{Off-Meta} 20/31/0 Drain Link Warlock

Class Builds
1

Well … it’s that time again. :sweat_smile:
Time for another one of my severely off-meta leveling builds (I know, shocker, right?).

This build does all kinds of things “wrong” to reach an island of stability in which everything works together surprisingly well once you get there. Rather than being a specialist build relying on a One Trick Pony™ approach, this plan attempts to leverage the versatility and flexibility of your ability to summon Fel Minions to equip yourself for being able to take down almost any (and every?) adversary. So instead of specializing in a single Minion and investing everything exclusively into that one Minion to the exclusion of all else, this build attempts to make ALL of your summoned Minions stronger in ways that let them each have something advantageous that they can do to support the sheer pain and misery you’ll be inflicting.

The other thing this build does is it attempts to do multiple things simultaneously in order to synergize everything together to your own advantage. There is a rather heavy investment in the talents which offer the best recovery spells that a Warlock can use, so as to stretch precious resources of health and mana further than they otherwise might be able to go.

Once again, this is another build strategy trying to make best use of an extremely valuable insight I gained from my Starshards Priest.

This runs demonstrably counter to the Conventional Wisdom™ with regards to the standard best practices of How To Warlock that have been developed over the years. :unamused_face:

  1. EVERYONE KNOWS that Warlocks have the “worst rate of return on green/blue bar yields from Spirit” of any class! :stop_sign:
  2. EVERYONE KNOWS that the 5 Second Rule of Casting prevents mana recovery from Spirit even being an OPTION (let alone relevant) in a spellcaster who intended to be casting continuously … especially if playing a One Button Spellcaster playstyle. :stop_sign:
  • Shadow Bolt :repeat_single_button:
  1. EVERYONE KNOWS that the One Button Spellcaster style of play is the ONLY WAY TO PLAY Warlock! :stop_sign:

Congratulations. :partying_face:
I’m not “everyone” … :smirking_face:

The mentality behind this particular build strategy is less about SPEED (Time to Kill, TtK) and more about EFFICIENCY (Net Loss per Kill, NLpK). The idea being that “it’s okay to kill slower” if you expend fewer resources (green bar, blue bar) in net balance terms in order to do so. The purpose to optimize for isn’t TIME … it’s conservation of OPTIONS (in the form of resources needed to keep fighting). The purpose isn’t to quickly “win” discrete engagements, it’s to “endure” over the longer haul of a sequence of battles (not all of which will necessarily happen by choice at a time/place of the Warlock’s choosing!).

When playing, there are basically 3 activities that consume time during each hour of play:

  1. Moving to next target(s)
  2. Dealing damage to those target(s)
  3. Recovering resources expended to kill those target(s)

Optimizing 1 has few options to improve (reliably, sustainably).
Optimizing 2 is where most people expend the vast majority (to all) of their effort(s).
Optimizing 3 is mostly an afterthought (and maybe not even that), because eating/drinking is an option (that most people resort to without a second thought). :meat_on_bone: :beer_mug:

So the “default option” (for most Players) to Optimize 3 is to “outsource” the responsibility for resource recovery from your Spirit attribute (the original way to do it) to your inventory slots (food, drink and sitting down a LOT). The reason for this is relatively straightforward … health and mana recovery from Spirit “stops” while in combat, so minimize Spirit as much as possible (see: Dump Stat) and then work around the problem by substituting eating/drinking for low Spirit totals in a build plan.

Eating/drinking is a strategy “that works” so long as you can reliably exit combat in order to be able to eat/drink whenever you want/need to.

Eating/drinking is a strategy “that fails” under runner/chain pull/ZERG conditions in which getting exhausted and/or overrun can be a serious hazard (see: Murlocs, et al.).

So this {Off-Meta} build strategy cuts against the grain of that Conventional Wisdom™ which says that Spirit is “worthless” to Warlocks (because, lowest Return on Investment of any class!) and instead relies on Spirit recovering mana while continuously spending mana on spells to mitigate NET mana loss over time during combat in ways that make the Warlock’s mana pool FEEL BIGGER than it actually is … by NET consuming less mana over time, while still killing targets. The principles are still the same as those revealed in my Starshards Priest build, but “translated” into applicability for a Warlock. Consequently, this build does NOT invest in the Demonic Embrace talent in Demonology like so many other Warlock builds are prone to doing (and if that’s a deal breaker for anyone reading this, here’s your advance warning).

