TehBuG's 2.3.3 Lock Leveling guide

Note: This guide was inspired by "Hakker's In Depth Warlock Guide v3.1" (inspired by "Suicide's Lock Leveling Guide 1-70" in turn. Credits to them.)

Version 2:
Cleaned up alot of things. updated equipment section and builds section. also BBcode'd the whole guide, for easier reading. also updated guide to 2.3.3 standard.

Version 1:
Hakker's, with extremely minor changes to the builds to update to WoW-2.4.2 standard. slight changes to the Equipment section as well.

Intro

I saw the Hakker's build and used it to level my first character to lvl 70 in 14 days. not an amazing accomplishment, but for a first time player, also not a BAD job either. (Jame's lvl guide also helped a lot.)

but in some places it was just plain impossible to follow this well created guide. it was out of date.

so i updated it.

enjoy.

-TehBuG-

Note about Drain Tanking

Few realize that Drain-Tanking is nearly useless before level 30, due to the weakness of the lower versions of the Drain Life spell. So for the first 19 levels just use the method of placing your DOTS on the
target and shadow bolting to death.

Character Creation to level 29

1-9: Do your lowbie quests. Should take 2-3 hours.

10-14: 5/5 Improved Corruption
15: 1/5 Demonic Embrace
16-18: 3/3 Improved Imp
19: 2/5 Demonic Embrace
20-22: Improved VW
23-25: 5/5 Demonic Embrace
26: 1/1 Fel Domination
27-29: 3/3 Fel Stamina

Using the method during this stage:
Stack all your DoTs on a mob, send in the VW, stack all your DoTs on a second mob, and then wand the second mob to death. Repeat until low health, and then bandage/Consume Shadows. Each level should take about an hour, moving toward an hour and a half as you get closer to 30. If they are taking longer, figure out what the problem is (mobs too far apart, mobs have too much life, too much downtime) and move to an area that solves it.

Level 30 to Level 49

At level 30, visit your class Trainer and Unlearn all your skills.
Spec to this build.

And, on we go!

31: 1/1 Siphon life
32-34: 3/5 Suppression
35-39: 5/5 Shadow Mastery
40: 1/1 Dark Pact
41-45: 5/5 Demonic Embrace
46-48: 3/3 Fel Intellect
49: 2/2 Improved Curse of Agony

Using the method during this stage
Load the mob up on DoTs, send in the Succubus, cast Drain Life while the mob beats on you, rinse and repeat.
Once you acquire the Dark Pact skill, use it instead of life tap except in emergencies. generally try not to Dark pact your succubus under 2/3 of its mana.

Level 50 to Level 60
At level 50, go unlearn everything again.
Spec to this build.

And, once again, Onward!

51: 1/1 Siphon Life
52: 2/2 Drain Soul
53-55: 3/3 Empowered Corruption
56-60: 5/5 Shadow Mastery

You are now spec'd SM/DS, which is generally accepted to be best grinding spec pre-burning crusade

Using the method during this stage
The Drain Tanking gets even better now. By Demonic Sacrificing your Voidwalker, you are able to regen even more life per fight, keeping up with increasing monster damage, while still Life Tapping up to full mana whenever you want because of the passive regen.

Level 60 to Level 70

Unlearn again.
Spec to this build.

And here we go again! except, now we go to outland ^.^

61: 5/5 suppression
62-64: 3/3 Fel Intellect
65-66: 2/2 Improved Health stone
67: 1/1 Fel Domination
68-70: 3/3 Demonic Aegis

congrats on hitting the level cap!

How to use the method at this stage:
Stack your dots on the target, and use the traditional drain tanking method. Just about every mob you face should be able to be down able with taking little to no damage. I recommend using the succubus, Felhunter or Imp during this stage.

How to level:
Grind and quest at the same time. Either look for multiple quests that involve killing the same mobs, or look for multiple quests in the same areas. The more quests you can get done before running back to turn in, the faster your leveling will go. Perfect guides on where to find these areas can be found here:

James' Leveling Guides

also, the mod "Questhelper" can be excellent, by showing you where you need to go for each quest. it gets confused a bit in the outlands, but it is still an excellent addon.

Equipment Choice:
I found that during early levels it was best to find / purchase "Of the eagle" equipment, or if none was available, +Sta gear. At around 35 or so +shadow/+dmg gear takes precedence, as it will make your DoTs tick much harder. at this point, and all the way to level 69, the priority will be (in this order): +shadow/+dmg (either), +Stam, +int, anything else. Basically, don't bother with any gear that doesn't buff Stam, int or your +spell damage.

at level 70, your priorities change a bit more. if your plan is to raid you have to start getting your +spell hit capped and start getting +spell Crit. For PvP, you will want to grind rep from the level 70 instances, as there is a set of blue pvp gear that you can buy from the quartermasters. the blue rep gear isnt that great, but it dooes get you on the road for PvP.

