Malsorian - Warlock

Life, continued...

noreply@blogger.com (Malsorian) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 16:00:00 +0000

Thank you to many people for the emails encouraging a new blog. Here you go:

http://leoparddhunter.blogspot.com/

I don't know if I'll be any good at writing this blog. This is more RP oriented but will, of course, in time contain information about playing the hunter class. I know I'm a noob at this hunter thing, but I want to learn. Leopardd was always a favorite toon of mine and I've never had the opportunity to play him as my main. Now, with the release of the expansion, I have my chance.

Thank you again for the warm wishes.

I bid you adieu

noreply@blogger.com (Malsorian) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 19:45:00 +0000

After much deliberation, I have decided to set on a new path in the race to 80. I will be leveling my hunter as my main focus. Eventually, I'll bring along Malsorian to level 80, but this means that I am changing mains. My guild is currently over-populated with warlocks and it's a good time to make the change. I probably will not start a new blog as there are many out there with far more experience to speak from than I have. I want to thank all of you who have read and supported my blog. This blog will be brought down in another month or so since most of the information is outdated with the launch of the expansion.

Be well.

See you in Dalaran.

Feelings of discontent

noreply@blogger.com (Malsorian) — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 16:48:00 +0000

I'm not happy with being a warlock these days. I don't like the change to destruction. If I had wanted to play with fire, I would have rolled a mage. Also, I'm not happy with the new affliction spec. The spell rotation is just wonkie and dps is low compared to destruction. I have found in my top tier guild, that what matters from a warlock is the bottom line, d.p.s. Yes, affliction adds utility. Yes, affliction does pretty good damage on it's own. Although my guild will construct a raid for synergy and needs on a per boss basis, they bring in the hardest hitters and affliction just isn't going to be that. I can discuss numbers but in the end, I'm just feeling discontent with my class at this moment. Anyone else out there in the same place I am?

Master Spellstone

noreply@blogger.com (Malsorian) — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 16:07:00 +0000

Warlocks unite and rejoice! Gone are the days of Nightmare Vine and Imbued Vials! Gone are the days of Auction House purchasing of Superior Wizard Oil. The new and improved Master Spellstones are the weapon enhancement of choice.

Master Spellstone
Binds when picked up
Unique
Use: While applied to target weapon it increases damage dealt by periodic spells by 1% and spell haste rating by 40. Lasts for 1 hour.
5 Charges

This was released with the 3.0.2 patch. It does not count as a conjured item and does not disappear when you log out. They are soulbound so you can't make a profit with them but this will surely save us a little gold.

Achievements

noreply@blogger.com (Malsorian) — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 15:49:00 +0000

With the release of 3.0.2, came the new achievement system. What's the point of it? To have fun. While some folks don' t like the attitude of, "I've done more in the game so I win." I think it's fun to have these to play with. Let's face it. Everyone is running around doing it. Even though I have limited in-game time, I'm finding a little time to run around exploring and racking up some achievements for myself. I don't really care about my overal achievement score, but I'm enjoying it anyway.

Over the weekend, I managed to get my first Feat of Strength. I won a roll for The Horseman's Reins. My understanding is that the drop rate for the Headless Horseman's Reins is pretty low. But, I joined a party Saturday morning to have a go around of summoning. It dropped on the first kill and I won the roll. And then, it dropped again, on the second kill.

Then, I spent a lot of other time this weekend questing in the older lands, primarily in Redridge Mountains. I decided to go over there to finish exploring the map and while I was there, thought I would finish off the questing in the area since it gives me rep. It was fun to run through annihilating the mobs. And I sent a ton of stuff to the bank toon for sale on the AH. It won't sell for much, but it's a little gold. Although nothing there was a challenge, it's nice to visit areas of the game I've not seen in a long time and relive forgotten quest lines.

I think each of us will find an achievement we are proud of or enjoyed conquering. Which is your favorite so far?

Necrosis Hits The Streets!

noreply@blogger.com (Malsorian) — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 10:39:00 +0000

12 hours ago. Yes!

http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/necrosis-ld-c.aspx

I'm heading in-game now to give her a try. Woot!

Flight of Fancy

noreply@blogger.com (Malsorian) — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 14:00:00 +0000

Just to keep you in-game, Blizzard has worked with and promoted Popcap's Bejeweled to pass the time while doing boring, mundane tasks in WoW. Remember the flight from Darnassus to Gadgetzan? Or how about from the Isle of Quel'Danas to Darkshire? Or even when you've done something dumb in the first 15 seconds on Brutallus and you have to wait for the rest of the raid to kill him so you can roll on phat loot? Now, you can play Bejeweled to pass the time. Download the addon today at http://www5.popcap.com/promos/wow/

Inscription Glyphs

noreply@blogger.com (Malsorian) — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 13:16:00 +0000

I finally got in-game yesterday and headed straight to the Auction House to get me some glyphs. Although several guild members have taken up Inscription and quickly maxed it out, I wanted instant gratification and a large inventory to explore. Also, with it being a brand new profession and folks were crafting to level, the glyphs were reasonably cheap on the AH.

Major Glyphs

Glyph of Banish - Increases the duration of your Banish by 5 sec.
Glyph of Conflagrate - Reduces the mana cost of your Conflagrate by 20%.
Glyph of Corruption - You Corruption spell has 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%.
Glyph of Curse of Agony - Increases the duration of your Curse of Agony by 4 sec.
Glyph of Death - Increases the duration of your Death Coil by 0.5 sec.
Glyph of Fear - Increases the damage your Fear target can take before the Fear effect is removed by 20%.
Glyph of Felguard - Increases the Felguard's total attack power by 10%.
Glyph of Felhunter - Increases the critical strike chance of your Felhunter's Shadow Bite ability by 6%.
Glyph of Health Funnel - Increases the chance you'll resist spell interruption when channeling your Health Funnel spell by 100%.
Glyph of Healthstone - You receive 30% more healing from using a healthstone.
Glyph of Howl of Terror - Reduces the cooldown on your Howl of Terror spell by 8 sec.
Glyph of Immolate - Increases the periodic damage of your Immolate by 20% but decreases its initial damage by 10%.
Glyph of Imp - Increaes the damage done by your Imp's Firebolt spell by 10%.
Glyph of Searing Pain - Increases the critical strike bonus of your Searing Pain by 20%.
Glyph of Shadow Bolt - Reduces the mana cost of your Shadow Bolt by 10%.
Glyph of Shadowburn - Increases the critical strike chance of Shadowburn by 20% when the target is below 35% health.
Glyph of Siphon Life - Increases the effect of your Siphon Life spell by 20%.
Glyph of Soulstone - Increases the amount of health you gain from resurrecting via your Soulstone by 300%.
Glyph of Succubus - Increases the duration of your Succubus's Seduction by 3 sec.

