Being A WoW Forsaken Warlock
- Thread starter Aegis
- Start date
When you're first starting to level affliction is the spec you want to be, demo doesn't really become useful until you reach lvl 50 where have enough talent points to get felguard and destro uses a lot of mana meaning there's going to be downtime. Once you get to 50 you can re-spec or dual spec to demo since the felguard is a significant increase in dps. I also suggest going to wowhead.com and taking a look in their forums for spec information they also have a leveling guide for warlocks in their warlock forum.
For levelling, definitely stick it out with affliction to at least 50. At 50, if you're not comfortable with drain tanking (grab a bunch of mobs, dot them up, then one by one drain them to death), demonology becomes comparable. Roughly what affliction levelling should look like:
10-14: Imp. Corruption
15-16: Imp. Drain Soul
17-18: Soul Siphon
19: 1/2 Imp. Life Tap
Note: For 15-19, it can depend on your gear, amount of spell power/stamina/intellect you have. Also, how often you go into instances. If you mostly solo, Improved Drain Soul is darn good for the 15% mana return on kills, and it helps the minion keep aggro for just a bit longer too. If you do instances, you may not be getting the mana returns you want, in which case 2/2 Imp. Life Tap is better, and you may rather have 1/3 Supression for extra hit boost.
20-22: Fel Concentration
23: 2/2 Imp. Life Tap
24: 1/3 Supression
Note: If you're skipping Imp. Drain Soul because you pug a lot, you can instead max out supression.
25-27: Emp. Corruption
28-29: Nightfall
30: Siphon Life
31-32: Grim Reach
33-34: 3/3 Supression (Imp. Curse of Agony if you were skipping IDS)
35-39: Shadow Mastery
40: Dark Pact (mostly useful if you prefer to use imp or fel puppy while levelling as mana batteries, so you don't life tap as often)
41-45: Contagion
46-48: Malediction
49: Amplify Curse (If you favor using the felhunter as a minion, you'll probably want points in Imp. Felhunter. Put a point in there instead. For more mana returns/lower downtime at the cost of dps, put a second point there, and shift other talents down one.)
50: Unstable Affliction
51: Pandemic
52-54: Death's Embrace
55-59: Everlasting Affliction
60: Haunt
61-65: Bane
66-70: Imp. Shadow Bolt
71-75: Ruin
76-79: Whatever you want, really. Molten Skin is alright while you're soloing your way to 80. Otherwise, Eradication probably.
80: Respec for whatever you plan to do, heroics/raiding/pvp, and or try out different talent specs. Those you can hunt for on your own.
10-14: Imp. Corruption
15-16: Imp. Drain Soul
17-18: Soul Siphon
19: 1/2 Imp. Life Tap
Note: For 15-19, it can depend on your gear, amount of spell power/stamina/intellect you have. Also, how often you go into instances. If you mostly solo, Improved Drain Soul is darn good for the 15% mana return on kills, and it helps the minion keep aggro for just a bit longer too. If you do instances, you may not be getting the mana returns you want, in which case 2/2 Imp. Life Tap is better, and you may rather have 1/3 Supression for extra hit boost.
20-22: Fel Concentration
23: 2/2 Imp. Life Tap
24: 1/3 Supression
Note: If you're skipping Imp. Drain Soul because you pug a lot, you can instead max out supression.
25-27: Emp. Corruption
28-29: Nightfall
30: Siphon Life
31-32: Grim Reach
33-34: 3/3 Supression (Imp. Curse of Agony if you were skipping IDS)
35-39: Shadow Mastery
40: Dark Pact (mostly useful if you prefer to use imp or fel puppy while levelling as mana batteries, so you don't life tap as often)
41-45: Contagion
46-48: Malediction
49: Amplify Curse (If you favor using the felhunter as a minion, you'll probably want points in Imp. Felhunter. Put a point in there instead. For more mana returns/lower downtime at the cost of dps, put a second point there, and shift other talents down one.)