And yes … this does mean that for Alliance Warlocks, the Human Racial of +5% Spirit is taken advantage of most successfully by this build plan … so Human Warlocks don’t necessarily have to be “self-gimped” compared to Gnomes, when following the Best Practices espoused in this build plan and play strategy.

So, with that bit of heretical thought in mind :wink: … let’s have a look at the talents I’m looking at for this build (and of course, my own Warlock who will be using this), and the strategy behind the choices.

2

Level 60 Warlock ( 20 / 31 / 0 )

https://classicdb.ch/?talent#IAhbV0bZf0GuGxot

Affliction (20 points)

  • Suppression - Rank 3/5
    Reduces the chance for enemies to resist your Affliction spells by 6%.
  • Improved Corruption - Rank 5/5
    Reduces the casting time of your Corruption spell by 2 sec.
  • Improved Curse of Weakness - Rank 3/3
    Increases the effect of your Curse of Weakness by 20%.
  • Improved Life Tap - Rank 2/2
    Increases the amount of Mana awarded by your Life Tap spell by 20%.
  • Fel Concentration - Rank 5/5
    Gives you a 70% chance to avoid interruption caused by damage while channeling the Drain Life, Drain Mana, or Drain Soul spell.
  • Nightfall - Rank 2/2
    Gives your Corruption and Drain Life spells a 4% chance to cause you to enter a Shadow Trance state after damaging the opponent. The Shadow Trance state reduces the casting time of your next Shadow Bolt spell by 100%.

Demonology (31 points)

  • Improved Healthstone - Rank 2/2
    Increases the amount of Health restored by your Healthstone by 20%.
  • Improved Imp - Rank 3/3
    Increases the effect of your Imp’s Firebolt, Fire Shield, and Blood Pact spells by 30%.
  • Improved Voidwalker - Rank 3/3
    Increases the effectiveness of your Voidwalker’s Torment, Consume Shadows, Sacrifice and Suffering spells by 30%.
  • Fel Intellect - Rank 2/5
    Increases the maximum Mana of your Imp, Voidwalker, Succubus, and Felhunter by 6%.
  • Improved Succubus - Rank 3/3
    Increases the effect of your Succubus’ Lash of Pain and Soothing Kiss spells by 30%, and increases the duration of your Succubus’ Seduction and Lesser Invisibility spells by 30%.
  • Fel Domination - Rank 1/1
    Your next Imp, Voidwalker, Succubus, or Felhunter Summon spell has its casting time reduced by 5.5 sec and its Mana cost reduced by 50%.
  • Fel Stamina - Rank 3/5
    Increases the maximum Health of your Imp, Voidwalker, Succubus, and Felhunter by 9%.
  • Master Summoner - Rank 2/2
    Reduces the casting time of your Imp, Voidwalker, Succubus, and Felhunter Summoning spells by 4 sec and the Mana cost by 40%.
  • Unholy Power - Rank 5/5
    Increases the damage done by your Voidwalker, Succubus, and Felhunter’s melee attacks by 20%.
  • Demonic Sacrifice - Rank 1/1
    When activated, sacrifices your summoned demon to grant you an effect that lasts 30 min. The effect is canceled if any Demon is summoned.
    • Imp: Increases your Fire damage by 15%.
    • Voidwalker: Restores 3% of total Health every 4 sec.
    • Succubus: Increases your Shadow damage by 15%.
    • Felhunter: Restores 2% of total Mana every 4 sec.
  • Master Demonologist - Rank 5/5
    Grants both the Warlock and the summoned demon an effect as long as that demon is active.
    • Imp - Reduces threat caused by 20%.
    • Voidwalker - Reduces physical damage taken by 10%.
    • Succubus - Increases all damage caused by 10%.
    • Felhunter - Increases all resistances by 1 per level.
  • Soul Link - Rank 1/1
    When active, 30% of all damage taken by the caster is taken by your Imp, Voidwalker, Succubus, or Felhunter demon instead. In addition, both the demon and master will inflict 3% more damage. Lasts as long as the demon is active.