Glyph of Unstable Affliction - Decreases the casting time of your Unstable Affliction by 0.2 sec.

Glyph of Voidwalker - Increases your Voidwalker's total Stamina by 20%.

Minor Glyphs

Glyph of Curse of Exhaustion - Increases the range of your Curse of Exhaustion spell by 5 yards.
Glyph of Drain Soul - Your Drain Soul ability occasionally creates an additional soul shard.
Glyph of Enslave Demon - Reduces the cast time of your Enslave Demon spell by 50%.
Glyph of Kilrogg - 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 Souls - Your Ritual of Souls spell no longer requires a Soul Shard.
Glyph of Unending Breath - Increases the swim speed of targets affected by your Unending Breath spell by 20%.

So, which ones are the right combination for you? Here are some recommendations.

Raiding Affliction - Major: Corruption, Shadowbolt, Healthstone (lvl 80); Minor: Drain Soul, Enslave Demon, Souls
Raiding Destruction - Major: Conflagrate, Shadowbolt, Shadowburn (lvl 80); Minor: Drain Soul, Enslave Demon, Souls
Raiding Demonology - Major: Felguard, Shadowbolt, Health Funnel (lvl 80); Minor: Drain Soul, Enslave Demon, Souls
Leveling 70-80 - consider changing out the Minor Glyph of Souls for Kilrogg. You may be using that eye again to explore ahead safely.
5-man Instances - Affliction/Destruction - consider changing out your major DoT glyph for Succubus. Remember, they like us to seduce for crowd control.
PvP - Fear is your friend. Major: Fear, Curse of Agony, Howl of Terror (lvl 80); Minor: Drain Soul, Enslave Demon, Curse of Exhaustion (maybe)

Hardware Upgrade

noreply@blogger.com (Malsorian) — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 11:45:00 +0000

When was the last time you attempted to install World of Warcraft completely? That was my task last night so I didn't actually get to see the patch material. I bought a new system and had to install things last night, the essentials for computing life: iTunes, Curse Updater, Warcraft. I'll get around to Microsoft Office and Adobe products later. This was an essentials installation run. Unfortunately, I had to leave it downloading WoW patches and went to bed. As of this morning, it's still not finished and hasn't started 3.0.2 yet. Here's a look at the gaming system I bought.

Dell XPS 630
Intel Core2 processorE8400 (3.0 GHz,1333FSB) w/Dual Core Technology and 6MB cache
Red Bezel Chassis (it's actually a stainless steel case with red trim front and back)
6GB DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz
Dual 512MB Radeon ATI HD 3870
500GB NCQ SATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM) w/ 16MB DataBurst Cache
Dell 19 in 1 Media Reader withBluetooth 2.0
Microsoft Windows Vista SP1 Home Premium 64-Bit Edition
16X DVD+R/RW
Soundblaster X-Fi PCI Sound Card
3-yr At-home Support
3-yr Replacement (for when I break it)
No monitor (I'm keeping the one I had)
No keyboard (Keeping my Ideazon keyboard with TBC keyset)
No mouse (Keeping my favorite Microsoft Intellimouse)

The tower is HUGE (I'm guessing about 24-28" tall, 8" wide and 24-28" deep). And when I opened it, the dual graphics cards take up almost half of the case. It's got lights on the front and lights on the back of the case (excellent for looking at connections). And so far, I'm enjoying Windows Vista. It's pretty and I like the desktop gadgets. The real test comes when I raid. Performance baby.

Echoes of Doom 3.0.2

noreply@blogger.com (Malsorian) — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 14:39:00 +0000

Patch day has come and gone and few people had the opportunity to try on their new talent builds. I've got mine picked out, http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/warlock/talents2.html?tal=205222003122301005251030135100000000000000000000000000055000000000000000000000000 and I am excited.

So, what did I do yesterday while constantly logging in to see if my realm was up? I updated mods. Here's a run down of some important mods to look into updating, not only a 3.0 version of your existing mod, but entirely new versions of the mods themselves.

Bartender 4 - very stable in 3.0. I was able to launch into the game this morning and despite the FAQ for BT4, my BT3 settings did import to BT4 (well, close enough). http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/bartender4.aspx

Deadly Boss Mods - updated to work with 3.0.2 - I will have a chance to test this out tonight when we raid with our new builds - http://www.deadlybossmods.com/

Omen Threat Meter - I've heard talk and seen information about Blizzard adding a threat meter to the game but haven't seen it yet. As a warlock, I need a threat meter as much as I need a Shadow Bolt so I'll probably be running them side by side for a while. I did notice a cool new skin for Omen 3. http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/omen-threat-meter.aspx

Outfitter - I use this to automatically equip my Riding Crop, and to change into my Shadow Resist set or just my trinket that zaps me to the door of Black Temple. It had an update release as well. http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/outfitter.aspx

oRA2 - I can't say enough about this mod. I love the target assist buttons. We set ours up for each of the tanks (with MT at top) and the main assist (MA) at the bottom. http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/ora2.aspx

I'm still trying to determine if Necrosis LdC is being updated. My Curse Updater said it was updated yesterday but the addon page shows the last update from 2.4 launch. I'll be following it with interest. http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/necrosis-ld-c.aspx

X-Perl Unit Frames - FUBAR as of this morning but I expect them to get it worked out soon. This is a fantastic mod and the addon I use for DoT timing. I also love the coloring of the different classes throughout the game. It helps me find players quick in a 25-person raid for summoning. http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/xperl.aspx

Big Wigs Bossmods - whether you prefer Big Wigs or DBM, get it updated. http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/big-wigs.aspx

Tonight we raid. I'll report back on my new talent build after I give it a run.

Update - 18 Sep 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Malsorian) — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 13:45:00 +0000

Hello everyone. With the impending release of the expansion, I have just been raiding as usual. I had decided to stop posting with strats and such because life as we know it is about to change. Although I can speculate at length on what is to come, I think I'd rather wait and see what survives the PTR.

It is my intent to resume blogging once the expansion hits. I will chronicle my adventures through Northrend and my trials with talent specs and spells.

For now, I'm raiding Black Temple and Sunwell Plateau. I have temporarily respec'd to Destruction to give it a try. I have a feeling I will be reverting to Affliction once the expansion is released. The new talent tree is going to bring back it's popularity. The real answer for Affliction comes with the gear from the new end-game raiding. We've not seen releases of new tier armor on the PTR yet.

