Re-activating your WoW account, or interested in "Trying Before You Buy"?Flying Through The Lowbie Levels With BoA Gear
I have to say, I'm loving this Bind on Account gear that has been released into the game with this expansion pack.
Not only is it ugly as anything I've ever seen before in some cases (and yes, that's of value to me), but it goes a long, long way towards reducing the pain of hunting out gear upgrades every 10 levels like I used to do.
I know it's been out a while, but the fact that the weapon, both trinkets, plus the chest and shoulder pieces that I slapped on this character before she hit level 20 will last me all the way to level 80, and possibly even 85 when Cataclysm comes out.
That's a huge load off of an alt-o-holic leveler's mind. There are, after all, at least six other children in this online toon family I'm maintaining, and therefore anything that can cut out a lot of worry for a lot of levels is deemed "good" - nay, "Excellent".
Lowbie Locklier Looking Lovely
Orc Warlock Mid Cast
I mean, they all look so alluringly innocent and pure! And their dance is so delicate and again - alluringly innocent! (*wipes sarcasm from chin*)
I've got two Orc toons now, but this one is the only one I'm actively playing. The other one is currently Guildmaster of my Guild of One and I only log into her to perform gem transmutes and to move large quantities of money around (ie: anything over 1000g or so).
Since I played my Orc Rogue up to the level 65 that she's at, not much has changed about Orcs - other than the fact that the racial ability is much more use-friendly in group situations. Didn't the old ability increase damage taken and dealt but then reduce healing taken? Now the racial increases my spellpower by a certain degree for 15 seconds instead.
And yes, I use my racial ability all the time on this toon - in fact, on my Trolls and on this Orc I have the racial ability stacked with one of my commonly-cast spells so I'm using the racial whenever it comes off of cooldown.
A 30 Warlock's Dream Of Summoning...er, Raiding
My Wee Warlock recently hit level 30, thanks to some renewed vigor towards getting a Warlock up to raiding levels.
You see, I'm not sure what your realm is like, but our realm's raid PUGs (and even our own guild group) face a pretty regular lack of two classes: Warlocks and Shaman. I don't know why, but if there's a Warlock or Shaman available in a 25 player PUG raid, there's usually only one or at the most two, and a lot of time the Raid Leader has to search specifically for those classes in order to get them in-raid.
Druids and Mages seem pretty scarce as well, but not to the same degree. (Good, because I'm waiting until I can be a Goblin Druid, nice and small)
Of course, with my Warlock only at level 30, I know there's a long ways to go before I could ever think about raiding with her. In fact, with the way I level characters (mostly using rest bonus) it's unlikely she'll even raid during this expansion at all.
Yet I still look forward to the future of being a big strong Warlock able to solo things 15 times my size just like some of the other Warlock WoW Bloggers out there :)
Feeling The 30s Crunch
Right now I'm kind of struggling in my advancement, however - the quests I pick up tend to be 5 levels lower than I am, or to spread out way beyond belief, or 4-5 levels above where I am.
Locklier And Her Blueberry
I'm thinking it might be time to trade some dungeon run-through favors with my friends... so I paid it forward the other day by helping out one of my regular dungeon-trade friends with his 36 Warlock - running him through Razorfen Downs and then all four wings of the Scarlet Monestary using my 70 Death Knight.
I might also jump into some regular dungeon PUGs soon with this character - I did a few at the RFC/Wailing Caverns level but then have been just questing since then.
My Warlock Leveling Spec Questions
Right now I'm stacking my points seriously into Demonology to support my Voidwalker's uberness as a blueberry tank, and that works great for solo questing, but my actual DPS when I don't have my Voidwalker doing damage is quite pathetic.
At what point should I think about switching some of my points more towards a different spec?
And if I were to dual spec at 40 (which is the earliest level one can dual spec I believe) to have a solo spec and a dungeoning spec, would I be better to go with Affliction or Destruction at a low level?
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I've always preferred to level as Affliction, once you get Dark Pact you can just drain tank your way to 80 using your imp as a battery. However, I haven't leveled a lock since all the recent changes made to the class in WotLK so I'm hoping it will remain as viable because I too just recently made a lowbie female orc lock to level with someone via Refer-a-Friend :D
Keeping in mind that it's been a long time since I levelled...
When I was a lowbie it didn't matter how many points I dumped into Demo, my Blueberry could never hold aggro. So.. either I did really low dps.. and let the "blueberry tank" or I spec'd for better damage and used a "dps" pet.
