Warlock Questions

[GenocideAlive]

So yeah, I'm a cheesemaster. I'd have gone mage, but honestly they seemed difficult to level given that they're a squishy and they're so heavily mana dependent. I like locks because they have means of speed leveling and they can PvP like nutjobs and respec to a Mage-like build (dest) anyway.

On to my questions:

Improved Corruption says it enhances spell effects by X%.

Does that mean it gives higher dmg? Or does that mean that the +8 to spell dmg items give +8 x X%?

Additionally, do +spelldmg items improve Curses, DoTs, etc? I've gotten a few items and they don't really appear to have added anything whatsoever to my damage. Maybe I don't have enough? Do they improve Drain Life?

What is considered the best mods for Warlocks?

Where can I get some decent quests and the like?
I just geared up my 27 Gnome via 15G and the AH and I'm still feeling like I'm not quite getting the exp I should be for the amount of effort I put into kills. I can take L27-28s without any problems, but they give ASS exp. L30s give much better exp but take a lot more "umph" to put down.

Maybe I should do Blackfathom / Stockades.

[IrishDutchman]

Well, whatever you do, stay the HELL away from Gnomeregan. It will lure you in, stab you in the back, suck you dry and leave you scarred for life. It is probably the worst experience I've ever had in any computer game.
Even the music is annoying.
(OT: haha, the god of karma :P)

[Anoiktos]

Improved corruption says it reduces your casting time, nothing about spell effects. What talent are you talking about?

Additionally, do +spelldmg items improve Curses, DoTs, etc? I've gotten a few items and they don't really appear to have added anything whatsoever to my damage. Maybe I don't have enough? Do they improve Drain Life?

Almost all damage spells and shields are affected by +dmg. Your DOTs, however, do that extra damage over their full duration, so if you DOT someone for ten ticks and have +200 damage, you'll only see a difference of ten damage per tick. (slightly more, I believe - warlock's DOT coefficients are pretty good)

Just DOT 'em up and fear 'em, use your pet to keep them under control if they go too far (if succ), or sac it if you get into trouble and run like hell (void).

PROTIP: curse of recklessness makes your target immune to fear, so you can 'fear-bounce', using the fact that curses override other curses, using fear, then when they get too far using recklessness, then using another curse when they get too close, etc.

This will freak the hell out of your group when you master it and use it in instances, because they'll think you just screwed them when you really have it under control.

Incidentally, I hate you for picking warlock (because I'm a mage), but it was a wise decision (because warlocks almost always > mage and have much more diversity in roles based on their talent builds)

[ScottieIWU]

Improved Corruption says it enhances spell effects by X%.
Does that mean it gives higher dmg? Or does that mean that the +8 to spell dmg items give +8 x X%?I believe what you're referring to here is empowered corruption, the T4 talent in the afflicition tree, yes? The one that after 3 talent pts says:

"Your corruption spell gains an additional 36% of your bonus damage effects."

What this means is that, lets say you have 100 spell damage, then your corruption gets 136 bonus spell damage, rather than the flat 100. It's basically: (your spell dmg x 36%) + your spell dmg.


Additionally, do +spelldmg items improve Curses, DoTs, etc? I've gotten a few items and they don't really appear to have added anything whatsoever to my damage. Maybe I don't have enough? Do they improve Drain Life?Yes, as far as dots, etc. The reason you won't notice it is that at low level, the most you're getting is like 75-100, and even with talents, thats not as noticable on dots because its only a smaller amount of dmg over each period of time, but adds up. Plus, the way spell damage works is that you can do up to that much damage more, not guaranteed. So if you have 100 spell damage, your corruption might only get 75 while your Curse of Agony gets, say, 92. It varies because of the way that spell damage works.

I'm pretty sure that drain life gets bonus effects, but I'm not 100% sure.



What is considered the best mods for Warlocks?You'll want to snag DoTimer. It's an interface that will show you how long your dots have remaining on targets so that you can refresh them as necessary. Basically the goal would be while you're levelling to get in the habit of refresh dots just before they go up so you can keep a rotation going. It's good habit for later dungeons, and especially if you intend to go affliction.



Where can I get some decent quests and the like?I just geared up my 27 Gnome via 15G and the AH and I'm still feeling like I'm not quite getting the exp I should be for the amount of effort I put into kills. I can take L27-28s without any problems, but they give ASS exp. L30s give much better exp but take a lot more "umph" to put down.

Maybe I should do Blackfathom / Stockades.I'm not sure how much (if at all) the Stocks loot table got updated from 2.3, but pre-2.3 the loot table there sucked. Basically it's useful if you get a lvl 70 to run you through and just get the quests you might have done. If you're interested in what zones are what levels etc, or best places to go, just get Cartographer, as it has a note over each zone on your map that shows you the general level of questing there/mobs there, any instances that may be in the area and what level those are.

[GenocideAlive]

Yeah, I was talking about Empowered Corruption, Ano. I was just wondering, if it does base 100 spell damage, and it improves by 36%, is that modifier applied before or after the SpellDmg bonuses from eq? In math terms, is it:

(BaseDmg x 36%) + SpellDmgBon = TotalDmg

or

(BaseDmg + SpellDmgBon) x 36% = TotalDmg

It's fairly obvious why this is an important distinction.

And as far as mods goes, I don't need a DoT timer. I can see immediately when I click on my target when my DoTs are going to expire, and I am a minimalist. I don't like installing 3rd party progs for shit I can do myself in a second's glance.

That Cartographer thing sounds really cool, good idea for a thread...

(have some rep all around)

[Anoiktos]

As scottie says, empowered corruption:
"Your corruption spell gains an additional 36% of your bonus damage effects."
only affects your +dmg.

I will note, however, that this % is an addition to your normal coefficient, thus you would not get the change he mentions if your spell has a different coefficient than 100%.

the way spell damage works is that you can do up to that much damage more, not guaranteed.

Note that this is not a random amount, as the "up to" led many people to believe when it was first implemented. Nor is it actually "up to" - it is better written as "approximately". Arcane Missiles gets 145% with talents, starfire 155%, I believe. Your total corruption damage per tick will thus equal, according to the standard rules for this sort of thing:

((Your +spell damage * [corruption base coefficient % + 36%]) / number of ticks) + base tick damage.

This is in much the same way that a mages' fireball starts at 100% coefficient and can be upgraded through improved fireball to 115%, plus the 10% to *total* spell damage from firepower equals:

((800ish spell damage * ( 100% + 15% )) + base fireball damage) + 10% of total = spell damage dealt

[cole]

Yea im a 54 lock, although ive been leveling mining/engineering and took a break from power leveling to 60 and locks are just a ridiculously good class. The only class so far that can sucessfully beat me in PVP is a well geared hunter with a counter to fear. i soloed a paladin the other day that was five levels above me and by the end of it i still had a little over 3/4 my hp left.

I dont like dest spec, i think its dumb, you might as well have went mage if you wanted dest. I full speced demon and now that i have my fel build im pumping affliction which is completely awesome for leveling. Just my opinion though, i still have shit to learn about locks.

Soul link is pretty awesome, combined with demon armor its like im not even wearing cloth.

But i dunno, in instances locks just dominate as well. Soul stones, health stones, rituals inside instances, just a overall great class. With my fel its like i can summon my own personal warrior to attract aggro and stun for me. God i love that i chose warlock.

[ScottieIWU]

Yea im a 54 lock, although ive been leveling mining/engineering and took a break from power leveling to 60 and locks are just a ridiculously good class. The only class so far that can sucessfully beat me in PVP is a well geared hunter with a counter to fear. i soloed a paladin the other day that was five levels above me and by the end of it i still had a little over 3/4 my hp left.

I dont like dest spec, i think its dumb, you might as well have went mage if you wanted dest. I full speced demon and now that i have my fel build im pumping affliction which is completely awesome for leveling. Just my opinion though, i still have shit to learn about locks.

Soul link is pretty awesome, combined with demon armor its like im not even wearing cloth.

But i dunno, in instances locks just dominate as well. Soul stones, health stones, rituals inside instances, just a overall great class. With my fel its like i can summon my own personal warrior to attract aggro and stun for me. God i love that i chose warlock.Demonology is a PvP spec, which is probably why you're doing pretty well. The felguard scales well with level and eventually is a pretty solid nuisance for anything in mail or greater, and a real threat for anybody in leather/cloth. However, after having JUST gotten felguard, the dmg it probably does is nuts.

Plus, soul link is absolutely overpowered (and this coming from someone who believes OP is the cry of the loser). That's probably why you're kicking ass in PvP.

As far as destro, it has its benefits. Namely, when you look into raiding locks, once you put up your corruption (and probably immolate) + whatever curse you have to cover during a raid (or COA probably during a 5-man) you sit there and SB spam the entire time. Therefore, a destro build means some pretty sick shadowbolt spam, something that you don't get with the affliction builds.

