Felhunter out, as this can make the fight sometimes laughably easy, but for cetain specs or builds, most notably Demonology, this means sacrificing other benefits provided by different pets and is thus not recommended.

2.3b - As Affliction
When Mages talked about fights vs. Warlocks being one-sided, they were probably referring to Locks specced at least 30 points into the Affliction tree. Simply put, Mages are a class that has no healing ability, a small health pool and is based on their ability to "Kite" other classes (stay out of their maximum range while dealing damage), all of which are made pretty much redundant by talents in the Affliction tree. Unstable Affliction and Haunt should be put on the Mage as soon as possible - it provides a barrier so he can't have someone dispel whichever of your DoTs you choose to apply to him. If he blows his Counterspell to silence you when casting UA, counter by silencing him with your Felhunter so he doesn't get in early burst. You want your Shadow tree locked out as little as possible as pretty much all your damage will come from it as Affliction. Basically, you want to have him as damaged as possible, and be at as high health as possible via your drains, for when he casts Ice Block and removes all your DoTs. Since the 2.3 patch, all Mages, regardless of spec, have access to Ice Block; however, only those willing to blow Cold Snap will likely be able to use it more than once in a fight, and that is only after the 30 second Hypothermia debuff fades from the Mage.

When he Ice Blocks, you have two choices - if he summoned his Water Elemental before blocking, try to Banish it. If he didn't, take the time while he is frozen to bandage yourself; he will either get ticked off and cancel his Ice Block early to interrupt you, or you will gain a ton of health back. Between your drain talents, Curse of Tongues (forces him to waste globals dispelling), felhunter and Health Stone, you should not have too much trouble taking down a Mage as an Affliction Lock unless he is Fire spec and gets extremely lucky with critical strikes (an occurrence which is becoming more and more rare as time goes on - good thing you stacked that Resilience, isn't it?). Remember that you can also save your instant Howl of Terror to use on his Mirror Images and get them all off you at once.

2.3c - As Demonology
At first glance, this fight might seem like a cakewalk - you have the mitigation provided by Demo, and a hard- hitting pet in the Felguard against a cloth class with little armor. If the Mage is Frost, don't get too sure of yourself. A frost Mage has the ability to take your Felguard out of the equation via Frost Nova and other snaring talents, leaving you with only weak DoTs and spells with long cast times that are vulnerable to counterspell. Blizzard's sollution to this was the Demonic Empowerment talent, and while this can be extremely handy, smart mages will simply run and kite your pet away from you until the buff fades.Likewise, the effect of your drains will be greatly diminshed, especially if you are specced into Destro for Shadowburn. You will need to play defensively for this fight, making sure that the Mage doesn't get a chance to get you low enough on health for a quick burst "Shatter Combo" (Frost Mages receive a huge bonus to critical strike chance vs. targets that are frozen) that finishes you off before you know what hit you.

Likewise, Curse of Tongues can become a bit redundant as Frost Mages often will spam Ice Lance (instant-cast frost spell, can crit for quite high damage), mitigating its effect. Try not to rely on your curses in this fight, as Mages can dispel them, and will do so at the nearest opportunity. Your pet's Intercept ability should be used whenever you can to interrupt the Mage's casting for any big spells he is winding up - if he gets a frostbolt/ice lance on you when you are stuck in Frost Nova, it can end the fight really quickly. Keep him moving, make him blow his cooldowns, and make sure you keep your pet alive. Also, don't blow your Metamorphosis until he has just used Frost Nova. A smart mage will nova you as soon as you transform and blink away, keeping you rooted while your Immolate Aura ticks off. Once Frost Nova wears off, THEN use Meta and charge him down.

2.3e - As Destruction
Your luck in this fight will depend largely on the RNG. You should have a slight advantage given to you by the talent Nether Protection. If he is Frost, you can expect to have a TOUGH fight on your hands, as he has much more control than you and also more survivability. As Destro, you have to be especially careful against a Mage because if he counterspells you, you may be locked out of your primary damage tree, whether that be Shadow or Fire. The good part about Destro is that once his silence effect has worn off on your primary school however, you then have a SECONDARY school of magic you can resort to - a great tactic is to get a mage to counterspell your fire tree and then use the chance to fear him until it runs out, setting up a chance for a huge nuke. Ice Block will not give the mage as much of an advantage vs. a Destro Lock as they are not as heavily reliant on DoTs, however his pets can hurt you if he summons the Elemental on top of his mirror images as you cant instantly fear them away. Shadowfury and Howl of Terror while he is feared can buy you the time to get them off you.

Seduce, seduce, seduce. Use it to interrupt, use it to keep him on the defensive, get him to be as concerned with your pet as he is you. Use your Chaos Bolt when he has Frost Armor up.

Remember you can always use Death Coil as a means to buy time to get a Fear or Banish cast off. Chaining Death Coil right into a Fear is a great tactic to buy you time as Destro vs. any class.

Post by Kobrakai

2.4 - Hunters
2.4a - General Tips: Hunters can be by far the most irritating class to encounter for a Warlock in PvP. There are a number of factors contributing this that depend largely on his/your spec - a pet on you that will make it near-impossible to use spells with a long cast time unless removed, the ability to attack you from a greater distance than your maximum range, the ability to spec for total Fear/snare/root/stun immunity for 18 seconds every 1.5 minutes, the ability to dispel your buffs/nightfall using a shot in his regular shot rotation, and the fact that Hunter shots are often "untraceable", that is to say, it may take a short amount of time before you realise where the Hunter actually IS, by which time you are most likely low on health. Your priority of dealing with either the Hunter or his pet first will depend on your situation, amount of health and whether there are any obstacles near you with which to exploit Line of Sight (which can be your best friend when fighting any Hunter.) Survival Spec Hunters can be a huge pain to Warlocks with their sudden burst damage, and BM Hunters now have reduced cooldowns on The Beast Within allowing them to use it more often.

2.4b - As Affliction
As with Warriors and Rogues, as Affliction you are a spec that is especially vulnerable to physical damage, and the Hunter is another class that excels in dealing it, except with the advantage of range over melee. One of the things that will now frustrate you to no end is inability for preventing the Hunter from getting off an Aimed Shot (now instant cast) on you - as Affliction you can become heavily reliant on your ability to regenerate health via Siphon Life and your Drains, and with the effect of these being halved by Aimed Shot the fight can quickly turn against you. One of your best abilities as Affliction against a non-BM Hunter is your instant-cast Howl of Terror. Like Warriors, many Hunters freeze up when you run towards them as it is often the last thing they expect; however, this is much less effective than it was in the past, due to the removal of the "Hunter Deadzone" several patches ago that allowed you to stand in a range that was between ranged and melee of the Hunter so that he could, in effect, not attack you (other than Scatter Shot).

