Hey guys, i got the drain soul info wrong on this one. U pull ur pet back so improved soul drain triggers, not missing out on a soul shard. Sorry about that, misread during my research.
But that's the least of the problems this guide has, as warlock pets and respective leveling strategies turned out to be completely wrong on private servers. So much so people are now pushing for succubus/imp as your leveling pet
Putting 4/5 into improved corruption is actually pretty awesome in pvp because people think you’re casting fear - but it’s not and it goes so fast that people always miss their kick or silence and waste their cooldown
I did a respec at level 36 to try and follow this and my survivability went out the window. I followed the order suggested in the video and would really recommend putting points in demo first. I would pump up demonic embrace and improved voidwalker first and then go back into affliction. This way your vw wont lose threat as often with all the dots you are putting on your targets. Aside from that, love the build so far.
If you are trying to figure our how he put the keybinds for his Attack/Follow commands for his pet it goes as follows: On the KeyBindings Menu: For Pet Attack go to Targeting and set the tab for Pet Attack to the Mouse Wheel Up. For Pet Follow: There is NO tab that actually says, "Pet Follow". Go to the first Action Tab and look for Pet Action Button 2. Setting this tab to Mouse Wheel Down will command your pet to Follow. This rose my blood pressure a bit trying to figure this out.
Great video dude! 10:30 I recommend the Nercosis warlock add-on. You can have that alert you when you enter shadow trance. Plus it's just a great add-on over all, with a lot of cool little features for warlocks.
His Voidwalker juggling of 3 mobs tactic is also pretty wrong. He obviously does not do that. He would be out of mana and the VW would lose threat pretty fast.
@@Steve-kn2dd And also if killing same lvl mobs the void can lose hp or die fast, even chainpulling single mobs cant give him enough time to regen and then must heal him constantly.
Anyone using this to prep for BC as Horde with a new Lock, here is a friendly reminder that Blood Fury Orc racial changes to cover spells as well as melee when Burning Crusade launches. Be sure to consider this change when choosing your path if you feel it is for you.
I’d also say in a PvP server, you are going to find more benefit in utilizing life drain over your wand, especially at higher levels. Utilizing drain life is pretty much the same speed as using the wand, but keeps you at full life and mana, you also save time having to not bandage. The build highlighted is definitely focused on some one off beneficial scenarios, but for overall more speed, doing 5/5 supp and 5/5 improved DL over Drain Soul and fel intellect 5/5 is gonna give you more results. If you are leveling your warlock to 60 as a second character, it’s also worth investing in the Shadoweave set from Shadow tailoring which will also stack on your Drain Life, making it far superior to wanting as well. Otherwise this is a very helpful guide about some of the great nuances of the warlock.
I've just started a warlock in sod and holy cow, I've learned so much from this video. This class is much more intuitive and just as easy to level as hunter. I've tried a mage and just kept dying because I have no pet.
Awesome bro! Both videos, I’ve leveled to 60 twice on Elysium and lightshope with a priest, loved playing shadow but it’s like a ret pally coming to a raid. Decided I would level a warlock first and your two videos are everything I need, you defiantly did the Vanilla community a solid 🤙 thank you!
Voidwalker is significantly weaker on Classic than it is on Private Servers, primarily because it does significantly less damage in Classic, meaning the threat it generates is less, thus limiting the amount of damage you can do before you end up just tanking the mob yourself while your pet hits it like a wet noodles. The consensus is starting to shift to just use your Imp until you get the Succubus with her spells disabled and just Drain (Life) Tank as it ends up being way more efficent than using void walker as you end up having a lot less downtime in the long run, and you're not having to constantly just stand around and do nothing while your pet generates enough threat to actually contribute. Dive (well known Private Server warlock, and one of the folks who does a lot of the theory crafting on the Classic Warlock Discord) made a reddit post during the Classic BETA regarding this, I strongly suggest people check it out, while void walker still works, it is no longer the defacto choice for leveling. If you search "Reddit Dive Drain Tanking Classc" it should be the top result.
@@zepho100 Yeah, Nylo linked the guide and the talents are in there but at any rate, there's two schools of thought with a little aside for optional stuff. Primarily you either take Improved Imp early and take an early respec (around level 24ish) or you skip it entierly and just rush straight into your main leveling build. Eitherway, the recommended path is to stay almost exclusively in Affliction till you get Dark Pact and use your succubus (with auto-casts turn off) as a mana battery, meaning you have less downtime drinking for mana, because you can just Tap + Drain life + Steal your pets mana to sustain yourself. I strongly, strongly, suggest you read Dive's thoughts on it, and make the decision yourself as to how exactly you want to go about it, but the talents I use based off the talents recommended in the guide are (Roughly) as follows: *_With Improved Imp:_* Improved Corruption 2/5> Improved Imp 3/3 > Improved Corruption 5/5 > Suppression 3/5 > Improved Lifetap 2/2 > Improved Healthstone 2/2 or Demonic Embrace 2/5 > Respec *_Without Imp (Or after respec):_* Improved Corruption 5/5 > Suppression 3/5 > Improved Life Tap 2/2 > Fel Concentration 5/5 (Reduces pushback during Drain Life) > Grim Reach 2/2 > Amplify Curse > Improved Drain Life 2/5 > Siphon Life 1/1 > Improved Drain Life 5/5 > Curse of Exhaustion 1/1 or Nightfall 1/2, your choice you need an extra point somewhere, I take Exhaustion > Shadow Mastery 5/5 > Dark Pact 1/1 > (Optional, but strongly recommended) Improved Healthstone 2/2 > (Optional, but strongly recommended) Demonic Embrace 5/5 *_and from this point forth the talents don't have an incredibly large impact on the general efficency of the build, so it's entirely up to you where you spend the rest of your points, I personally go_* 2/2 Nightfall > 4/5 Fel Intellect (so my Succubus has more mana for me to steal) > Fel Domination > 5/5 Fel Intellect > 4/4 Improved Curse of Exhaustion > Improved Curse of Agony 1/3 (But you're 60 here, so you just respec to your level 60 Spec) *_Alternatively you can go_* Cataclysm 5/5 > Bane 5/5 > Shadowburn 1/1 > Nightfall 2/2 (and again you're 60, so you can just go respec to your 60 spec) *_Or just about any other combination, it's entirely at your discretion, shadowburn can be useful for PvP engagements as it gives this build a little bit of burst it otherwise lacks, but Fel Domination gives you quick access to your Void Walker for Sacrifice for much of the same reason of making you harder to kill in PvP, but still has uses in general questing allowing you to shield yourself and escape a hairy situation and an otherwise rather long, umounted run back to your corpse that's quite common in the higher level zones._*
I main warlock back in wow vanilla and this was the build I used, and it was because I quickly found that the Voidwalker was useless at tanking. As soon as you did some dmg, you ended up tanking instead so I was forced to spec into drain life just to survive. But as a good benefit, you dont have to hold back. Open up with Agony, Corruption, Immolate and drain life. By the time the dots run low or out, the mob is dead, you have almost full HP, half mana bar. You life-tap 2x and moved on. If HP gets too low, bandage up and move on.
I was on the fence of trying to figure out which one I wanted to level as my main in classic. Back in the vanilla days, I was a DPS warrior. So obviously as that was my first love? I wanted to play it again. I main a Warlock in current retail. So I was having problems figuring out which one I wanted to play. This video helped me decide that gonna main a lock in classic. Great video! :)
you do, just not for the reason he said. while you will get a soul shard just for having it active.getting the killing blow with DS is still important to trigger your improved drain soul talent and get that 100% mana regen to maintain sustainability
improved drain soul sucks. have fun deleting soul shards from your bag one by one for eternity lulz. locks are plenty mana efficient with a decent wand and improved life tap
There's a good argument that the drain soul talent simply isn't worth it. The effect only lasts 10 second, and casting drain soul triggers the 5 second rule, so for the half of the duration you just get your normal mana regen just like if you wanded the mob to death, so you're left with another 5 seconds of double mana regen. Which isn't bad, I'll admit, but probably not worth the 2 talent points, especially since warlocks are very sustainable anyway.
Bro. Pretty sure the Drain Soul Talent to get crazy regen is what requires the killing blow. The soul shard is 100% as long as it dies while you are channeling. Otherwise decent vid!
I highly recommend not going straight for shadow master because you will sacrifice way too much survivaibility and as you mentioned locks dont have much defense/escape early on especially if not orc. You should start by picking up improved corruption, suppression amplify curse and improved life tap (8-11 points depending on preference). then switching over to demo picking up improved HP, health stone, void sac, fel dom, and master summoner (17 points). After master summoner you go back to affliction tree picking up the rest of your important talents and getting shadow mastery. The reason for this is that getting shadow mastery early and talents like improved CoA don't scale as well be cause you have low level abilities. Getting all the survival talents and having master summoner at level 37 is huge in your defense and lasts all the way to 60. if you do it the other way and get SM first then you get your best defense skill at level 56 and use it for only 4 levels before respeccing. Also when you delay the SM talent you will end up getting it right around the time you start collecting spell damage gear (lvl 51-56) and it scale with your high ranking spells
This video really helped me out when playing classic wow with my Warlock. Litteraly the first minute of the video helped me at least a tiny bit. Thanks again buddy!!!
Buy all your skills folks. Don't think you need curse of reck? Try preloading a fear on a healing mob. With reck up it's an insta fear/interupt on other curse application.
something you mentioned made me think of an addon that would be great if someone created. Just like there are addons to show +health for shields. there should be one that shows -health for your dots.
@@mikekelly1957 I'm no Lock guru but dont really think the timing matters. Its more a case of whether your pet has enough aggro on the mobs or not. If you using void and give him enough time to round up 3+ mobs and get hes aoe taunt off once or twice u should be ok i think. Single target obviously no issue, SL to ur hearts content :) What some other players also mentioned about the void not being that great for vanilla leveling and rather taking other pet for dps it would also play a role in SL as u might get healing aggro sooner if not using void. Just something to bear in mind. I dont really care that much as I will just dot the S##t out of everything and hope to see another day LOL
Is it just me or does the voidwalker never aggro like it does in this video. I switched to succubus because I would get aggro for just putting 2 DoTs on a mob...
yeah VW taunt is pretty weak, and warlocks dont even cause much threat... imo let ur voidwalker get a few hits... apply dots between first and second taunt, then life tap, drain life or whatever you do
Another DoT + wand guy.... meeh :) It works if you want to take your time and lvl slowly but safely, but if you don't draw agro from void (even with improved void) then you doing it wrong and slowly. If you leveling fast then the void only good to keep threat until the initial dots and 1-2 extra SB or drain, and then it surely loses agro but no problem, by the time the mob(s) reach you they are almost dead and drainlife or wanding finish them off...
You always get a shard if the target dies while you drain it and it yelds xp/honor. It's the improved drain soul talent effect that triggers only when YOU'RE the one to kill it.
at 7:45 you mention as a warlock if your pet gets last hit while draining soul you WILL NOT get a soul shard. and this is not true. for Drain Soul the target just needs to die while you are conencted with the spell drain soul and you WILL be rewarded a soulshard every single time. BUT if you have the talent "Improved drain soul" in the Affliction spec, you DO require to have the last hit via DoT, or direct dmg. but if your pet DOES get the last hit you WILL get a soulshard but you WILL NOT get the "Improved Drain Soul" Talent proc. For the talent you need the last hit. but great vid. i genuinely learned a lot :D ty keep it up (This macro is still usefull for getting this talent to proc, but IF you DONT use this talent its not neccesarry for getting shards) btw you should put atleast 1 point in the talent because its worth it if you go by it anyway just for the ending "50% mana regen during casting at all times" it isnt connected to the buff it just enables mana regen if im correct.
Great tips and tricks for Locks!! I would recommend Undead for unlimited food/mana with Cannibalize and Stun is easy to take care with your Voidwalker bubble and DOTS melting people like crazy Speaking of threat, I would recommend get 5 points in corruption to get it instant and go straight for the Void upgrade. After go back and finish the affliction tree and add the last points in demon for good mesure. . With a engineer profession for that extra AOE damage output and mob control are just crazy !:P Love your videos, you are upgrading my hype day by day!
@@WayneRogersOutdoors Yeah, I think the mix up is improved drain soul -- if the pet gets the blow, you don't get the mana regen boost. Poop talent if you ask me anyway.
@@zepho100 Its pretty decent, 100% increased mana regeneration for the duration. Its equivalent to using 1 more dot every mob. obviously its down to how much spirit you got.
I don't think that was even a private server thing, I leveled a lock in lightshope and iirc as long as the mob had the drain soul dot on it when it died, I would get a ss.
So i see you picking spells and i notice you skipped rank 1 Curse of Recklessness... this is a MUST HAVE spell for leveling. recklessness keeps humanoids from running away from you when they get to low HP. super useful for not pulling a shit ton of extra mobs when solo leveling and even in dungeons. I don't recommend getting multiple levels in it unless you are duo with a physical based dps character. higher ranks of recklessness decrease the targets armor significantly, but also increases their attack power. but that anti-flee is a huge perk on the spell. for sure a must have. Great video man. Cheers!
idk where people have found that if you are channeling drain soul, and don't get killing blow you don't receive soul shard. I have literally NEVER not gotten a shard while using that ability(plenty of times where pets or others could have gotten killing blow).
pro tip: ignore the void lord. The tanky pet you think you remember is actually from tbc or wotlk/cata. It sucks in vanilla, can't even hold aggro on dots or wand. Theoritically it can hold aggro on 1 target with 1 or 2 dots but it will take forever to kill that way, but you could dot up and fear a 2nd target (though bad idea on a pvp server) Instead go hp drain tanking build (still afflic) but use a suc or felhunter or even the imp, all will kill faster than the void lord and since he can't hold aggro well (even talented) he's almost useless. Drain tank w/ succubbus everything dies so fast and you stay full hp easily.
I wish I could make up my mind. Do I level a hunter again and relive my first WoW experience? Alliance locks seem a bit weak due to WotF, but they still look fun. Maybe a rogue. Maybe a mage. Maybe a paladin, actually. Maybe I should quit my job and move back into my parents' basement.
I love your video's, with that said, Life drain is the worst thing you can use for leveling, it's so slow at killing, Use SB/WAND. Also, Siphon life is a waste of time. Easier to dot dot SB wand wand, Lifetap when you need Mana. Never be at full health, if your at full health, your doing something wrong!
This is wrong, drain life at rank 4+ which is unlocked at 38 is significantly stronger than wands. Siphon life being bad is also misinformation, on short fights it is less effective but longer fights 18+ seconds it is very strong as life=mana as a warlock and more mana=more combat uptime. There's plenty of research on both these.
Why not get corruption and lifetap, then go down the demo tree to get DS, then you don't have to worry about pet in dungeons and groups Void will also do more damage and have better threat
I prefer Dive's drain tanking method. Succubus auto attacks are like 27% of my damage. Only downside is it is a little harder to juggle multiple mobs, but the zones are so swamped with players that I rarely have reason to take on 3+ mobs. Also at 40 with dark pact mana is almost never an issue. If the VW was a better tank then it would be different, but as it stands you're likely to pull threat anyway. Better to run with a pet that does solid dps.
If you want to level Warlock like a beast, you spec drain tank build. Hands down it's the most efficient way to level, zero downtime once you get dark pact. Use succubus instead of void Walker, she'll save your life from those pesky rogue gankers and she does decent damage.
FYI VW is actually slower than Imp leveling, plus VW threat management is lower in classic than pservers. Staysafe (& other warlock mains) did some insane research on beta and the damage Imp does, especially with talent improvement, is quite high. VW does have the nice bubble sac which helps when you're getting ganked, but it's threat generation does have some trouble too, at least until above L30 or L40 after some Grimoires/pet upgrades to VW threat abilities.
Pets are not what make locks great at leveling it's dark pact and life tap, being a caster who never stops to drink is OP and slept on by most average locks
This is when pservers make you give the wrong advice. In bliz server, the Voidwalker has crap aggro generation so he can't tank unless you hold back dealing little dmg. On pservers, voidwalker tanks solid. The warlock has to become the tank in order to have a fast kill rate, no holding back 50% so voidwalker wont lose aggro. The fast way to lvl warlock = spec for drain tanking, use a succubus for dmg. At level 40, you can use her mana to restore your mana and keep going infinitely.
I have +90~ shadow dmg now and im level 40, sb definitely is worth using once per mob. Its dmg per mana effeciency surpasses immolate if you have additional sp. Also worth mentioning, sl is way too weak (atleast earlier ranks and without sp) , and costs too much mana to be used on every mob
I'd say to go with improved imp, get some affliction talent ofc. No improved drain soul or drainlife. Mobs die so fast that you get mana without it and more even so with the improved lifetap. At lvl 40 you can switch up to drainlife spec when drainlife is starting to become stronger than your wand.
This one doesn't mess with my class picking cause i just can't get into warlock but a good ( not great ) warlock can be devastating to face off against
I feel like affliction warlock is pretty boring, just melting the enemy no big juicy crits. Deep destruction is so much fun though, so much control, utility, the variety of the pets to counter different classes/situations and the insane burst of immolate -> conflag -> shadowburn or fear -> curse of elements -> soulfire, will hit them like a truck. All that is super fun, but it doesn't end there, so much usefulness to a raid/dungeon group as well, just a great class for pvp and pve. Also that free mount at 40 ;)
Sorry, but I've mained a warlock since 2004, & Drain Soul doesn't care at all who or what gets the killing blow. If I'm draining soul when the mob dies, I get a soul shard, period, no exceptions. Further, Improved Drain Soul is completely irrelevant to this issue, as I am always 0/2 in that talent -- I don't use it at all -- and what I said before is still true. (And yes, I do have a 60 warlock in Classic, so this isn't just a misremembered long ago past.) This is just some incorrect warlock mythology. I don't mean to be rude, but it's just wrong.
thanks for this... and i know you said you were sick of lock vids by now. but is there any way you could make a vid about leveling path like which zones to avoid and which have great rewards for locks?
Void walker leveling is a private server thing. A lot of things wrong with this video to name them all that comes from the private server scene. I would recommend you do more research before putting out a guide like this. Look up Dives leveling guide and even staysafe has a decent warlock guide for using the imp. Unfortunately, people will be surprised how bad the void walker is during launch.
