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The Care and Feeding of Warriors: The Leveling Warrior in Wrath

2011-07-03T22:52:00.001-07:00

I promise we'll get back to our Ulduar guide for tanks and DPS warriors next week. For this week, however, since we're midway through the sixth month of 2009 and we've seen patches up to 3.1 released (and we're waiting on 3.2) I thought it would be a good idea to go back and cover some of the things a leveling warrior might want discussed. We get emails from all kinds of warriors, and so it's only fair to cover the concerns of warriors who aren't raiding Ulduar but rather just setting foot off of the dock in Howling Fjord.

Before we get started, though, the upcoming Patch 3.2changes for Warriors in their current entirety: Armored to the Teeth: This talent now provides 1/2/3 attack power per 108 armor, up from per 180 armor. Try not to get too excited, people.

First off, I'm often asked about stats for up-and-coming warriors. We have covered some of these beforeback in the beta, but the beta was a year ago now and things have been changed and polished. First off, I'm going to link all the posts of interest to a leveling warrior and discuss how they may have changed, and then I'll try and cover some more general advice.

Building Up To It covers some target numbers and stats to focus on. I should note that this was written before the changes to Armor Penetration made it much, much better as a DPS stat for warriors: the more ArP you have, the better it is as a DPS stat until you have enough ArP to reduce target armor by 100%.
We covered Hit and Expertise in two posts, one for DPS warriors and one for Tanks. The tanking post is still accurate as of 3.1, but the talent changes to Arms and Fury mean that there is currently no talent that reduces chance to dodge for Fury Warriors and Arms has both Strength of Arms for passive expertise and Weapon Mastery.
We discussed the dangers of overstacking a stat to the exclusion of other, also necessary stats.
Finally, we covered gearing up in a four part post just before Wrath launched Parts one,two, three and four were all published before Wrath itself had actually come out, but they're still reasonably accurate to help your warrior get from 70 to 80, We coveredweapons between 70 and 80 too.

TALENT SPECS FOR LEVELING

Okay, to start with, if this is not your main and you have access to the heirloom shoulders, by all that's holy get them. Especially now that they give you 10% more experience from quests and from mobs you kill, even if you just have an old pair of the leather or mail ones hanging around, send them to your leveling warrior. When I decided to test leveling on my Draenei warrior this month I didn't think it would make that big of a deal, but between his rested bonus and those shoulders he went from 70 to 76 in a matter of days. (I'm letting him catch back up on the rested before I try and get him the rest of the way up.)

We've covered talent specs for leveling warriors before, but I'll touch on it again here to say that for leveling either Arms or Prot are probably the easiest to gear for and are both strong for the job. I'm leveling my Draenei Fury purely out of spite. I leveled my Tauren Arms and my human Protection, and so far I'd still give the nod to Protection as a really good leveling spec and my personal favorite for dealing with big trash pulls and group quests you may want to try and solo. A lot of this will depend on the gear your warrior has as you start the climb between 70 and 80, though. If you're bringing a warrior you started a couple of months ago to Northrend in Outland quest greens, Arms is probably a stronger choice for leveling than Protection since there's lots of decent Northrend greens that are itemized towards an Arms playstyle. If you're bringing an uber-geared Sunwell warrior out of retirement, go with whatever your gear supports.

Talents will, of course, vary by your spec, but some abilities go across the board and benefit all warriors: we get Shattering Throw at level 71 (since you won't get Heroic Throw until 80, Shattering Throw is not to be underestimated as a cheap pulling tool as well as a PvP talent), and the incredibly handy Enraged Regeneration at level 75, followed by Heroic Throw at 80. You also get new tanks of all your pre-existing abilities, of course. Unlike the 1-60 game but similar to Burning Crusade, you'll basically be able to train something every level so don't go too long without visiting the trainer.

QUESTING ZONES

I have to say that 70 to 80 as a warrior is much less painful than it was to level a warrior back in the old days. I promise not to regale you with tales of leveling my warrior in Winterspring uphill in the snow both ways, but I will say that as long as you play with reasonable attentiveness you'll find it much less of a slog than it was to kill oozes in Un'Goro and get diseased over and over again. I still stand by my first impression from all the way back into the Wrath beta and advise you to do both Howling Fjord and Borean Tundra, but it's not strictly speaking necessary. You could easily go from the Fjord to Dragonblight to do theWrathgate questline (which, for a leveling warrior, not only has several decent rewards along the way, but is also a heck of a nice questline if you've not done it yet.)

You'll of course want to do the Borean Tundra questlines to get access to some very nice blues to start the climb to 80 with, but there are similarly rewarding quests in both starting zones. If you can manage to do the quests around Utgarde Keep and the Nexus you can accumulate quite a few blue quest items to supplement whatever gear you had when you arrived. Grizzly Hills has two major questlines and a third that points you towards Drak'Tharon Keep, Zul'Drak has the Ampitheatre of Anguish in addition to quests for a tanking weapon and ones that point you towards Gun'Drak, and the whole of Sholozar Basin has significant quests that involve Hemet Nesingwary and the Avatar of Feya. It's actually quite possible (even, dare I say it, easy) to level to 80 with minimal instance time if that's what you want to do, but with instances in both starting zones, Dragonblight, Grizzly Hills (Drak'Tharon Keep straddles GH and Zul'Drak), ZD and finally the Storm Peaks having two five man dungeons, there's certainly no lack of options.

WRATH REPUTATIONS

As we covered in the gearing posts, you don't want to ignore the various factions of Northrend (please pick up a tabard for every faction available as soon as you can, even ones you won't immediately need to work on like the Kirin Tor), and it's fairly easy for a level 77 warrior to begin working on his Argent Crusade, Knights of the Ebon Blade and Sons of Hodir reputations once you reach Icecrown and the Storm Peaks. There are long, rewarding questlines for each of these factions (the Argent Crusade ones actually help you unlock the Ebon Blade ones, even) and in addition at level 77 you can even start working on your Argent Tournament questing. Generally speaking, even if you're not completely done with the other zones you can probably afford to go to Icecrown and the Storm Peaks as soon as you can fly in Northrend and start working on those reputations (Don't forget about championing to make those grinds go faster.) The Sons of Hodir have no tabard so you'll have to work that reputation via the daily quests and with Relic of Ulduar turn ins/Everfrost chips.

As a warrior I would try and get my Ebon Blade reputation to at least revered for the Arcanum of Torment and see about getting Argent Crusade to revered as well for the tanking helm enchant. Since the Argent Crusade has some quests in Dragonblight and a hub in Zul'Drak as well as a long quest chain in Icecrown and the Ebon Blade has quests and dailies in Icecrown, you can probably come close to these goals without even making use of championing or thedaily quest in Dalaran for reputation. Adding those in and getting those reputations to revered is not difficult at all, and can even be done before you actually reach level 80. Once you're at revered with the aforementioned championable factions, the Wyrmrest Accord has a surprising amount of tanking gear you should consider. The Kirin Tor gloves are solid, but by now you'll probably be able to get better via Emblems of Heroism (the Tier 7 glove token) before you'll make the reputation needed to purchase them, assuming you don't just get an equivalent drop running Naxx-10.

If you're a new warrior or just new to Northrend, please feel free to ask for additional advice or an answer to a question I missed in the comments and if necessary I'll revisit this topic next week. If not, back to Ulduar.

The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Outland awaits you

2011-07-03T22:48:00.001-07:00

The Care and Feeding of Warriors brings you the last installment in its leveling guide this week, taking you from the Dark Portal to the foot of Tempest Keep.Matthew Rossi has gotten three warriors through Outland, and yet he kept discovering new quests and things he had missed the first two times through, so he has no problem believing that he'll leave your favorite part of Outland unmentioned. He apologizes in advance.Today's column is about Sentry Totem.

I'm just kidding. No, today's column is instead about getting your warrior from the first time you step through the Dark Portal to level 70. It's possible to step through the portal at level 58, and so I'll be assuming that's what you are doing, although my three 70 warriors were all 60 when I brought them through. (I have another 60 warrior I haven't bothered to get to 70, and a couple in the low 50's/ high 40's who may or may not go through at level 58, if I decide to level them over my current paladin.) This is not going to be an exhaustive list of every quest or every dungeon, just some general pointers to quests of particular interest for a warrior.

Spec advice is going to be limited here. This is purely aimed towards grinding your way to 70, as most of the advice from previous posts about talents and specs still applies. There are several new abilities one gains between 60 and 70, and we'll go into them in a later post, this one will be very long already. (But yes, Spell Reflection and Intervene rock very much, and only replicants don't like Commanding Shout.)

We start our sojurn in Hellfire. Specifically, Hellfire Peninsula, one of the best named (or at least most accurately named zones) in Outland.

A lot of the Horde and Alliance specific quests out here have the same rewards that are well worth pursuing. You'll be tasked to gather scrap metal, kill the local fel orcs, and burn the relic siege weapons of the opposite faction. Do all of these quests. An example would be the Horde quest Bonechewer Blood and its Alliance counterpart Fel Orc Scavengers, both of which give a nice shield which will probably be an upgrade if you leveled to 58 and came to Outland as soon as possible.

My first piece of serious advice to the warrior starting out in Outland is to avoid the Auction House. You won't need to buy any gear. There are several nice starting blues at level 60 which will tempt you: avoid them. You don't need them. Any slot that needs an upgrade will most likely find a good quest reward in this zone. There are plate helms, nice chestplates, startergreaves and shoulders that will last you almost all the way to 70, in my opinion. There are even green weapons that rival or eclipse particular old world epics. So save all your money and just gear up through quests and instances. The main instance in Hellfire is, of course, Hellfire Citadel, with two instances that will be of interest to you at this stage of the game. You'll start off running Hellfire Ramparts at around level 59 (at least I have seen level 59's run it) and will move up to Blood Furnace by the time you're nearly done with the zone. Both instances will have several drops that interest you. If you do the quests at Thrallmar/Honor Hold and run these instances a few times each, you'll probably be level 62 easily, especially if you move on to do the satellite quests at Falcon Watch/Temple of Telhamat.

A note: pick up Hellreaver if you can out of the chest at the end of Ramparts. Sure, you'll stumble across better, but look at it. It's pretty. Also, if you hit honored with your faction capitol while you're still in your low 60's, which you really should if you do all the quests available, you'll be able to buy either the Footman's Longsword or the Grunt's Waraxe, both useful for tanking with decent stamina and hit rating.

From here, you'll have a choice between two zones: you can head to Zangarmarsh before you're even done with Hellfire if you're bored (the quests there start around level 60, so it's even possible to skip Hellfire entirely if you're of a mind to, although I wouldn't recommend it) or if you're a completist and find yourself running out of quests around level 62, you can instead go to Terokkar Forest. Both zones will have plenty of quests including a rep grind of sorts (Zanga providing you with your first exposure to the Cenarion Expedition while Terokkar allows you access to Shattrath City and the competing Aldor and Scryer factions) and both zones also have winged dungeons to explore, with Zangarmarsh hosting the Coilfang Reservoir (where you'll be running Slave Pens and Underbog) while Terokkar hosts Auchindoun, which at this level has first Mana Tombs and then Auchenai Crypts. If you fully explore both of these zones and run the four dungeons you can easily be level 65 if not 66 by the time you even think about moving on from them, and whichever one you choose to explore first is more a matter of your level when you start than anything else. Zangarmarsh quests start a little lower than Terokkar, so my advice (based on what I did myself) is to plow through Zanga first, going to Terokkar as soon as you hit 62 if you're not already to get thissweet hat.

After these two zones you'll almost certainly be 65 if not 66 if you fully explore them, but if for some reason you get bored around 64 and want to move on there's still hope: you can go to Nagrand. There are faction specific quests here that give many of the same rewards, as Alliance find themselves aiding the Kurenai while Horde discover the mysteries of the Mag'har brown orcs. Horde warriors, it is imperative that you do every quest you can get your hands on in Nagrand. Alliance will find no such awesome quest chain waiting for them, certainly not one with such awesome rewards - I used those legs as PvP legs until I got the Gladiators and I was incredibly happy with the stamina, crit and +hit on them, especially when combined with a Clefthide Leg Armor. The high stamina and defense also makes them passable tanking legs. Alliance can take heart that there are still excellent rewards for them from the Nesignwary and Ring of Blood quests in this zone. Other quests with good rewards include the Durn the Hungerer slaying quest and the questline that ends with Gurok the Usurper. Once again my advice is to avoid the AH and simply clean this zone out. You'll still be running the Coilfang and Auchindoun instances at this point, and by the end of Nagrand you should be more than ready for the first of the Caverns of Time instances, Old Hillsbrad. There are many excellent drops for a 66 and up warrior in there, including the standoutDurotan's Battle Harness. Get it as soon as you can. You'll also want to start building rep with the Keepers of Time as soon as you can especially if you intend to tank, as they have twoexcellent rewards for hitting revered.

You can easily be 67 by the end of Nagrand and from there, move on to Blade's Edge. If you play your cards carefully, try and stay rested and run as many instances as you can, it is even possible to reach level 70 without setting foot in either Netherstorm or Shadowmoon Valley, allowing you to use their rich lode of high level quests to fund your flying mount purchase. I wish I'd been this smart on my night elf, but both my human and tauren warriors managed to hit Netherstorm at 69 and to save the majority of those zones until after reaching 70, thus having more quests that paid well. With the addition of daily quests, this can become even more lucrative for you, combined with your having saved your gold by avoiding the AH as much as possible. While in Blade's Edge, both Alliance and Horde can ultimately end up killing a Gronn, but the Horde version is cooler because Rexxar is in it. You'll want to do it either way to pick up the Blackened Chestplate if Durotan's hasn't dropped for you. You'll make 13g for this one even if you don't want the chest, even more if you're somehow 70 when you do it. There are a lot of quests in this zone, including ones for the Cenarion Expedition which you want to build rep with (trust me on this) and which ends in a quest chain for a nice DPS or tanking neck.

By this point you should be ready for Sethekk Halls. Not only will you need to run this instance to get your later Shadow Labyrinth key, there's a quest that has some decent gold and XP and a blue polearm if you're really looking for one, although it's more of a hunter weapon. But quest drops are always free of loot drama. The standout drops in this instance are the Bands of Syth, Terokk's Nightmace, Deathforge Girdle and the Crow Wing Reaper, and they'll all last you well into being 70.

Also, if you have any aptitude for PvP at all, consider doing the daily BG quest. If you get it completed it's decent quest XP, almost 500 honor and you'll end up with marks and honor to spend at 70 to get immediate gear upgrades. PvP gear isn't always the best choice for PvE... I certainly wouldn't tank in most of it... but the weapons are almost always just as good for PvE as PvP, it's almost unavoidable that they would be.

At this point, you may well be 70 if you've done all of the quests in Blade's Edge and have run CoT: Old Hillsbrad and Sethekk Halls a few times. My advice would be to make up the difference in those instances and head into Netherstorm or Shadowmoon at 70 if at all possible. However, if you find yourself hard up for groups, you can head into both or either of those zones and do several quests to make up the difference. I'd recommend Netherstorm because it has, in my opinion, more quests that are easy to access if you don't have a flying mount yet. Area 52 in Netherstorm is faction neutral, and from there a level 69 player should be able to find plenty of quests that will take her or him to 70. Both Aldor and Scryer will have quest chains that begin in Area 52 at the inn: start them as soon as you can, and by the end you'll have received several good rewards from a nice DPS ring for Aldor or even a heck of a nice set of gloves for Scryers.

Hopefully when you hit 70, you'll have completed Old Hillsbrad and Sethekk Halls already, and thus be able to enter Shadow Labyrinth (a group with one keyed player is enough) and the Black Morass. In addition, you'll hopefully have the gold to purchase a flying mount (or will achieve it soon by doing the quests in Netherstorm and Shadowmoon) and can start running the various Tempest Keep 5-mans, as well as Shattered Halls in Hellfire Citadel and Steam Vaults in Coilfang. Since Patch 2.3, you should also be honored with pretty much every faction you'd need to get your heroic keys except perhaps the Sha'tar, which you can get fairly easily by a few Tempest Keep runs.

My advice would be to run every instance on normal mode a few times before doing the heroics, especially if you intend to tank them: there's good gear to get prepared for running heroics and Karazhan available to you here.

Next week, in fact, we'll start looking at getting ready for Heroics and Karazhan for both tanking and DPS warriors, or we'll look at the new abilities for warriors between 60 and 70 since we didn't have room to cover that here.

The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Leveling Up 41 - 58

2011-07-03T22:44:00.001-07:00

The Care and Feeding of Warriors heads into the home stretch of this series of leveling guides with a look at the levels that used to be just before endgame, and which now are just before stepping through the dark portal. Luckily, Matthew Rossi has so many warriors that it's not terribly hard to find one he hasn't leveled that far yet. The poor tauren warrior in today's header was actually his first tauren warrior, only to fall away neglected when he rerolled on Malfurion. Looks lonely, doesn't he?We've covered getting your new warrior up and running, and we've covered getting her or him through the mid-level game. Now it's time to talk about the time before you can go to Outland, when you're finally wearing plate, running some of the most well designed instances in the game (hopefully, anyway) and finally getting access to the highest tiers of talents.

I've been asked in previous posts to tell people what talents to pick for the fastest leveling. I haven't done that because it really depends on if you're playing solo or grouping often. If you're running groups with a pack of like-minded, same level friends, then Protection is the strongest talent tree for leveling. Running instances and doing instance quests will get you to 58 faster than soloing, and Protection is probably the most useful spec for a single warrior in a five man group. If, however, you're going to be spending a lot of time solo, then Arms is probably the easiest spec to level in. Get some decent 'of the bear' or 'of the tiger' greens, keep them updated every couple of levels, get the biggest, meanest two hand weapon you can and go to town. I personally leveled my most recent warrior (draenei) to 55 in Fury just because I'd used arms for my human, my tauren and my orc (my night elf was all over the place) and while it can be more difficult, it's not as bad as you'll often be told it is if you have the right gear. Patch 2.3 has actually gone a long way towards fixing itemization for the leveling fury warrior. Either way, Arms or Fury are better for leveling than Protection if you are spending the majority of your time soloing. If you're running a lot of instances, go Prot.

These are the levels where you can actually feel your spec. Mortal Strike, Bloodthirst and Shield Slam are in your grasp, the former kings of their respective talent trees. You'll be able to go 41 points in a tree, should you so desire, by level 50. So it is in this band that you'll be able to say 'I'm a Prot Warrior' and really be accurate.

Unlike previous posts in the series, this one is going to focus on talent trees because, frankly, you only get one ability between 41 and 58. It's a good one, though. At level 50, you get Recklessness. The cooldown is another atrociously long 30 minute shared cooldown (quite frankly, these three abilities either need to have their cooldown reduced to ten minutes or be delinked from each other so that using one doesn't lock the other two out for half an hour - just make them like the 20 minute shaman totems in that using one sets the other two on a cooldown so that you can't chain all three at once) but once used, you have fifteen seconds of almost assured critical hits, unless the target has some specific way to neutralize them. You also can't crit people if, say, you pop Recklessness and they root you and run away, or sheep you, or whatever. So make sure you're okay with possibly wasting the ability if you do use it. With those conditions kept in mind, Recklessness is an excellent ability for PvE DPS (especially on boss fights - how many times has a DPSing warrior seen a boss heading towards 20% health and begun hoarding rage for that big recked execute? fifteen seconds of guaranteed crits from more than one DPSing warrior when the boss is at 19% is a beautiful thing, if your tank is ready for it) and for PvP as well. You'll very rarely use it while tanking, as it increases the damage you take as well. I have used it once or twice as an emergency fear break when it was essential that I break a fear and I hadn't gotten my stance switched in time, but it hurts losing Shield Wall for that, so you'll try and get stance switching down instead.

Since you're now done reading about abilities you'll gain in this level range without considering talents, it's time to consider those abilities that are talent related, as they'll be the majority of new abilities you'll train. While levels 1 - 20 didn't really change much based on spec, and levels 21 - 40 were only starting to feel different from warrior to warrior based on spec, these levels are where you will be able to easily spot warriors of various specs.

We'll begin with Protection talented abilities. At 31 points in Protection, meaning level 40 at the earliest (and usually later) you can train one of the single best tanking aggro talents in the game, Shield Slam. For some reason, hitting things in the face with a shield really, really irritates them. It does nice damage (no one's going to mistake you for a DPS class using it, but it can deliver a solid punch) and also dispels magic effects about half of the time, making it very useful for when taking a mob with annoying magical abilities. And if you're planning on being a dedicated tanking warrior, at level 50 you can get the best of the three warrior 41 point abilities, Devastate. I say best because, to my mind, now that the sunder armor effect is built right into Devastate, it's the best realized and most indispensable for its planned role of the three talents. Arms warriors will often avoid their 40 point talent entirely, while Fury warriors are less likely to do so with theirs. But Devastate now does exactly what it should do, and I unabashedly recommend it for any protection warrior. (I was not as big a fan of the ability when I last discussed tanking, but I really like the changes to it.)

I'm going to take a moment and editorialize here. Both Arms and Fury are often more popularthan Protection, but frankly Prot is the best designed talent tree. Spending 48 points or more in Prot to become a dedicated tank is, in my opinion, the best results for investment in the game. A Fury warrior may go as high as 41 points to get Rampage, and an Arms warrior usually stops at 31 or so (I always go higher because I love Second Wind) but very few tanks will stop so low in Prot. If the folks at Blizzard who designed the world's single best-selling and most played MMO in the entire history of the genre for some reason decided to seek the advice of some dude whose main claim to fame was writing a really weird book that has nothing to do with gaming, I would tell them that they should redesign Arms and Fury so that people were less willing to forgo their higher tier talents, but Protection for the most part I would leave alone. It really is the dedicated tanking tree, and it does exactly what it should do.

Don't worry, I still hate static threat as it is currently implemented. But Protection just worksto increase warrior tanking survivability and help them increase their aggro generation. It makes a man want to create a host of little shield babies.

Now that I've had my fanboy gush over Prot, let's talk about Arms, the spec I usually end up in. While it's generally thought of as the PvP spec, it's also a nice spec for leveling as the burst damage is high enough to finish off most mobs, it's not as gear dependent as Fury and it has low tier abilities like Deflection and Improved Thunder Clap that help mitigate damage coming in. However, can I talk about Arms warriors without talking about Mortal Strike? Yes, I could, just as I could swim in piranha infested waters or insult an extremely large and violent man's mother, but just because we can do something doesn't mean we should.

Things to keep in mind: Mortal Strike does not cause people to fall over dead the second you use it. Amazingly enough, based on what other people will tell you, Mortal Strike is a reasonably high damage instant attack (it's nice when it crits) but at the levels we're discussing, you will fail to get what all the hype is about. (Hint: the hype is about PvP, my friends). Don't make the mistake of growing overconfident just because you have a great big sword, axe, mace or polearm and you can whack things mortally with it. The ability really shines when you have a higher crit rate and more attack power, so for the 41 - 58 warrior it's more of a nice utility than the dedicated damage ability it will become. Use it, just don't expect too much of it. It doesn't one shot warlocks, cause rogues in the area to destealth immediately, or call a host of a thousand Spartans to your side. If you're fighting mobs that you know cast a heal, try and keep it in reserve for when you can't interrupt their heals for whatever reason.

If you're intending to PvP, this is the tree for you. Most PvP specced warriors will go with some variation of a 31 point Arms/ 30 point Fury build. For leveling, I don't recommend that because you won't be able to spend that many points in two trees anyway. But you may want to stop at MS and cherry pick the excellent lower tier Fury abilities like Cruelty, Booming Voice, Commanding Presence and Piercing Howl. I always get 5 points in Cruelty no matter what I'm doing. However, there are some excellent higher tier Arms abilities for leveling, even if they're not as well regarded by most for PvP - Blood Frenzy is an efficient talent for increasing your damage especially if you'll be causing bleeds to your targets already, Second Wind helps with a small chunk of health regeneration and a nice dollop of rage when you're stunned meaning that you'll be able to use offensive abilities immediately after breaking out of the stun (Second Wind keeps ticking even after you're not stunned anymore, so you can use a stunbreak and still tick some rage) and if you feel starved for rage, Endless Rage is the 41 point talent. I like it, but you won't see a lot of PvP warriors going anywhere near it.

Finally, for our leveling Fury warriors, the first ability of note is Bloodthirst. (If you've gotten to 41 as a Fury warrior, you most likely already have Enrage and Flurry.) I used to hateBloodthirst, and it's been through more changes than almost any other ability. (I'm sure several other abilities were changed more and I'm equally sure you'll be letting me know which ones in the comments, I trust you guys) - it now deals damage based on 45% of your current attack power (Battle Shouted if you have it up) and gives the next five strikes you land a chance to heal you for 20 points. Okay, so the heal isn't really anything to sing about, but the ability itself is nice damage, it can be used even when you're unarmed, and it's a better instant attack than Mortal Strike if you're dual wielding, as it will be hitting those next five attacks while the Bloodthirst buff is up. Bloodthirst directly benefits from the 41 point Fury talent, Rampage. The attack power boost of Rampage, combined with the attack speed buff of Flurry, can reach critical mass if your crit rating is high enough to cause 'perma-flurry', the state where you crit often enough that almost all of your melee attacks are receiving the attack speed buff of flurry. You'll also, therefore, be critting enough that almost all of your attacks are under the attack power buff of Rampage, making each Bloodthirst hit harder. To ensure that the damage of your white hits isn't wasted during all this, you'll most likely want to take Precision as well. The top tier Fury talents have a nice PvE DPS synergy, but they do require a bit more in gearing yourself up than does Arms. You want attack power (Strength), crit rating (+crit and/or agi, with +crit being more efficient for the purpose as Agility adds to other stats as well), as much staying power as you can get (Stamina) and enough +hit to keep from missing all the time while dual wielding. It's a little easier to itemize since many pieces of gear have been updated, making them better for up and coming Fury warriors.

Finally, there is the level 50 class quest to consider. It begins by sending you to the Blasted Lands to talk to the Fallen Hero of the Horde, who after making you jump through the usual 'kill x of y' quest hoops sends you into the Sunken Temple to collect Voodoo Feathers from the trolls in there. No, I don't know why a ghost needs feathers from voodoo trolls, I'm just trying to do a quest over here. The quest rewards are the Fury Visor, the Razorsteel Shoulders, and the Diamond Flask. It's a shame you can't get all three, although it needs to be said that all three of them are more DPS than tanking oriented. I'm just saying, a nice +def or high stam tanking weapon wouldn't be amiss here.

Since we've already covered a novel's worth here, I'll leave it up to you commenters: should next week be an instance and gear guide for these levels, or should we move on to Outland? For now, I'm leaning towards Outland, but I can be convinced to spend more time here.

Get to the Outlands already! ->

The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Leveling Up 21 - 40

2011-07-03T22:42:00.001-07:00

The Care and Feeding of Warriors is focusing again on getting new warriors up to speed.Matthew Rossi has done this quite a few times (at present, all of his warrior alts are at least level 45 except for the tauren on Zangamarsh, poor neglected tauren) and he's not always done it very well, so at least we can all point and laugh and learn from his mistakes. It's fortunate he makes so many of them for us to learn from, really. We're blessed by his unique way of finding the pitfalls in our path by blundering straight into them.So now you're a newly trained level 20 warrior. You've definitely decided you're not going to twink for the 19 WSG bracket, you're geared up and looking forward to the next twenty levels and finally getting a freaking mount so that you can keep up with all the Aspects of the Pack, Cheetahs, Spirit Wolves and Blinks out there. You're not at all bitter about your lack of a travel form, especially is this is your fourth or even fifth warrior and you're saying to yourself 'man, I forgot how much it sucks to have to run all over the freaking place'.

Oh, sorry. That might just be me.

Anyway, time to talk about the warrior specific quests, class abilities and other aspects of the class you'll be picking up in this swatch of the class. 20 to 40 is when warriors really start to feel distinctive based on their spec. It's when you can actually start to seriously tankanything and when you'll be getting your final stance and a nice warrior specific weapon. (If you like two handers, anyway.)

Oh, and the image with today's column doesn't really reflect any of this. I was just mad that they shrank my hat, and I wanted to show you what they did.

The general advice from last week still holds true and always will for a warrior. Get the best gear you can, and keep it updated as best you can. Keep yourself in bandages and food and pots. Use these resources, especially potions, as they can keep you alive longer and minimize those rather horrifying repair bills. If anything will ever truly bring warriors and paladins together, it will be standing together and laughing as the clothies gripe about their repair costs. Embrace this fact now, and learn to see the humor in it. And be grateful that this has been reduced, my first two warriors shelled out a lot more on repairs and learned to hate everyone else as they complained about the cost of a wipe with the white hot fury of a thousand rabid wolverines who have awoken to find themselves in pink, frilly dresses in a dollhouse being made to play tea party with a Raggedy Ann doll.

Well, I just assume they would hate that. I mean, wolverines aren't very social animals. And they don't look good in pink.

We covered the general class abilities gained at 20 last time, so now I'll just cover the wide variety of abilities, more or less the bulk of abilities gained, now. These are the non-talented ones everyone in the class can get, as this is more a general guide, but we'll cover some talents later. First up is one of the best abilities you'll ever get, Intimidating Shout. You'll use this every single time it's up in PvP, hurling yourself into crowds and sending several of the enemy running away until they hit their trinket a second or two later rendering it meaningless and putting the shout on cooldown, but even with those issues it's a powerful means of interrupting several people at once and helping to disrupt a mass of enemy players. It can also be used in various ways in PvE, from interrupting a single target to bandage yourself (you have to be fast on the bandage after you use the shout so as to not hit the mob you're using it on, but you'll get used to that fairly quickly), a means to get rid of an add long enough to finish off your first target, a minor panic button to give yourself a chance to run away and I'm sure there are other uses I'm forgetting. Intimidating Shout remains one of our best abilities even after the maximum number of targets it works on was reduced to the current level.

At level 24 comes Execute, a standout ability for a great many situations. Well, a great many situations wherein something you're trying to kill is at 19% health or less, anyway. Execute, it's not just for Vael fights anymore! Never really was. You'll use Execute when grinding or soloing/questing, you'll use it instances (especially if you're DPS), you'll use it in PvP whenever it is up, especially if you happen to have a lot of rage and you see that magical little icon come to life while trying to catch that warlock who has dotted you to death three times in a row outside of Icewing Bunker. The limits of execute are its dependency on how much rage you yourself have... it's possible for a full rage bar execute crit to approach obscene numbers, but you won't get the chance to do that very often at all outside of a boss fight, and even then you'll probably only get to do it once at the absolute most. The ability consumes all the rage you have when you use it, so you'll be autoattacking for a while after you do, so if you're using it on someone who can survive it you're in a catchup phase afterwards. Still, it's not really possible for me as warrior to say anything bad about execute.

Level 26 brings us Challenging Shout. A very limited ability, you'll rarely use it and be glad you have it when you do. It's basically a 6 second AoE taunt. it's got the sizable limitations of only lasting a few seconds, not adding any threat (so after the time is up, if you haven't done anything to add threat to you the mobs go right back to killing everyone else) and it has a whopping ten minute cooldown. This column isn't about what I would change about warriors if I could, so I'll just say that you need to be really sure that everything is going south when you use this, and be aware that it's not going to magically fix everything when you do. Some people hit this button as soon as taunt fails, but I say don't be one of those people. Switch over and use Mocking Blow first, save CS for a last resort. You don't want to not have it later because you blew it saving one person. This is a pure tanking talent, make no mistake.

At level 28 you get another tanking talent, one of the absolute best in the game, Shield Wall. It has other applications as well... if you absolutely have to return a flag in WSG or EoTS, or are trying to run away to the safety of some friendly town guards while being beaten on by many, many mobs it can be used then, but for my money you want to save Shield Wall for when you're tanking on a boss. It's not a pally or priest bubble. It doesn't eat a specific amount of damage and then fail, or just make you immune until its time is up, it reduces all incoming damage by 75% for the duration. (It can be improved in duration with talents.) With a long linked cooldown, it's not going to be used on every fight, but when you need it there's very few abilities that will make you smile like a nice shield wall, especially when combined with other tanking abilites or items.

Level 30 brings you a present in the form of a quest to gain Berserker Stance. The quest chain begins with The Islander, leading you to The Affray, a gauntlet style quest that will grant you zerk stance once you complete it. You can bring help (a healer is nice) or solo it, although it's not super-easy to solo (it's not impossible, either, you'll just need to be on the ball and have a couple of consumables to use). It's also at level 30 that you begin the quest chain that leads to the Cyclonian. While that quest is a huge part of the 30 to 40 game, we've already discussed it in detail in a previous post, so I'll leave that link to speak for itself. Level 30 is also when you gain Intercept and Slam. Intercept's utility in PvP is obvious and it serves as a useful spell interrupt in PvE, especially when soloing. I also often used it before the abilityIntervene was introduced to the game to help me chase down a mob that was going after a healer, and before 70 you may find use for it in that fashion as well. Slam is an ability you'll primarily use to dump rage without generating as much threat as other abilities like Heroic Strike, but I really recommend (and this is one of the few times I will recommend this, as I hate math) checking out the WoWwiki link and really taking a look at the math of the ability. Slam is a very situational ability, but when it is called for, it can be extremely powerful.

At level 32 you'll be rewarded with your first fear break (non-talented, anyway, and I don't think you'll have Death Wish with 23 talent points) as well as a means to generate more rage from being hit, Berserker Rage. This ability, usable only in berserker stance, is one of the reasons you will need to learn to stance dance as a tank. Even with the changes to fear and targeting in 2.3, having a fear break available so that you can snap out of the fear and work to keep aggro while those outside of fear range can continue to DPS or heal is one of a warrior's real strengths, learn to maximize it. Also, while tanking, getting more rage for being hit is never a bad thing. In PvP you'll primarily use it to break fears since you'll probably be in zerk stance a lot anyway. Level 36 brings Whirlwind, an ability often used as a rage dump which can hit up to four targets anywhere around you. You'll need to be careful not to break CC with this, but it has many uses besides straight damage and rage dumping. A warrior tanking can use it in conjunction with Thunderclap as an AoE tanking ability if she or he is skilled enough at stance dancing, it now hits with both weapons so it's a nice DPS ability for fury warriors, and an arms warrior will still use it despite normalization because he'll usually be using a weapon with nice top-end damage.

The last non-talented ability you'll gain in this level range is Pummel. It's a spell interrupt. Learn it, love it, use it, it doesn't take a lot of discussion or explanation. Pummel spellcasters in PvP, pummel them in PvE. Really, I think we all know what we're doing with this one.

Levels 20 to 40 bring you a wide variety of talent options. Quite frankly, they bring you such a wide variety of talent options that I think it likely that will have to be a post of its own - you will have 31 talent points to have spent by level 40, enough to get Mortal Strike,Bloodthirst or Shield Slam, the keystone spec defining abilities even now and the former pinnacles of each spec before The Burning Crusade. These abilities are what I like to call the tipping points for a warrior - it's impossible to spend as many points in any other spec once you have them, so even if you're a 31 arms/ 30 fury warrior for PvP, you're an arms warrior. Everyone approaches the idea of spending talents differently. I personally always spend my first five point in Cruelty, so unless I'm going for fury early, I never have a 31 point talent by 40. Without writing another post as long as this one, I'll just say that you should evaluate what you intend to do with your warrior in the future as you spend points in talents now. Do you intend to twink at 29 or 39? Are you trying to get to 70 and tank for a bunch of friends as fast as you can? (Personally, if you're trying to shoot for 70 as fast as possible, a prot spec may be the worst move unless you have a group of friends you know you'll be running a lot of instances with. Then it's fine for leveling.) Try and keep from respeccing now if you possibly can, you'll want to save gold on respec costs when you're 70 and trying to settle into a final spec. (You may want to respec once at 60 for the last ten levels, but we'll cover that when we get to leveling in TBC.)

Instances to run in this level zone overlap a little with the previous ones: You'll probably still get some nice gear out of Wailing Caverns and Shadowfang Keep as you hit 20. Keep in mind that the drops have been improved in 2.3 and the instance levels tightened up. I really enjoyBlackfathom Deeps for a level 20 warrior looking to gear up for the later dungeons, and bothGnomeregan and Razorfen Kraul will get you ready for the 30's. Between 30 and 40 you will probably run Scarlet Monastery the most, especially with the winged design you'll see again later in Outland dungeons. You'll also have Razorfen Downs and even Uldaman in the late 30's as you get ready for the 40's and beyond.

Of course, we can't spend all our time in instances. The zones available for us to quest in are many, and just got better with the new patch and the introduction of a major quest hub in Dustwallow Marsh. While some are Horde or Alliance specific, most can be quested in by a warrior of either faction and include Redridge, Duskwood, Hillsbrad, the Wetlands, the Alterac Mountains, Arathi Highlands, the Badlands, the Swamp of Sorrows and Stranglethorn Vale on the Eastern continent and Ashenvale, the Stonetalon Mountains, Thousand Needles, Desolaceand Dustwallow Marsh on Kalimdor. I especially recommend Arathi as an alternative to the early 30's range in STV as the quests are now all soloable with smart play, the elites having been demoted in patch 2.3. Warrior questing, especially solo questing, still requires careful pulling and use of food and bandages but with those caveats at these levels your talents and abilities mean that you can start to feel more secure in your soloing and can make a steady grind with minimal downtime. Some zones, like Ashenvale, are at times frustrating for a warrior on foot, but with Forest Song and Splintertree Post as useful quest hubs for Alliance and Horde respectively, there's a lot to do there. Also, please don't neglect Thousand Needles and Desolace; there are a lot more quests there than usually appear on the surface (even for Alliance there's the Shimmering Flats quests) and if you're leveling on a PvP server you can avoid a lot of ganking by skipping STV until you're nearer to 40 by using these zones judiciously.

That seems like a reasonably comprehensive overview, all limitations considered. Now I'll throw the comments open to you all to help correct those inevitable errors, provide tips and suggestions for your fellow warriors, and otherwise discuss what else we should keep in mind for these 20 or so levels. What gear shouldn't we miss? What dungeons don't you think worth the effort? Where's the best questing?

Next week we'll either cover leveling up to get ready for Outland, or discuss talents in more detail. We'll see which way the hawk isn't a handsaw.

Turns out Matt wants to talk about Talents for the next 20 levels ->

The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Leveling Up 1-20

2011-07-03T22:40:00.001-07:00

The Care and Feeding of Warriors anticipates Patch 2.3 the way Cookie Monster rips the plate from your hands and devours the cookies with a 'gnom gnom gnom' sound and flying crumbs everywhere. Matthew Rossilearned to do a mean Cookie Monster, Grover and Elmo impersonation when he was in his twenties. He doesn't like to talk about it.
Since we have in the past been accused of focusing too much on the 70 game, this week's installment of TCAFOW will be spending some time with the brand new warrior. Since we know Patch 2.3 is on the way with improvements to leveling and instancing between 20 and 60, it behooves us to be level 20 or thereabouts when it hits, and that's what this post is all about. While it's not terribly hard to level to 20, it never hurts to discuss the do's and don'ts of the initial 'trying-on' period of the class.

The first few pieces of advice are general ones. First off, if you can, go to the Draenei or Blood Elf starting zones to level grind. The quest progression is better, the rewards are better, the zones are well designed to funnel you from place to place, and you can solo almost everything you'll come across with a few notable exceptions that will require grouping as you near level 20. Do as much in these zones as you can, perhaps even set your hearths there if you don't mind being fairly cut off from other zones. The blood elf starting zone has the benefit of a transporter in Silvermoon that will take you to Undercity, and thus the zeppelins for transport to Kalimdor, while Azuremyst and Bloodmyst isle are a touch more isolated, requiring two boat trips to get to. But at low level, a few corpse runs are no major impediment compared to the experience you'll gather in those zones.

There are things you can always do to make a new warrior's life easier if you have a higher level main: they're obvious, and I won't cover them here because either you have such a higher level character and can figure it out pretty easily, or you don't and therefore don't have recourse to them. Similarly, higher level friends can help you, but if you don't have them you don't have them. This post assumes you just bought the game.

Levels 1 to 10 of the warrior are, like most classes, incredibly basic. You start off with Heroic Strike and Battle Shout at level 1, gain Charge and Rend at level 4, Thunder Clap at 6,Hamstring at level 8. Clearly, since these are all the abilities you are going to have, and you won't have gained any talents yet, these are the abilities you will be choosing from. You may not even have a ranged weapon yet: get one as soon as you can. While charge is fun and awesome and a rage generator, there will be times you're going to want to pull a mob over to where you can more easily control the fight. Remember, adds are not your friend at this level, as you have no real way to deal with them.

At level 10, you gain several abilities including Bloodrage, Sunder Armor and Taunt. To unlock the last two, you must complete your Defensive Stance quest. The horde can get this quest in the Barrens or Tirisfal Glades, so if you're leveling in the Blood Elf lands you'll be making a trip to Brill, but luckily that's not terribly difficult. If you're leveling in the Draenei zones, they have their own version of the quest so you won't have to leave the zone at all. Either way, the quest can be challenging but is not impossible or even particularly difficult to solo, and is the first of several warrior specific quests you'll get as you level up. The Defensive Stance quest usually leads into another quest for a decent green quality weapon at about that level, which you should complete even if you've been lucky enough to get a equivalent or better weapon, as it's more experience and a chance at some money.

While there's not much call to tank anything while soloing, if you can get groups for quests at this point you can start to practice. If soloing you'll probably not switch out of battle stance, and it is possible to get to level 20 without tanking anything at all. I don't recommend this. Try and get in some tanking as you level and gain new tanking abilities -Shield Bash at 12, Revenge at level 14, Shield Block at 16. Disarm is useful whether or not you're tanking, as it reduces the damage the mob can do to you, as does Demoralizing Shout.Another advantage of trying to get in some tanking practice between 10 and 20 is that it can help you develop your stance switching. 10 -20 is also when you first gain your talent points. By level 20 you will have spent 11 of them, so now is the time to consider what style of warrior you want to level up as.

Many warriors choose to level as arms. I personally always spend my first five talent points inCruelty. This may or may not work with your desired playstyle, I merely offer that a 5% boost to your critical hit rate at these levels is nothing to sneer at. Either way, while leveling try and make sure that you control the fights you pick as much as you can. Clear around quest objectives, killing everything as safely and quickly as you can, and pull harder mobs away from where there will be respawns if you can arrange it. At this level, warriors simply aren't well-equipped to deal with adds and unless you're very fortunate on your gear, you can often be overwhelmed by a mob that you'd expect to kill easily based solely on its level. A poorly equipped warrior is a very weak warrior.

While leveling up, there are a few instances you can consider running. For Horde, you can start running Ragefire Chasm at level 13, and there are several quests available for it in Orgrimmar. You may have to do some grinding in Durotar to get all the quests available, but that's never a bad thing. Most alliance and a few horde may start running Deadmines at around level 15, which is to my mind one of the best designed and most fun instances in the game and which will see gear upgrades in the next patch. If you run it and get a green drop from a boss, hold onto it for a while, if the patch comes while you're still in possession of it you may get a nice upgrade. Just as both factions can run Deadmines but only the alliance get quests to, both factions can run Wailing Caverns at about level 16 or so, but only horde get quests that take them there. Since it is in the barrens, it's easier for Horde to run it, but the boat at Ratchet makes it possible for either group to get their fairly easily and there are some nice drops here for a warrior, many of which will be getting better in 2.3. Finally there'sShadowfang Keep, very accessible to the horde via the Sepulchre and somewhat less accessible to alliance via Southshore. Many of the drops in this instance, once improved by 2.3, will be worth keeping for a while.

General advice for leveling warriors would include taking a gathering profession. Skinning or mining are often good choices. Mining can help you take a crafting profession and level it for later in the game as well as selling your ores on the AH for gearing money (you probably won't be able to craft anything you'd actually use at this level, it's more aimed at later in the game) and skinning is good because at this level you often kill things that are skinnable, allowing you to auction or even vendor the skins for quick cash. Note that auctioning is almost always more profitable, but vendoring can be much faster if you're trying to level more quickly.

At level 20, you gain the first of your 30 minute cooldown abilities, Retaliation. Once an absolute powerhouse of an ability worthy of having so long a cooldown, it's been nerfed since until it is merely a good ability, but at 20 you won't have any other panic button so it's still welcome. You'll also gain Cleave and Dual Wield if you so choose. I personally find DWing to be frustrating until I can talent and gear to reduce the miss chance and increase the offhand damage, so at level 20 I rarely do unless I'm trying to up a weapon skill by grinding relatively lower level mobs. Finally, at level 20 you gain a quest, either Yorus Barleybrew for alliance or Speak with Ruga for horde, that ultimately leads to the creation of an excellent mail chestplate for a warrior. Both the Fire Hardened Hauberk (seen on the Draenei next to today's post) and the Brutal Hauberk are well-worth getting for the XP as well as the items themselves.

This should leave you in a good position to begin running to 60 once the patch comes out, if that's your intention.

Next week, we may tackle level's 21 - 40 or we may hit Outland for a 58-70 gear guide, or we may do something else. I know, I'm mercurial.

There's more to the next 20 levels than Taunt ->

Blood Pact: Leveling a warlock, 60 to 80

2011-07-03T22:37:00.001-07:00

Blood Pact is your weekly warlock digest brought to you by Dominic Hobbs. "Did you think we had forgotten? Did you think we had forgiven? Behold, now, the terrible vengeance of the Forsaken! Death to the Scourge! And death to the living!" ~ Grand Apothecary Putress

Whether you're racing towards the endgame or pootling along enjoying the ride, everyone likes to make that leveling experience a little smoother. Blood Pact caps off this series of guides with a look at the final (for now) twenty levels. We'll look at the talents you can play with, the spells you can learn and some of the quests you don't want to miss. We'll be covering the Outland and Northrend experience from the warlock's point of view.

Maybe you have been leveling for a while and are looking for some insight into this final push or have had a lock 'parked' at 60 or 70 for some time; hopefully this guide will help you push that demon-loving toon to the final malefic leveling milestone.

Talents

We've looked at various builds as we progress through the levels and also discussed how all three trees can be very effective for leveling. They each have their own play-styles so it's purely a matter of choice -- which one do you like the look of? At level 60 you have the opportunity to reach right the way down to the last talent in one of the trees, opening a new spell to use.

Affliction - Haunt

Nicely in touch with the affliction play-style this spell does damage as well as increasing the damage done by your DoTs, refreshing Corruption (with Everlasting Affliction) and healing you. This is ideal for the 'never stop' method of grinding that affliction is so good at.

Demonology - Metamorphosis

Never mind summoning a demon, become one! Much like Illidan, you become infused by a demon and take on their form. This doesn't stop you doing all the normal things you can do but it gives you many extras:

Huge armor bonus - handy if you suddenly have a load of mobs beating on you. Might be just me but that seems to happen a lot when leveling.
Damage done increased - pure damage boost, great for a quick clean-up of a sticky situation.
Less chance of being crit by melee - sure, you would rather not be getting hit by things, but if you do then this is great.
Reduces the effect of CC on you - dazed or pinned? Not for so long when you let out the demon-within.
Immolation Aura - An AoE spell centered on you that burns those around you. Sounds similar to Hellfire but this does not need channeling and doesn't even have a GCD!
Demon Charge - Want to get to a mob or group of mobs quickly so you can use that aura? Now you can!
Challenging Howl - Not the most useful trick up your sleeve to be honest, but if you're leveling with a healer then this might come in handy.
Shadow Cleave - erm... No idea why this is here. I guess at some point it was thought that 'demon form' would be 'melee form' but well, no. Use it if you do charge in but don't go out of your way.

Destruction - Chaos Bolt

As you might expect for demo, this is a nuke. There's not a lot to distinguish it from other direct cast spells; it has a cast time, it has a cool-down, it does fire damage (though it is green). The big difference with Chaos Bolt is that it will ignore certain effects on the target, namely absorption and resistances. The finer details of the spell are of great interest in PvP but for PvE leveling it just has a better chance of doing its full damage on stuff.

Spells

Level 62 - Fel Armor - A triple-whammy of awesomeness.

Spell power boost of 50 to 180 (depending on rank).

Any spirit you have on gear suddenly becomes useful.

2% of your health regenerates every 5 seconds.

Level 64 - Incinerate - Not only is this going to be you're main nuke as destro, it's also crept into the demo rotation as well thanks to Molten Core.
Level 66 - Soulshatter - If you play solo then this will help you keep any aggro on your minion. If you play in groups then it keeps it on the tank. Many a lock's life saved by sacrificing someone's soul.
Level 68 - Ritual of Souls - Normally it's one shard per Healthstone but if you have this and two other party members then you can have 25 for the same price. Everyone loves a bargain.
Level 70 - Seed of Corruption - If you have found Hellfire too limiting and Rain of Fire too slow then you're gonna love this. The only thing I found that dulled the edge of this spell's greatness was spamming it for months in Mount Hyjal. Be careful though, if you were to design a spell specifically aimed to annoy the hell out of tanks, this is probably what you would end up with.
Level 75 - Shadowflame - On paper this is a fairly nice spell but I just can't get excited about it. Best use to my mind is for a quick finish if something almost dead is about to bite you.
Level 80 - Demonic Circle:Summon/Teleport - The limitations on this spell are somewhat frustrating but the sheer number of uses it can be put to is immense. One problem, you typically realize what they were a few seconds after you should have used them. Nice spell though.

Key Quests

Outlands

Ring of Bood - Battle Mage's Baton

This is a group-5 quest but you can probably do it with less (or tap a friendly 80 to help). The quest line will net you a ton of experience as well as a decent haul of gold and potions. Don't be put off by the name of the staff, it doesn't matter whose it was, it's yours now. Requires level 65 to complete.

Baron Sablemane's line - Tourmaline Crown

Fun little line with an Ackbar reference part way through. Again, this calls for a group but if you are over-level you can probably do without. Grab an 80 guildie for quick completion.Requires level 65 to complete.

Teron Gorefiend - Evoker's Helmet of Second Sight

This line was intended to gear players up for entering the level 70 endgame so it's very easy to skip it and move right on into Northrend. Nothing wrong with doing that but the three sockets in this head item make it very nice and probably worth the side trip. Once again, with group quests you are going to find it easier to have a group. Requires level 67 to complete.

Northrend

Wrathgate

Never mind the quest reward here, the quest is its own reward (that, and all the XP). Awesome quest-line with cinematic that means so much more having seen the rest of the Icecrown Citadel story progress.

Ring of Anguish - Chilly Slobberknocker

As with the Nagrand ring this is a 5 man XP-fest with a nice (if stupidly named) staff as a reward. Requires level 75 to complete.
That's it!

You've made it past the leveling game and into the gearing game. Time to get yourself a nice new purple outfit.

Blood Pact: Leveling a warlock, 40 to 60

2011-07-03T22:36:00.001-07:00

Blood Pact is your weekly warlock digest brought to you by Dominic Hobbs. "Closer! Come closer... and burn!" ~ Keli'dan the Breaker

Once again Blood Pact turns its gaze towards those up-and-coming warlocks; those who are learning the craft, battling foes to hone their skills and sharpen their minds. I've said before that leveling a warlock is great fun and part of this is due to the diverse ways in which you can go about it. By the time you start getting a decent pile of talent points to spend you can shape your lock in many and varied forms. There's the unstoppable train of death that is the affliction lock, cursing and corrupting all around it as it passes smoothly through the world. The demonologist, pouring their power into their minion and pushing them into the fore while sitting back and calmly picking off their foes. And of course, the destruction warlock, blazing a trail of raw power in an explosive display of mental prowess over physical frailty.

Let's see how these locks in training are getting on.

As I said in the last leveling guide, it's not Blood Pact's job to teach you how to level. The gathering of experience through quests and the like is very important and following a guide can be very handy, but this is not that guide. This is about being a warlock for the time between level 40 and 60. If you do want some help in questing then I linked a couple of very good addons in that last article, these can help a lot, as can many others.

I'm also not going to focus too heavily on our minions or skills that are general to the class through all the levels. Regular readers of Blood Pact will know that this is being covered in the 'meet the minions' series. This has covered such important topics as imps and the control of minions, voidwalkers and threat, the succubus and crowd control and the felhunter and mage-hate (as well as a look at the infernal and doomguard).

Talents

As I said in the 10-40 guide, you can place your talents all over the place and still have a lot of fun. This is certainly true if you focus on one tree in particular. The tree we focused on in that article was affliction, the reason being that it is considered the quickest leveling build until around the 50+ mark. We left you with this build as an example of something to work to at level 40, this can be continued to level 49 with this setup:

Example level 49 affliction build.

This is very much an example and you can move a lot of the points about as you see fit to work with your play-style and preference. At level 50 you have a choice to make. Do you want to carry on with affliction or swap over to demonology and get a felguard?

If you decide to stay with affliction then you can learn Unstable Affliction which is another DoT and a really nice spell. When I say 'nice' I'm referring to how I think it's a very warlock-y spell, especially with its dispel mechanic. It also is a requirement for Pandemic, which is also a great talent.

Moving over to demonology and getting yourself another pet is the 'standard form' though some suggest waiting until you can support the build with talents from another tree (to boost your own damage). Personally I don't think that's necessary. You may be a little nerfed but since you have just swapped spec it's probably a good idea to spend some time cleaning up some green quests while you learn the new setup.

The felguard will be the subject of a meet the minions article before long but briefly, for those who have never had one before, he does more damage than any of your other minions (only exception is the doomguard but you have to wait till 60 for him), generates more threat than a voidwalker and is almost as hard to kill. This makes him a great front-man to your background machinations. I was uncertain about the guy to begin with but after a very short time I came to really enjoy having him around; both for solo and party/raid work.

If you do want to swap to demonology at 50 here's an example build that will make your new demon nice and strong.

Example level 50 demonology build.

For those of you going with destruction at this point you will have found that you can now reachShadowfury. There are those that love this spell and while I agree that it is great fun to use and opens up a number of cool tricks, it's generally too much bother for me to worry about. If you enjoy it then go for your life, it's very cool, but I wouldn't worry if you find yourself under-whelmed by it.

Spells

What happened to all the new spells? Between levels 11 and 40 you gain 25 brand new spells to cast, but between 41 and 60 there are 5. You do get a lot of spell upgrades however, so it's still worth going back to the trainer often. I'll add the spells from talents below as well.

Level 42 - Death Coil - Sometimes referred to as 'Skill Coil' by those who look on it as a warlock 'I WIN' button. This is pretty unfair as most classes have something that takes their opponent out of the game for a short time and many have more than us locks. That said, it's a great panic button with a 'run-away' effect that is short enough to use in tight spaces without calling down the fury of every mob in the area.
Level 48 - Soul Fire - Without Decimation this is a spell that tends to get dusty in the back of the spell book. With Decimation, it covers the execute phase with great big fiery balls of crit.
Level 50 - Inferno - You fight not just this warlock alone but the legions he commands! Summon forth meteors from the heavens to smite your enemy and raise up rock-demons terrify the populous. Well, that's what it's like in my head but you can read the last Blood Pact for what it's really like.
Level 50 minimum - Unstable Affliction - An awesome extra DoT with a sting in its tail.
Level 50 minimum - Summon Felguard - New and hugely powerful minion to play with.
Level 50 minimum - Shadowfury - AoE, ranged and damaging stun. A lot of fun if a little novelty/situational.
Level 60 - Ritual of Doom - Summon the most powerful demon available to players; but only if you have been on a long and arduous quest, have four other people with you and remembered to go to the shops beforehand. Great spell, sadly too much hassle for too little gain. Also a topic of last week's Blood Pact.
Level 60 - Curse of Doom - The spell that does the highest damage in a single strike and has the best damage-per-execute-time as well. Unfortunately your enemies have time to make tea and buttered crumpets between cast and damage. So unless this fight is going to take some time you don't need this spell.

Gear

No real change in the gear during this phase in leveling as it's still almost all Old-world stuff. Check out the last piece for a bit more detail. When you reach level 58 you are eligible for the Outland quests which will start throwing massive (though somewhat ugly) upgrades at you; so don't go investing in anything expensive in the latter half of the 50s.

Instances

Scarlet Monastery is probably getting a bit old for you now so Zul'Farrak, Maraudon andSunken Temple should do you through the 40s with Blackrock Depths, Dire maul, Blackrock Spire (lower first, then maybe upper later), Scholomance and Stratholme through the 50s. Don't feel you have to go into these places if you like to play solo but they can get some nice upgrades, complete some nice quests and also teach some important warlock skills.

PvP / Balltlegrounds

If you like. I wouldn't, but don't let that stop you. Apparently there are lots of mages there that you can kill, so can't be all bad.

Final note

While playing about on Wowhead for this article I stumbled across a poem about the felguardthat seems to be written by a disgruntled DPS warrior. Worth a read if you have the time.

Blood Pact: leveling a warlock, 10 to 40

2011-07-03T22:34:00.001-07:00

Blood Pact is your weekly warlock digest brought to you by Dominic Hobbs. "Haha! You're doing very well for yourself, young warlock. Given time, infernals and dreadlords will bow before you! But until that time comes, you must still rely on weapons forged by the hands of the mortal races." ~ Kaal Soulreaper

So, you want to level a warlock, huh? Well, I'm not going to tell you how to do it. No sir! If you've come here thinking that Blood Pact is going to give you a step-by-step plan of what you should do to get your warlock from level 10 to 40 -- some kind of list of quests, zones, instances and mobs -- then you're deluded mister; we don't do that here. What you need is a generic leveling guide of the sort you can find all over the internet. Seriously, don't pay for one though; you can get plenty of decent guides for free. Personally I use Tour Guide andCarbonite. They work really well together and make the whole process much faster. There are other tools, but I know these are good.

What Blood Pact is going to do is talk about what warlocks going through these levels are all about. It's not going to be hugely detailed at any one level because, frankly, you won't be at any level for long. We'll look at the new spells you will gain and how you can apply them, we'll have a gander at these talent things you can now play with, and we'll talk about the gear you will be wearing and wielding on the way. So send the imp off to make a fresh brew and settle in for some lock leveling.

So, I'm assuming you have created your warlock and progressed through the starting zone. If not then you're reading the wrong guide, you want the birth of a warlock article we did last month. We ended that one with your shadow-caster bumbling about near their home city and probably getting told that it's about time they learned to summon a voidwalker. Again, I'm not going to talk too much about that as I have already covered it in articles for the control of minions and also voidwalkers and threat. If you didn't read these articles before then now is a good time to do so as you'll probably be using your blueberry for a while.

Talents

The stock answer for what talent tree to use when leveling a lock is "Affliction till 50 then demonology till 80". This is a fair guide and you'll not go far wrong with it. It's quite possibly the fastest and/or easiest way to go. The problem I have with it is that there is so much variety in the warlock talents that being this formulaic is missing out on a lot. Also, leveling through the early stages is so quick and easy these days that it's a perfect opportunity to experiment. So if you want to dump points into anything that takes your fancy then go for it, I say. You can always pay to change them later.

That said, some of you are sat there shouting "To hell with fun, I want my lock to be 80 NOW! Tell me the quick way." So I shall. Destruction can get some very quick kills but leaves you kinda drained after each one. Demonology gives some solid minions but doesn't pack that much of a punch. Affliction has decent damage output with excellent resource regeneration; this makes it highly efficient over the long haul.

You'll probably be using your voidwalker (certainly at the start) so while he tanks you want to DoT the mob up with CoA, Corruption and Immolate. Use CoA first as it lasts the longest and lets him build up some threat. The idea with the void is to let him take the pain, so slow and steady damage on the target keeps them on him. If you Life Tap before you engage (to full mana) and then place DoTs you can then recover the health with Drain Life. If you find that mobs are dying before all your DoTs have run their course, then consider not casting one of them or taking on two mobs at once. Mobs dying before DoTs run out is not the worst thing in the world but it is a waste of mana; this can slow you down.

Given that you'll be DoTting a load, Improved Corruption is a handy talent to pour points into and Improved Life Tap and Soul Siphon also works well with this strategy (Immolate is a destruction spell so doesn't count for Soul Siphon). Improved Drain Soul can help your voidwalker hold threat and also give you a nice mana boost if you time it right -- some people swear by this talent, but I'm less of a fan, it's not bad but if you don't need it then look elsewhere.

Suppression is great for attacking mobs of a higher level, but if you prefer to level through 'green' quests then you might not need this. I prefer to be killing stuff as hard as I can manage and so Suppression is great. You should be looking to get Siphon Life as soon as you can, this used to be just another DoT with some healing but it was re-worked a while back and is simply awesome now. After that you want to stack points intoShadow mastery, also a very powerful talent. How you fill in the gaps is up to you but by level 40 you will probably end up with something like this.

Example level 40 affliction build

You can play about with many of the filler talents as you like and feel your play style dictates. I prefer Grim Reach to Improved Fear as I like to keep plenty of distance and it's all very well slowing a previously feared mob but the friends he ran into are coming at you at full pelt. ICoW is ok if you want to drop CoA (only one curse per target) and it will mean your tank can take more of a beating.

Once you get your succubus (you read about her last week, right?) you are in the realms of drain-tanking. Basically you are the one taking the damage so throw an Immolate at the target, then your instant DoTs and finally Drain Life till they die. It helps to run away from them while you cast those instant spells. The succubus can be either whipping them for extra damage or seducing their friend. This is a fun and fast way to play but not ideal for every situation, don't forget your voidwalker if this is proving tricky.

Spells

Level 12 - Health Funnel - keep your pet alive while your DoTs kill the mob.
Level 14 - Drain Life - Great for resource (health/mana) regeneration and drain tanking.
Level 16 - Unending Breath - Used to be useful before everyone got lungs like pearl divers. The speed boost is quite nice if you have the glyph.
Level 18 - Create Soulstone - Fantastic spell that I typically forget to keep active on myself.
Level 18 - Searing Pain - Not particularly great spell for most situations.
Level 20 - Demon Armor - Replacement for Demon Skin, don't forget to update your action bars.
Level 20 - Rain of Fire - AoE fireballs from the sky. Nice.
Level 20 - Ritual of Summoning - Is that a summoning stone in your pocket?
Level 20 - Summon Succubus - Read all about it!
Level 20 - Felsteed - Wheee! Giddy Up!

Level 22 - Eye of Kilrogg - I once killed Illidan with only Eye of Kilrogg and Ritual of Souls; true story.
Level 24 - Drain Mana - I have used this is AQ once and to solo the Tiger boss in ZG, that's it.
Level 24 - Sense Demons - If the smell isn't enough...
Level 24 - Curse of Tongues - Great spell for reducing the damage output of casters, in the same way CoW is for meat-heads.
Level 26 - Detect Invisibility - By the time you realize you need this buff it's probably too late. Remember, it does not detect stealth.
Level 28 - Create Firestone - Very nice boost to damage, keep it active all the time.
Level 28 - Banish - Crowd control for demons.
Level 30 - Enslave demon - More CC for demons, though I forgot it last week. Handy if somewhat troublesome.
Level 30 - Hellfire - More AoE, unfortunately not as good as rain of Fire. I like this spell and wish it were worth using more.
Level 30 - Summon Felhunter - Our own puppy and subject of the next 'Meet the minions'.

Level 32 - Curse of Elements - This can be very handy if you are with other casters, though oom-chickens and unholy death knights can apply it easier.
Level 32 - Shadow Ward - Actually very handy if you remember to use it when about to take shadow damage.
Level 36 - Create Spellstone - If you're not leveling as destruction then swap to using this weapon buff.
Level 40 - Howl of Terror - AoE fear; fun and danger in one spell.
Level 40 - Dreadsteed - Epic mount, oooh yes! Fast and Furious

Gear

Historically any cloth gear with stamina and intellect was considered warlock loot. This is still true to some degree as we do get more out of stamina than other casters (bigger health pool means bigger mana pool). With the introduction of the Glyph of Life Tap and the changes to make Life Tap work off spirit, this is now also a stat worth having. More on warlock glyphs in this previous article.

Spell power is highly desirable as a green stat. Look out for those randomly enchanted items: ...of the Eagle, ...of Spell Power and even ...of Healing are all good (healing bonus was converted to spell power a while back). There are a few items that stand out during leveling but they are too many to mention here. I do remember the robe from the final boss in RFDbeing one I didn't replace for quite a while. It might be worth reading the comments for further suggestions.

Powerleveling

If you have a character at level 80 and want to shower your new lock with gifts, then the heirloom items are well worth going for. Primarily I would suggest the ones that give an experience boost (Tattered Dreadmist Mantle and Tattered Dreadmist Robe). After that theDignified Headmaster's Charge is fabulous and very warlocky (I couldn't bring myself to ever throw away my original Headmaster's Charge). Finally the trinkets are fabulous, especially at low levels where you don't see them dropping from mobs. I would suggest the Discerning Eye of the Beast before the Swift Hand of Justice.

If you really want to get through the levels as fast as possible then you could try and persuade a level 80 character to boost you through Deadmines, Wailing Caverns orShadowfang Keep till 20 then the various wings of Scarlet Monastery until 40. This is quick leveling but you'll learn nothing about playing a warlock that way. Warlocks are hugely fun to play at all levels with loads of options and variety, so get out there and bring terror to the populous.

Addendum

Somebody mentioned something about being able to gain experience in battlegrounds. I guess you could do that if you like that kind of thing.

Blood Pact: Locked and loaded

2011-07-03T22:30:00.000-07:00

Between Arenas, V'Ming spends his time as a lock laughing ominously in AV, tanking Olm with his own minions and pondering troll fashion from Zul'Aman.
Sweet 70! Time to rest on your shadowy laurels, or press on into "endgame"? Stripping it down, WoW endgame is raiding and PvP. You may have reputations to grind, heroic instances to run and daily quests to complete, but raiding is truly the only way to experience content you haven't seen before, at least from the perspective of a Warlock. Similarly, PvP - with unpredictable opponents, ever-changing scenarios and the thrill of competition - is another way to keep things fresh and challenging.

Most players engage in a little bit of everything, and the choice really lies with you. Since The Burning Crusade, PvP has become a good alternative means of progression, with rewards that rival those from PvE. Many raiders also dip into PvP as a reliable source of gear upgrades to improve their raid performance.

Regardless of what you choose to focus on, the game at 70 definitely involves more group work. If you have soloed all the way to 70, your lone wolf days are over, if you wish to progress further. Let's look at some of endgame expectations for warlocks.

