Poster: Maso at 3/2/2006 10:15:43 AM PST
Subject: In-Depth Warlock Talent Guide! (3/2/06) |
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This post is a continuation of the In-Depth Warlock FAQ found here:
https://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-warlock&t=842326&p=1
The In-Depth Warlock FAQ has grown ridiculously long with the addition of the talent guide. I've decided to separate the two sections, just for clarity and so that the IE scroll bar doesn't become the size of a pixel.
I will try to be as objective as possible in describing the talents and their uses. Unlike some classes, Warlocks have powerful builds that may include any of the three trees. This is something that creates a lot of debate concerning the specs and talent trees and their playstyles. One thing that IS true, however, is that a lot of Warlock talents suck. That, IMO, makes speccing very easy as a Warlock, as long as you have a grasp of what each tree provides.
I will do a run down of all the talents on each tree. In the "Popular Builds" section, I will discuss the idea and strategies behind each build, as well as their strengths and weaknesses.
Note that this is a community effort, and that if at any time I appear to be "biased" or "incorrect," I am eager to listen to constructive criticism. I will not respond to flames.
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Warlock Talent Guide (3/2/06)
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Talent guide contents
A. Affliction Tree
B. Demonology Tree
C. Destruction Tree
D. Popular Builds
E. Personal Tidbit
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A. Affliction Tree
The affliction tree mostly provides benefits to debuffs and DoT's. A large misconception about this tree and its specs is that people think that it relies on DoT's. That is NOT true. Due to the nature of DoT's, they will never succeed as a primary form of damage. They are, however, very strong secondary tools to be used in certain situations.
Tier 1
Suppression rank 5/5
Reduces the chance for enemies to resist your Affliction spells by 10%.
This will cause basically all your DoT's (excluding Immolate), Drain's, Fear's, and Curse's to be resisted less often. You will cast them as if you are level 63, which means that you will suffer fewer level-based resists as you invest in this talent. Most DoT's and Curses are instant cast, so they do not get a major benefit from this talent. However, it does have a noticeable effect on Fear and Death Coil, which makes this a rather useful, if not underestimated. CC is one of our main strengths in group PvP, and Suppression will make you that much better at it. A good talent dump for when you need to move further down into the Affliction tree.
Improved Corruption rank 5/5
Reduces the casting time of your Corruption spell by 2.0 sec.
One of the best talents that the Warlock class has to offer. Here's the deal: Corruption is worthless with a casting time, but a good DoT without one. Curse of Agony alone does not deal very much damage, and actually has rather low DPS as you get more +dmg gear. Corruption is less mana efficient, but has higher DPS. This talent is powerful enough that it's included in just about every popular talent build, except the PvE based MD/Ruin and the somewhat rare SL/20 build. Affliction gets a good bonus out of this talent, because Corruption procs Nightfall. Always try to fit 5 points into this talent into any build, unless you're doing MD/Ruin.
Tier 2
Improved Curse of Weakness rank 3/3
Increases effect of Curse of Weakness by 20%
20% of a small number = another small number. Curse of Weakness costs 310 mana and reduces the target's damage by 31. With this talent, that number is increased by 6.1 to get 37.2 reduced damage per hit. This sounds semi-useful, until you realize that the way that this is counted with Damage Reduction through armor makes the number even smaller. When things are hitting for 2000 or even 500, it is clear that this talent is pretty much worthless.
Improved Drain Soul rank 2/2
Gives you a 50% chance to get a 100% increase to your Mana regeneration for 10 sec if the target dies while you drain its soul. In addition your Mana may continue to regenerate while casting at 50% of normal.
Sounds useful, doesn't it? Nah, it sucks. Please refer to the question inspired by this talent above in the FAQ.
Improved Life Tap rank 2/2
Increases mana awarded from your Life Tap spell by 20%
Effectively increases the mana gained from Life Tap from 426 to 511.2. Since Warlocks tend to have very small mana pools and low mana regeneration, Life Tap is our primary means of staying effective in battle... and it does a hell of a good job of doing it. Though the effect looks simple, the overall effect on your character is huge. It effectively makes your health worth that much more mana in a long fight. It makes you regain mana faster through tapping. It lets you get more Shadow Bolts in after a few Life Taps. It makes the healer mana:Warlock damage ratio that much better. Get this talent if you plan to have more than 5 points in Affliction.
Improved Drain Life rank 5/5
Increases the Health drained by your Life Drain spell by 10%.
As described earlier in the FAQ, the bonuses that add to the damage of drain spells only affect their base damage. This means that this talent does not scale with damage gear. Anyways, the effect of this talent is that Drain Life will 10% more damage to the target and give you 10% more health. If it scaled with gear, I would consider using it over Suppression. Skip this talent for now.
Tier 3
Improved Curse of Agony rank 3/3
Increases damage done by your Curse of Agony by 6%.
This talent suffers the same problem as Improved Drain Life in the sense that talents that CoA's benefit from talents do not scale with gear. Even if it did scale with gear, 3 talent points to enhance a 24 second DoT by 6% damage is hardly worth it. Skip.
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.
Another essential talent in the Affliction tree, this talent makes Drain Life a better option in PvP and is also a requirement for "drain tanking." There are a few situations in PvP where you can Drain Life with Fel Concentration for use when you need to deal uninterruptable damage. In my experience, these situations don't come up very often, but the option is good to have. Also, Drain Life procs Nightfall, which will make it an even better option when you get it. A very good talent for the grind, a decent talent for end game... since there really isn't any other place you can spend points.
Amplify Curse rank 1
Instant cast, 3 min cooldown: Increases the effect of your next Curse of Weakness or Curse of Agony by 50%, or your next Curse of Exhaustion by 20%.
A nifty talent, mainly for use with Curse of Agony and Curse of Exhaustion in PvP. When activated, this ability will make Curse of Exhaustion a much stronger snare, and Curse of Agony a much more damaging DoT. This talent gives you a little boost in DPS that helps with PvE, especially with soloing elites, and also provides a good snare for PvP. A very good investment for 1 talent point.
Tier 4
Grim Reach rank 2/2
Increases the range of your Affliction spells by 20%
Range talents are good for any caster class. Grim Reach is one of the greatest benefits of the Affliction tree, and is a part of what makes builds like SM/Ruin powerful. In my opinion, one of the biggest weaknesses of the SL builds is that they often lack the range talents. Range might not exactly help with DPS, but it lets you cast from further away, which means less time running up to your target and more time that your target must spend running to you. Curses and DoTs are increased from 30 yards to 36 yards, and Drain Life and Fear are increased from 20 yards to 24 yards. 20 yards is dangerously close to your opponent, and having that 24 yard Fear is a very, very nice benefit IMO. One of the better talents available to Warlocks.
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%.
Definately one of the main benefits of the Affliction tree. It's funny, because every time a patch is released, this forum is filled with "NF broken?!!!" threads as a result of people being paranoid of stealth nerfs. Right now, it seems to be proccing off Rain of Fire, which is very strange...
Anyway, each tick of Drain Life and Corruption has a 4% chance of giving you an instant cast Shadow Bolt. It's not exactly something that you can rely on, but crit's aren't reliable either. I have it proc every other battle or so. Stack Corruption on multiple targets, and you'll be proccing rather often. It's a decent increase in DPS for PvE, and in PvP, I consider it almost to be an "auto-win" kind of proc, depending on how much damage your gear has. One of the better talents in Affliction.
Improved Drain Mana rank 2/2
Causes 30% of the Mana drained by your Drain Mana spell to damage the opponent.
Almost everybody in the Warlock community says this talent is worthless. Then there's the people who post and say that this talent is extremely powerful and a huge part of their game. I have no idea how 30% of 136 damage is going to be a big part of anyone's game, especially since Drain Mana receives no effect from +dmg gear. Drain Mana isn't exactly the best spell to use in PvP. It's channeled, drains at a pretty slow rate, and costs a lot of mana. The classes you might think it's good against (Priest, Paladin) can dispel it. Weaksauce.
Tier 5
Siphon Life rank 1/1
150 Mana, 30 yd range, Instant cast: Transfers x health from the target to the caster every 3 sec. Lasts 30 sec.
Mosh, a well-respected Warlock from the Euro forums believes that this talent will be considered a "must-have" in the future. I disagree, but I still think that this is another one of the main benefits of the Affliction tree, especially now that Siphon Life is instant cast.
Your DoT chain is now that much more effective, and you're regaining a little bit of life from it! Unfortunately, Siphon Life only receives 50% benefit from +dmg gear, and it is very mana inefficient if it ends early. Other than that, it's a very powerful spell, and a prerequisite to Shadow Mastery anyways. A very good talent, but not good enough to base a build with 21 Aff to get it (unlike Ruin and POM and NS and stuff :P).
Curse of Exhaustion rank 1/1
108 Mana 30 yd range Instant cast: Reduces the target's speed to 90% of normal for 12 sec. Only one Curse per Warlock can be active on any one target.
This talent is either extremely powerful or completely worthless, depending on who you ask. It'll take 3 or 4 points in Improved Curse of Exhaustion before this curse becomes worthless, but keep in mind that a person running at 90% speed will never catch up to someone running at 100%, and someone running at 100% will eventually catch up to someone running at 90%. Things like Sprint and snares on you obviously negate this effect, but in group pvp, a Rogue won't always have Sprint as an option and Intercept might have already been used on a Priest. The Rogue and Warrior will not have many options in getting into your face. AND it's good for catching runners and Hunters.
The problem with CoEx is that you're spending 4 or 5 points on a snare that is rather situational. CoEx is pretty crap against most classes in 1v1 combat. It's not always the best curse to use in group combat. But, it's a snare, with up to 36 yard range, low mana cost, no cooldown, and does not suffer from diminishing returns. The bottom line is this: you are spending 4/5 talent points for a snare option. It is up to you to decide whether or not it's worth it. I personally think one of the main strengths of the SM/Ruin build lies on this talent.
Tier 6
Shadow Mastery rank 5/5
Increases damage dealt or life drained by your Shadow spells by 10%.
A very good talent. Not much to say here. Note that SM/Ruin is not BASED on SM and Ruin, but actually the strength of the build is all of the options and benefits it gains from the talents before them. SM and Ruin just happen to be very good investments.
Tier 7
Dark Pact rank 1/1
20 yd range, Instant: Transfers 250 mana from your pet to you.
Note that I changed the talent text. I did this because a lot of people get confused from reading the tooltip. This talent is one of the best talents in the game from level 40 to level 60. Then it really just becomes a much slower Life Tap that doesn't cost healer mana or bandages. The mana regeneration on this talent is pretty slow, meaning your DPS relying on it will be rather low. Other than that, there isn't much to say about this talent except that it pretty much eliminates downtime, making it very effective for the grind. Get it and respec at 60.[ post edited by Maso ]
There is no skill in MMO's. Only knowledge.
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