Good luck everyone. Be sure to get your orders in for the expansion now. I'll be hitting the new continent in the early morning hours of November 14, with a group of friends. Vacation time has already been scheduled, my girlfriend is planning a trip out of town and I plan to not leave my computer for 48-72 hours.

Preparing for WotLK

noreply@blogger.com (Malsorian) — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 13:41:00 +0000

I've opted in for a beta key. Not sure if I'll get one, but if I do, the first things I'll be looking at are the professions. Malsorian is a tailor/enchanter. The recent announcements from the beta seem very exciting. There will be new spellthreads and certainly new patterns to upgrade gear for tailors. Engineers have also been given a load of new toys and I imagine all of the other professions will follow suit. I'm cheering for you blacksmiths out there. Let's hope the Death Knights need you guys most of all. Seriously, it's time the blacksmiths were really able to make a living with their profession.

However, no matter what your profession is, it's time to start preparing. First, open up your crafting window. See all of those craftable items that are yellow, orange or even green? Those are going to be your first items to use for leveling once the expansion hits. So, start taking inventory of what mats you will need to craft those in mass quantity. I'd say, prepare for crafting 30-40 of an orange item. You will need to stockpile cloth, gems, leather, ores, etc.

Aside from professions, you need to begin preparation in other ways. The Badge of Justice will be replaced by another type of badge in WotLK. This essentially means those badges you have stockpiled in your bank need to be converted to something of value. Consider exchanging those badges for gems or Nether Vortices that you can sell on the auction house. Crimson Spinel's can sell for a pretty gold penny. Convert mats to cash because they will soon be considering "old world" items. Remember those Charged Scale of Onyxia and Nexus Crystals? Right. Now, clear out the bank of items you won't need to level your profession and start stockpiling gold!

And speaking of gold, get yourself some! The one thing you are going to need to advance is money. You are getting ready to train and possibly buy mats to level professions. And, there will be a new training and a new flying mount at level 77. We all know that takes big bucks. Everyone has amazing resources now for gathering gold with the daily quests. There's no reason not to accumulate a few thousand gold before the expansion hits.

I hope you are all as excited as I am about the expansion. I'm debating all sorts of new directions with my toons and planning out what to do when the expansion hits. There's so much information flooding into the new wires from the beta testers. I'm farming and I'm running dailies and I'm gathering mats cause I'm ready to move on up.

You've Come A Long Way Baby

noreply@blogger.com (Malsorian) — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 16:30:00 +0000

I'm a stats nerd. I enjoy combing through my WWS reports for every detail I can about raids. And the number 1 stat I look at is, of course, my dps. DPS overall in a raid night is not an accurate determination of a warlock's capabilities. Face it, we suck on trash. The numbers that show our true damage output are the numbers on boss fights.

I power-leveled Malsorian to fulfill my guild's (at the time) need for warlocks. I came out of the gate working on maximizing dps in a raid party. When I dinged 70, I had full Frozen Shadoweave and Spellstrike sets and walked into the door of Karazhan hell-bent on upgrading gear as fast as possible. I needed Malsorian ready for mid-T5 content quickly. So, from the first day that Malsorian walked into a raid instance, I've been tracking his damage progression. I've maintained a Microsoft Excel file on his numbers. At first, I included trash mobs and was incredibly discouraged. I was looking at the bottom line at the end of a raid night. Once I started tracking just boss kills (not attempts), I started seeing the true progression of Malsorian. Here is a graphical representation of Malsorian's improvement since dinging 70 in December 2007. December '07 started with Karazhan and August '08 finds him in late Black Temple.

If you are leveling a new class, consider signing up for a free account at wowwebstats.com and starting your own spreadsheet to track similar information.

What do you have to say for yourself?

noreply@blogger.com (Malsorian) — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 14:22:00 +0000

Do you actually use your guild forums? Almost every guild on every server has their own website. They range in complexity from simple home-made, informational designs, to DKP system websites. The DKP-type system is complete with scheduling, progression tracking, forums, loot information, DKP point tracking, etc. Usually, the primary focus is the guild forums, where guild officers post information they want to see distributed to their members. They will post topics about raid-strategies they want you to learn or new guild policies.

The problem with most guild websites is that not enough people use them. Every guild will have it's core users, the officers and a few avid net-combers. But, for the most part, guild leaderships get frustrated at the lack of interest. I've seen it many, many times. You may have 300 registered users, but generally, only about 5% actively participate in guild discussions. This leads to the question of what can you do to help with guild website use. I have a few suggestions to help drive guild attendance.

1. Continue posting strategies and update the forum post when your guild has learned more about a fight. Keep the strat post active with new information and alternatives that have been tested. As everyone knows, each guild has to find their own way of doing things on a boss fight, so keep the strat post current with what you discover works for you. This is also very helpful to new members who need to learn how your guild does things.

2. Bring topics out of the officers' chat and to the member population at-large. The officers are the folks who get to make the vote. But, discussions should be open to everyone. You may find that you receive fresh ideas when you consult the guild on a whole. As one of the people usually considered general membership, it is disheartening to know that a lot of discussion goes on behind closed doors. It can make the general population feel like the officers are a clique and elitist.

3. Have contests on your guild website. Designate a person or team of people who can manage weekly or monthly contests. The prizes don't have to be expensive. For example, you can create a special guild rank like MVP. You can accept nominations, have an open poll for voting and award the title for a month. The MVP might win the prize of having their raid repair costs covered by the guild bank for the month. Or, award guild bank prizes, like a Heart of Darkness or a stack of Primal Fires. Consider having the contests that involves WoW lore trivia or research.

4. Use your website to drive your members to other sites. Make the guild website the one stop portal to all things WoW.

5. Ask members to contribute articles. You know you have some outstanding players in your guild. Ask them to write about what they know. Blogging is a huge success right now. If you have any guild members who blog, feature their websites on the guild website. Show that you are proud of them.

6. Find a graphic designer in the guild and ask them to make some custom images for the site. WoW is full of nerd-types who are good with computers. I bet there is at least one artsy-computer person among your ranks who'd like to offer ideas. You can even make this a contest!

7. Encourage participation in public forums on your site. Don't keep everything restricted to guild members. Elitistjerks.com is a great example of this. How many of us have used their guild website as a learning ground?

8. Find ways of incorporating games into your site. I am one of those people who plays Name that tune! on my guild forums. The longer the game goes on, the more people get involved.

9. Recognize accomplishments of members, not just the guild on a whole. Make sure to support those who are leveling a new toon. Give recognition when they get their first mount and offer advice on talent spec's. WotLK will be full of new accomplishment titles. Find a way to start recognizing those now.

10. Refer your readers to articles or websites of interest through your forums. Perhaps a link of the day? Consider installing an RSS feed of sites like wowinsider or Big Bear Butt!

