PVP Tips & Tricks - Warlocks

Today I’m continuinga new mini-series of PVP from the viewpoint of the Marksman Hunter. I’ll cover each class and what you should look for each of them to do. We continue today with Warlocks.

Warlock
Dot. Fear. Dot. Fear. Dot. Fear. Yes, you’ll experience each of these. Warlocks are quite fond of either standing way back and dotting everyone, especially with Seed of Corruption or running in for the mass fear bomb. Either way, I’ve found Warlocks particularly troublesome in that quite often killing them comes at the cost of my death.

Things to Watch for:

• Demon Armor/Fel Armor, Detect Invisibility and Unending Breath can all be dispelled by Arcane Shot.
• If a warlock dies and leaves you all dotted, eating is (probably) enough to keep you alive through the dots.
• You can feign death or freezing trap a warlock’s pet.
• If you are Death Coiled, don’t trinket. Wait for the follow up fear to trinket.
• When you are fighting a Warlock, check to see if he or she has a soul stone. If so, be prepared to fight them again.
• Channeled leash spells (drain life, drain mana, drain soul) and channeled AOE spells (Rain of Fire, Hellfire) are both interruptible with Scatter Shot or Silencing Shot.
• The voidwalker is almost never used as a pet.
• If an imp is the warlock’s pet, it will die easily if it is attacking. If it’s not attacking it is phase-shifted.
• If a succubus is the warlock’s pet, expect seductions. If you are seduced, send your pet to either the lock or its pet. The succubus is lightly armored and doesn’t have a lot of hitpoints.
• If a fel hunter is the warlock’s pet, they will generally be fighting casters and using Spell Lock. Not many hunter abilities can be spell locked.
• If a fel guard is the warlock’s pet, treat it as a hunter’s pet. That is, freezing trap or feign.
• Warlocks are not generally as familiar with hunter abilities and may not realize they need to retarget us after we feign and send their pet.

Dude, where's my mount?

The defining moment in the lives of many characters is getting the mount. I was an old school player who was used to paying a LOT for the mount and a little for the training. Some time ago Blizzard reversed those requirements. That makes some of the classes that get free mounts or riding skill particularly appealing.

For instance, most characters hit 40 and go buy a mount for 20 Gold (18 Gold Honored) and training for 80 Gold (72 Gold Honored). Not so either the paladins or warlocks. They go train a skill and get a mount and the riding skill to go with it. Total cost 1 Gold (90 Silver Honored). All these mounts are considered 75 Riding Skill mounts and give you 60% increase in run speed.

The level 60 mount again costs gold for the training and mount. The mount itself is 100 Gold (90 Gold Honored) and the training is 600 Gold (540 Gold Honored). The paladins and warlocks are again the exception. Each deserves its own subsection below

Warlock Epic Mount Questlines

Upon reaching level 60, the trainer in either Ironforge or Orgrimmar will send the new warlock to the Burning Steppes. This will set two quest lines in motion which can be completed concurrently. The materials branch of the quest requires:

• 10 [Elixir of Shadow Power]


• 6 [Large Brilliant Shard]


• 25 [Dark Iron Ore]


• 3 [Black Dragon Scale]


• 3 [Arcanite Bar]

The questing portion requires purchasing 3 shadowy potions (6 Gold) and Xorothian Stardust (150 Gold). It also requires a trip to Scholomance up to Ras Frostwhisper's room.

Once the materials collection is done, you'll be able to buy the 3 items you need to complete the ritual in Dire Maul. These items are NOT consumed in the ritual and can be supplied by another warlock. This saves 250 Gold if a friendly guild warlock has them. It also requires nearly a full clear of Dire Maul West. Total price will vary based on what items you can get from your own tradeskills, your guild and the auction house.

All in all, probably much less than the 630 Honored Price most classes will pay. And the riding skill is free.

Paladin Epic Mount Questlines

Upon reaching level 60, the appropriate Paladin Trainer will give you quests. I'm not an expert at Paladins. I don't know the first thing about them except that they're always trying to tank things or beat me on the healing meters.

It appears that both horde and alliance need similar things consisting of:

• 150 Gold


• 6 [Arcanite Bar]


• 40 [Runecloth]


• [Stratholme Holy Water] (Alliance Only)


• [Arthas' Tears] (Alliance Only)


• [Dark Rune] (Horde Only)


• [Sungrass] (Horde Only)

Apart from these quests, it looks like each side has an easily soloable small quest chain costing about 200 Gold. Each side culminates in a quest in a 5-man dungeon. From my reading the horde side looks easier, but I don't know for sure.

All in all, I'm not sure about the paladin side quests. The amount of money and questing may not make it all that much more cost effective go get the free riding skill for the paladin. I might go the normal route and just buy the mount and training. Of course, lorewise, its almost required for the paladin to have his epic warhorse.

That's WAY more than enough today. One day later this week, I'll talk about flying mounts and epics fliers.