Yet Another Warlock Nerf

The new Season 4 items will have the below personal and team arena rating requirements:

Shoulders: 2200
Weapon: 2050
Head: 1700
Chest: 1600
Legs: 1550
Gloves: none
Off-hand: none

In addition, some of the Season 4 quality items that will be purchasable with honor will also carry a personal and team arena rating requirement:

Boots: 1700
Ring: 1650
Bracers: 1575
Belt: none
Necklace: none
Trinket: none

No more 10 games per week and getting all the gear. No more playing specs for fun (destruction warlocks, balance druids for example). No more boosting friends or selling points.

Getting to 2200 rating for the shoulders is a hard task, I'm not even sure I can get that high. I can't help to wonder, what will happen to all those stuck at 1500 rating or less. Sure, they suck at PvP, but even if they're getting 300ish points per week, they'll be able to get some decent gear with the current system. This change might completely kick the fun part of arena combat and make it elitist only. Even those at 1500 rating invested their time and good will.

Some players are very happy about this change, mostly the ones at 2000+ rating. Sure, you know how to play and you deserved your items, but you didn't get that far just because you had the gear.
You can give full S3 gear to some random scrub and he'll be stuck at 1500 rating, regardless of class (ok rogues might get 1600).

I've played a good part of this season with some close friends, most of them poorly equipped and skilled. But I helped them get some points and learn a few things, and it was fun. We usually got together after arenas and discuss about it (read: me laughing at them). But the point is, it's more fun to play with people you know then some random guys who you've never met.
One of them is a shadowpriest, and it's common knowledge they perform poorly in arenas. He'd probably do much better specced discipline, but he has no healing gear and doesn't want to healbot people.

Let's take a look at some random player who likes doing arenas from time to time. We'll call him Mr. B. Mr. B is a hunter usually found in SSC or TK. He likes killing big monsters with 24 other people, trying out new things like PvP specs, and playing battlegrounds every now and then. Mr. B doesn't have the best gear, nor a whole lotta resilience. But he's got decent ratings and always learns something new.
With his ratings, he won't be able to buy any weapons, head, shoulders, boots, and maybe even rings next season. I really hope he gets better, but if he doesn't play more, he'll be stuck at that rating forever, and won't get many season 4 items. Mr. B is very good at killing those monsters in raids, yet he understands PvP is another game and requires a different mindset. If someone magically gave him all the PvP items, I doubt he would reach 2200 rating anytime soon.

Why would you deny items to a fine lookin' hunter like Mr. B? He's doing ten times better in arenas then most other hunter (or any other class for that matter) bloggers out there and I'd say he's a very happy dwarf. Let Mr. B buy whatever item he wants.

S4 Rating Requirements

Warlocks have a lot of tricks, and while they might not always require much skill to play (talking about SL/SL mostly), there's always things which separate skilled players over casual ones.
Perhaps you know all of this already, perhaps you don't. But it's always good to have an open mind and a few uncommon tactics so you can adapt to almost any situation.
I'm like Athene of the warlocks, giving away free tips. Read on to find out what hides in the warlock's trick bag!

1. I'll get this out of the way: use macros. There's plenty of them to be found, and a good place to start is my Useful warlock macros post.

2. I'll get this out of the way also since it's related to one of my previous posts. Get the Felguard Legionnaire. Enslave Demon is not completely useless - you can check this topic to see a list of cool demons which can be enslaved.

3. In PvP, always buff yourself with Detect Invisibility and Unending Breath. It's 2 more magic effects, meaning it might take 1 more priest's dispel or shaman purge to get your Fel Armor off of you. And those pesky Arcane Shot spamming huntards need to spam even more!

4. In PvE, you can break Fear on mobs by casting Curse of Recklesness (CoR) on them - use rank 1 CoR, it won't do much threat nor waste much mana, and the attack power bonus is negligible. When the mob is coming back at you, just throw another curse and he will run in fear again without the need to recast it.

5. If you send your pet to attack a rogue (or druid), even if he stealths the pet will attack him and break his stealth.

6. If you're using Succubus to CC in instances, pull with Searing Pain (or Soul Fire) for max threat. This is especially important for heroic instances: if your succy gets attacked it will probably get one shotted; if the mob goes after you it will give your pet enough time to reseduce the mob.

7. You can keep players in combat in arenas by sending your pet after them - they won't be able to drink. Also, if you didn't know, Star's Tears is the only drink you can use in arenas. Buy a stack, you never know.

8. You can banish druids in Tree of Life.

9. Always have your Felhunter's Paranoia buff on. There's no reason not to, and a lot of invisible reasons why you should.

10. You can summon yourself with Ritual of Summoning. Helps also if you get stuck behind objects in instances (happened to me in Shadow Labs on first boss when he feared).

11. You can Devour paladin's Hammer of Justice. Obvious, but often overlooked.

12. Spend 1 talent point in Shadow Embrace (affliction) if you can - it's one more magic debuff on your target - one more cleanse/dispel.

