Sweet Looking 80 'Lock(taken from a wallpaper at worldofwarcraft.com)

Ever feel like your Warlock just don’t hold a candle to most of the other classes?

The first time I created a Warlock, it was obvious that being a “cloth-er” sucked for PvP play.  Even if you had the Voidwalker or Felhunter out for the fight, everyone can just focus on you.

It’s completely and utterly annoying, but it did open my eyes to what was missing.

If you want to build a Warlock of supremacy, then you will have to do three or maybe even four things.  The first two things that are a must is checking out your talents and getting the best gear possible.

Well, let’s just start with those and discuss the other two in a few minutes.  For now, open up your Affliction, Demonology, and Destruction trees.

The Strengths and Weaknesses

Most Locks choose their Affliction tree from the get go.  It’s because this entire section is devoted to making all your spells faster, and boost crit strikes during battle.  Since the Curse of Agony and Corruption spells take off damage during specific durations it’s important to buff them up a little bit in the beginning.  Seriously, the very first Affliction talent is the Improved Curse of Agony, which gives you 10% more damage during the cycle.  Then the 3rd one on the first row is Improved Corruption.

Hey, it’s a great way to start out playing.  Unfortunately you will find that the higher levels require a little more help then faster spells and a hope for crit strikes here and there.  We do like the Affliction tree, but not all of it.  Many of the abilities in there will not be needed during game play.  Plus, you’re missing out on a large amount of armor.

Demonology

Okay, if you want to set up your armor then head to a trainer and respec.  You will want to set up the Demonology tree for two reasons.  Number one is because there is an extreme need for a tank during the later leveling stages.  If you already have 40 points available for talents, work your way down the tree and make sure you can summon a Felguard.  While you’re there spend 5 more points getting the Metamorphosis spell as well.

What you’ll find is a pet with some sick armor and a Warlock that can transform into a demon (for 30 seconds) gaining a 600% increase in armor.  Add in all the extra spells that are gained and you will find yourself taking over fights with a vengeance.  The only downfall to all of this is that your spells cooldown times are much slower then if you had the Affliction tree built up.

Mixing It Up a Bit

Now that you have focused on Demonology and find yourself with left over talent points, start looking in the other trees to increase your spells and abilities.  Here is a small list of things to include in the Affliction and Destruction trees.

Affliction

Improved Curse of Agony (2/2)
Improved Corruption (5/5)
Life Tap (2/2)

Destruction

Improved Shadow Bolt (5/5)
Bane (5/5)
Shadowburn (1/1)

With a few ranks trained in Shadowburn, you’ll be laying down some heavy hits of 300 damage, 400 damage, all the way up to 665 damage at rank 8. Get this off after a critical shadow bolt and you’re looking at 685 damage instant cast spells that can be equally handy in PvE or, of course, PvP where burst damage rules.

Earlier we wanted to tell you a couple other things that are important to for your Warlock.  If anything, you must have the Grand Master First Aid tag.  Since it will allow you to make the Heavy Frostweave Bandages, this will only help you and your Felguard.  Last but not least, load up on as much Epic gear as possible.  If you can’t find any or just haven’t got the gold or time, then stick with your solid performing blue equipment until you’re able to learn how to make more gold. In the end this will help increase your armor, stamina, intellect, and spirit, which means you improve your leveling times, loot gathering ability and PvP power.

[adrotate group="4"]

Related posts:

1. Warlock Leveling Guide: The Affliction Spec Leveling Up With An Affliction Spec So you want to...
2. Horde Warlock Strategy: Pet Week – The Voidwalker The Voidwalker – without question the most used pet by...
3. Afflication Warlock Casting Rotation: Mid Level Welcome Warlocks – today I’m continuing my recent series into...

The classic, “Oh Brother…” commandment. “I know this already”, “I always do that”, “It doesn’t help that much anyway.”

All comments from people who have never stopped to think about the power of food and drink… or they THINK they know, but never USE their own knowledge.