Destruction (0 points)

  • None
3

Okay, so first things first.

This is obviously a Soul Link Demonologist build … but rather than being one that specializes in a single summons type, it invests in ALL of the summoned pet types for maximum flexibility while leveling (which is usually considered to be a waste of talent points :downcast_face_with_sweat:). However, this build is also intended to function as a Drain Tank, hence Fel Concentration in the Affliction tree.

The other thing this build is trying to achieve is a degree of flexibility that is not often seen in a lot of builds where different Pet choices yield different performance profiles (DPS, Melee Tank, Spell Tank, etc.) in order to adapt to changing circumstances and challenges without needing to respec. So as far as that goes, this build is not attempting to optimize too exclusively for a single specific play style or encounter (let alone specific endgame raids).

But the real fundamental core of this build is going to be its primary spell rotation for use against single targets while leveling, specifically a cast/channel rotation that optimizes mana returns from Spirit while casting continuously. :light_bulb:

For Warlocks, the best cast/channel spell rotation is going to be Shadow Bolt/Drain Life/repeat … but there are potential variations on this. The key thing to notice is WHERE in the spell rotation mana is spent, because when mana gets spent is when the 5 Second Rule of Casting debuff starts. I’ll use the :pause_button: symbol in the below rotations to make this factor more apparent than is normally the case for these kinds of guides to spell rotations.

  1. Shadow Bolt (3s) :pause_button:.:pause_button: Drain Life (5s) . Life Tap (1.5s) . :repeat_button: = 9.5 seconds
  2. Shadow Bolt (3s) :pause_button:.:pause_button: Drain Life (5s) . melee hit (~1.5s) . Lifetap (1.5s) . :repeat_button: = ~11 seconds
  3. Shadow Bolt (3s) :pause_button:
    • :pause_button: Drain Life (5s) . Life Tap (1.5s) . :pause_button: Shadow Bolt (Nightfall proc) . :repeat_button: = 6.5+1.5 = 8 seconds
  4. Shadow Bolt (3s) :pause_button:
    • :pause_button: Drain Life (5s) . melee hit (~1.5s) . Life Tap (1.5s) . :pause_button: Shadow Bolt (Nightfall proc) . :repeat_button: = ~8+1.5 = ~9.5 seconds

Here’s the important point about the above variations on spell rotation (assuming no spell pushback while casting, which isn’t exactly an operative assumption while Drain Tanking, but stick with me here):

  1. 9.5s between mana costs = 2-3 mana recovery ticks from Spirit per rotation
  2. ~11s between mana costs = 3-4 mana recovery ticks from Spirit per rotation
  3. 6.5s between mana costs = 1 mana recovery tick from Spirit per (Nightfall proc) rotation
  4. ~8s between mana costs = 1-2 mana recovery ticks from Spirit per (Nightfall proc) rotation

That may not sound like a lot … but it adds up over time. Assuming a Time to Kill (TtK) of approximately 24 seconds (or so) …

  1. 24 / 9.5 = 2.5 spell rotations
  2. 24 / 11 = 2.18 spell rotations
  3. (24 - 3) / 8 = 2.625 spell rotations
  4. (24 - 3) / 9.5 = 2.21 spell rotations

For simplicity of analysis, we can “drop fractions” (creating a “worst case scenario” baseline) and simply say 2 spell rotations per kill. Under those conditions, how many mana ticks from Spirit are recovered while using mana in continuous combat can be expected as a matter of statistical averages?