Initially I would advise trying to open with a Howl of Terror that you must make sure fears both the Hunter AND his pet, especially if you can get Shadowflame on him. Watching a Hunter stumble around at 70% speed while you run back and forward through him and your DoTs tick can be comical, and is a good counter to him using disengage or deterrence. Use the time while they are feared to stack up your DoTs on them BOTH (don't neglect the pet!) - ideally you want to stack your full arsenal of DoTs on the Hunter WHILE putting Corruption (for its' Syphon Life effect) and Curse of Weakness on his pet (this will help you regen a small amount of health as well as greatly reducing the damage his pet does to you.) The number one rule when fighting a Hunter is to try and minimize his damage done to you by doing things like abusing fear, running BEHIND/THROUGH him so he must turn around, anything that will buy enough time for your DoTs to take effect. If you get a Nightfall proc, use it AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, because more often than not his Arcane Shot will dispel the buff before you even get a chance to use it.

Lastly, the big and often-asked question by UA Locks and Warlocks in general is: What the hell do I do if the Hunter is Beast Mastery spec? This is because, as mentioned above, any Hunter specced into BM will have the loathed talent, "The Beast Within", which as mentioned above makes a Hunter and his pet totally immune to CC, as well as increasing both of their damage. Often labeled the "IWIN Button", remember that the skill is on a cooldown; if you can survive this 18 seconds of Hell, then you can easily destroy the Hunter. So what do you do when the pet turns big and red? Don't try to be a hero. You won't survive if you try to face up to the Hunter in this situation, especially if he gets you at range. This is the moment where you look for something, anything to run behind, be it a pillar in Arena or the farmhouse at Stables. Get your talented Corruption on the Hunter and his pet, Curse of Weakness the pet, then get the hell out of his line of sight ASAP. I often find myself in a Benny Hill-esque situation where I am running circles around a house being chased by a big red cat, with the Hunter chasing both of us - i'm sure it would look funny if it wasn't so damn annoying. Keeping the Hunter unable to use his ranged attacks on you and surviving the damage from only his pet makes the fight far, far easier.

Note on BM Hunters: If you are caught out in the open by a BM Hunter who instantly pops the Beast Within, well, let's say you will have a challenge on your hands. The best thing you can do is use all of your survival skills for that 18 seconds - get up in his grill to melee range, pop your Health Stone (and hope it crits against Aimed Shot), Corruption everything in existence, and pray you last long enough to return the favor after he has blown his one-hit-wonder ability.

2.4c - As Demonology
This fight can be kind of strange in the sense that, as a Felguard Lock, you are essentially a kind of "Hunter-in- cloth". However, the Hunter has the distinct advantage as he DOESN'T have to rely on cast times. Also, one of the biggest weaknesses of a Demo Lock against Hunters of all specs is the vulnerability of your pet to a quick ranged ambush, which can totally strip a Demo Lock of his defenses very quickly. In this situation, get your pet back out by any means neccessary, blow Fel Domination if you must. You NEED the Soul Link damage reductionbadly at all times. If you are desperate you can try to go Meta form and charge him down; however unless you already got a multitude of DoTs on him and he recently blew disengage, you probably won't take him out before you do.

One of the good things about Demo spec however is that you are not as vulnerable to Silencing Shot as the other specs - you are still able to command your Felguard to use Intercept while silenced, and although Marksmanship Hunters are not very common any more, I would suggest intercepting the Hunter every time you are silenced to cancel out the effect of being unable to cast. Again, timing your intercepts to stop him from gaining distance is crucial - the further away from you a Hunter is remember, the better chance he has of being able to win. Keep him close. If he drops a Snake trap, your Felguard's Cleave can kill the snakes in one blow if it isn't on cooldown. I strongly recommend getting rid of them as soon as possible or they will slow both your movement and casting while causing a small amount of damage via poisons. If he pops Beast Within, keep your Felguard on him to continue damage and try to exploit LOS whenever possible. In the end, you need to use your endurance skills to outlast his damage from Explosive Shot (if Survival) and Black Arrow for as long as possible (Shadow Ward should be used to mitigate the damage of Black Arrow whenever possible).

2.4d - As Destruction
A Destro Lock is not always has helpless as one might think against a Hunter - who isn't specced BM. Destro Locks are EXTREMELY vulnerable to Hunter pets because of the constant interrupts and spell pushback, and if the Hunter uses Beast Within, you are basically screwed unless you can Demonic Teleport to a different level of the area. Pet pathing AI coupled with the Hunter's tracking skill will lead them right back to you otherwise. If you don't have a circle down or it's in an obvious location, there are few times I like to actually come out and say this, but there literally isn't much you can do seeing as your Fears/Shadowfury stun/Netherweave nets are all rendered useless for 18 seconds. Curse of Weakness the pet and stack as much burst on the BM Hunter as possible. Pray for lucky crits.

If the Hunter is specced anything other than BM or his IWIN button is on cooldown however, Destro Locks can be lethal against a Hunter. One of the best combinations of spells you can use as a Destro Lock in many situations, but especially against any pet class (including other Warlocks) is the Shadowfury -> Howl of Terror combination. Basically, run at the Hunter, drop a Shadowfury so it hits both him and his pet (stunning them both for 2 seconds) and IMMEDIATELY begin casting Howl of Terror (1.5 second cast time). If timed properly both the Hunter and his pet will be feared off you, giving you the time to wind up a huge damaging Ball of Ownage unhindered. You should be able to burst the Hunter down to half health within this window if you time things properly. Shadowflame can also keep the Hunter from running too far away while feared. He may melee you, but it's much more preferable from him shooting you at a distance.

One thing you have to be extremely careful of as Destro vs. a Hunter is their ability to "Feign Death' to interrupt your long spell casts and drop your targeting of him. Be mindful of this - if a Hunter suddenly "dies" you must manually re-target him (a big clue is that if his pet doesn't disappear, he isn't really dead). A desirable skill to have as a Destro Lock is incidentally quite similar to that of Hunters - the "Jump Shot". Basically you are facing away from the target, jump, turn 180 degrees in mid-air, cast an insta-cast damage spell (Conflagrate, Shadowburn, Death Coil) then turn back around to the way you were originally facing and continue running after you land from your jump. It's a crucial skill to have for getting away from melee as both classes.

