Well friends, it has been some weeks since the inaugural (no I did not misspell Arugal just there) Warlock leveling post. I am sure some of you have noticed Zasp has been trying to steal my thunder by writing on the topic of leveling a combat rogue. Well I won’t have it. Or I tried not to have it. He was to be tied up, set on fire, followed up with being kicked and stuffed into a closet. But, what can I say, he is a rogue and seems to have vanished from my local vicinity for the time being.

Back on topic! Shall we? Yes!

As we learned together in the aforementioned previous post, leveling with an affliction build is a breeze!. But guess what, once you reach the summit, its not all down hill for a warlock. There are other options friends, yes there are and today I intend to address that which I feel is not only most viable but most fun to boot (in this case the usage of that phrase does not mean “to kick” but feel free to give a Rocket Kick, its fun).

Demonology

Once at level we have Unstable Affliction, it makes perfect sense to continue along that same train of thought and retain our Über-powerful build and place further attained talent points into other trees. Right? Well yes that does make sense. In fact a good portion of the build laid in the previous post is retained in what is commonly used in entry level raiding. It is just that powerful.

Alternately at level 50, I swapped to Demonology to play with the Felguard and didn’t look back until level 70 (a little beyond time wise). Lets take a look at where I placed points and why, perhaps I noob’ed it up along the way and we can find the break in the trail.

Tier 1 Since the second teir is almost totally garbage, we are going to take advantage of two very solid point distribution options in the first tier. 5/5 Demonic Embrace for 15% more stamina (at a cost of spirit ;_;, for mana. Yay!) and 2/2 Improved Healthstone (why not make it better as opposed to increasing something we never intend to use?)

Tier 2 - 3/3 Fel Intellect, this gives us a very slight mana pool boost and since the Felguard will have mana issues with taunting and cleaving on every cooldown, lets help him where we can. Right? Good.

Tier 3 - I am not crazy about this tier either, but we are going to use it as filler for some of the even worse tiers lower down the tree. (Have I given you the impression I think this tree needs some looking into? Good.) Fel Domination can be handy in a pinch, Fel Stamina increases the Felguard (and yes other pets, but who cares?) stamina by 15% (and your health total by 3%, Yay more mana!) and finally 3/3 Demonic Aegis which you wont see the effect of at level 50, but at level 70 it makes Fel Armor 30 more spell damage.

Tier 4 - 2/2 Master Summoner for near instant pet summons and 5/5 Unholy Power for a 20% melee damage increase to the Felguard (man this guy is getting some serious boosts, huh?).

Tier 5 - Awesome tier here, we are going to one whole point here and that is only because we have no other option. And where we are going to spend it? In a spell we will likely never use (as opposed to one we are guaranteed to never use) Demonic Sacrifice. This is a DEMON centric spec, why is the talent to kill your demon for a buff that is only active WHILE the demon is still dead in this tree? What the hell Blizz? Let me take this time to say that; WERE our pet heal a HoT, like the hunter class has now, and WERE our talent to make said heal better ANYWHERE as nice as theirs, that would be where this and other points would have gone! GAH! /rant off.

Tier 6 - 5/5 Master Demonologist for a 5% damage increase to both the warlock and his summoned pet (good god?) and 1/3 in mana feed. The Felguard will need it but more than one point here can be overkill and none can mean oom for the felguard with nothing you can do to help him save turning off cleave. And that is not an option outside of when breaking CC is an issue.

Tier 7 - Demonic Knowledge “Increases your spell damage by an amount equal to 12% of the total of your active demon’s Stamina plus Intellect.” This makes those filler talents we took before (Fel Intellect and Fel Stamina) worth so much more doesnt it? Now, there is some personal preference and millage in what to do next. One point for the pvp “talent de la crux” of Soul Link (which might mean a dead pet quicker if both you and he are taking damage, but on the flip side is another 5% increase to both master and pet.) or one point into Demonic Resilience for 5% less damage taken by the Felguard. I say one point because at 50 thats all we can afford to place in this tier further.

Tier 8 - 5/5 Demonic Tactics for 5% crit increase to spells and melee for both master and demon.

Tier 9 - The reason we are here. The buffed. The mean. Felguard.

A finished at 70 build might look like this:

or this: (longer lasting Felguard life from 3/3 Demonic Resilience and longer lasting Felguard mana pool from the bleed over of 2/2 Improved Life Tap) rather than 5/5 Devastation.

Since a Felguard centric build does not allow for having the Imp pet out, lets hope the tank is well geared. And since such a build dictates that you must have the Felguard out and want him cleaving, lets hope the tank understands holding threat on multiple mobs. If the latter is not true, just keep cleave off as a Felguard meleeing only will do more dps than one that was allowed to cleave twice.

I think that this and the previous post cover both the Affliction and Demonology trees. Perhaps in a later post I can meander on about what I did post 50 or perhaps about the destruction tree. See you then.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 25th, 2008 and is filed under DPSers, General Info, ~ Kwane. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.