Warlock and Mage Best Builds

[K33NZY]

This is Contuined From my Other Post World of Warcraft: Warrior and Paladin Best Builds

In this Topic i will be posting the Best Builds for Warlocks and Mages , if you disagree you have any better builds then this one then please post it in a reply and if this guide helped you in any way shape or forum then please me thank you.

This Guide is Only Supported for 3.1+

Why dont we get started already.

Warlock Builds

Affliction Builds

The DoTs Curse of Agony and Corruption are some of the most mana-effective and time effective spells available for the Warlock. The Affliction talent tree can improve on these even more.

There is always the issue of the mob dying killed before the full completion of a DoT. This is especially bad for Curse of Agony, that causes more of its damage in the last third of its duration (and is often omitted or Curse of Elements used instead for this reason).

There are also some issues with using DoTs in parties and raids. In particular, many Crowd Control abilities break if the affected creature takes any damage. A mob affected by a DoT spell essentially becomes immune to a significant number of CC measures.

Deep Affliction (56/0/15)


This build places more emphasis on your own DPS. Updates to the trees in 3.1 has removed hit from Cataclysm leading to 3 points being freed. In the linked build, 3 points are available from Improved Drain Soul and Fel Concentration to be moved to Improved Imp and Demonic Power to buff your Imp if you let the little fellow pound away all the time which is worth at least a couple of hundred DPS. Only issue is if you have a threat problem needing the threat reduction from Improved Drain Soul


The basic opening rotation:

Life Tap Rank 1, Shadow Bolt, Haunt, Corruption, Unstable Affliction, Curse of Agony, Shadow Bolt filler. Renew DoTs as needed. Life Tap max rank to maintain the buff every 20 sec.


Under 25% HP of the mob, Shadow Bolt is replaced by Drain Soul.


The doomguards and infernals will increase your DPS more than in other trees/builds.

Demonology Builds

The Demonology talent tree and the use of summoned demons are what mainly distinguishes a Warlock from a Mage.

With patch 3.0.2, Demonology became a far more viable building for PvE and PvP. Though, it will still not top the damage meters in a group of even geared players, you most likely will not be the bottom anymore. With the new talents added we are also able buff fellow casting allies the same way a Hunter buffs Melee based allies. In 2v2 Demonology is far more viable as well. With the addition of Metamorphasis and the spells that come with it, you are a force to be reckoned with.

Demonic pact/Devastation 3.1 build (0/50/21)

Glyphs to use/ LIFE TAP, FELGUARD, IMMOLATE

The purpose of this build is to offer the most to the raid that you can using demonic pact if there is no shaman available. The rotation is EXTREMELY easy. COE or COA depending on make of group, life tap, immolate, corruption. Making sure to use demonic empowerment as much as possible and spamming shadow bolts like crazy. This is a medium to high dps build that offers a LOT to the raid especially if you have other casters with you. Good burst damage not very gear oriented.

By passing up metamorphosis for Devastation we increase our dps out put CONSIDERABLY seeing how Metamorphosis is not very useful for raiding purposes.Make sure to use spell stones for increased haste.

Fel Guard/Emberstorm Raid (0/41/30)
This build takes both Emberstorm and Decimate, with Emberstorm increasing Soul Fire damage by 15% for spectacular synergy. Spare points in Demonic Tactics further improves nuke damage. The beauty of this build is the cycle is VERY easy. Curse of Agony or Curse of Elements, immolate, corruption then spam Incinerate like crazy making sure to pop Demonic empowerment when ever you can. When Decimate becomes available, interleave Incinerates with Soul Fires. The downside is the lack of Demonic Pact given by deeper Demo builds.

Fel Guard/Siphon Life (30/41/0)

This build was originally conceived after switching over to a Demo/Destro and missing the low down time of a full Affliction build. It does not have the highest DPS nor is it intended to. Rather it allows a warlock with mediocre gear to be on par with the rest of the party when it comes to trash mobs unlike a full Affliction build, but does not have the downtime of Destruction. The DOT rotation while grinding is a simple Curse of Agony, Corruption and Shadowflame kept up on 4-5 mobs with Demonic Empowerment triggered whenever possible.
For elites and boss fights just add Immolate to your rotation and use Shadow Bolt as your filler spell until HP drops to below 25%. When this happens, switch over to Drain Soul to take advantage of the 4x multiplier at maximum rank.