50: Unstable Affliction
51: Pandemic
52-54: Death's Embrace
55-59: Everlasting Affliction
60: Haunt
61-65: Bane
66-70: Imp. Shadow Bolt
71-75: Ruin
76-79: Whatever you want, really. Molten Skin is alright while you're soloing your way to 80. Otherwise, Eradication probably.
80: Respec for whatever you plan to do, heroics/raiding/pvp, and or try out different talent specs. Those you can hunt for on your own.
The Warlock Forums on wowhead.com
Helpful Threads sticky in that forum, which happens to be one of the most useful threads in the forum and they have them in the different class forums. They contain links to the guides and specs for that class.
Levling Guide, which was what I've used to get started.
Helpful Threads sticky in that forum, which happens to be one of the most useful threads in the forum and they have them in the different class forums. They contain links to the guides and specs for that class.
Levling Guide, which was what I've used to get started.
Eeeh, I've never liked the blueberry. I found it extremely retarded at that.
It's -very- good for levels 10-21, when you can't really drain tank yet, but it kept despawning on me when I wanted to move fast because it has horrible AI regarding positioning of where it was before it attacked, where it attacked a mob, and where you are as you move on.
The only times I use it after starting to drain tank, is when (a) tank vanishes during a pug, so we can keep going while we wait for a replacement (b) elite mobs.
I kill things waaaay faster with other pets otherwise.
It's -very- good for levels 10-21, when you can't really drain tank yet, but it kept despawning on me when I wanted to move fast because it has horrible AI regarding positioning of where it was before it attacked, where it attacked a mob, and where you are as you move on.
The only times I use it after starting to drain tank, is when (a) tank vanishes during a pug, so we can keep going while we wait for a replacement (b) elite mobs.
I kill things waaaay faster with other pets otherwise.
Depends. Do you have another class to provide gathering? Do you want to just get professions for raiding?
Generally, the most 'OP' combination for raiders is considered Jewelcrafting + Blacksmithing, since that gives the most options. Obviously, you need another character to provide the ores though, and it's expensive to level them anyhow.
The classical combination is tailoring + enchanting. You can make your own gear, and whatever extra you make you can disenchant to level enchanting, and you also get a flying carpet at high tailoring skill. At high levels, enchanting gives you money and you can enchant your own gear.
While levelling, the general combination that gives you most gold is two gathering professions. Herbalism is nice while levelling because of the self-heal...but it's near useless at level 80 outside of providing herbs for alchemy/inscription. And you're forsaken, so you can cannibalize for healing anyhow.
So while levelling a forsaken warlock, your best bets are one of the following two:
1) Skinning + Mining
2) Tailoring + Enchanting
If you picking skinning + mining, you may consider stocking up some ores upon hitting 80, and then power levelling JC+BS.
Obviously, the other professions are all good too and have their own benefits, but those are the three most common options.
Generally, the most 'OP' combination for raiders is considered Jewelcrafting + Blacksmithing, since that gives the most options. Obviously, you need another character to provide the ores though, and it's expensive to level them anyhow.
The classical combination is tailoring + enchanting. You can make your own gear, and whatever extra you make you can disenchant to level enchanting, and you also get a flying carpet at high tailoring skill. At high levels, enchanting gives you money and you can enchant your own gear.
While levelling, the general combination that gives you most gold is two gathering professions. Herbalism is nice while levelling because of the self-heal...but it's near useless at level 80 outside of providing herbs for alchemy/inscription. And you're forsaken, so you can cannibalize for healing anyhow.
So while levelling a forsaken warlock, your best bets are one of the following two:
1) Skinning + Mining
2) Tailoring + Enchanting
If you picking skinning + mining, you may consider stocking up some ores upon hitting 80, and then power levelling JC+BS.
Obviously, the other professions are all good too and have their own benefits, but those are the three most common options.
Really depends on if you have other characters to provide mats or if you want to provide mats for them. While it's classical to have tailoring and enchanting together, in end game they're quite limited compared to other profs in the raiding scene.
Tailoring does provide some decent gear while leveling but often than not you're probably going to be sticking with what ever quest rewards you gotten or what dropped from some dungeons, end game they do provide some pretty great stuff but you're going to have to get the patterns and making the item themselves is going to cost a fortune. The exclusive of the profession is being able to do embroidering on your cloaks that gives some nice enchants for it and the same for pants but you're able to buy some of the spellthreads in ah.