Please comment with any other suggestions you have. I'm always anxious to hear how other people do things. The main point here is to keep your players tuned into what the guild is up to and to use your website to the fullest extent.

The Newb on the Block

noreply@blogger.com (Malsorian) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:32:00 +0000

Joining a new guild is tough. With the falling out of Twilight Ascension, I squeezed into Might and Magic despite a full roster of warlocks. I was accepted as Friends and Family until I can move into an Initiate raider spot. The good news is that I will still get to raid, but I will be the last considered for the evening. Many people new to a guild find themselves in this starting position. With the flood of dps players in the game these days, it's hard to change guilds and find a place in a new raid party. So, how do you get in? I can give advice on how I do it but there's no foolproof method. However, patience and respect will get you far as a general rule.

The Application - one of the biggest problems I see with applications is a players' lack of care in how they present themselves. This is your first chance to wow guild officers. This is the first impression you are making. Read the guild's instructions on submitted an application first. Then, l2spellcheck. Try composing your application in Microsoft Word or a similar document editor first. There, you can spell and grammar check your responses. Then copy and paste it into the guild's online application (usually a forum page). If composition isn't your strong suit, consider having a friend proof-read it first.

Introduction - you can usually find the guild's "Who's Who" somewhere on their site. Write down the names of the guild master, officers and class leads. Pop into the game and add them to your friends list. Approach one of these guild leaders humbly, with respect through a /whisper. If they don't respond to you, don't hound them. Remember, these people are players too and may have limited time in-game for farming or running dailies. They may be busy. Try not to /whisper someone during their raid hours. Try contacting a class leader if possible first. Here's how I approach it:

Me: "Excuse me, I was wondering if you have time to chat for a few moments."
Them: "What can I help you with?"
Me: "I just wanted to take a moment to introduce myself and let you know that I've submitted an application on your forums."
Them: "Thank you. I'll have a look at it."
Me: "Alright, please let me know if you have any further questions. I look forward to hearing from you."

Something that simple goes a long way to making a good initial impression and getting a /ginvite.

The Interview - most guilds conduct an interview at some point with an officer or group of officers. Once again, showing respect will earn your bonus points. Make sure you know your stuff and don't expect them to be grateful that you've applied. Make sure you answer the question asked and don't ramble. Expect criticism of your gear and your talent spec. Don't take it as an insult. Be prepared to answer questions about each and be prepared to let them know where you will be seeking improvement. Ask them questions. The questions you ask can be just as impressive as the answers you've given to their questions. Make sure you thank them for giving you the opportunity to apply and interview.

Patience - don't expect a response immediately. The guild leadership may be considering several applicants at the same time. Earning a place in a guild is much like applying for a job. The guild wants to make sure it chooses the right person to fill the position. A pushy applicant will most likely be moved down on the list for consideration.

If you are applying to a guild with further progression than yourself, consider taking a lesser guild rank while you learn more and improve your gear. Don't be afraid to ask questions of the raiders in your class. Ask for advice on spell rotation, talent build, gemming, etc. Your active, noticable interest in improving your character will help show them that you work hard at being the best you can be. And that is what I think impresses guild leaders the most.

Split DPS (do u oRA?)

noreply@blogger.com (Malsorian) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 10:00:00 +0000

Ok, it's late in the 4th and the ball is your hands. The last play attempt of the game is imminent. You look at your team and you just know you can score. As the team gets down over the ball, and you stand back waiting to receive the ball for the big pass, you feel the adrenaline pumping through your veins. The snap! You grasp the ball turning it in your hand for the pass. You look down-field to the left and to the right, for a receiver. And then you look straight in front of you and you realize your team has left a gaping hole down the middle. The other team is bearing down on you with death wishes in their eyes. SACK! Game over, you lose!

Apparently, your players were not all on the same page for that play. While everyone rushed left and right to catch the ball, they forgot about protecting the quarterback. Not everyone was on the same play. This same scenario happens in raids, except the mobs really are out to kill you and there is no mercy. They do their job really well so if you screw up yours, game over.

One of the more common problems in parties is split DPS. This means that party or raid members are not focusing on the same target at the same time. Splitting resources slows kill times, often draining healers and mana users before anything dies. So, how do you prevent this from happening? Well, let's look at what can be done to help with the situation.

1. Raid icons, not just for fun. These handy little icons that can be placed above the heads of NPC's are intended to help you define kill order. Many guilds (and servers) have a certain kill order defined and known to most people. Whether your kill order is skull, X, star, moon or skull, star, condom, X, your job is to know your kill order before each pull. It's better to ask now than be guilty of being on the wrong target later.

2. Main Assist - (as defined by WoWWiki) The main assist (MA) is the player in a raid or party who calls the shots on which mob should be taken down next by the damage dealers. The main assist's job is to have one specific mob targeted at all times until it's dead, and then to switch to the next target to be killed. Your job is to be targeted on the same target as the main assist. In raid parties, I've most frequently seen a rogue or melee dps'er used as Main Assist. The point is to have everyone on the same target until a target is dead, to avoid split dps.

3. oRA2 (or similar /assist addon) - I'm a big fan of this addon, brought to us through the ACE2 engines. With this mod, you can setup definable target assist boxes on your UI. This addon is often said to be the replacement for CTRA, which in it's day was THE raid addon. However, oRA2 is considerably lighter on system resources. This addon has several other features which I am a fan of, including player defined target boxes. For instance, I sometimes will setup other player target boxes to watch what other people are targeting. This can be very useful when evaluating new recruits or training. Other features include a durability check, resurrection monitor, zone monitor, reagent check, ready check, raid cooldown monitor, and a few other handy tools.

Visit http://www.wowace.com/wiki/ORA2 to download the latest version.

4. Macro assist - an alternative to the above addon is to setup an assist macro. This can be very simple but generally looks like:

/assist %T (define %T as your main assist)
/cast Curse of Elements (or your opening spell)

I'd love to hear your ideas for preventing split DPS and how you handle different situations. The one thing to keep in mind is that there's usually no one way to do anything. But, you should check with your raid leader for your guild's preferred method of assisting, the kill order, and required addons.

Nerd Level

noreply@blogger.com (Malsorian) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:40:00 +0000

One of the latest internet fascinations is urbandictionary.com where you can find definitions for many of our common terms that don't necessarily fall under Webster's concept of the English language. For instance, today, I ran across this term:

nerd level - Ranked on a scale of nerdiness from 1 to 5. 1 being generally accepted, and 5 being social reject/basement dweller. Anime ranking 4, and Star Trek a 3.5. An exception being Babylon 5, which is a whopping 4.5 on the scale.