Post by Kobrakai

2.5 - Priests
2.5a - General Tips: Priests are a unique animal given that in one spec, they can become the second-most survivable class in the game (after Resto Druids) and in another, they can become a high-damage burst class that can sometimes out-shadow your Shadow damage. Bottom line, you will rarely encounter a Shadow Priest in PvP, and Disc Priests are ANNOYING. Regardless, no matter what spec you are (with the exception of Felguard), the key to winning this matchup is to having your Felhunter out. The ugly little pet can completely turn the tide of the fight in your favor, owing to its ability to strip the Priest down and silence his heals/damage spells. This creates a problem for people who choose to run with other pets for whatever reason. You will easily be able to tell what spec the Priest is by whether he is a dark purple color (Shadow) or looks like a regular character, sometimes glowing with light (Holy/Disc.) Shadow is the damage spec; Holy/Discipline is the healing/survival spec. Your Shadow Ward buff is also helpful in this matchup to absorb some of his damage; use it against a Shadow Priest whenever the cooldown is up.

2.5b - As Affliction
Of all the matchups in the game save vs. Paladins, this is the one in which the Unstable Affliction talent really shines. Priests are, basically, the Kings of Dispel, able to remove almost any debuff cast on them (with the notable exception of Curses), leaving other Warlock specs helpless to burn them down. Not so as UA. Your priority should ALWAYS be to keep UA on the Priest at all times. Yes he can silence you, yes he can fear you, but make it your priority to get UA on him whenever you can. Once UA is cast on a Priest, he has two choices: He can either leave the debuff on himself, taking a large amount of damage and try to either heal through it or ignore it and DPS you down; or, he can dispel it and heal himself of the damage (only stupid Priests or those who don't notice it tend to do this.) Now that DoTs can crit, it becomes even more important to keep a Priest on the defensive by keeping your UA barrier up. Priests have huge healing power and as such you will often not "damage them to death". You really, really want to exploit your Drain Mana ability in this matchup. A single Priest left to run around healing his teammates can turn the tide of an entire BG or Arena, and as such needs to be kept quiet as much and for as long as possible. A Priest without mana is a Priest that can't heal, especially when coupled with your improved drain abilities and your progressive DoT damage as Affliction. Watch out for his Shadowfiend, as it can quickly regenerate his mana back. You don't want that to happen.

The problem with Affliction is that as it is based entirely on Shadow damage, and takes time to kick in, Disc. Priests can often simply heal through the damage and keep themselves alive via Power World: Shield, Prayer of Mending and their longer-cast healing spells. This is why having your felhunter is key - silence him whenever he winds up a big heal and lock him out of his Holy tree whenever you can. Instant Howl of Terror can also be useful for interrupting heals; use this to your advantage, even if he trinkets/uses WOTF to get out of the fear, you have interrupted his cast. The main key is to get the Priest down low health, silence him, and THEN try to burst the remainder of his health. This is EXTREMELY hard to do now as it requires a huge amount of timing and coordination. Penance makes a good target for silencing as it is a channelled spell, and if he gets a full Penance off, he will be back at full health in no time. Get your Felhunter to devour his shields whenever possible. Your succubus' seduce can also be used as a spell interrupt if timed properly, but is far less reliable.

When fighting a Shadow Priest, you must be careful as they are capable of surprising burst damage, a high level of fear resistance, and a proc (Blackout) that, for 10% chance, seems to proc a hell of a lot, stunning you and leaving you extremely vulnerable. Never try to rely on fear vs. a Shadow Priest except as an interrupt - you leave yourself open to silences and the fact that many times, it simply won't work.

2.5c - As Demonology
A Felguard build is actually quite useful against a Priest - they are inherently a low-armor class and his Intercept stuns and Fear immunity, coupled with slowing down Priests non-instans can prove invaluable. However you must be careful to notice when your Felguard has been feared; remember even if YOU trinket out of their Psychic Scream (AOE fear), YOUR PET will still be feared, thus you need to save your Demonic Empowerment so that it breaks. Many Shadow Priests will stay in Shadow form for the increased damage on their Shadow spells - against any other Warlock this is kind of stupid, as they only gain 15% damage resistance to PHYSICAL attacks in Shadow form, however against your Felguard this can have some effect.

As Demo, owing to your lack of dispel protection, you will often have to rely on direct damage spells to get the job done, as the Priest can simply dispel your Corruption/Immolate. I suggest using Fire spells such as Searing Pain/Incinerate rather than Shadow spells to counter their resistance to it. Curse of Tongues can be extremely handy no matter what spec the Priest is, as it can drastically slow his casts and divert their attention long enough to take advantage. When fighting a Disc. Priest, be prepared for a long, long fight however. 1 on 1 you will almost never kill them in time before they get some kind of backup from their teammates; be mindful of this as any spec. Disc Priests also have a skill called Pain Supression which greatly reduces the amount of damage done to them, also increasing their survivability. A Disc. Priest may not kill you himself, but he will almost always survive, and he can chain Mana Burn you, forcing you to lifetap and then moving on the offensive. Be careful and bring a friend or 4.

2.5 - As Destruction
Given that a Destro Lock is usually focusing on Fire damage in PvP, you negate one of the Shadow Priests' advantages by not relying entirely on Shadow spells to get the job done. Timing is critical here however as you are quite squishy, and a decent Shadow Priest can dish out almost as much damage as you in a short time. Your Shadowfury stun makes a great interrupt -> offensive cast combination, and your ability to dish out quick damage and make him panic and shift out of Shadowform to try and heal can give you even more of an opening to dish out some pain.

Destro Locks also have the best chance against a Disc Priest, but are extremely vulnerable to one spell - Mana Burn. Given that Destro is a very mana-inefficient spec, this single spell can destroy you if the Priest gets a chance to cast it enough times. Thus, it is in your interests to prevent that. Destro provides the ultimate form of CC for a Disc. Priest - burst damage. Get his health down low, hit him with a Stun/Silence and use your instant burst abilities to finish him off (Shadowfury -> Conflagrate -> Chaos Bolt -> Shadowburn are your friend.) Don't bother trying to Mana Drain a Disc. Priest as Destro as he will always win the mana battle. You have to make sure he doesn't outlast you. This is Destro's strength. You need him stunned or CC'ed at a near-dead level, or he will be back at full health in a matter of seconds. Abuse your Chaos Bolt and pierce those damage absorption effects. If he uses Dispersion (he turns into a little ball of shadow), don't bother trying to DPS him as this is basically a "Priest Cloak of Shadows" that reduces all damage and that also gives them a ton of mana back. Fear him for the duration.

