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Blood Pact: Soul sticks and soul carrots
Joystiq Soul shards — the special resource that has been iconic for warlocks since the beginnings of World of Warcraft. Once nonstackable in-game items that there were special bags for, soul shards now in Cataclysm are part of the unit frame as a secondary … |
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Pact for affliction, demonology and destruction warlocks. For those who disdain the watered-down arts that other cling to like a safety blanket … for those willing to test their wills against the nether and claim the power that is their right … Blood Pact welcomes you. Send questions, comments, or requests to tyler@wowinsider.com or via Twitter to @murmursofadruid.
Greeting again, darklings. It’s that time of the week once more for us to talk about all that drives our purpose: bringing horrible pain to our enemies. There are multiple cogs in our wheel of destruction, but this week I want to focus in on two of those. To start, there’s the small matter of the ever-constant debate on weaponry and trinkets, something that comes up with every new tier. Second, there’s the issue of Dark Intent. While it’s been relatively established on the priority of the buff, there are a few kinks to work out, as always. The prior settlements that were made were based upon data that was relevant back in tier 11. Although there isn’t too much that has changed since this, Blizzard’s adjustments and gearing does merit bringing up the issue once more.
There can be little doubt that shadow priests are the best recipients for Dark Intent. A significantly large portion of their damage come from DoTs; furthermore, Mind Flay has a unique interaction with the ability as well that results in an even higher return. As shadow priests gain gear, more of their damage does actually shift toward Mind Blast, plus their tier 13 increases more of their non-DoT based damage. Again, none of this changes that they are still the best target for Dark Intent, but it does slightly reduce the disparity between shadow priests and non-shadow priests when getting it.
Continue reading Blood Pact: Dark Intent update and T13 gearing
Filed under: Warlock, (Warlock) Blood Pact
Blood Pact: Dark Intent update and T13 gearing originally appeared on WoW Insider on Mon, 19 Dec 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Pact for affliction, demonology and destruction warlocks. For those who disdain the watered-down arts that other cling to like a safety blanket … for those willing to test their wills against the nether and claim the power that is their right … Blood Pact welcomes you. Send questions, comments, or requests to tyler@wowinsider.com or via Twitter to @murmursofadruid.
Of all the things that I am, for all of the multitude of alts that I have, one things that I’ve never been all that good at is writing leveling guides. I have a hard enough time as it is following said guides; writing out my chaotic leveling process is a chore and a half. That all being said, the one thing I do have enormous amounts of experience in leveling. I’ve nearly reached the full limit on the amount of characters that I’m allowed to have. Allow me, then, to impart some of what I know about bringing your fledgling warlock up to speed into the endgame. After all, while the journey might be half the fun, the destination is all so glorious. We do need someone to stomp on those pesky mages.
The first order of business is to know your spec going into the game. While all warlocks focus on damage (so we don’t have quite the same complications as hybrid classes), which spec you choose to go with is still important. Affliction has long been touted as the prime warlock leveling spec, and that is still somewhat true. Affliction offers the best multi-target, fast-paced farming that can’t be matched by any of the others. The downside to this is that mob farming has fallen the way of the dinosaurs in WoW leveling; instead, questing and running dungeons is far more efficient, and affliction doesn’t have its strength there.
Continue reading Blood Pact: Cataclysm-era leveling guide for warlocks
Filed under: Warlock, (Warlock) Blood Pact
Blood Pact: Cataclysm-era leveling guide for warlocks originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 13 Dec 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
WoW Insider covers the world of player vs. player action in Blood Sport for fans of battleground, world PvP and Arena play. Steering you to victory is Olivia Grace, who spends most of her time in Azeroth as a restoration shaman turning people into frogs.
So you’ve had a week away from the arena. What have you been up to in that week? Playing in the autumn leaves? Finally cleaning your keyboard?
Or maybe you’ve been frantically gathering a transmogrification set (once you’d got over the fact that you couldn’t transmogrify your paladin into a power ranger)? I know I have, and I’m now in love with Kezzik in Area 52! Perhaps you’ve been running the new dungeons or flirting with the new raid? …Or ganking your GM in the Darkmoon Faire‘s Deathmatch Arena, like @trimbleirl.
If you are one of the people who has done enough hard work in season 10 to get a title, you should give yourself a pat on the back. Well done! You’re well on your way to the upper echelons of PvP, and I hope you climb even higher this season! And if you’re one of the people who has been working through Battlegrounds every day to get your conquest points, congratulations! You’re going to be among the first to get your grubby mitts on the new gear.
But moving on from what you could have been doing to what you could be doing now, what are the top tips to prepare yourself for season 11?
Continue reading Blood Sport: How should you prepare for season 11 PvP?
Filed under: PvP, Blood Sport (Arena PvP)
Blood Sport: How should you prepare for season 11 PvP? originally appeared on WoW Insider on Wed, 07 Dec 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Pact for affliction, demonology and destruction warlocks. For those who disdain the watered-down arts that other cling to like a safety blanket … for those willing to test their wills against the nether and claim the power that is their right … Blood Pact welcomes you. Send questions, comments, or requests to tyler@wowinsider.com or via Twitter to @murmursofadruid.
The first week of raiding after the release of patch 4.3 has more or less come and gone by this point, and while raiding isn’t everything, it is the primary focus on this tier. Not only do we finally get to tackle with Deathwing himself, but Blizzard also introduced the Raid Finder tool in order to bring more players into the raiding game. Another part of this patch was an effort to bring destruction’s damage up to par with that of our other two specs.
While there is still much more time needed in order to tell how exactly things are going to play out, for now it is time to lay down the initial impressions that raiding within this recent patch has left in my mouth. Some are good, some are bad, but the common denominator is that, hey — at least we aren’t mages.
Continue reading Blood Pact: Initial impressions of 4.3 raiding as a warlock
Filed under: Warlock, (Warlock) Blood Pact
Blood Pact: Initial impressions of 4.3 raiding as a warlock originally appeared on WoW Insider on Mon, 05 Dec 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Pact for affliction, demonology and destruction warlocks. For those who disdain the watered-down arts that other cling to like a safety blanket … for those willing to test their wills against the nether and claim the power that is their right … Blood Pact welcomes you. Send questions, comments, or requests to tyler@wowinsider.com or via Twitter to @murmursofadruid.
If I did not know any better, warlocks, I would think that the world was conspiring against me. Last week I had promised that I would be doing a gear list from the newest 5-mans to be released with patch 4.3, but I was deterred by not having access to Wowhead’s marvelous PTR site. This week, it’s Blizzard itself attempting to knock this train off the tracks by releasing the ability list and talent calculators for Mists of Pandaria. While the talents are important in their own right, nothing from said ability list was really all that shocking; indeed, a majority of it I had predicted rather well in last week’s issue.
Therefore, despite all attempts to get me to focus otherwise, I will actually be keeping up my promise and providing you with a cleanly laid-out gearing list for the next patch (which should be coming out tomorrow, truth be told). To prevent you from wasting your days farming for an item that you might replace, valor point items will also be listed given that you can earn the currency through 5-man content. Let’s be on with the show!
Continue reading Blood Pact: Dungeon gearing for warlocks in patch 4.3
Filed under: Warlock, (Warlock) Blood Pact
Blood Pact: Dungeon gearing for warlocks in patch 4.3 originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 29 Nov 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
WoW Insider covers the world of player vs. player action in Blood Sport for fans of battleground, world PvP and Arena play. Steering you to victory is Olivia Grace, who spends most of her time in Azeroth as a restoration shaman turning people into frogs.
With patch 4.3 imminent and Arena season 10 due to end Nov. 29, it seems reasonable to assume the patch will appear in early December. While you’re racing to get your team into title range, get that last piece of gear, or just running laps of your capital city, you might be thinking forward to the arrival of the patch and wondering what your fate will be in PvP as the nerf bat winds up for another swing. Firstly, let’s deal with some housekeeping.
Conquest points, the PvP equivalent of valor points, will now be far, far easier to earn from ordinary Battlegrounds. The first daily Battleground win will now award 100 conquest points, up from 25, and wins after that will award 50 conquest point, up from, well, none! The conquest cap will remain, so while it will still be far quicker to reach it through Arena, it will also be attainable via Battlegrounds of the non-rated variety. This makes it far easier for solo players to build up the resilience numbers people often demand (fairly or otherwise) for access to Arena and Rated Battleground teams or just to gear for Battlegrounds.
