The Voidwalker is the second demonic
pet available to the Warlock. It becomes available at level 10 after completing
a series of quests. Voidwalkers are good tanks against non-elite mobs at or near
the Warlock's level; therefore, they are excellent for solo play. Although they
can be used in at least low level instances as a substitute for a Warrior
class player, due to their comparative fragility this is generally not advised.
Among the four regular Warlock pets, the Voidwalker has the most health, but the
least mana. The Voidwalker requires a Soul Shard to summon. It is the first
Warlock pet to require one; the acquisition of the Voidwalker coincides with the
acquisition of the ability to collect Soul Shards with Drain Soul.
The voidwalker is ideal for solo target fights as it has the ability to generate
high amounts of threat through its abilities. It has high amounts of stamina and
armor which make it able to take large amounts of damage and keep on going. The
voidwalker does the least amount of melee damage of the 4 basic warlock demons,
so don’t rely on the voidwalker to kill a mob by its self. Their key role is to
keep the enemy away from the warlock to sustain their ability to continue
casting spells at the target with little to no interruption or damage.
The voidwalker also has capability of AoE tanking but it lacks many high threat
AoE abilities. The spell that does generate high AoE threat unfortunately has a
long cooldown. However, it can be used to pull multiple targets and hold them
all if you focus fire the target of the voidwalker and do not generate too much
AoE healing threat on the remaining mobs via health funnel while trying to
eliminate all the hostile targets.
The key is to hold back on burst damage to the end of a fight so as not to pull
aggro from your voidwalker. The best method is the use of DoT’s with the
voidwalker as it has little trouble keeping up with threat when using slow and
steady damage.
Outside of farming or grinding the voidwalker is very situational in use. There
are different variations on its use in this role however. Some choose to use the
voidwalker as a pure solo target tank leaving the ability to sacrifice the
voidwalker if the battle becomes too much granting the warlock a chance to get
out of harms way while the protective shield is still present. Demonic Sacrifice
spec players will typically choose to use the voidwalker for its sacrificed
ability to regenerate health over a long period of time allowing for continuous
grinding and little downtime due to recovering health from damage taken or from
life tapping to recover mana.
Tips & Tricks
Tip - Get him Buffed:
The ultimate tip when using any of your demons in a party/raid situation is to
make sure to they always receive party/raid buffs. Important buffs for the
voidwalker include anything that improves health, attack power, and armor
(assuming it is tanking or off-tanking) and spirit. Sporeling snacks are also a
nice little pet buff food that will increase spirit, especially handy for the
low mana Voidwalker...
Trick - The Tank:
Allow time for your voidwalker to gain aggro, much like any other tank. When you
start to dps, be sure to start slow as to not pull aggro from him. Low damage
dots like Siphon Life, or DoT’s that build in damage over time like CoA are the
best to start out with. Try to hold off on moderate direct damage spells like
immolate until the later half of the battle and high direct damage spells like
shadow bolt for the end of a fight. This will ensure that the voidwalker can
continue to hold aggro throughout the duration of the fight. If engaging
multiple targets simultaneously be sure to hold off on healing the voidwalker
until it has sufficient threat to continue to hold them through a health funnel
channeling.
Tip - Micromanage: The
Voidwalker has low mana as stated, and when micromanaging his skills for
increased mana efficiency, the most I ever needed whole battle was 3 torments of
regular yellow mobs, plus recasts for resists. I went like this: Torment, CoA,
Corr, Torment, SB, Torment (If I had discovered needed a third, when freshly
upgraded, rare), wand/drain soul.
With that we both had good mana efficiency and the mobs went down quick. If I
aggro'd a few extra, I'd get them near and activate suffering and just follow
one at a time. Of course I only did this in my 40s before FG and after I got
annoyed by him being out of mana.
Tip - Eat then fight:
Before you start ginding/tanking with him use Consume Shadows. The +200 attack
power buff can come in handy
The Instance Voidwalker
The voidwalker can be used to do some
light tanking work in instances. It will never be able to perform on the level
of a tanking class player, but can be used to off-tank a target when necessary.
The PvP Voidwalker
PvP warlocks will typically use the
sacrifice ability of the Voidwalker at the beginning of an engagement to shield
the player from damage for a short period of time. This sacrifice ability
continues through the summoning of a new demon that can be chosen depending on
the class of the player or number of players being engaged (typically a succubus
or Felhunter). Using this combination can be very vital to your survival through
PvP and arena matches by giving you a short window to gather yourself or wait on
help.
For a soul link spec warlock, the Voidwalker is the best damage absorbing demon
and due to its great health regeneration rate, it can continue to do so for
prolonged periods. This coupled with master demonologist can vastly reduce the
total amount of damage that you and your Voidwalker take.
Voidwalkers also have the ability to distract other pets and demons of hostile
targets by the use of its torment ability. This can allow you to focus fire on
the enemy while keeping another demon off of you or a hunter’s pet away from
you. This can be vital to your survivability.
The only other place where the Voidwalker can be useful for PvP is in AV. There
are several multi enemy mobs in AV that the Voidwalker can be utilized against
to gain and hold aggro long enough for you to burn them down before you yourself
fall victim to them. Enemy graveyards, towers, and caves to name a few are
places that the Voidwalker can be useful.
Suffering, even while on a 2-minute cooldown, has the 10% increased chance to miss debuff. This can be extremely
useful in a PvP encounter (especially versus a melee class - see: rogue,
warrior, feral druid, enhancement shaman - or a hunter's pet), as the debuff is
castable on PvP targets.
In arenas, you can help protect
against rush teams by summoning a VW right when you join the arena, Sacrifice it
for the bubble with about 11 seconds until arena start, and then summon your pet
of choice before the gates open. As a bonus, as long as your second summon goes
off before the gates open, you won't have spent any shards.
Talents that will affect / improve the Voidwalker
Improved Voidwalker (Demonology) increases the effectiveness of your
Voidwalker's Torment, Consume Shadows, Sacrifice and Suffering spells by
10%/20%/30%.
Dark Pact (Affliction) can be used to draw mana from the Voidwalker. (Not
recommended)
Fel Intellect and Fel Stamina (Demonology) increases the demon’s maximum
mana/health respectively by 5/10/15%. Also increases the caster’s mana/health
by 1/2/3%
Fel Domination combined with Master Summoner (Demonology) can reduce
summoning time to 2/4seconds and 20/40% reduced mana; another 5.5 seconds and
50% reduced mana when Fel Domination is active (0.5 second cast).
Unholy Power (Demonology) increases the damage done by your Voidwalker by
4/8/12/16/20%.
Demonic Sacrifice (Demonology) will sacrifice your Voidwalker to restore
2% of your total health every 4sec for 30min.
Mana Feed (Demonology) allows your demon to regenerate 33/66/100% of the
mana you gain from Drain Mana or Life Tap.
Demonic Resilience (Demonology) reduces the damage your summoned demon
takes by 5/10/15% and the casters chance to be crit by 1/2/3%.
Soul Link (Demonology) your summoned demon absorbs 20% of the damage the
caster takes and increases the damage done by both the caster and demon by 5%.
Demonic Tactics (Demonology) increases the melee critical strike chance
for you and your Voidwalker by 1/2/3/4/5%.
F.A.Q.