Getting into a guild
Endgame is all about group work. A guild should ideally offer you like-minded individuals to play with, and thus progress with. Keep these in mind while looking for a guild:

Is the guild's objective in line with yours? Are the guild member focusing on PvP or raids? Can you work your goals around them?
What stage of progression is the guild at? If the guild is already working on The Eye, your fresh 70 toon would definitely be out of place. While a few established level 70s might help you out, can you really count on having nine such players consistently helping you with Karazhan?
When does the guild play? Obviously you want a guild that is largely online when you play. At the same time, you also want to be able to consistently show up for raids. Many raids fall apart simply because of no-shows.
Can you fit into the guild's culture? Are guildmates friends or more like colleagues?

As with any real life group situation, it's not only about the guild serving your needs. What do you have to offer the guild in return: contributing mats? Voluntarily helping other guildies? Or just simply showing up on time for scheduled events consistently?

Gear

Love it or hate it, gear is a large component of your PvP and PvE performance. Getting a good set of pre-Karazhan gear from PvE or crafting should be your immediate priority.Battlegrounds and Arenas are also good ways to get great gear for both PvP and raiding.

A PvE warlock's most important stats are: spell damage, spell hit, spell crit and spell haste. Spell hit is generally an easier way to increase DPS than spell crit, up till its cap of 202 for raid bosses (more doesn't help). Warlocks who have 5/5 Suppression need a spell hit rating of just 76 to maximize the chance of their DoTs landing on raid bosses, although they'll probably want more as Suppression does not affect shadow bolts and other destruction spells. Spell haste benefits Destruction warlocks the most, by shortening the cast time of their nukes. A spell haste of 15.7 improves your casting time by 1%, but obviously does nothing for instant spells.

As a pre-Karazhan Warlock, you should aim for a spell damage of about 700 (with Fel Armor), a crit chance in the early teens, and a 30-ish spell hit rating.

PvP warlocks focus on a different set of stats: stamina, resilience, and spell damage/crit. Since you're fighting targets of equal level (other players), you need a spell hit rating of just 38 to achieve the 3% needed to max out your hit chance at 99%. For affliction locks, just 2 points in Suppression (2% spell hit per talent point) will max out the hit chance for affliction spells.

Naturally, your choice of gems and enchantments should be focused on these respective stats. Some obvious gem choices are Veiled Noble Topaz and Runed Living Ruby. ConsiderSteady Talasite and Solid Star of Elune for your PvP gear. You may also want uncommonequivalents of these gems. Chaotic Skyfire Diamond is a good metagem choice for destruction and demonology locks, while Swift Starfire Diamond is great for afflliction locks.

Raid DPS

Your main job in a raid is to kill stuff. To have an idea of how you are performing, get a damage meter like SWStats. A DPSer playing without a damage meter is like a driver racing without a speedometer. A damage meter isn't meant to stroke your DPS epeen - it's a tool to show you where you are, with respect to other DPSers. It also highlights problems: if your total damage and DPS is significantly lower than other similarly geared DPSers, it means you're not fully exploiting what your class can do.

Generally warlocks should be among the top five in the DPS charts. If you're not, look at other warlocks: how are they specced? How are they geared? What enchantments and gems do they have? Talk to them about their spell cycles.

A DPS discussion is never complete without talking about its evil twin - threat. The Warlock has one of the highest threat-to-damage ratios. In other words, for an equal amount of damage, the Warlock can generate more threat than other DPSers. An overzealous Warlock can pull aggro from the tank, leading to his or her demise at best, or at its worst, wiping the raid. Get a threat meter like Omen, and learn to use Soulshatter pro-actively to correct your threat level before bad things happen. Using soulshatter intelligently can also maximize your damage output.

Raid utility

As a Warlock, you offer more than DPS to the raid. Expect to do crowd control, whether it's seduce, banish, enslave, fear-kiting or even pet off-tanking. Be aware of your CC limitations and durations; you're generally expected to still deliver damage, even while you're CCing.

Some raid encounters will demand very specific abilities from warlocks - don't be caught not having a critical spell on your interface. Learn the encounters and have the appropriate pet summoned all the time - don't let the raid play the game for you.

Offer healthstones without being asked, particularly before a boss encounter. Soulstone a rezzer intelligently, keeping in mind that soulstones aren't only for wipe recovery, but for battle rezzing as well. In certain situations, the raid will benefit more with a soulstone on a Druid, on a squishier DPSer like a Mage, or even yourself!

Work out curse assignments among warlocks, especially debuffs like Curse of Elements, Shadow, Exhaustion, Weakness and Recklessness. A separate Warlock channel is great for this purpose. Remember that what benefits the raid benefits you as well - don't get DPS tunnel vision.

Blood Pact: The final stretch

2011-07-03T22:27:00.000-07:00

Between Arenas, V'Ming spends his time as a lock laughing ominously in AV, tanking Olm with his own minions and pondering troll fashion from Zul'Aman.Ding, 58! You're officially eligible for Outland content now. Go ahead, step through the Dark Portal. The quality of Outland gear simply outclasses the stuff you will get in the old world, for the same time investment. Yes, Outland mobs will hit harder and fights will last longer, but the increased difficulty shouldn't faze a Warlock, and will certainly be pie if you brought a friend (preferably a healer) along. Be cautious with the pulls, remember your lessons, and you should do just fine in the Outland at level 58.

Completists among us would sneer at this suggestion to skip content. If you're in no hurry to hit 70, then more questing power to you!

The last stage of leveling from 61 to 70 in a nutshell: no new pets, no new mechanics. If you are level 60, you have pretty much learnt all the tricks of the Warlock trade. A 70 lock is essentially a 60 with (much) bigger numbers and some nifty tools to make this stage of the game less laborious.

Fel Armor

For 61 levels you've been buffing yourself with Demon Armor/Skin - a nice but rather 'blah' self-buff. At level 62, the game gives you +50 spell damage with Fel Armor. Yes, spell damage - one of the most important stats for a DPS caster class. Rank 2 of Fel Armor, learnt at level 69, gives you a sweet 100 points of spell damage!

Fel Armor blows Demon Armor out of the water, period. Drop the latter off your bars to free up a button slot. Never ever forget reapplying Fel Armor to yourself every half hour! Demonic Aegis in the demonology tree makes Fel Armor even more outrageous (thanks, Diabla).

Incinerate

One final nuke for warlocks at level 64. This spell is a mana-efficient, faster-casting replacement for shadow bolt while soloing or short fights. It's got a nice, 'crawling' fire animation too!

Interestingly according to these calculations, as a chaser for immolate, this nuke tops shadow bolt in DPS if you don't have any points in the destruction tree. With Bane andImproved Shadow Bolt factored in, shadow bolts still reign for sustained combat.

Unless you spec heavily into the destruction tree (Emberstorm and Shadow & Flame) and have good fire-biased gear, the general consensus is that shadow bolt will remain your staple nuke.

Soulshatter

Soulshatter, learnt at level 66, gives you an aggro dump every five minutes. At the cost of one soul shard, you reduce your all-around threat by 50%. Obviously you're not going to use this ability much while you're soloing, but Soulshatter is essential when it comes to group work and raids. Be careful using this AoE effect around mobs that haven't been aggro'ed, Soulshatter will actually turn them onto you! (Tested this again, soulshatter doesn't aggro mobs - thanks, Atilim.)

Ritual of Souls

It used to be a pain handing out healthstones via the trade window, especially when you're the only Warlock in a big raid. At level 68, you can create an automatic healthstone dispenser at the cost of just one soul shard, with the help of two other teammates. Each soulwell is good for 10 healthstones. Tell your helpers to not fidget during the ritual, or it'll fail and you can only do this again after five minutes. This spell is such a good idea that I'm surprised that mages only got their own food/drink dispenser last patch.

Seed of Corruption

If you like to make things go boom, this is the spell for you at level 70. Seed of Corruption (SoC) is a combo DoT/AoE effect that replaces Corruption. In other words, SoC overwrites corruption and you can't have both on a single target. When the seeded target takes 1044 damage from any source, the seed explodes, causing glorious AoE damage within 15 yards (cue maniacal laughter).

Non-lethal AoE damage from other SoC explosions, however, will not trigger a detonation. In other words, the explosion from target A has to kill target B, before it triggers the detonation in target B. This prevents you from setting off a 'chain' of explosions on a bunch of healthy targets.

Note that a seed's explosion only affects enemies around the seeded target. If target A's seed explodes, only target B and C gets the AoE damage, not target A. Target A will only suffer the DoT component of SoC, if any before detonation. So you'll want to seed as many different targets as possible to maximize the effect of this spell. The AoE damage also passes through walls and floors (This has been fixed last patch). As with any other AoE effect, be wary of attracting lots of unwanted attention from mobs!

Talents

At this point, you should have developed a good picture of what each talent tree offers to make an informed decision. There is no single 'best leveling spec' at this stage, although I am inclined to say that the Affliction gives you the most bang point for point, with little to no 'filler' talents.

I'd even venture to say that Blizzard did a good job with our trees, differentiating them through playstyle, rather than viability. All three trees give you good DPS, and only really differ in forms of delivery. Warlocks truly have a choice, and your choice simply depends on your preferred playing style, if you're not a min-maxer.

A recap of pros and cons of each tree:

If you're curious, this was my build at level 70, which was good for solo farming (there was a lot of farming to do as a fresh 70) and delivering some respectable burst damage on trash mobs in instances. Some warlocks swear by a Felguard demonology build such as this for leveling post-60, due to the pet's excellent DPS. For all intents and purposes, there is no one perfect build for all situations. Picking one talent over another is a value choice, and that entirely depends on your experience and preference. Check out Chris' excellent discussion of a 43/0/18 build.

There you go, a full-fledged cultist of the dark arts! For some, 70 represents the end of a long road (at least until Wrath of the Lich King). For many, this is just the beginning of the 'endgame', whether it's raiding, PvP or both.

Discover what awaits you in the endgame ->

Blood Pact: Let's lock and roll to 60!

2011-07-03T22:24:00.000-07:00

Between Arenas, V'Ming spends his time as a lock laughing ominously in AV, tanking Olm with his own minions and pondering troll fashion from Zul'Aman.Freshly mounted, you are perched at the beginning of the end of your Azerothian adventures: levels 41-60. The fantastic Outland beckons, but it is not time yet. While your demonic collection of minions is almost complete, and your spellbook is swathed in shadowy flames, your training is far from complete.

More power, more dungeons and more slaughtering of hapless fauna wandering stupidly in the wilderness awaits. With a resolute glint in your eyes, you give a silent command to your flaming steed and gallop into further depths of shadow and flame.

TalentsThe path of warlocks truly diverge at this stage, depending on how you invest your talent points. All three of our talent trees - Affliction, Demonology and Destruction - are very viable in both PvE and PvP; your choice is really about the play style you prefer.

Destruction gives you the power to blast away your targets with ease, but you will need to cultivate a drinking habit, much like other mana-using classes. Demonology adds to the power your minions already have, and gives you the Felguard at level 50. If you have been following the path of Affliction, you should be well aware of your relentless staying power by now.

For maximizing leveling efficiency and solo survivability, I will recommend continuing down the Affliction tree, followed by 5 points in Demonic Embrace for a build like this at level 60. This build gives you all the goodies in Affliction, and dips into Demonology for more Stamina (Spirit is a non-issue with Drain Life, Life Tap and Dark Pact).

If you want to have the Felguard as soon as possible, get this build. This build maximizes your DPS as a demonology lock and assumes that you'll be tanking with the Voidwalker initially, and the Felguard later. Feel free to drop the three points in Improved Voidwalker into other pets, if you use those pets more. Don't let these builds limit your options - try all the trees to find one you like, if respeccing cost isn't an issue. Go nuts!

A notable talent in the demonology build: Soul Link. Many PvP warlocks spec this, especially those who participate in the Arenas. When active, your pet effectively soaks 20% of all damage for you, dramatically increasing your survivability.

Pets

Your quartet of pets - Imp, Voidwalker, Succubus and Felhunter - will pretty much meet all your minion needs. Investing 41 points in the Demonology tree, however, will give you your personal DPS warrior who comes with his own Arcanite Reaper lookalike - the Felguard. You have two more pets waiting in the shadowy wings, but the Felguard probably represents the last useful pet you will get in your warlock career.

By level 60, your felguard can taunt, charge and do a sweeping attack like real warriors. This pet is certainly a signature pet for warlocks leveling in the Outland, but its utility quickly fades in level 70 raiding and PvP.

The other two remaining pets are the Infernal at level 50, and the Doomguard at level 60. These pets add to your range of neat party tricks - they behave like normal enslaved demons. Yes, you need to enslave them every five minutes at the cost of one soulshard, with diminishing returns. Some warlocks use these pets to wreck havoc in outdoor PvP, especially in early zones where the infernal can be an awe-inspiring sight to new players.

Despite the lack of utility of these two 'endgame' pets, the quest chains to get these pets are pretty fun, and I fully recommend everyone to do them. Remember to bring some non-warlock friends on the last stage of the infernal quests!

Dreadsteed

Another rite of passage for the warlock at level 60, for the unbelievably cool Dreadsteed. TheDreadsteed quests will require a trip each to the Scholomance alchemy lab and Dire Maul West. The mount is NOT free, although recent patches have reduced the material requirements substantially.

This is the perfect time to get to know the rest of the more established Warlock population. Besides their wonderful personalities, chances are some of them will still have the three reusable items required for the final stage. You'll save 250g if you get a Warlock with those items to help you. The other mats should cost you 200-300g, depending on your server's AH prices.

Debuff, DoTs and nukes

Death Coil - a most controversial nuke, learnt at level 42, also known as 'skillcoil' or 'lolcoil' (mainly by people who had been pwned by warlocks). It's a 3-in-1 instant: damage, heal and horror. The healing component may be trivial, but a well-placed Death Coil can reliably get a Warlock out of trouble, or get his PvP opponent into serious trouble. Use this with abandon when soloing like a normal nuke, you shouldn't be needing the horror portion of this spell much. In PvE group work, you'll want to watch this as your tank might not appreciate you peeling the mob off him or her. In the worst case scenario, the horrored mob might bring more nasty friends.

Curse of Shadow - this is the level 44 cousin of CoE, a curse that boosts shadow AND arcane damage. Like CoE, this debuff can contribute more damage on the whole than your damage dealing curses, depending on group makeup. In a raid with multiple warlocks, mages and shadow priests, your raid leader may assign CoE and CoS duties to specific warlocks to increase the raid's DPS.

Soul Fire - a long-cast (yawn) nuke learnt at level 48, probably only used by Destruction warlocks. With a 4-second cast (after improvement by Bane), its utility is obviously limited if your target is already beating on you. Some warlocks use it as their opener, or on a PvP target that's been CCed.

Unstable Affliction - this 41-point talent that will bring an affliction lock's DoT count on a target to five. This DoT makes dispelling warlock DoTs a nightmare in PvP, dealing a chunk of crit-able damage to the dispeller and silencing them at the same time. UA locks are very common in the Arenas.

Shadowfury - deep down the Destruction tree is this tier 9 talent, available at level 50. Shadowfury is nice, fast-cast AoE weapon for the destruction lock. Comes with a War Stomp effect stunning all targets in an area for two seconds. Obviously useful for PvP, and adds to a destro lock's PvE damage output if used carefully.

Curse of Doom (CoD) - think of this as a 1-minute time bomb. Like CoA and CoEx, this spell can be given a nice boost by Amplify Curse. Avoid 'forgetting' to amp up by using this macro:

#showtooltip Curse of Doom
/cast Amplify Curse
/cast Curse of Doom

The first line of the macro will force the button to show the tooltip and cooldown for CoD, instead of Amplify Curse. Use this judiciously in multi-target fights to increase your overall damage output, as this spell does not break crowd control abilities. By the time the group gets to burning the CC'ed mob, CoD should pop to deal a nice chunk of damage.

This curse is preferred to CoA in long boss fights, even though back-to-back CoAs will deal more absolute damage. The multiple global cooldowns triggered by CoA, however, can make room for additional shadowbolts if you used CoD instead. You'll also have one less DoT to constantly re-apply during the fight. Note that when CoD pops, your threat can spike dramatically - so get a timer and don't piss your tank off.

If your target is killed by CoD, there is a small chance you'll get a Doomguard spawn. This is one way of getting your doomguard 'pet' without questing for Ritual of Doom. Use CoD on level 1 critters to get your bat-winged badass!

Quest

What better weapon to complete a Warlock's outfit than a reaper's scythe, aptly named Soul Harvester. At level 50, pick up An Imp's Request from your trainer and you'll embark on a quest line that will send you to Felwood and the Sunken Temple (bring friends!). Do this series concurrently with your Infernal quests. Upon completion, you will have a choice of a staff, robes or trinket. The trinket is one of its kind in the game, while the other two are probably easily replaced by better gear later.

I picked the Soul Harvester for sheer coolness!

The Outlands and your last 10 levels await! ->

Blood Pact: Free mount at 40!

2011-07-03T22:18:00.000-07:00

Between Arenas, V'Ming spends his time as a lock laughing ominously in AV, tanking Olm with his own minions and pondering troll fashion from Zul'Aman.I confess that I rolled a lock for simply the coolest mount in game, back in May '05 when I was still a wide-eyed WoW newbie. Yes, the one thing that visually - and financially - sets us apart from most other poor sods who have to cough up 90g or so: the free Felsteed mount at level 40!

When you ding 40, put EVERYTHING on hold, fly/run/swim to the nearest Warlock trainer and get Summon Felsteed for 1g (or probably just 90s, depending on your reputation with the city). For this low, low price, you also get 75 riding skill, so that you can ride all other basic mounts - but why would you wanna?!

Now that I've stuck this carrot-on-a-stick in your face, let's hope that this will spur you through the enchantingmid-levels of 21 to 40.

Financial freedom
So what do you do with all the gold you've saved on your mount? Invest in bags, of course. Soul shards can take a lot of space, so you'll want as much bag space as possible for uninterrupted questing and farming. As a very general rule of thumb, you should have 10 shards for soloing and 20 shards for group work. Some warlocks carry up to 40 shards for raids! Remember, a lock should never be caught without shards.

Pets

In 1-20, the game threw three vastly different pets at you. The bad news for 21-40: you will only get one new pet, the Felhunter at level 30. The good news: Enslave Demon, also available at level 30, will open the door to a whole range of demonic playthings!

The felhunter is a anti-caster pet that many warlocks like to PvP with. The dog-like demon makes counterspell and 'decurse' effects available to the Warlock in a durable, magic-resistant package. By level 36, your doggie should have its full arsenal of abilities, minusParanoia.

You'll probably want to manually control the felhunter's Spell Lock, to prevent it from being stuck in its 3-minute cooldown at the most inopportune PvP moments. Like the succubus' seduction, this pet ability can be better managed with a hot-keyed macro:

#showtooltip
/clearfocus [modifier:alt]
/focus [target=focus,noexists]; [target=focus,dead]
/clearfocus [target=focus,help]
/cast [pet:Felhunter,target=focus,harm] Spell Lock; Spell Lock

This macro uses the /focus function to 'lock' onto a target, without the need to manually reacquire. Use the Alt key to change your focus.

The Hunter may have the animal kingdom to befriend, but in line with the badass theme of warlocks, we have demons to enslave. At the cost of one soul shard, you can have a cool demon (with chains!) at your disposal for five minutes. Impress your friends, tank the mobs with one of their own, but watch that duration 'cos you'll have an angry demon after you when enslave breaks (a timer is useful here).

DoTs and nukes

You won't get many new DPS toys from 21 to 40, other than upgrades to your existing ones. In other words, by level 20, you pretty much have all the staple DoTs and nukes.

At level 30, you get to puff Hellfire around you. This is a channeled AoE spell that does more damage than Rain of Fire. Unfortunately the spell is centered around you and you get to share the fiery pain with your enemies (another sure sign of Warlock emo). Make sure your healer is well-trained to recognize what you're trying to do, and pop some shields or heals your way. Also make sure that the mobs you're going down in a blaze of glory with is occupied with a tank or an AoE-ing mage. Even without mobs beating on you, this spell, unlike Life Tap, will gleefully send you on a corpse run.

Incidentally, sometimes you may actually want a corpse run. An example is heading to the back door of Karazhan when the raid is done with the opera event. It's simply quicker to take a shortcut via the graveyard, since Death by hellfire does not incur repair costs. It's a fun way to trip your healers' panic buttons too.

Some talent-specific spells should be mentioned here:

Siphon Life - you get this at level 30, but only if you've made a beeline for it in the Affliction tree. This DoT acts like a fire-and-forget Drain Life, but it's not mana-efficient for the damage it does. Use this for its heal-over-time component. Good for longer or multi-target fights.

Shadowburn - instant nuke at the cost of a soul shard; refunds the shard if the mob croaks within five seconds. This is the first instant-speed nuke a Warlock will get, but you'll need to spec 11 points into the Destruction tree to get this bad boy.

Debuffs and crowd control

You get two curses at level 26 and 32: Curse of Tongues (CoT) and Curse of Elements (CoE) respectively. CoT makes life difficult for casters and is arguably more valuable in PvP. Imagine stretching the cast time of a greater heal to 4.5 seconds or any other cast times by 50% - simply evil! An interesting side effect of this curse is when the player of the affected toon types something in chat, it comes out as gibberish (or Demonic, for the lore-inclined)!

Rank 1 CoE increases fire and frost damage by at least 6%. "Waitaminute, but locks don't do ice spells!" you may point out. This is where the group utility of CoE comes in: this curse increases the effectiveness of other classes in your party of raid that do use ice - like the Mage and Shaman. Mages benefit the most from CoE, with both schools of their elemental magic boosted. CoE has limited utility when you're soloing, unless you're destro-specced and sling a lot of fire spells (which begs the question: shouldn't a pyromaniac like you roll a mage?)

If you haven't noticed, warlocks are manipulative, in lore, theme and abilities. Another example of resource manipulation is Drain Life's little sister: Drain Mana, learnt at level 24. Unlike its big brother, this spell is very much left unused, especially while soloing. It shines in specific boss encounters, like Moam in AQ20.

Banish, first learnt at level 28, makes the Warlock indispensable in demon or elemental-laden encounters. Simply put, Banish is the best form of crowd control: it doesn't heal, it doesn't move the mob randomly, and it's unbreakable - at least until it wears off, or if you decide to cast it on a different demon or elemental. (There was a short period of time when a lock could break banish with a second banish on the same mob, but alas, that was quickly 'fixed'.) A Warlock can effectively pwn a group of four demons alone: enslave one to tank a second, banish the third and DPS the fourth. Don't forget to laugh like a maniac at the same time.