Post by Tagara

Really nice guide so far, I pasted some grammar/spelling errors below, keep up the good work

warrior section
smaller one like Searing Pain. If you are specced for Soulburn - and as Felguard, imo, you should be - you want to use it every time the cooldown is up to add as much damage to the Warrior as possible. Managing your pet and monitoring your distance are the keys to this fight. ( Shadowburn you mean)

Post by 150225

This post was from a user who has deleted their account.

Post by Synfulomen

brilliant. thats the only word i can use to describe it. I have tailoring 360 and you can bet when i go on next im making a million netherweave nets

Sticky now

Post by Gnostik

2.3e - As Destruction
Your luck in this fight will depend on his spec and the RNG. If he is Fire, you should have a distinct advantage given to you by the talent Nether Protection. If he is Frost, you can expect to have a TOUGH fight on your hands, as he has much more control than you and also more survivability. As Destro, you have to be especially careful against a Mage because if he counterspells you, you may be locked out of your primary damage tree, whether that be Shadow or Fire. The good part about Destro is that once his silence effect has worn off on your primary school however, you then have a SECONDARY school of magic you can resort to - a great tactic is to get a mage to counterspell your fire tree and then use the chance to fear him until it runs out, setting up a chance for a huge nuke. Ice Block will not give the mage as much of an advantage vs. a Destro Lock as they are not as heavily reliant on DoTs, however his pet can hurt you if he summons the Elemental due to your lack of Soul Link.

A note on Counterspell, and other interrupt effects, as Destruction. Against an opponent that you know will kick/Counterspell/etc., you are basically deciding, "Which school do I need to continue to use?" and then drawing the CS on the other school.

So let's say it's at the beginning of a fight, and you've got CoE and Immolate on a Rogue. You want to continue the Fire damage, but you know he is ready to Kick. Begin casting Fear. You're almost guaranteed a Kick here. Then you simply go back to nuking.

More important is when you need access to Shadow (Shadowfury, Fear.) You will do well if you can get them to Kick your Fire spells. And it's not hard to give them that incentive. If you're winding up an Incinerate, it's in their interest to stop you, unless they know you're faking them out and don't want to get Feared. But it's lose-lose for them; if they allow you to get nukes off then the fight may well be yours.

(Of course, any smart Rogue will never give you the chance. CS -> KS -> Imp Kick -> CloS -> dead.)

P.S. Re: the section on Mages, Remove Curse doesn't affect magical DoTs, so Mages and Druids are not at risk from UA.

P.P.S. You might want to mention in the Hunters section, at least for Destro spec, to constantly run toward the Hunter. It's a range game; he's weaker in melee range, you aren't; and you have lots of instant nukes vs. a Hunter because Backlash continually pops. Only way a Hunter beats my Destro lock is by keeping me at range the whole time. Intimidation is the killer.

P.P.P.S. It is actually a really good guide. :) Forgot to mention that.

Post by 91244

This post was from a user who has deleted their account.

Post by Kobrakai

2.6 - Paladin
2.6a - General Tips: Paladins have the scenario of being either very easy or fairly hard depending on their spec. In PvP, you will rarely come across a Pally spec'd for Protection, and if you do you simply need to keep him kited to kill him as a Lock. The majority of Paladins you come across will either be Holy spec or, since recently, Retribution spec. While in the past Ret was often laughed at, owing to several buffs and fixes as well with melee gear scaling, a decently played Ret Paladin is no longer a laughing matter and can easily tear through a Warlock with a ton of front-loaded burst if not treated properly. Holy Pallies however, pose almost no threat to a Warlock by themselves. No matter what spec you are, your best friend in the fight against a Holy Paladin is Curse of Tongues. Every Paladin heal except for Holy Shock has a cast time, and Curse of Tongues serves to slow down their healing ability by forcing them to rely on Holy Shock and instant Flash of Light procs from Crits, often leaving them very vulnerable. Paladins have a Cleanse ability that can remove some Damage over Time spells, however their offensive output is mostly feeble and they are not a class designed to kill you, but are there to heal their allies and outlast you.

2.6b - As Affliction
As a UA Lock, you are the bane of Holy Paladins, with your 41-point talent specifically designed to counter their healing ability. Couple UA with Curse of Tongues and a felhunter, and the Paladin will basically be near powerless to kill you. As in any fight with a Pally, expect at some point for him to pop his Divine Shield, wiping all your DoTs and becoming immune to all damage for 12 seconds, and heal to full. Holy Pallies are often left to defend flags in Arathi Basin or Eye of the Storm, and are extremely effective at this, seeing they have the ultimate time-buying ability of any class with Divine Shield. Fortunately, this skill is on a 5-minute cooldown. Use any opportunity you can to silence the Paladin's Holy school of magic, and render him useless for as long as it lasts.

Ret. Pallies are a whole other story for UA Locks however. Heavily gear-dependent, a decked-out Ret Pally has some of the highest short-term burst potential in the game, which can be especially devestating to a spec as squishy as UA. Basically, you want to prevent the Pally from touching you for as long as possible. Kiting is the name of the game... Curse of Exhaustion spam, make him blow his mana on Cleanses before you can get UA on him. At some point he will cast Hand of Freedom, making him immune to being slowed, hopefully your Felhunter will devour magic and remove it from him. Unfortunately you are at the mercy of the RNG Gods here, and Ret Pallies have a TON of junk buffs to act as dispel fodder. Trinket out of Repentance when cast on you - you do NOT want to sit there let him get back into melee range and take huge damage. Maintain your distance. Paladins are fortunately very susceptible to Fear as no Undead can be a Paladin and they have few long-range attacks. Use your instant Howl of Terror to get him off you after using Devour Magic on yourself to remove Hammer of Justice if you get stunned. If you get a Fear off while the Pally is low on mana, take the opportunity to drain the remainder and then laugh at him as he tries to auto-attack you to death, keeping him unable to use judgement to replenlish mana back. Kite, kite, kite.

2.6c - As Demonology
Demo Locks are a little lacking in the advantages other specs have against Paladins, as most Pallies will not be interrupted from heals by your Felguard's melee. Smart Paladins use Concentration Aura to remove spell pushback on their heals, and as they are a heavily-armored class, the pet melee damage is minimized. Stay at a fair distance and use your Felguard's Intercept whenever it is up to interrupt heals. Curse of Tongues should always be up no matter what spec you are when fighting a Holy Pally. Try to get him to blow his Divine Shield as soon as possible. Once he is low, you should be nuking him with Incinerate or Shadowbolt, and using the resulting Decimation procs to cast Soulfire to burn him down.