If you want to use this as a leveling build it is possible but will not work as intended until level 71 and will just be very annoying until level 57 when you get Improved Life Tap. The glyphs that complement this play style are [Glyph of Curse of Agony], [Glyph of Felguard], and [Glyph of Life Tap]. An alternate verified version of this can be found here

Deep Demonology Raid Buffing (3/53/15)

This build provides high burst damage, high crit chance, and high rate of attack to further boost minion crit chance, which boosts coverage of Demonic Pact. Single target rotation is Metamorphosis + Demonic Empowerment, Life Tap, Shadow Bolt, Curse of Elements, Immolate, Corruption, Shadow Bolt until DoTs need refreshing or cooldowns are up. Multi-target Metamorphosis + Demonic Empowerment, Life Tap, Demon Charge, Immolation Aura, Rain of Fire (and hope your tank has good AoE taunts going). Nemesis means that the Felguard will be buffed with Demonic Empowerment once every 42 seconds (roughly 35% of the time), and that you'll be in Demon Form 36 out of every 126 seconds (28.5% of the time, but front loaded so you should have better coverage with trash). Investigating the benefits of Lightweave Embroidery, which should have high chance of proccing during the flurry of initial casts (does Metamorphosis count as a spell cast? If so, there's 3 spell casts before the first GCD).

Destruction Builds
An interesting thing has happened since 3.0.2 came out. We 'locks are no longer tied to a specific school of magic. While this can be perceived as a boon to our kind due to the endless possibilities, it can also be considered a bit of a hindrance. We've become so much more complex, especially when it comes to the Destruction tree. No longer do I simply sac my Succubus, throw out a CoA and spam SB's until everything around me falls into a pile of steaming flesh. There's more to the Destructo-lock than before. Now that Spell-power is the way of the world, our gear no longer relegates us to being either a "shadow 'lock" or a "fire 'lock".

PvP Destro (0/20/51)
The current most popular build for destruction warlocks (as per data mining done at TalentChic). Common variants are 0/17/54 by moving 3 points from Improved Succubus to Soul Leech, trading off the advantage of fast Seduction for a bit of returned health, and 0/17/54 with 2 additional points moved from Fire and Brimstone to Improved Soul Leech for limited raid buffing and some mana regen.

Fire Raiding Destro (3/13/54 +1)
This build is pure DPS. No raid support or survival talents. Minion of choice is the Imp due to Empowered Imp and is supported by Demonic Power and Improved Imp. You will have the imp on Defensive and will disable auto cast of Phase Shift so he will be buffed as well.


Opening rotation with the expectation of Improved Shadowbolt/Improved Scorch being provided by someone else, as well as Curse of the Elements/Earth and Moon/Ebon Plague:

Life Tap Rank 1 > Curse of Doom > Immolate > Chaos Bolt > Conflagrate > Corruption (if you have 2pceT7 set bonus) > Incinerate filler.


Refresh according to the following priority:
1. Life Tap
2. Immolate
3. Conflagrate
4. Chaos Bolt
5. Curse of Doom (Curse of Agony when under 60 sec remaining).

Fire Raiding Destro w/ support (3/6/59 +3)

This build is a hit on your DPS to support your raid. The spare 3 points could be spent in additional DPS talents or in survival talents. Minion of choice is the Imp due to Empowered Imp and is supported by Demonic Power and Improved Imp. You will have the Imp on Defensive and will disable auto cast of Phase Shift so he will be buffed as well.

Despite Fire and Brimstone, Conflagrate should be done on Cooldown rather than at the least 5 seconds of Immolate due to the Glyph of Conflagrate.

Shadowfury is taken as (very small) assistance on trash for a 3 sec stun in the event of unexpected adds to give the tank and healers that bit of extra time. This talent point can also be moved without much issue.


Opening rotation (as you're expected to handle all buffs you can provide):

Curse of the Elements > Life Tap Rank 1 > Shadow Bolt > Immolate > Chaos Bolt > Conflagrate > Corruption (if you have 2pceT7 set bonus) > Incinerate filler.


Refresh according to the following priority:
1. Life Tap
2. Immolate
3. Conflagrate
4. Chaos Bolt
5. Shadow Bolt

Sustained Fire Destro (3/13/55)

This build sacrifices the Improved Imp talent in exchange for talents that keep your Warlock casting more spells without stopping to replenish your mana by using Life Tap or other mana replenishing abilities which will detract from time spent dealing damage. No talents are given to Shadow spell damage, leaving the Warlock with very few spells to use in combination.

The Opening Rotation expects the Destruction Warlock to assist themselves and the raid by using Curse of the Elements and refreshing it when necessary, followed up with:

Immolate > Incinerate (to be used until 5 seconds are left on Immolate) > Chaos Bolt > Conflagrate

If the Warlock feels it necessary, Life Tap may also be used at the end of every rotation.

Mage Builds

5-mans and Soloing/Farming

0/0/68 +3 Frost 5-mans/Solo build
High damage on trash due to not having to Scorch, high mana-efficiency allowing for chain-pulling on instances/farming, and high survivability through tools such as Deep Freeze and Ice Barrier. AoE is very good thanks to Improved Blizzard triggering Fingers of Frost, which in turn triggers Shatter. Instance boss encounters are short, favoring the high burst Frost can deliver through cooldown stacking of Water Elemental, Icy Veins and damage trinkets.

0/45/18 Fire 70-80 Solo/5-man Build
This build is unconventional as it does not reach the 51 point talent at level 70. As well, it does not have the Improved Blizzard AoE tactics available (though I've found Northrend has few opportunities for it), nor Frost's survivability. What it does have is a combo that brings down just about anything, making single mob fights short and sweet. Open with an FFB(Frostbolt when < 75) and Scorch (or Fireball/FF until in melee range. Frost Nova the monster, step out of melee range, then cast FFB/(Fireball when < 75), chained with a Fireblast. If both crit from Shatter, you will then have an instant Pyroblast provided by Hot Streak. Almost any even level mob will then be dead, with maybe one more Scorch needed for good measure. If you do not get the required two crits, just use Dragon's Breath and FFB/Fireball it down.

0/52/19 Fire AoE'ing build
This tree combines the high damage of Fire with the control of Frost. Flame Throwing is mainly a filler talent, but also helps getting that Flamestrike in from further away, giving you more time to send in a Blizzard. Incineration and Improved Fire Blast are also filler talents, though they do help on the times where you just need to finish of the one that wouldn't die. The rest pretty much speaks for itself, with the frost tree giving you a Improved Blizzard, Frostbite, Shatter combination.

Frost - (18/0/53) Deep Frost & TTW
This build uses DPS cooldowns for maximum benefit, which means as often as possible for boss fights with no "burn periods", but also means saving cooldowns for when the boss is vulnerable and DPS needs to increase. Blizzard has admitted that Frost is currently low on raid DPS, but there are no announced plans to buff frost. However, if raid survivability is a problem while learning an encounter, frost mages are more likely to stay alive, especially when the Ice Barrier talent is taken. Frost is extremely mana efficient, so it pays to get extra magic resistance from Magic Absorption at the cost of one point from Arcane Concentration. The second point in improved blizzard could be put into Ice Floes for a minor DPS increase, but always have one point in improved blizzard, so that Blizzard procs Fingers of Frost. Putting more than one point into Enduring Winter has proven to be harmful to raid replenishment; if this issue is ever fixed, the points from Ice Floes should go into Enduring Winter. Avoid casting fireballs during Fingers of Frost procs, which will potentially add 50% extra crit chance on the instant cast fireball right after two Fingers of Frost frostbolts. Also, try to summon the water elemental just before Heroism/Bloodlust.

Fire - (18/51/0 +2) Fireball & TTW build
Theorycraft has shown this to be the top Fire raiding build. This tree invests into Arcane for Spell Impact and Torment the Weak. Its rotation is considerably interactive, consisting of spamming Fireball at all possible times, using Scorch every 30 seconds to maintain the Improved Scorch debuff if necessary and casting Pyroblast when Hot Streak happens. Molten Armor should be used, and Living Bomb should be kept up on the target. Two points can be put in either Burning Soul or Flame Throwing, or into Arcane Meditation for DPM aid. Combustion's DPS gain is rather negligible since its charges are consumed by Glyph of Living Bomb (which is near-mandatory and the strongest of the three Fire PvE glyphs), so it can be safely skipped if one so wishes.