Grim thought. Will more RL deaths effect the classic servers after a while then before? A lot of the people who are playing now will be the same as before but now older with more health problems.
For improved drain soul killing blow proc I wouldn't use a /follow macro. Better to just get a habit of manually hit follow if the pet is attacking your drain soul target. Reason is if you are doing a multi mob pull. If the pet is attacking a different target it will stop that once you drain soul on the target it wasn't even attacking in the first place if drain soul also trigger /follow. Guess you can have two keybinds for drain soul to counter this, one normal and one macro but seems a hassle. It's not hard to just manually /follow or send pet to another target before you are about to drain soul.
Just started your vid and already am disliking what you are showing. Drain soul is usless while leveling. But even more Void Walker cannot hold aggro like it does on Private as it does 75% less damage. You will die often if you try for the build you showed. Try Dive's Drain tanking or Staysafe's builds.
It's funny to see a voidwalker keep aggro from 4 dots+wand or even on 2 mobs with 2 siphon lifes lol, that was definitely not the case in Vanilla. So many people are going for Demo/DS in their leveling spec ignoring Dark Pact because content creaters tell them to, it's hilarious how awful that advice is.
Was looking for this comment cause I knew something was off. The dive tanking guide looked really good. Not trusting this youtuber from what I have seen on his videos
What's the point of Drain tanking if you have to drink every few mobs. Did you watch the speed runs with people who used it? I'll go with VW if I see that it can't hold agro at all I will switch to succubus + wanding. Specing drain life before at least 30 or more like 38 makes no sense
With my experience, Blackbone Wand will stay with you for a very long time. Since it's shadow damage, all of the Shadow Wrath equipment you carry will add to it as well.
It's great leveling advice but personally I like enemies attack to some degree, because I think defense skill is useful to level for shit I fucked up moments. It's kinda useful to have some defense skills, if you avoid all melee damage you will reach lvl 60 without much defense skill at all.
I haven't even reached 60 yet. I have 2 chars a lvl 27 hunter and 27 pally and im bored.. I just can't find a class that I can enjoy but warlock looks fun... I'm gonna try it let's hope I can reach 60
I'm leveling up as destro. Having an insta-damage spell for those god damn rotten bastards tagging important mobs was a pain in the literall ass. Plus it's a neat "execute" ability with a decend damage, it does wonders if you managed to crit a shadowbolt, the extra shadow damage do applies and gives you a very hard ouchies. And ruin... *slurp*
![DONT Vendor These Items While Leveling In Classic WoW!! [Secret Value]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/_iEoUPKjs4A/mqdefault.jpg)
Hey guys, i got the drain soul info wrong on this one. U pull ur pet back so improved soul drain triggers, not missing out on a soul shard. Sorry about that, misread during my research.
I'll tell you even more my man Punkrat, you don't need to pull your pet back to trigger imp. drain soul. It was a private server bug:))
But that's the least of the problems this guide has, as warlock pets and respective leveling strategies turned out to be completely wrong on private servers. So much so people are now pushing for succubus/imp as your leveling pet
Sorry I missed this edit bud, I'll delete my comment. 👍
@@nurmikoil1103 Is that true ? On retail it procs even if pet kills it ?
@@evoknz in classic, yes sir
Putting 4/5 into improved corruption is actually pretty awesome in pvp because people think you’re casting fear - but it’s not and it goes so fast that people always miss their kick or silence and waste their cooldown
I did a respec at level 36 to try and follow this and my survivability went out the window. I followed the order suggested in the video and would really recommend putting points in demo first. I would pump up demonic embrace and improved voidwalker first and then go back into affliction. This way your vw wont lose threat as often with all the dots you are putting on your targets. Aside from that, love the build so far.
I don't think you realize how inconvenient speeding up the talent tree is, that's like one of the most important parts of the video.
Just pause it and slow it down...
if you use your < and > keys or , and . then you can slow it down to watch frame by frame. Which is honestly the speed you need to slow it down to
A good idea might have been to do the tree as he was explaining the benefits of each talent, would've drawn it out
Don't even use this build. I'll send you the best one to go with, starting in affliction.
I agree, this build isn't that great. I love rolling affliction
If you are trying to figure our how he put the keybinds for his Attack/Follow commands for his pet it goes as follows:
On the KeyBindings Menu:
For Pet Attack go to Targeting and set the tab for Pet Attack to the Mouse Wheel Up.
For Pet Follow: There is NO tab that actually says, "Pet Follow". Go to the first Action Tab and look for Pet Action Button 2. Setting this tab to Mouse Wheel Down will command your pet to Follow.
This rose my blood pressure a bit trying to figure this out.
Great video dude!
10:30 I recommend the Nercosis warlock add-on. You can have that alert you when you enter shadow trance. Plus it's just a great add-on over all, with a lot of cool little features for warlocks.
TIP: Never stay at FULL hp as he does in the video, lifetap to regenerate mana before reaching 100% hp.
yeah i was pulling my hair seeing him cast dots and staying at 100% hp.
His Voidwalker juggling of 3 mobs tactic is also pretty wrong. He obviously does not do that. He would be out of mana and the VW would lose threat pretty fast.
@@Steve-kn2dd lol
@@Steve-kn2dd And also if killing same lvl mobs the void can lose hp or die fast, even chainpulling single mobs cant give him enough time to regen and then must heal him constantly.
Rogues: YES PLEASE
Anyone using this to prep for BC as Horde with a new Lock, here is a friendly reminder that Blood Fury Orc racial changes to cover spells as well as melee when Burning Crusade launches. Be sure to consider this change when choosing your path if you feel it is for you.
On private servers the imp has alot more hp than in classic. Pulling with imp will most likely kill your imp (atleast early levels).
Yep, my imp died a lot during stress test and I only made it to lvl 5..
@@dubious6718 yup imp cant tank more than 2 hits
I’d also say in a PvP server, you are going to find more benefit in utilizing life drain over your wand, especially at higher levels. Utilizing drain life is pretty much the same speed as using the wand, but keeps you at full life and mana, you also save time having to not bandage. The build highlighted is definitely focused on some one off beneficial scenarios, but for overall more speed, doing 5/5 supp and 5/5 improved DL over Drain Soul and fel intellect 5/5 is gonna give you more results. If you are leveling your warlock to 60 as a second character, it’s also worth investing in the Shadoweave set from Shadow tailoring which will also stack on your Drain Life, making it far superior to wanting as well. Otherwise this is a very helpful guide about some of the great nuances of the warlock.
