Levels 20-29
Note: Throughout the guide, you'll sometimes see an arrow by the item. Although I recommend all the gear that I list, the items with an arrow mean that either they are significantly better than most other items of that kind in the level range while still being fairly easy to obtain and that I highly recommend those specific items. If you don't want all the items that I listed or just want the best ones, look for the items with an asterisk.
I decided this would be a good place to start, since you don't really need to be too focused on acquiring gear before level 20. For the most part, always keep your eye on "of the Eagle" gear. This gear is always going to have Stamina, Intellect or both.
Of the Eagle gear from 20-30 ► Head: Shadow Hood, tailoring
Shoulder: Berylline Pads, RFK quest reward
Cloak: Engineer's Cloak, Stonetalon Mtn. quest reward
Chest: Efflorescent Robe, Stonetalon Mtn./Ashenvale quest reward
► Hands: Hands of Darkness, tailoring
Waist: Warsong Sash, Stonetalon Mtn./Ashenvale quest reward
Legs: Night Watch Pantaloons, Duskwood quest reward
Feet: Acidic Walkers, Gnomeregan boss drop
Ring: Ring of Twilight Shadows, level 100 jewel crafter can make this
Ring: Wicked Moonstone Ring, level 125 jewel crafter can make this
Ring: Ring of Iron Will, Redridge Mountain quest reward (Alliance only)
Wand: Moonbeam Wand, Ashenvale quest reward, sold by vendor in Tirisfal Glades
► Staff: Staff of Soran'ruk, Warlock quest reward, http://www.wowhead.com/?quest=1740
Off-hand: Cursed Eye of Paleth, Wetlands quest reward (Alliance only). Also be sure not to complete the "Cleansing the Eye" quest as then you cannot get this item. I believe by abandoning the quest you keep the item.
Goal: 850 health, 1800 mana.
Levels 30-39
During the 30s, you will notice that there is a big increase in the quality of items in the 20s. You can also start to wear pieces of the Shadoweave set, made by tailors. There will be a little section on that later, but this section will exclude Shadoweave items.
Head: Whitemane's Chapeau, SM cathedral boss drop
Shoulder: Inquisitor's Shawl, SM cathedral boss drop
Chest: Robes of the Lich, RFD boss drop
*Chest (alternate): Enchanted Gold Bloodrobe, Warlock quest reward, http://www.wowhead.com/?quest=4736
Wrist: Condor Bracers, Desolace quest reward
Hands: Insulated Sage Gloves, Alterac Mountain quest reward
► Waist: Star Belt, tailoring
Legs: Red Mageweave Pants, tailoring
Legs (alt): Night Watch Pantaloons, Duskwood quest reward (Alliance only)
Feet: Junglewalker Sandals, STV quest reward
► Dagger: Hypnotic Blade, SM library boss drop
► Ring: Golden Ring of Power, can be crafted by a 180 jewel crafter. It will cost you around 10g but if you have a bit of money to spare, this is one of the best rings you'll see in a while.
► Off-hand: Orb of Dar'Orahil, Warlock quest reward. http://www.wowhead.com/?quest=4962 Be sure to to the Felhound version of the quest, not the infernal.
Goal: 50 shadow damage, 1300 health, 2400 mana.
Shadoweave Set
The Shadoweave set is the best early game set for Warlocks. I highly recommend going for this set, as it is cheaply made by tailors and provides an awesome boost in damage. You should be able to buy the mats from the AH for all six pieces for under 10g, or you can farm them yourself. The increase in shadow damage at that level is pretty significant and noticeable. Tailors can buy the Shadoweave patterns in Stormwind or Undercity. They're well worth the investment.
The 6 piece set consists of a mask, shoulders, a robe, gloves, pants and boots. All in all it gives:
13 Stamina
15 Intellect
17 spirit
114 shadow damage
This is going to make your shadowbolt hit for at least 25% harder, not to mention your DoTs ticking for a lot more too. This set should not be overlooked, as most of these items will last you through the entire 40s. Check the link to see what levels you can start wearing each piece at.
Levels 40-49
During the 40s you should be pretty comfortable wearing your Shadoweave set. Most of the gear here is actually worse or only slightly better than the shadoweave set. Some people argue that the Dreamweave set made by tailors is better than Shadoweave, but this for the most part untrue for warlocks. Shadoweave has more damage and Stamina, which is pretty much all we're concerned about at this point. Dreamweave is loaded with Spirit, which is near useless for us locks. Make acquiring and wearing the whole Shadoweave set your goal by level 45. I will still point out though that the Dreamweave Gloves and Dreamweave Robes are very, very slight upgrades, but I didn't include it since Dreamweave costs a bit more. For those that want other options from Tailoring and those slots not covered by the Shadoweave set, here you are.
