Hello all, I have currently been doing nothing but pve really with my main here, but lately I have been wanting to get into arenas for some fun there. I have looked high and low for warlock tips really in all arena's (2vs2, 3vs3, and 5vs5) but I could not find any answers to my questions. I actually have quite a few questions, and I would be very greatful if this wonderful community could point me in the right direction of what I should be doing.

First off, since I have been mainly pve this whole time my gear is all from pve. High dmg, +hit, +crit, but very low stam, resil, and finally as you can see if you check my character a very pve oriented spec. I do realise if I want to pvp especially in arenas I will have to respec to some form of demo probably for soul link.

So far I am hit on two fronts really: spec seems easy enough, I just need to respec when I want to pvp, however I have not hashed out a very solid demo pvp spec yet (and no I dont really want to use fel guard, more then likely I will want to use fel hunter I assume) Secondly is my gear. It is horrible for arena teams if I get assist trained I will drop like a rock. Should I tough it out and try to get some season 1 gear? Or should I grind the BG's and get the pvp gear awarded from badges and honor?

As for a whole new problem for me: I am just not really sure what to do to justify my spot in the arena. I can CoT healers, use fel hunter to try and keep the other teams heals down, but that's about it. Through all the stuns, pummels, LoS, and counterspells I can't even really hope to get a few casted spells off. Am I doing something incredibly wrong here? Any tips on what my goals should be in each arena game?

I apologize for all the text, and I also apologize if this was covered in detail elsewhere, as I could not find a post about it. Any help would be greatly appreciated in spec/strats/and what I should do for gear (bg gear first? or go for arena gear? Will soul link be enough?)

Thanks agian in advance.

The two most effective demo specs, imo, are 24/37/0 and 7/43/11. Without a ton of resilience gear, you'll likely be more effective in 2v2 than 5v5. Jump right into the arena now to start accumulating points and take advantage of the various battleground weekends for honor gear.

Thanks guys, I appreciate the responses. I will respec soon and try to get in an arena team, and at the same time I will do BG's to work on gear there.

Stack as much Stamina as you can and prioritize crowd control over pure damage output - with diminishing returns and gem-stacking the way it is right now, you can generally maintain your fear control and harass the warrior's targets with DoT's despite having the opposing teams warrior on your back.

If you find yourself in a situation where you're generally left alone, try to time your fears inbetween heals and potentially deathcoil an offense who could stun/disrupt the burst damage from your other two damage dealers. As a class that can gain so much from purely Stamina, you'll probably find yourself in these situations a lot.

Edit: If you're a visual learner, look up "Natural Nemesis" on Warcraftmovies.com and scroll down to the third movie - eventually it shifts from the warrior's prospective to the warlocks. It will give you a good idea of how to manage your harassments under a heavy soul link spec.

Yeah UA builds can do fine in Arena, I use a 44/6/11 build, and it has the added advantage of doing great in PVE raids and farming too. But, as others have said, you're probably going to be better off starting with demo.

The vast majority of items with sockets are best filled with +12 stam gems, regardless of the socket colors or bonus. This is especially true as a demonology build. A lot of your games will be matches of attrition- run their healer out of mana, then start actually killing people. It's going to be hard to string together enough CC to kill an opponent early in the game with a demonology build, but depending on your team, it could be possible.

Bandages and Star's Tears are a godsend, even for warlocks. A lot of games last a long time, sometimes your best bet is fearing someone, getting out of LOS, and taking a quick drink. You don't want to have to lifetap near the end of a match if it's a close game.

UA Lock & Shadow Priest works really well together but more and more of the top tier teams are starting to stack shadow resist which really kills this team.

Soul-Link is your best bet until you reach about 11,000 health & 250 resilience, then you can consider going soul-link. Spend as much time in BG's as you can and try to get a 5v5 started to maximize the amount of points you are going to get.

Also, clarifying whether you plan on focusing on 2v2/3v3/5v5 and what your partner(s) are going to be will make it easier for us to give more detailed advice as to what specs to try for.

Well I much rather do 5vs5 honestly, but I figured that wiithout all the pvp gear all the other pvp'ers have I would get squashed in a matter of seconds in a 5vs5. But if I can survive in 5vs5 I would much rather do that than 2vs2 or 3vs3.

I also just got done watching the video suggested above and learned a lot from it. The warlock in the video (Tiz) seemed to do great, and had a felguard spec. After looking him up on armory I noticed that he dropped the felguard. Is there any reason for this? Did he just find a better spec or has the felguard gotten considerably weaker?

What it will come down to more than likely is two respecs a week at least for me. Seeing as I am destro (21/40 shadow destro) for raids, there is just no way IMO to make that a viable pvp spec in arena. I will try and get some BG's goin and get some of that stam and resil up. :P

Once agian I am very thankful for all the help, if there is anything I am making unclear please let me know and I will try to elaborate further.

Well I have done 3vs3 a few times, but those went absolutley horrible. Our team set up was bad enough to begin with (Me, rogue, priest) We did fine agianst certain groups, but it seemed in my battlegroup 80% of the teams were a paladin and two warriors. I got smoked needless to say. I figured I would like 5vs5 more, as I have always enjoyed bigger battles rather than smaller battles, or even 1vs1.

I must admit after seeing Tiz in that video I have been giving serious thought to trying out felguard spec for pvp, but I am not sure what his exact spec was for that. I assume 5 into affliction at least for instant corr, and at least 41 into demo of course, just not sure where he went after that.

Tiz was 6/44/11. He got instant corruption 5/5 1/2 improved lifetap, the obvious talents in demo, and 11 in destro for shadowburn.

I'd still give 2v2 & 3v3 another shot with good partners and better gear, you may end up liking it. Just a recommendation.

I'll take that advice for sure. Hard part will be finding a team that will take me since I have nothing from BG's or season 1 yet. I can at least get started on getting some BG items, time to crank up that stam!!

Yeah that is exactly what I was trying to do, but the problems we ran into with the two warriors one paladin teams was that I would die within the first 5 seconds. The two warriors would just rip me to shreds. But then agian when I tried 3vs3 I was still pve spec, and yet agian no stam or resil.

I am definitly going to keep on it and try 2vs2, 3vs3, and 5vs5. Practice does help a lot, and I will try to get working on my pvp set. I Have also thrown this build together based on the above posts, feel free to tell me if it would do fine or if I am an idiot in some point placement: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=NV0oZbxczIizzestxx0z