13. Use your felhunter to dispel Unstable Affliction on you - he won't take damage.

14. Banishing a warlock's pet will get rid of his Soul Link.

15. Get Boar's Speed.

16. You can cast curses on mages - some of them are retarded (sorry but it's true).

17. Spam Rank 1 Corruption to get that paladin OOM faster! Also spam it when the rogue pops Cloak of Shadows - it might stick on him and break his vanish.

16. Cast Siphon Life on hunter's pet - free healing ftw. Also, you can either cast Curse of Weakness to reduce it's melee damage, or Corruption (rank 1 is fine) for Nightfall procs if you specced.

17. If you have Dark Pact: when buffing up in raids, get your imp out of phase shift - tell your priests and paladins to buff him with spirit/mp5.

18. You can carry 3 healthstones of the same rank, if they are from 3 different warlocks, depending on how many talent points they put into Improved Healthstone. Also, you can make different ranks of healthstones for yourself in arenas, which is useful if the fight lasts a bit. Note: all healthstones share the same cooldown.

19. In arenas, summon Voidwalker first. About 12 seconds before the match starts, start summoning Felhunter/Felguard - spam Sacrifice and you should get the shield after about 5 seconds. If you have talent points in Master Summoner, it's a bit tricky - you can still get the shield, but it's really hard if you have latency above 300. Start casting about 8 seconds before the match then. This way, you should have the shield for the first 25 seconds of the match.

20. If you're low on health, use lower ranks of Life Tap.

21. If you're facing a wipe in instance, Life Tap to low hp and use Hellfire. You will kill yourself, but won't loose any durability.

22. You can cast Curse of Tongue's on mage's Water Elemental. If you're banishing the Elemental, try to Spell Lock the mage first (maybe also Fear if you're sure he won't break it instantly) so you don't get Counterspelled. You can also CoT + Siphon Life + Corruption to kill the pet.

23. If you see a warrior pop Spell Reflect, cast Curse of Recklesness. Congratulations, you're now immune to fear! You can also cast Siphon Life - it will heal basically heal you a bit due to Fel Armor bonus.

24. Hellfire triggers Prayer of Mending - if you're on full health, life tap and use Rank 1 Hellfire.

25. Recast Fel Armor on yourself before using bandages or Cannibalize.


Help me with more tips - that's what comments are for.
Did you know all this, or did I just make a totally useless post? Got any tricks for your own class, or did you find a way to beat warlocks?
What's your tip?

> 25 Awesome Warlock Tricks

I said I'll visit Zul'Aman, and so I did. Although I'm not much into raiding, there's some nice items in there, pretty scenery, and I needed some reason to waste those consumables I've been gathering for months.

First of all, I got my Tattered Hexcloth Sack, and since then I'm thinking more and more about getting Primal Mooncloth Bags. 400g for one bag sounds pretty expensive, can't decide whether it's worth it or not.

Anyway, back on topic. The first night we managed to clean everything till Zul'Jin - since most of the people were there for the first time, including me, I think we did pretty good. Oh yeah, I should mention it was a PUG, not a guild run. Many of us didn't knew tactics, but after a couple of wipes we usually figured out what was wrong and successfully downed the boss.
Killing animal bosses (Nalorakk, Akil'zon, Jan'alai and Halazzi) was a cake, but Hex Lord Malacrass caused us some problems. We wiped about 5 times on him, but it was worth it!

We did a couple of tries on Zul'Jin, but we were missing another healer (he needs 4) so we had to call it off. The next day, we succesfully downed him, but it wasn't easy. I won't get into tactics too much, but the fight has 5 phases. He starts in Troll form, and every 20% of his health he switches to other form - Bear, Eagle, Lynx, and Dragonform. Eagle form is in my opinion the hardest - each time casters cast a spell, they get about 1,200 damage. In that phase, healers should use long cast heals (we said no Flash bubbledin!), while melee damage should get his hp to 40% as soon as possible. Also, a bunch of tornadoes spawn on his platform, which will follow you around and knock you away if you get close to it, so you will have to be moving a lot. If nobody dies in phase 3, it's pretty easy after that.

About other bosses' tactics, I'm not impressed. I could probably write an essay on rogue vs. warlock duel, but I can't think of anything that stands out. Sure, each boss has some trick (Halaazi for example one shotted our tank with Saber Lash - cleave-like spell which splits damage with offtank), but nothing spectacular.

I probably will go back there, but to be honest I'm not sure. There's not many items for feral druids there, except Staff of Primal Fury and a couple of other items.
But it's good to get away from daily quests and battlegrounds every once in awhile.

> Zul'Aman - tanking, looting, wiping

Mmo-champion (again) reports about a chinese guild TheSeven, who managed to clean The Burning Crusade content in 52 days. It might not seem as much of an achievement at first, but it is. TBC was released in China on September 6th, which is almost 8 months (I think) after the rest of the world got it.