Head: Bad Mojo Mask, ZF boss drop
Neck: Lifeblood Amulet, ZF boss drop
► Back: Deep Woodlands Cloak, Horde only quest given in Hinterlands
* Back (alt): Emberscale Cape, Uldaman boss drop
Chest: Antiquated Nobleman's Tunic, Horde only quest given in Undercity
Wrist: Bloodband Bracers, STV quest reward
Hands: Wingcrest Gloves, Horde only quest in Feralas
Waist: Star Belt, tailoring
Feet: Southsea Mojo Boots, Tanaris quest reward
Ring: Gem Studded Band, crafted by 250 Jewel crafter
Wand: Noxious Shooter, Maraudon boss drop (orange side)
► Staff: Zum'rah's Vexing Cane, ZF boss drop
Goal: 100 shadow damage, 1800 health, 3000 mana.
Levels 50-59
The 50s is generally when you start looking for as much spell damage as possible. There is an abundance of spell damage items in instances, so that's where most of the items come from. A lot of the better items in this level range come from high level instances like UBRS, Scholomance, and Stratholme. I'm going to stay away from these zones because since TBurning Crusade is out, there isn't too much demand to run these instances. BRD, Dire Maul, and LBRS are the instances I'll be looking at for gear. Also note that even though you can start Outland quests at level 58, I won't list any Burning Crusade quest rewards in this section.
Note that tailors can make two more sets that are useful to warlocks. There is the Cindercloth set, which is a great fire damage set, however at this point in time Shadow is clearly the way to go and the Cindercloth set is higher on stats like Spirit and Intellect, not Stamina. There is also the Felcloth set, which is a slight upgrade from the Shadoweave set. However, the set isn't great because it is very low on Stamina, it's a little expensive to make and you will need a 300 tailor with extra Demonic Runes (a BoP mat needed). All in all, one piece is pretty good; the
Felcloth Robe.
Head: Crown of the Ogre King, Dire Maul North boss drop
► Shoulder: Kentic Amice, BRD boss drop
► *Chest: Robe of the Void, tailoring 300 BoP pattern
*Chest (alt): Felcloth Robe, tailoring 300 BoE pattern
Wrist: Manacle Cuffs, BRD quest reward
Gloves: Hands of Power, LBRS boss drop
Waist: Ban'thok Sash, BRD boss drop
Legs: Skyshroud Leggings, LBRS boss drop
Feet: Omnicast Boots, BRD boss drop
Ring: Ring of Bitter Shadows, Jewel crafting pattern sold by vendor in Eastern Plaguelands
Trinket: Burst of Knowledge, BRD boss drop
Trinket: Abyss Shard, Warlock quest reward
Staff: Soul Harvester, Warlock quest reward
Goal: 150 shadow damage, 2900 health, 4000 mana.
Levels 60-69
Well you finally made it to Outland. That's great, but no longer can you skimp on gear. The enemies are harder in this zone, and you're going to need some good gear. Luckily enough, Outland is full of good gear from quest rewards to instances. I'm going to ignore all level 60 raid gear since it would be fairly hard to acquire now that rarely anybody runs the old raid dungeons. Also keep in mind that Outland has TONS of great gear, so one doesn't have to be too picky about certain gear at this stage. A few less spell crit chance point isn't going to kill you.
In this section, I'm just going to list quest rewards and three cheap, but good crafted items. None of these items requires you to run an instance or costs a lot of money, and aside from the three craftables, all of them you should be able to get at level 67 or lower. All of them are fairly easy quests chains, nothing extensive. Don't waste your time running dungeons over and over for gear if you don't want to. Outlands has plenty of quests to do, there's little pure grinding and instancing you need to do. As always, click on the link if you're interested in an item to find out more on how to get it.
