[General] I have lost my way... trying to fix Voynich (build, gear, ect.)

[Voynich]

I humbly submit this in hopes of be blessed by the vast knowledge of my Warlock brethren.

Background: I have been "AFK" for a little over 9 months now due to an out of country "business trip". I hope to be home in about 2 weeks and I would like to get back into the game (soon as I get my wife's "honey do" list done and the Army allows me a day or two off). When I went AFK, I was in a guild that was starting Kara and I was trying to learn the finer points of a Raiding Warlock. At the time, I was trying to find a build that would serve the guild's needs in Raids, but would also allow me to defend myself in PvP. I remember vividly the aggravation of dealing with Hunters, especially with those wonderful red pets. I also still have nightmares about the never ending stun locks from our Cloak of Shadow friends. I started to accept the fact that Warlocks must have an anti-class and Rogues (from what I saw) was it. That being said, I can not tell you how agrovated I would get being killed so quickly... I mean VERY quickly. It was embarassing .

All that being said, looking back at my build and armor (wish my wand was equipped before I logged out last time) I can not help but wonder... what was I thinking? I realize my spell damage is way low (+523) as are my other stats.

I enjoyed Affliction and tried my hand at Demonology (enjoyed the Felguard) even though the guild suggested against it. I have never tried (not against it) the Destruction tree so I do not know much about it. Come to think of it, I will be almost totally relearning how to play a Warlock as it is now. I don't remember cast sequences, what add-ons I had, and other similar stuff. Guess I have a bit of research ahead of me.

Now I will proceed to the requested information from the "How to submit a talent build question" post.

Character Name: Voynich

Armory Profile: http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...tone&n=Voynich

Wowhead link of current build in use: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=IVMriRfkatboZxx0pr

Wowhead link of proposed build: I don't have any idea.

PvE Play style and Requirements of build:
I would like to get into raiding some, but for now (until I can get into a guild again) I will most likely be PUGing instances and trying to farm up some gold. I would love to get my epic flying mount. (Speaking of which, did Blizzard ever allow us to have a summonable / questable flying version of the Dreadsteed?)


PvP Play style and Requirements of build:

• Battlegrounds: I was running some battlegrounds trying to farm up some honor. I did not stay in just one or the other; I would try to mix em up some, to keep things interesting. I also could not take too many AV's at one sitting or I would claw my eyes out with the AFKers and immature smack talk.
• Arena: I tried a 2v2 Arena team (for a very short time), but my lack of experience did not allow me to stay long. I would not be against trying again, but my partner would have to be willing to allow me to get the hang of things.
• World PvP: I truly enjoyed this. I often found myself lurking in some of the lower level zones kind of keeping an eye out for Alliance who would come over and try to slow down our guy's grinding. That being said, I often found myself having a lot of trouble with Hunters and Rogues.

Additional Comments:
If you look me up in the WoW Armory, you will see a guild listed. I am almost 100% sure I will not be a member of that guild when I log back in. Most of the people there knew I would be AFK for a while, but not sure if I would be kept in an AFK status for 9+ months. So unless some RL friends are still in game, I will be solo for a while until I can find a new home. So I would guess any advice you guys can offer would be aimed at a guildless Warlock. Raid gear will be a bit out of my reach unless there are a lot of PUG Kara runs now on Spirestone.

Thanks for any and all help with this.

[Akasha]

Voynich, you have just made my WEEK! Everyone, THIS is the perfect example of how to ask for help with your talent build!!!

[faberun]

try a 5/45/11 Felguard build. this gives you soul link, helping you survive in pvp, wile having your dots, FG, and improved shadowbolt cause fairly good damage. theres a guide writen for high end felguard raiding. i would link it along with the build, but its fairly late dowen here, dont have the time to dig it up.

[Morax]

I would try something like an affliction build (good for instances / raiding) and since likely you would only be doing 10 man or less instances and also wish to do some pvp I would throw in instant howl of terror rather than malediction. Something like: Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft

The felguard build is also a good choice but some non warlocks might not feel that it is as good a "raid" build. I kind of disagree with the 5/45/11 but then I never really raided as felguard and only did instances. My preferred felguard is more for survivability and would be something like: Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft

One thing to note is these build may fit my playstyle more than yours. I tend to instance/raid but dont generally try to create the groups myself. I will likely do BG's with friends while not much is going on. Currently I am personally spec'd SL/SL but that isnt one you should really use for instances.

[Theleb]

Good Job Voynich, if only everyone took the time to make posts like that

There's not really any one build that excells in every area but a Felguard build is extremely good for PvP and (despite what people might claim) PvE.

Here's a few search results you might find enlightening:

The Warlocks Den Forums

[KnThrak]

First of all you should reassure yourself what spec you want to play, disregarding the raw power of the spec for now.

For this purpose you have 4 builds to try, generally:

• Affliction, which you currently have. Some would tell you to go 40/0/21, but personally I'd inverse the effect, and go 44/0/17 to drop some more power into Affliction. If you get Shadow Embrace raids will like you, a lot.
• 6/44/11 (or more raidish 7/44/10) Demonology, very PvEish in nature though. Felguard specs are incredibly tough to play below a certain gearlevel and if you don't have access to Shadow Priests. At least in raids. You can solo 3man quests :P
• 17/0/44 Destruction, NF/SF. One hell of a nuke-heavy build, you just have to decide 2 out of 3: Backlash, Nether Protection, Soul Leech. It's fun, but uses mana fast.

Once you know a spec, can work on hammering out a decent one and getting gear for it

[Warpy]

TY for being so organized and helping us to help you! Sounds like you've been working on the most important project, deciding what to do end-game. Probably a lot will depend on the folks you meet and the next guild you join.

I agree with the folks promoting the felguard spec for the moment. All on his lonesome, he'll add about 200 DPS, and the panic he inspires in the Battlegrounds is worthwhile all in itself.

Once you get to about +1000 spell damage, though, especially as a raider, the poor felguard can't keep up. It's his fault if he won't put on some gear, but you'll probably get higher DPS by going affliction (full UA spec).

In terms of gearing up, see if you can't PUG regular dungeons. Unless you are willing to level tailoring, there will be no frozen shadoweave for you. However, you can still wear excellent tailored gear, like the Shadoweave Set. You want all the +spell damage you can get your hands on, and spell haste is a nice second stat to focus on. If you are thinking of returning to raiding, build an alternate +spell hit. Don't bother with spell crit at this stage. CanadianPimp's Classic Gearing Your Warlock Guide has a lot of detailed information for new level 70's. I also recommend his new 2.4 version, but that's written to a more general audience including warlocks raiding SSC and beyond. However, it does boil a lot of recommendations down neatly on one page.

[Menzo]

On the contrary, the felguard (Handled properly) can definitely be an asset to overall damage in raids. The only reason they aren't more commonly seen is because they are tough to play and dependent on factors such as having a SP around or the 2/5 T5 combo + VST. Still, they are quite playable without those requirements.

Destruction is fun to play because it's very simple and straight forward. However, if being a good DPS matters to you, it would be best to hold off on this strat till you're on the boundaries of T5/T6 content (Entry into Hyjal/BT).

Affliction is the most versatile. PvP won't be a problem as you can slap dots on as easily as counting. You have a ton of survivability and a mana battery (Dark Pact). I would recommend being Affliction specced during the T4 areas of raiding. SSC/TK would be the T5 area that you could move into a FG build if you like micromanaging stuff while putting out awesome damage, or go into a destro build (It still works rather well at this level).

[Lilmeanie]

Just wanted to re-iterate what others have said: well laid out, organized request for help. Secondly, I assume from what you hinted in the beginning of your post that you've been serving in the military overseas, so thank you for your service, and safe return for you =).

I have no raid experience myself, but from instances I've run, I would think that your current spec is good, and adequate for PvP. The downside for PvP will be the absence of soul link, and the damage/survivability of other demo talents, but you have the advantage of iHoT. I tried a spec similar to yours, and found that I died much more in Battleground's than I did with SL/SL, and my damage output also lagged. Then again, I'm not a very good PvP'er so take that for what it's worth.

Regarding the gearing suggestions in the previously linked "gearing your warlock" thread, you may want to pay some special attention to the gemming/ enchanting sections. For a reasonable gold outlay you could get a flat 6% increase in spell damage by just upgrading your red gems. A few inexpensive stam/health enchants could also improve pvp survivability while not breaking the bank, and you wouldn't necessarily feel that resources were wasted on gear you will quickly upgrade.

A final thought on cash flow and re-speccing: The new dailies should provide enough steady money for the changes recommended above as well as fairly frequent re-specs. I've found that it doesn't hurt the pocketbook too much to re-spec every couple days. I spec SL/SL for PvP, and can spec alternatively for farming mats for crafting/sale. It's not necessary to feel pinned down to one spec.

All the best to you and yours...

[Aimealamort]

Felguard sounds like it was made especially for you.

It's fun, and can be very multi-purpose. Personally, I think that Felguard is the best spec for undergeared players, or people working on gear. If you can play it well, you can dish out great dps in heroics and Kara, which is what you'd be working on for awhile.

Your affliction build is good as well, but if you plan on trying out arenas, without respeccing, you wont have much success without a lot of resilience. You would do just fine in battlegrounds though, dots own everyone.

There's a lot of pretty decent pvp gear that can be used for pve, so take a look at Thottbot and such and see whats out there. Also, with the changes to nethers and vortexes (they are now not soulbound, and you can buy vortexes with badges) it would be easy to have a couple of things made for you, like Spellstrike or Belt of Blasting, which would be huge upgrades for you. In general, my advice is to start stockpiling badges as there as a few good things out now, and some very, very nice things coming out soon. There's also some nice items in the new Magister's Terrace instance, even in normal mode. With a couple well thought out upgrades (ie: a lot of primal farming you'll be in good shape.

PS: No, we never got a class flying mount! :(