The Warlocks Den - WoW Warlock Discussions

So you recently reached level 80 with your warlock, or you are still grinding your way through Northrend, and you want to start raiding sooner or later. While it is possible to have yourself pulled through raids by 24 other people, this is not what most people want, at least not those who care about reading guides.

Here you will find how to gear up your Warlock using gear that can be obtained alone or by running instances. It is relatively easy to get enough gear upgrades in this way so that you can raid Naxxramas and other raid instances successfully.


Dps requirements of Naxxramas:

I will use a simple benchmark here. You want to get past Patchwerk in a Naxxramas 10 man raid. A group that just started running Naxx will probably take 2 tanks and 3 healers to be on the save side, so you end up being 5 dps classes. Patchwerk has 4.325M hitpoints on normal, and he enrages after 6 minutes. Therefore you need at least 12k dps to be able to kill him, or a bit more than 2k dps per player (since both tanks will also deal some damage).
A warlock can reach this with 1300-1400 spellpower, 10-14% hit rating and no crit and haste. It becomes considerably easier if raid buffs are present. Check this thread for an overview of popular and successful raiding specs.


Gear Rating:

It is impossible to find a simple way to rate gear that is valid for all specs and all gear levels. I ended up using the following gear rating:

• spellpower: 1
• hit rating: 1
• haste rating: 0.5
• crit rating: 0.4
• spirit: 0.4

This is chosen to represent the following facts (valid for entry level gear for all common raiding specs):
- spellpower and hit rating are the most important stats
- haste is somewhat better than crit
- spirit increases spellpower via Fel Armor and must not be neglected
- stamina and intellect have small impact and can be neglected

Now we just have to insert these values into lootrank and get the best gear available. If you want to rate some stats differently you can insert them there on your own and get your personal gear list.


Reputation Farming:

I recommend wearing a Tabard of the Kirin Tor once you start running instances at level 80, until you are at least revered. Then you should start farming reputation with the Wyrmrest Accord to exalted, for the boots they reward.


Starter gear:

Gear obtainable from completing quests in Northrend, running Northrend dungeons on normal difficulty and using green and blue quality crafted gear as well as green quality gems. Furthermore I include faction rewards that require at most honored reputation with that faction.
This requirements are really low and you could in practice wear all these items in the second you ding level 80. There's an alternative for dungeon drops, for those who are unlucky.

Head:

Hat of Wintry Doom (Tailoring, Bind on Equip (BoE)) rather expensive since you need a meta gem
The Argent Skullcap (Icecrown - quest reward) cheaper

Neck:

Emeline's Locket (Icecrown - quest reward)

Shoulders:

Runecaster's Mantle (Utgarde Keep - trash drop)
Dark Runic Mantle (Halls of Stone - trash drop)

Back:

Dark Soldier Cape (Ebon Blade, honored)
Cape of Seething Steam (Halls of Lightning, Volkhan)

Chest:

Robes of Lightning (Halls of Lightning - quest reward)
Raiment of the Titans (Halls of Lightning, Loken) Seems you got no choice :D

Wrists:

Fleshwerk Shackles (quest reward)
Verdisa's Cuffs of Dreaming (Drakos the Interrogator, Oculus normal)

Hands:

Light Blessed Mittens (tailoring BoE) much better secondary stats
K3 Surgeon's Gloves (Storm Peaks - quest reward) slightly higher dps

Waist:

Sash of the Wizened Wyrm (Wyrmrest Accord, honored)

Legs:

Leggings of Renewed Hope (Storm Peaks - quest reward)

Feet:

Leiah's Footpads (Icecrown - quest reward)

Finger:

Ring of Northern Tears (jewelcrafting BoE)
Amberglow Signet (Storm Peaks - quest reward)

Trinklets:

Tome of Arcane Phenomena (Cache of Eregos, Oculus normal)
Futuresight Rune (Dragonblight - quest reward)
Rune of Infinite Power (Dragonblight - quest reward)

2Hand:

Sempiternal Staff (Culling of Stratholme, Chrono-Lord Epoch) a 1hand and an off-hand are easier to combine!