(0/51/18 +2) Frostfire build
This build is PvE-competitive because of the early Frost DPS talents and the powerful crit modifier it gives to Frostfire Bolt. This build is based on Frostfire Bolt, and is classified as Fire rather than Elementalist for its steep expenditure into the Fire tree, while the Frost investment is puny in comparison, making it in reality a Deep Fire build. The rotation in this tree is exactly like the one in the above Fireball build, except replacing Fireball with Frostfire Bolt and using Living Bomb at all times. Frostfire Bolt is highly mana-efficient and has been shown to compete excellently with the Fireball build above in terms of DPS. Although Frostfire Bolt normally hits for less than Fireball, it crits hit much harder due to the number of modifiers and talents which activate on a critical hit: Burnout, Ice Shards and Ignite, all of which are absolutely mandatory. Note that unlike Fireball/TTW, Combustion is absolutely mandatory because of this.

Arcane
(50/3/11 +7) Arcane/Frost
Only bare essential points are taken in this build, so as to provide the most customizable build possible. Certain talents have no objective effect on DPS, such as Magic Attunement, but are useful in other ways and a good investment of remaining points. Magic Attunement and Arcane Stability protect DPS in less measurable ways, for instance, by reducing spell pushback from certain encounter mechanics, and Arcane Barrage is a useful mobile DPS spell, if not the best stationary damage spell.
With changes in Patch 3.0.8, Arcane has once again become a viable spec for single-target DPS. Talents like Arcane Power make it far more flexible than Frostfire Bolt specs, as DPS can be raised and lowered at the cost of Mana efficiency, dependent on the situation. Your rotations should be Arcane Blast 1, 2 or 3 times, depending on the length of the fight and your MP5 and Arcane Missiles, after the Arcane Blasts, regardless of whether Missile Barrage procs or not. Use Presence of Mind at your own preference. At least 8 points are taken in Frost for Precision, providing a 289 hitcap for Arcane spells. Going deeper in Frost for Icy Veins and into Fire for Incineration increase overall DPS, though points can be spent otherwise to adjust for your own play style.

A good use for Icy Veins is to use it before casting your Evocation spell to avoid it being interupted or shortened by damage. Other uses for Icy Veins may work as well with adding haste to your casting of Arcane Missles and Arcane Blast to increase DPS at your leisure. If mana becomes intensive, the best rotation to save your mana for your Evocation cooldown would be 1 Arcane Blast followed by 1 Arcane Missles constantly. Depending on how much mana and time left on your Evocation or Mana Gem cooldowns during long boss fights, you may add in a few more Arcane Blasts or Arcane Barrages to your rotation. Keep in mind to always time your rotations to your cooldowns so that when you do run out of mana, you will have your Evocation/Mana Gems to use.

[Serverman]

Holy schmokes! You seem to contribute alot
I gotta spread some rep, as usual

[K33NZY]

Ya Im The type of members that will do anything to get
well know and respected.

[Diesel]

Dear K33NZY,

Ripping a guide, giving no credit, and then trying to get money for it from Post4Cash is NOT a good way to earn respect.

Don't do it again,
Diesel

[WoWrevamped_Owner]

Originally Posted by Diesel

Dear K33NZY,

Ripping a guide, giving no credit, and then trying to get money for it from Post4Cash is NOT a good way to earn respect.

Don't do it again,
Diesel

WoW 1 infraction and he gets a 5 day ban, when I know for a FACT there are tons of others here with 5 times more infractions and still no ban.
Sounds like someone has it out for K33NZY.......................sad sad sad

[Serverman]

If you had read our post in the Post4Cash section about the fact that we are not stupid, you would see why he got a ban.
Trying to scam d3scene for money is NOT tolerated.

[Diesel]

WoW 1 infraction and he gets a 5 day ban, when I know for a FACT there are tons of others here with 5 times more infractions and still no ban.
Sounds like someone has it out for K33NZY.......................sad sad sad

1. He has 2 infractions, totaling to 9 points, 10 points = ban.
2. The ban is 4 days, it is a punishment for what he did (like the infractions) not because of the infractions.
3. He tried to scam this website, that is not acceptable, he is lucky it was me that caught him I bet it would be a perm ban with 10 infraction points if it was others.
4. See rule numbers 1 and 2 if you still think we are being harsh .
Edit:
5. I thought it was strange you knew his infractions and ban length, so I searched your IP. Now all of your accounts are banned, K33NZY .

[Serverman]

haha, i had to laugh ^^
You sorta got owned k33nz

[gjaffe]

wow thanks

[toofast]

Thanks a lot!