Based on this concept, I began thinking about WoW nerd levels. We all know there are different levels of commitment to the game. How do we define those levels? Here are my ideas, please feel free to contribute and throw out your rank in comments.

Level 0
Doesn't play World of Warcraft and doesn't have friends who do.

Level 1
No title. Has a level 14 human warrior, logs in once a week to play for 2-3 hours. This person has no idea who Hogger is or that Outland exists. It has taken this person 3 months to get to level 14 and he is still running around Elwynn Forest killing wolves. His current financial status includes 4 - 8 slot bags and 40 silver.

Level 2
Spelled: Newb. Has two toons, one of which is over level 60. He has not finished questing out to 70 because he doesn't want the game to end. Almost all of his gear is green and the one or two pieces of blue were random drops. He belongs to a guild his real life buddy started, that usually has 4-5 people logged in at a time. He has been in Deadmines but may not have taken down Van Cleef. This one time instance run wiped when Cookie came around the end of the ship and they were not prepared. He is saving for his epic ground mount and his bank roll is around 35 Gold.

Level 3
The Casual Gamer. This is the guy that worries about girlfriend/wife aggro. His play time is structured so as to pay attention to his real life MORE than the game. He has one level 70 toon who has just discovered raiding. He is ready for Karazhan and is anxious for his guild to find 10 people to run it every week. He spends time in the battlegrounds because he's discovered that he can really upgrade his gear this way. To date, he has seen Deadmines, Sunken Temple, Ramparts, Slave Pens and Botanica. Bank roll = 163 Gold and a regular flying mount.

Level 4
The Raider. This person has 1-3 level 70 toons, one of which is specifically talented and geared for PvE raiding. His other toons are for utility and are used to farm mats for gold. His guild raids 3-5 nights per week and he maintains a consistent 65% attendance rate. He is progressed through SSC and wonders why they ever required attunement for Rage Winterchill. I mean seriously, this guy is a cake-walk. When questing, this player runs everything with tips and coords from wowhead.com. He still hasn't completed most of the Netherstorm quest lines but means to get around to it one day. He is Exalted with Ogri'la and Revered with the Shattered Sun Offensive. This guy worries about being on-time for raid but must admit that sometimes, real life happens. He cares about his bottom dps line. He helps coordinate farm raids every week on Sunday afternoons. He has one epic flying mount and has probably earned a Netherdrake. He runs 10-15 dailies, 3-4 times per week and has a current bank roll around 2,500 Gold.

Level 5
Uber Nerd. GM. 3-5 Level 70 Epic'd Characters. He is on time for every raid, every week. He is the DKP leader and owns at least 2 Netherdrakes. He is the guild webmaster. He can play WoW while at work. He knows every talent spec for every class. He PvP's and plays all arena types (2v2, 3v3 and 5v5). He respecs more than twice per week. He actively participates in theorycrafting at elitistjerks.com and rolls his combat logs for wowwebstats. He has 10,000 Gold in the bank and schedules time for farming. When we need a tank for Heroic Steamvaults, we ask him if he can help us out. This is the guy we all turn to for answers and the guy we know will hold our guild together. We salute him and forget to thank him on a regular basis.

So, who are you?

Gurtog Bloodboil - The Black Temple

noreply@blogger.com (Malsorian) — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 12:00:00 +0000

If there was ever a fight that teaches people to respect the healers, this is the one. This boss makes healing the toughest job in the raid. To that end, do whatever you can to lessen the healing they must concentrate on you.

For warlocks, this means:

- life tapping as little as possible

- use mana pots every time they are off of cool-down instead of life-tapping

- use those healthstones, freely

- make sure everyone in the raid party has a chance at healthstones. You may need to put up 2-3 soulwells to get enough stones out to everyone.

- if you have the ability, have all 3 levels of healthstones available to your raid party. If you have 3 warlocks in the raid, you should have all 3 levels of healthstones available.

- make sure your Drain Life spell is handy.

- affliction locks need to get their imp buffed so that he has maximum mana and maximum mp5. If you don't have a spirit buff in your raid, bring along Scrolls to apply to him.

Curses used for this boss. Warlock #1 (preferably the affliction warlock) - Curse of Elements (Curse of Shadows before 2.4.3). Warlock #2 - Curse of Weakness. Warlock #3 - Curse of Doom.

Gurtogg is impressively armored. He looks like the biggest, baddest tank to ever swagger into an instance. He looks mean and like he would hurt you. This fight has two basic phases which alternate, the tanking phase and the fel rage phase. You MUST watch your threat on this fight. Gurtogg is untauntable and he disorients the main tank occassionally, causing him to lose threat. Stay below the top three tanks on the threat meter.

Gurtogg will throw out tons of damage during phase 1, using Acidic Wound - inflicting 250 nature damage to the main tank every 2-3 seconds and reduces his armor by 500. Stacks up to 99 times and lasts for 1 minute. Disorients the main tank and attacks the person second on the treat meter. Knockbacks the main tank, causing him to lose threat. Arcing smash that frontal cleaves the main tank and those in front of him with 5000 damage and applies a debuff which reduces healing taken by 50%.

As you look down into his room, there are waterfalls on each side. When the boss is pulled, he will be tanked in the center in front of one of those waterfalls. For simplicity sake, we'll say he'll be tanked on the left side looking into the room. The ranged people will be lined-up in front of the other waterfall and in a column down the center of the room.

Now, imagine two nice neat columns of ranged dps that literally perform a timed square dance during the Phase 1 (tanking) portions of this fight. Every 10 seconds after Gurtogg is engaged, he will place a debuff on the 5 people farthest from him (the group against the right side waterfall). This debuff, called Bloodboil, inflicts about 14,400 damage over 24 seconds and is stackable up to 5 times. Three of the raid groups will be assigned as sponges, each alternating to the right side waterfall for their turn to receive the debuff. You will want to practice your square dance of these three groups alternating positions before attempting this boss.

About 90 seconds after the beginning of phase 1, Gurtogg will cast Fel Rage on a random target and shower that person (and anyone within 5 yards of that person) with Fel-Acid Breath, inflicting 2850-3150 Nature damage and an additional 2750 damage every 1 second for 5 seconds.

The Fel Rage target will have the following debuff: 15,000 armor increase, 30,000 health increase, increase in size of 175%, damage done increases by 300%, decreased cost of spells by 50%, and increases healing done by 100% if you are one of those classes. While in Phase 2, Gurtogg will only focus on the Fel Raged person until that person is dead or the Fel Rage wears off. This is the time to do maximum damage, not worrying about your threat.