With Ret. Pallies, Felguard positioning again becomes extremely important, because if they get the jump on you and stun you, you have no way to get them off you quickly other than pet Intercept. Get him feared as much as you can, hit him with DoTs while he is running away and then intercept him with your Felguard as he starts coming back towards you and repeat. Your Metamorphosis will provide SOME mitigation, but Ret Pallies hit HARD and with a lot of HOLY damage (unmitigated by resistance) and tend to crit enough to make it far less useful than against other classes. Also, watch out for Turn Evil which the Pally can use to fear your pet, or yourself when in Demon form. Interrupt this if possible, if he has the instant cast glyph, trinket ASAP.

2.6d - As Destruction
Your ability to beat a Holy Paladin as Destro depends entirely on your timing of spell casts. Pally heals hit them for so much that they can go from nearly-dead to full health within a matter of seconds. It is your job as Destro to make sure they don't get the chance to recover. You have a number of valuable skills to interrupt a Holy Pally's casting - Shadowfury stun, Seduce, Fear, Howl of Terror, Spell Lock etc. Make sure you utilize them when the moment is right instead of blowing them early and making diminishing returns kick in before you can take control of the fight.

For Ret. Pallies, the key is distance. Attack them first whenever you can, and hit them hard. Ret Pallies are an offensive class that needs to be in close range to do anything to you, but be wary of their stuns which they can hit you with outside of melee range. Don't bother with Curse of Tongues against a Ret. Pally. Curse of Elements, and nuke them down while running away from them in between casts. Be wary of Blessing of Freedom, and counter with Seduce or you will end up dead. Death Coil is great for finishing up the fight. If they blow Divine Shield, get away from them. Their melee damage is lowered, but they can still hit you quite hard. Ret. Pallies are fairly easy as Destro as long as you take the initiative and start the fight on your terms. If he heals while bubbled, do the same. Healthstone or bandage, &*!@ him off and he will break his concentration or let you gain health back. Use your demonic circle to confuse him or get away while his Hand of Freedom runs out. DON'T get caught in a stun at any cost.

2.6e - Note on Prot Pallies
Recently, and especially come next patch, Prot Paladins are also becoming more powerful in PvP and are capable of surprising burst. They get a 20 second cooldown on their Hammer of Justice, a ranged Silence that can crit for an insane amount, and the ability to regenrate mana by hitting you with a chance to proc another 3 second stun. Keep them as far away from you as possible, and seduce them when you are CC'ed.

Post by Kobrakai

2.7 - Shaman
2.7a - General Tips: As with any of the "hybrid" classes (Paladin, Druid, Shaman, and to an extent, Priest) your fight against a Shaman can change radically depending on what spec they are - and your spec's capability with dealing with them. Shamans, more than any other class, have been altered since the end of TBC and given a bunch of bandaid fixes in order to make them more competitive in PvP. Some of these have worked; some haven't.

Caster Shamans main weakness that can still be exploiyed by Locks is that they only have a single magic school (Nature) that encompasses all of their healing and most of their damage abilities. Enhancement Shamans are a totally different breed however - a hugely luck-based class that relies on Windfury, which can cause insane damage in a single melee rotation, coupled with the offensive dispel power of Purge and the recent increased range on Frost Shock and buff to insta-cast Ghost Wolf can make the shortest work of a Warlock of the two Shaman DPS specs. Their Spirit Wolves can be the final nail in the coffin if the Warlock is caught unprepared. Shamans also possess 2 key abilities that can make life difficult for Warlocks - Tremor Totem (breaks fear and other CC effects within radius of the totem) and Grounding Totem (completely absorbs an offensive magical effect) can quickly turn the fight in a Shaman's favor. No matter what spec Lock you are, BE SURE NOT TO WASTE YOUR DEATHCOIL ON A GROUNDING TOTEM. This single mistake can lose the fight for you in itself. When a Shaman is in radius of a Grounding Totem, a small purple Icon with chains in it will appear under their name. Make sure you either cast an insta-cast DoT, have your pet kill the totem, or if you have time, wand the totem, to remove it. Nothing is as frustrating as winding up a big offensive cast only to have it eaten by a Shaman's Grounding Totem. Lastly, if a Shaman ever uses one of his Elementals (Fire or Earth), Fear him and Banish them ASAP. The Fire Ele in particular can hit quite hard.

2.7b - As Affliction
Any Warlocks who are specced into Affliction and have built up an overrealiance on Fear may find themselves extremely frustrated when fighting Shaman. Other than your instant Howl of Terror, casting regular Fear will often lead to it either breaking quickly because of Tremor Totem, or the Shaman using Earth Shock to not only interrupt your Fear but also lock out your entire Shadow school for 6 seconds. As a spec that relies completely on the Shadow school, this can be devestating, no matter what spec the Shaman is. A good habit to get into is to "Fake" casts of any Shadow spell - begin to cast a Shadow spell, then quickly cancel it and hope the Shaman misses the interrupt. The aim here is to coax the Shaman into wasting his Earth Shock, leaving him with it on cooldown while you are free to stack up your DoTs. As a general rule, if you are fighting an Elemental or Resto Shaman, keep Curse of Tongues up on them at all times. An Affliction Warlock has an advantage over a Resto Shaman when played properly, and a HUGE advantage over an Elemental Shaman - with most of your offensive spells being instant-cast, they have little chance to Earth Shock you out of your favored tree.

Vs. a Resto Shaman, keep your Felhunter on him at all times, as it will be able to devour his main defense - Earth Shield - and also be there for you to use Spell Lock to silence his nature tree. If you can silence him at low health and then use Fear or Howl of Terror to fear him, the fight should be yours. Resto Shaman are, with the exception of Holy Paladins, the easiest healing spec to kill for an Affliction Warlock. Resto Shaman now have an instant heal - Riptide - that buffs their heal casting time and makes them more difficult to drop than before.

Vs. Elemental Shaman, be careful of their huge amounts of burst damage - you are quite squishy, and their ability to combine Elemental Mastery with Lava Burst followed by their Lightning spells can hit for a crapton of damage in a small amount of time. As with Resto Shamans, use any opportunity to lock out his Nature tree with your felhunter when he is casting a lightning spell, and victory can soon be yours. Curse of Tongues, and prevent him from getting any big spells off as much as possible. If you see the Flame Shock debuff on yourself, prepare to be crit for a huge amount of Lava Burst damage if you aren't careful. The spell will ALWAYS crit on a target where Flame Shock is applied. Run through him, silence him with felhunter, instant Howl. Don't let that Lava Burst hit you, it can decide the entire fight.