Food and drink comes in at number 2 in our guide not because its some super fancy method of leveling quickly, and its not because its the fastest – its quite simply because food and drink are amongst the easiest items to carry to keep your leveling speeds up, bar none.

Lets examine food & drink more closely.

As you may know, most World of Warcraft players carry food on them, but most only use it sparingly. Maybe they accidentally cop a beating from wandering mobs, and they chow down to get their health up quick before another monster finishes them off.

Or they use food randomly, without any particular rhyme or reason… perhaps only ever using the food they’ve found while they wander the Warcraft world.

Food and drink is one of the best ways to improve your leveling times…

BUT… You have to use it consistently, and you have to use the highest level food available to you at the time. I strongly recommend stocking up at the auction house every time you return to level your skills, and I recommend you keep your food skill high (especially if you want to save gold).

Let me explain why.

Food will increase your stamina and spirit by anywhere from 2 to 25 depending on the level — this means that if you eat the right foods, and the foods right at the edge of your level requirement, you’ll be primed with greater stamina and spirit…

That means less time sitting and rejuvenating your health, less time being killed, less time running back to get your corpse… and more time killing mobs and completing quests!

Before I adopted a strict routine of consuming high quality food, I must have died at least once every level… and I hate to think how many hours of game time I’ve wasted sitting or inactive, returning my health & mana to full!

Are you the same?

Don’t dismiss food as one of your leveling commandments… it may sound boring, it may sound dull… but boy… its not as dull as still being level 50 when you should be 55.

So do yourself a favor! Stock up on food, and eat it regularly… its good for you!

Related posts:

1. The 10 Commandments of Horde Leveling – Part 1 Thou Shall Use The Funnel The Funnel System for power...
2. The 10 Commandments of Horde Leveling – Part 3 Thou Shall Make Gold Ah, gold! Sweet, shiny gold! The...
3. The 10 Commandments of Horde Leveling – Part 7 Thou Shall Add-On, and On, and On There’s many different...

The Funnel System for power leveling is the system the best speed levelers in the world use to break records day in day out.

I invented the analogy of a Funnel to describe and imprint on World of Warcraft players how important it is to follow good leveling routes.

But before I outline how the Funnel works, I first want to talk about its ugly kid brother using another analogy I invented, the Star.

The star, unfortunately, is the most commonly employed questing pattern. I came up with the term star because if you watched the leveling path of the character from above, they’d trace out the outline of a star, with the quest givers at the center, and the quest locations at the points of a star.

A player will go out, complete a quest, then turn it in – going back and forth repeatedly without realizing how much time they’re wasting.

The diagram below shows you what I mean:

The STAR Leveling Pattern

The player starts at step 1 by accepting a bunch of quests (at a town for example), then goes out to complete a quest or two, then comes back to turn them in. The character might go out again and again, addicted to the continual gratification of quest completion, and unaware they could be saving themselves hours if only they would at least stay out in the field long enough to complete them all first!

Now that you have an idea of the common “star” leveling pattern, here’s how the funnel works, courtesy of Anguine the angry undead warlock.

Use the Power of the Funnel!

Unlike the Star method, the Funnel is the most efficient way of completing quests. I call this analogy the Funnel because funnels are efficient, and the final destination of their contents is one point.

When we think of a Funnel leveling method, I tell people to envision a group of quests, all lined up along the edge of the funnel, ready to be tipped off the edge into the center… its just a matter of working out the most efficient way to go from quest to quest… and funnily enough the most efficient way is generally circular, the shape of the rim of a funnel.

Funnel Leveling System

How does an average every day player tackle the funnel?

Anguine shows us how.

Step 1: Anguine, the angry undead warlock has just landed in Freewind post, Thousand Needles. She sees a veritable hoard of quest givers, and takes every quest she can. So far, so good.

She then takes it another step, and stocks up on food, repairs her armor, and gets ready for an extended trip in the field.

She looks over her quests quickly and mentally notes a few quests here & there that just happen to sound nearby, thinking of how she can best complete each in turn.