During Phase 2, Gurtogg may also apply the following: Arcing Smash - Lashing out in a vicious arc, inflicting normal damage plus 125 to enemies in a cone in front of him, also reducing healing effects by 50%. Acid Geyser - same effect as Fel-Acid Breath.

This fight will continue to alternate between the two phases until the boss is dead. He enrages 10 minutes after the first pull. As you can see, there are tremendous amounts of damage dealt during this boss fight. The healers will be strained to the extent of their abilities. Be aware of that and watch how much you tap them for healing.

High Warlord Naj'entus - Black Temple

noreply@blogger.com (Malsorian) — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 10:00:00 +0000

Welcome to The Black Temple. For many, the ability to enter this instance was quite an accomplishment. When Patch 2.4 was released, the attunement for entry was lifted and many new people are venturing into Illidan’s lair. You still need great gear and the ability to play your class well to be successful here. We owe a great deal of thanks to the players who came before us, took down these bosses, and wrote strategy guides to help us survive.

The first boss you encounter is High Warlord Naj’entus, who I think looks like a caterpillar on steroids. This fight is fundamental in that there are basically two phases (normal and Tidal Shield) which repeat themselves until he is dead.

Naj’entus is tanked in the center of the room with the rest of the raid party spread around him.

Throughout the fight, Naj’entus casts Needle Spine, striking 3 targets at a time and causing around 3,000 physical damage. The healers will basically heal through this. He will not cast this while he is in the Tidal Shield phase.

Naj’entus fires an Impaling Spine, literally impaling a target. People are standing there with this huge thing sticking out of them. It deals 4513-4987 physical damage and stuns the target. While the target has this huge missile sticking out of him, he is immobilized and will bleed for 2750 damage per second.

Someone must click on the target to remove the spine. As you mouse over the impaled victim, you will get a loot cursor. Once you’ve looted that person, they are freed and you have a Naj’entus Spine in your inventory. You can hold up to 5 of these at once.

Many raid parties adopt the buddy system for this fight. You pair up everyone, other than the main tank, with a buddy. If your buddy gets impaled, you loot him for the spine and thus free him. He will be eternally grateful to you and will buy you a beer after the boss is dead. If your buddy fails to return the favor, then you can call him names in raid chat.

Every 60 seconds, the boss throws up a Tidal Shield where he is immune to all attacks and spells. Now, you click on that Spine in your inventory, and it will break his shield. Do not Life Tap during the Tidal Shield because when it bursts, it causes 8,500 frost damage to all of the raid members.

Here are some macros you can setup to help with throwing the Spine during the Tidal Shield phase.

For DPS:
/use Naj'entus Spine

For Main Tank Healer(s):
/target High warlord Naj'Entus
/use Naj'entus Spine
/assist High warlord Naj'Entus

For Raid Healers:
/target High warlord Naj'Entus
/use Naj'entus Spine

Lock Loot - Slippers of the Seacaller, The Maelstrom's Fury and Ring of Captured Storms

PTR 2.4.3 Warlock Review

noreply@blogger.com (Malsorian) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 16:00:00 +0000

Yesterday, WoW opened the Public Test Realm and released patch notes for 2.4.3. People were expecting this to be a test of the new Season 4 armor but were surprised to find actual tweaks to the game. The PTR forums have a blue post specifically stating that this PTR is NOT to test Season 4 since it was tested in a previous PTR. Here are some of the changes I find important to warlocks.

1. Curse of Shadows: This spell has been removed. Curse of Elements: This spell now applies to Arcane and Shadow damage, as well as Frost and Fire.

WOW! This is very cool. Having one curse that applies to all of these types of damage is wonderful. Currently, when raiding, it takes the curses of two warlocks to cover this. Now, one warlock (preferably malediction affliction) will cover this and the other locks can use the big bad-boy spells like Curse of Doom more often.

2. Demonic Sacrifice: This ability will now interact correctly with the Spirit Guide resurrection system in battlegrounds. A sacrificed pet will not be resummoned on death, and will not prevent keeping a record of the most recently created pet

Ha ha! I'm not a sacrifice lock so I didn't know about this. But, it makes sense to change it. If you sacrifice a pet, you should have to resummon one.

3. Mounts at 30?! Yes, it's true: Apprentice Riding and mounts are now available at level 30. Training costs 35 gold. Summon Felsteed is now available at level 30.

I think this will be a big relief to people playing alts. How many have you given up on before level 40 because it got boring having to run everywhere. The reduction in gold is another sweet gem.

4. Numerous flying non-combat pets have had their flight height modified to no longer skim along the ground: captured firefly, dragonhawk hatchlings, moths, owls, parrots, phoenix hatchling, spirit of summer, sprite darter, and tiny sporebat. Nether Ray Fry (a non-combat pet) is now available from the Skyguard Quartermaster. This requires an Exalted reputation with Sha'tari Skyguard.

I am one of those that used to collect non-combat pets but stopped for some reason... it may have been due to bank space. I think this tweak now means that my sprite darter will be over my head. :-(

5. Cheat Death: This talent has been rebalanced significantly. Killing blows are no longer 100% absorbed. If the Rogue is below 10% health, the killing blow is still completely absorbed; if the Rogue is over 10% health, enough damage will be absorbed to reduce the Rogue's health down to 10%. For the following 3 seconds, damage is not always reduced by 90%; it is now reduced by a maximum of 90%, depending on how much resilience the Rogue has. The damage reduction will be four times the damage reduction resilience causes against critical strikes.

May rogues will die earlier now on boss fights so we can finally top them in damage.

6. Mycah of Sporeggar has discovered how to create 28 slot herb bags.

Many warlocks are tailors. Tailors with the Cenarian Circle rep to attain the pre-BC Cenarian Herb Bag or Satchel of Cenarius will now have competition on the market. Those things were big money-makers since few had the pattern. With Sporeggar rep, this pattern is now available in Outland. I may have to grind this rep myself.

7. Players can now be summoned to raid instances from heroic dungeons.

8. Shattered Sun Pendant of Acumen: The triggered effect from this Item can now occur on periodic damage ticks.

This is a biggie for warlocks who use DoTs. I have GOT to finish my Shattered Sun Rep.

9. Target buff/debuff timers that appear when you cast a spell are now more visible.

10. For the flower pickers out there... Looting a Nightmare Vine will now properly no longer apply poison when the node is looted.

11. Nightbane will no longer become unresponsive and unkillable during his air phase.

Warlocks are going to have to pay more attention to their threat generation now during this boss fight.