Vs. Enhancement Shaman has recently become something of a (bad) joke as an Affliction Warlock; they have gained a couple of buffs like instant-Ghost Wolf and Frost Shock range increase, which on their own wouldn't be so much of a big deal - however, if the Enh. Shaman gets LUCKY, and gets you in melee range, or sneaks up behind you, he can absolutely DEVASTATE you in a matter of seconds IF he is geared and IF his Windfury crits. Kiting is the name of the game as UA - GET HIM OFF YOU ASAP. You have to be careful when kiting. If you are too far, you will be rooted by his Frost Shock and at his mercy. If you are too close, he will whack you. You have to dance the fine line between long and short range kiting. The cardinal rule vs. Enhance shamans in WOTLK PvP has become to use your instant Howl of Terror (make sure he doesn't have a Grounding or Tremor Totem down first!) ONLY when he has his Spirit Wolves summoned to get him off you and once he is at max distance, use Curse of Exhaustion constantly - those wolves will RIP you apart, stun you, and give him health back all in one. If he gains ground on you due to Frost Shock I would recommend either Devouring Magic to get the snare off you or trinketing and getting the hell away from him. Death Coil if neccessary, and try to limit all of your casts to instant spells except for when he is feared.

2.7c - As Demonology
The plus side of being Felguard against a Shaman is that your Felguard can help to push back his spell cast times, and the fact that if he does have time to get one off, your Soul Link will reduce some of his bigger hits. However, the negatives are that you lack burst damage to counter his, negating your survival value and making you vulnerable to rapid damage. Also, as Felguard, you will greatly miss the silence and devour armor that your felhunter would usually provide, thus making Demo weaker against Resto Shaman in particular. As with any class that relies on long cast times, your Felguard's Intercept is a valuable interrupt that allows you time to get either a Shadowbolt or Fear off. Curse of Tongues can turn his Lesser Healing Waves, normally a very short cast, into a battle to get off that should give you ample time to Intercept stun with your Felguard.

As with Affliction, be wary of Elemental Shamans who may be standing back casting from range. Seeing your Felguard's speed is higher than that of players, I recommend sicking it on him as early in the fight as possible to prevent up-front damage. Be careful of his Earthbind totem root. You need to use your Demonic Empowerment for it to keep the Felguard on his ass and push back his cast times, otherwise he is wide open to throw a Lava Burst Fastball at your face. Smart Shamans of both the Elemental and Enhance variety will burn the hell out of your Felguard, and can quickly take him out if given the opportunity - Enhance especially when combined with Frost Shock, Stormstrike and Windfury can lead to a dead Felguard very quickly, gimping you. It's thus very important to manually micromanage your Felguard at all times against an Enhancement Shaman - use it for intercepts and kiting, but be mindful not to let it die. Counter his Spirit Wolves with your Metamorphosis, you need the armor boost and extra damage to take him down when they are out. Immolate him and his little doggies down.

Note: Frostweave Nets can be an absolute godsend against an Enhancement Shaman as any spec of Warlock for escaping their melee range as Ghost Wolf does not remove roots like a Druid's Travel Form.

2.7d - As Destruction
Watch out for Enhance Shamans as this spec whatever you do. Because you lack kiting and escape mechanisms of other specs, you are extremely susceptible to being torn up quickly. Shadowfury at max distance whenever you can to keep them off you and be VERY mindful of them dropping Grounding Totems as Destro - a single totem can totally interrupt one of your offensive combos and leave you standing there like an idiot before having to turn and flee to gain distance again. Burst them down from as far away as you can as soon as possible, seduce if you can to stop them in their tracks (careful of Tremor Totem). Shadowflame and run through them, then teleport away. Shadowfury and Howl of Terror his dogs before they eat you for dinner.

Resto Shamans can be relatively easy to take down as Destro, especially when you couple Curse of Tongues with your Felhunter silence and Shadowfury stu. You are also not as vulnerable to him Earth Shocking your Shadow tree - if he does, simply use Fire spells until the silence runs out, or vice-versa. Stay at max distance outside of his shock range so he can't interrupt your casts and you should be able to win this fight without too much trouble compared to other healers. His Earth Shield can become a problem if you don't have your Fel Puppy out to devour it, which is the one major weakness the Succubus pet choice has against Resto Shamans.

Elemental Shamans are kind of the same as you are as Destro, except they have more utility thanks to totems, and more survivability thanks to Water Shield and heals. Their burst damage is crazy now in WOTLK, so you need to stun and interrupt it as much as possible via either Shadowfury, felhunter silence or succubus seduce. If you get him healing and on the defensive from the start, you will have the upper hand. Curse. Of. Tongues. It's also extremely valuable if you can use your felhunter to devour his Elemental Mastery buff, which can allow him an instant cast and crit buff that will hit you very hard, very quickly. Timing, and a good combat text addon with alerts, such as Mik's Scrolling Battle Text (Google it) are a GREAT help here.

2.8 - Druid
2.8a - General Tips: Druids are by far the most diverse and slippery class in WoW. Their ability to shapeshift into different forms, completely removing all root and snare effects has been the topic of much debate amongst other classes, especially since the introduction of Arena, owing to exploitation of Line of Sight issues. Depending on their spec, they can either be the most survivable PvP healer in the game; a long-range caster with an annoying variety of CC and some big nukes coupled with high armor; or a melee/tank hybrid with stealth that can tear up a Warlock very, very quickly and also has a resistance to stuns and fears. The most important thing to gauge from the start with a Druid is what spec he is - this is easy to tell by his gear when you learn to recognize it, but even if you don't, you can still differentiate easily. If he stays in caster form most of the time while dropping Healing over Time spells and running around in circles like an idiot while shifting to Travel Form to escape, he is Resto; if he shifts from Cat to Bear form often and hits you hard and fast in melee, he is Feral; and if he ever turns into a retarded owl-chicken-person hybrid, he is Balance. Druid spec makes the biggest difference out of all the classes in the game in the way you should approach a fight with them. Felhunter is great against Balance and Resto, near-useless against Feral. Your succubus is likewise mostly useless against a Feral Druid, however can be a great help in stopping a Resto or Balance Druid in their tracks when caught in caster form. Fear is likewise more useful against Balance and Resto Druids than Feral Druids.