At lvl 30, start looking for Shadoweave gear, and around 40 switch into it. Full Shadoweave can be made by tailors, and will give a bonus of +114 shadow damage, along with some Int and Sta, and can be equipped at level 44.

At lvl 60 start looking for Netherweave gear, and around 56 switch into it. Full Netherweave can be made by tailors, and will give +188 Spell damage, +204 Stamina. i recommend going with the robe. you can wear it a full level earlier, and its only
2 spell dmg / 4 armor less. (and it looks better, if this matters to you)

For weaponry, the previous versions of this guide recommended going with a sword and offhand item. i believe that it should be up to you, but you need to choose extremely early. don't switch from sword/offhand to staff at level 56 for example unless its an incredible difference in stats.

Equipment to look out for

HORDE ONLY: Ragefire Chasm
Robe of Evocation
Crystalline Cuffs
Staff of Orgrimmar
Ghastly Trousers
Featherbead Bracers

ALLIANCE ONLY: Deadmines
Staff of Nobles
Girdle of Nobility
Noble's Robe
Walking Boots
Miner's Cape
Emberstone Staff
Cookie's Stirring Rod
Lavishly Jeweled Ring
Gold-flecked Gloves
Corsair's Overshirt
Sable Wand
Staff of Westfall

Wailing Caverns
Firebelcher
Feyscale Cloak
Robe of the Moccasin
Serpent Gloves
Living root
Sporid Cape
Deep Fathom Ring
Slime-encrusted Pads

Black Fathom Deeps
Rod of the sleepwalker
Leech pants
Gravestone scepter
Witch's Finger
Staff of the Friar

Razorfen Krual
Batwing Mantle
Stygian bone amulet
Wind spirit staff
Agamaggan's Clutch
Berylline Pads
Staff of the shade
Plains Ring

Gnomeregan
Acidic Walkers
Hydrocane
Electrocutioner Lagnut
Charged Gear
(only ones of Stamina, Intellect, Falcon, or Eagle, others are better suited for other classes)
Elecromagnetic Gigaflux Reactiveator (wow say that 3 times fast.)
Civinad robes
Hotshot Pilot's Gloves
Mechbuilder's Overalls

Scarlet Monastery
Orb of the forgotten seer
Hypnotic Blade
Illusionary Rod
Witemane's Chapeau (what caster is this NOT good for?)
Triune Amulet

Razorfen Downs
Robes of the Litch

Zul'Farak
Zum'rah's Vexing Cane
Bad Mojo Mask
Spellshock Leggings

Maraudon
Inventor's Focal Sword
Blade of Eternal Darkness
Eye of Theradras
Gemshard heart
Charstone Dirk

Sunken Temple
Embrace of the Wind Serpent
Spire of Hakkar
Gemburst Circlet

My Stand on Teir 0/0.5
Typically i would not recommend getting t0/t0.5 because there are much better options for this level,

Builds:

Raid Builds:

The best build to start raiding (Kara, Heroics, Mag/gruul) is the UA/DR Affliction Build
or, This Variant, if your +spell hit is allready 100-ish

the reason for this is that Destruction builds only do insane damage once your +spell hit is ~200 (hit cap is 205-ish)

Once you get your 205 +hit and aproximently 19-20% Crit chance, Switch to the Grandaddy of all warlock raiding builds.... DS/S&F 0/21/40 Destruction build

this build is dead simple. summon succubus (for raids), Felhunter (for grinding / farming). use Demonic Sacrifice on it. put up Fel armor. your attack chain is: Curse of Shadows, Shadow bolt, Shadow bolt, Shadow bolt, Shadow bolt, Shadow bolt, Shadow bolt, Shadow bolt... you get the idea. Life tap every 4-6 shadowbolts.
NOTE: there IS a Fire variant of the 0/21/40 build. it does slightly more DPS, HOWEVER, is inferior. it skips the Improved Shadowbolt skill, whitch buffs All shadow users +damage. fire has no equivilant.

PvP

there is really only one pvp spec worth talking about. locks who dont run this build are going to flame the hell out of me for saying this, but they are just in denial

Soul Link / Siphon Life

this build is not designed to do huge damage. this build makes your lock into a sherman tank. the idea is to outlast your opponent.

drop instant cast dots on mobs, and a curse (CoEx on melee, CoT on casters / healers, and CoA on anything that needs extra damage)

Fear anything that moves

Also, the official WoW forum has an entire section devoted to Warlocks... look there for builds too.

Conclusion:
once again, thank you Suicide for making this guide. Thank you Hakker for Updating it.

and, thank me for updating it again ^^

people can call warlocks Op (except rouges, they call us lunch)
they can rant and rave about it......

or they can make one, and have the fun were having ;P

Thanks for reading, good luck hitting that cap!

-TehBuG-