  1. (9.5-5)/2 = 2.25 mana ticks * 2 spell rotations = 4-5 mana recovery ticks from Spirit while in combat
  2. (11-5)/2 = 3 mana ticks * 2 spell rotations = 6 mana recovery ticks from Spirit while in combat
  3. (6.5-5)/2 = 0.75 mana ticks * 2 spell rotations = 1-2 mana recovery ticks from Spirit while in combat
  4. (9.5-5)/2 = 2.25 mana ticks * 2 spell rotations = 4-5 mana recovery ticks from Spirit while in combat

That variation happens because of the TETRIS “shaping” of the attack spells being used controlling WHEN the mana costs happen during the rotation. There’s no Class Talent making this happen (other than pushback resistance from 5/5 Fel Concentration) in operation here. This kind of performance is PURELY a result of putting Cast Spell :pause_button: . :pause_button: Channeled Spell mana costs as closely together in the spell rotation as possible. Because …

  • Cast Spells cost mana when their casting time is completed. :pause_button:
  • :pause_button: Channeled spells cost mana at the start of their channel duration.

“Sandwiching” the mana costs of a Cast :pause_button: . :pause_button: Channel spell rotation TOGETHER (back to back) then creates the opportunity for a long(er) stretch during which mana is not spent … during which time the 5 Second Rule of Casting debuff EXPIRES and mana can be recovered from Spirit again before the next mana cost spell happens, while in combat.

This is a Spell Rotation Feature™ of any class that can Cast+Channel spells repeatedly (that cost mana).

  • Mage: Fireball/Frostbolt (cast) + Arcane Missiles (channel)
  • Priest: Holy Fire (cast) + Starshards (channel)
  • Warlock: Shadow Bolt (cast) + Drain Life (channel)

With even modest investments into Spirit and “blending” of cast+channel spell rotations like this, it becomes possible to (easily!) outstrip the amount of mana recovery offered by Mp5 stacking itemization that is often done to mitigate mana endurance issues in spell casting classes. :astonished_face:

The potential to take advantage of this “Feature” of how mana costs and Spirit recovery of mana works has been present within the structure of WoW since 2004 … but I haven’t seen widespread adoption of the strategy of Cast+Channel to “solve” mana endurance issues by almost anyone in the two decades (plus!) since Vanilla launched. It almost feels like I’ve stumbled upon a sort of “lost technology” buried in the game mechanics here, that almost no one knows about (let alone takes advantage of!). It’s not a secret … it’s just obscured by what EVERYONE KNOWS™ about how to be a (DPS) spell caster (speed first, efficiency last!). :face_with_steam_from_nose:

Oh and side note … swing timers on weapons “run” while a spell is being channeled. :face_blowing_a_kiss:

So if I’m channeling a spell (say, Drain Life) and I click my Auto Attack while I’m still channeling Drain Life … the swing timer on my weapon will “count down” while the channeling continues. The swing timer, if it “finishes” will simply “wait” for the spell channeling to complete before swinging the melee weapon.

This means that it’s possible to “insta-swing” a weapon (such as a Staff) immediately after channeling a spell.

  • Channel time end … begin swing timer on weapon :cross_mark:
  • Begin Auto Attack while channeling … swing timer commences countdown while channeling continues … if swing timer completed before channeling ends then swing IMMEDIATELY at Target in melee range upon end of channeling :white_check_mark:

This factor then makes it a lot more practical to “weave” melee swings using 2h weapons (such as Staves) into a spell rotation and probably only have to “spend” the 1.5s GCD prompted by the Auto Attack following the end of spell channeling.

I haven’t verified this weapon swing timer elapses while channeling spells factor on Stone Tavern yet, but I have seen it happen (successfully!) on multiple other Vanilla servers that I’ve played on in the last 10 years or so (starting with Nostalrius), so I expect it to work here on Stone Tavern too. :smiling_face_with_sunglasses:

Just another way to increase your damage output as a Drain Tanking Warlock without needing to expend mana to produce that extra damage. :wink:

4

So that takes care of the Drain Tanking (for mana efficiency!) side of the ledger … but that only explains 15 talent points of investment into Affliction. What about the rest of the talent build? Why are talents being invested THIS WAY instead of some other way (like the classic SM/Ruin Raid Spec)?

Let me start with “why not SM/Ruin?” first.

30/0/21 Shadow Mastery/Ruin as a spec is really just about One Button Spell Casting.