2.8b - As Affliction
Affliction Locks have a hard time against Feral Druids - if caught by surprise from stealth. Feral Druids will often have a talent that increases their resistance to Fears by 15%, and if he ambushes you and your instant Howl of Terror fails at getting him off you due to a resist, you are in big trouble. The Feral Druid is a mix between a Rogue and a Warrior depending on what form he is in - as with Warriors, it is important as Affliction to exploit his "Intercept Deadzone" - Bear Druids have an intercept/interrupt just like a Warrior that will root you in place instead of stunning you - when he backpedals, follow him and don't let him get it off. Curse of Exhaustion can be a great tool to spam on a Feral Druid seeing they generally have low mana pools and must shapeshift to remove your snares. In Cat Form they can dish out a lot of damage to an Affliction Lock without Soul Link, thus kiting and smart use of fears to keep him off you while controlling your mobility in appropriate directions is extremely important.

Balance Druids are a cakewalk as Affliction. Curse of Tongues coupled with your multiple ways of both damaging him while healing yourself and your felhunter interrupts make this fight pretty easy. One thing to be wary of however is if he summons his Treants on you - they do quite a lot of melee damage to a UA Lock. Save your instant Howl of Terror for this eventuality and you will be fine.

Resto Druids are excruciatingly frustrating as any DPS class in the game, however to a class that deals it's damage OVER TIME, just as a Druid deals most of his healing OVER TIME, it can cut two ways. On the positive side, if he runs out of Line of Sight, then your damage will still be ticking on him. On the negative side, he has ample chance to recover from your damage before dying by simply outhealing the damage. Resto Druids innately have a very high mana regen ability, so this DoT - HoT dance can go on seemingly forever. Your UA also does not take effect when Resto Druids remove your curses as they do not count as a "Dispel" cast, regardless I would recommend keeping Curse of Exhaustion on him as much as possible, forcing him to focus on shifting rather than healing. Keep your felhunter on him to devour his heals but me mindful of him repeatedly casting Lifebloom as your felhunter dispelling it will simply cause it to heal him instantly. Be prepared for a long and tedious fight.

Post by Kobrakai

2.8c - As Demonology
Felguard Locks fare slightly better here against a Resto Druid as both caster and travel forms have low armor values, and your pet can stay on the Druid indefinately regardless of LOS. Maintain your DoTs as much as you can while focusing on direct damage spells. Try and force him to have to cast a heal with a cast time such as Regrowth or Healing Touch, which you can then Intercept interrupt and Fear. Absolutely abuse Fear as a Warlock against a Resto Druid. You want him to have absolutely minimal time to keep any HoTs on himself. If he Trinkets, Fear him again, and once more to interrupt any big heals before diminishing returns kick in. Wait for them to reset and do it again. Resto Druids are annoying as hell by exploiting their class abilities - the key is to be just as annoying to them by exploiting yours.

As with Rogues, it is important to have your Felguard positioned away from you when you know a Feral Druid is in the area. The Intercept after he uses Pounce on you can buy you valuable time to prevent him from stacking combo points and doing a ton of burst damage. Feral Druids move very quickly in Cat Form, however fortunately they also have low armor in this form. When he changes to Bear, focus on magic damage and slip in any longer casts such as Searing Pain or Shadowbolt if you can as his swing speed will be much lower than Cat Form and interrupt your casts much less.

Balance Druids can be a pain as Demo since a large part of your damage and control comes from your Felguard, which he can use Entangling Roots to keep immobile while focusing his nukes on you. Exploit Fear, use Curse of Tongues and Drain Life when you can to get some of your health back. Moonkins can hit hard, especially if they get a Starfire off, and even though you have Soul Link, you are far from invulnerable. Get your Felguard to taunt his Treants if he summons them on you so that they don't focus on you and allow him to bomb you from afar while distracted

2.8d - As SL/SL
If you are planning to fight a Resto Druid as SL/SL, make sure you drink lots of caffeine beforehand, or at least start the fight on a bed of some form, because otherwise you will soon be asleep. Simply put, these two specs are mirror images of each other - designed for maximum survivability while focusing on slow effects that exploit line of sight equals one long, long fight that will almost never reach a conclusion unless the Lock gets lucky with fear and Shadowbolt crits from Nightfall procs, or the Druid's teammates come along to put the Lock out of his misery.

SL/SL can fare slightly better against Feral Druids than Affliction almost entirely due to Soul Link, coupled with the fact that UA is not necessary against a Druid. If you happen to have a voidwalker summoned for whatever reason, all the better for you. If you have a felhunter, be sure to save his silence for when the Druid inevitable shifts to Bear form to use his Bash on you then shift out to cast a long heal - if you interrupt his, he will be screwed. Deathcoil him to the face and then dance on his furry body.

SL/SL likewise also fares well against Balance Druids, being similar to Affliction and more resistant to his crits. If at any time a Moonkin gets you down to low health and tries to finish you off via Moonfire spam, Deathcoil him and Drain Life as much as possible, then laugh at him for wasting his mana. Don't let him continue to spam it if he has a lot of mana left, as it can crit due to talents a lot more than his other spells, allowing him to use Nature's Grace to cast other spells (Wrath, Starfire) with 0.5 seconds off the cast time.

2.8e - As Destruction
I won't lie to you, some of the most satisfying kills I have ever had both in Arena and Battlegrounds have come specced as Destro and nuking the utter crap out of a dancing, prancing Resto Druid. Destro is, as mentioned previously, only ever decent in 5v5 Arena, but your combination of rapid hitting, high-critting attacks coupled with the ability to lifetap after being healed lead to a huge amount of damage dealth in a minimal amount of time, perfect for countering Resto Druids. In a BG, if you can manage to seduce a Resto Druid with your succubus while he is at half health or less, THIS is the one time I would definately recommend trying to be a one-hit-wonder - pop your spell damage trinket, hit him with Curse of the Elements and wind up a Soulfire. Instantly follow this with a Shadowburn before he can Swiftmend and then spam /spit on his corpse.

Destro Locks are however at the biggest disadvantage vs. a Feral Druid. Their immunity to seduce in forms leaves you without any real escape mechanism other than Shadowfury stun; and, as stated, they have a 15% resistance to stuns on top of normal resists. They will be one of your worst nightmares in battlegrounds if they are geared appropriatelet. Fear them when they/if they shift to Bear and use the opportunity to pack in as much damage as you can. Cat Form Feral Druids will tear you up as Destro if you give them enough time.

Treat a Moonkin Druid similarly to how you would handle a Frost Mage - they have rooting effects, can summon a pet every 3 minutes, and can crit you hard if you give them casting time. Curse of Tongues as always, and use your succubus or felhunter wisely.