Aff builds are best for situations where you're going to be doing lots of multi-target stuff, and where you have to DoT up many, many targets. A good example of why you'd go aff is the Vashj fight in SSC. If you're a warlock on elemental duty, it's really nice to just throw a COA, Corruption, siphon life, and Immolate on a target and know that with your +dmg (should be no less than 1000 by that point) you're going to kill an 8k health target with those 4 dots.

Also, just a fair warning, drop mining/eng right now while you still can. Level tailoring and whatever the hell else you want (enchanting will go well with this). Go to some lowbie areas, farm cloth, and level tailoring up to about 300 by time you hit 58. Once you hit the outlands you'll want the Shadow's Embrace (http://www.wowwiki.com/Shadow%27s_Embrace) set, because you really won't replace anything from that set until about T6 content, it's that good.

Edit: I mean to say that you'll want to start gathering mats as soon as you hit the OL, because the sooner you can make that set at 70, the better.

[cole]

Yea i just hit 60 today and i really dislike mining/engineering. Engineering just seems incredibly useless besides a fun time, i guess the dragon/chicken pets could be somewhat useful and the bombs but it just doesnt seem all that great. Call me crazy.

Taking up tailoring does sound smart. What would be a fun/good secondary profession besides tailoring? Any recommendations?

Besides enchanting, cause its mega played out~

[ScottieIWU]

Yea i just hit 60 today and i really dislike mining/engineering. Engineering just seems incredibly useless besides a fun time, i guess the dragon/chicken pets could be somewhat useful and the bombs but it just doesnt seem all that great. Call me crazy.

Taking up tailoring does sound smart. What would be a fun/good secondary profession besides tailoring? Any recommendations?

Besides enchanting, cause its mega played out~Get a gathering profession that you can just sell mats from. Mining or herbalism would be good, since those are always in demand, and skinning couldn't hurt.

I suggested enchanting because it's easy to level, since you can just dench the stuff you make from tailoring in order to level up the enchanting.

[GenocideAlive]

GAWD. Now I'm going to have to ditch either Herbalism or Transmuting.

FUCK.

I guess I can keep the two processing professions and just try to ... pay for mats? Or something? Because I can't really figure how I'm going to get anywhere with Herbalism / Tailoring. Selling Herbs on the AH is going to be a colossal pain in the ass, whereas selling pots to raiders (after buying Herbs on AH) should be quite lucrative.

Some money whore clue me in, here.

[cole]

I suggested enchanting because it's easy to level, since you can just dench the stuff you make from tailoring in order to level up the enchanting.

lol this never even occured to me -_-.

Maybe i should say screw it and do enchanting after all. it always seems to be in demand anyways..

Personally that new profession in the new expo, transcription or w/e sounds pretty awesome too. When the new expo comes out..

[Maegtelluma]

If you have herbalism, you could easily convince people to craft pots for you to send back so you can list them on the AH, especially with the way that flask discoveries work.

My warrior is only 63 but he'll be there. There are plenty of others in trade chat 24/7.

[Anoiktos]

I guess I can keep the two processing professions and just try to ... pay for mats? Or something? Because I can't really figure how I'm going to get anywhere with Herbalism / Tailoring. Selling Herbs on the AH is going to be a colossal pain in the ass, whereas selling pots to raiders (after buying Herbs on AH) should be quite lucrative.

Some money whore clue me in, here.
I've found that selling herbs tends to be more profitable than selling the potions, but maybe it's leveled out since the last time I had herbalism. Herb/tailoring is decent, as most places have some herbs, so if you find somewhere to kill humanoids (cloth-dropping mobs) you can just level it up and pay for any other mats by selling herbs.

As for engineering, my druid finds it moderately useful for getting around, but I'm mainly keeping it because it cost me a ton to get where it is and I don't want to invalidate that cost. Blizzard's also added some cool things recently, and I hope they add more.

[ScottieIWU]

I've found that selling herbs tends to be more profitable than selling the potions, but maybe it's leveled out since the last time I had herbalism. Herb/tailoring is decent, as most places have some herbs, so if you find somewhere to kill humanoids (cloth-dropping mobs) you can just level it up and pay for any other mats by selling herbs.It depends mostly on the economy of your server, but if you do Herb/Alch together, you gather up mats for flasks and can make them and (assuming you're elixir) get some mad procs. Flasks on my server sell for around 30g on mats that cost like 50g for two or so (depending on supply of fel lotus). Getting procs there is so nice.

Procs on other elixirs is also quite nice, though going potion is also sweet because with the mats for just one, which are incredibly easy to get, you can get up to 5, which can sell for about 5-10g.

But herbalism is probably the most money/effort ratio, as the dependency that alchemy has on procs makes it kind of unreliable for income.