by Zach Yonzon

A new, exciting build of the Cataclysm beta has been released, implementing the promised overhaul to the talent trees. It’s still raw at this point, but we get a glimpse of the direction the developers want to take. The basic or starter abilities have been defined and although some of these may change, such as Divine Storm for retribution paladins (Ghostcrawler, lead systems designer, mentioned that it would probably go back into the talent tree), the changes feel solid and refreshing. One of the ideas the developers have is that “both the 31-point and the 10(-point) ability need to have more single-target use,” which means we should get very good one-on-one abilities early on as well as at higher levels. The trees are a long way off from being done, but that shouldn’t stop us from taking a look at them and picturing the possibilities.

One of the cooler, less noticeable things to come out of this build are the one-liner descriptions about each of the talent specs, allowing players to quickly grasp the concept of each spec. Blizzard seems committed to keeping this model, complete with talent tree lock-outs to prevent players from straying into other trees early on. As you might have suspected, the real culprit (or at least the most notable one) behind this change is PvP

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by Eli Khoury

Specializations

The new talent system outlined by Zarhym about a week ago (ingeniously pre-empting the giant, messy nerdgasm that would have otherwise erupted on patch day — you’re welcome for that visual) introduced 31-point trees and the concept of specialization.

When you reach level 10 or reset your talent point selections through a class trainer, you will be asked to choose a specialty, that is, a talent tree that will define your playstyle. You make your selection simply by selecting your primary tree from a menu similar to the image below and then spending your first talent point. You will then be required to spend another 30 points within it (31 points total at level 70) before the other two talent trees become available to you. That sounds extremely limiting and linear, I know, but I don’t think it will be nearly as bad as it seems, because this change also comes with some very interesting perks.

Upon choosing your specialty, you will receive a powerful, role-defining primary ability and passive bonus(es) associated with your tree of choice, on the spot, and ready to use immediately. These are not your average spells, either; the primary abilities are the 41-point talents that fueled our deviousness in The Burning Crusade expansion. If your main is not a warlock and you are slow to recall details from the near-distant past, here’s a quick summary of what the dark masters of DoTs, demons and direct damage can expect from in the patch, for now:

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by Dominic Hobbs

Unlike your normal gear items, trinkets offer a little more interaction. Whether they are proc-based and trigger themselves in response to things you do, or on-use and need to be activated, or even just charge themselves up to give a steady buff they normally need some degree of user attention. This makes them something of a personal choice item. There are certainly those that are bad, better or brilliant but choice and playstyle often impacts trinket selection.

Below I’ve listed out fifteen trinkets that can take a warlock from freshly dinging 80 to the best the game has to offer. They are in a rough DPS benefit order, though that will depend on your other gear, spec and preference to some degree. So lets see what shinies await us.

Dislodged Foreign Object

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by Dominic Hobbs

Before Wrath of the Lich King, one of the biggest DPS-boosting buffs around was Blessing of Salvation. This buff made you less interesting to mobs and essentially allowed you to do up to 30 percent more damage. It didn’t help you do the damage, but it stopped you being so limited by the threat generated by the tank. Warlocks who didn’t have a paladin to grant this buff were wise to be very cautious with their Shadow Bolts of massive critability.

These days, the tanks innately generate more threat. As such, the fear of having your damage capped by their threat generation abilities is much reduced. However, it is still possible to be threat-capped and if this happens, then anything that reduces your threat is suddenly your best ally. At level 66, you can learn Soulshatter, an unassuming little ability that sits quietly in your spell book until you really need it.

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by Tyler Caraway

Haste, unlike other mechanics within the game, is a rather flat system. Haste is universal. There isn’t a long list of exceptions, as you find with spellpower; every spell’s cast time is changed by haste in the exact same way. Although boring, there is something beautiful in the simplicity of haste. The stat is so clean, the rules so set, that it is actually easy to predict.