  • Shadow Bolt . :repeat_single_button:

The thing is, Shadow Mastery only applies a +10% damage buff to the damage of the (shadow) spells you’re casting as a Warlock. If the spell does 100 shadow damage, getting 5/5 Shadow Mastery makes the spell do 110 shadow damage.

Which sounds, great … right? :laughing:
What could be so bad about that? :thinking:

Well, Shadow Mastery is only boosting the shadow damage of the SPELL that you are casting.

Yeah, yeah, we know that part. So what are you say- :face_exhaling:

  • Shadow Mastery ONLY boosts the shadow damage of the SPELL that you are casting. It does not boost spell power from itemization.

:astonished_face:
Wait, what?
Really? :distorted_face:

Yes.
Really. :face_with_peeking_eye:
Improved Drain Life works the same way. The talent only improves the damage of the base spell, it has no impact on the value of spell power added from itemization.

What this means in practice is that Drain Life (rank 6, level 54+) transfers 71 life per second for 5 seconds of channel time.

  • 5/5 Improved Drain Life increases that amount by +7.1 life per second … for 5 talent points.
  • 5/5 Shadow Mastery increases that amount by +7.1 life per second … for 5 talent points.
  • +71 shadow spell power from itemization increases that amount by +7.1 life per second for 5 seconds.

If you want the contrast for Shadow Bolt (rank 9, level 60), which does 455-508 shadow damage per cast, it looks like this:

  • 5/5 Shadow Mastery adds +45.5-50.8 shadow damage per cast.
  • +53-60 shadow spell power from itemization adds +45.4-51.4 shadow damage per cast.

Now, while that’s “not nothing” and all damage bonuses are “useful” (to varying degrees) … I am deliberately choosing the highest ranks of those particular spells to make a point. If you deliberately downrank those spells (to conserve mana for better long term endurance), the “yield” from Improved Drain Life/Shadow Mastery in terms of bonus damage ALSO drops … because you’re using spells that natively deal less damage (before adding spell power, and those talents don’t modify spell power from itemization throughput).

So if you’re downranking to Shadow Bolt (rank 4, level 20), which does 86-99 damage per cast, in order to save mana, the “yield” rate looks like this:

  • 5/5 Shadow Mastery adds +8.6-9.9 shadow damage per cast.
  • +10-12 shadow spell power from itemization adds +8.5-10.2 shadow damage per cast.

That’s … not a lot of return on investment for 30 talent points into the Affliction Tree just to get Shadow Mastery. :sob:
It’s better than nothing, sure … but not by much. :thinking:
Twice nothing is still nothing (and all that jazz). :smirking_face:

So then what IS better? :unamused_face:

  • Demonic Sacrifice (of Succubus)
  • Master Demonologist (with Succubus)
  • Soul Link

The WHY is where things get interesting. :wink:

What these three “deep Demonology” have in common, with the Succubus most specifically, is that they boost the damage DEALT (after including spell power) … instead of boosting the damage of the SPELL being cast (spell power NOT included). So for a build with a lot of spell power added from itemization, deep Demonology will “maximize the value” of that added spell power in a way that Shadow Mastery will not.

  • Spell damage x 1.13 (Succubus Master Demonologist + Soul Link) + Spell power x 1.13 (Succubus Master Demonologist + Soul Link)
  • Shadow Bolt damage x 1.10 (Shadow Mastery) + Spell power x 1.00 (no help)
  • Drain Life damage x 1.20 (Improved Drain Life + Shadow Mastery) + Spell power x 1.00 (no help)

Oh and by the way, Life Tap is a Shadow Damage spell … but it does NOT cost mana to cast(!). That means that Improved Life Tap, Shadow Mastery, Demonic Sacrifice (Succubus), Master Demonologist (Succubus) and Soul Link will all increase the “transfer rate” of Health to Mana per casting of Life Tap. The difference is that the Affliction Talents only affect the transfer rate of the SPELL … while the deep Demonology Talents affect the transfer rate of the spell AND spell power buffs from itemization. :smiling_face_with_sunglasses:

Improved Shadow Bolt + Devastation + Ruin can “close the gap” in damage throughput (on direct damage spells), but that’s betting on Critical Hit chances in order to do that heavy lifting for you.

