Demonology Warlock PvP Guide for TBC Classic

Strengths

• Super tanky with talents like Demonic Embrace, Siphon Life, and many more.
• Insane damage, particularly against spread targets.
• Can counter practically every class (skilled Rogues being the exception.)
• Two schools of magic for interrupt resistance.
• Healthstones.
• "Throwaway buffs" act as insurance against enemy dispels, along with Unstable Affliction.
• Strong Self-Healing and utility.
• Can successfully play with most other classes.
• Very strong 1v1 and the occasion 1v2 to finish off some Arena teams.
• Never runs out of Mana.

Weaknesses

• Absolutely no mobility.
• Have to manage Soul Shards, an external resource.
• All CC abilities can be dispelled.
• DoTs mean damage is slow and predictable; they can also be dispelled.
• Pet-dependent.
• Typically countered by Rogues.

Warlocks are one of the kings of the Arena scene. They are beyond tanky, provide amazing damage in the form of rotting the enemy down over time as well as being able to burst down any opponent as well. Warlocks do not have many counters and bring much-needed utility to the entire party. Mix all of that with the many abilities and demons and you will easily see why Warlocks are everyone's favorite.

While you can play many variations of this spec or even other builds, this is the main build that you will find yourself playing. This is the infamous "SL/SL" build. This combines the best talents from both the Affliction and Demonology talent tree. Demonology brings you much-needed survivability, with talents like Demonic Embrace, Improved Healthstone, Fel Stamina, Demonic Knowledge, and of course the focal point of the build — Soul Link. All of these talents make you super tanky and able to survive almost everything coming at you in the Arena. Demonology also, of course, buffs your demons with Unholy Power, Soul Link, and Master Demonologist makes whichever demon you use a nuisance to all players, especially to healers.

Over on the Affliction side of things, you will find yourself doing massive amounts of damage via your damage-over-time spells. Otherwise known as DoTs, these are very strong spells that do damage-over-time, rather than a bunch of damage upfront like a Shadow Bolt does. Talents like Improved Corruption, Empowered Corruption, Improved Curse of Agony, and Amplify Curse make your DoTs rot all your enemies down at the same time, which is why Warlocks shine.

Match preparation is a huge part of being a Warlock. It might seem annoying at times, but it is crucial for your team. Do not be lazy and make sure to do each of these while you are waiting for those doors to open:

• Healthstones are very important and are used as health potions. As you can imagine this is crucial and sometimes you will find yourself popping two Healthstones. For that reason, you pass out your two highest Ranks of Create Healthstone.
• Fire Shield is a buff from your Summon Imp that you apply to your teammates. It provides some Fire Resistance and slight damage when anyone attacks you, but it also is used as a "Trash Buff" alongside Unending Breath and Detect Invisibility; all of these should be on your entire team before the doors open.
• Apply your Fel Armor
• Lastly, make sure you Summon your Voidwalker, then Sacrifice him in the last few Seconds and get your Felhunter out. Make sure to Soul Link!.

You can find our recommended gear, gems, and enchants for PvPing as a Warlock in the link below.

TBC removes percentage-based effects on gear for Hit and Critical Strike and instead uses a system of rating, so a certain amount of rating is equal to 1%. Any Classic gear that had a percentage instead receives an amount of rating that gives that percentage at Level 60. For Example, Neltharion's Tear provides 2% Spell Hit in Classic, but is 16 Spell Hit rating in TBC Classic. That is 2% Spell Hit at Level 60, but only 1.27% Hit at Level 70.

Some important rating conversions are listed below:

• 1% Critical Strike = 22.08 rating
• 1% Haste = 15.76 rating
• 1% Spell Hit = 12.62 rating

As a Warlock your largest focus stat-wise will be Resilience and Spell Power. Warlocks deal a large amount of damage with their Spell Power, and they seem endlessly tanky due to the nature of the build; adding Resilience just makes you even harder to take down.

1. Spell Penetration;
2. Spell Hit;
3. Spell Power;
4. Resilience;
5. Stamina;
6. intellect;
7. Crit.

You want 70 Spell Penetration. Shadow Resistance has worked differently, but typically you want to always aim for 70 Spell Penetration. Priests (having Shadow Protection) and Warlocks will be everywhere. Resists and partials ruin your damage.

You should aim for 38 Spell Hit rating, translating to 3.01% hit

493 rating is your Resilience cap, resulting in a 12.5% enemy Critical Strike chance reduction and 25% Critical Strike damage reduction. After this, Resilience only gains further Critical Strike chance reduction, with crit damage staying capped at 25%.

• 1% crit chance reduction ≅ 39.4 Resilience
• 1% crit dmg reduction ≅ 19.7 Resilience

Stamina — With SL/SL talents 1 Stamina gives you just above 12hp and your pet just above 4hp.

While Warlocks fit into just about any composition, these are some of the strongest Warlock compositions in each Arena bracket:

Warlock and Druid together is an amazing 2v2 comp that you will see a lot in the Arena. This composition is capable of outlasting every opponent. It functions as more or less an attrition team, surviving on amazing crowd control with Fear, Howl of Terror, Death Coil, and of course Bash and Cyclone. Mix that with the insane self-healing Warlocks have with Siphon Life, Fel Armor — especially if talented into Demonic Aegis — and all the instant-cast heals that Druids bring with Nature's Swiftness, Rejuvenation, Lifebloom, and Swiftmend to result in a monstrously durable team.

Warlock and Rogue are a lot of peoples' favorite 2v2 comp. This is a deadly and fast composition that only needs a few quick seconds to be able to take the enemy down. This composition specializes in keeping one enemy crowd controlled the whole fight while you both burst down the other enemy.

Warlock and Disc Priest, otherwise known as DPL, is a very powerful 2v2 composition that specializes in outlasting opponents due to the tankiness of not only the Warlock but the Priest as well, while dwindling your enemies' Mana down with spells like Drain Mana and Mana Burn. The Priest brings many instant-cast spells that heal and provide clutch utility for both team members with Prayer of Mending, Psychic Scream, Power Word: Shield, Mass Dispel, and of course the massive amount of damage Priests can do.

Warlock and Druid, as well as Warrior and Druid, are top-tier 2v2 compositions. Bring all three together and you have a ton of damage, CC, and control. This is one of the best and most popular 3v3 teams.

This 3v3 composition brings a ton of crowd control, insane damage, and tons of dispels. This is a fast-paced comp that applies a lot of pressure on the enemies as soon as the doors open.

Warlock and Shadow Priest are very similar in their damage output, as both classes largely make use of DoT effects. Mix that with a Shaman's Totems, which buff up the DoTs drastically and of course Bloodlust, and many teams have issues stopping the onslaught of damage from this 3v3 team.

All three of these classes bring very strong crowd control and they can easily remove one person from the match altogether.

In 5v5, Warlocks can aid in carrying just about any team composition, but perform best alongside the other classes that can drain enemy Mana, such as Hunters, Priests, and the like.