Warlock PvP Guides for TBC Classic

Warlocks are one of, if not the most popular and powerful DPS Class in all of TBC Classic and for good reason. Warlocks are an amazing PvP Class. Their toolkit is stocked with abilities to quite literally carry your team to victory. The infamous "SL/SL" build makes you incredibly durable due to talents like Soul Link, Demonic Embrace, Fel Stamina, and many more, giving you not only insane survivability, but more health than all other casters. They have massive damage, uniquely dealt because it is spread with DoTs, thus slowly rotting the entire enemy team away AT THE SAME TIME. Warlocks can thus counter pretty much every class, excluding skilled Rogues.

Warlocks have a variety of demons that they can use to fit any situation, with nearly every pet having its own niche uses in Arena. Summon Succubus is never really used, while Summon Imp is used to buff your party with Fire Shield before the match begins. The Summon Voidwalker is used when playing against melee, as it can AoE Taunt with Suffering — which reduces the enemy's chance to hit by 10% in TBC Classic — and of course the Voidwalker Sacrifice shield is still as strong as ever. However, it is the main pet that really shines: the Summon Felhunter. It is capable of dispelling, purging, has very good damage, and is a nuisance to all Healers, though care must be taken with Priests as damage can cause Prayer of Mending to bounce. It also provides the Warlock with Spell Lock, which you can Fel Domination and pretty much instantly summon another Felhunter for another Spell Lock in emergencies. On top of all that, Warlocks have phenomenal self-healing with Siphon Life and Drain Life, as well as taking 20% (or 26% if talented into Demonic Aegis) increased healing from a new Armor buff in TBC Classic called Fel Armor. Combine that with Warlock's strong attrition force due to Life Tap, Drain Life, and Siphon Life and they become very hard to kill.

Warlocks have relatively strong CC with Fear and Death Coil. Both are very important for not only the Warlock, but for the entire team. A lot of times in high ratings an entire match is dependent upon how the Warlock uses their Death Coil, so using it correctly is massively important. To add to that, both the Warlock and their demon have what is an endless Mana pool due to Life Tap and Mana Feed, as well as "trash buffs" to help protect yourself and your teammates from important buffs being dispelled. We of course also bring Create Healthstone as well.

Something that is very important is that Warlocks have two good schools of Magic: Shadow and Fire. This is important because if you get locked out of Shadow you can simply cast Fire spells in the meantime. A lot of Warlocks like to bait enemy interrupts with Fire spells, so that they can be then be free to cast Shadow spells.

Warlocks have two viable specializations for PvP in the form of Affliction and Demonology; both are very good and used in different situations depending on the composition of the team. Not only that, but in these specializations, they can even be super flexible for more offense or more defense. Unstable Affliction is a new Afflction spell in TBC Classic which is incredibly powerful. It is a hard-hitting DoT, but more importantly, if it gets dispelled it severely damages whoever dispeled it. To top it all off, Warlocks do not have many counters, with skilled Rogues really being the only one, though Warriors can also be annoying, meaning you will have no problem dispatching enemies in 1v1 and even 1v2 if your partner dies.

Affliction and Demonology are the only two specializations that are able to be played in a competitive environment. While you can technically play Detruction in PvP there is no real situation where a Destruction Warlock is the specialization to bring so we will only be covering Affliction and Demonology. More specifically, the primary focus will be on the class's "SL/SL" build.

Macros and Addons can greatly benefit your gameplay, especially in a fast-paced environment like PvP where no two encounters are the exact same. Macros specifically can lessen the time it takes you to perform an action by combining two commands into a single button. For example, a very popular macro for Warlocks is the Focus Target macro in combination with macros that will cast whichever Curse or spell that you want on the Focus target, which is generally the enemy Healer. Addons, on the other hand, can increase the amount of information you are receiving in order to be able to better make a decision as to what your next move should be. Listed below are our guides for Warlock-specific Addons and Macros. Most of these are targeted toward PvE but can also be quite useful for PvP.

Consumables are considerably less relevant for PvP in The Burning Crusade as many of them either do not work in instanced PvP or their effects are considerably lessened. Star's Tears is the only water you are able to use in Arena other than food conjured by Mages.

If you are interested in learning more about a variety of Arena compositions featuring a Warlock and its relative strength in PvP, please consult our guides on them below: