Warlock Changes - Demonic Circle, Shadowflame, and Eradication

Not much to be said here, we’ll just have to wait and see these changes once Blizzard finalizes them for the next PTR build in a couple of days. Make sure to check out the patch 3.0.2 changes warlocks.

Eradication might need a few changes
Thanks. We’ll take a look at it.

Demonic Circle recast
If you cast a new one, it should just cast a new one. We’ll look into it.
Demonic Circle isn’t intended to be a pew pew spell. Not every ability has to be.

Shadowflame
Shadowflame is something we’re looking at.

Warlock Focus Macros

Warlock’s are arguably one of the most difficult classes to play (at least at the highest levels), namely due to the incredible number of spells a warlock must master. Fortunately, there are a few warlock focus macros available that can make your life a whole lot easier and improve your game over night!

If you haven’t heard of focus macros or just want a quick refresher course then head over and check out my 101 focus macro guide. Also, if you’re just looking for regular warlock macros you can find those here, warlock macros guide.

Warlock CC Focus Macros

Focus Fear Macro

/cast [target=focus] Fear

If you don’t go any further than this, please get this macro. Using a focus fear macro is absolutely crucial for effective CC rotations in both PvP and PvE settings.

Focus Fear Macro + Modifier

/cast [mod:shift,target=focus] Fear; Fear

Does the same thing as the above fear macro, except you use shift + key to cast your focus fear, while just an unmodified key click will cast a non-focused fear on your target.

Focus Banish Macro

/cast [target=focus] Banish

Warlock Pet Focus Macros

Focus Pet Attack Macros (all)

/cast [pet:X, target=focus] Attack

note: just change “X” to the name of your pet. Felguard, Felhunter, Imp, Etc.

Focus Intercept Macros (felguard)

/cast [pet:Felguard, target=focus] Intercept

Focus Spell Lock Macro (felhunter)

/cast [pet:FelHunter, target=focus] Spell Lock

Focus Devour Magic (felhunter)

/cast [pet:Felhunter, target=focus] Devour Magic

Focus Seduction Macro (succubus)

/cast [pet:Succubus, target=focus] Seduction

Focus Macro Spells

Curse of Tongues Focus Macro

/cast [target=focus] Curse of Tongues

Shadow Bolt Focus Macro

/cast [target=focus] Shadow Bolt

Shadow Bolt Focus Macro + Modifier

/cast [mod: shift, target=focus] Shadow Bolt; Shadow Bolt

Personally I like this macro much more as it allows you seamlessly switch targets you are DPS’ing, and the opposing team / boss will never be the wiser!

DoT Focus Macro Spells

/cast [target=focus] Curse of Agony

Simply replace “Curse of Agony” for any other focus DoT / Spell macros you’d like to create. Very simple!

Mage / Rogue Vs. Warlock / Rogue 2v2 Arena Strategy

This is really quick match, and it will only be quicker if anything goes wrong for either team.

Rogue Arena Strategy

Rush the warlock with everything you’ve got, and try to avoid as much of the opposing rogue’s damage as possible. Attempting to find a rogue with paranoia is an unnecessary risk.The lock will probably be dotting both of you, so if you’re dotted and caught in a Kidney shot feel free to trinket to finish up on the lock.

NEVER let the lock get a fear off, as that’s almost a guaranteed loss. Once the lock is down, you’ll probably have used up most of your cooldowns at this point, it’s up to your mage for a smooth get away from the rogue.

Mage Arena Strategy

Shatter combos on the lock as fast as possible. Sheeping the rogue might not buy you the full window of CC you’re used to, but it can buy you atleast 3 seconds as it will take time for the lock to send his fel hunter for a dispel. The pressure is really on for you to keep your rogue out of the danger zone and to shatter the warlock on demand. When the lock is dead attempt to control the rogue to let yours heal up, as a 1v1 while in your advantage is annoying and time consuming.

Looking for more mage / rogue strategy? Check out the complete Mage / Rogue 2v2 Arena Strategy Guide.

WotLK Warlock Changes - Major Talent Buffs

The following is a guest commentary submitted by Menagus of the Zug Gaming forums.

Now everyone and their dog knows that warlocks are already ridiculously OP in PvE, as well as PvP. So what does Blizzard decide to do for Wrath of the Lich King? ……buff them, apparently.

Corruption is now instant cast without talent.

We’re going to make Corruption base instant cast. The Improved Corruption talent will now increase Corruption’s damage by 4/8/12/16/20%.

Ruin and Devastation changes

In an upcoming build we are changing Ruin to a 5-point talent. However, it will swap places with Devastation. Devastation will become a 1-point talent (5% spell crit). This will be a minimal change to the Destruction Warlock, while opening up Ruin to other builds without having them sacrifice their 51-point talents.

Metamorphosis changes

We recently re-designed Metamorphosis for an upcoming build. Some changes:

• It will no longer remove your pet (your pet remains)
• It increases your armor by 600%, up from 360%
• It increases all your damage by 40%
• You can still cast your regular Warlock spells
• You gain access to a few new unique Demon Form abilities that can only be used in Demon Form

Among some other improvements. It will be changed back to a 5-minute cooldown, however (with a 45 second duration). With the changes to Ruin, you can also get Metamorphosis and Ruin in a build if you wish.

Pandemic Changes

Going to be changing the visual and some other aspects of the talent soon, not going to have the Shadow Bolt graphic.

Seriously, I wish I had a lock about right now. Metamorphosis looks absolutely amazing. If I had to fathom a guess, this ability is going to have to be nerfed pretty hard in order to balance it accordingly. In fact, I have heard from a few sources that some of the warlocks in the beta think that this is even a bit too much of a buff (yeah, hard to believe, huh -.-). In any case, the change to improved corruption has been a long time crying – many warlocks have called for that for who knows how long.

Looks like everyone will be stacking warlocks in raids if these changes stay, their dps is going to be off the charts.

Mage / Rogue vs. Warlock / Priest 2v2 Arena Strategy

Rogue Arena Tactics

The strategy for the rogue is pretty basic here. If at all possible you want to sap the priest. This will allow you to get a solid start on the warlock and in many cases fill him outright. If you must use shadowstep to pull off the sap, it’s crucial you get it off quickly and cleanly.

Once you’re on the lock you need to be very watchful for fears. The mage cannot afford to burn his CS on the lock, so it’s up to you to kick / kidney shot any single target fear or howl of terror. Additionally, be ready to use your blind on the priest to assist the mage in his crowd control rotation.

I highly suggest using a focus blind macro to make this cc transition as seamless as possible. In an ideal game your rotation might look something like this. Sap –> Sheep –> Trinkets the sheep. Blind –> Sap –> CS — Sheep. While this always isn’t going to work out perfectly like this knowing your CC rotation from the beginning will be a huge aid to your success.

Mage Arena Tactics

While the mage is certainly going to be adding damage your primary role is still to crowd control the healer. Most mages are very confident in their own sheep / CS rotation, but don’t forget the fact you have a rogue. It will be very important for you and your rogue to successfully communicate through the match to maximize your collective crowd control.

Just like with the rogue’s blind, using focus sheep or focus CS macros can be very helpful. Not only do they allow you to quickly pull off your various forms of CS, but many times they can catch your opponents off guard. Many players watch for you as the mage to target them, often this is a dead give away to an incoming sheep or blind. Using focus macros you never actually have to target them, so they have zero idea what’s coming!

Looking for more strategies? Check out the complete rogue / mage 2v2 arena strategy guide!

Paladin PvP Guide - Holy Paladins

Welcome to read the first part of “Paladin pvp guide”. We’ll start with abilities and spells and cover additional topics with each part in this series.

Aura Swapping

Most of the paladins I’ve played against typically do not swap auras in different situations, even if it might help them a lot of. With Aura swapping you are actually changing those auras in constantly throughout the match. It is extremely important to swap these auras though. Using different auras allows you to get a huge advantage throughout the duration of the match and the better you get with using each situational buff the better off you’ll be.

Frost resistance aura - 70 frost resistance. Use it against any team where the primary source of damage is a frost mage.

Shadow resistance aura - 70 shadow resistance. Use against priest and warlock teams. This can really be a clutch buff, because one or two extra fear resists throughout a long duration match could very easily tip the tide in your favor.

Devotion aura -Devotion aura can be another very beneficial buff when used under the right circumstance. Generally speaking this aura is ideal on any team where melee damage is the primary damage output.

Blessings and seals

<Blessing of Sacrifice>
Really useful and important ability that people should use MUCH more. When to use it? I suggest to use it always against warlock teams, reducing so much of damage income to warrior. It’s really effective against rogue teams with the same reason, but they also can’t blind you, sap you or gouge you. You should always try to keep it up on your warrior against rogue and mage teams, that way you cannot be crowd controled nearly as effectivly.

Tip: You can sacrifice warlock’s pet instead of the warlock himself, that way you can keep both sacrifice and blessing of freedom up.

Tip: Keep the blessing of sacrifice up on your friend, that way you can’t get sapped, sheeped, blinded for too long.

<Blessing of Freedom>
The “Ultimate Kite” ability. This is one of the abilities that make the paladin class viable in arena. Excellent ability for pillar kiting, if you have your movement speed enchant or gem and your enemy doesn’t it’s pretty much impossible for them to catch you.

<Blessing of Protection>
Personally, this is one of my favorite paladin abilities, it’s simply dominating against melee teams. When using it with Divine shield and blessing of freedom rotating against rogue teams for example, there is really small change you could actually get killed. Blessing of protection only has 3 minutes cool down, so you’re able to BoP yourself, Divine shield after that if needed, and BoP again nearly asap after Forbearance has gone off.

Tip: Blessing of protection removes blind. If someone is about to die on the opposing team for example, and your friend gets blinded and can’t get out by himself, this is good thing to know.

<Seal of Justice and Judgement of Justice>

Judgment of justice basically kills resto druids, especially in 2s / 3s.

Unleashing this Seal’s energy will judge an enemy for 20 sec, preventing them from fleeing and limiting their movement speed.

That means that your opponent can’t run with more than 100% speed. Druids in travel form run just as fast they would run without it, or mutilate rogue who uses movement speed on talents can’t run faster than 100%. Even if the rogue uses his sprint (If it’s not improved sprint), he won’t run faster than he’d run without it. But you also need to remember that there are minor stuff that improves movement speed as well, and removing that from someone while you have it by yourself, might be dramatically.

Tip: Most of the people don’t know it’s also useful as seal. Seal of justice, has a change to stun your target on melee hit. When would you need really short stun? Interrupting warlocks or hunters while they’re recasting pet and while your partner is being cycloned and your hammer of justice is on cool down.

<Seal of Wisdom and Judgment of Wisdom>

The only use I find for seal of wisdom in arena is in heal fights against certain classes. Because it doesn’t really last that long to get benefits from it, I’d only use it in few situations. For example, if you’re playing 2v2 against healer + hunter team, judging it on pet and sealing yourself with it could save a lot of mana from you.

However, lately I’ve started to play really offensively against hunter + healer teams, so I judge seal of command on the pet every time it gets off from cooldown. (I’m currently playing with 47 / 0 / 14 holy spec with a warlock).
Other abilities

<Exorcism>

Mana cost 340, it’s a lot compared to damage it does, but sometimes you just got to go offensive and this spell is ideal for killing warlock pets. Together with Holy shock, judgment of righteous / judgment of command and hammer of wrath, it’s a lot of nuke damage. Using this technique is ideal for bombing pets, though you’ll want to make sure you pull them out of line of sight so it cannot be healed as easily.

You lose a lot of mana dropping the damage, but you’re able to drink after that so you may have to take the risk. Don’t start nuking the pet by yourself before it’s already pretty low and you’re away from opposite teams healer. If you start nuking it you’ll end up losing mana while opposite healer just heals it to full with mana cost of 300.

<Holy shock>

Your only instant healing spell, use it wisely. You can use it either offensively or defensively. If you’re playing against double dps team in 2v2 this is a spell you should have on cooldown all the time. Granted it is quite mana costly, but sometimes it’s the only way to get caught up on heals.

<Consecration>

Great way to detect stealth classes using Rank 1 and randomly casting it while mounted or even without.  It’s also a great way to kill snakes from hunter’s viper / snake trap (Correct me if the name is wrong). Don’t use highest rank when you use it, use rank 1 or few ranks higher.

Rogue / Rogue Vs. Paladin / Warlock 2v2 Arena Strategy

This match-up is pretty similar to Warrior / Pally, but much easier in my opinion. The one thing that will get you killed here is if you get chain feared into oblivion by the Warlock, but you two won’t let that happen to you, right?!

Rogue #1

Get a sap on the lock if possible, and pretty much just try to force the pally to bubble. Conserve energy for interrupts. Once the paladin pops bubble you simply Cloak and Vanish to reset the match. Down the paladin after bubble fades.

Rogue #2

You can do one of either things: Get on the lock, or simply force a bubble on the paladin with your partner. Either option is viable, simply do what you and your partner are comfortable.

Rogue / Warlock vs. Warrior / Druid 2v2 Arena Strategy

The rogue / warlock vs. warrior / druid 2v2 strategy can be a very difficult one. Generally speaking a warlock is going to be a huge advantage over druids, but in this case it’s very easy for the warrior / druid team to dramatically slow the pace of the game. And if you can’t control the speed it’s going to be a tough match for you to win.

In order to ensure you get the best start we need to make certain we always have the element of surprise. So running out and engaging quickly is an absolute must. In virtually all cases you’re going to have to go on the warrior. He’ll be out in the open early on, so you can very quickly open with CS and DoT him up.

But getting the damage out isn’t the issue, the problem is keeping the druid crowd controlled. As soon as the warrior / druid team realizes it’s double DPS and you’re attack the warrior he’s going to go d-stance and try to buy time for his druid to heal him up. So at this point we need to get this druid out of the fight. As soon as the druid pops out you need to start crowd controlling him.

1. Start with fears on the druid, if you have a solid start on the warrior the druid should have to break this first or second fear.
2. As soon as he trinkets the rogue needs to toss the blind. Having a focus blind macro helps a lot to get this blind out quickly.
3. You need to drop then vanish / sap combo on the druid at the end of the blind’s duration
4. The warrior “should” be dead by this point, if not put him into another fear rotation and keep the damage output up

The strategies for virtually all warlock / rogue 2v2 teams are going to be pretty straight forward. DPS one target while you spam crowd controls on the other. It’s the execution that is the difficult part.

The issue with the battle against warrior / druid is you’re pretty much snookered into going on the warrior. Since you aren’t going to be able to fear the warrior you really cannot bomb the druid. Below is a short list of absolute “musts” if you want to secure a win.

• Engage quickly on the warrior, get all your major damage out early because the warrior will be going into d-stance soon.
• Both players need to watch for the druid and immediately start cc’n the moment he breaks stealth.
• Once the warrior is in d-stance it’s a good idea to drop a rupture bomb to keep the DPS pumping.
• Both players need to watch for the the druid’s trinket, the moment he does drop the blind / sap combo.
• The rogue should do everything he can to avoid being disarmed. If you have an off hand with weapon chain, use this for this setup. And either way you still should toss the evasion early to avoid getting bombed on and avoid a disarm.

Rogue / Warlock vs. Priest / Rogue 2v2 Arena Strategy

Rogue / Warlock vs. Priest / Rogue 2v2 is a very difficult match up for you to win simply due to the nature of the priest’s spells. As a rogue / warlock 2v2 team you have a few main objectives you must achieve in order to win the match.

• Crowd control and lock down (both on healers and DPS)
• Minimize damage taken (this is usually no problem if you achieve point number 1)
• Force the other team into situations where misusing a trinket will cost them the game

Achieving these goals is no easy task, especially if the priest / rogue team have undead players on there team. Ideally you want to sap the rogue and immediately open on the priest. This allows you maximum time to apply all DoTs and have strong damage before the fight has even begun.

If the rogue trinkets the sap you should immediately blind him and stay on the priest. Following the blind you can hit him with a back to back fears followed by the vanish sap. Of course this is an absolute ideal scenario, as with any double DPS team things can quickly go wrong. But, if you’re able to pull off this type of well timed CC you have virtually assured yourself the win.

If you are unable to sap the rogue you have a few options.

1. Wait for stealth buffs to come up and force them to engage your warlock. This gives your rogue maximum time to find and sap the opposing rogue, allowing for the best possible opener.
2. If your rogue is unable to find the rogue / if the opposing rogue jumps the warlock you’ll have no choice but to open up on the rogue yourself. At this point the rogue’s gear choices will really come into effect.

If the rogue is wearing a large amount of tier 6 you should remain on his. Especially if you’ve already successfully secured the opener. The warlock should do what he can to position himself away from the rogue (out of LoS of Shadowstep if at all possible). At this point it really comes down to your crowd control. Keep the rogue locked down as much as possible and start the fear train on the priest.

If you’ve got enough pressure on the rogue at this point you’re in great shape. The priest will likely blow his trinket, at which point we can blind / vanish / sap combo the priest and finish off the rogue. In the event the rogue isn’t dead by the end of this CC train your fear will be off diminishing returns so you can simply start the fear combo up again and repeat the process.

I really view this matchup with 2 basic opening goals.

1. You sap the rogue and bomb the priest
2. You force the rogue to open on your lock and bomb the rogue

However, I would like to remind everyone there is no absolute strategy here that must be followed. If the rogue just isn’t dropping don’t be afraid pull a switch on the priest. Sometimes the sudden change in target can be enough to through the priest off his game and put him in a position where your team can gain the upper hand. Your crowd control and rotations are going to be more or less the same regardless of your actual target selection. It’s far more important to react quickly to the changing game.

Can’t get enough warlock / rogue 2v2 strategy? Check out the complete guide here! Rogue / Warlock 2v2 Arena Strategy.

WoW Class Guides

Hey guys, I’m currently in the process of compiling all of the class guides now. As soon as I finish the each of the associated classes I’ll be posting them here. Thanks for your understanding.

WoW Class Guides

• Rogue
• Mage
• Priest
• Warrior
• Druid
• Shaman

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