Step 2, 3, 4, 5, 6: Anguine steps out and starts completing quests, tipping them off the edge of the funnel as efficiently as possible, and leaving them to be turned in later at the skinny end of the funnel – aka Freewind Post.

Step 7. All quests complete, Anguine leaps down the neck of the funnel herself and heads back to Freewind Post and to turn in all of her quests at once.

The better you can navigate the outer rim of that funnel, the quicker you’ll tip them down the spout, and the quicker you’ll level.

This commandment is number 1 for a very good reason – it is the method of choice for each and every one of the world’s fastest power levelers.

The best speed leveler I’ve run into so far is Joana from Joana’s World. After spending many long hours and tedious sessions examining questing paths for the most efficient route possible, Joana is the consummate “funnel” leveler.

For each day Joana spends examining quest locations & routes, he’s saved his fans many hours of leveling time.

Find out more about Joana here.

Related posts:

1. The 10 Commandments of Horde Leveling – Part 2 Eat, Drink and Be Merry The classic, “Oh Brother…” commandment....
2. The 10 Commandments of Horde Leveling – Part 8 – Map Mods Thou Shall Use a Map-Mod Map mods, such as cartographer,...
3. The 10 Commandments of Horde Leveling – Part 10 – Have Fun! Thou Shall Just Enjoy Thyself! Sometimes we get so caught...

Today we’re looking at the pinnacle of Warlock pets, the ultimate weapon of destruction, the unstoppable juggernaught… The Doomguard!

The Doomguard is a great pet… doing the most damage per second of ANY Warlock pet, the Doomguard’s only weakness is that you can’t tool around the world with him out all the time!

So when is the best time to use the Doomguard? Does anyone ever solo with this guy? What about PvP?

Lets start with soloing. The Doomguard is simply NOT a soloing pet. This is for two reasons.

1. You need 4 people to cast the spell to summon one, or

2. You need to cast curse of doom on an enemy mob… preferably within striking distance of whatever you want to kill.

After curse of doom you’ll need to enslave the beast, which usually doesn’t present problems, but there’s a 1 hour cooldown, which means to be effective you have to choose your targets wisely!

The Doomguard will only ever be useful when you know you have a tough fight ahead… say, when you want to take on a red mob for a quest ahead of the leveling curve, so to speak.

Group PvE. In a party is where the Doomguard excels. Because you have your 4 people to complete the spell to summon one, and party members no longer die during the process, you’ll find you actually have party members requesting the big guy.

Raiding can be a great time to break out the Doomguard, or just whenever you have a particularly tough fight coming up. Simply finish the battle with a curse of doom, and then let the Doomguard wail away for 5 minutes. Easy kill!

PvP – unfortunately for us, that monster 4000 damage DoT cannot be used against players, which means PvP is generally going to be a tough spot to use the Doomguard.

Tough that is, unless you have a cooperative team! If you can get your team together just long enough to complete the ritual of doom, then you’ve got yourself one angry Doomguard to throw at your opposition. Just be sure to let your team know he’s out to play — hopefully they’ll realize NOW is the right time to make a run at the flag, or assault the lumber mill!

The Doomguard has the following abilities:

1. War Stomp – just like the Tauren version, this stunning AoE attack is great for charging into the thick of combat

2. Cripple – stop your opposition running away in terror with cripple!

3. Rain of fire – a massively powerful area of effect spell (which needs the Doomguard to channel). Anyone caught in the blast will either die immediately or run in fear for their life as the Doomguard follows up for a melee blow!

Whenever possible, take the Doomguard out to play. You may cringe at “wasting him” when you’re playing solo, but its best to use him as often as possible, rather than save him for a rainy day that may never come.

PvP can be hilarious with the Doomguard – just be sure to heal him as he’s a bit weaker than the Infernal. Also be careful to counter any enemy Warlocks on the battlegrounds who would seek to banish him instantly.

Grouping against tough monsters is where the Doomguard lives. Use the ritual of doom, and then go after your prey. Simple as that!