12. Changes to the Magister's Terrace and Sunwell Plateau instances that can affect parties and raids.

The latest test realm patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/test-realm-patchnotes.html

Rage Winterchill - The Battle for Mount Hyjal

noreply@blogger.com (Malsorian) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 10:00:00 +0000

Rage Winterchill is one fancy-lookin’ skeleton. He is the first boss in Mount Hyjal. Before 2.4, players had to kill Lady Vashj in Serpentshrine Caverns and Kael’thas Sunstrider in Tempest Keep to complete quests for attunement to The Battle for Mount Hyjal. Kael’thas is known to be one of the 2-3 hardest bosses in the entire game. So, after the grand task of taking him down, you arrive in Mount Hyjal, head held high for greater challenges. And there you find Rage Winterchill. He’s not exactly challenging. This is an easy fight.

As with all but one boss in MH, there are successive waves of trash mobs that must be cleared before the main encounter. Here are the strats for them.

Wave 1, Wave 2, Wave 3, Wave 4, Wave 5, Wave 6, Wave 7, Wave 8 – Try to DoT as many of the mobs as they enter the camp with Curse of Shadows. If there is a second warlock in the raid, also put up Curse of Elements. I also recommend trying to apply Curse of Tongues to as many of the Necromancers as you can. Then, wait til the raid leader calls for AoE. The mobs have been gathered to a central location. Open up with Seed of Corruption.

This type of encounter is new in the progression chain. There are no Bio- or Smoke-breaks during trash and very little time between the trash waves and the arrival of the boss. Once you begin the event, you see it through, from Wave 1 to Rage Winterchill’s death.

The Boss – Winterchill has 4 main abilities that you must contend with. Your primary objective is to protect Jaina Proudmoore. If she dies, the event will reset.

Death and Decay – one of the important things to note about this ability is that you should have your Spell Details in Video Options set to full or you won’t be able to see the effect. Deadly Boss Mods can help with announcing it but you really need to be able to see the red bubbles on the ground so you can get out of it. This is another one of those times where you just stop what you are doing and move.

Icebolt – Winterchill will target a person a split second before casting this spell so you can see it coming and your boss addon should announce it. You will be encased in a frozen tomb which initially deals up to 5750 frost damage and 10,000 frost damage over 4 seconds (2,500 per second). You are just going to have to trust that healers will keep you topped off. It is important that you not Life Tap if you are targeted for the Icebolt.

Frost Nova – He casts this spell, immobilizing you for about 6 seconds. It is dispellable but most people don’t even bother. The good news is that you won’t be hit with Death and Decay while immobilized…. in theory.

And that’s it for the first encounter in Mount Hyjal. Congratulations for progressing this far, here’s your reward.

Lock Loot - Cuffs of Devastation and Chronicle of Dark Secrets

Quest - Don't forget to loot the skeleton for the Time-Phased Phylactery which you turn into Akama in Shadowmoon Valley to complete An Artifact from the Past.

Raid Strategies

noreply@blogger.com (Malsorian) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 09:00:00 +0000

Raid Strategies - I am in the process of posting a collection of strats that specify Warlock moves on boss fights. I'm not going to try to redefine other published strats. I'm simply trying to add information to that. Please let me know if you have any information to contribute.

Karazhan

Serpentshrine Caverns
Leotheras The Blind - the warlock tank guide
Lady Vashj

Tempest Keep - The Eye

The Battle for Mount Hyjal
Rage Winterchill
Anetheron
Kaz'Rogal
Azgalor

Kaz'rogal - The Battle for Mount Hyjal

noreply@blogger.com (Malsorian) — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 11:14:00 +0000

Walk tall and carry a really big sword. That was my first thought when this boss was misdirected/kited to our main tank. Jesus, that's a big sword.

You need to come to this fight seriously prepared with mana pots, of any kind. Any you might want to consider changing your elixir combination as well. Possibly change out your Elixir of Draenic Wisdom (guardian elixir) for Elixir of Major Mageblood (+16 mana regen). You need mana for this fight, or you die. We'll get to that right after we deal with the trash. One of the things about Mount Hyjal that is very different from other instances is that once you start trash, there's no taking a break until after the boss is dead.

Wave 1 - 4 abominations, 2 Banshees, 4 ghouls, 2 shadowy necromancers - As these mobs approach through the main gate of the Horde encampment, place curses on all of them except the banshees who will most likely be shackled by priests. The A-bombs (abominations) and ghouls should all get Curse of Shadows first. Second, they should get Curse of Elements. These 8 mobs will be AoE'd together once the main tank calls for it. I usually put up Curse of Tongues on the necromancers to slow down their shadow bolts just a bit.

Wave 2 - 4 ghouls and 10 gargoyles - Mount up and ride to the rear of the encampment. The tanks will stay behind with a healer or two to deal with the ghouls. All others should go get gargoyles. These ugly guys will be flying in so look up and target them. Each person should grab aggro on one target. Then you will kite it down to the main tanks. Healers will be with you. The gargoyles don't deal heavy damage so you should be able to take it. Once you've targeted a gargoyle, make sure you are the only person on it by looking at debuffs on him. Each person needs to grab their own. Spam Searing Pain (max rank) several times. This spell generates a lot of threat. Then, take off running. You will run out of range of the gargoyle so slow down every once in a while, turn around, cast another Searing Pain or two, then go again. Just make sure you hang onto him. Once the gargoyles are all down the hill, they will be AoE'd with any remaining ghouls.

Wave 3 - 6 crypt fieds, 4 shadowy necromancers, 4 ghouls - this is the first of the waves where everyone must say a prayer over the main tank. Those necromancers hit him really hard. Once again, Curse of Shadows the crypt fiends and ghouls for aoe. And then Curse of Elements if you have a second warlock. Curse of Tongues on the necromancers.

Wave 4 - 6 gargoyles, 6 crypt fiends, 2 shadowy necromancers - same song as wave 2 and Curses as mentioned above.

Wave 5 - 4 ghouls, 4 shadowy necromancers, 6 abominations - wince as the tank takes a beating and pray for his soul. Same Curses apply and wait for the raid leader to call for AoE.

Wave 6 - 8 gargoyles, 1 Frost Wyrm - Warlock Tank! The Frost Wyrm is tanked independently of the others, by a warlock or mage. If you are the warlock tanking this trash mob, click off your Salvation buff and spam Searing Pain, as it causes a high level of threat. The Frost Wyrm should be pulled away from the raid party. When the warlock tank has sufficient aggro, the raid party will focus fire on the Frost Wyrm to burn it down. Do whatever you have to to hold aggro.

Wave 7 - same tactics as wave 6

Wave 8 - 2 crypt fiends, 6 ghouls, 2 banshees, 2 shadowy necromancers, 6 abominations - poor, poor tank. At this point, if he stays alive, send a shout out to the raid healers. Let them know they've done a good job. Nothing different on this wave, Curse what you can and wait for the call to AoE.

