Yogg-Sauron a Quick Survival Guide

Some of us are just about ready to kill Yogg-Sauron. Some of us have killed him, but most of us have not.

This is my little checklist for the Yogg encounter from a warlock perspective. This is less of an explanation and more of a how-to guide for Warlocks facing Yogg.

Phase 1

• Use direct damage spells only. Do not use any curses that increase damage. No curses at all because now that curse of weakness reduces damage, this will make the Guardians too squishy.
• Pace yourself. This is NOT a DPS race. In fact this phase is HARDER the more DPS you have. That's possibly why Exodus wiped on Yogg for so long... they had to figure it out. They were the first guild to GET to Yogg but they all had to change how they play to get him down.
• The Guardians spawn faster the faster you get them down. You need to give the kiters time to get to Sara and that is why if you push too much DPS, you wipe in this phase.
• Do not immo+conflag, or dot. Just Incin or SBolt.
• Switch targets when they reach 40%.

Phase 2

• Check your sanity FREQUENTLY. Pretend it's your health bar.
• Kill constrictors FAST. They are #1 priority so your melee teams can get to their portals.
  
• Kill crushers from the back wall. Do not stand between Yogg and the back wall or another crusher will spawn on you and you will die.
• Go all out in this phase.

Phase 3

• Do whatever it takes to survive.
  

Fine Tuning

This is a classless guide for fine tuning your character and understanding what gear is good for you.

1. Visit Simulationcraft.
2. Read your class forum and try to understand the math a bit.
3. Gather your class weights. You can see an example Sample Output. Go to the wowhead link and click it next to the class and build that is there. If you can't find it simply hit CTRL+F and wowhead and you will stumble upon the link to wowhead that has gear weights already added.
   
4. Head to Google Docs.
   
5. New->Spreadsheet
6. Fill in your weights.
7. Add the best gem you can get.. the one everyone wants. For Warlocks that's the runed scarlet ruby.
8. For my current build I put 1.56 as the value of spellpower. I multiply that by 19 to get a result of 29.64 for socketing a runed scarlet ruby.
9. Then I take my helm slot and notice I have a blue socket with a socket bonus of 8 spirit for the Lifespark Visage my current helm. I look at the values and plug them in knowing I am comparing them against breaking the socket bonus for the 19 spellpower gem. The best gem for blue slots for Warlocks right now is the purple Purified Twilight Opal
   and that gives 9 spellpower and 8 spirit, but with the socket bonus that is a total of 16 spirit and 9 spellpower. Using the spreadsheet I get: 14.04, 7.52, 7.52 = 29.08 which is lower than the value for the 19 spellpower gem, so I break the socket's bonus.

The rule for gearing and tweaking is that better is better.

3.1.3 Chaos Bolt Nerf

Okay there is an interesting thread over at Arena Junkies about the incoming Chaos Bolt nerf for pvp. This is only a pvp nerf because chaos bolt wouldn't pierce boss abilities anyway, and boss mob resist factors are not too much bother in pve for the most part.

The struggle now is getting that sweet Destro pvp build to put out maximum burst and now chaos bolt is far less attractive of a 51 point talent because many spells now will absorb the spell making it pretty uneffective for pvp. Players are still unable to resist the spell, but it works against the warlock in cases where like a DK doing anti-magic shell is going to get a big boost of runic power from a chaos bolt crit. Essentially a lock doing that kind of damage would be helping to buff the DK.

Now a new build for PvP destro is on the table: Master Conjuror/Fire & Brimstone.

This is more of a face-rolling pvp spec with some interrupts and a whole lot more spellpower from the upmodded firestone.

Worth a look:

Level 80 Warlock (0/22/49)

Affliction (0 points)

None

Demonology (22 points)

Improved Healthstone - Rank 2/2
Increases the amount of Health restored by your Healthstone by 20%.

Demonic Embrace - Rank 3/3
Increases your total Stamina by 10%.

Fel Synergy - Rank 2/2
You have a 100% chance to heal your pet for 15% of the amount of spell damage done by you.

Fel Vitality - Rank 3/3
Increases the Stamina and Intellect of your Imp, Voidwalker, Succubus, Felhunter and Felguard by 15% and increases your maximum health and mana by 3%.

Improved Succubus - Rank 3/3
Reduces the cast time of your Succubus' Seduction by 66%, and increases the duration of your Succubus' Seduction and Lesser Invisibility spells by 30%.

Soul Link - Rank 1/1
When active, 20% of all damage taken by the caster is taken by your Imp, Voidwalker, Succubus, Felhunter, Felguard, or enslaved demon instead. That damage cannot be prevented. Lasts as long as the demon is active and controlled.

Fel Domination - Rank 1/1
Your next Imp, Voidwalker, Succubus, Felhunter or Felguard Summon spell has its casting time reduced by 5.5 sec and its Mana cost reduced by 50%.

Demonic Aegis - Rank 3/3
Increases the effectiveness of your Demon Armor and Fel Armor spells by 30%.

Master Summoner - Rank 2/2
Reduces the casting time of your Imp, Voidwalker, Succubus, Felhunter and Fel Guard Summoning spells by 4 sec and the Mana cost by 40%.

Master Conjuror - Rank 2/2
Increases the combat ratings gained from your conjured Firestone and Spellstone by 300%.

Destruction (49 points)

Bane - Rank 5/5
Reduces the casting time of your Shadow Bolt. Chaos Bolt and Immolate spells by 0.5 sec and your Soul Fire spell by 2 sec.

Aftermath - Rank 2/2
Increases the periodic damage done by your Immolate by 6%, and your Conflagrate has a 100% chance to daze the target for 5 sec.

Molten Skin - Rank 3/3
Reduces all damage taken by 6%.

Shadowburn - Rank 1/1
Instantly blasts the target for 775 to 865 Shadow damage. If the target dies within 5 sec of Shadowburn, and yields experience or honor, the caster gains a Soul Shard.

Ruin - Rank 5/5
Increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Destruction spells by 100%.

Intensity - Rank 2/2
Reduces the pushback suffered from damaging attacks while casting or channeling any Destruction spell by 70%.

Destructive Reach - Rank 2/2
Increases the range of your Destruction spells by 20% and reduces threat caused by Destruction spells by 10%.

Backlash - Rank 3/3
Increases your critical strike chance with spells by an additional 3% and gives you a 25% chance when hit by a physical attack to reduce the cast time of your next Shadow Bolt or Incinerate spell by 100%. This effect lasts 8 sec and will not occur more than once every 8 seconds.

Improved Immolate - Rank 3/3
Increases the damage done by your Immolate spell by 30%.

Devastation - Rank 1/1
Increases the critical strike chance of your Destruction spells by 5%.

Nether Protection - Rank 3/3
After being hit with a spell, you have a 30% chance to gain Nether Protection, reducing all damage by that spell school by 30% for 8 sec.

Emberstorm - Rank 5/5
Increases the damage done by your Fire spells by 15% and reduces the cast time of your Incinerate spell by 0.25 sec.

Conflagrate - Rank 1/1
Consumes an Immolate or Shadowflame effect on the enemy target to instantly deal damage equal to 12 sec of your Immolate or 8 sec of your Shadowflame.

Shadow and Flame - Rank 5/5
Your Shadow Bolt, Shadowburn, Chaos Bolt and Incinerate spells gain an additional 20% of your bonus spell damage effects.

Backdraft - Rank 3/3
When you cast Conflagrate, the cast time and global cooldown of your next three Destruction spells is reduced by 30%. Lasts 15 sec.

Shadowfury - Rank 1/1
Shadowfury is unleashed, causing 968 to 1152 Shadow damage and stunning all enemies within 8 yds for 3 sec.

Fire and Brimstone - Rank 4/5
Increases the damage done by your Incinerate and Chaos Bolt spells to targets afflicted by your Immolate by 12%, and the critical strike chance of your Conflagrate spell is increased by 20%.

Glyphs

Glyph of Conflagrate (Major Glyph)
Your Conflagrate spell no longer consumes your Immolate or Shadowflame spell from the target.

Glyph of Immolate (Major Glyph)
Increases the periodic damage of your Immolate by 10%.

Glyph of Incinerate (Major Glyph)
Increases the damage done by Incinerate by 5%.

PvP Destro

Lately I have been enjoying a destro build for pvp.

Pet: Succy
Stone: Firestone

This is a cc spec that also has excellent burst.

Level 80 Warlock (0/20/51)

Affliction (0 points)

None

Demonology (20 points)

Improved Healthstone - Rank 2/2
Increases the amount of Health restored by your Healthstone by 20%.

Demonic Embrace - Rank 3/3
Increases your total Stamina by 10%.

Fel Synergy - Rank 2/2
You have a 100% chance to heal your pet for 15% of the amount of spell damage done by you.

Improved Health Funnel - Rank 2/2
Increases the amount of Health transferred by your Health Funnel spell by 20% and reduces the initial health cost by 20%. In addition, your summoned Demon takes 30% less damage while under the effect of your Health Funnel.

Fel Vitality - Rank 3/3
Increases the Stamina and Intellect of your Imp, Voidwalker, Succubus, Felhunter and Felguard by 15% and increases your maximum health and mana by 3%.

Improved Succubus - Rank 3/3
Reduces the cast time of your Succubus' Seduction by 66%, and increases the duration of your Succubus' Seduction and Lesser Invisibility spells by 30%.

Soul Link - Rank 1/1
When active, 20% of all damage taken by the caster is taken by your Imp, Voidwalker, Succubus, Felhunter, Felguard, or enslaved demon instead. That damage cannot be prevented. Lasts as long as the demon is active and controlled.

Fel Domination - Rank 1/1
Your next Imp, Voidwalker, Succubus, Felhunter or Felguard Summon spell has its casting time reduced by 5.5 sec and its Mana cost reduced by 50%.

Demonic Aegis - Rank 3/3
Increases the effectiveness of your Demon Armor and Fel Armor spells by 30%.

Destruction (51 points)

Bane - Rank 5/5
Reduces the casting time of your Shadow Bolt. Chaos Bolt and Immolate spells by 0.5 sec and your Soul Fire spell by 2 sec.

Aftermath - Rank 2/2
Increases the periodic damage done by your Immolate by 6%, and your Conflagrate has a 100% chance to daze the target for 5 sec.

Molten Skin - Rank 3/3
Reduces all damage taken by 6%.

Shadowburn - Rank 1/1
Instantly blasts the target for 775 to 865 Shadow damage. If the target dies within 5 sec of Shadowburn, and yields experience or honor, the caster gains a Soul Shard.

Ruin - Rank 5/5
Increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Destruction spells by 100%.

Intensity - Rank 2/2
Reduces the pushback suffered from damaging attacks while casting or channeling any Destruction spell by 70%.

Destructive Reach - Rank 2/2
Increases the range of your Destruction spells by 20% and reduces threat caused by Destruction spells by 10%.

Backlash - Rank 3/3
Increases your critical strike chance with spells by an additional 3% and gives you a 25% chance when hit by a physical attack to reduce the cast time of your next Shadow Bolt or Incinerate spell by 100%. This effect lasts 8 sec and will not occur more than once every 8 seconds.

Improved Immolate - Rank 3/3
Increases the damage done by your Immolate spell by 30%.

Devastation - Rank 1/1
Increases the critical strike chance of your Destruction spells by 5%.

Nether Protection - Rank 3/3
After being hit with a spell, you have a 30% chance to gain Nether Protection, reducing all damage by that spell school by 30% for 8 sec.

Emberstorm - Rank 5/5
Increases the damage done by your Fire spells by 15% and reduces the cast time of your Incinerate spell by 0.25 sec.

Conflagrate - Rank 1/1
Consumes an Immolate or Shadowflame effect on the enemy target to instantly deal damage equal to 12 sec of your Immolate or 8 sec of your Shadowflame.

Shadow and Flame - Rank 5/5
Your Shadow Bolt, Shadowburn, Chaos Bolt and Incinerate spells gain an additional 20% of your bonus spell damage effects.

Backdraft - Rank 3/3
When you cast Conflagrate, the cast time and global cooldown of your next three Destruction spells is reduced by 30%. Lasts 15 sec.

Shadowfury - Rank 1/1
Shadowfury is unleashed, causing 968 to 1152 Shadow damage and stunning all enemies within 8 yds for 3 sec.

Fire and Brimstone - Rank 5/5
Increases the damage done by your Incinerate and Chaos Bolt spells to targets afflicted by your Immolate by 15%, and the critical strike chance of your Conflagrate spell is increased by 25%.

Chaos Bolt - Rank 1/1
Sends a bolt of chaotic fire at the enemy, dealing 1429 to 1813 Fire damage. Chaos Bolt cannot be resisted, and pierces through all absorption effects.

Glyphs

Glyph of Chaos Bolt (Major Glyph)
Reduces the cooldown on Chaos Bolt by 2 sec.

Glyph of Conflagrate (Major Glyph)
Your Conflagrate spell no longer consumes your Immolate or Shadowflame spell from the target.

Glyph of Shadowflame (Major Glyph)
Your Shadowflame also applies a 70% movement speed slow on its victims.

Replenishment Destro

Destro is a very good build at the moment if you do the rotation correctly. I was screwing up my rotation last time I did it and my DPS was fail as a result. I've been known to hit 6k DPS with this new build and rotation when I was normally floating around 3.5 with current gear.

Here's the Replenishment Destro spec.



Rotation is as follows:

Immo + Conflag, Chaos, Incin spam. CoD if you want to curse otherwise just push incin and you will get extra boom.

Order of spell importance:

1. Immo
2. Conflag
3. Chaos Bolt
4. Incin
5. Curse of Doom (attach to an incin whenever or don't bother...)

The key to this build is to use your GCD whenever you can and don't waste them. Only move when you can conflag and then you can hit conflag and CoD while in motion.

Constant pew pew is required for this spec.

The question of which stone to apply to your main hand weapon is kinda up to you.

Right now I'm use Firestones. Not the tires.

I sometimes use Spell stones but with my current spec and gear I have lots of haste especially on bloodlust and when other periodical buffs show up, so I think Firestones > Spellstones for me.

PvP With Felguard

Felguard offers more benefits than putting 8 talents in destro for damage reduction, as seen in this build.

Level 80 Warlock (30/41/0)

Affliction (30 points)

Improved Curse of Agony - Rank 2/2
Increases the damage done by your Curse of Agony by 10%.

Improved Corruption - Rank 5/5
Increases the damage done by your Corruption by 10%, and increases the critical strike chance of your Seed of Corruption by 5%.

Improved Life Tap - Rank 2/2
Increases the amount of Mana awarded by your Life Tap spell by 20%.

Soul Siphon - Rank 2/2
Increases the amount drained by your Drain Life and Drain Soul spells by an additional 6% for each of your Affliction effects on the target, up to a maximum of 18% additional effect.

Improved Fear - Rank 2/2
Causes your Fear spell to inflict a Nightmare on the target when the fear effect ends. The Nightmare effect reduces the target's movement speed by 30% for 5 sec.

Fel Concentration - Rank 2/3
Reduces the pushback suffered from damaging attacks while casting Drain Life, Drain Mana, Drain Soul, Unstable Affliction, and Haunt spells by 46%.

Grim Reach - Rank 2/2
Increases the range of your Affliction spells by 20%.

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%.

Empowered Corruption - Rank 3/3
Increases the damage of your Corruption spell by an amount equal to 36% of your spell power.

Shadow Embrace - Rank 5/5
Your Shadow Bolt and Haunt spells apply the Shadow Embrace effect, increasing all shadow periodic damage dealt to the target by you by 5%, and reduces all periodic healing done to the target by 15%. Lasts for 12 sec. Stacks up to 2 times.

Siphon Life - Rank 1/1
When you deal damage with your Corruption spell, you are instantly healed for 40% of the damage done. In addition, the damage done by your Corruption, Seed of Corruption and Unstable Affliction damage over time effects is increased by 5%.

Shadow Mastery - Rank 2/5
Increases the damage dealt or life drained by your Shadow spells by 6%.

Demonology (41 points)

Improved Healthstone - Rank 2/2
Increases the amount of Health restored by your Healthstone by 20%.

Demonic Embrace - Rank 3/3
Increases your total Stamina by 10%.

Fel Synergy - Rank 2/2
You have a 100% chance to heal your pet for 15% of the amount of spell damage done by you.

Improved Health Funnel - Rank 1/2
Increases the amount of Health transferred by your Health Funnel spell by 10% and reduces the initial health cost by 10%. In addition, your summoned Demon takes 15% less damage while under the effect of your Health Funnel.

Demonic Brutality - Rank 3/3
Increases the effectiveness of your Voidwalker's Torment, Consume Shadows, Sacrifice and Suffering spells by 30%, and increases the attack power bonus on your Felguard's Demonic Frenzy effect by 3%.

Fel Vitality - Rank 3/3
Increases the Stamina and Intellect of your Imp, Voidwalker, Succubus, Felhunter and Felguard by 15% and increases your maximum health and mana by 3%.

Soul Link - Rank 1/1
When active, 20% of all damage taken by the caster is taken by your Imp, Voidwalker, Succubus, Felhunter, Felguard, or enslaved demon instead. That damage cannot be prevented. Lasts as long as the demon is active and controlled.

Fel Domination - Rank 1/1
Your next Imp, Voidwalker, Succubus, Felhunter or Felguard Summon spell has its casting time reduced by 5.5 sec and its Mana cost reduced by 50%.

Demonic Aegis - Rank 3/3
Increases the effectiveness of your Demon Armor and Fel Armor spells by 30%.

Unholy Power - Rank 5/5
Increases the damage done by your Voidwalker, Succubus, Felhunter and Felguard's melee attacks and your Imp's Firebolt by 20%.

Master Summoner - Rank 2/2
Reduces the casting time of your Imp, Voidwalker, Succubus, Felhunter and Fel Guard Summoning spells by 4 sec and the Mana cost by 40%.

Mana Feed - Rank 1/1
When you gain mana from Drain Mana or Life Tap spells, your summoned demon gains 100% of the mana you gain.

Master Conjuror - Rank 2/2
Increases the combat ratings gained from your conjured Firestone and Spellstone by 300%.

Master Demonologist - Rank 5/5
Grants both the Warlock and the summoned demon an effect as long as that demon is active.

Imp - Increases your Fire damage by 5%, and increases the critical effect chance of your Fire spells by 5%.

Voidwalker - Reduces Physical damage taken by 10%.

Succubus - Increases your Shadow damage by 5%, and increases the critical effect chance of your Shadow spells by 5%.

Felhunter - Reduces all spell damage taken by 10%.

Felguard - Increases all damage done by 5%, and reduces all damage taken by 5%.

Demonic Resilience - Rank 3/3
Reduces the chance you'll be critically hit by melee and spells by 3% and reduces all damage your summoned demon takes by 15%.

Demonic Knowledge - Rank 3/3
Increases your spell damage by an amount equal to 12% of the total of your active demon's Stamina plus Intellect.

Summon Felguard - Rank 1/1
Summons a Felguard under the command of the Warlock.

Destruction (0 points)

None

Glyphs

Glyph of Soul Link (Major Glyph)
Increases the percentage of damage shared via your Soul Link by an additional 5%.

Glyph of Shadowflame (Major Glyph)
Your Shadowflame also applies a 70% movement speed slow on its victims.

Glyph of Siphon Life (Major Glyph)
Increases the healing you receive from your Siphon Life talent by 25%.

Side note about playing with ideas for getting a quick direct heal once in a while during pvp.

Have you ever been smote by a Warlock?

Fooling around, I tried the Blood Draining enchant to see how it would work with a metamorphosis build, as we do physical attacks and as expected it was a waste to do it. We attack a few times, get about a 4 or 5 stack of blood reserve that ticks down to nothing when we stop doing melee. Chance of us dropping to 35% to get the benefit of this without dying, are very rare at the moment.

So as of right now this is not very good for any caster class even for pvp. While many of you will say something like "DUH" -- nothing ventured, nothing gained.

However, I may use a macro to switch weapons and build stacks to keep it up in pvp or arenas or perhaps I might get lucky and they may alter the current dynamic. It may actually be like an extra smart healthstone, free of GCD, if used correctly.

And they could change the dynamics of that enchant in the future in which case I'll be ready to see what's up.

Warlock PvP Spec: Drain Tank

Drain tanking is not that popular now. I mean it really should be for arena, because I believe that as more and more players are getting better resil, we have bigger problems when it comes to getting the crits needed for a viable destro spec.

Here is a look at my current PvP spec, Drain Tank.

This features solid glyphs:

Glyphs

Glyph of Shadowflame (Major Glyph)
Your Shadowflame also applies a 70% movement speed slow on its victims.

Glyph of Siphon Life (Major Glyph)
Increases the healing you receive from your Siphon Life talent by 25%.

Glyph of Fear (Major Glyph)
Increases the damage your Fear target can take before the Fear effect is removed by 20%.

Glyph of Kilrogg (Minor Glyph)
Increases the movement speed of your Eye of Kilrogg by 50% and allows it to fly in areas where flying mounts are enabled.

Glyph of Curse of Exhaustion (Minor Glyph)
Increases the range of your Curse of Exhaustion spell by 5 yards.

Glyph of Unending Breath (Minor Glyph)
Increases the swim speed of targets affected by your Unending Breath spell by 20%.

Level 80 Warlock (27/36/8)

Affliction (27 points)

Improved Curse of Agony - Rank 2/2
Increases the damage done by your Curse of Agony by 10%.

There are times when you gotta push dps harder than normal, so you will want to dot up players with corruption and agony, while you kite them.

Suppression - Rank 1/3
Increases your chance to hit with spells by 1%, and reduces the mana cost of your Affliction spells by 2%.

Improved Corruption - Rank 5/5
Increases the damage done by your Corruption by 10%, and increases the critical strike chance of your Seed of Corruption by 5%.

Improved Life Tap - Rank 2/2
Increases the amount of Mana awarded by your Life Tap spell by 20%.

Soul Siphon - Rank 2/2
Increases the amount drained by your Drain Life and Drain Soul spells by an additional 6% for each of your Affliction effects on the target, up to a maximum of 18% additional effect.

Improved Fear - Rank 2/2
Causes your Fear spell to inflict a Nightmare on the target when the fear effect ends. The Nightmare effect reduces the target's movement speed by 30% for 5 sec.

Fel Concentration - Rank 3/3
Reduces the pushback suffered from damaging attacks while casting Drain Life, Drain Mana, Drain Soul, Unstable Affliction, and Haunt spells by 70%.

Grim Reach - Rank 2/2
Increases the range of your Affliction spells by 20%.

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%.

Empowered Corruption - Rank 3/3
Increases the damage of your Corruption spell by an amount equal to 36% of your spell power.

Siphon Life - Rank 1/1
When you deal damage with your Corruption spell, you are instantly healed for 40% of the damage done. In addition, the damage done by your Corruption, Seed of Corruption and Unstable Affliction damage over time effects is increased by 5%.

Shadow Mastery - Rank 2/5
Increases the damage dealt or life drained by your Shadow spells by 6%.

Demonology (36 points)

Improved Healthstone - Rank 2/2
Increases the amount of Health restored by your Healthstone by 20%.

Demonic Embrace - Rank 3/3
Increases your total Stamina by 10%.

Fel Synergy - Rank 2/2
You have a 100% chance to heal your pet for 15% of the amount of spell damage done by you.

Fel Vitality - Rank 3/3
Increases the Stamina and Intellect of your Imp, Voidwalker, Succubus, Felhunter and Felguard by 15% and increases your maximum health and mana by 3%.

Soul Link - Rank 1/1
When active, 20% of all damage taken by the caster is taken by your Imp, Voidwalker, Succubus, Felhunter, Felguard, or enslaved demon instead. That damage cannot be prevented. Lasts as long as the demon is active and controlled.

Fel Domination - Rank 1/1
Your next Imp, Voidwalker, Succubus, Felhunter or Felguard Summon spell has its casting time reduced by 5.5 sec and its Mana cost reduced by 50%.

Demonic Aegis - Rank 3/3
Increases the effectiveness of your Demon Armor and Fel Armor spells by 30%.

Unholy Power - Rank 5/5
Increases the damage done by your Voidwalker, Succubus, Felhunter and Felguard's melee attacks and your Imp's Firebolt by 20%.

Master Summoner - Rank 2/2
Reduces the casting time of your Imp, Voidwalker, Succubus, Felhunter and Fel Guard Summoning spells by 4 sec and the Mana cost by 40%.

Mana Feed - Rank 1/1
When you gain mana from Drain Mana or Life Tap spells, your summoned demon gains 100% of the mana you gain.

Master Conjuror - Rank 2/2
Increases the combat ratings gained from your conjured Firestone and Spellstone by 300%.

Master Demonologist - Rank 5/5
Grants both the Warlock and the summoned demon an effect as long as that demon is active.

Imp - Increases your Fire damage by 5%, and increases the critical effect chance of your Fire spells by 5%.

Voidwalker - Reduces Physical damage taken by 10%.

Succubus - Increases your Shadow damage by 5%, and increases the critical effect chance of your Shadow spells by 5%.

Felhunter - Reduces all spell damage taken by 10%.

Felguard - Increases all damage done by 5%, and reduces all damage taken by 5%.

Demonic Resilience - Rank 3/3
Reduces the chance you'll be critically hit by melee and spells by 3% and reduces all damage your summoned demon takes by 15%.

Demonic Knowledge - Rank 3/3
Increases your spell damage by an amount equal to 12% of the total of your active demon's Stamina plus Intellect.

Destruction (8 points)

Improved Shadow Bolt - Rank 5/5
Increases the damage done by your Shadow Bolt spell by 5%, and your Shadow Bolt causes your target to be vulnerable to spell damage, increasing spell critical strike chance against that target by 5%. Effect lasts 30 sec.

Molten Skin - Rank 3/3
Reduces all damage taken by 6%.

Thoughts:

Damage Reduction:
The key talents here are the damage reduction ones. Molten Skin is a no-brainer. Look at a crit buff as anti-resil. 5% lower resil is good in pvp. Not necessary though because the only shadowbolts you'll cast are instant ones.

Demonic Resil is key. Siphon Life with the glyph can keep you up.

Master Demonologist: Felhunter: Reduces all spell damage taken by 10%.

Kiting:
Kiting is survival in arena and BGs. Basically we have so many options now we are essentially mages in pvp. We have shadowflame which crushes the enemy for 70% movement loss. Also, with Exhaustion applied, this stacks to 100%.

If you're up against a pally who knows where his Blessing of Freedom key is, you are not really able to kite. So make use of your teleporter. Drop the teleporter, get line of site, hold line of site until you just lose it then teleport away to increase distance from attackers.

Fear here applies a kind of curse of exhaustion. I don't have info on the stacking capability of Curse of Exhaustion and Nightmare, but my guess is they probably stack.

Curse of Exhaustion glyph allows you to put even more distance between you and your BoF free enemies. :)

All in all this is a really fun spec, that will keep any warlock over 700 resil in good standing in arena and BGs.

There are some really funny moments when you shadowflame, fear and teleport away drain, fear, deathcoil, dot dot dot dot dot, kite... etc.

This one time, in AB, I was able to kite about 12 attackers and save the Lumber Mill from the evil clutches of the Alliance! LOL /rp

Back to Hybrid

Affliction was interesting, but I'm not convinced it's got the throughput that the spellweaving spec does for some great facerolling.

You probably have seen it, but this is what I'm going with right now.

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#IZcG0hkAbihcrZVbGVdzuVo

Pyrox Update

I've updated my chardev profile based on gear I intend to quickly get. Namely, Sash of Ancient Power and Spellslinger's Slippers.

Also I have revised my itemization sets for the changes in 3.1.2 and I still think that Affliction is most viable at the present stage, at least for my gear.

New changes are that stupid Conflag nerf, lost much of its appeal.

B.A.D.S. and the Art of Pugging

I just read this forum post about choosing pugs and I was impressed by it.

I have my own twist to the B.A.D.S. pug rating system, and it's much easier.

When players first join my raid they all end up in group six and above. I form the groups as I check players out. I do not give assist to anyone so they can screw up my groups. All buffs are raid wide for the most part so groups don't have to be perfect for anything you would pug.

Checking players.

If the player tagged with a ninja guild, they still get an invite because then I don't have to give them loot. They are the first to be booted if we get a better player.

Imba gives me a sense of how well the player itemizes. I have an account there so I can refresh them pretty quick. Even if they are in PVP gear, this gives me a sense of how hard they try. If they haven't enchanted anything or are mostly using green gems, I pass on them. Fully gemmed and enchanted they get an invite even if they have bad gear. I make a note to check their gear before we zone in.

The other thing I check is their armory achievements in 25 and 10man raiding. This gives me a sense of how well they perform, and in combination with the gear itemization, this is pretty much all we need to do.

I run WWS during my raids and I have a shitlist I have compiled in my Gmail. Basically any terrible player in a raid gets added to the list with a keyword I email to myself so I can quickly search their name in my inbox. If it comes up they don't stay for the raid.

Leaderhip

I explain every fight. I never lead a fight I'm not 100% comfortable with. I do not hesitate to take over leading a raid if the leaders aren't performing.

The number one thing with any fight is knowing what could go wrong and explaing to people on vent what they need to look out for.

No matter what you do, you can on rare occasion get some quirky thing that kills you, so don't beat up on players who die or it's embarassing. Just know the fight, do your best and your people will perform.

Know the fight from a tanking perspective as well as a playing perspective. Study DPS, healing and tanking information. Know what other classes can do.

Discuss trash, and how you want your tanks to be chain-pulling as long as healers have mana and are there. If more than five people are dead, tell tanks to hold off on pulling more trash.

Do not pug "undying" or "immortal" Naxx runs because you're just asking for trouble.

Talk to people, and ask questions.

Crowd Control (PvP)

Do you trinket? I don't. I barely bother. The only reason I would equip a PvP trinket would be for the resilience rating. But this is very low on my priority because there are so many cc's in the game now, when you pop a trinket, someone is bound to cc you in another way. The best focus for a warlock now is to get the shadowburn glyph that slows movement by 70% and use curse of exhaustion.

Here is what Ghostcrawler had to say about it:

Crowd control abilities are part of WoW. I am a little surprised this would come as news to anyone. You seem to use as an underlying assumption for your arguments that "All players agree that crowd control shouldn't be a big part of PvP," which I'm not buying.

Too much crowd control is not fun. Too much burst is not fun. Too many short fights are not fun. Too many long fights are not fun. We need to strike a balance in between these extremes. Where you would prefer for that balance to lie may not be where other players, or the developers, want that point to be.

If you don't like being CC'd and want another opportunity to get out of them, use your PvP trinket. That is why those items are good items. If you can't afford to give up the trinket slot for a CC break, then don't use it. In my experience most players use them. We're not going to nerf the items just because they are good items that most players use.

-Ghostcrawler

They should make PvP trinkets that make you immune to cc for 20 seconds. That would be fun and useful.