Sin dorei

Sooo…after having had a BG-inspired QQ temper tantrum (me? Never…) I found myself on my old server playing my warlock. This is a server where we still slaughter in AB and have 5 second AV queue times. I believe the time has come to start the process of bring my warlock to Lightninghoof but only after spending time getting a living smackdown of this easy smeasy honor.

To this end I am looking for a good warlock build. Affliction has my heart as far as warlock trees go. I like the idea of playing a warlock with powerful curses, fears, and life draining abilities. I also like ending some fights with more mana and health than I started with. I am playing around with a few different builds and am interested in getting feedback.

1. Affliction/Ruin build
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http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/warlock/talents.html?2501022512230115512000000000000000000000000505000512200010000000

Deep affliction without the unstable affliction. The remaining points go over to destruction to get ruin and some other goodies. This warlock is restricted to shadow damage but is more versatile than a typical affliction warlock in that he has powerful shadowbolts. His DoTs can be dispelled but I find when someone does this I can just switch over to SBs while they are occupied with dispelling. Another version of this drops points from contagion and puts the remaining in imp curse of agony and 3/5 in demonic embrace (or 5/5 in demonic embrace).

2. SM/Emberstone

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/warlock/talents.html?1500220512230115000000000000000000000000000505000512200510500000

This is something of an evolution of the oldschool SM/Ruin build – giving the warlock flexibility in terms of using both shadow and fire. Powerful Dots, shadowbolts, and you can set people on fire. What isn’t to love about that? The warlock’s dots are easier to dispel and no improved howl of terror, which is kind of sad. This is not a huge pvp build but I like the dual fire/shadow for protection against spell school locking. There is some flexibility here in terms of spreading points. Points can be taken from either SM or emberstone to give 31 to affliction (for dark pact) or 31 to destruction (for conflagrate).

3. Deep Affliction/Shadowburn

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/warlock/talents.html?2502022512230115512010350000000000000000000505000010000000000000

This build grabs unstable affliction and shadowburn. The remaining 8-9 points can go anywhere. I do not see much reason to dump any more points into affliction so demo seems alright in order to grab demonic embrace and imp imp. Imp? Yes imp. He’s going to be out most of the time so might as well.

Any suggestions? Destruction looks fun too. Maybe I should try that instead….hmmm….

I was a very devout destruction warlock prior to BC and Arenas, and still maintain that it is the most fun build--especially in battlegrounds. Frankly I think it synergizes really well with most battleground mentalities where it's very much a war of attrition in terms of going out from a GY, doing as much as you can and then just coming back at full. I think a destruction warlock is unprecedented in that field.

While you will be dying a fair amount, it is counterbalanced very well by how much you will really just screw over the other team with a string of big crits. Mana issues become relatively inconsequential because of the nature of graveyards and rezzing. AV is the only place where your lack of longevity will show--but only results in needing to have mana biscuits handy to eat/drink after a large fight. Still more fun than affliction imo since you get instant gratification.


To that end, the center of my destruction build of choice is as follows:
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/warlock/talents.html?0500200000000000000000050000000000000000000505000512200510531051

It has 8 points left over for taste, suppression to account for fear resist, imp. imp, imp. firebolt and imp. searing pain are all fine choices after having tried them all. If you turn your imp into a machine gun with all the talents in him it really shows if you turn him on in AV from a relatively safe place.

Other builds center around picking up backlash and nightfall for just having a crap ton of instant cast shadowbolts flying around, I haven't tried it myself but it looks like it could be a good time.

The only reason that Nepthys has not gone for the idea of being destruction is that getting big crits is reduced due to the prevelance of the pvp gear in BG's now. Most people will have anywhere from 2-4 pieces of their gladiators gear on, and most will not only have a large reduction on the chance of getting a crit (Most will have around 5-7% reduction of crit percentage) but will also reduce the damage taken from them (at least 10% reduction of crit damage). IMO, when these considerations are taken, I believe that while destro does do a LIVING TON OF DAMAGE, you are more fragile than most of the other "glass cannons" (eg. POM pyro Mages, Elemental Shammies, etc). Thus, if you are getting hit you are metering out the damage on one target, but if something gets near you you are toast.

While in BG's, the person doing the most damage is the one who either hits like a truck (Arms warriors / Mages win here) or the person who can damage the largest number of people. Affliction warlocks are amazing at dealing damage to a HUGE number of targets. How many times have we all seen the warlock just sitting in the back dotting targets up just to look at the damage at the end to see that they did the most? They do suffer from resilence as well, however. It affects them by about 5-7% reduction of total damage. This is annoying, but when compared to the loss that destro gets from resilence I believe it is an improvement. You are as fragile as destro, however I believe you have more outlets for survival down the affliction path. In addition, mana is NEVER an issue when you are affliction!

While I am a solid believer in demo for PVP (nothing is harder to kill than a demo warlock decked out in S3 glads, period), afflicition I believe is the better option in the current BG enviornment. You suffer less detriment from the gear that has become so prolific.

P.S. Wanna see an impy gun build? Lol, I wonder how much damage the damn little guy would do here...interesting
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Demo ftw as far as I am concerned. Nep Does better in PvP, and more damage in Raids that way. Destro is just suicide given the fact that YOU WILL PULL THREAT. At least once you're well geared.