Enchanting is nice but it isn't cheap to level and depending on server it isn't really a good profession to make money except in disenchanting items and selling the mats to ah. Gives you a bit of a boost when enchanting your gear while leveling but the real power is in the end game enchants which is a requirement on most of your gear before people consider you for some raiding. The exclusive for this is being able to enchant your rings which is pretty nifty since you can enchant each ring for 23 spellpower each.
Herbalism and Alchemy are another combination that's great for money making and work towards end game stuff. Herbs are going to be on a constant demand and that can net you quite a bit of gold just for gathering and on some servers the low level stuff even sells pretty well.
Alchemy is another good profession, it can provide you with healing and mana potions, in end game make your own flasks and other buff potions which can be later sold for a tidy profit. The other great thing in making money from this is Transmutation which is turning one substance into another, in end game we turn some rare gem along with an eternal element into an epic gem which can sell for much more than getting the mats to make it. The downside of this is that it has a 20 hour cooldown.
You can also pair Alchemy and Jewelcrafting together which is another way to get a good profit by selling cut gems but leveling it without a gather can cost you. Well I hope this disjointed rambling help.
Tailoring does provide some decent gear while leveling but often than not you're probably going to be sticking with what ever quest rewards you gotten or what dropped from some dungeons, end game they do provide some pretty great stuff but you're going to have to get the patterns and making the item themselves is going to cost a fortune. The exclusive of the profession is being able to do embroidering on your cloaks that gives some nice enchants for it and the same for pants but you're able to buy some of the spellthreads in ah.
Enchanting is nice but it isn't cheap to level and depending on server it isn't really a good profession to make money except in disenchanting items and selling the mats to ah. Gives you a bit of a boost when enchanting your gear while leveling but the real power is in the end game enchants which is a requirement on most of your gear before people consider you for some raiding. The exclusive for this is being able to enchant your rings which is pretty nifty since you can enchant each ring for 23 spellpower each.
Herbalism and Alchemy are another combination that's great for money making and work towards end game stuff. Herbs are going to be on a constant demand and that can net you quite a bit of gold just for gathering and on some servers the low level stuff even sells pretty well.
Alchemy is another good profession, it can provide you with healing and mana potions, in end game make your own flasks and other buff potions which can be later sold for a tidy profit. The other great thing in making money from this is Transmutation which is turning one substance into another, in end game we turn some rare gem along with an eternal element into an epic gem which can sell for much more than getting the mats to make it. The downside of this is that it has a 20 hour cooldown.
You can also pair Alchemy and Jewelcrafting together which is another way to get a good profit by selling cut gems but leveling it without a gather can cost you. Well I hope this disjointed rambling help.
Breakdown of professions:
Mining - needed for ores for BS, JC or Eng. Gives stamina boost, which is useful while leveling, not as much once you start raiding. It also makes a lot of money selling the ores/bars, but there's a lot of competition here because it's in so much need.
Herbalism - used for inscription or alchemy. Gives a self heal (very strong levelling, but pretty weak at level 80). Herbs sell okay in the lower levels, but lichbloom and icethorn sell pretty darn well for endgame flasks, and they're easy to gather.
Skinning - Gives you crit, which is a fairly okay stat for warlocks, and you use it for leatherworking. It's not that special. High-end herbs and ores sell for a lot more than skins, usually.
Alchemy - You get some really nice trinkets in the philosopher stones, your flasks last longer and are stronger. You'll -always- need flasks/potions/elixirs for raids. Depending on server, they may not sell very well. Flasks tend to sell in my server for about 9-10g a pop (sometimes -cheaper- than the base mats). My old server used to have them for a lot higher though, so again, depends on environment. Transmutations to create high end gems is also a good way to make money, turning a 20g gem into a 120g gem.
Blacksmithing - it's only usefulness to a warlock is the sockets. Lots of freedom depending on builds...but warlocks don't really change on main stats that much between builds. More useful for hybrid classes. And it's expensive to level, so not too worth it.