Post by Kobrakai

2.9 - Warlock
2.9a - General Tips: And at last we come to our own class, the Warlock. While we should all have a much larger knowledge base on our own class than others, I still see a lot of Warlocks doing some strange things in Battlegrounds that makes me shake my head. Of course, when you come across another Warlock, the biggest factors will be Spec, Gear and Skill, in that order. I'd like to say that it's a sort of balanced scissors/paper/rock type of deal when facing another Lock, but it doesn't quite work that way. Generally speaking, your Shadow Ward can help, although not a great deal - it doesn't absorb much damage, but can still make a difference. Banishing the other Warlock's pet can either be effective or a fight-losing waste of time depending on their spec and which pet they have out. Felhunters will wreck you - say goodbye to your Fel Armor, Nightfall, Backlash and any other buffs you have unless you are able to use them as soon as possible, because the puppy will strip you. Also be very conscious about getting your Shadow school locked out, especially if you are not Destro. Learning to fake casts and get the other Lock to waste his silence is crucial. Never try to Banish a Felhunter as they have stupidly high magic resist - unless you get a Curse of Shadows on it, I would never attempt to Banish one unless you are desperate. Hopefully you will have a Felhunter out when you come across another Lock, because the other pets simply aren't much use at all. Your racial choice can also be the deciding factor in this case, with Undead Warlocks having a decided advantage owing to the "extra Trinket" provided by WOTF. Let's take a more detailed look...

2.9b - As Affliction
Your mobility is really important here, especially if you are facing a Destro Lock. Affliction will generally have an advantage over Destro, however if he gets in some lucky crits and his Nether Protection procs a lot, you can end up on your ass very quickly. When he is winding up a longer cast spell, e.g, Shadowbolt, try and slip in a Fear to both interrupt it and give you a chance to stack up your DoTs. Destro Locks can drop quite quickly, hopefull your Felhunter will be there to devour his buffs, especially keeping an eye out for Backlash and Nether Protection, as wasting an instant Howl of Terror or Death Coil on him while he is immune can ruin things for you. Vs. a Lock who is either SL/SL or Felguard, buying the time to Banish his pet can help a lot, as while it is Banished he will lose the Soul Link buff, increasing the damage he takes, and especially gimping the Felguard Lock's control of the fight. Insta-Howl can give you the time to Banish if need be. Remember you have the option to fear both him OR his Felguard as well - Demo Locks are very pet-reliant; use it to your advantage. An SL/SL Lock can be a chore to take down, and will likely come down to who times things better as your higher damage DoTs are cancelled out by his Soul Link.

2.9c - As Demonology
Generally from what i've seen, Demo Locks fare better against Destro and worse against Affliction/SL Locks due to the other specs being able to exploit Line of Sight, giving them a chance to Banish the Felguard or interrupt spell casting of Shadowbolt etc. Try to keep an Afflic. Lock in your line of sight, or at least your Felguard's line of sight so you can Intercept them, as much as possible. Remember that UA Locks are squishier than SL/SL, so try and pack in direct damage when he is either stunned or feared. Against Destro, you can dominate the fight if you keep Curse of Tongues on him the entire time. Also be careful in timing your longer cast spells around his Nether Protection as you won't have a Felhunter out to dispel it. If he burns your Felguard down quickly from range, be careful. Try and engage Destro Locks in close quarters so that you can run through them when they cast, your Felguard interrupting casts, and simply intercept them if they try to run off. SL/SL Locks will have an advantage over you, especially if they can Banish/Fear your Felguard given that 90% of SL/SL Locks will run with a Felhunter out.

2.9d - As SL/SL
You will fare quite well against all other specs of Lock as your ability to combine survivability with mobility will generally cancel out the strengths of the other specs. Destro Locks should be cake for you - exploit Line of Sight and interrupt casts whenever possible. Banish his succubus if he is using it to seduce you if you like - however, remember that after the first seduce, diminishing returns will kick in, and you may find it easier to simply live through his burst, then fear him and drain life to get health back. Exploit your drains as much as possible when fighting a Destro Lock, especially if he doesn't have a Felhunter out. As with Demo, do the reverse: get his Felguard alone and either DoT it up out of his line of sight until it dies, or banish it while your DoTs eat him. Lastly, be careful vs. UA Locks and watch out for instant Howl of Terror. Try not to rely on any spells with a cast time - no SB, Incinerate, etc as you do NOT want to get spell locked out of Shadow.

2.9e - As Destruction
You would be totally gimp vs. other Warlocks if it were not for your saving grace - Nether Protection. The MAIN reason this talent is even viable is fighting other Warlocks - without it, you will be destroyed by any decent player of any other spec; it is therefore worth taking for that reason alone. If you have the time vs. a Demo Lock, I would recommend nuking his Felguard down while out of his field of vision - Felguards themselves are fairly squishy and non-resistant to magic, especially once you have a high level of spell damage (at time of writing I wouldn't recommend PvPing as Destro with any less than 900 spell damage self-buffed, as you simply won't have the burst to maximize your spec, especially against other Locks) and you can crippled him early in the fight if you are able to do so. In this "ambush" sense, using Shadowbolt instead of Incinerate can be smart as Incinerate's huge trail and long travel time can instantly give your position away. Shadowfury can be used to interrupt fears, but be mindful of the cooldown, and you MUST time them properly. Vs. UA and especially SL/SL Locks, remember that the longer the fight goes on, the less chance you have of winning due to your limited mana supply and weak drains. I would generally avoid directly engaging a Lock of either spec in the BGs as they have an inherant advantage against Destro.

Post by 91244

This post was from a user who has deleted their account.

Post by Kobrakai

3.0 - Conclusion:
The Warlock is a great damage-dealing class when used correctly, however has become much weaker in terms of PvP than it was in the past. The unreliability of fear coupled with the vulnerability of cloth classes to increasingly high melee damage vs. lack of escape mechanisms other than Death Coil has lead to a class that is prone to often being focus-fired and locked down in PvP. Many PvP newbies generally still cry that "Warlocks are OP" because they lack the fundamental skills/knowledge to exploit our classes' weaknesses, however they will die to a Lock's DoTs from out of the blue, or allow themselves to be chain-feared and then shout "Nerf!". Smart players however, no matter what class, are becoming increasingly aware of how to take advantage of a Warlock's weaknesses. The key is to utilizing your mobility and exploiting terrain features while learning not to over-rely on fear that can make you a truly dominant Warlock in all forms of PvP. More than with any other DPS class, for Warlocks one statement holds true: Patience is key.

Warlock Guide: PvP

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