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Warlock SL or SM/Ruin for PvP? (lvl 60)

Rerun

New Member
Joined
Oct 19, 2014
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In your mind
Hi guys,

I've been thinking (since thats all I can do regarding Kronos now) about Warlock PvP..
I've never played a Lock in Vanilla nor have I extensively played one ever.
So I was wondering which spec would be best and Im torn between 2 atm.
Ofcourse it should be subject to personal preference but still logically one of the two has to be superior in some situations.

I realized while on these forums, that yes casters are quite gear dependant.
Regarding survival, I am probably gonna play with 1 to 2 friends, one of which a Shadow Priest.
So I do think that if I would go SM/RUIN I would still have some of the Priest buddy benifits like Power Word: Shield and some off-heals.

But the problem is, I do not know how squishy Locks actually are if we're talking about the gear ranges of "Freshly dinged 60 up to SOME tier1 pieces or random Epics"


So, basically:
Is it smarter to go for SL or more DPS based, taking into account I will be playing with a SPriest?
 
Well I extensively played a warlock before, and they are really not as squishy as other casters.

Warlocks have really high hp (15% increase from talent and lot's of stamina on gear) and decent survivability (potion + healthstone + sacrifice voidwalker + soulstone).

A soul link warlock has better survivability and it's only good in DPS when you get very good gear since you can't have the ruin talent (100% bonus dmg from crit) when you have Soul Link.

If you would bring a shadow priest you would be better off with SM/RUIN especially because of the increased shadow dmg debuff a shadow priest gives. On top of that the priest shield will help you casting without interruption.

For solo pvp conflagrate spec is pretty good too (mostly fire dmg) where you can seduce people and shoot off a soul fire.

So when I think about it warlocks have various playstyles, makes me feel like rolling one again.
 
Thanks for the quick reply :)

As I thought. I always knew Warlocks weren't very squishy; its one of the reaons I want one.
Their resourcefulness is really attractive, as you mentioned.

So I guess it will mainly be SM/Ruin then.
Looks like a fun spec to me. Really what I'd expect when playing a Warlock.

We're gonna have to experiment around a bit but, I was already leaning towards SM/Ruin and this just reinforced it.
 
I have over 400 days played time on a lock so I think I might be able to chime in a little. You have to consider mana dependency with the SM/Ruin spec, or any destruction spec for that matter. One pitfall for warlocks in poorer gear at lvl 60 is how quickly they oom themselves casting destro spells. Yes SM/Ruin is optimal for damage but you have to pay for that damage with soul shards (which don't stack in Vanilla) and A LOT of mana. This is the reason why Soul Link is the route some locks go before they gear up enough to sustain the rotations involved in the SM/Ruin spec.
 
Calinthodd

Thanks :) I did see that in vanilla videos, aswell as read it several times.
Its such a difficult decision because I want to level up, but what spec?
I want to pvp while leveling.

Should I perhaps just go Demonology from 1-60?
And only go SM/RUIN or a variant of Destr specs when Im geared enough?
Though it seems you need to be geared as a Lock no matter what.

I was also thinking of leveling as Affliction/Destr, so basically leveling as SM/Ruin
then respec SL on 60 til I have gear then respeccing back again..

Such confuse, many choice.. wow :wacko:
I like it though, I always heard while playing 'vanilla' that Lock was one of the harder classes to play.
Guess I can kind of see why already.



EDIT: I also saw a renowned Warlock who was specced like this:
3/17/31 or something along those lines.
Imp Corruption, Fel Domination + Master Summoner and ofcourse Conflagrate.

Would this kind of spec work but instead going Affliction instead of Destruction while leveling?
So that your main damage is DoTs which are a bit less mana consuming,
while having some "survivability" from the Demo tree like Fel Domination and such..
 
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My opinion guy.
Warlock sl is very good and funny.
I like play as sl vs 2-5 enemys that really cool.

But sm/ruin too good spec,but not funny then sl lock :)
 
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I've never played à lock before in vanilla.
im also very interested in playing à warlock. So i only use Sl sl at like t1
 
Calinthodd

Should I perhaps just go Demonology from 1-60?
And only go SM/RUIN or a variant of Destr specs when Im geared enough?
Though it seems you need to be geared as a Lock no matter what.

I was also thinking of leveling as Affliction/Destr, so basically leveling as SM/Ruin
then respec SL on 60 til I have gear then respeccing back again..

EDIT: I also saw a renowned Warlock who was specced like this:
3/17/31 or something along those lines.
Imp Corruption, Fel Domination + Master Summoner and ofcourse Conflagrate.

Would this kind of spec work but instead going Affliction instead of Destruction while leveling?

Yes to every question. You have a lot of flexibility while leveling because the damage differences with each spec are fairly minimal. The differences in specs are truly noticeable when fully scaled with lvl 60 gear/stats/spell ranks. In my experience demonology would be the best spec for leveling quickly for a few reasons:
1. Your voidwalker will be a more effective tank for you and you will be able to fight larger groups of mobs
2. You have greater survivability due to talents like Demonic sacrifice and improved healthstone.
3. Low downtime between fights due to lower mana consumption.
That being said, there are advantages to affliction heavy and destro heavy specs as well, it really comes down to preferred play style. If you like having a really effective tank in your pocket and higher survivability go demo. If you like blasting mobs with single target spells that have high crits go destro. If you like dotting up multiple mobs at once and kiting them around while they slowly die, go affliction. Demonology is the lowest mana consumption out of all 3, but also the lowest damage output. Its more of a utility spec, but that utility goes a long way when leveling out in the world all alone.

For your question about pvp viability while leveling; I wouldn't worry about this too much if I were you. You have to consider the fact that most of your world pvp battles won't be "fair" fights, so your spec as a pure dps class isn't usually a deciding factor in a battle's outcome. For example, if you see a member of the opposite faction questing (or they see you), often times players wait until this person engages in combat with mobs before attacking them so they can "get the jump" on the other player and dismantle them quickly. Also, the players you will be facing in world pvp will almost always have their talent specs optimized for leveling also, meaning they might not be at their best for pvp either. Given these factors, I would again urge you not to worry about a pvp spec for leveling because any spec you choose as a warlock will help you in world pvp. Let me know if that helped answer your questions.
 
That helped for sure bro, thanks a lot :)

I will most definitly not go for a Destruction build while leveling then.
It seems like it would just slow you down in many aspects.

So the decision for me now is between Affliction and Demonology..
I wonder how minimal the contrast between the two is in terms of damage.
I think its not huge but significant still.

Guess I'll just have to experiment with it.
Personally, I don't like theorycrafting for too long, makes me think Im being undecisive lol.
But I'll have to ponder it a little more.
 
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