At the time my best bet was to spec Affliction and try drain tanking with a Succubus doing damage to the mobs. I figured, the mobs were going to be hitting me anyways. so.. send succubus, dot, dot, dot drain.. or fear if I felt there was enough room to not end up smushed by the returning mobs.
I tried Destruction.. but it's just too rough on Mana... I spent all my time drinking.. or bandaging.
Nibuca´s last blog ..WoW Jackass
Hey Val, long time no see!!
Warlock leveling is very much like leveling a hunter... minus the mail armor and decent 'runaway' abilities.
Demonology is basically the BM spec. The VW is basically a viable tank until you start getting decent spellpower. I prefer getting just enough in demonology to beef up the vw early on, then put all the points you can into making your shadow bolt hit harder, and cast time shorter..
Here is what you should shoot for http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#IbxMbZ0GfI0hZV
This starts powering up your VW/succubus and makes your shadow bolts have less cast time. Also maximizes your damage from the affliction abilities you SHOULD be using. VW is a dead pet, imo.. so don't spend TOO much powering him up. Once I hit 40 or so he couldn't maintain aggro at all with the damage I was pushing out. I then started moving into the succubus for her sneak up and beat the snot out of people abilities.. not to mention that if you go big in affliction you can still dark pact her to drain mana (even without her lash spell she does decent physical damage, much more so than the VW). Get used to drain tanking as its the easiest/best/fastest way to level a lock past 40.. until 40 though you kinda need the whole tank setup to work.
Hey... hope you are doing well.
I did have a question on the BoA gear. At what level is it too soon.... too late to get BoA gear to send a lower level toon?... The toon I have in mind happens to be a level 14 priest.
Thanks.
Back pre-BC there was a lot of argument about good leveling builds. I've always been a fan of multi-dotting as affliction, but a lot of people stood by drain-tanking.
Since TBC though, grab the felguard first chance you get and don't look back. He's a lean, mean, XP-grinding machine.
Now, if you want a less auto-pilot-ish leveling experience go affliction. With the BoA gear and some supplimental SP stuff (I suggest the tailored shadowweave stuff, and/or dreamweave robe/gloves. The mats are stupid-easy to farm these days) and you'll be able to kill most mobs with little more than a corruption and some effort (like curse of agony). Make sure you take the siphon life talent and keep your cooking leveled. Then just run around DoTing stuff. If your health starts to get low stop pulling and drain life (you'll want fel concentration), and keep death coil closer at hand than shadowbolt.
Stay away from destruction unless a) this is not your first warlock, or b) you enjoy painful experiences. Leveling as destruction is like leveling a mage. Except you can't summon water.
My lock is 80 but I, too, am an altoholic and don't play him much. I leveled him as demonology using Big Blue to tank and it was harsh at the lower levels. Once I got the felgard, it was much easier but boring as all get out. CoA, Corruption, Immolate, wand, wand, wand. Bleh to that. I really recommend going affliction even at the lowest levels. At least try it out. With affliction you can CoA, Corruption, Immolate, choose next mob and do the same. If first mob isn't dead, use Siphon Life until it is or shadowbolt it dead. Once you get Unstable Affliction and Haunt you will never run out of mana questing and your health will almost always be full. Dark Pact isn't a necessity with the Felhunter pet out, but it won't hurt with mana either.
I levelled my lock to 50 as afflic, then from there to 80 as demonology. The Felgaurd is a great tanking pet, and it makes it damn easy to level. Demonology also gives great spellpower buff in tier 3 (Demonic Aegis) once you get the fel armour spell. I've linked the build I used at 50 below.
http://www.wowarmory.com/talent-calc.xml?cid=9&tal=030000000000000000000000000000320330113520251013500100000000000000000000000000000
Starting out in heroics is easy with the 3 points in suppresion, as that just about takes care of your hit rating requirement for heroics. Once you get a bit geared, and get to hit cap, then respec to afflic or destro and remove the points in suppresion, unless you want to keep them to reduce the required hit points from gear.
I dual speced and kept my demonology build for farming at 80. It is still useful in raids when we have 2 other locks - one destro with imp, one afflic with puppy - then demonology with felgaurd gives a great spell power proc called Demonic Pact, which at my uld10-ish geared lvl = about a 500sp increase for 8 seconds, and it procs almost constantly. Yes my DPS is lower because of it, but overall the party benefits.
Hey there, Ken!
I've seen level 5's wearing BoA gear and I've seen level 80's in beginning Heroics in BoA gear.
It lasts forever! I'd assume it'll even be good for leveling to 85 for alts that never really get into Heroics/raiding at 80 :)