WoW Class:Warlock  

Theme

Mages have always found an important part of the society they work in, but mages crave power. And when they turn to other potential sources of power, they might find some...more sinister, more questionable places to draw energy from. Warlocks are essentially mages that use demonic energies to fuel their powers, including the use of an enslaved demon. Their actual spells are a good bit different.

Available Races

The Mages of Dalaran and the Council of Tirisfal have dominated the majority of Human magic, and strictly forbid warlockism. However, sometimes a mage craves extra power, or simply wants to investigate it in an academic sense to be able to protect against it. Such was the case for Kel'thuzad, who eventually became the hand of the Lich King during the plague that swept through Lordaeron. Unsurprisingly, the Forsaken also have warlocks.

Dalaran and Tirisfal are controlled by both Human and Elven interests, and in more recent times the Blood Elves have turned to any source of magical power they can find. It is not surprising either that there have been Highborne warlocks or that there is now an increasing number of them.

Orcs have a more recent, but extremely prolific history with warlocks. The founder of the Horde, Ner'zhul, was a shaman-turned-warlock, and his apprentice Gul'dan was a power-craving madman that had serious ties with the Burning Legion and undermined the Horde's efforts in the second war.

The final warlock race is the Gnomes, who seek knowledge anywhere they can find it. Being academically curious, and atheistic, the ability to accomplish unique tasks with demonic magics becomes a natural fit for their people.

Class capabilities

Weapon proficiencies:

• Staff
• Daggers (starting weapon)
• Swords
• Wands

Armor proficiencies:

• Cloth

Warlocks are considered a DPS class, being most renowned among the classes for abilities dealing damage over time. They also have pets that are good for different situations, unlike the hunter's pets that are essentially all the same. Warlocks have some very good crowd control options, and are a surprisingly robust and diverse class.

The three focal areas for warlocks are Affliction, Demonology, and Destruction. Affliction spells focus on suffering and causing pain and misery across time. Destruction is more oriented toward spells that have immediate effects, or are fire-based. Demonology is focused on the warlock's pets and on other items they can summon or conjure.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Although not a hybrid class, warlocks have a lot of versatility. They can deal damage directly or over time to a large number of targets. They can fear, banish and seduce to manage battles against multiple opponents. They can regain mana at the expense of health, and regain health through "healthstones" they create and by siphoning it from their opponents. The class also gets a free mount at level 40 called a Felsteed.

However, they are not invincible, contrary to some popular opinions. They only wear cloth armor, making them susceptible to physical damage. (Warlocks often wear high stamina gear to offset this since they are less mana-dependent than other casters.) Additionally, many of their abilities require a Soul Shard which can only be obtained from killing an opponent while channeling the Drain Soul ability. These consume a considerable amount of bag space to keep a decent supply of, and all pets except their basic imp require one to summon, making it difficult to get started if they have no shards.

Group roles and expectations

Warlocks deal damage, however they have to be careful not to DoT any targets that are to be crowd controlled. Indeed, warlocks are often responsible for doing the crowd control themselves.

It is expected that a warlock will try to provide their group with healthstones, and also to perform a Ritual of Summoning to bring far-flung party members to the group. While this second option is less important with the presence of meeting stones, it is still an ability that can be useful.

Class Quests

Most warlock quests are themed after getting each new pet. At a very early level, warlocks will acquire a small task to learn how to summon an imp. At levels 10, 20, and 30 come quests to learn to summon a Voidwalker, Succubus, and Felhunter. At levels 60, the warlock gets a quest that allows them to upgrade their Felsteed to a Dreadsteed, which is an epic ground mount.