Now, mana up. Do not engage Kaz'rogal until you are at 100%. You'll have time as the hunters kite him to the main tank, who is probably positioned close to Thrall. Do not be the first thing Kaz'rogal sees or he'll walk over a squash you like a bug. I know this from personal experience.

All mana users should stay 10-15 yards apart. All of the melee dps will stand behind the boss to avoid his frontal cleave which hits on plate around 10,000. However, this guy is so big, that the melee dps can stand pretty far back from him and still hit him. This will be important for them to not be affected by his War Stomp.

The really nasty boss ability is the Mark of Kaz'rogal. I don't know who taught him this, but it is specifically designed to take down the ranged dps. It has no effect on non-mana users. On everyone else, it drains 600 mana every second for 5 seconds for a total of 3000 mana. If you don't have any mana to drain, you will detonate for 10213 to 11287 shadow damage in a 10-15 yard area around you. Which means you will probably take out the clothie standing next to you. So, don't run out of mana. Manage it well. Here's your basic mana strategy.

Affliction - DPS down to about 50% mana, mana pot. DPS to 50% mana, dark pact. DPS to 50% mana, life tap, pop a healthstone. Repeat this as you can and try not to strain the healers, as they are managing their mana too.

Destruction - Consider sacrificing a felhunter for 3% mana every 4 seconds. DPS down to 50% mana, mana pot. DPS to 50% mana, life tap, pop a healthstone. Rinse and repeat, try not to strain the healers.

Lock loot - Blue Suede Shoes and Leggings of Channeled Elements

So, how many macros you got?

noreply@blogger.com (Malsorian) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 11:33:00 +0000

I'm not an expert by any means on macros. I understand the mechanics but I have not written my own. Frankly, I've had no need. There are tons of great WoW forums post dedicated to the topic and quite a few websites as well. The macros I'm listing here are the ones I have used. I will say this, I'm not big on modifier keys so I don't use macros that way, although most of these have them. These are the basics for every warlock.

Fear - this macro helps you set your focus on a target and keep it chain feared. Your focus target usually has it's own display on your UI and so you can watch for the fear to break. And since it is set to focus, you can actually target something else and be killing it. When you see the fear break, simply run this macro again (preferably hotkeyed).

#show Fear
/clearfocus [target=focus,dead][target=focus,noexists]
/focus [target=focus,noexists]
/cast [target=focus] Fear

Banish - Same as the Fear macro, with the obvious change.

#show Banish
/clearfocus [target=focus,dead][target=focus,noexists]
/focus [target=focus,noexists]
/cast [target=focus] Banish

Seduction (focused) - once again, this sets your seduction target into focus so that you can go about sucking the life out of another target. Aside from sacrificing the succubus as a destruction warlock, this is the main use for her. Enjoy her emotes as she trails around behind you with her whip. The modifier here clears your focus if you want to change your seduce target.

#show Seduction
/clearfocus [modifier:alt]
/focus [target=focus,noexists]; [target=focus,dead]
/clearfocus [target=focus,help]
/petstay
/petfollow
/stopcasting
/cast [pet:succubus,target=focus,exists,harm] Seduction; Seduction

The Amplified, Trinket'd Curse of Doom Macro (ZOMG!)- this is the biggest spell you can cast. Watch out for the number on this baby. And watch out for the warlock that can cast a shadowbolt with the same number!

#showtooltip Curse of Doom
#show Curse of Doom
/use 13
/stopcasting
/use 14
/stopcasting
/cast Amplify Curse
/stopcasting
/cast Curse of Doom

Devour Magic - put that puppy to use in the arena. This is why people are scared of warlocks in the 3v3 arena.

#showtooltip
/cast [pet:Felhunter,button:1,target=party1] Devour Magic;
/cast [pet:Felhunter,button:2,target=party2] Devour Magic;
/cast [pet:Felhunter,button:3,target=player] Devour Magic;

Affliction Warlock DoT Cast Sequence for Trash Mobs - You basically only want to throw your instant-cast spells on trash mobs. This will maximize your dps. You need to click the macro 3 times on each target for all of the spells to be cast.

/castsequence reset=10 Corruption, Curse of Agony, Siphon Life

Affliction Warlock DoT Cast Sequence for Bosses - this is for the big fight. Modify this macro based on your assigned curse duty. You need to click this macro 4 times for all of the spells to be cast.

/castsequence Curse of Shadows, Unstable Affliction, Corruption, Siphon Life

All of these macros can be found at http://www.wowwiki.com/Useful_macros/Warlock which is where I stole many of them to begin with. Enjoy and good luck!

Tip for copying these macros - When trying to copy these macros into the write window, you can't right click to paste. Copy from the internet site with right click or Ctrl-c. Pop into WoW, open the macro window and Ctrl-v to paste.

Addon - Necrosis

noreply@blogger.com (Malsorian) — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 12:26:00 +0000

Warlocks need some very basic mods to help with spell management, spell timers, etc.

I have one favorite mod, called Necrosis LdC. It is an addon that helps warlocks manage stones, shards and demons. This mod is currently maintained by Lomig, Liadora and Eliah and can be found on Curse.com or on their website.

So, what does it do? It's a radial UI with smaller buttons surrounding a large center one. The center button can be configured for different colors (skins) and functions as a customizable hotkey. Mine is set to apply Fel Armor, but other uses could be Life Tap, Deathcoil, Shadow Ward, etc. The number in the center of the button shows your shard count, your resurrection timer, your mana, or your health. You can also change the size of the UI and move it around the screen.

Probably one of the most popular uses of the addon is Shard Management. You can set the mod to store shards in a certain bag and to manage the number. If you set the mod to only keep 28 shards, it will destroy all others created after that. This is quite handy for those locks that like to finish every fight draining the soul from their victim.

The addon also comes with modifiable speech lua's. When I call for my steed, my toon yells, "I summon a steed from nightmare! Rise from the ashes! Rise!" I also call my felhound like he's a dog. And I yell at my imp to hurry up. There are also customizable speeches for summoning demons, opening summoning portals, and soulstoning.

The buttons that encircle the large one have a variety of functions as well. What I love about these is that I eliminate about half of my buttons from my bars. Most of the buttons expand when you mouse over them for a selection menu. Examples of these are demon summoning, curses and spells. There are also buttons for creating and using soulstones, firestones, spellstones and healthstones, left clicking the button creates the stone and right clicking applies it. The buttons can also be individually removed from the UI if you don't use them.

Necrosis contains a few other customizations that you'll just have to play with. This is an addon for the casual newb and the dedicated raider.