Consider a /focus macro and a timer for this excellent spell:

/clearfocus [modifier:alt]
/focus [target=focus,dead]; [target=focus,noexists]
/clearfocus [target=focus,help]
/cast [target=focus,harm] Banish; Banish

Use the Alt key to change focus, as usual. Be careful when using this in conjunction with other /focus macros, as you might end up trying to banish a seduced target, for example. Seduction takes precedence for me, since it's the easiest to break.

At level 40, you learn an AoE fear spell: Howl of Terror. With a cast time of 1.5 seconds, it is limited in its utility. Invest two points in Improved Howl of Terror to make the spell instant, and you'll be howling away in both PvP and PvE. In PvP, use this to get out of sticky situations or be a general nuisance. In PvE, you can use this as a limited form of crowd control, or buy time for your DoTs in multi-mob farming. Sold yet? Unfortunately, the earliest level you can make this spell instant is 46. Patience, young lock.

With the howl, the Warlock's crowd control arsenal is pretty much complete: seduction, banish, enslave, fear, and pet tanking. We are one of the privileged classes that can control multiple mobs at the same time. Learn to use your CC tools well, and you'll be well-loved in 5-mans and raids.

Stones

While healthstones and soulstones are staple Warlock tools, the utility of the other two stones - Firestone (level 28) and Spellstone (level 36) - is suspect in PvE. If you do not have a good wand, go ahead and equip either of these, particularly the spellstone. In PvP, many warlocks equip the spellstone for its crit and 'get out of jail free' blanket magic removal. With a cooldown of three minutes, I'd say that the spellstone is more useful in Arenas compared to a lackluster wand.

Talents

Making our way down the Affliction tree, we will start to get some real gems:

Fel Concentration - a must-have if you want to drain-tank your way up. With Soul Siphon, Drain Life becomes a virtually uninterruptible monster.

Nightfall - another reason to drain life. Makes your shadowbolt instant when it procs every other fight or so, if you apply corruption and drain life diligently. This talent doesn't proc nearly as much in group work, since it's more effective to spam nukes than drain and hope for a proc.

Dark Pact - an absolute gem for minimizing downtime, obtained at level 40. You'll almost never need to drink again! This talent makes your pet a mana battery. The imp is ideal for this, with its phenomenal mana regen. With dark pact, you can replenish your own mana fromboth your pet's mana and life tap. Be careful when you tap mana from the succubus though, you don't want her to be out of mana when you need a seduce.

At this point, you'll have to pick different builds, depending on your play style and the server type you're on

If you dabble in PvP or play on a PvP server, get Curse of Exhaustion (CoEx) and its requisite talent, Amplify Curse with this build. CoEx, like fear, can get you out of sticky situations and is obviously frustrating for melee opponents that need to close the gap to do damage. Amplify curse makes CoEx 20% more debilitating, and provides a nice 50% damage boost to CoA and eventually, Curse of Doom (CoD). Make sure that your CoEx'es are amplified as often as possible, with this macro:

#showtooltip
/cast Amplify Curse
/cast Curse of Exhaustion

You can also tailor this macro for CoA and even CoD to prevent forgetting to amp them up, given that the cooldown of amp curse is a long-ish three minutes.

If you want to focus on leveling, or do not care for PvP at this point, you should consider four points in Suppression with this build. Suppression is an easy way to gain +hit, so that your targets will get less resists (or partial resists for DoTs) against all your affliction spells, which includes fear and the much maligned Death Coil.

Both these builds are designed to hit Dark Pact as soon as possible at level 40, for minimizing downtime. Feel free to tailor them to your play style - you control your warlock's dark destiny! :) Read this excellent guide with a detailed look at all Warlock talents on the official forums.

Addendum: Quests

As some of you have pointed out, there are some Warlock-specific quests from 21-40, other than the ones for your Felhunter. Some of the rewards are great, and even if they're not, the quests are part of the unique Warlock experience. We have the most class, race and even faction-specific quests, compared to the rest.

The Orb of Soran'ruk - this quest will send you to two instances: Blackfathom Deeps and Shadowfang Keep. Pick this quest up from Doan Karhan in The Barrens at level 20. Warning: there's much travelling involved as BFD and SFK are practically on opposite ends of Azeroth.

You have served us well - this is the Warlock-specific end to a Alliance-only quest chain, starting with A Noble Brew. Yes, Alliance only. It will send you to Darkshire and the Wetlands and you can pick it up at level 25, for a nice hat reward at the end.

Enchanted Gold Bloodrobe - a long chain that starts from your trainer at level 31, that gives you a very nice robe (which Mr Sexy is wearing above). In a nutshell, you will need a somewhat rare tailoring pattern (and a tailor, if you're not one), a gold bar from the AH or a blacksmith, and some drops from Desolace and Arathi Highlands. Worth doing, for the experience and the reward.

Final reminder: mount up as soon as you hit 40!

Your guide to level 60 is just a click away ->

Blood Pact: So you've picked a Lock ...

2011-07-03T22:17:00.000-07:00

Between Arenas, V'Ming spends his time as a lock laughing ominously in AV, tanking Olm with his own minions and pondering troll fashion from Zul'Aman.

There's been a chorus from my dark brethren calling for the return of Blood Pact. As a career Warlock player - with a /played of 105 ~~hours~~ days (oops!) since May '05, you can say that I've been afflicted by the demonic embrace of this fascinating class. Observant readers will notice that I'm also the Blood Sport columnist - bloody coincidence? There may be more sinister forces at work here ...

With quicker 20-60 leveling in patch 2.3, this is the best opportunity for you to start on brand new alts, and what better class to invest in than the solo powerhouse class of magic-users gone all dark and emo (no other class takes large chunks out of their own health bar all the time ...).

This 1-20 leveling guide assumes you're not new to WoW. I will focus on abilities that become available as you level, and how to maximize their effectiveness, rather than a zone-by-zone laundry list of quests.

Five races delve into the demonic arts: Orc, Undead, Blood Elf, Human, and Gnoooo ... (for the love of WoW, please don't roll a gnome lock!). I'd say that the Undead, with the racial trait of Cannibalize, enjoys the most synergy with Warlock abilities. Orc warlocks have played a large part in Azerothian lore, with Gul'dan being the most notable Orc Warlock. Hey, this badass certainly knew what he was doing when he ditched shamanism for a Warlock career. Blood elves and humans look pimp in tier 5 lock gear.

To sum up the Warlock in a sentence: ranged DPS class with high survivability and deep pet, control and utility options. To sum up the class in one word? Overpowered.

Haha, just kidding.

Pets

From levels 1-20, you will gain access via small quest chains to three pets: Imp, Voidwalker and Succubus. Like Hunter pets, you'll need to train them. Always check with the demon trainer for new grimoires when you train your lock. Unlike Hunter pets, Warlock pets do not need to be kept happy or leveled independently. Unfortunately you can't name them; all your pets will come with their own demonic names.

The Imp is your personal DPSer available at level 1, and provides an important group buff,Blood Pact (yes, the namesake of this column). At level 10, the Voidwalker becomes your personal tank with access to some basic taunt abilities and sturdy enough to off-tank some lower instances. Also known affectionately as the "Blueberry", it gets an "ohnoes" button at level 16, which Sacrifices the poor pet for a temporary bubble.

The sultry Succubus, sashaying in at level 20, may be the real reason why Gul'dan ditched his totems. She packs good melee dps in her whip and gives you the power of crowd control over puny humanoids: Seduction. While many pet abilities can be set to autocast, Seduction is one spell you'll want FULL control over. With the help of a /focus macro, you can keep someone seduced in a battle without re-targeting:

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

This macro will cast seduction, and break seduction to recast it when used again. Use the Alt key to change your focus. For best results, keep your pet in passive mode and get a timer like ClassTimer to monitor seduce duration. A well-controlled succubus can be as effective as a mage in humanoid crowd control, so fledging locks, go out there and give our arcane friends a run for their money!

DoTs and nukes

As a DPS class, you get a variety of ways to essentially do the same thing: kill. As a general rule, the spells you choose to use will depend on the length of the fight. Load up on instant DoTs and nukes when fights are brief. For longer fights, apply an entire set of DoTs, spam nukes and reapply DoTs as soon as they run out.

Shadowbolt - basic nuke, learn to spam this as efficiently as possible from range.

Immolate - combo nuke/DoT, good as an opener for short fights. Learn this at level 1 immediately after meeting your trainer.

Corruption - with no talents, this 2-second cast DoT is inefficient for fights shorter than 12 seconds. Deals constant shadow damage over time.

Curse of Agony (CoA) - instant DoT with incremental shadow damage over 24 seconds. Good in group situations, dealing damage while not creating too much threat upfront. Also good for pulling mobs at range when soloing; your VW should not have trouble pulling early CoA aggro away from you.

Drain Soul - channeled spell primarily meant for harvesting soul shards. This spell hardly does any damage. For all intents and purposes, you can use rank 1 of this spell for the entire game.

Drain Life - channeled self-healing dps spell learnt at level 14. This is one of the spells critical to the lock's soloability, and the key spell for 'drain-tanking': apply a full set of DoTs on target and drain away! You will be whittling the target's health away, while keeping yourself alive at the same time. At higher levels, this spell scales very nicely with talents and gear, and is one of the triggers for Nightfall.

Searing Pain - high-threat nuke. It's quicker to cast than shadowbolt, but does less absolute damage. Generally used in low level groups to pull aggro off healers or other squishies.

Rain of Fire - channeled AoE spell at level 20. Haha, rain fiery death upon your enemies! Well, use this with care as mobs will be quite angry with you if you don't kill them with this. This spell is probably meant to support mages in their AoE glory, and add life to parties.

Debuffs and fear

Besides CoA, you will get two other curses: Curse of Weakness (CoW) at level 12 and Curse of Recklessness (CoR) at level 14. CoW is probably more useful in long, multi-mob fights to reduce the load on healers. Its effect is not significant in short battles.

The control element of CoR is often more useful than its armor reduction effect. Because of this, most warlocks often only use rank 1 of this spell. CoR can be used to prevent mobs from running away near death.

When CoR is used in tandem with another curse, a Feared mob can be made to run around within a controlled area. CoR overrides Fear, so the mob will try to re-acquire its target. If the mob gets too close, apply a different curse, say CoW, and the mob will start running around randomly again, if Fear is still in effect. This technique works best with melee mobs.

Stones and summons
You get to create your first lime-colored healthstone at level 10. Always offer healthstones to party members; the stones can be consumed in quick succession with healing potions due to different cooldowns. With healing potions unavailable in the Arenas, the healthstone is an important source of instant healing!

At level 18, you get the soulstone. You can apply it to yourself to save yourself a corpse run in the unlikely event that you die while soloing. In a group, the soulstone is most useful for recovering from wipes when applied to a rezzing class like Priest, Paladin and Shaman. The beauty of the soulstone is that it can also function as a battle rez.

Ritual of Summoning, learnt at level 20, gives you the power to manipulate space and time! Well, maybe not. Summoning is a group time saver, allowing you and two others to summon other party members to your location, at the cost of a soul shard per toon. Much of the pre-run summoning has been thankfully taken over by the summoning stones outside instances, but there are still many situations where a party or raid will be thankful that they brought a Warlock along. Don't disappoint them, always bring soul shards!

Attributes and talents

For leveling, you want to focus on these attributes, in decreasing order of importance: Stamina, Spell Damage, Intellect. Stamina will add to your drain-tanking effectiveness and sustain your mana through Life Tap.

It is widely agreed that Affliction is the best tree for a leveling Warlock. Starting from level 10, your talents should look something like this by level 20. This build is meant to minimize downtime, making you more effective at restoring both health and mana, without relying on food or drinks. Less downtime means faster leveling!

For fast kills, your cast order at level 20 should be: pet attack (usually Succubus), Immolate, Corruption, Shadowbolt till dead.

If you want to go at a slower but more constant and efficient pace with your blueberry tank: CoA, pet attack, Corruption, Immolate, Shadowbolt or Drain Life or Wand. Finish off with Drain Soul to yield a soul shard and some mana.

The idea here is to let your voidwalker take all the damage from the mob(s), so watch out for aggro, especially with Immolate and Shadowbolt. You can also pull with your pet, instead of CoA, for better pet tanking (thanks myalternateaccount for highlighting this).

After combat, Life Tap as you run to position yourself for the next pull. You'll want to wrap up each fight with little to no net loss in your health and mana. If you focus on draining, you can potentially end combat with more health and mana than what you started out with!

Professions

Tailoring and Enchanting are ideal for a Warlock at endgame. Leveling tailoring will be slow in these low levels as you will use most of your cloth for First Aid; bandages are an excellent way of replenishing your health after Life Tap.

If you have a high-level main supporting this toon with mats and gold, go ahead and work Tailoring and Enchanting up. If you do not have that option, consider the gathering professions: Mining, Herbalism and Skinning.

That wraps up my guide for freshly minted warlocks. Do you have more leveling tips to share?

Knock out your next 20 levels and get a free mount! ->

Totem Talk: Leveling on the 68-80 express

2011-07-03T22:15:00.000-07:00

Totem Talk, the column for shamans, finishes up its roundup/overview/update (it's all these things and more!) of shaman leveling with a look at what you'll be doing once you get off the boat to Northrend. Matthew Rossi is tired now, but would like to thank Steve again for the screenshot accompanying today's article.

And so we arrive at Northrend, able to take the quests and explore the new zones. We've talked about faction rewards and instance gearing for shamans in Northrend before, and for the most part that still holds true. Here's a look back at the posts about the various five man instances and zone rewards:

Dragonblight and Azjol-Nerub
Grizzly Hills, Zul'Drak, and the Troll instances
CoT Stratholme and Halls of Stone/Lightning
Utgarde Keep, the Oculus (spelled correctly, but really, if I misspelled it what's Sacco gonna do, arm wrestle me? We all know how that would go) and the heroic versions of Utgarde Pinnacle/The Nexus.

The only real changes in terms of 5 man instances are the introduction of Trial of the Champion and Heroic TotC, and to my astonishment I've never done a gear list for shamans from TotC. That really is kind of astonishing. It's possible I simply lost track since I was in the middle of a vast discussion of Ulduar gear when TotC was on the horizon, but it's still a pretty big oversight. With another set of new five mans dropping alongside the Icecrown raid in patch 3.3, TotC/Heroic TotC 5 are instances any new 80 should be running to get geared up in anticipation of 3.3. So we'll talk about that gear today.

Before we do though: if you have a main who can pick it up for you, get the Tome of Cold Weather Flight as soon as you can. If you can get it, it makes the starting areas much quicker and gives you the option to cherry pick out quest hubs faster than before. (This is doubly true if you have access to an epic flyer but even the upgraded regular flyers are faster than regular epic land mounts and can also skip right over obstacles.) With this ability, doing both starting zones (which I highly recommend even if you have heirloom armor and weapons you won't replace... remember, all that stuff vendors or DE's and you can still use the big XP for the chains) has never been easier, and that means that you'll be more likely to be max level before you start Icecrown and the Storm Peaks, meaning that all those quests will be gold in your pocket. With both heirloom chest and shoulders and some luck on rested you can easily be 80 before finishing up Zul'Drak, especially if you do both Borean Tundra and Howling Fjord.

Questing in Northrend is about as well designed as questing has ever been in WoW. The designers learned from their experience with classic and BC, and as a result, I can't imagine why anyone but the most die hard would entirely avoid it. But if for whatever reason you want to avoid all quests (perhaps this is your ninth or tenth alt) you most certainly can level without questing. In fact, leveling without doing a single quest has never been easier. You can of course chain run instances, but if you're also weary of that (or you can't for one reason or another) then there's always PvP as well.

The battlegrounds (even Alterac Valley post the nerf to the ridiculously high XP which we all knew was coming) are a strong alternative for the player who can't spare the time to run instances or who just likes to queue up and go. And with shamans being hybrids who can heal, you can more or less pick your playstyle and run with it and still help your faction out with the occasional clutch heal if you're of a mind to.

Also bear in mind you aren't restricted to any one of these activities. You can run through an area's quests (I especially recommend this for places like Grizzly Hills and Zul'Drak that have very rewarding group quests as well as quests that lead to instances like Drak'Tharon Keep or Gun'drak) then run a few instances and then queue for a BG or two to cleanse the palate. If you've managed to pick up dual specs you're in even better shape, as you can have an instance spec and a solo spec, or a PvP spec and a PvE spec. It's never been easier for a shaman to get to 80.

Finally, an overview of the gear available to you as a fresh 80 from TotC/Heroic TotC. TotC5 gear is roughly the same quality as Naxx 10 and TotC Heroic matches up with Ulduar 10, putting you in purples with a solid outlay of time as soon as you hit 80. (Some friends of mine were even running TotC normal before they ever saw 80 and stockpiling the purples.) The one downside to TotC is that each boss/encounter has a fairly large loot table. I'm sticking to mail drops here, in the interest of space, but there are several leather and cloth drops that will no doubt be desired by shamans.

Normal TotC

Abyssal Rune - a solid caster DPS trinket for elemental shamans
Banner of Victory - For enhancement, I would say you'd be better off with a Mirror of Truth or a Darkmoon Card or any Naxx 10 drop. Even some blue DPS trinkets would outperform this, since it's got a large chunk of static Armor Pen on it. The proc is nice enough.
Belt of Merciless Cruelty - haste for Maelstrom Weapon procs and solid stats and a gem socket.
Brilliant Hailstone Amulet - a fairly solid elemental piece, especially for a new 80 who might be low on hit.
Carapace of Grim Visions - I'd actually use this as restoration before elemental with that crit on it, but it could work for either.
Leggings of the Bloodless Knight - same as the Carapace.
Scale Boots of the Outlander - solid for enhancement even with the armor pen on them.
Signet of Purity - sigh, why can't shamans get anything good from spirit? Of all the caster/healer classes this is the worst for us with Holy Paladins probably a close second. Luckily I don't care about them.
Tears of the Vanquished - this thing seems to proc a lot. I'd say it's better even than it looks, and it doesn't look bad at all.
Uruka's Band of Zeal - ah, for the enhancement shaman trying to catch up on expertise this is a ring to be seized.
Writsguards of Ceaseless Regret - even with the armor pen these are pretty solid. But I prefer the Interwoven Scale Bracers, if you can get them. And of all the heroics, heroic Nexus is by far the easiest.

Heroic TotC

Aledar's Battlestar - In a world where 2.6 speed weapons are hard to get and we're already fighting for them with DK's and rogues, pick this up as soon as you can. It's easily as good as anything that will drop for you before Trial of the Crusader 10.
Ancient Pendant of Arathor - yes, it has armor pen. But it's still solidly itemized otherwise.
Chestguard of the Ravenous Fiend - same as the APoA.
Girdle of the Dauntless Conqueror - solid for resto, decent for elemental.
Gloves of the Dark Exile - would it have killed you to have put haste on one of these drops, Blizz? I guess the Belt of Merciless Cruelty was your one present to enhancement shamans.
Kurisu's Indecision - here's a cape to fight with every other DPS caster for, elemental shamans.
Mariel's Sorrow - a very nice healer mace.
Pauldrons of Conceal Loathing - no armor pen! It's a Winter Veil Miracle!
Pauldrons of the Deafening Gale - okay, caster shaman shoulders with hit and crit. Since hit is useless for restoration I'll give the nod to elemental, although that crit is just weird for a class that can force crits.
Sinner's Confession - a ring that repeats the Pauldron's gearing issues, but presumably the ring is meant for any DPS caster.
Spectral Kris - I've seen elemental and I've seen resto with it. It won't drop on any run I'm on, of course.
Symbol of Redemption - a healing neck for sure, and a nice one too.

Okay, and with that we should be more or less done with our 68 to 80 climb and should have an eye on where to go for some gear. Next week, we'll be shifting gears to really talk in detail about what shamans will look like in 3.3.

Totem Talk: So you're still playing that shaman...

2011-07-03T22:13:00.000-07:00

Totem Talk is the column for shamans. Matthew Rossiplays a couple of shamans. And he's embarrassed to admit that he forgot that he hadn't finished his series of columns about how to level a shaman. No excuse, no justification, he just plain forgot. So here and now we continue the interrupted series with a look at levels 41 - 58. We'll get back to elemental gear, I promise.
Parts one and two of the series got you up to level 40. You're wearing mail (most likely the Scarlet Monastery blues, especially for aspiring enhancement shamans) and ready to begin the march to Outland. Well, the first thing you'll need to do is find a place to start adventuring! Well, okay, the first thing you'll need to do is train your new level 40 abilities, and you'll keep having to do that as time passes. Then you'll need to find a place to go adventuring, mainly to pay for things like training.

First, however, a sad note: say goodbye to Ghost Wolf. Sure, you'll still have the spell, and you may even use it to escape a bad situation since it can be cast in combat. But that's basically the only thing you'll use it for once you get your first land mount. Since Ghost Wolf doesn't make you immune to poly, free you from snares or any of that good stuff and it has a casting time, you won't even use it much in PvP aside from flag running. I know, I miss it too. You have no idea how often I've used Ghost Wolf to run around cities just because I could. Epic ghost wolf? Flying ghost wolf? Throw us a bone here.

Yeah, that was bad. I apologize.

Shamans only get a couple of non-talented abilities after Chain Heal at 40. At 42 we getGrace of Air, which I use constantly when soloing on my enhancement shaman. To be honest, I never drop a windfury totem for myself, why would I when windfury weapon is much better? I drop it when I'm in a group with a lot of melee DPS - you should see how high a dual wielding warrior's DPS can go with a WF totem down - but for soloing or in a group with a rogue and a hunter as main DPS, GoA can produce some very nice results. It's a huge dose of agility, which is ranged attack power and crit for hunters, some AP and crit for rogues, and still respectable crit for any other melee. I'm a big fan of GoA and actually had to retrain myself to check group makeup and drop WF when it was justified, (If you ever get a really cocky DPS warrior in a group and want to humble him, don't drop WF totem and watch him sulk. It's hilarious. This message brought to you by a shaman with two DPS warriors.) I especially love the dodge bonus of GoA when soloing, as I'm perfectly fine with not being hit while I hit. All around, a lovely totem.