I've just started a warlock in sod and holy cow, I've learned so much from this video. This class is much more intuitive and just as easy to level as hunter. I've tried a mage and just kept dying because I have no pet.
Awesome bro! Both videos, I’ve leveled to 60 twice on Elysium and lightshope with a priest, loved playing shadow but it’s like a ret pally coming to a raid. Decided I would level a warlock first and your two videos are everything I need, you defiantly did the Vanilla community a solid 🤙 thank you!
Punkrat taught us alot about classic then dipped. I respect him for that.
Voidwalker is significantly weaker on Classic than it is on Private Servers, primarily because it does significantly less damage in Classic, meaning the threat it generates is less, thus limiting the amount of damage you can do before you end up just tanking the mob yourself while your pet hits it like a wet noodles.
The consensus is starting to shift to just use your Imp until you get the Succubus with her spells disabled and just Drain (Life) Tank as it ends up being way more efficent than using void walker as you end up having a lot less downtime in the long run, and you're not having to constantly just stand around and do nothing while your pet generates enough threat to actually contribute.
Dive (well known Private Server warlock, and one of the folks who does a lot of the theory crafting on the Classic Warlock Discord) made a reddit post during the Classic BETA regarding this, I strongly suggest people check it out, while void walker still works, it is no longer the defacto choice for leveling. If you search "Reddit Dive Drain Tanking Classc" it should be the top result.
Exactly this. More people need to be aware of this imho. Voidwalker is quite a lot weaker in Classic compared to private servers.
Makes sense, I leveled with my Succubus around 45+ when I was SL. What talents was Dive recommending?
@@zepho100 Here's the guide: drive.google.com/file/d/1qdUs229_XvkR1NCeTrJkybL5BDXGIh7q/view
@@zepho100 Yeah, Nylo linked the guide and the talents are in there but at any rate, there's two schools of thought with a little aside for optional stuff. Primarily you either take Improved Imp early and take an early respec (around level 24ish) or you skip it entierly and just rush straight into your main leveling build. Eitherway, the recommended path is to stay almost exclusively in Affliction till you get Dark Pact and use your succubus (with auto-casts turn off) as a mana battery, meaning you have less downtime drinking for mana, because you can just Tap + Drain life + Steal your pets mana to sustain yourself. I strongly, strongly, suggest you read Dive's thoughts on it, and make the decision yourself as to how exactly you want to go about it, but the talents I use based off the talents recommended in the guide are (Roughly) as follows:
*_With Improved Imp:_*
Improved Corruption 2/5> Improved Imp 3/3 > Improved Corruption 5/5 > Suppression 3/5 > Improved Lifetap 2/2 > Improved Healthstone 2/2 or Demonic Embrace 2/5 > Respec
*_Without Imp (Or after respec):_*
Improved Corruption 5/5 > Suppression 3/5 > Improved Life Tap 2/2 > Fel Concentration 5/5 (Reduces pushback during Drain Life) > Grim Reach 2/2 > Amplify Curse > Improved Drain Life 2/5 > Siphon Life 1/1 > Improved Drain Life 5/5 > Curse of Exhaustion 1/1 or Nightfall 1/2, your choice you need an extra point somewhere, I take Exhaustion > Shadow Mastery 5/5 > Dark Pact 1/1 > (Optional, but strongly recommended) Improved Healthstone 2/2 > (Optional, but strongly recommended) Demonic Embrace 5/5
*_and from this point forth the talents don't have an incredibly large impact on the general efficency of the build, so it's entirely up to you where you spend the rest of your points, I personally go_*
2/2 Nightfall > 4/5 Fel Intellect (so my Succubus has more mana for me to steal) > Fel Domination > 5/5 Fel Intellect > 4/4 Improved Curse of Exhaustion > Improved Curse of Agony 1/3 (But you're 60 here, so you just respec to your level 60 Spec)
*_Alternatively you can go_*
Cataclysm 5/5 > Bane 5/5 > Shadowburn 1/1 > Nightfall 2/2 (and again you're 60, so you can just go respec to your 60 spec)
*_Or just about any other combination, it's entirely at your discretion, shadowburn can be useful for PvP engagements as it gives this build a little bit of burst it otherwise lacks, but Fel Domination gives you quick access to your Void Walker for Sacrifice for much of the same reason of making you harder to kill in PvP, but still has uses in general questing allowing you to shield yourself and escape a hairy situation and an otherwise rather long, umounted run back to your corpse that's quite common in the higher level zones._*
I main warlock back in wow vanilla and this was the build I used, and it was because I quickly found that the Voidwalker was useless at tanking. As soon as you did some dmg, you ended up tanking instead so I was forced to spec into drain life just to survive. But as a good benefit, you dont have to hold back. Open up with Agony, Corruption, Immolate and drain life. By the time the dots run low or out, the mob is dead, you have almost full HP, half mana bar. You life-tap 2x and moved on. If HP gets too low, bandage up and move on.
I was on the fence of trying to figure out which one I wanted to level as my main in classic. Back in the vanilla days, I was a DPS warrior. So obviously as that was my first love? I wanted to play it again. I main a Warlock in current retail. So I was having problems figuring out which one I wanted to play. This video helped me decide that gonna main a lock in classic. Great video! :)
Thanks for this guide man - just started a warlock in SoD and this guide was very helpful. Cheers.
that scroll mouse command insight was epic!
you actually do not need to get the killing blow on drain soul it just has to be up when the mob dies. :/
You don't need it for the shard ,you DO need it for the talent proc
you do, just not for the reason he said. while you will get a soul shard just for having it active.getting the killing blow with DS is still important to trigger your improved drain soul talent and get that 100% mana regen to maintain sustainability
improved drain soul sucks. have fun deleting soul shards from your bag one by one for eternity lulz. locks are plenty mana efficient with a decent wand and improved life tap
There's a good argument that the drain soul talent simply isn't worth it. The effect only lasts 10 second, and casting drain soul triggers the 5 second rule, so for the half of the duration you just get your normal mana regen just like if you wanded the mob to death, so you're left with another 5 seconds of double mana regen. Which isn't bad, I'll admit, but probably not worth the 2 talent points, especially since warlocks are very sustainable anyway.
@@dimentoid606 Honestly yeah as long as you manage your life you can manage your mana, just use Drain Life, Siphon Life and Soul Tap to keep sustained
Cheers Chunkrat,
Exactly the video i wanted from the #1 classic youtuber.
The only content creater that I watch every vid!
Your videos are awesome. I was planning on making a warlock as my first toon. So this is incredibly helpful.
Ty so much:D just the vid i was looking for
I dunno why, but I never thought of having scroll-up/scoll-down for the attack/return commands!
Bro. Pretty sure the Drain Soul Talent to get crazy regen is what requires the killing blow. The soul shard is 100% as long as it dies while you are channeling. Otherwise decent vid!
I highly recommend not going straight for shadow master because you will sacrifice way too much survivaibility and as you mentioned locks dont have much defense/escape early on especially if not orc. You should start by picking up improved corruption, suppression amplify curse and improved life tap (8-11 points depending on preference). then switching over to demo picking up improved HP, health stone, void sac, fel dom, and master summoner (17 points). After master summoner you go back to affliction tree picking up the rest of your important talents and getting shadow mastery. The reason for this is that getting shadow mastery early and talents like improved CoA don't scale as well be cause you have low level abilities. Getting all the survival talents and having master summoner at level 37 is huge in your defense and lasts all the way to 60. if you do it the other way and get SM first then you get your best defense skill at level 56 and use it for only 4 levels before respeccing. Also when you delay the SM talent you will end up getting it right around the time you start collecting spell damage gear (lvl 51-56) and it scale with your high ranking spells
I agree on this!
This video really helped me out when playing classic wow with my Warlock. Litteraly the first minute of the video helped me at least a tiny bit. Thanks again buddy!!!
I love my undead warlock. Life tap + Cannibalize is a great utility combo.
Thanks for mouse scroll tip for the pet. Never thought of that
Then how will I zoom out and in my own character?
Hey Punkrat, been watching your vids for a while. Really well done! Keep it up bro. Thanks for the entertainment!
Buy all your skills folks. Don't think you need curse of reck? Try preloading a fear on a healing mob. With reck up it's an insta fear/interupt on other curse application.
Punkrat: Perception good for warlock in pvp.
Felhunter: ???
Cannibalize: The lore-friendly version of teabagging
A tea bagging that their friends can watch while they rot to dots
Very helpful!!! Thank you!!!
I been watching his other channel liberal hivemind this whole time and didn't realize it was this guy! Punkrat you rule man!
Thanks playing my first warlock in classic...loving her so far.
Wonderful videos!! Thanks for all the warlock videos 😁
Nice tutorial, thanks for my man Romnom to send me this.
Good intro to spec to get you interested. Now forget everything he said and go read Dive's Drain Tanking Guide.
is this footage from a privat4e server necause during beta my imp had 30 hp and got 2-3 shot
Yeah this is private server footage. Don't have your imp tank on live & your voidwalker won't pull as much threat on live
like your rotor wheel on the pet idea I just started using very helpful
something you mentioned made me think of an addon that would be great if someone created. Just like there are addons to show +health for shields. there should be one that shows -health for your dots.
Fabulous idea. I hope someone does it!
FYI Siphon life causes healing aggro
So should you Life Tap only at full health? Thus the amount healed is minimal. Sorry I meant Siphon Life.
@@mikekelly1957 I'm no Lock guru but dont really think the timing matters. Its more a case of whether your pet has enough aggro on the mobs or not. If you using void and give him enough time to round up 3+ mobs and get hes aoe taunt off once or twice u should be ok i think. Single target obviously no issue, SL to ur hearts content :) What some other players also mentioned about the void not being that great for vanilla leveling and rather taking other pet for dps it would also play a role in SL as u might get healing aggro sooner if not using void. Just something to bear in mind. I dont really care that much as I will just dot the S##t out of everything and hope to see another day LOL
@@Reaperx81 Thanks for the well-written response! Cheers!
Is it just me or does the voidwalker never aggro like it does in this video. I switched to succubus because I would get aggro for just putting 2 DoTs on a mob...
That's why I think it's better to go for Improved Voidwalker by level 22.
Consider buying grimoires to level up its taunt
@@Menaceirl ofc i did that.
@@aMilling Was responding to the original commenter
yeah VW taunt is pretty weak, and warlocks dont even cause much threat... imo let ur voidwalker get a few hits... apply dots between first and second taunt, then life tap, drain life or whatever you do
this video is well done. thanx for uploading
thank you for this video now i can definitely enjoy my warlock
Another DoT + wand guy.... meeh :) It works if you want to take your time and lvl slowly but safely, but if you don't draw agro from void (even with improved void) then you doing it wrong and slowly. If you leveling fast then the void only good to keep threat until the initial dots and 1-2 extra SB or drain, and then it surely loses agro but no problem, by the time the mob(s) reach you they are almost dead and drainlife or wanding finish them off...
Shadow priest guide man!!!!! Great guides bro
You always get a shard if the target dies while you drain it and it yelds xp/honor. It's the improved drain soul talent effect that triggers only when YOU'RE the one to kill it.
I love your videos Punkrat! Can't wait for Classic to launch. Thanks for sharing your passion and experience of Vanilla in those awesome videos!
at 7:45 you mention as a warlock if your pet gets last hit while draining soul you WILL NOT get a soul shard. and this is not true. for Drain Soul the target just needs to die while you are conencted with the spell drain soul and you WILL be rewarded a soulshard every single time. BUT if you have the talent "Improved drain soul" in the Affliction spec, you DO require to have the last hit via DoT, or direct dmg. but if your pet DOES get the last hit you WILL get a soulshard but you WILL NOT get the "Improved Drain Soul" Talent proc. For the talent you need the last hit. but great vid. i genuinely learned a lot :D ty keep it up (This macro is still usefull for getting this talent to proc, but IF you DONT use this talent its not neccesarry for getting shards) btw you should put atleast 1 point in the talent because its worth it if you go by it anyway just for the ending "50% mana regen during casting at all times" it isnt connected to the buff it just enables mana regen if im correct.