[adrotate group="4"]

Related posts:

1. Horde Warlock Strategy: Pet Week – The Fel Guard Welcome to part SIX of my Horde Warlock Strategy Guide,...
2. Horde Warlock Strategy: Pet Week – The Infernal Welcome to the Infernal Horde Warlock Strategy Guide! This is...
3. Horde Warlock Strategy: Pet Week – The Felhunter Welcome back to Pet Week, where today we'll be talking...

Read on to find out exactly how you should be using this combat monster!

The Infernal is without doubt one of our most powerful pets — you can summon him and not long afterwards he’s causing all kinds of mayhem and damage to the enemy. How does he do this?

1. The Infernal has one of the highest damage per second stats of any of our pets, only being rivalled by the Doom Guard at level 60,

2. Immune to fire and fear,

3. Has an area of attack stun spell, and

4. Has an area of attack fire aura that’s constantly in effect.

All of these nice abilities can really cause havoc when he’s summoned and sent into a large group of enemies, but he’s also got some huge negatives that all Warlocks come to realize sooner or later.

These are:

1. After summoning, only lasts for 1 minute before crumbling, and

2. Has a TWENTY MINUTE cooldown.

Obviously, we want to pick and choose the situations we break out such a powerful pet, but in order to keep our leveling speeds up, I feel you’re really missing out if you never use this pet.

Here’s the situations I feel best suit the Infernal.

Solo PvE – if you’re soloing, there’s really not going to be a lot of opportunity to summon an Infernal. You only get the big guy for 1 lousy minute, and then he crumbles… HOWEVER – why not use him once every 20 minutes anyway? Having this guy out for one minute means you can take down many more mobs than usual, speeding up your questing and grinding activities.

You might also consider pulling him out for an orange or red quest that you’re just not that sure you can complete. With the Infernal at your side, anything is possible.

Party PvE – much like soloing, I don’t think there’s a “bad” time to pull out the Infernal, but now you have to weigh the loss of any buffing or crowd control abilities for the minute the Infernal is “out to play”.

I suggest using the Infernal with care in PvE. Ask the group their opinion, and if the benefits outweigh the negatives, give him and run and crush some quests that you originally didn’t believe were possible.

PvP/Battlegrounds – a great idea for battlegrounds. As you’re probably aware, in a PvP zone where burst damage reins supreme, having such a powerful beast out for a play can really turn the battle in your favor. Try summoning one for the rush into the enemy’s keep, and bulldoze the enemy.

If nothing else the site of an Infernal will really pull attention from more important things, like the flag carrying druid who’s gonna sprint out of their keep in a few moments time…!

Remember, while the Infernal has a short duration in-game, there’s no reason not to cast him more often!

[adrotate group="4"]

Related posts:

1. Horde Warlock Strategy: Pet Week! Its “Pet Strategy Guide Week” for Warlocks! Every day for...
2. Horde Warlock Strategy: Pet Week – The Doom Guard Welcome to the very last “Pet Week” post! At least…...
3. Horde Warlock Strategy: Pet Week – The Felhunter Welcome back to Pet Week, where today we'll be talking...

Keep reading & find out!

First up – solo play. The Felhunter can be an interesting pet for solo leveling fun… mainly due to two of its abilities which make it quite a good tank, and a super good tank when facing casters or spell users of any kind.

The two abilities I’m talking about are tainted blood, which reduces the enemies attack power, and spell lock, which stops the enemy mob from casting, and locks out that spell’s school of magic for 6 seconds.

While you certainly can tank using the Felhunter, my recommendation is that you keep using the Voidwalker unless you’re facing caster mobs. I say this because while the Felhunter will dish out a little more damage than the Voidwalker, you still won’t have taunting abilities, and you’ll have to hold back a bit in your own casting to ensure the Felhunter keeps aggro.

Regardless of whether attack power is reduced by the Felhunter, you’ll still really feel melee blows wearing all that cloth armor, okay?