Incidentally, just in case anyone really cares … in a situation of pure Shadow Bolt spam casting, when comparing Master Demonologist (Succubus) plus Soul Link against a Devastation plus Ruin build, the Ruin spec build only pulls ahead on damage averaged over an infinite time span when the Ruin spec has 19% spell crit untalented (so 24% spell crit with 5/5 Devastation) on a per spell cast basis. The point I’m wanting to make here is that although all other factors involved can’t be equalized perfectly, the Master Demonologist (Succubus) plus Soul Link combination can be relatively on par with other build spec options, rather than lagging terribly behind. :face_with_hand_over_mouth:

Meanwhile … Curse of Agony, Drain Life and Siphon Life CANNOT CRIT because they’re Damage over Time spells (and thus have a critical hit chance of forever zero). So Ruin doesn’t do “anything useful” for (damaging) Affliction spells … Ruin is only good for Destruction spells (that can critically hit on direct damage).

Ruin is great for Shadow Bolt :repeat_single_button: … but for any rotation with spells that cannot critically hit in it, Ruin really tumbles in terms of Return on Investment. :sob:

For a build that is intending to Drain Tank using Fel Concentration and a Cast+Channel spell rotation … Ruin, as a talent, doesn’t make for a “great fit” anymore (when maybe 20-40% of the spell rotation time involves casting Shadow Bolt, instead of 100% :repeat_single_button:). :thinking:

However, the point of this build strategy isn’t “the quick kill” … but rather the “steady onslaught” that gets the job done using the least amount of resources to achieve that goal. I’m not angling for the (PvP ideal) “surprise SPIKE” of damage delivered in a minimal amount of time, reducing options to respond or counter. Instead I’m angling for the (PvE ideal) “efficient endurance” of damage delivered using the least amount of (net balance) loss of resources. The name of the game is … “what’s yours is mine and what’s mine is mine too” … while expending the least amount of net cost over time to get the job done. The playstyle I’m angling for is one of steady, efficient pressure … rather than a sudden surprise spike.

Which is where Curse of Weakness comes into the discussion. :face_with_peeking_eye:

3/3 Curse of Weakness (functionally) yields:

  • -1 damage per hit taken at rank 2 (level 17-21).
  • -2 damage per hit taken at rank 3 (level 22-31).
  • -3 damage per hit taken at rank 4 (level 32-41).
  • -4 damage per hit taken at rank 5 (level 42-51).
  • -6 damage per hit taken at rank 6 (level 52-60).

Compare and contrast that to the (functional) yield of 5/5 Improved Drain Life:

  • +1 health transfer per second for 5 seconds at rank 1 (level 19-21).
  • +1.7 health transfer per second for 5 seconds at rank 2 (level 22-29).
  • +2.9 health transfer per second for 5 seconds at rank 3 (level 30-37).
  • +4.1 health transfer per second for 5 seconds at rank 4 (level 38-45).
  • +5.5 health transfer per second for 5 seconds at rank 5 (level 46-53).
  • +7.1 health transfer per second for 5 seconds at rank 6 (level 54-60).

So the “yield” of the two talents (at 3/3 and 5/5) are roughly comparable (if you squint hard enough :magnifying_glass_tilted_right:). The difference is that the “yield” of Improved Drain Life only happens while channeling and only benefits YOURSELF as a Warlock. Improved Drain Life makes your drain “stronger” to mitigate incoming damage … but you’re still TAKING that damage (and need to use Drain Life in order to counter it).

By contrast, (Improved) Curse of Weakness PREVENTS damage from reaching whatever the cursed mob is attacking (your Warlock, your Demon, a party member, an Escort NPC, anyone) for 1 minute before the curse expires. Less damage taken means reduced demand on healing needed (spells, potions, eating/resting, etc.) and a long term reduction in the demand for recovery from damage taken (by virtue of taking less damage per hit). This then synergizes with the notion of optimizing for EFFICIENCY of converting mana into damage over time, rather than optimizing for SPEED in hastening kill times. That’s because this build strategy prioritizing recovery using Spirit WHILE IN COMBAT, unlike most other builds … so minimizing damage taken while maximizing the efficiency of mana to damage production over time dovetails together quite nicely.