Continue reading Blood Sport: How will patch 4.3 impact PvP?
Filed under: PvP
Blood Sport: How will patch 4.3 impact PvP? originally appeared on WoW Insider on Wed, 23 Nov 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Pact for affliction, demonology and destruction warlocks. For those who disdain the watered-down arts that other cling to like a safety blanket … for those willing to test their wills against the nether and claim the power that is their right … Blood Pact welcomes you. Send questions, comments, or requests for something you’d like to see to tyler@wowinsider.com or via Twitter to @murmursofadruid.
Greetings, warlocks. It’s that time of the week once again when we talk about all those dark arts and such that we do so love to practice. My original intention this week was to talk about many of the sweet items that you can pull out of the new dungeons coming out in 4.3. All of them are on the same ilevel as what you can get from regular Firelands, making them ideal for non-raiders or players who haven’t gotten every drop that they’ve been looking for — and in some cases, a few items are even better that what you could find from raiding. Alas, at the time of this writing, Wowhead’s PTR servers aren’t working for me and seem to be down — a shame, but there’s always next week!
In lieu of that, I’ll take this opportunity to discuss a different matter that’s be on my mind of late dealing with the changes coming in 5.0. Talents are undergoing a major overhaul, and we know that many of the current talents are going to be baked into the base class. While this works well for other classes, it’s a bit awkward when it comes to warlocks. Join me as I show you and toss in a bit of speculation for affliction.
Continue reading Blood Pact: The cost of talent consolidation in Pandaria
Filed under: Warlock, (Warlock) Blood Pact
Blood Pact: The cost of talent consolidation in Pandaria originally appeared on WoW Insider on Mon, 21 Nov 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Pact for affliction, demonology and destruction warlocks. For those who disdain the watered-down arts that other cling to like a safety blanket … for those willing to test their wills against the nether and claim the power that is their right … Blood Pact welcomes you. Send questions, comments, or requests for something you’d like to see to tyler@wowinsider.com or via Twitter to @murmursofadruid.
All right, this past Wednesday, there was an extremely awesome Live Developer Q&A about class and system design that pretty much rocked house any way you look at it. While there were some good questions fielded about the next patch, a majority of it focused in on things to come in the next expansion; with the changes that we’ll be seeing, this isn’t surprising. In perfect form, Xelnath handled everything warlock like a beast. Respects, hats tipped, and similar jazz of the sort out to Blizzard.
Without wanting to waste much time, let’s jump right into all of what we have learned from the chat. It’s certainly worth waiting for.
Continue reading Blood Pact: Looking at the developer’s Q&A
Filed under: Warlock, (Warlock) Blood Pact, Mists of Pandaria
Blood Pact: Looking at the developer’s Q&A originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sun, 13 Nov 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Pact for affliction, demonology and destruction warlocks. For those who disdain the watered-down arts that other cling to like a safety blanket … for those willing to test their wills against the nether and claim the power that is their right … Blood Pact welcomes you. Send questions, comments, or requests for something you’d like to see to tyler@wowinsider.com or via Twitter to @murmursofadruid.
I like to think that I’ve been a solid supporter of the warlocks in their struggles against the devil mages. I know that I do have some split loyalties with the druids, but let’s be fair in saying that a druid is wicked awesome in comparison to a mage. With that in mind, know that it brings me no joy to say that I’m worried. We talked about the new talents coming in the next expansion last week, and while I love what talents warlocks had and I think the new system has some great potential, there’s one facet about it that concerns me.
Destruction and fire are very closely linked in playstyle. Both are heavy nuking specs that also utilize DOT effects to boost their damage. They both make use of an otherwise unwieldy long spell, albeit in different methods, but one cannot deny that the two specs are fairly similar. One of the key differences right now to set destruction apart from fire is Conflagration and Backdraft — destruction has a form of focus on speed that fire doesn’t. With traditional specs going out the window, one has to worry about how Blizzard intends to distinguish destruction from fire.
Continue reading Blood Pact: Distinguishing destruction from fire
Filed under: Warlock, (Warlock) Blood Pact
Blood Pact: Distinguishing destruction from fire originally appeared on WoW Insider on Mon, 07 Nov 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.