Enchanting - Depending on how often you upgrade gear, this can be nice to have so you don't have to look for someone else to do the enchants for you. It's expensive to level, but it goes very well with Tailoring, as there's -always- lots of cloth dropping as you're leveling that you can convert into greens to level enchanting. It also helps keep you armed with wands in the lower level when you don't have a lot of mana, and makes a fair bit of money in endgame because someone will always need enchants for new gear (again, this depends on server population and availability of enchanters. In my server, in about an hour of watching trade chat, I can make anywhere from 200g to 600g in tips though, so I certainly like it more than mgsaintz). And you get to enchant your rings, which nobody else can do.
Engineering - It has a lot of fun things, and it's very useful for pvp, but it's fairly hard to put a good number on how good/bad it is, especially for raiding. You can't beat some of it's utility like carried mailbox, jeeves (repair bot), and the like. And hey, you can fly in a helicopter, and if you have the money for the mats, build a motorcycle (note of course that you can always just buy the motorcycle without engineering, it's just much more expensive).
Inscription - You make glyphs. These sell...okay. So do some of the darkmoon cards. It's pretty hit or miss, and relies on luck, and to get the last recipes, you have to spend a fair bit on buying a loooooot of 'Book of Glyph Mastery' items. It gives you the best shoulder enchants in the game though. Generally, unless you change a lot of specs, there's just not that much utility for yourself though.
Jewelcrafting - Gems sell for tons, especially the epic cuts, and there's always someone spamming trade looking for a jewelcrafter who can cut their gems, same as with enchanters. ALWAYS. It's very expensive to level, but very much worth it in the end, and you also recuperate some of your losses in daily quests that only JCers get access to.
Leatherworking - Access to drums (for when you don't have a paladin for kings or a druid for gift buffs), some special bracer enchants...and that's about it. You also make the leg enchants, but you make the ones for melee users. The ones for casters are made by Tailoring.
Tailoring - As mentioned, you make the leg enchants for casters. You also get special cloak enchants, you get a flying carpet mount, and you can make some of your gear (based on access to certain rare goods, though a lot of them aren't quite as rare, just take a bit of time to get). It's also one of the best partners for enchanting, since this profession doesn't require any gathering professions. You just kill stuff to get cloth.
***
So really, in the long run? Leatherworking and Blacksmithing are the least useful to you. Herbalism is useful only if you go into Alchemy or inscription. Inscription is fairly limited (although does appear to be increasing in scope for Cataclysm) and one of the most frustrating professions to get recipes for. Engineering generally doesn't sell things well.
From the others, check the auction house in your server, see how things sell. Pick whichever professions give you the strongest chance of profit, unless you really like the perks of another profession.
There's really no outright 'this is what you've gotta pick' option when it comes to profession, unfortunately.
Edit: Keep in mind, you can always drop a profession and start a new one, but it's easier to drop a gathering profession, and you make money with those as opposed to losing money levelling the others.
You really can't beat leveling with Mining + Herbalism (if you have access to a macro that switches between the two tracking and don't mind the small annoyances of it) or Mining + Skinning (if you want to keep it simpler). Then when you hit 80, if you don't want either of those two, power level something else.
Mining - needed for ores for BS, JC or Eng. Gives stamina boost, which is useful while leveling, not as much once you start raiding. It also makes a lot of money selling the ores/bars, but there's a lot of competition here because it's in so much need.
Herbalism - used for inscription or alchemy. Gives a self heal (very strong levelling, but pretty weak at level 80). Herbs sell okay in the lower levels, but lichbloom and icethorn sell pretty darn well for endgame flasks, and they're easy to gather.
Skinning - Gives you crit, which is a fairly okay stat for warlocks, and you use it for leatherworking. It's not that special. High-end herbs and ores sell for a lot more than skins, usually.
Alchemy - You get some really nice trinkets in the philosopher stones, your flasks last longer and are stronger. You'll -always- need flasks/potions/elixirs for raids. Depending on server, they may not sell very well. Flasks tend to sell in my server for about 9-10g a pop (sometimes -cheaper- than the base mats). My old server used to have them for a lot higher though, so again, depends on environment. Transmutations to create high end gems is also a good way to make money, turning a 20g gem into a 120g gem.
