Understanding the fundamentals of a class is the first step to fully mastering it. A building needs a firm foundation to stand tall and the basics are the best place to start when building your foundation of Warlock knowledge. What follows is a guide on not only how to build your Warlock but also some of the basics, such as pets. If you want more advanced reading then check out “Playing a Warlock” or our in-depth “Warlock Pet Guide”!

The first thing to consider is this: is the Warlock class right for you? The Warlock isn’t like other classes; it’s a master of patience and skill of combos. Warlocks aren’t well known for frontloading massive amounts of damage (however, this isn’t always the case; many Warlocks with enough spell damage can do amazing things with Shadow Bolt). They focus on using fear and Damage over Time spells to deal immense amounts of damage over periods of time. Along with their pets, they are fearsome and quite unique.

You can get a good grasp on the Warlock class by playing it some. It won’t be the same as a high level Warlock, especially before level twenty, but you get a decent idea of how the class works. If it isn’t for you then you’ll have no regrets going to another class.

Here are some pros and cons to being a Warlock to help you with your choice:

• Warlocks use demonic magic to inflict damage, usually over time, to their enemies. Their damage comes mostly in the sustained form of Damage over Time debuff followed by their Shadowbolts and pets.
• Warlocks utilize pets to tank, damage, and lockdown their enemies. They have multiple types of pets with each one have a unique role. Their pets can learn spells and do all kinds of interesting things.
• Warlocks receive a free mount at level 40 and can quest for an an epic mount when they reach level sixty.
• Warlocks are very dependant on mana, but they can also turn their health into mana and then drain the health back from the enemy. This makes them nearly unstoppable in PvP.
• Warlocks can tap into the demonic energies to do various nasty things to their enemies, including slowing their casting time, slowing them down, taking their health away, or driving them into madness causing them to run around in fear.
• Warlocks, being a cloth caster, are very weak physically and lack any form of solid melee damage output. While they can drain the health of their enemies and use many other abilities to increase their survivability, they can't last forever when someone is attacking them directly.
• Much of the Warlocks damage comes over time. While it's a lot of damage, you won't be seeing too many big numbers in one hit until way later in your career.

Basically, Warlocks use their pets and damage over time spells to inflict a constant stream of damage to their enemies. Followed in by their ability to turn their HP to Mana and their powerful direct damage Shadow Bolt they are truly fearsome.

Choosing a race as a Warlock can be tough. All available races will make a fine Warlock, so it comes down to what racial bonuses you will get the most use out of and what your want your avatar to look like. If you don’t use the active abilities of some races then those racial bonuses will go to waste, but that is meaningless if you prefer the looks of one race over another. Remember that all races are as viable as the others; it comes down to how you want to play and what you want to look like.

Alliance

Human: Humans gain 5% spirit and the ability to actively seek out stealthed characters. They also gain faster reputation then other classes and get a bonus to swords (which is useless to a Warlock). Humans are a fine choice for a Warlock.

Gnome: They gain more starting Intelligence, a passive 5% bonus to Intelligence, and can flee from certain effects with Escape Artist. Gnomes are another fine choice for a Warlock, if not better then Humans based purely on stats.

Horde

Blood Elves (Burning Crusade): Blood Elves may seem like the de facto choice for making a Warlock, but remember they aren’t the best… even with their addiction to magic. Their mana tap ability grants them extra mana, but the amount is only worth a few spells at best and Warlocks already have it good on mana.  They do make excellent Warlocks though!

Undead (Forsaken): The Undead lack any purely Warlock orientated racials, but are fine choices. Their cannibalize ability can decrease the time needed to regen after battles and the do look pretty cool! Will of the Forsaken is also VERY useful in PvP.

Orcs: While Orc Warlocks aren't the most fitting for the games lore, they do make alright Warlocks. If you are going for the "better" then you'll want to look at Blood Elves or the Forsaken. They have no racials that make a differnce for the Warlock, but they do look cool and are pretty resistant to stun effects (which is good in PvP).

Spells are cast by choosing the target and using the spell. The spell will begin casting. During the time it is casting the Warlock may not move or else the spell will fail. If the Warlock is attacked during the casting of a spell then the spell will reset some time off of the cast making it take longer to cast (some talents can change this for some spells). After the casting is finished, the spell is then slung at the enemy.

Some spells do not have a cast time like many of the Warlock debuffs. These are instantly casted on the enemy and only incur the 2 second global cooldown on all skills before another one is cast. It's best to use these after spells with a cast time as it's more effective to lead into battle with something that takes time to cast.

Warlocks can summon demonic minions to aid them in combat. They range from a spell casting imp to a mighty Felguard. If you are looking for information on the various pets and the accompanying skills then see our Warlock Pet Guide.

The basics are pretty simply though. You can summon your pet at any time and once summoned it stays beside you until it is either killed or dismissed (or released, which is a bad option as it will make the pet unlearn all of its skills). Warlock pets can be taught skills from special Grimoires which make them more powerful. The Grimories can be purchased from special stores usually located near Warlock trainers.

You can control your pet with the pet bar. It allows you to attack and choose if your pet will be aggressive (attack anything), defensive (defend you), or passive (do nothing until told). Skills can also be used on this bar with some of them being right clickable to activate autocast.

Soul Shards are created whenever an enemy dies under the influence of “Drain Soul” (no matter the rank of Drain Soul and only if the enemy is worth experience or honor). These Soul Shards are then used by other spells as reagents for their casting. For instance, summoning a Succubus requires a Soul Shard. These can be collected and saved (they last even when logged off, even though the various stones (like the Health Stone) do not) so it’s always good to have a few on hand.

Many Warlocks keep the lowest rank of Drain Soul on their action bar in order to save mana when getting a shard. The rank of Drain Soul doesn’t matter as long as the enemy gives experience or honor, so using the lowest rank is a great way to save mana if you don’t need the spell to kill the enemy.

Warlocks have special access to Soul Shard bags which have increased slots but only hold Soul Shards. All new Soul Shards go into the Shard bag and the bag displays how many is left. Many Warlocks carry not only a Shard bag full of Soul Shards, but also keep plenty in their bank.

Warlocks rely on two main stats, Intellect and Stamina. Their Intellect increases their mana pool and spell critical rate while Stamina increases health. Health is very important to a Warlock as the more health they have the more they can Life Tap.

Strength - Increases your Attack Power thereby increasing your damage. Strength also increases the damage that you can block with your shield. Not at all useful for a Warlock

Stamina - Increases your health points. This is critical for Warlocks since it's the biggest bonus to defense you can get (outside of Armor which is hard to come by with cloth) and it is very important for Life Tap.

1 Stamina = 10 Health points

Intellect - Increases your mana pool and your critical hit chance with spells. It also increases the speed at which you earn weapon skill points. With Warlocks since mana is the most important stat they have, it is essential to max out as much as possible on Intellect.

1 Intellect = 15 Mana

And

100 Intellect = +1% to critically cast spells

Spirit - Spirit raises your health and mana regeneration rate. While it is noticeable at higher levels, it takes a significant number of points in this to regain mana quickly enough that you will not want to stop and drink to gain it back. Life Tap though makes Spirit pretty useless when you can instead increase your health and get a better mana regen with Life Tap.

Agility - Agility increases the following: attack power with ranged weapons, armor, critical hit chance and your chance to dodge attacks. Useless for a Warlock, although the armor is a nice bonus.

2 Agility = 1 Armor point