So with that said, the Felhunter also has a handy ability that you should also employ heavily if you’re going to use him as your tank. That abilitity is “devour magic”, and will remove any harmful spell from you, or any beneficial spell from your enemy. Again, more useful when fighting casters, as you’re more likely to take negative spell effects, and your enemy is more likely to be buffing themselves. Just remember its not an auto cast so you’ll have to use it manually!

Group PvE strategy for your Warlock’s Felhunter is very similar to my advice for solo play. The Felhunter won’t be particularly handy for your group unless you’re fighting a very magic heavy foe that the Felhunters talents are particularly useful for. Take the succubus or the imp for group PvE!

In PvP things can get quite interesting for a Felhunter user… its where your devour magic ability really comes in handy. You know those annoying yellow bubbles  alliance paladins keep popping? Gulp! Your Felhunter can eat them up, leaving them wide open to some kick as DoT’s and curses from yours truly.

Or maybe you or any ally just copped a “root” spell, and need to get a flag carrier ASAP… shazam! Devour magic comes in handy again.

Of course, there’s also the fact that your spell lock ability will make you a fantastic anti mage tool in your PvP group… just find them amongst the crowd… wait for that inevitable spell, and then hit them with a spell lock and curse them! Handy stuff, good fun… and of course highly annoying for your opponent… but we’re not interested in annoying alliance players… are we?

So, remember… Your Warlock pets are highly role-specific, and perhaps none more so than the Felhunter. He can come in very handy against casters, and he can also be a real thorn in PvP play… but for your run of the mill grinding & questing… leave him at home!

[adrotate group="4"]

Related posts:

1. Horde Warlock Strategy: Pet Week – The Succubus Welcome to the third pet week post on how to...
2. Horde Warlock Strategy: Pet Week – The Fel Guard Welcome to part SIX of my Horde Warlock Strategy Guide,...
3. Horde Warlock Strategy: Pet Week – The Voidwalker The Voidwalker – without question the most used pet by...

Today we’re talking about the Imp… not my favorite pet by a long shot – but definately not one to underestimate. And then there’s the fact you’re going to be using the little guy a lot for the first 10 levels until you strike it rich on the Voidwalker!

The Imp is the first pet you acquire, and he’s a ranged DPS pet (DPS is damage per second), meaning he’s great at dishing out plenty of damage from a distance, but unfortunately he can’t take much punishment thanks to his low hit points.

The Imp isn’t great in solo questing & grinding situations, mainly because he’s fragile and can’t manage the anger levels of monsters you fight. This means if you happen to annoy a monster by doing a lot of damage to it, the Imp isn’t going to be able to get the monster off of you if you get a little out of your depth.

So be careful of anger management using the Imp! To do this, order your Imp to attack the monster you’re after first. This will let him build up a bit of anger using his damage points before you step in… I usually let my Imp hit the enemy with 2 or 3 blasts before I step in with my damage over time curses. Curses are good for keep aggro low, so feel free to land as many as you like.

At this stage I’ll usually stand out for a short while, letting the Imp continue to hold the aggro of the monster. If your Imp starts getting too badly beaten, hit the monster with everything you’ve got, and he should snap over to attacking you instead.

This fine balancing act is what fighting with the Imp is all about, you’ll get it from a few minutes of practice, just be mindful of trying to keep the health levels of both you and the Imp as high as you can.

In PvP the Imp is practically useless. Given the short time PvP lasts for, and the fact that his group health buffing spell is difficult to use with an unorganized team, it means you’re running around with a pet who can’t take damage, has trouble dishing a lot out fast enough, and is generally just a burden.

To get the most out of the Imp, you’ll need to put plenty of talent points into the demonology tree… Just look for the Imp and general demonic enhancement talents and take the pics you want. I won’t waste your time (or fun) by telling you some ultra strict “here’s what you need to take” guide, unless you care about leveling about 5 minutes faster per level at level 60. Didn’t think so!

So where does the Imp excel? Group based PvE! That’s just normal player vs monsters playing with friends if you’re not down with the lingo… and its where the Imp does his most work. You may have noticed your Imp has two buff spells that help you out, one, a health buff, and the other is a fire shield.

