Warlock Leveling Advice

[Orpheus148 0]

Ok first off I understand this is Vanilla WoW and much more difficult that Live. I feel thought that I'm having a more difficult time than I should. I heard that warlocks are decent at solo content, but I seem to barely survive if at all if I get 2 or more enemies aggroed. BIggest problem is Void not holding aggro and running out of mana. Also I can't seem to get to the level requirement for the next zones by completing what i can in the current zone. Im level 20 btw

[Bioness 1]

Go to the Warlock section and read the sticky, it will answer all your Warlock specific questions.

This is not The Burning Crusade or later, unless you are a mage with AoE or a high level do not pull multiple enemies unless one is about to die. Warlocks, Mages, and Hunters are the best levelers/soloers. If you are running out of quests (which you shouldn't), google "Vanilla WoW leveling guide"; there are even addons that give step by step information from 1-60.

Edited January 29, 2017 by Bioness

[TheAura 2]

https://forum.elysium-project.org/topic/23852-definitive-warlock-guide/

This guide will help you alot to make sure you're specced correctly. I generally pull two mobs at once to get the tag, have one feared and the other dotted.

[veteranalmond 0]

Don't forget to fear an enemy if you're fighting multiple mobs. ALSO your dots do not break fear, so you can fear, apply dots, then go back to your main enemy.

[Ntbud 14]

Warlocks are insanely amazing at soloing both elites and multiple mobs. In fact I soloed all the Wailing Caverns elite quests on my own outside of the instances killing the elite slimes / dinos. You can do incredible things as a lock simply because of fear. I typically fight 2-3 mobs at a time and don't have many mana issues so long as I manage the spells correctly and don't get many resists, but even then 2-3 life taps and a bandage and you're back to enough hp/mana to continue going. I'll list a couple random thing's that might help with your leveling and take from it what you will.

 

All the spells you use for leveling you get naturally as you level, you don't really "need" any talented spells so your leveling spec doesn't really matter to be honest, they can all do well. The only *must* haves are Improved Lifetap and Corruption, those are the most important talents for any build. Even going Destro is great for leveling and if you're on one of the fresh PvP servers I'd even go as far as recommending it because once you hit 25-30 there is going to be A LOT of PvP and having 1.5second Immolate / 2.5second Shadowbolts, 5% crit chance, 100% Crit dmg and instant cast Shadowburn is going to help ALOT when it comes to PvPing. However like I said spec doesn't really matter and you can level fine with any of them, just make sure you have Imp Corruption / Life tap.

 

Aggro can be issue if you're not sure what you're doing and pull the wrong way. Never pull with a Shadowbolt, and you probably shouldn't pull with a wand hit or Immolate either unless there is other people around and you need to secure a mob tag. Instead pull with Agony or Corruption because they're instant cast and don't do any damage right off the bat so the first hit from your pet should pull aggro off of you, especially with Agony since it's first tick of dmg is really low. Also as soon as your pet is in range of the mob, use his taunt/aggro ability right away, then put up your other dots. However the more dots you do, the more mana issues you'll have. If I am fighting mobs my level or 1-3 under me, then I'll only use Corruption and Immolate. If I am fighting mobs 1-3 levels above me, then Ill use Agony, Corruption and Immolate.

 

Toggle off auto cast pet taunt (just right click it on pet bar so it isn't glowing). If you have it on auto cast your pet will waste 1-2 taunts per mob that aren't needed and will go out of mana after 4-5 mobs, which will slow down your over all leveling time. Typically you only need 2-3 pet taunts total to keep the mob on your pet.

 

As for actually killing the mob, DON'T rely only on spell / dot damage or you will have mana problems. Use your wand and just pretend it's another dot. Try to keep it updated to within 3-5 levels of yourself. Also don't start wanding until your pet's 2nd taunt has gone off, or else you will probably pull aggro on the 2nd-3rd wand hit.

 

A typical kill rotation for something my level (or 1-3 under) when I am grinding and trying to be efficient so I can non-stop kill without any downtime is usually like this.

Corruption > Send Pet / Pet Taunt > Immolate > Wait 1-2 seconds > 2nd Pet Taunt > Start wanding.

The mob will usually die within a second or 2 after the dots have worn off, and you'll be at like 90%+ mana still with your pet's mana 90% as well.

 

If the mob is 1-3 levels higher than me then it will probably something like this.

Agony > Send Pet / Taunt > Corruption > Wait 1 second > Immolate > 2nd Pet Taunt > Start wanding > 3rd Pet Taunt.

Depending on the level / resists the mob should stay on the pet until it dies, if it comes to you sooner just Shadowburn it (If you have it) or face tank it and finish wanding it down because once it's on you its not going back to your pet.

 

For fighting multiple mobs it's pretty similar except you'll use all 3 dots on both because you'll have less wanding time, as well as having 1 feared. Also if you have your pet taunt bound to a key (NOT on auto cast) then you'll have to tab between the mobs every 5 seconds to get 3 taunts off. I'll assume you're doing that. A typical rotation for something your level would probably go like this.

Pull mob #1 with Agony > Send Pet / Taunt > Corruption.  Pull mob #2 with Agony > Corruption > Tab to mob #1 and Pet Taunt #2 > Tab back to mob #2 and Immolate > Fear > Tab back to mob #1 and Immolate > Pet Taunt 3 > Wand it down > Tab to mob #2 Send pet (no taunts) > Wand it down.

You should be able to keep this consistently so long as you don't have many resists and you bandage / lifetap when needed. Don't worry about doing 3 mobs at a time because it isn't really needed and you'll have mana issues after a few pulls without decent gear.

 

Speaking of gear, try to get "Of the Eagle" pieces or anything with Stam / Int on it. Prioritize Stam over Int because you'll inevitably be taking a few hits when a pet taunt is resisted or if a fear breaks early etc. Not to mention like I said if you're on a PvP server you're going to probably be getting in a lot of fights and HP is the only thing you need to worry about in PvP as a lock.

 

That's should be pretty much it in regards to managing aggro and mana while leveling. Also there are multiple different ways to level as a lock (drain tanking, bursting etc.) and they all work, this is just the way I found to be most efficient to continuously grind without any downtime or other issues.

Edited January 29, 2017 by Ntbud