Warlock PvE Guide
A Guide to one of World of Warcraft's Most Utilitarian Classes
The name Warlock is feared in PvP (Player versus Player), but that doesn’t mean they’re slouches in PvE (Player versus Enemies). When raiding with 24 of your best friends, it's up to each individual to do the most to maximize the performance of the group, and with this in mind here are some of the things you’ll need to know as a raiding Warlock.
Demonology
Demonology is a great, not so gear dependent spec. It has a lot of passive boosts to damage that help less than geared players stay competitive with other classes. But, a pure questing/PvP demo build will find itself lacking at higher end raids as raid members’ gear increases in quality.
You might want to try this: Demonology Raiding Build
In this build you have a passive +10% chance to crit, as well as spell damage boosts from Fel Armor (+130 spell damage), Demonic Knowledge, Soul Link (+5% damage) and Master Demonologist (you would be running with a Succubus out, which gives another +10% damage). Ruin is the key talent here to maximize your crit damage, with some spare points tossed in Imp searing pain for PvP if you feel so inclined.
The pluses to this build are clear: You don't need a lot of gear to make it work for you. If you're a fresh level 70 Warlock looking to get some better gear give this one a try.
Affliction
This is a hybrid Affliction/Destruction build. Improved Imp is great since you'll be using your Imp as a mana battery via Dark Pact due to his crazy mana regeneration, so you might as well have the extra stamina for the tank the talent provides. This is basically the old school Shadow Mastery/Ruin build of old, where you will be laying on a full bar of DOTs (Damage Over Time Spells) then spamming Shadowbolts before re-applying. When those Shadowbolts crit, they'll crit hard.
Using Unstable Affliciton in PvE is not a very good investment, better to have Ruin and have your Shadowbolts do a ton more damage if/when they crit (which synergizes with Nightfall and Improved Shadowbolt really well).
Destruction
Lastly, we come to the most popular and effective spec for successful raiding Warlocks. This spec enables its users to place fairly high on the DPS charts at least, and top them at most. This is a very gear dependent spec, but with the Destruction Arena set at a minimum you can get the most out of this build.
Fire damage is a good way to go in this spec, in which case you'll be sacrificing your Imp for the extra +15% fire damage and never looking back. An enchant like Soulfire on your PvE weapon isn't a bad idea either, for those with the gold to spend. You should focus gear on Spell Hit, Spell Crit, Spell Damage, Stamina, Int, in that order. Stamina=mana via Lifetap.
A basic cast sequences in a raid should: Curse of Elements, Immolate, then spam Incinerate until Immolate is about to end then recast. If you get Heroism or a focus proc, cast a Soulfire.
Fire isn’t the only way to go, and a lot of people swear by going Shadow Destruction. All the points are the same, the major differences are using Curse of Shadow, Sacrificing a Succubus instead of an Imp, and spamming Shadowbolts instead of Incinerates. You’ll still want to use Immolate. The critical hits from this spec are insane, more so when you factor in that each critical hit increases the raid’s shadow damage by 20%.
Conclusion
There’s a variety of ways to go when deciding which way to spec your Warlock for PvE. Do you have a lot of gear with crit, hit and spell damage? Destruction would be the way to go. Do you have gear with Spell hit and Spell damage but not a lot of crit? Go Affliction. If you lack gear with a lot of spell damage, crit, or other vital stats Demonology might be a sound investment.
Whatever your choice, it’s hard to go wrong with any of these Warlock specs.