For how simple the mechanic is theoretically, it is far more convoluted in practice. Haste is an odd stat in that it is the only DPS stat people stack that doesn’t directly increase the damage potential of their spells. A hasted Fireball will do exactly the same amount of damage as an unhasted Fireball; it will merely do it faster. For this reason, haste is something of a fickle mistress. Haste is beautiful in that is holds no RNG variables in theory. 1% haste is always 1% haste; a spell’s cast time will always be changed by the exact same amount without fail.

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by Dominic Hobbs

Selecting professions for your characters often comes down to a choice of utility; if you have several toons, you may want to make some gather and others be the crafters. If you only have the one character at 80, there is a greater desire to be self-sufficient. Professions are also one of those things that many people feel are a part of their character and help define them almost as much as their class.

If you’re uncertain which professions your warlock should take up then this is the place for you, as Blood Pact takes a look at all 14 and considers which are of the most use to the ‘lock on the go.

First off, did I just say 14 professions? Yes, not only are there the 11 primary professions, but don’t forget the secondary ones as well. I’m a big fan of the secondary professions; being able to fish and cook your own food can be a real money-saver. If you’re a raider, then it’s always wise to have a stack of buff food in your bags, even if you typically can expect a Fish Feast before every boss. It may seem boring to spend time fishing, but even just the few minutes while you wait for an invitation can stock you up nicely. First aid is of limited utility to your max level ‘lock, but there have been times it has proved invaluable. That said, it’s a huge boost to the speed of grinding at lower levels as you can tap your mana up and then bandage the difference.

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by Dominic Hobbs

I recently turned my attention back to one of my ‘locks that I had pretty much stopped playing after Trial of the (Grand) Crusader. This means that his gear isn’t bad by any means but that there are quite a few upgrades I can get for him without even having to get him raiding again. Pretty much all of these items come from spending Emblems of Frost.

Emblems of Frost can be collected a number of ways, the easiest being the random heroic. Completing a random Lich King heroic dungeon (using the dungeon finder tool — /LFD) for the first time each day will earn you two Emblems of Frost, so that’s 14 each week. Do note that the random element of this tool is the dungeon; feel free to form your own party before using it. You can also do the weekly raid quest for another 5 emblems. Toravon the Ice Watcher is holding a couple more for you, so if you can kill him on 10- and 25-man modes, then you can bag another four from him. To collect any more in a week you need to raid Icecrown Citadel, where if you clear it and do the ICC quest, you can get up to 60 more. After the break, we’ll see what we can spend them on.

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by Dominic Hobbs

Spellstone or Firestone?

You say you are playing in the demonology spec at the moment, and as it happens, applying your weapon buff is more important to demo locks than the other specs. In raiding trim (a good baseline), the stone will account for about a 4% DPS increase for demo locks but only half that for affliction or destruction. The rule of thumb is to use a Spellstone unless you are destruction. That said, at lower gear levels the difference for destro is marginal.

Given the two mechanics of each type of stone, it’s interesting to see which part is of the most benefit. We’re in an unusual time with high-end raiding, as all three specs are very viable; as such, we can draw comparisons between all three. For destruction, both the crit and the direct damage boost offer about the same DPS benefit. Affliction gets a bigger boost from the haste component of the Spellstone, whereas demonology gains significantly from the periodic damage boost (far more than the haste).

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by Dominic Hobbs

What I aim to do here is to once again look at the encounter through the filter of our spell book, to see how we can get that little bit more from the fight.

Phase 1

There are two abilities you need to stay aware of in phase one. The most obvious is Necrotic Plague. This is a disease that will one-shot you after five seconds if not cleansed. The trick to managing it is to have it removed from you while you are standing by one of the adds. This makes it jump to them and eventually kill them. So as soon as you are inflicted, you need to run behind the adds. Don’t run amongst them or in front; they can easily one-shot you with Shockwave. You only need an add to be closer to you than another player.

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