Head: Junior Technician 3rd Grade Goggles, Netherstorm quest reward
Neck: Natasha's Arcane Filament, Blade's Edge Mountain quest reward
Shoulder: Nether Guards, Netherstorm quest reward
* Shoulder (alt): Spelunker's Mantle, Blade's Edge Mountain quest reward
Back: Cloak of the Black Void, 350 BoE tailoring item
* Back (alt): Windtalker's Cloak, Hellfire Peninsula quest reward
Chest: Shadowcast Tunic, Hellfire Peninsula quest reward
* Chest (alt): Goldweave Tunic, Hellfire Peninsula quest reward
Wrist: Bracers of Havok, 350 BoE tailoring item
* Wrist (alt): Thunderlord Armbands, Blade's Edge Mountain quest reward
Hands: Manaspark Gloves, Hungarfen from Underbog
* Hands (alt): Red Hands of the Thunderlord, Blade's Edge Mountain quest reward; called Sylvanaar Gloves for Alliance
Waist: Chief Engineer's Belt, Netherstorm quest reward
* Waist(alt): Cilice of Suffering, Terrokar Forest quest reward
Legs: Bloodfire Leggings, Terrokar Forest quest reward
Feet: Sinister Area 52 Boots, Netherstorm quest reward
* Feet (alt): Ikeyen's Boots, Zangarmarsh quest reward
Ring: Khorium Band of Shadows, 350 BoE Jewel crafting item
Ring: Carinda's Wedding Band, Hellfire Peninsula Quest reward (Horde only)
Trinket: Mark of Defiance, turn in 30 marks of Honor Hold/Thrallmar
Trinket: Ancient Crystal Talisman, Horde Zangarmarsh quest reward; Alliance equivalent is Glowing Crystal Insignia
Staff: Battle Mage's Baton, Nagrand quest reward
Wand: Nesingway's Safari Stick, Nagrand quest reward
Goal: 475 unbuffed shadow damage, 6000 health, 5000 mana.
Netherweave Set
As for tailoring, the
Netherweave set is awesome for a mid-60 warlock. The 6 piece set (you can't wear the robe and the tunic at the same time) gives you 190 spell damage and 204 Stamina. The set is rather cheap to make also. Once again, don't fret too much about gear choice now, but if you have any shoddy pieces in your gear arrangement, the Netherweave set is an ideal warlock set with the high Stamina and damage to fill in the gaps. You're almost at 70, when you'll be completely revamping your wardrobe. It's no Shadoweave, but it's still damn good.
Level 70
After level 70, gear becomes the most important factor in determining the strength of a character. Gear is the only way to progress after 70. There are two ways to acquire better gear - through PvP and PvE. Since we're not covering PvP gear, the way to get the best gear is through raiding. Before one attempts to raid, he needs a set of gear that will contribute to the group. Let's take a look at two top end pre-raid dungeon sets.
Dungeon Set 3
The Dreadmist Raiment, the warlock Dungeon Set 1 was acquired through level 60 endgame instances. It could be updated to Dungeon Set 2 through a quest chain. At level 70, Blizzard has given us two, five-piece Dungeon Set 3 sets spread throughout endgame instances. The
Oblivion Raiment is generally for affliction locks who want spell damage, Stamina and spell hit. The 45 mana your pet gains every 5 seconds also benefits locks with Dark Pact. The
Mana-etched Regalia is not specifically tuned for warlocks, but this is a great set for destruction locks who focus on crit chance at the sacrifice of a little spell damage and Stamina. A good general rule on which set to focus on is to see if you have Ruin, the 21 point Destruction talent, or not. If you don't, the Oblivion Raiment is better. Locks with Ruin will also do fine with the Oblivion Raiment, but they won't go wrong with the Mana-Etched Regalia set either.
However, the Mana-Etched Regalia is harder to obtain because 4 of the 5 pieces drop in Heroic instances.
Aeonus - The Black Morass - Head
Omor the Unscarred - Hellfire Ramparts - Gloves (Heroic)
The Black Stalker - The Underbog - Pants (Heroic)
Epoch Hunter - Old Hillsbrad Foothills - Robe (Heroic)
Quagmirran - The Slave Pens - Shoulders (Heroic)
In comparison, here is where the Oblivion Raiment drops.
Harbringer Skyriss - The Arcatraz - Head
Warchief Kargath Bladefist - Shattered Halls - Gloves
Talon King Ikiss - Sethekk Halls - Pants
Murmur - Shadow Labyrinth - Robe
Murmur - Shadow Labyrinth - Shoulders
As you can see, the Oblivion Raiment is easier to get. The stats pretty much equal themselves out, so if one set is worth the effort, it is the Oblivion Raiment.