Exactly
Great tips and tricks for Locks!! I would recommend Undead for unlimited food/mana with Cannibalize and Stun is easy to take care with your Voidwalker bubble and DOTS melting people like crazy Speaking of threat, I would recommend get 5 points in corruption to get it instant and go straight for the Void upgrade. After go back and finish the affliction tree and add the last points in demon for good mesure. . With a engineer profession for that extra AOE damage output and mob control are just crazy !:P Love your videos, you are upgrading my hype day by day!
I think you still get the soul shard, even if the pet gets the killing blow?
Yes, all that matters is that you are casting Drain Soul when the mob dies.
@@WayneRogersOutdoors Yeah, I think the mix up is improved drain soul -- if the pet gets the blow, you don't get the mana regen boost. Poop talent if you ask me anyway.
@@zepho100 Its pretty decent, 100% increased mana regeneration for the duration. Its equivalent to using 1 more dot every mob. obviously its down to how much spirit you got.
The thing about not getting soul shards if you don't land the killing blow is only a private server thing. You won't need that macro
I don't think that was even a private server thing, I leveled a lock in lightshope and iirc as long as the mob had the drain soul dot on it when it died, I would get a ss.
it's not about the soul shard it's about getting the improved drain soul proc.
So i see you picking spells and i notice you skipped rank 1 Curse of Recklessness... this is a MUST HAVE spell for leveling. recklessness keeps humanoids from running away from you when they get to low HP. super useful for not pulling a shit ton of extra mobs when solo leveling and even in dungeons. I don't recommend getting multiple levels in it unless you are duo with a physical based dps character. higher ranks of recklessness decrease the targets armor significantly, but also increases their attack power. but that anti-flee is a huge perk on the spell. for sure a must have. Great video man. Cheers!
idk where people have found that if you are channeling drain soul, and don't get killing blow you don't receive soul shard. I have literally NEVER not gotten a shard while using that ability(plenty of times where pets or others could have gotten killing blow).
pro tip: ignore the void lord. The tanky pet you think you remember is actually from tbc or wotlk/cata. It sucks in vanilla, can't even hold aggro on dots or wand. Theoritically it can hold aggro on 1 target with 1 or 2 dots but it will take forever to kill that way, but you could dot up and fear a 2nd target (though bad idea on a pvp server) Instead go hp drain tanking build (still afflic) but use a suc or felhunter or even the imp, all will kill faster than the void lord and since he can't hold aggro well (even talented) he's almost useless. Drain tank w/ succubbus everything dies so fast and you stay full hp easily.
yesterday i decided to go warlock and now you upload this!... now still what profs do I want... Think Tailor - and gather
Tailoring and engi imo best for pvp and pve lock
@@Nothernmantis ye it is.. But buying all the mats for engi is crazy expensive. So think maybe mining to collect everything and at 60 switch to engi
@@tjeerd1982 better dont rely on this guide it is complet garbage .... exp. the void walker wont be able to hold youre aggro on retail classic
I wish I could make up my mind. Do I level a hunter again and relive my first WoW experience? Alliance locks seem a bit weak due to WotF, but they still look fun. Maybe a rogue. Maybe a mage. Maybe a paladin, actually.
Maybe I should quit my job and move back into my parents' basement.
I bookmarked this vid the moment I saw it. Thanks!
I love your video's, with that said, Life drain is the worst thing you can use for leveling, it's so slow at killing, Use SB/WAND. Also, Siphon life is a waste of time. Easier to dot dot SB wand wand, Lifetap when you need Mana. Never be at full health, if your at full health, your doing something wrong!
This is wrong, drain life at rank 4+ which is unlocked at 38 is significantly stronger than wands. Siphon life being bad is also misinformation, on short fights it is less effective but longer fights 18+ seconds it is very strong as life=mana as a warlock and more mana=more combat uptime. There's plenty of research on both these.
@@thstealx5230 Only thing drain life is good for is getting life back when your in trouble, not to kill with, it's slow and ineffective.
Why not get corruption and lifetap, then go down the demo tree to get DS, then you don't have to worry about pet in dungeons and groups
Void will also do more damage and have better threat
I prefer Dive's drain tanking method. Succubus auto attacks are like 27% of my damage. Only downside is it is a little harder to juggle multiple mobs, but the zones are so swamped with players that I rarely have reason to take on 3+ mobs. Also at 40 with dark pact mana is almost never an issue. If the VW was a better tank then it would be different, but as it stands you're likely to pull threat anyway. Better to run with a pet that does solid dps.
If you want to level Warlock like a beast, you spec drain tank build. Hands down it's the most efficient way to level, zero downtime once you get dark pact. Use succubus instead of void Walker, she'll save your life from those pesky rogue gankers and she does decent damage.
Hands down the best wow content creator 👏
Neato. My first room was warlock. I played him all the way up to cata. I plan on resurrecting him.
One of your better videos imo. Great job. I’m rolling lock retail launch. Good luck champ.
My is hard. Cannot wait! Been waiting 12 years for this!
FYI VW is actually slower than Imp leveling, plus VW threat management is lower in classic than pservers. Staysafe (& other warlock mains) did some insane research on beta and the damage Imp does, especially with talent improvement, is quite high. VW does have the nice bubble sac which helps when you're getting ganked, but it's threat generation does have some trouble too, at least until above L30 or L40 after some Grimoires/pet upgrades to VW threat abilities.
staysafe is trash at micromanaging his pet and multidotting/chain pulling. not a good standard candle.
I use dark pact while leveling, use imp on passive as my mana slave. Only use VW in heavy pvp areas.
When your lvling, you might as well take dark pact at 40... you can just respec at 60. Would be a bit silly to not just grab that.
Pets are not what make locks great at leveling it's dark pact and life tap, being a caster who never stops to drink is OP and slept on by most average locks
Train the reclessness(rank1only), bloody useful in a packed houses, castles etc..
Thanks for the tips!
Such a good key bind suggestion holy shit im talkin genius lvl macros here ppl
Orc all the way! Setting on go Monday!
If only they didn't look so ugly ;(
Nice specific information, really useful if you are a new player.
