Warlock Guide

Gear
As an arena player, you must keep in mind that your gear will need to vary significantly from the

PvE gear you're used to having. For all specs, you will need Resilience gear, and resilience /

stamina gems in them. Ideally, you should go PvPing to the battlegrounds as well and obtain all

the Veteran armor you can, as it all has +resilience and +stamina.

Why do you need stamina and resilience and not spellpower and the others? Simple, high crits

will kill you quickly, and you want to avoid that as much as possible. Once you have enough

arena points to spend, you should first spend them on gloves for the only extra effect you get -

50% chance to resist interruption on fear! then go for the 2 piece bonus.

Don't forget, first and foremost, to use (or buy!) your Insignia to remove all effects impairing

your character from being controlled from the Honor vendor!

Popular Talent Builds
All 3 Talent Builds are worthwhile provided you go for each's ultimate and mix & match the

remainders. It depends on your playstyle and your teammate(s) to be the best you can be in the

Arena. Outlined below will be the use of each:

Affliction: The author's favorite. Effective in all arena matchups, this build lets you cast unstable

affliction on your enemies, stopping the paladins from mass-cleansing your DoTs or forcing the

paladins/priests to heal themselves or bubble instead of cleansing themselves! Should they do

it anyway, it's a surefire damage spike that can lead to your victory. Don't forget to use instant

Howl of Terror!

Destruction: High and fast numbers, protection vs shadowpriests and warlocks - this build allows

you to use a high damage output at the expense of no DoTs and less mana than the others.

Ideal in 2v2 and 3v3, starts to lack some in 5v5s that are not burst teams. If paired with another

high damage class like mage or another warlock with the same spec you may see numbers

rising quickly, goal being to kill your enemies before your mana runs out and before they can

heal.

Demonology: Stability - you will be nearly unkillable if they focus you since you use soul link and

have improved resilience and HP thanks to the demonology tree's talents, your goal should be

to DoT your target and cast fears around to disrupt enemy tactics while having your pet on the

healer / manauser.

Season 3 Popular Builds
The most popular variations during Season 3 are based on the high resilience and stamina gear

you may now easily obtain by grinding PvP Battlegrounds and completing the Arena sets. Those

who have PvPed against warlocks in the Arena will often see them sporting a ton of hitpoints and

using Soul Link, yet no Fel Guard to be seen.

The 'Flavor of the Moment' (not Month!) build for Arena Warlocks currently resides in what many

call "SL/SL", Going down the Demonology tree to Soul Link and maybe Demonic Resilience,

and then down to Siphon Life in the Affliction Tree. The tactic is to use your felhunter, keep it

alive, and manadrain your opponent's healer or caster should they have one until they get to

zero, while fearing their companions (or themselves). Due to your high HP and added resilience,

you will be very hard to kill and a very solid contender in an Arena Match.

Drain Mana is essential for this build, even in a 2v2, since you won't have much upfront damage

aside from a possible Nightfall. Outlasting your opponents with fears and Life/Mana Drains is

key.

Tactics
Pet choice should almost always be a felhunter. Succubus and Voidwalker are good in some

matchups, but since you can't know who you're up against and there's almost always a mana

user, you should have a felhunter out at all times. Plus, the insignia to remove impairing effects

will make your succubus a one-trick pony who's very easy to take out.

Before you start, you should hand out healthstones and buff everyone with Detect Invisibility, if

you're on a 5v5 (or on high 3v3s), buff everyone with waterbreathing last as well, so when a

purge or dispel comes, they take that out first instead of another important buff.

If you see a paladin, either try to burst him down to low HP so he bubbles (or dies) and wastes it,

before dotting him up for the final kill. Curse of Tongues works wonders on paladins and priests,

followed up by a Fear.

Fear is your friend, use it, abuse it. Along with Curse of Tongues, it should be one of your

priorities during a fight (aside from DPSing)!

Shadowburn is very, very useful on targets - use it to add pressure to a healer or finish off

another player. You will not be reimbursed a shard should the target die, but you can easily just

go find new shards to use to your advantage.

If you're on a 3v3 or a 5v5 and notice the fight is going too long, or if your goal is to outlast the

enemy team, use Drain Mana on the enemy healer. It will singlehandedly shift the battle around

since the healer will either burn all his mana way quicker, or go out of range so your other

teammates take advantage of this and kill whoever he/she was supporting.

Stay tuned for more updates to this guide, remember, you will win some, you will lose some, but

in the end, play to have fun!