Main Hand:

Jeweled Coronation Sword (King Ymiron, Utgarde Pinnacle) I recommend going directly for Flameheart Spell Scalpell.

Off Hand:

Tome of Salramm (Culling of Stratholme, Salramm)
Prison Manifest (Violet Hold, trash drop)

Wand:

Wand of Blinding Light (Dragonblight - quest reward) The best wand until you enter Naxxramas!

Gems:

Perfect Runed Bloodstone always use this one if possible
Runed Bloodstone
Perfect Veiled Huge Citrine
Perfect Rigid Sun Crystal
Ember Skyflare Diamond this one for the meta gem socket

To enchant your gear appropriately, follow the guide. You can visit our equipped, gemmed and enchanted toon at warcrafter.net.

Final Stats: 1413 spellpower, 358 hit rating, 44 haste rating, 187 crit rating, 392 spirit.

With this gear we almost reach the hit cap! This is not great yet, but it is enough to run heroics successfully and to sneak into raids. I didn't expect to break the 1400 spellpower barrier so easily.



Advanced gear:

Ok, that was nice. But the above gear still has certain setbacks. It lacks some stamina and intellect so the survivability is still poor and you easily go OOM. Crit and haste rating are very low and clearly can be improved, and more spellpower is always desireable. Here I will allow gear that drops in heroic 5 man instances (including emblem of heroism rewards) as well as crafted epics and all reputation rewards. I'll list alternatives where this is possible, so you can get your upgrades the way you prefer. The list contains PvP rewards if they are relatively easy to get and equal or better than other items for that slot.

Head:

Titan-forged Hood of Dominance (PvP vendor, Wintergrasp) Clearly the best
Forgotten Shadow Hood (Culling of Stratholme [H], Salramm)
Hat of Wintry Doom (tailoring BoE) Still good if you don't like to PvP

Neck:

Encircling Burnished Gold Chains (Vendor - Dalaran, 25 Emblems of Heroism)
Choker of Spiral Focus or Necklace of Stolen Skulls(Argent Tournament reward, Icecrown)
Titanium Spellshock Necklace (Jewelcrafting, BoE) Only slightly better than Emeline's Locket

Shoulders: no upgrade here!

Runecaster's Mantle (Utgarde Keep - trash drop)
Dark Runic Mantle (Halls of Stone - trash drop)

Back:

Deathchill Cloak (Tailoring BoE) Get it, you'll hardly find an upgrade
Reanimator's Cloak (Drak'Tharon Keep [H], trash drop) Not really an alternative

Chest:

Titan-forged Raiment of Dominance (PvP vendor, Wintergrasp)
Water-Drenched Robe (Violet Hold [H], Ichoron)
Ebonweave Robe (Tailoring, BoE) both robes are equivalent!
Spellweave Robe (Tailoring, BoE) best item if you don't need the hit rating

Wrists:

Cuffs of Winged Levitation (Oculus [H], Cache of Eregos)
Ancestral Sinew Wristguards (Wyrmrest Accord, revered)
Azure Cloth Bindings (Violet Hold [H], Cyanigosa) easiest to get

Hands:

Ebonweave Gloves (Tailoring BoE) the best!
Gloves of Glistening Runes (Nexus [H], Keristrasza) hit-less alternative

Waist:

Plush Sash of Guzbah (Vendor - Dalaran, 40 Emblems of Heroism)
Girdle of Bane (Utgarde Pinnacle [H], King Ymiron) both are equivalent

Legs:

Woven Bracae Leggins (Halls of Lightning [H], Loken) no real alternative, the starter level legs are still good though

Feet:

Sandals of Crimson Fury (Wyrmrest Accord, Exalted) really worth the grind
Titan-forged Slippers of Dominance (PvP vendor, Wintergrasp)

Finger:

Ring of Northern Tears (jewelcrafting BoE)
Titanium Spellshock Ring (Jewelcrafting, BoE) Only pick this one if you get too much hit rating form the above ring
Band of Guile (Culling of Stratholme [H], Chest drop)
Annhylde's Ring (Utgarde Keep, Ingvar the Plunderer)

Trinklet:

Sundial of the Exiled (Vendor - Dalaran, 40 Emblems of Heroism)
Egg of Mortal Essence (Vendor - Dalaran, 40 Emblems of Heroism) Healer trinklet. Still the spellpower is great
Mark of the War Prisoner (Violet Hold [H], Cyanigosa) if you don't want to run around with a healer trinklet
Forge Ember (Halls of Stone [H], Sjonnir the Ironshaper)

2Hand:

Staff of Draconic Combat (Oculus [H], Cache of Eregos) The only competitive 2 hand weapon

Main Hand:

Titansteel Spellblade (Blacksmithing BoE)
Flameheart Spell Scalpel (Kirin Tor, Revered) you need that reputation anyways for the head enchant
Cursed Lich Blade (Drak'Tharon Keep [H], Novos) equivalent!

Off hand:

Ward of the Violet Citadel (Dalaran - Vendor, 25 Emblems of Heroism) First "badge loot" you should buy

Wand:

Wand of the San'layn (Utgard Keep [H],Prince Keleseth) Equivalent to the wand above. The epic wands from OK and AN aren't any better
Wand of Blinding Light (Dragonblight - quest reward) still great

Gems:

Runed Scarlet Ruby for red and blue sockets
Veiled Monarch Topaz for yellow sockets, as long as you can use the hit rating
Ember Skyflare Diamond meta

again our fully equiped, gemmed and enchanted toon can be visited at warcrafter.net.

Final Stats: 1700 spellpower, 356 hit rating, 286 haste rating, 394 crit rating, 285 spirit.

The head piece meta socket seems to be bugged in warcrafter, thats another 25 spellpower. In addition we now have 14.7k unbuffed health and the same amount of mana. With this equipment you can perform quite decently in Naxxramas 10 & 25 man. The new crafted weapon (patch 3.1) adds another 50 spellpower... hooray!

Note: You can reduce the hit rating by switching hit with non-hit gear, if you think this is too much (raid buffs + talents can reduce the required hit rating to 262). Bear in mind however that once patch 3.1 comes, quite a few builds won't be able to get the 3% hit rating from talents.
Second Note: The equipment choice above already requires 155 Emblems of Heroism. I therefore did not include the tier 7 chest and gloves pieces that can also be bought with these emblems. Follow the Emblem spending guide if you're unsure in which order to spend them. You can use the Mark of the War Prisoner instead of the Egg. Then you also don't need to get the emblem necklace since you have enough +hit from the trinklet.


You are now as good geared as is possible without raiding, and maybe better than other people that are already raiding. Go ahead and find a Naxx group, or better, join a raiding guild. Don't forget to bring buffed food, potions and flasks. Have fun!



Crazy Level

You really should go raiding now.

I'm serious!

Nevertheless, here is a list of high end crafted items and bind-on-equip raid drops that you can buy from other players for a lot of gold. This is just to show how far you can get without entering a raid instance.

Chain of Latent Energies (Naxxramas Trash drop, BoE)
Sash of Ancient Power (Tailoring BoE, Ulduar pattern)
Savior's Slippers (Tailoring BoE, Ulduar pattern)
Inscribed Ring of the Kirin Tor (Vendor - Dalaran, 7500 gold!!!)
Wraps of the Astral Traveler (60 Emblems of Valor, BoE)
Heroes' Plagueheart Robe (Vendor - Dalaran, 80 Emblems of Heroism)
Gloves of Token Respect (Naxxramas [H], BoE)

This will most likely cost you a huge load of gold, if those items are available at all... but it is possible



I want to thank canadianpimp for his gear guide that was a great help before and at level 70. His "pre-raid gear lists" were actually the main inspiration for this guide.