The last non-talented ability you'll be getting before 60 is Tranquil Air Totem. Clearly, to use this totem in a five man would require cooperation and coordination among your party, and so it's not the easiest totem to drop. But if you're in an all-DPS group, especially an all-caster group willing to forgo Wrath of Air. It can be a viable alternative totem to keep the DPS less threat-spike happy. I usually get stuck tank healing in my raids, so I don't drop this much. Tanks don't like threat reduction. It's funny. I don't pretend to understand it, but it upsets them when the paladin gives them Blessing of Salvation and I drop Tranquil Air next to them. Warriors are such contrary beasts.

Totem of Wrath is one of two elemental talented abilities, and as it takes 41 points in elemental to get, now is the time to be discussing it. It's a nice totem: I liked playing with it when I went elemental, and I very much enjoy it when I'm DPSing as enhancement. The other day I ran Botanica with a four shaman, one warrior group. Not much CC, but a lot of totems. You've never seen so many totems. Grace of Air, Windfury, Wrath of Air and Totem of Wrath all down at once. Shockapalooza, man, it was beautiful. My shoulders didn't drop, though. Totem of Wrath increased both chance to hit and critically hit with spells by 3% which is especially nice for caster DPS groups - I've heard shamans embrace it with love and claim that it's a worthless 41 point talent, I'll leave that kind of value judgment up to you. Personally, if you're going elemental I can't imagine why you wouldn't take it.

The 41 point enhancement talent is Shamanistic Rage. It's an astonishingly nice talent, made even better by the recent patch. The combination of damage reduction (a flat 30% off of the damage you take) and mana regeneration means this talent can help your steady production of damage in a fight rather enormously. Combined with the mana cost reduction of the lower-tier shamanistic focus, you'll find yourself quite able to produce steady DPS without panicking about running out of mana.

However, as someone who loves enhancement to death as a talent tree, I have to admit: good as it is, Shamanistic Rage isn't the best 41 point talent. Neither is Wrath of Air. No, the best 41 point talent in any shaman tree is Earth Shield. Oh, it's sublime, really. Used in PvE, it can make tank healing so much easier. Used in PvP, it can make killing a shaman intensely frustrating. I've kited rogues around and around forever using healing stream, ES and nature's swiftness to throw an instant healing wave on myself. ES benefits from your +heal when you cast it, so if you have trinkets that boost your +heal you should use them when you put it on, and if you have Wrath of Air you should be dropping it before cast if possible.

My first advice to a shaman who is approaching this level is to quest and save as much money as you can by avoiding the AH except to sell things. In fact, that would be my advice to almost any leveling character, even though I often succumb and go to the AH myself. If you can manage to avoid it, you'll end up with a lot more money, but I understand wanting to keep your gear as current as possible, and I know instances aren't always as friendly as they could be. Still, try and play it conservatively if at all possible. Training costs go up at this point, and you either just bought or are trying to buy your first land mount. (If you have a feeder 70 or two paying your way, feel free to ignore me here.)

As for zones to adventure in, if you didn't run Desolace or Dustwallow Marsh you should go clean out the higher-level quests in those zones before heading to Tanaris or Feralas. Between those two zones you'll be kept plenty busy, and also consider Azshara, an often overlooked zone with some interesting quest options (both Horde and Alliance have an extended questline in the Ruins of Eldarath, and there are faction specific quests in the zone as well). You'll be tackling Un'Goro and Felwood after Tanaris and Feralas, although if you're about level 48 and for some reason bogged down, you can always make a trip to the Searing Gorge, where the dark iron dwarves of Thorium Point have a good assortment of quests for you.

For an alternative, you can instead finish the higher level content of the Swamp of Sorrowsand then strike out for the Blasted Lands, using the Searing Gorge as a supplementary quest hub. I'd suggest running all of these zones, taking breaks from one continent when it starts to get wearying. It depends on your likes, dislikes and tolerances, but I grow to hate a zone if I spend too much time in it. Also, don't forget the Hinterlands, especially not if you're Horde. The quest hub at Revantusk, in my opinion, offers superior quests and rewards than the corresponding Alliance hub at Aerie Peak, but either faction should spend some time here before heading north to the Plaguelands or off to Winterspring. If for some reason you can't hit level 58 in these last three zones, you still have Silithus to explore: you'll probably want to go there anyway just to get your cooking up to 300 if fishing is taking a long time to level. I personally dislike Silithus, but there are a lot of quests there. LIkewise, there's always theBurning Steppes if you're bogged down in other zones and need a quest hub to push you over. I find both Silithus and the Steppes somewhat unrewarding now that you're not likely to be doing much with those big instances in the zones, but at least the Steppes offers you the hope of a few BRD runs.

By this point you should easily be level 50. This means one thing: wanton carnality.

Oh, right, shaman quest. Sorry. Lost my place in the notes there. At level 50 both Horde and Alliance shamans are told to go speak with batty ol' Bath'rah the Windwatcher, tormentor of level 30 - 40 warriors and all around high level shaman. Bath'rah, after forcing you to provide him with a rather trivial test of prowess, will send you off to the delightful Plaguelands to gather the materials for a Spirit Totem. Strangely enough, even though Bath'rah is obviously insane and enjoys making you waste your time, the Spirit Totem doesn't work, and so Bath'rah sends you to the Swamp of Sorrows to kill his fellow trolls and collect feathers from their corpses. This achieved, at last Bath'rah is satisfied and goes off to take a nap, but not before offering you various rewards. If you're elemental, you may be tempted by the Azurite Fists. The Wildstaff is nice, but most melee shamans will by this point be dual wielding, and so I usually take the Enamored Water Spirit, as I'm usually low on trinkets around this level anyway.

The first dungeon you'll probably run in this level range is Zul'Farrak. All I can really say is, get used to killing trolls. Lots and lots of trolls. The standout drop for a shaman is theGahz'rilla Scale Armor. If you're enhance, Ripsaw is the perfect speed for you. If you're not picky about wearing leather and/or cloth, there's lots of caster/healer drops in here as well. After ZF, head to Desolace and explore Maraudon, one of my favorite instances, if crazily long. Do the quest The Pariah's Instructions for a nice trinket, and I can now recommend theInfernal Trickster's Leggings for enhancement shamans with the change to hit rating instead of bow skill rating. The Blade of Eternal Darkness drops here if you get lucky. After Mara, you'll be heading back to the Swamp of Sorrows to the Temple of Atal'Hakkar, where (surprise!) you'll be killing more trolls. I apologize in advance, troll shamans. However, there's compensation for the slaughter of so many trolls packed into this instance. For those of us shamans who aren't trolls, kill with glee and loot away. (I actually left out several other drops that are good for a shaman in here, ST is just a nice stop for a level 50 shammy.) Finally, with the change to leveling, you'll probably stop in BRD a few times before getting serious about hitting Outland. It's a shame, as I really like some of the 57 - 60 instances like LBRS and Strat, but getting a group for them can be really tough now. I won't even try and pick out a standout item for a shaman in here, there are over 130 drops in here, you'll find something you can use.

At this point, you should be ready for Outland. Next time, we finish off the leveling guild with the march to level 70, and after that, I get back to talking elemental spec.

Totem Talk: 21 to 40 the Shaman way

2011-07-03T22:11:00.000-07:00

Totem Talk talks leveling again with a discussion of the changes in 21 to 40 since the last time we discussed it. Matthew Rossi wanted to use this picture sent in by a reader, however. It has nothing at all to do with leveling. but it's a happy shaman with two 171 DPS 2.6 speed mugs. What more can you possibly want? Thanks to Russel Jones for sharing it.

I considered doing a big loregeek post this week while waiting for the 3.2.2 changes to continue shaking out for shamans. So far in my experience (raiding as enhance/resto, PvPing as resto/elemental) elemental seems to have had a nice little buff that, while hardly game breaking, helps bring caster shamans closer to other ranged DPS. Didn't really see the point of posting that again, so instead I considered doing a "Famous Shamans of WoW" post that talked about the impact shamans have had on the Warcraft setting for good and ill. I mean, Ner'Zhul alone gives shamans some serious lore cred, not to mention Thrall, Drek'Thar, Nobundo, and even Gul'Dan.

But then I remembered that we were talking about me leveling a baby shaman when stuff started hopping again. I got sidetracked leveling in AV, but that's no reason not to start talking about shamans and leveling again.

This is the original 21-40 Totem Talk leveling column. As you can see, it was written two years ago (well, almost) and while it's not entirely inaccurate now (shamans do still cast spells and drop totems) we still should talk about all the ways things have changed.

Heirloom items are one big change, of course, but we did cover those in our first foray back into leveling. It does bear repeating that if you can get heirlooms for your baby shaman (that is to say, if this shaman is your alt and not your main or only character) then by all means you should do so.

First up, for you leveling shamans, you'll get your first mount at level 20 and your epic mount at level 40, the same level as Dual Talent Specialization. DTS is a huge deal for a shaman, although the 1000g cost puts it out of reach of the average, this is my first time playing character. But for an alt, DTS will make soloing and grinding much more pleasant while also allowing you to have a healing spec in case you want to run a dungeon as a healer.

Also new this time around are the new ways to drop 4 totems at once. We've covered these before, but to specifically cover the ones 21 to 40 shamans will be seeing, you'll get Call of the Elements at level 30 and Call of the Ancestors at level 40. These make dropping multiple totems at once much less painful, removing the GCD issues that made shamans plonk plonk plonk one totem at a time while everyone else got to cast or attack.

The abilities you get at your level are pretty much unchanged otherwise. Totem Consolidation has given us a single Cleansing Totem which you get at level 38. This means you won't have the totem at level 22 to cleanse poison. (You should have Cure Toxin from level 18 on, so you'll just have to target and cleanse until level 38.) Similarly, while Windfury is still a popular totem it's nowhere's near the clamorous "gimmie gimmie" that melee used to regard it with now that it's a pure melee haste effect.

Call of Water remains unchanged for both Horde and Alliance with the Alliance one still being a trifle easier. Likewise, Call of Air is still a lot more fun and seems a lot more integratedAlliance side.

As far as what talent specialization to use between 21 and 40, that's still pretty much up to you. It's easier with heirlooms to build an elemental set for a lower level shaman and the changes to talent trees, while not ridiculously different at the levels described here, do allow you to feel more like an elemental shaman than was possible at the time I wrote the original post. By the mid 30's you can have talents like Elemental Fury, Call of Thunder, Elemental Reach and Unrelenting Storm, with Lightning Mastery within reach. While you'll probably still have to wear some cloth at these levels, it won't be as difficult to get caster leather and then mail at 40.

Enhancement won't really feel any different at all at these levels. You still won't get dual wielding until level 40 so enhancement will still be all about running around whacking stuff with a big, slow 2h with Windfury on it, and frankly, that's still good enough. Similarly, while restoration sees talents like Tidal Force, the improved Ancestral Healing and the entirely redesigned Healing Way, these changes don't really make restoration play any differently in 2009 at these levels than it did in 2007. (It's basically just better.) You'll be able to getCleanse Spirit at level 40, allowing you to remove curses as well as poison and disease, which is very very nice. Again, though, it won't feel different, just better.

I feel amiss in that I haven't covered Sentry Totem. Yes, you still get Sentry Totem at level 34. It's still the totem I wrote an entire column about, and its magnificence has not dimmed a whit in the two years since I first wrote about leveling a shaman between 21 and 40. Sentry Totem, don't ever change. We love you for who you are.

Considering the amount of time that passed, the old column still lists a fairly strong selection of attainable gear for these levels, but that's not surprising since the big change to instances at those levels took place just before it was written. The real changes to the class that will have an impact on these levels are general ones (mount changes), heirlooms, and the totem interface improvements as well as changes to what totems you get when as some totems were consolidated. As long as you keep those changes in mind, it's basically still pretty much the same climb between these levels.

Next week we'll either return with 41 to 60, or we'll discuss shamans in Trial of the Crusader.

Totem Talk: So you've decided to roll a shaman...

2011-07-03T22:07:00.001-07:00

Well, I sure hope you have, otherwise the entire premise of this column is faulty. And you wouldn't do that to me, would you? I mean, no one likes a faulty premise. They're like leaky ostriches.

Anyway, welcome to Totem Talk's look at taking a starting shaman from 1 to 20, both for new players and for players who've leveled other classes. Last week we talked about how shamans were by far the least played class, so this week it's time to try and give a leg up to new shamans, especially now that patch 2.3 has brought faster leveling options to the 20 to 60 game.

First off, as is the case with most classes, the first ten levels aren't representative of how the class plays later. Whether you're intending to be a healer, a melee DPSer or a caster, you'll be playing those ten levels more or less the same due to the limited spate of abilities you'll have access to. The class starts to open up around level 10 when you get the second totem quest (we covered the totem quests in this post, so I won't go too into detail about them again) and can start learning fire totems and spells. Basically, from levels one to four you spend a lot of time throwing lighting at things so that they come over to where you can hit them with a mace or a stick, and you'll be making that stick hit a little harder with a weapon buff around the same time you learn how to drop a stick in the ground so that you don't get so badly hurt when things hit you back.

And you get Earth Shock at level four, which is going to be your friend from then on out. Repeat after me: spell interrupt. You will wonder how you got to level four without it.

However, there still isn't much variety at this point. No matter what you intend your new shaman to be at higher levels, right now he's a leather wearing character who can cast a couple of offensive spells while hitting things once they come face to face to register their displeasure at being hit with lightning. Ryan posted in his recent Shifting Perspectives about Shaman/Druid similarities, and believe me, at early levels it's terribly pronounced. Lightning Bolt instead of Wrath and Earth Shock instead of Moonfire, but you still have a casting time spell to pull the mobs, an instant for when they get closer, and some sort of stick or club for bashing once they get into range.

This is what I refer to as the dreadful valley for shamans. Quite honestly, shamans aren't terribly fun to play at this point. They only have the one totem, it doesn't do anything terribly interesting yet, and they basically end up doing the same thing over and over again no matter the situation. But if you can hold on until level 10 (which, reasonably, won't take you much more than an afternoon of game play) you'll start to unlock the difference between the shaman and other classes, and discover the interesting aspects of playing the totems for encounters. At levels 10 and 12 you get a host of interesting new abilities, many linked to totems, and it really helps differentiate the class: abilities like Flame Shock, Flametongue Weapon and Searing Totem. It really helps that the quest chain to get this totem is involved enough to be fun without being a total hassle to finish. Level 12 brings Purge, which is one of the more interesting and unique abilities at a shaman's disposal. Judicious use of Earth Shock and Purge can make a shaman a caster killer at these levels, as you can purge the buffs off of an opponent while interrupting his own spell casts (since both purge and earth shock are instants) and if you're used to playing a class that isn't very flexible against spellcasters this can be a revelation. Just don't get overconfident. Even when these abilities are coming into play you're still wearing leather and still doing most of your killing up close, but the shocks and totems you'll have by this point will have reduced how much you rely on bashing things to death.

Talents also help you decide where you are going to take your shaman. 11 talent points isn't enough to really make one a Resto shammy or an Elemental shammy, but it's enough to start getting a feel for which aspect of the shaman you enjoy. Do you like using weapon enhancement spells and buff totems to go toe to toe with an enemy, or are you more the caster, wanting to stay at range and throw elemental fury at your targets? Do you enjoy grouping up and healing most? While iconic shaman spells and abilities like Chain Heal and Windfury won't be available to you until much later, by level 20 you'll have standouts like Frost Shock, Ghost Wolf, and Healing Stream totem available. (To be fair, the level 20 quests for the water totem are hard enough that you might not have them right at 20.) By level 20 you can certainly have chosen talents to increase your healing, casting damage or melee abilities. With the changes in 2.3, you won't have to wait until 20 to get the talent to wield 2h weapons (since that's trainable now) but you will be able to get one of several 11 point abilities that help define the specs like the new Shamanistic Focus for the enhancement tree. By level 20, it's still premature to really consider yourself an Elemental or Restoration shaman, but you'll be closer to that point and the specializations will start to feel different. Combine that with the beginning of the water totem quest at level 20, which can easily keep you occupied for a level or two, and to my mind level 20 is when shamans really start to take off. The variety and interesting utility of the class really starts to show here.

As far as I'm concerned, as a shaman you don't want to do levels 1 - 20 too far away from your class questgivers. I leveled my orc shaman in Durotar and the Barrens for that reason, and my draenei stayed on Azuremyst/Bloodmyst in order to ensure that he was always close to a class trainer. You may feel differently, and if you do, make sure you get back to a shaman trainer at the big levels so that you can pick up the totems quests, which really do a lot to liven up the class and make it more enjoyable to play at low levels.

For me, someone used to playing a warrior, playing a shaman was at once familiar (you do a lot of melee at these levels) and alien. You're more fragile and easier to kill since you have less health and armor, you're limited by mana so you have to drink, halting more, but with the right totems and shocks you can kill a lot faster than an equivalent level warrior. The dps isn't as good as a true dps class like a mage or a rogue, you don't have a pet at these levels as a hunter or warlock will so you can't count on having a tank, and as you get more totems you have to come to grips with the totems system and its advantages and disadvantages. Even at low levels, shamans really shine when grouped, as their totem buffs grow in power the more people who are getting them. My first Wailing Caverns run on my orc shaman, I wasn't main healer, a main DPS or anything like that so much as I was a superlative buffer, cleanser and backup healer and damage dealer. It's one of the real strengths of the class and it starts to show right as you become ready to step foot into instances, with your ability to revive dead players, heal, throw down active damaging totems, AoE totems, damage reducing totems, or even a group-healing totem. Once you start to grasp how to use multiple totems on specific fights to make the group better, you've unlocked half the fun of playing a shaman.

It's hard to advise what gear to select for your bouncing baby shaman at these levels, but a general rule of thumb is that agility and intellect never hurt anyone. If you're heading more down the melee path, strength and stamina and the highest DPS 2h weapon you can find (since dual wielding is more than 20 levels away) aren't a bad choice. Elemental shamans to be often pile on whatever they can find to add to their mana pool, their spell damage and their ability to survive when they get hit, while mana regeneration and anything that adds to healing is good for a burgeoning resto. But at these levels, you're still mostly someone who uses a mix of spells and melee to kill your targets, and there's not going to be a lot of really specialized healing or casting gear for you. It's not impossible to find a few pieces, but before level 20 I'd say it's not worth really worrying about. It's better to make sure you have enough water to drink between fights and food and bandages if you need to try and regain health fast when you're out of mana. Keep in mind that at this level, you may be asked to heal or to DPS if you join an group or instance run whether or not those are your intended roles, and you may want to try and perform outside your chosen direction in order to develop those skills for later. Don't push your luck, though: a shaman with no int gear who tries to main heal an instance over his or her level is going to fail. But it's worth it to try and develop your skills with all aspects of the class if you can do so.

Next week, we'll take a look at the instances between 10 and 30, and the changes to gear that can help direct a shaman towards a spec.

Encrypted Text: Leveling a rogue, level 71-80

2011-07-03T22:05:00.001-07:00

Every Wednesday, Chase Christian of Encrypted Text invites you to enter the world of shadows, as we explore the secrets and mechanics of the rogue class. This week, we talk about leveling a rogue from level 71 to level 80.
Your goal is firmly in sight: your rogue is ready to being his or her assault upon the Lich King's lands. With only a fleeting few levels between you and the level cap, these last few minutes are among the most important in your rogue's development. With nearly every trick available and our DPS rotations fleshed out, your rogue will be feeling more and more like the level 80 you are about to become.

All three talent trees are fairly viable for leveling, and so this is by far the most flexible period of the leveling process. As I mentioned in the last installment, experimenting with different specs, rotations, and playstyles will only become harder and harder to do once you reach level 80. During these important formative levels, max out your respect costs and give every build a fair shake. You'll be a better rogue for it in the end.

New abilities:
While there's only really two new moves between level 71 and level 80, one of our earliest spells gets a complete makeover. Feint, which we learn at level 16, finally becomes the spell we always knew it could be. If used, it reduces all AoE damage that a rogue will take for 6 seconds. This spell alone will save you a hundred times while raiding, as there is plenty of AoE damage being thrown around. You won't pick up Rank 8 (the version with the bonus)until level 78, but be sure to use it in any dungeons you explore while leveling up. Sap sees a similar change at level 71, with its Rank 4 version offering a rogue the ability to sap Beasts, Demons, and Dragonkin in addition to its normal effects. This is great for sapping the pets of your opponents, and since there's such a large variety of fauna in Northrend, you'll be using it lots. -Thanks for catching this, Shadowmute!

Prior to that, you'll be receiving one of, in my opinion, our "signature moves". Tricks of the Trade is our threat redirection / damage boost combo, which sees extensive use in both PvE and PvP. In a raid or dungeon environment, it becomes the tank's best friend, and can really make your dungeon experiences much smoother. In certain fights where DPS gain significant buffs (like Hodir), Tricks of the Trade is crucial to a tank being able to maintain aggro on a mob. It can even be a DPS buff to share with another rogue during "burst phases" of certain fights. Tossing this to your partner in PvP can often be enough to score a kill, as the damage bonus is significant.

One of the reasons I see TotT as so integral to the WotLK rogue is its integration into the new T10 set. The 2 piece set bonus makes TotT yield energy instead of costing it, resulting in a significant DPS boost for everyone involved. We want to cast it more often, it allows more threat to be redirected due to increased energy, and it results in a higher uptime on friendly DPS classes. Imagine it as a poor level 80's Renataki's Charm of Trickery: pop it when you're low on energy to give you just enough juice to extend that stunlock a few more seconds.

If you're leveling with a partner (either a tank or DPS), be sure to toss them TotT every time it's up. It takes the pressure off of you for incoming damage (and rogues are pretty frail in that regard) and boosts their damage, making the entire leveling process much quicker. You can check out my guide to macros to find a great TotT macro that will let you set it to an easy keybind and forget about targeting someone to cast it on.

The final move a rogue receives on their journey is also their just reward for reaching level 80. Fan of Knives has become a true game-changer for the way that rogues play. We're no longer relegated to throwing grenades or making campfires in the back of the raid during AoE phases. Fan of Knives has been one of the top AoE abilities in the game today due to its unique scaling and properties. If you want to learn more about this ability, I wrote a full article dedicated to all of its intricacies. Let it suffice to say that if it weren't for FoK, rogues would be nowhere near our current spot at the top 10% of the damage meters. Yogg+0 and Anub'Arak hard mode are two fights where FoK simply outshines every competitor, and resulted in both world first kills of the last two "end bosses" seeing rogues at the top of the meters.

