WoW Warlock Guide

In World of Warcraft, Warlocks are essentially Mages steeped in the dark arts of shadow, flame and demonic power. Warlock’s effectively impose disease and curses upon their opponents while also summoning charming demons to do their bidding. They are powerful casters who can either deal damage from a distance or support their allies with their demonic arts. They’re also useful for summoning party members from a great distance through conjured portals. Essentially, the Warlock functions like a sinister blend of the Mage and the Hunter classes.

For this guide, I’ll start with a quick reference section. After the quick reference section you’ll find more subtle and insightful information for how to manage your life as a Warlock. Please check back in the future as I will continually expand and refine this guide.

Note 1: If you’re simply looking to level as fast as possible, I suggest you consider one of these legendary pro leveling guides:

Brian Kopp’s Alliance Leveling Guide
Joana’s Horde Leveling Guide

Note 2: If you’re simply looking to make as much gold as possible, I suggest reading my reviews of two of the most popular gold guides:

Valkor’s Gold Making Guide Review
Derek’s Gold Mastery Guide Review

World of Warcraft Warlock Basics

Available Warlock Races: Gnomes, Humans, Orcs, Undead, Blood Elves. See below for advantages and disadvantages for each Warlock race.
Available Weapons: Daggers, Wands, Staves (requires training), Swords (requires training)
Available Armor: Cloth
Standard Status Bars: Health & Mana
Pet Status Bars: Health & Mana

WoW Warlock Guide: Strengths & Weaknesses

Strengths

  • The Warlock is nice to have on your team while trying to work a large crowd of enemies.
  • In a related fashion, Warlock’s are fantastic for debuffs.
  • They may summon an interesting and colorful variety of pets.
  • They may summon/teleport group members.
  • Despite their demonic nature, the healthstones they conjure can heal party members.
  • At level 40, Warlock’s can summon a mount.
  • Warlock’s feature high stamina.
  • They exhibit strength as both PvP and PvE characters.
  • With some study, the Warlock makes an excellent solo character.

Weaknesses

  • The Warlock is not as effective of a pure damage dealer as a Mage.
  • Players will need to master Soul Shards before being able to use the Warlock’s full breadth of spells and abilities.
  • The Warlock can only wear cloth armor.
  • So as you might suspect, they’re unusually weak in melee situations.
  • While many of the pets are cool, they’re also more specialized pets, so you can’t rely on a single pet for many situations.
  • Many consider the Warlock to have a steeper learning curve to effective character mastery.

Choosing a Race for Your WoW Warlock

Humans

Despite a boost from Perception, none of a human’s racial traits serve the Warlock in any exceptional manner. Don’t be fooled by the notion of taking the non-melee Warlock class and trying to boost it with the Human’s Sword and Mace Specialization. Even though Warlocks can equip a sword, their strength is as spell casters and you’ll regret any attempts to run into battle swinging your sword. However, Diplomacy can help you save time and money if you’re trying become exalted with certain factions.

Gnomes

Gnomes provide two excellent abilities for assisting your success as Warlock: Escape Artist enhances effectiveness in PVP combat and Expansive Mind provides a natural boost to Intellect, an always useful trait for this demonic spell caster. And although Arcane Resistance isn’t the best resistance for a Warlock, it is better than no bonus resistance at all for this character.

Orcs

So you see Axe Specialization and start to think, definitely not Warlock material here. As you should, for melee as a Warlock is a clear mistake. However, on the other hand you have Blood Fury. This provides a short term buff to increase damage done by spells for fifteen seconds. Even more, it scales with your level, thus this may be the best race-oriented boost you’ll find for the Warlock. And it doesn’t stop there: Hardiness enables the Warlock to better resist stun effects, making Orcs a great Warlock option for PVP, and Command, with its 5 percent damage increase, makes those Warlock Orc pets quite nasty.



Undead/Forsaken

The Forsaken are a popular choice for Warlocks, if nothing else just because as a race they fit the Warlock theme the best. But don’t let this fool you into thinking it is all about looks: Will of the Forsaken will make your Warlock fearsome in PVP, while Cannibalize fits perfectly with a Warlock’s skill for leeching health from enemies. Underwater Breathing is redundant as Warlock’s can already breath underwater for ten minutes, but Shadow Resistance makes the Forsaken Warlock the ultimate nemesis of Warlocks in other races.

Blood Elves

Magic Resistance is excellent for new characters as it provides a distinct starting buff to resists right away. Arcane Torrent can become a great advantage for Warlock’s when mastered, but Arcane Affinity only really helps if you desire your Warlock to become an enchanter. Mana Tap, with its thirty yard range, works as an instant pull and is a nice buff along with all the other manners in which Warlocks can obtain mana.

Summary:

Generally speaking, most students of the game prefer to choose Orcs or Forsaken as the race for their Warlock to maximize effectiveness, but role-playing as an intellectual Gnome Warlock or as a wicked Blood Elf Enchanter Warlock can be fun as well.

Further Reading On WoW Warlocks:

Maximize Your Warlock Leveling:
Brian Kopp’s Alliance Leveling Guide
Joana’s Horde Leveling Guide

Maximize Your Warlock Gold-Making:

Valkor’s Gold Making Guide Review
Derek’s Gold Mastery Guide Review

I hope this helps. Please bookmark this page and check back soon as I intend to expand and refine this information and improve my WoW Warlock Guide.