Stack that together with the benefits of Soul Link … even in PvE … and the range of possibilities starts becoming pretty broad indeed. :smiling_face_with_sunglasses:

Gain MORE over time … while losing LESS over the same amount of time.
Profit margin … come to me … :smirking_face:

So in that respect, this isn’t a “specialist” build strategy (or guide, really).
This is more of a “generalist” approach in which the aim is to be “ready for anything” … come what may … which is decidedly not endgame Raid-centric.

5

Until all that can come together, however, you’re going to be leveling and will need to settle upon an engagement strategy. I’m peculiar in that I like to keep using my Imp against everything that isn’t Fire Immune and simply just letting my Imp do the tanking(!) for me until I can do that myself.

Now most people will switch to their Voidwalker at Level 10 and simply never look back, but I’ve found in my own experience that sending the Voidwalker in to melee stuff all the time isn’t always the best option. :face_exhaling:

My personal preference has always been to force my target(s) to fight on ground of MY choosing, rather than moving to where they are to fight on THEIR ground. Better to pull them to me than for me (or my Pets) to go to them. A lot of this personal preference is borne out of my experiences of playing my Beast o’ Melee Hunter (and no, that’s not a meme spec!) in which I’ve needed to develop a variety of pulling tactics in order to attract attention the WAY that I want it to be gathered.

So with that in mind, I will often times use my Imp rather than my Voidwalker, simply because the Imp makes for a better ranged puller. By letting my Imp take the first shot(s) at the target before my Warlock joins the fray, it becomes possible to employ a variety of “juggling” tactics, particularly if I move my Warlock after I command my Imp to start shooting. More information about this specific tactical setup can be found in Kargoz Warlock Leveling Guide 2.0 in which you essentially “triangulate” your (melee) target(s) in such a way as to make them spend a lot of time moving without being able to inflict much damage, sparing yourself and your Imp the need to recover as much later on.

Since the Imp has the highest Spirit attribute of all of your Minions, I find the Imp most suitable for a lot of “grindy” killing in the open world, since the Imp will recover health and mana (from Spirit) faster than any of the other Minions … although the Voidwalker is technically the fastest at health recovery if you have them Consume Shadows, but that uses up mana. Also, if my Imp pulls too much aggro and gets killed, it only costs me mana to resummon rather than mana and a Soul Shard.

Now my personal preference for how to play a Warlock is as a Drain Tank, as I’ve already mentioned … which is ironically quite similar to the way I prefer to play my Beast o’ Melee Hunter, in which my character tanks while my pet supports that effort, rather than the reverse (in other words, I’m Doing It Wrong™ as far as most people are concerned, and yet it still works). The Drain Tank Warlock does the same thing (more or less), but is STEALING LIFE while they’re doing it for improved sustain effectiveness.

Anyway, if anyone is really curious as to what it’s like to play a Warlock the way I’ve outlined above, the best way I can explain it (aside from a play through video which I can’t make) would be, well … THIS FEELING. :smiling_face_with_sunglasses:

/point
/say YOUR SOUL IS MY CHEW TOY!

/cast Drain Soul

6

Useful Warlock Macros (1.12 vanilla client)

These are some of the macros that I’ve set up for my Warlock, which I figure other Warlocks will find useful. First, I’ll provide the macro, its character count (which can be important depending on what add-ons you’ve got loaded) and then what the scripting does line by line.

=====

First up, is my Drain Soul macro.

Drain Soul 244/255

/stopcasting /cast Drain Soul /run local a=GetBagName(4); if a=="Core Felcloth Bag" or a=="Felcloth Bag" or a=="Soul Pouch" or a=="Box of Souls" or a=="Small Soul Pouch" then PickupContainerItem(4,GetContainerNumSlots(4)) DeleteCursorItem() end

Line 1 is the stopcasting command, which allows me to interrupt any other spells I might be casting/channeling so as to cast this spell.