When its just you and your Imp this addition isn’t anything worth writing home about, but when you have 4 other people with you who are all getting a health buff, as well as a ranged caster, the Imp will suddenly (and almost surprisingly) become your best friend.

So remember, keep that little guy on a short leash, order him around a lot, and make sure you’re careful with balancing aggression while using him.

[adrotate group="1" banner="3"]

Related posts:

1. Horde Warlock Strategy: Pet Week – The Succubus Welcome to the third pet week post on how to...
2. Horde Warlock Strategy: Pet Week – The Voidwalker The Voidwalker – without question the most used pet by...
3. Horde Warlock Strategy: Pet Week – The Felhunter Welcome back to Pet Week, where today we'll be talking...

The question I’m posing is, “Is mining just a weaker version of skinning?”

The answer is both yes, and no.

Let me explain myself… While mining is a valuable profession, and nobody doubts its ability to make large sums of cash, we really DO need to justify taking mining if our main aim is to level fast.

Justifications for NOT taking mining as a profession to power level:

1. You need to smelt a lot. Each time you need to return to base to smelt, you’re wasting precious leveling time. Yes – you ALSO need to return to base to auction skins, however…  you don’t need to find a forge, which can take precious time from questing & mob killing.

2. You need to go off-course to find the mines, OR, you need to spend many, many bars of gold to buy ore to smelt from the AH. 

If we forget about spending gold at the AH to buy ore to smelt (the quickest way to get our mining skill up), then we’re left with the only option – finding ore mines.

Unlike skinning, ore mines do not just pop up for us each time we make a kill. We have to go out of our way, sometimes a LONG way out of our way just to find them. This time doesn’t help our leveling, and it isn’t fast enough if you’re a dedicated horde player out to level as fast as you can.

But doesn’t the extra income from mining, and the great gear you can buy make up for it, you ask? Yes and no… I find that my skinning skill makes me so much cash while using auctioneer, that any attempt to mine is quite fruitless. 

So, if you’re thinking about mining, and your sole goal is to get your horde character leveling as fast as humanly possible… drop mining, or at the least, use it only when mines practically throw themselves in front of you!

Related posts:

1. Skinning, The Power Leveler’s Favorite Profession If we had to choose just one profession to help...
2. Choosing Gathering Professions for Leveling What gathering professions should you be choosing for your toons?...
3. The 10 Commandments of Horde Leveling – Part 3 Thou Shall Make Gold Ah, gold! Sweet, shiny gold! The...

Skinning is the only answer!

Why are we so ga-ga over skinning at Horde Leveling Guide?

Because skinning has two amazing and useful abilities that’ll have us leveling faster in no time… 

1. Skinning helps us “twink” our characters by allowing us to amass large fortunes of gold. Skinning ALONE is able to boost your bank account to almost unheard of levels. All you need to do is level your skinning skill until you’re able to skin each beast you kill, and then turn in your hides every time you get somewhere near the auction house. 

Pro tip: Get the auctioneer add-on. Auctioneer will let you know the maximum price you can sell your hides, boosting the gold you accumulate… fast!

2. Skinning has a beneficial “side effect”. Every time you stop to skin a corpse, you’re recovering health and mana. Don’t over look this. While its simply a natural side effect of not being in combat, giving your character something to do while they rejuvenate health – even for a moment could equal hours of game time saved over the long run.

Would you rather stand still, or sit for a few seconds, or skin a corpse which earns you buckets of gold?

There really is no reason NOT to go all out on skinning. The extra gear you can buy with all that gold will mean MUCH faster kills, less down time healing, and faster leveling times!

Get out there & skin!

Related posts:

1. Mining… Skinning’s Ugly Cousin? Today we’re talking about using mining to power level your...
2. The 10 Commandments of Horde Leveling – Part 7 Thou Shall Add-On, and On, and On There’s many different...
3. 2 Easy Everyday Gold Making Tasks Gold making is my favorite way to boost my leveling...