This is when pservers make you give the wrong advice. In bliz server, the Voidwalker has crap aggro generation so he can't tank unless you hold back dealing little dmg. On pservers, voidwalker tanks solid. The warlock has to become the tank in order to have a fast kill rate, no holding back 50% so voidwalker wont lose aggro. The fast way to lvl warlock = spec for drain tanking, use a succubus for dmg. At level 40, you can use her mana to restore your mana and keep going infinitely.
You don't want your imp to tank at all in Classic, it dies in 2-3 hits most of the time due to improper scaling on pservs.
Dude your vids are ace. Im a WOW noob and this is going to be fun. Thanks
I'm glad I watched this, great video, thank you
I have +90~ shadow dmg now and im level 40, sb definitely is worth using once per mob. Its dmg per mana effeciency surpasses immolate if you have additional sp. Also worth mentioning, sl is way too weak (atleast earlier ranks and without sp) , and costs too much mana to be used on every mob
I wish content creators would stop hyping up my favorite class lol. Now there's gonna be so many of them running around.
Not really, checkout the community surveys on Reddit.
@@savagecarnivore4699 do u have an link for chars made surveys?
There were already a lot of locks in classic you special unique unicorn
@metalfaust19 i agree back at least on my server there was pretty much no warlocks. it might change but back then they where rare.
No one is hyping up my pally class lol
Orc has good style as a warrior. But for everybody else: Undead ftw.
Quality content! Thanks champ
"They've got it all" Gets ganked by rogues and just pops instantly lol
I'd say to go with improved imp, get some affliction talent ofc. No improved drain soul or drainlife. Mobs die so fast that you get mana without it and more even so with the improved lifetap. At lvl 40 you can switch up to drainlife spec when drainlife is starting to become stronger than your wand.
imp regenerates mana too fast in private servers. In bliz server, imp runs OOM and becomes useless.
Dude!! Great video !!
Good info but I would personally disagree on Affliction for leveling, it's excellent for end game content but demonology makes solo questing SO easy.
I'm not impressed that I saw a leveling service as an ad on this video. The company was called legion farm. :-( overall I love your videos
Ditto
This one doesn't mess with my class picking cause i just can't get into warlock but a good ( not great ) warlock can be devastating to face off against
I feel like affliction warlock is pretty boring, just melting the enemy no big juicy crits. Deep destruction is so much fun though, so much control, utility, the variety of the pets to counter different classes/situations and the insane burst of immolate -> conflag -> shadowburn or fear -> curse of elements -> soulfire, will hit them like a truck. All that is super fun, but it doesn't end there, so much usefulness to a raid/dungeon group as well, just a great class for pvp and pve. Also that free mount at 40 ;)
Awwwww yeahhhh, been waitin for this one to pop up!
This video was super helpful. Still have problems with the macros though
Sorry, but I've mained a warlock since 2004, & Drain Soul doesn't care at all who or what gets the killing blow. If I'm draining soul when the mob dies, I get a soul shard, period, no exceptions. Further, Improved Drain Soul is completely irrelevant to this issue, as I am always 0/2 in that talent -- I don't use it at all -- and what I said before is still true. (And yes, I do have a 60 warlock in Classic, so this isn't just a misremembered long ago past.) This is just some incorrect warlock mythology. I don't mean to be rude, but it's just wrong.
thanks for this... and i know you said you were sick of lock vids by now. but is there any way you could make a vid about leveling path like which zones to avoid and which have great rewards for locks?
Void walker leveling is a private server thing. A lot of things wrong with this video to name them all that comes from the private server scene. I would recommend you do more research before putting out a guide like this. Look up Dives leveling guide and even staysafe has a decent warlock guide for using the imp. Unfortunately, people will be surprised how bad the void walker is during launch.
Grim thought. Will more RL deaths effect the classic servers after a while then before? A lot of the people who are playing now will be the same as before but now older with more health problems.
Good more funerals to raid.
For improved drain soul killing blow proc I wouldn't use a /follow macro. Better to just get a habit of manually hit follow if the pet is attacking your drain soul target. Reason is if you are doing a multi mob pull. If the pet is attacking a different target it will stop that once you drain soul on the target it wasn't even attacking in the first place if drain soul also trigger /follow.
Guess you can have two keybinds for drain soul to counter this, one normal and one macro but seems a hassle. It's not hard to just manually /follow or send pet to another target before you are about to drain soul.
Ya thats how i did it jn the video. But many ppl are lazy and dont wanna micro their pet so i added it
Just started your vid and already am disliking what you are showing. Drain soul is usless while leveling. But even more Void Walker cannot hold aggro like it does on Private as it does 75% less damage. You will die often if you try for the build you showed.
Try Dive's Drain tanking or Staysafe's builds.
Use succ after 20
It's funny to see a voidwalker keep aggro from 4 dots+wand or even on 2 mobs with 2 siphon lifes lol, that was definitely not the case in Vanilla. So many people are going for Demo/DS in their leveling spec ignoring Dark Pact because content creaters tell them to, it's hilarious how awful that advice is.
I agree. Anyone interested in leveling and playing a warlock. Join the warlock discord
Was looking for this comment cause I knew something was off. The dive tanking guide looked really good. Not trusting this youtuber from what I have seen on his videos
What's the point of Drain tanking if you have to drink every few mobs. Did you watch the speed runs with people who used it? I'll go with VW if I see that it can't hold agro at all I will switch to succubus + wanding. Specing drain life before at least 30 or more like 38 makes no sense
With my experience, Blackbone Wand will stay with you for a very long time. Since it's shadow damage, all of the Shadow Wrath equipment you carry will add to it as well.
It's great leveling advice but personally I like enemies attack to some degree, because I think defense skill is useful to level for shit I fucked up moments. It's kinda useful to have some defense skills, if you avoid all melee damage you will reach lvl 60 without much defense skill at all.
I haven't even reached 60 yet. I have 2 chars a lvl 27 hunter and 27 pally and im bored.. I just can't find a class that I can enjoy but warlock looks fun... I'm gonna try it let's hope I can reach 60
I'm leveling up as destro. Having an insta-damage spell for those god damn rotten bastards tagging important mobs was a pain in the literall ass. Plus it's a neat "execute" ability with a decend damage, it does wonders if you managed to crit a shadowbolt, the extra shadow damage do applies and gives you a very hard ouchies.
And ruin... *slurp*