Blacksmithing - it's only usefulness to a warlock is the sockets. Lots of freedom depending on builds...but warlocks don't really change on main stats that much between builds. More useful for hybrid classes. And it's expensive to level, so not too worth it.
Enchanting - Depending on how often you upgrade gear, this can be nice to have so you don't have to look for someone else to do the enchants for you. It's expensive to level, but it goes very well with Tailoring, as there's -always- lots of cloth dropping as you're leveling that you can convert into greens to level enchanting. It also helps keep you armed with wands in the lower level when you don't have a lot of mana, and makes a fair bit of money in endgame because someone will always need enchants for new gear (again, this depends on server population and availability of enchanters. In my server, in about an hour of watching trade chat, I can make anywhere from 200g to 600g in tips though, so I certainly like it more than mgsaintz). And you get to enchant your rings, which nobody else can do.
Engineering - It has a lot of fun things, and it's very useful for pvp, but it's fairly hard to put a good number on how good/bad it is, especially for raiding. You can't beat some of it's utility like carried mailbox, jeeves (repair bot), and the like. And hey, you can fly in a helicopter, and if you have the money for the mats, build a motorcycle (note of course that you can always just buy the motorcycle without engineering, it's just much more expensive).
Inscription - You make glyphs. These sell...okay. So do some of the darkmoon cards. It's pretty hit or miss, and relies on luck, and to get the last recipes, you have to spend a fair bit on buying a loooooot of 'Book of Glyph Mastery' items. It gives you the best shoulder enchants in the game though. Generally, unless you change a lot of specs, there's just not that much utility for yourself though.
Jewelcrafting - Gems sell for tons, especially the epic cuts, and there's always someone spamming trade looking for a jewelcrafter who can cut their gems, same as with enchanters. ALWAYS. It's very expensive to level, but very much worth it in the end, and you also recuperate some of your losses in daily quests that only JCers get access to.
Leatherworking - Access to drums (for when you don't have a paladin for kings or a druid for gift buffs), some special bracer enchants...and that's about it. You also make the leg enchants, but you make the ones for melee users. The ones for casters are made by Tailoring.
Tailoring - As mentioned, you make the leg enchants for casters. You also get special cloak enchants, you get a flying carpet mount, and you can make some of your gear (based on access to certain rare goods, though a lot of them aren't quite as rare, just take a bit of time to get). It's also one of the best partners for enchanting, since this profession doesn't require any gathering professions. You just kill stuff to get cloth.
***
So really, in the long run? Leatherworking and Blacksmithing are the least useful to you. Herbalism is useful only if you go into Alchemy or inscription. Inscription is fairly limited (although does appear to be increasing in scope for Cataclysm) and one of the most frustrating professions to get recipes for. Engineering generally doesn't sell things well.
From the others, check the auction house in your server, see how things sell. Pick whichever professions give you the strongest chance of profit, unless you really like the perks of another profession.
There's really no outright 'this is what you've gotta pick' option when it comes to profession, unfortunately.
Edit: Keep in mind, you can always drop a profession and start a new one, but it's easier to drop a gathering profession, and you make money with those as opposed to losing money levelling the others.
You really can't beat leveling with Mining + Herbalism (if you have access to a macro that switches between the two tracking and don't mind the small annoyances of it) or Mining + Skinning (if you want to keep it simpler). Then when you hit 80, if you don't want either of those two, power level something else.
Realm thing is something one can't even really advise on, besides:
- Don't trust the blizzard recommended server. It's usually pretty dead or crappy. It's why they want people there.
- Don't go to servers with low population. It can be profitable while you're leveling because of high AH prices benefiting you as you sell crap, but horrible when you reach 80, and you're primarily a buyer not a seller. It's also harder to get into raid pugs due to lack of players.
- High population servers are usually pretty good in terms of pugging and AH prices...but they are a damn mess during new content patches or expansions, when you will often have to deal with queues just to log on. Just make sure you grab the addon SpamThrottle for when you decide to dive into trade/LFG channels in these servers.