Line 2 casts the Drain Soul spell. In this case I’ve deliberately neglected to specify which rank of Drain Soul I want to use, so as to automatically use the highest rank of the spell that I have available to my Warlock. A side effect of this is that whenever I purchase a rank upgrade to Drain Soul, the tooltip on the spell on my hotbar will automatically update to reflect the increase in rank.

Line 3 is a complex IF-THEN operation which checks if the leftmost bag in my inventory is a dedicated Soul Shard Bag … and IF it is, it will pick up the Soul Shard in the last/bottom right slot (and ONLY that slot) of the Soul Shard Bag and automatically delete it. What this does is create an automated process of deleting the “last” Soul Shard in the Soul Shard Bag (if there is one in that slot) to as to ensure that use of the Drain Soul spell doesn’t just fill up my entire inventory with an excess of Soul Shards. In practical terms, this IF-THEN operation limits the acquisition of Soul Shards to the contents of the Soul Shard Bag and prevents overflow into other (general purpose) inventory bags. Since if the Soul Shard Bag is partially empty, it will automatically refill from the top/left until reaching the bottom/right, all this part of the scripting does is empty that last bottom/right slot if it there is Soul Shard in it so as to make room for a Soul Shard if Drain Soul is successful. If there’s no Soul Shard in that last slot in the bag, nothing gets deleted. Automatic Soul Shard acquisition management, contained in the macro for use of the Drain Soul spell, as an All In One Solution™ to inventory problems caused by using Drain Soul on everything you can.

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Next are my Shadow Bolt and Drain Life macros, which I’ve coded to do something that helps with Minion management.

Shadow Bolt 125/255

/cast Shadow Bolt /script local start, duration, enabled = GetPetActionCooldown(4); if duration==0 then CastPetAction(4) end

Drain Life 124/255

/cast Drain Life /script local start, duration, enabled = GetPetActionCooldown(4); if duration==0 then CastPetAction(4) end

Line 1 casts the Shadow Bolt or Drain Life spell (obviously).

Line 2 runs a quick “sanity check” on whatever Pet Skill I’ve got in the Pet hotbar in slot 4 (immediately to the right of the Stay command, by default) to determine if that Pet Skill is on cooldown or not. If the cooldown of the skill in that slot is complete, then the Minion will attempt to cast that skill (limited by range factors, of course). Since I arrange my Pet hotbars with Firebolt (Imp), Torment (Voidwalker) or Soothing Kiss (Succubus) in slot 4 here, that means that this bit of scripting checks to see if those skills have finished cooldown, and if so, commands the Minion to use that skill. This prevents annoying “I can’t do that” verbal error messages from occurring due to this skill being on cooldown at the time I cast a Shadow Bolt or use Drain Life.

In practice, what this means is that rather than keeping my Voidwalker’s Torment skill on auto attack, I instead have my Voidwalker’s Torment skill keyed to be invoked automatically (if cooldown is completed and the skill is available) anytime I cast Shadow Bolt or Drain Life. This then helps with not only aggro management, but also with mana management, by preventing my Voidwalker from routinely “spamming” all of his mana away by repeat casting Torment every 5 seconds … and thus never getting out from under the 5 Second Rule of Casting … my Voidwalker can ALSO recover mana in combat. Keying things this way will, of course, mean that my Voidwalker won’t be using Torment quite as often as it could, but so long as it holds aggro for me just fine, that’s good enough for me. :+1:

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Last are my “universal” Follow and Stay commands for keeping (Demon) Pets from freelancing without permission. :face_with_symbols_on_mouth:

Follow 45/255

/run CastPetAction(10); /run CastPetAction(2)

Stay 45/255

/run CastPetAction(10); /run CastPetAction(3)

Line 1 of these two macros puts my Minion into Passive mode, which is the default 10 slot of the Pet hotbar.

Line 2 commands my Minion to either Follow my Warlock (the first macro) or to Stay (the second macro). Slots 2 and 3 are the respective default locations for these two commands on the Pet hotbar.

Use of a combination of these two commands can be used to set up triangulation ambush points, or to “park” a (Demon) Minion where they can grab initial aggro in circumstances where doing so would be advantageous. :wink: