You would think that with a quad-spec druid nothing else would be as exciting, right? Ice can do it all - ranged and melee DPS, tanking, and healing, with a full set of T8-quality raid gear for each, no less. And yet there's a void of demonic affection that just can't be filled by a guardian of nature.
I've started playing my warlock Nefaria again and she's ridiculously entertaining, though it took about ten minutes of awkward pulls in Hellfire Peninsula to figure out what all of her spells did. Her gear isn't that great (I actually have to watch what I pull instead of running into it blindly) but the two heirloom trinkets and shoulders help a lot.
And apparently I got her a gryphon at some point! Do you realize how warm and fuzzy that feels after discovering mounts on an alt you haven't played in a long time? I looked at her actionbars and noticed I had a button 1/2 macro. The icon was for the dreadsteed so I right-clicked to see what the other command was, and out pops an ebon gryphon! I must have squealed for a good two minutes.
She went from 60 to 63 in a couple nights and I filled out more talents in the affliction tree. Warlocks are not like druids with how their talents are set up. For any druid, you fill out your main tree then drop a few points into resto since there are some talents (Imp. MoW, Omen of Clarity, etc) that benefit all druids. And if you're resto, there are things in the balance tree you should pick up. Warlocks are not as obvious. They're all fel-tainted and weird - other than filling out non-PvP looking talents in affliction I have no idea what to do. Anyone out there have a general rule of thumb or am I just supposed to fudge it as I go along?
Talents aside, warlocks have some really nifty spells. Haunt is like a steroid for your DoTs and the self-healing aspect of sucking out souls is awesome. I mean yeah, Nefaria's just another ranged DPS with a pet (incoming Tauren shenanigans!) but it's an entirely different flavor from Moonkin gameplay. There are more DoTs, more instant spells, and they interact with each other - Haunt boosts DoTs and some drains refresh other DoTs like a happy family of death. Insect Swarm and Moonfire are sorta "meh" with Wrath and Starfire but even then they don't affect each other as DoTs. Warlock DoTs /hug each other and cheer each other on to suck out more life from the target. Or burn it to death...that too.
Nefaria even out-heals Ice from back in the day, and by doing DPS of all things! Moonkins can't heal but warlocks can bounce around throwing spells, hit a Life Tap or two to convert their health into mana, then get slammed with heals from their own DoTs. And they crit like there's no tomorrow so I can take out five or six mobs and walk out of it with full health and mana as if nothing happened (granted the voidwalker will be tired and sore). I actually had to re-enable the healing portion of Scrolling Combat Text because I didn't realize what was causing the spikes in health.
The only major thing I miss is the shapeshifting to get out of snares and run away. Travel form is such a blessing when you're dazed and I didn't realize it until I was spamming my cheetah macro (which I've bound to Fear on my warlock, conveniently). And the raid gear...and epic flying...but the little warlock is still fun as hell. She's my new side project until further notice. Icebird is in Northrend with Kunaius now savoring level 70. I'll post an update/analysis of the pair soon.
P.S. You can kill yourself with [Hellfire]. I thought it was like [Life Tap] where it stops short of killing you O.o
10 comments:
I've also rolled a warlock, not so long ago. Got a little too repetitive just doing dailies and stuff on my druid. And I'm totally in love with warlocks now! I specced affliction until I had enough talent points (41) to respec to demonology, only to get the sweet felguard, he's the coolest minion so far :)
The only thing I miss from affliction is the Shadowtrance proc, instant shadow bolts is awesome.
;:chuckle:: I've been levelling my warlock, too. She is kind of fun and I havent even begun to explore the full range of abilities warlocks have available to them. She is now 78, should make 79 easily today, and 80 sometime this weekend if all goes well. :)
"For any druid, you fill out your main tree then drop a few points into resto"
Kinda holds for warlocks too - any non-destro drop points there. 10 points in the first row, then 2 points in bane.
Is a warlock alt a common choice for druid mains? I picked it up b/c it seemed the most different from what I was doing. Very refreshing change. :)
@pestbarn - Felguards look like a lot of fun, so I might respec and give that a go in Northrend. And I have SCT set up so I hear a happy jingly sound when Shadowtrance procs :P
@Kayeri - Pre-grats on 80! I'm hoping to hit 64 in the next day or so depending on what toon I'm rockin' for the evening. My goal is to hit 80 before January though.
@Anonymous - Thanks for the talent tip, I never would have noticed that. I rolled Nefaria for a chance of pace as well. I guess warlocks are a favored opposite for druids!
The pretty little sound when Shadowtrance procced (through the Necrosis addon for warlocks) is one of the reasons why I still miss affliction. The demonology spec doesn't give me any fun words except the hilarious "I play all my records backwards" sometimes when I ask him to attack :)
@pestbarn - Warlock mod you say? I might have to redesign Nefaria's UI to have a darker theme...*ponders*
Aww...this makes me miss our Taurens a bit. But don't install too many mods. You have a new computer on the way!
@Kunaius - Only 11 more days hopefully and I'm very excited about it. I think I'll end up using a jumpdrive to pass the Interface folder from the old computer to the new one...hopefully it'll stay intact.
Welcome to the darkside Ice :-)
The official forums have some good levelling guides for 'locks. In general, it's a choice between Affliction (never have to stop for healing and mana) or Demonology (so your Felguard can tank for you).
One suggestion I think you should consider, especially since Nefaria isn't your first character. Take your time in Outland. It's a warlock's playground - all sorts of demons you can enslave. Once you hit Northrend, the only demons are in the Nexus. If you think you tackle 5 or 6 mobs now, wait until you start fighting groups of demons. Banish one. Fear another. Enslave a third, and use it to tank the rest....
Are you still using the voidwalker? Or are you drain-tanking with the felpuppy/succubus?
FYI, you can use the hellfire suicide to save you some gold. If you're in a wipe situation, lifetap until you can't anymore (this is quicker than hellfire all the way to nothing), then switch to hellfire....If the dmg that actually kills you is from hellfire then no equipment dmg takes place :D
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