- Keep in mind that most pvp servers don't have real world pvp. Instead, you get treated to level 80 alliance ganking your level 20-40 toons. Leveling tips that try to advice you for pvp servers...generally assume you're fighting someone in your own level range (still valid talent suggestions if you level through battlegrounds though).
- If you have friends that can toss you some bags and/or gold to help you level, that's always welcome, plus when you reach their level, that's one more person to play with that you know. And friends can make any of the shitty things about a server much more bearable. Plus they can power level you through instances if they're bored.
- Don't trust the blizzard recommended server. It's usually pretty dead or crappy. It's why they want people there.
- Don't go to servers with low population. It can be profitable while you're leveling because of high AH prices benefiting you as you sell crap, but horrible when you reach 80, and you're primarily a buyer not a seller. It's also harder to get into raid pugs due to lack of players.
- High population servers are usually pretty good in terms of pugging and AH prices...but they are a damn mess during new content patches or expansions, when you will often have to deal with queues just to log on. Just make sure you grab the addon SpamThrottle for when you decide to dive into trade/LFG channels in these servers.
- Keep in mind that most pvp servers don't have real world pvp. Instead, you get treated to level 80 alliance ganking your level 20-40 toons. Leveling tips that try to advice you for pvp servers...generally assume you're fighting someone in your own level range (still valid talent suggestions if you level through battlegrounds though).
- If you have friends that can toss you some bags and/or gold to help you level, that's always welcome, plus when you reach their level, that's one more person to play with that you know. And friends can make any of the shitty things about a server much more bearable. Plus they can power level you through instances if they're bored.
Hah =)
Well, as violin mentioned, US-Bloodscalp used to have a "Band of the Hawks" TFF guild. It since imploded, but a lot of the people still play in the server like violinmana (Wof) and solarman (Elynsynos).
I play in US-Mal'ganis, on a paladin (Cerisse). Zephyrus occassionally plays there with me, with a hunter (Kheldor).
You can browse through the Post your Armory thread to see where some other TFFers play. There's a couple of other threads littered around that show where people play, but I don't really remember which is which.
Well, as violin mentioned, US-Bloodscalp used to have a "Band of the Hawks" TFF guild. It since imploded, but a lot of the people still play in the server like violinmana (Wof) and solarman (Elynsynos).
I play in US-Mal'ganis, on a paladin (Cerisse). Zephyrus occassionally plays there with me, with a hunter (Kheldor).
You can browse through the Post your Armory thread to see where some other TFFers play. There's a couple of other threads littered around that show where people play, but I don't really remember which is which.
Mal'ganis is a CST pvp server, though it has a horribly slanted ratio of horde to alliance.
So it's almost a pve server, with a rare occasional gank from a lv 80 alliance (generally only in Tarren Mill and STV though).
It also has a VERY high population, as a lot of people transfer there or level characters there because there's a high number of good guilds that get achievements quick.
It's good because it's so easy to find a pug for anything, bad in that a lot of players tend to be pretty darn bad. But if you know what you're doing, you'll eventually end up in a good guild anyhow.
AH prices are also pretty low due to the high amount of supply vs demand.
Trade channel is a mess. You absolutely NEED to get the addon SpamThrottle in this server.
Because of the high population, count on not being able to do much of anything when Cataclysm first comes out.
It's also a pretty old server, so it comes with all that implies.
So it's almost a pve server, with a rare occasional gank from a lv 80 alliance (generally only in Tarren Mill and STV though).
It also has a VERY high population, as a lot of people transfer there or level characters there because there's a high number of good guilds that get achievements quick.
It's good because it's so easy to find a pug for anything, bad in that a lot of players tend to be pretty darn bad. But if you know what you're doing, you'll eventually end up in a good guild anyhow.
AH prices are also pretty low due to the high amount of supply vs demand.
Trade channel is a mess. You absolutely NEED to get the addon SpamThrottle in this server.
Because of the high population, count on not being able to do much of anything when Cataclysm first comes out.
It's also a pretty old server, so it comes with all that implies.