It pretty impressive if you take a look at their items: warrior in T4 and Karazhan shield, and a bunch of other guys equipped with T3 (yes, Tier 3!).
While I don't mean to undermine their achievement, there are a few things to note. First of all, guilds like Nihilum didn't know the strategy behind a boss most of the time - I can only imagine how it's like for 25 people to not know what they're supposed to do, much less learn to do it correctly. Also, a lot of boss encounters were nerfed in patches since BC launched.

Still, I'd congratulate any guild that put an end to Illidan. PvE is really not my domain, so I'll probably kill him when Wrath of the Lich King comes out.

> The Chinese Are Prepared

It seems some people have joined the cause after Big Bear Butt's idea about having a list of raid consumables on guild websites, so I thought what the heck, I'll make a list for warlocks.
Although my list will be much more simple since warlocks won't be healing or tanking, still there are certain buffs that will benefit you more than the other. Don't use shadow priest consumables, ok?

Alchemy

• Flasks:

Flask of Pure Death - Increases spell damage caused by Shadow, Fire and Frost spells by up to 80 for 120 min. Counts as both a Battle and Guardian elixir. This effect persists through death.
Cost: 30-40g per flask

Flask of Mighty Restoration - Increases mana regeneration by 25 mana per 5 seconds for 120 min. Counts as both a Battle and Guardian elixir. This effect persists through death.
Cost: 30g

Flask of Pure Death... even the name suggests it's the best flask out there. Mighty Restoration is merely an alternative.

• Elixirs (guardian):

Elixir of Major Fortitude - Increases maximum health by 250 and restores 10 health every 5 seconds for 60 min.
Cost: 2g per elixir.

Elixir of Major Mageblood - Regenerate 16 mana per 5 sec for 60 min.
Cost: 5g per elixir.

I'd prefer Major Fortitude, since it doesn't cost so much and more health and hp/5 means more Life taps.

• Elixirs (battle):

Elixir of Major Shadow Power - Increases shadow spell damage by up to 55 for 60 min.
Cost: 4-5g per elixir

Elixir of Major Fire Power - Increases fire spell damage by up to 55 for 60 min.
Cost: 10-12g per elixir

Adept's Elixir - Increases spell damage and healing by up to 24 and spell critical strike rating by 24 for 60 min.
Cost: 3g per elixir

Major Shadow Power is the best here, however if you're a fire lock (and you shouldn't be, especially if you're raiding) you might want to use Elixir of Major Fire Power. Adept's Elixir is quite good also, but use it only if you find yourself unable to get Elixirs of Major Shadow Power.

• Potions:

Super Healing Potion - Restores 1500 to 2500 health.
Cost: 2-3g

Super Mana Potion - Restores 1800 to 3000 mana.

If you have talent points in Improved Life Tap, Super Healing Potions should be better than Mana Potions. But you can save a bit of money and don't use potions at all - use Life Tap, Siphon Life and Drain Life.
You can also get 2 potions a day by doing daily quest in Skettis. And don't forget - if you have too many marks from battlegrounds, you can exchange them for potions also (two marks for one potion) in Hall of Legends of Hall of Champions. They won't restore as much health or mana as Super pots but are pretty cheap.


Cooking

Blackened Basilisk - Restores 7500 health over 30 sec. Must remain seated while eating. If you spend at least 10 seconds eating you will become well fed and gain 23 Spell Damage and 20 Spirit for 30 min.

Poached Bluefish - Restores 7500 health over 30 seconds. Must remain seated while eating. If you spend at least 10 seconds eating you will become well fed and gain 23 Spell Damage and 20 Spirit for 30 minutes.

Crunchy Serpent - Restores 7500 health over 30 seconds. Must remain seated while eating. If you spend at least 10 seconds eating you will become well fed and gain 23 Spell Damage and 20 Spirit for 30 minutes.

Blackened Sporefish - Restores 4320 health over 30 seconds. Must remain seated while eating. If you spend at least 10 seconds eating you will become well fed and gain 20 Stamina and 8 Mana every 5 seconds for 30 minutes.

Blackened Basilisk is very easy to get (basilisk in Terokkar Forest have a good drop); Crunchy Serpent is a bit harder since mobs are higher level and more spread around. For Poached Bluefish and Blackened Sporefish you will need fishing. I recommend Blackened Basilisk over Sporefish, since we don't need mp5 as much as spell damage.


Enchanting

Superior Wizard Oil - While applied to target weapon it increases spell damage by up to 42. Lasts for 30 minutes.
Cost: 10g for 5 charges.

Superior Mana Oil - While applied to target weapon it restores 14 mana to the caster every 5 seconds. Lasts for 30 minutes.
Cost: 12g for 5 charges

42 spell damage is much better than 14 mp/5 for a warlock. These temporary enchants will stack with permanent enchants (major spellpower or similar), so there is no reason why not to use them. Also, they won't dissapear after you die, although 30 minutes might not be enough for two boss attempts.


So there you have it!
If you buff yourself with spell damage consumables mentioned here, you will get an extra 145 spell damage. You will spend around 100g for a few hours of raiding, but if you finally out-dps that mage it will be worth it, right?

If you got something I didn't mention here, be sure to let me know.

> Warlock Raid Consumables