Posterity:
While I strongly recommend you go crazy experimenting with specs while leveling, I would also caution you that due to the repetition of leveling and grinding, bad habits will eventually work their way into your subconscious. If you start letting Slice and Dice drop while you're farming the Scourge, it will work against you later, when it's actually pretty important. Start reading up on raiding rotations and playstyles, and try mimicking those as much as possible.

If you're playing as Mutilate, it's a great time to work on keeping Hunger for Blood up full time, while trying to maintain a good Slice and Dice uptime via Cut to the Chase + Envenom or Eviscerate. As Combat, keeping Slice and Dice up full time should be your goal, while also using your cooldowns wisely to take out 2+ mobs when Blade Flurry is available and destroying elites with Evasion and Killing Spree. Subtlety rogues should be looking out to also keep Slice and Dice up (I told you it was our most important ability!) and keeping the Hemorrhage debuff active while also using good energy management to maximize your finishers.

By doing the little things like keeping the right poison on both weapons, using the right gems (even if they're just green quality), and starting to work on your end game rotations, you'll be building the foundation for a long and prosperous life as a rogue. Take pride in your achievement of nearing level 80, and focus on refining your playstyle to the point that it becomes second nature. I talked about a few combat opener / sequences last time, and finding out how to go from an opener to a dead opponent in the most efficient way should be your objective.

Reputations:
While this will certainly change once Cataclysm is released, the message is still relevant today: focus on reputation quest hubs. There's several reputations you'll want access to once you hit level 80, and working on their quests while they still give experience is simply making them twice as awesome. The Sons of Hodir are key for their shoulder enchants (and decent starting weapons), while the Knights of the Ebon Blade will sell you a great helm enchant if you perform enough of their dirty deeds. Read up on which reputations yield what gear, and then go to their areas and quest your heart out. Anything that you can do while leveling to give you an easier time at level 80 is like pure gold.

Level 70 gear:
One last tip for the leveling rogue, you can often find level 70 gear that players had stashed in their banks available on the AH for mere fractions of their original price. Level 70 BoE gear, epic gems, and consumables will greatly increase your leveling speed, so check the AH for any relics from level 70 that are left over that you can score for yourself. I find that the old DPS flasks and BoE level 70 blues are typically only a few gold total, which should be affordable with all of the questing and grinding you've been doing.

Conclusion:
I know that many of you are already level 80, and you're interested in reading about the things that are affecting us now. However, there are still a ton of rogues that are leveling up, and we honestly need the fresh blood as the "great rogue to death knight reroll exodus" ofWotLK left us pretty decimated. Look at the bright side, you won't have to read another leveling column until Cataclysm! To those rogues who are just entering the fold at level 80, we welcome you with open arms, and we look forward to stabbing those cursed cloth-wearers and praying for Armor Penetration trinkets at your side.

Encrypted Text: Leveling a rogue, level 51-70

2011-07-03T22:04:00.000-07:00

Every Wednesday, Chase Christian of Encrypted Text invites you to enter the world of shadows, as we explore the secrets and mechanics of the rogue class. This week, we talk about leveling a rogue from level 51 to level 70.

If you've ever leveled a rogue (or really any class) to 80 before, you know that there's certain spots in the leveling curve that can get downright boring. We play like a "dual wielding warrior" far too often, preferring to simply walk up to enemies and Slice and Dice our way to a kill. Rogues have a variety of skills, but it seems like Sinister Strike is really the only one worth pushing. Where's the fun in spamming one ability mindlessly until the enemy falls over from boredom?

Luckily for us, all of that ends at level 50 and above. We receive some of our core abilities via our 41-point talents, and each spec becomes a completely different playstyle from what you've been using for the past 50 levels. In addition, we pick up some of the clutch PvP abilities that were added in TBC that allowed rogues to compete in the arena environment. To summarize: leveling a rogue just got real.

New abilities:

While you've been picking up all of the new ranks of our rogue abilities, they've largely been simple "now does more damage"-type upgrades. We get to see a truly new feature added to an ability once we hit level 61 and receive Garrote (Rank 7). This version of Garrote includes an incredibly useful 3 second silence on top of the normal bleed effect. Try it on the next caster mob you attack, and you'll be pleasantly surprised to see them try to melee you with their feeble weapons. Laugh as you then smash their cloth-wearing faces in.

Immediately after receiving our revived opener, you'll pick up Envenom at level 62. It's a Mutilate raider's finisher of choice, but only if you're using Instant and Deadly Poisons, which not every rogue will have due to more attractive talents while leveling. It also requires you to get a 5 stack of Deadly Poison to deal maximum damage, and so you likely won't have time to use it while leveling on regular mobs. It does Nature damage and therefore pieces through armor, so don't knock its usefulness on highly armored targets. I just didn't use it much at all while leveling, and unless you're looking for a cool new finisher, stick to Eviscerate.

Deadly Throw is our next new finisher, received at level 64. It gives rogues their only ranged presence, and can be useful for taking out fleeing targets. DT used to be far more potent when it had the ability to interrupt via a pair of PvP gloves, but is now fairly limp outside of very specific situations (usually PvP). There are a lot of great macros that can combine Throw and Deadly Throw into one easy-to-push button. Be sure to keep rolling on guns and bows and stealing them from those dirty hunters, because DT is hardly useful enough to warrant restricting yourself to a Thrown weapon. The other PvP ability added, Cloak of Shadows, is far more useful.

Cloak of Shadows will remove nearly any magical debuff from you instantly once you receive it at level 66, as well as providing significant spell resistance for a few seconds afterwards. A magical debuff could include poisons, magic effects, diseases, and other similar ailments. It won't remove physical debuffs like bleeds or some rogue crowd-control moves such as Blind or Kidney Shot. A lifesaver against any caster you may fight, and a short enough CD that you can use it regularly when fighting a magic-using mob. Learning when to Cloak will become a big differentiator between a good rogue and a great rogue, especially in PvP, so bind it to an easy to access key and use it often.

Our level 70 class ability is Shiv, which used to see quite a bit of use in PvP and PvE alike. It was valuable for guaranteeing a poison proc in PvP, but that's been all but eradicated due tothe PPM change for poisons and Deadly Brew. Blizzard has also made it a point to completely cripple the ability in PvE, by adding several penalties and nerfs to the ability over its lifetime to ensure it's never a viable option for long. I use Shiv incredibly rarely, almost exclusively on bosses or adds with an Enrage effect that I need to quickly purge via Anesthetic Poison. Keep it on your bar somewhere, but don't worry about having it quick at hand.

Specs:

Now that we have access to our coveted 41 and 51 point talents, we can finally start the process of building the perfect rogue playstyle. I would suggest looking at two things: what are your best weapons, and what type of rogue abilities do you prefer? If you've got a great pair of daggers, Assassination will be a great way to level up. Once you pick up Mutilate, you're truly capable of dealing tons of damage, provided you have the energy to do so. You also get several useful poison effects, your CDs provide pretty significant burst damage when necessary, and you'll be killing targets before they even have a change to react. With Fleet Footed, you'll be running around much faster than any other rogue. Hunger for Bloodwill greatly boost your DPS as well, though many Assassination rogues skip it due to the bleed requirement for use. Make sure to only pull one mob at a time, as you have no AoE at all and you have the worst defenses of any rogue spec.

A typical Mutilate build will pick up all of the core DPS talents while also grabbing the quality of life improvements that are the most useful while leveling. Your typical fight will start with a quick opener (Cheap Shot or Ambush) and immediately start using Mutilate. Your poisons will be dealing massive damage and adding several debuffs to your target. A quick Improved(and glyphed) Eviscerate later, and the mob will be at your feet. Quick bursts via unloading all of your energy will be the name of the game. You can use Cold Blood to add some burst against a strong target, and always remember to Stealth between mobs to take advantage ofOverkill's extra energy regeneration.

Do you have better combat-style weapons, with a nice slow main hand? Combat provides very constant sustained damage, while having the cooldowns to tackle an elite or two while possessing the strongest multiple target presence via Blade Flurry and Unfair Advantage. If you enjoy a brawler or swashbuckling playstyle, find yourself a slow weapon and spec combat. You have the highest defensive capabilities of any tree via the Stamina, Parry, and Dodge bonuses from talents. You're hard to kill and will be able to easily dispatch any opponent. The downside is that Stealth becomes almost useless for you, and you'll end up just spamming Sinister Strike a lot. Even your 41 point talent is simply a DPS boost (though a huge one). At level 60 you receive Killing Spree, which adds even more potency to your AoE damage and provides another amazing CD ability.

I bet you couldn't guess, but Combat's playstyle is still pretty flat. You'll be using Sinister Strike a lot, while Eviscerating when at 5 combo points. Your white damage becomes incredibly potent via all of the Combat talents, and your critical strikes will be dealing massive damage once you reach Prey on the Weak. You won't have the quick burst of Mutilate (well, without using a CD) but you'll be able to take on mobs incredibly quick, take far less damage, and dispatch multiple targets via Blade Flurry with ease. I suggest using your cooldowns like Adrenaline Rush as often as possible, to maximize their benefit. If you're always "saving" your CDs, you're not getting the use out of them you could be. A rogue has plenty of CDs, feel free to use them all! I simply save Vanish for a bad situation and use my other CDs as soon as the situation warrants it.

Got slow weapons, but the combat way of life isn't for you? Or do you have daggers but just want to try something different? Subtlety may be for you. It possesses very strong opening burst and can give you a lot of control via Hemorrhage's low energy cost. It's also a great option on a PvP server where you may need to defend yourself from the opposite faction:Preparation is a lifesaver. Shadowstep provides a very useful tool to add to your belt while also making grinding multiple mobs just a little bit more bearable. You can also use a Dagger to unload an amped up Ambush upon your opponents, and then swap to another weapon for Hemorrhage action. Shadow Dance provides a unique CD at level 60, but it's unfortunately not that useful in a PvE environment where you are able to get into Stealth easily.

If you're wielding slow weapons, you'll typically open with a Garrote or Cheap Shot (both of which have greatly reduced energy costs) and start using your Hemorrhage ability. This will make all of your future attacks hit harder, in addition to buffing any teammates. You can quickly use a finisher and regain the energy cost via Relentless Strikes, and then start using Hemorrhage again. You'll be pushing more buttons per minute if you choose to level as Subtlety.

If you prefer daggers, a case could be made for a powerful Ambush/Backstab based build. Opening with a quick Ambush to deal massive damage while slowing your opponent and then using Hemorrhage -> Gouge -> Backstab can yield you some pretty amazing critical strikes. It will require 3 points into Assassination's Puncturing Wounds, as this significantly increases Backstab's viability (from non-viable to "kinda"). Subtlety does great damage when coming out of stealth, so try to stack as many attacks into that 6 second window of Master of Subtlety as possible.

Conclusion:

With several available playstyles to experiment with, levels 51-70 are truly the golden years for rogues. We're only really missing our true AoE with Fan of Knives and our pseudo-Misdirection via Tricks of the Trade, but you won't typically be using those while soloing anyway. Try out each of the talent trees and figure out which one suits you the best. If you're not enjoying one, simply swap to another. Weapons are typically easy to find via quests or the auction house, and so there's no reason not to experiment with a spec that tickles your fancy. Leveling is one of the only times where you can truly spread your wings, as by the time you reach 80, everything seems to take a seat unless it maximizes your DPS.

Encrypted Text: Leveling a rogue, level 11-50

2011-07-03T22:02:00.000-07:00

Every Wednesday, Chase Christian of Encrypted Text invites you to enter the world of shadows, as we explore the secrets and mechanics of the rogue class. This week, we talk about leveling a rogue from level 11 to level 50.
As we discussed in the comments last week, rogues play fairly simple for the first several levels. Without any real finesse techniques and the simplest of opponents, there's no reason to do anything besides run up to an enemy and just start swinging away. It may not seem very rogue-like in nature, but that is because low level rogues are still learning the tricks of the trade.

The trip from 11 to 50 will be much of the same. We receive a few awesome new abilities that help us in a few situations, but until level 50, we don't really see any of rogue that you can expect to play at 80. Luckily, at 50, you get a completely new skill set that will rewrite how you play your rogue. With the mount changes to allow low levels to ride epic mounts, you'll be jetting around and having a great time questing and finding enemies to slay. Let's not get ahead of ourselves, you've still need to get to level 50 first, and so read on for full details on the process.

New abilities:
We receive several new ranks of the spells that I covered last week, which simply increase the potency of those attacks. The new techniques that are of interest include our full set ofStealth openers, a new pair of finishing moves, and a slew of utility abilities that you'll want to put on your hotbar ASAP. Combat will remain mostly the same, with your procedure being to spam Sinister Strike and Eviscerating / Slice and Dicing depending on the mob's remaning HP. Remember to pull one mob at a time and focus on quick individual kills instead of attacking multiple enemies at once. Rogues are designed to be single-target assassins and if you keep that idea in mind, your leveling experience will be far more enjoyable.

Openers:
Starting with our new opener at level 14 we receive Garrote, one of our strongest openers against high armor mobs. This move alone should have you stealthing before every pull, so you can open with a Garrote and then start attacking. Unfortunately, we also receive Ambushat level18. Ambush is significantly more potent while leveling, especially if you have your hands on a good dagger. An Ambush will typically take a mob's life down significantly, and so you'll want to be using it exclusively.

Until you receive Cheap Shot, that is. Our true signature opener, Cheap Shot is the perfect mix of defensive and offensive potency. The mob is stunned for 4 seconds, meaning that it is unable to attack you. You also gain 2 combo points and the mob is similarly unable to dodge or parry any of your attacks. This allows you to gain combo points very quickly, and allows you to Eviscerate sooner, ending the fight. Once you hit level 26, make your way back to a trainer to pick this up. You'll be opening with it 95% of the time.

Finishers:
The first finisher you'll see while leveling is Expose Armor at level 14, though you won't be using it too often. It's nice against an elite, but you will typically want to use either Rupture or Eviscerate, depending on the mobs remaining life. Don't bother worrying too much about having a hotkey for EA. Our final finisher for the trip to 50 is Kidney Shot, received at level 30. It's a great move to use if you're low on life or fighting against a hard-hitting mob, but while leveling you typically care more about damage and less about control.

Utility:
Thanks to some of the changes in WotLK, rogues have some new utility moves. We still receive Kick at level 12 (which should be a core hotkey like 'E' or 'Q') and Feint at level 16(which is useless until you receive its highest level rank), but you should be focusing on the special technique we get at level 20. Dismantle worked its way into our arsenal at the expensive for the disarm effect from the talent Riposte: a fair trade by any measure. Dismantle is relatively cheap on energy, has a very short cooldown, and will significantly lower the DPS of a melee class attacking you. Use this every time it's up!

At level 22 you'll receive a rogue's signature defense: Vanish. Don't worry that the PTR change to Vanish was reverted, Ghostcrawler has already said that they're cooking up a newer, stronger fix! Vanish will save your life dozens of times while you're out questing and grinding. It can save you from a would-be ganker who now can't find you, or it can save you from an accidental over-pull. It works (pretty much always) if you're out fighting by yourself, and so if you're in trouble, don't hesitate to Vanish and think it over.

While you're in stealth, you can also use your other new ability you receive at 22: Distract. It used to see more use in the past where rogues were able to sneak past bosses and mobs in instances, but is almost unused in today's environments. I use it occasionally in the arena, and so I suggest using it a few times on mobs and players and observing their reactions. We also receive Safe Fall at level 40, which allows a rogue to fall from higher distances without taking damage. Now that you can take fall damage and remain in stealth, it's less important to know "exactly" how high you can drop without hurting yourself, but be sure to test this thoroughly and learn you falling limits!

Finally, we receive Blind at level 34. It's our core CC ability, usable in combat, no longer requires a rare and expensive reagent, and is on a measly 3 minute cooldown. It's awesome for situations where you pull an extra mob or a player is trying to interfere with your leveling. Blind them, Vanish, and get out of there! You can also use a macro to use Blind and then use a bandage, allowing you to safely heal while engaged in combat.

Builds:
Rogues have 3 talent trees, all of which provide unique and interesting playstyles. Some rogues prefer the dagger-based Assassination tree, the brute force of the Combat tree, and the stealth and finesse of the Subtlety tree. I will be designing leveling specs for each of the 3 trees, and you can choose which you think is the best fit for you. I would suggest using Combat until level 50, as that is when the three trees really diverge from each other and bloom into their full potential. Up until that point, you're really going to be doing the same thing: beating up mobs using Sinister Strike.

If you decide to level as Assassination, here's a quick Assassination build you can work your way up to. We receive our first glyph slot at level 15 (one major, one minor), a second minor at level 30, and a second major at level 50. While leveling to 50, you should focus on matching your major glyph with the spec of your choice. Assassination will be using ~~the Vigor glyph~~ the Eviscerate glyph to start with, as it has great synergy with Improved Eviscerate. Once you receive Mutilate at level 50, grabbing the Mutilate glyph is a no-brainer. This spec focuses on poison damage and can be used as a Backstab build via daggers as well.

Combat rogues have a fairly simple playstyle, but their power early on is unquestioned. You'll be able to take on multiple mobs (well, 2!) and your toe-to-toe power is amazing. However, you're also likely to get pretty bored while playing it. Here's an example Combat build to follow. I don't focus on a particular weapon spec, as it allows you to use any weapons that drop as you're leveling up. Grab the Sinister Strike glyph as soon as you can, and you'll be getting extra combo points from critical Sinister Strikes. At level 50, the Adrenaline Rush orBlade Flurry glyph will likely serve you best.

Subtlety can have two flavors: daggers or slow weapons. I prefer a slow weapon Sub build, focusing on the strength of Hemorrhage (once glyphed). This build will provide the best energy management with Relentless Strikes, Hemo's low base energy cost, and Dirty Deeds to save you energy on your opening attacks. Opening with an Ambush is also desirable with this build, as Sub houses a ton of Ambush-boosting talents. With a potent opener and rapid strikes immediately afterwards, this spec comes into its own once you gain Shadowstep and all of its utility.

Encrypted Text: Leveling a rogue, level 1-10

2011-07-03T22:00:00.001-07:00

Every Wednesday, Chase Christian of Encrypted Text invites you to enter the world of shadows, as we explore the secrets and mechanics of the rogue class. This week, we talk about leveling a rogue from level 1 to level 10.

So, after reading the list of pros and cons, you've committed to starting your new rogue. This is a proud day for the brotherhood of assassins, as we welcome a new member into our fold. You will learn to embrace the shadows and your adrenaline will spike after your first kill. You will learn to hide your tracks and strike fear into your enemies.

Before you're ready to slay dragons and assassinate high-profile targets, you've got a lot of learning to do. Rogues can be a complex class, with our nearly limitless bag of tricks and a playstyle that is uniquely our own. You must learn how to use your techniques effectively, and how to maximize your damage output while staying alive. The journey from a young rogue to a powerful assassin begins today.

I'll assume you've read the first article of this series, and you've chosen a great name and customized your new character to your liking. You're thrown right into combat upon logging in, with the goal of killing some variety of low level beasts. You'll be presented with two abilities: Sinister Strike, and Eviscerate. Your basic attack structure will revolve around using Sinister Strike to do damage to a mob, and using Eviscerate when you have built up a few Combo Points.

Combat will be mostly boring for the first few levels, as your attack structure and rotation will be the same for quite some time. The idea of building combo points and then releasing them via a finishing move is a core rogue mechanic, and so building combo points and then using them will be your method for killing just about everything. The only variety comes in how you build the combo points and what you choose to use for your finishing attack. This is a great time to set your key bindings for your basic moves, so that they become second nature as you begin your journey to level 80.

Combo Points & Finishers:
The combo point -> finisher cycle will be what dictates the pacing of a rogue attack sequence. If you were to stack combo points using Sinister Strike, and then finish with Eviscerate, you would have to wait around 30 seconds before your Eviscerate is ready. Knowing when your enemy will die is key to your ability use decision-making. If your enemy will die in 4 seconds, there's no point in saving your combo points: use them immediately so that you don't lose your investment. I suggest TimeToDie as one of your first addons. It's great for knowing how long your enemy will be alive so you can choose whether or not to use a finisher or continue building combo points.

As far as starting gear goes, there's really not many options. Most won't have any stats on it, and if it does, you don't really have much variety or any choices. Try to pick up as much leather as possible (for the higher armor class) and anything with Agility, Strength, or Stamina (in that order). The suffixes of perfect rogue gear are "of the Monkey" or "of the Tiger". Your stat selection will matter more at later levels, but right now, be happy with whatever you can find. Do not buy any gear from the vendors, as it is not worth it.

Level 2:
After completing your first quest, you'll be asked to go visit your friendly rogue trainer. He'll have a new spell for you: Stealth! While Stealth may seem fun, you actually don't have any Stealth-only moves at this level, and so it is mostly used for sneaking around. However, you'll want to be killing almost everything you see for experience, and so you won't spend much time in Stealth at all.

Level 4:
At level 4, you'll be eligible for two brand new moves. One is a personal favorite: Pick Pocket. This is your first move you can perform in stealth, and it allows you to steal some copper or items from your enemies. While leveling up, I would suggest using Pick Pocket as often as possible to ensure you always have some gold available for training new abilities or buying reagents. The second move you acquire is Backstab, which will unfortunately not even warrant a position on your hot bar. It's a largely useless move currently, with no Backstab spec being viable anywhere.

Level 6:
Level 6 brings an update to Sinister Strike which should make it fairly more potent, and our first defensive ability: Gouge. Gouge is one of the most underused of rogue techniques. Use this if you are being attacked by two mobs, as you can effectively knock one out of the fight. Use this if you need to run away, as it will give you a fairly big head start, or if you need to use a bandage. It's a great ability that should find its way to one of your hotkeys. Try using it as often as possible to get used to its nuances.

Level 8:
Level 8 brings another update to a base ability, making Eviscerate do more damage. You alsopick up Evasion, which is the first powerful rogue CD you'll acquire. At lower levels, nearly all mobs are melee attacks, and so this will make you nigh immune to their attacks for 15 seconds. This is great for taking out elite or group quest bosses, and for mistake pulls where you end up with more mobs attacking you than you'd like. It's key to remember that you can only dodge an attack if you are facing your enemy, so this does nothing for you if you are running away from a fight. Use Evasion every time it's available, as the longer that Evasion is sitting "ready", the more time it is being wasted.

Level 10:
Finally, upon reaching level 10, you receive quite a few new abilities. Blizzard tends to stagger abilities every 10 levels (for 1-60, at least) and so every 10 levels you will see a major playstyle shift. This time, you receive another Stealth-only move of Sap, which is the rogue's best form of crowd control. It can allow you to solo groups by Sapping one of the mobs and then killing the other quickly. We also receive another infamous cooldown, Sprint. This one is more for escaping fights than for staying to rumble. If you think you can win, use Evasion and tough it out. If you're sure that you'll be defeated, use Sprint to escape from combat. There's no shame in sneaking up and taking a second shot at your prey.

Finally, you'll receive Slice and Dice. This is a staple of rogue DPS, and you should bind it to a key that you can reach easily. Attacking 20% faster will have you doing a ton more damage, and will become even more useful when you gain the ability to apply poisons to your weapons. If you're in combat, you should try to keep Slice and Dice up at all times, especially when fighting multiple targets. If you finish every fight by dumping your combo points into Slice and Dice, you'll be able to keep it up between targets, and you'll hop from mob to mob with great ease. You don't always need to save up 5 combo points before using Slice and Dice, usually 2-3 combo points is enough to keep it active for an entire fight.

While you're on your way to level 10, you'll have questions like "what speed should my weapons be?" I would suggest reading up on the basics of rogue axioms. The short answer is that any gear you use will be fine while leveling, and that you shouldn't worry terribly about min/maxing while on your way to 80. The key suggestions I can provide would be to use the best equipment available to you at the time, and focus on your abilities instead of your gear. A well-played rogue can often defeat a well-geared rogue, and the lower levels are an even greater example of this.

Conclusion:
Once you've reached level 10, you've started to get some of the meaty rogue abilities that you'll be using all the way until level 80. Next week I will be covering a larger range of leveling, complete with a few choice rogue quests and some of our great new abilities and tricks to try out while experimenting with the rogue class. Please post any tips you have for a rogue between the levels of 1-10, or any tricks that you have to share for those just starting a new rogue.

Spiritual Guidance: Finishing off 75 - 80

2011-07-03T21:59:00.001-07:00

Every Sunday (usually), Spiritual Guidance will offer practical insight for priests of the holy profession. Your host is Matt Low, the grand poobah of World of Matticus and a founder ofPlusHeal, a new healing community for all restorative classes. This week Matticus is going to look at the final 5 levels from 75 to 80!

When I finished off Grizzly Hills, I was a few bars into 75. To be fair, I did run a few normal instances to knock out the quests that were within them. In this week's post, I'll give you a quick glance of the last areas and what you can start working on once you reach 80 (such as instances and gearing for raids).

Zones of interest

Zul'Drak – Priests will have a field day in this zone. On one side, you're going up against Scourge forces trying to take over the Troll capital. On the other side, there's renegade Trolls running loose. Your Shackle Undead is going to come in great use here if find yourself getting overrun and overwhelmed.

Sholazar Basin – It seems as though no matter what you do, you just can't get rid of Nessingwary. Get ready for more exotic animals to kill. Note that flightmaster does not become available until after you do a few of the early quests. A plane can't fly until you get the parts for it to become operational again.

At level 77, you'll get access to Cold Weather Flying. In order to continue leveling, you're going to need it for certain areas in Storm Peaks and Icecrown. You won't have to complete an extensive chain in order to learn it anymore. There's a Cold Weather Flying trainer in Krasus' Landing in Dalaran who will gladly teach you this ability for a mere 1000g (depending on your reputation).

Storm Peaks – If you're not into Inscription, be sure to do this zone! The Sons of Hodir are the only faction in Northrend to offer shoulder enchants! If there's a quest chain to do in the entire game, I believe it's the one in this zone. I really loved the storyline and the Norse references and it's a big treat whether you're into the lore side of things or not.

Icecrown – Welcome to Icecrown. The lair of the Lich King is home to monstrosities that players could only dream of. He certainly does have quite the army at his disposal. The Argent Crusade have set up a camp towards the south east part of the zone and that's where most players will be starting from.

Skills

At 75, we get access to a new Shadow spell called Mind Sear. Check out Alex's post for more information on this new baseline ability.

At level 80, we also get Divine Hymn. Haven't tried it out yet extensively. It looks like a lot of fun to use in PvP.

Professions

Start working on your professions now that you're 80. You may have to resort to farming them on your own (dual spec can't come soon enough). The auction house has some ridiculous prices up there right now.

Now what?

Congratulations on reaching level 80! For the PvE players, the next step is to run a few instances and start gearing yourself up for Naxxramas and Obsidian Sanctum! Here's a few items of interest and where to get them from:

Gloves of the Time Guardian

These gloves would be something for early Priests to look at. All you need to do is run Caverns of Time: Stratholme and complete the quest Chromie gives you (A Royal Escort). If you're lucky, a Soul Preserver might drop which will help ease any mana woes you may have.

Moonshroud Robe

Tailors can create this epic level robe (which are extremely expensive). Run Utgarde Pinnacle and accept the quest (Junk in my Trunk) to get a Bauble-Woven Gown instead if you can't afford it.

Aurora Slippers

Here's another (relatively) cheap blue you can pick up. See if you can sweet talk a tailor to craft this for you and parting with one of their Moonshrouds.

Instances?

To fresh 80s, I strongly suggest staying away from the Occulus and from Halls of Lightning for a while until you start accumulating better items. Both of those instances are no joke and aren't the most forgiving. Replace any final green pieces you have from quest rewards or crafted items and you should be in decent shape. I found heroic Gundrak to be challenging as well (that snake boss and his wraps are intensely annoying). The last boss in Old Kingdom (Ahn'kahet) is going to put many healers to the test.

Try your hand at heroic Nexus or Utgarde Keep first and gauge your ability in there.

Quick tip for Ahn'kahet

On the last boss, just before he triggers his Insanity spell, have your group stack on each other. When they become hostile, blow a Psychic Scream and run in the opposite direction. Keep your Shield and Renew up on yourself. The idea here is to not DPS the mobs on your own. It's going to punish your mana too severely. Stay alive as much as you can and kite them around the entire room. Buy the rest of your party enough time for them to kill their ads and get to yours. Conserve your mana and keep fearing when the ads get close to you.

You're going to get frustrated. You're not as geared as you'd like to be and both normal difficulty and heroic difficulty instances are going to continue to be trouble for you. My advice is to stick with it. I spent 3 hours wiping on Heroic Halls of Lightning after dinging level 80 just hours earlier. It can be done. Bring pots, use consumables, and pay attention to everything. It's harder because you're not familiar with boss abilities. Once you get the hang of that, it's one less issue to worry about. So stay with it!

Spiritual Guidance: Wrath Priest leveling guide from 70 to 75

2011-07-03T21:58:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Northrend! Ready to take on Arthas? Here is a quick primer on the road to 80. For part 1, we'll look at an example leveling spec (which isn't Shadow), early spells, different zones, and some tips.

Spec

My personal spec of choice has always been to go a combination of Holy and Discipline. I can still maintain a decent pace soloing and I can still remain viable in instance healing. Believe me, as a non-Shadow Priest leveling, there will never be a shortage of players looking for healers for an instance.

The one I picked for leveling from 70 is a pseudo-hybrid 31/27/3 build.

Highlights

Power Infusion – Haste every 2 minutes. Keep this up as often as possible.

Surge of Light – Free Smite (or Flash Heal). Watch for the proc and use it according to your situation. Full health? Use it on a Smite. Took some damage? Slap on a Flash Heal.

Spirit Tap – Minimization of downtime. This skill is virtually essential in order to reduce the amount of drinking to do.

DPS Method

Cast your Power Word: Shield up before you open fire. Remember that Holy Fire is a 1.5 second cast when talented. Open up with that spell first, follow up with a combination ofMind Blasts and Smites. Keep doing this until the target you're hitting reaches ~3000 health. Finish it off with a Smite and an Shadow Word: Death. If it still has health remaining, tap yourHoly Nova once or twice to make sure it stays down.

Against multiple mobs, keep your Shield up as often as you can. Focus down one mob at a time. If you notice your health getting lose, use instant spells like Prayer of Mending and Renew to keep yourself up. The goal isn't to DPS all the mobs down as fast as possible. It's to go at it slowly and surely while keeping yourself up. You want to try to outlast the mobs as much as you can. If you have Super Mana Potions lying around, don't hesitate to bust one. Your Shadowfiend's a great tool as it can help provide a small burst of damage and provide you with more mana.

Preparation

Stock up on some Pugnant Seal Whiskey from the local Inn. About 80 is a good number. This is also a good time to use up any stockpiles of Spell damage food that you might continue to have. Super Mana Potions are nice to have in case you need mana in a pinch. Check out WoW Insider's guide to preparing for Wrath with consumables.

Zones of Interest

Check the guide to get to Northrend!

Borean Tundra – Accessible via the Stormwind Harbor for Alliance and the zeppelin from Durotar. It's possible to navigate from Borean Tundra and Howling Fjord without resorting to flying mounts of a continent-wide trek. You get introduced to Malygos. Give Nexus a shot (after you do the various quests in the region to gain access to further Nexus-related quests).

Howling Fjord – Accessible via Menethil Harbor for Alliance and the zeppelin from the Undercity. Utgarde Keep is the first instance you can enter. Don't forget to check out the walkthrough!

Dragonblight – At around 71 or 72, Dragonblight becomes appealing. Most players I've spoken with opted to go to the other introductory zone (Borean Tundra or Howling Fjord depending on which they did first). I suggest diving into Dragonblight as soon as you are almost done the introduction zone. Do the chain quests. Epic cinematic is epic.

Grizzly Hills - Located on the eastern side of Northrend and is a zone above Howling Fjord. You'll run into the Westfall camp here at some point. If you've run Shadowfang Keep before, you'll encounter an old friend.

Getting to Dalaran

Unlike Shattrath City, players can no longer simply ride into a neutral capital. There's a anattunement like quest. There's a variety of NPCs that can port players to Dalaran. You can only get this quest when you're level 74. On the other hand, you can also pay off a Mage or a Warlock to send you to Dalaran. Alternatively, you can get higher level guildies to queue for a Battleground from Dalaran and then AFK out (which should work at any level).

For Alliance – Magister Dath'omere (Valiance Keep, Borean Tundra), Baron von Stromhearth (Valgarde, Howling Fjord) and Magistrix Haelenai (Amberpine Lodge, Grizzly Hills).

For Horde – Image of Archmage Aethas Sunreaver (Agmar's Hammer, Dragonblight). There's undoubtedly similar NPCs in the respective Horde camps in the different zones. I just don't know the name of them since I'm Alliance (cue chorus of boos).

Skills

At 71, you learn Inner Fire at level 71. It's the only skill you learn at this level. It's entirely up to you if you decide to boat back to Stormwind or Ironforge to train it. I strongly suggest no if you're bent on hitting 80. I trained my skills at every second level. Besides, Holy Fire is the first DPS spell that gains a new rank (at 72).

For 74, you gain new ranks of Mind Blast, Mind Flay, Smite, and Devouring Plague.

General Leveling Tips

If you want to level as fast as humanly possible, you'll need to streamline your game plan.

Don't sightsee. I know it's Northrend and it's all new. But if you don't care about the experience and just want to level to 80, you have to go straight from quest giver to objective.
Do a bunch of quests at a time. Do all the quests at your local quest hub before going back to the hub. You waste less traveling time going back and forth in order to turn in individual quests.
Forget professions. Leave those to 80. If you're a gatherer, you'll want your Cold Weather Flying training anyway (because it makes it easier). If you're a crafter, hold off some as raw materials are insanely expensive (a stack of Cobalt Ore is going for 300g. Ridiculous!)

Spiritual Guidance: The sweet 40 - 60

2011-07-03T21:54:00.000-07:00

Every Sunday (usually), Spiritual Guidance will offer practical insight for priests of the holy profession. Your host is now Matt Low, the grand poobah of World of Matticus and a founder of PlusHeal, a new healing community for all restorative classes. For the next few weeks (unless it's something game breaking), Matt will do his best to guide you through the Priest leveling process!

By now, you'll have learned most of the spells you'll be using at end game. If you've been crafty, you might have been able to land instance runs to hone your abilities as a healer (or DPS if you're of the Shadow sort). I won't focus as much on spells here on out although I will list anything significant on the way to 60. Instead, I'll explore the various zones and instances that you can (and should) do.

Zones of interest

At the early 40's, you should be wrapping up quests in Dustwallow Marsh andStranglethorn Vale. STV's considered one of the worse places to level (on a PvP server) due to players roaming around looking for low level characters like you to take out. Be on your guard or see if you can enlist the assistance of higher level guildies. Alternatively, you can always level early in the morning or late at night when the zone isn't as populated.

Hope over to Theramore and catch a gryphon to Tanaris. This desert wasteland will boast gankers as well. You will find the goblins to be most hospitable while you spend your time out there taking out pirates. Don't forget about the quest hub due straight east fromGadgetzan.

When you're finished, get ready for the long trek towards Feralas. You can either approach it from the north via Desolace of from the east via Thousand Needles. The drawback to coming from the east is that you might run into a minor Alliance camp or a larger Horde stronghold. Maneuver around them accordingly. For the Alliance, the major quest hub is located to the west off the coast of Feralas and there is a boat that will ferry you there (Feathermoon Stronghold).

Once you're done, consider taking the boat from Theramore back to the Eastern Kingdoms. I don't think you've reached the level where you can comfortably start Un'Goro. Start working your way up towards Southshore and head over behind Durnholde Keep. You'll find a path leading north and you'll eventually run into Aerie Peak! Check outBurning Steppes and Searing Gorge and by now you ought to be pushing level 50.

Un'Goro Crater: Ready for one of the most loaded video game pop culture reference zones ever? Be sure to bring yourself a Mithril Casing before you fly down here!

Azshara awaits! You'll run into the quest area and flight path as you run in from Ashenvale. Memory's a bit rusty on this one but I do think there's a set of quests you can do towards the north once you've exhausted this area. Otherwise, there isn't much to do here. If you see a big giant dragon named Azuregos, be sure to run in the opposite direction really fast.

Make your way towards Felwood and the Emerald Sanctuary. Make friends with the Furbolgs and be sure to get the second flight path on the north end of the zone. Head on through the tunnel while stopping briefly at Moonglade. When you get the path there, carry on towardsWinterspring and Everlook. You may need to alternate between these areas, Silithus,Western and Eastern Plaguelands. That should be more than enough to tip you over to level 58 if not 60.

Now you can set foot through the Dark Portal in the Blasted Lands.

Instances

Scarlet Monastary: If I were to hazard a guess, Scarlet Monastary would be the highest run instance for mid level players. It drops decent loot and doesn't take much time to do at all. Having 70's to go with you makes the run all that much faster. Scarlet Monastary actually consists of 4 different wings you can do: Graveyard, Library, Armory, Cathedral. The SM Graveyard doesn't have a whole lot for you to do in terms of bosses. Most players typically run Cathedral the most (judging from trade chat requests, at least).

Zul'Farrak: Welcome to Troll town! After killing several million basilisks and fighting a massive gauntlet and summoning a really large monster, you'll come out with some phatter loots and hopefully another level of experience out of the way.

Temple of Atal'Hakkar: Also known as Sunken Temple. Each class has their own level 50 quest to do here that involves feathers.

Dire Maul: Sadly, I rarely see players run this particular set of instances anymore. I believe it consists of a north, west, and east wing respectively. Ogres have made their home here. Watch out for the arena in the middle of the area.

Blackrock Depths: Personally, I'd avoid this area. But that's just me. Still, it's another option for you and Molten Core attunements are inside as well as Onyxia (for Alliance anyway).

Spells and abilities

I won't bother detailing some of the Priest racials as they will be phased out and removed. Most of the new spells you learn will be from talents. Everything else will be new ranks of the old and I won't bother listing those either.

Discipline Tree

Power Infusion: The earliest level you can get this talent is at level 40. It allows you (or anyone else) to cast spells faster and at a reduced mana cost. Use it often as it only has a 2 minute cooldown and lasts 8 seconds. Obtainable at level 40.

Pain Suppression: Reduces damage taken by a friendly player by 40% and drops their threat instantly. Not only that, it increases resistance to dispels by 65%. Like Power Infusion, it can be used every 2 minutes. Useful in a pinch if you accidentally over pull or come across something larger than life. Obtainable at level 50.

Holy Tree

Lightwell: The effectiveness of Lightwell is dependant on the abilities of other players to take advantage of them. When they right click on it, they gain a buff that restores health over a period of time. Obtainable at level 40.

Circle of Healing: This is an AoE heal that heals your target and your targets party provided they're within a certain range. Virtually useless at the lower levels. Prayer of Healing will perform what you need. Very valuable when you arrive at the upper levels of end game raiding. Obtainable at level 50.

Shadow Tree

Vampiric Embrace: Applies a debuff on the target. Anytime you deal shadow damage, your party is healed for 15% of any shadow damage that you deal. Picking up Improved Vampiric Embrace will double the amount healed to 30%. Obtainable at level 30.

Shadowform: Ready to give in to the dark side? With this, you'll turn into a more sinister version of yourself increase your damage output by 15% and reduces physical damage done by the same amount. Drawback? You can't cast Holy spells so healing is virtually out of the question. Well, no, Vampiric Embrace is an exception.

Vampiric Touch: Deals a minor amount of damage to the target. More importantly, it restores mana equal to 5% of any Shadow spell damage you dish out. Very handy.

Spiritual Guidance: The 20 - 40 grind

2011-07-03T21:52:00.000-07:00

Congratulations! You've made it past the initial hump of the first 20 levels in the game! Great job getting this far. I personally know of a few players who gave on the way to 20 because it was "too hard". If you're on a PvP server, break out the stress ball. Be prepared to get rocked on the road to end game (especially as a Priest).

Location, location, location!

Where do you level at this point? When I finished wrapping up Loch Modan and Westfall, it made sense for me to hoof it all the way to Redridge Mountains and start all the quests in Lakeshire (as Alliance). Horde Priests will probably want to visit Stonetalon and Ashenvale before bouncing to Hillsbrad and Arathi Highlands. After that, I hopped down to Duskwood and bounced back and forth between that and Wetlands in order to push 30.

After that, a zone of interest is the race track in Thousand ~~Noodles~~ Needles. You can start leveling up with Nesingwary's quests in Stranglethorn. Arathi, Desolace, Hillsbrad and Alterac Mountains will be other level 30+ zones that you can cut through.

Highlights

And when you do push 30, look what you have access to! You can pick yourself a brand spankin' new mount to play with. Remember, as this is your first mount, don't expect to be kicking up dust and smoke and leaving opposing faction players in your dust.

Leveling Toys

Level 22: Perhaps the first fun spell Priests get is Mind Vision. Honestly, you're not going to get a whole lot of practical use. It does have near-unlimited range and it's great for finding the flag carrier in Warsong Gulch. Shadow also awards a new rank of Mind Blast whereas Holy offers more with new ranks of Smite, Resurrection, and Heal.

Level 24: We get access to Mana Burn! This is one of our staple PvP spells against casters at the end game level. For now, it won't serve much of a purpose as it's useless against mobs without mana. Even then, against mobs with mana, you're better off brute forcing them with Smite and other such spells. Holy Fire rank 2 is up for training from the Holy Tree. Won't useful yet until the expansion.

Level 26: Nothing special aside from new ranks for Flash Heal, Renew, and Shadow Word: Pain.

Level 28: A spell I failed to highlight is Mind Flay. Great spell for Shadow Priests everywhere. It's a channeling spell so you have to sit still while you use it. I suspect it's a primary form of DPS for our leveling Shadowy brethren. Regardless, rank 2 is right here for you to snap up.

Level 30: You get to buy a new mount! Whoo hoo! You also get your first AoE heal in the form of Prayer of Healing. It's a great spell to use if your entire party took a large hit. Expect to use it frequently in certain end game situations. Talents like Holy Reach and Healing Prayers will will affect both the range and the cost of the spell.

The Shadow tree gives you two new spells in the form of Mind Control certain mobs and even players. Although you can't use their spells and abilities, you can still throw them off of cliffs (very handy in Arathi Basin). The second spell you get is a protective ward called Shadow Protection which grants you the ability to partially or outright resist incoming Shadow based damage and effects.

Depending on how you talent, you can also snap up Divine Spirit which will help your mana regeneration rate slightly. It's not worth getting at this point, however.

Level 32: Abolish Disease another tool in our restorative arsenal. We can use it to get rid of certain diseases from players. Coupled with Dispel, the only types of debuffs we can't remove are curses and poisons.

Level 34: This level marks the last time we get to train Heal. It also marks the first time we get access to Levitate: A fun spell that lets us float off the ground.

Level 36: Your Dispel just got a whole lot more uber. Instead of removing 1 effect, now it will remove 2 effects at the same time. Otherwise, your Power Word: Fortitude and Shield gets a slight boost. Shadow side sees an increase to Mind Flay.

Level 38: Nothing flashy at level 38 except for updated versions of Flash Heal, Renew, and Smite.

Level 40: You've finally graduated to level 40. Now you can start using the big boy heal in the form of Greater Heal. Get ready to used this spell often as you progress throughout the game. Inner Fire, Mana Burn, and Shackle Undead get slightly stronger (and you are remembering to hit yourself with Inner Fire, right?). Mind Blast, Fade, and Prayer of Healing round out the rest of your upgrades (I guess there's Divine Spirit rank 2).

You're a little over the halfway mark. I've found the 40 – 60 grind to be the worse. Just hang in there. You're almost at the end.

Shameless blog plug

There's not a whole lot of Priest blogs out there and I pay a lot of close attention to the ones that are just starting out. With that, I wanted to point Priests to World of Snarkcraft. It's run by a pair of Blood Elf Priests (Joveta and Seri). For some quick highlights, read Jov's post on Priests and Wrath where she reassures everyone that it's not going to be that bad. Seri offersa lesson on Raid Guild Apping 101.