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.

- Start farming battlegrounds. If you're serious about PVP, you should be spending as much time here as possible. The new honor rewards are fantastic.

- Your spec is pretty much determined by your group makeup. But with 0 Resilience or very little, I would strongly recommend a SL build.

- Start reading this section of the forums. Read all of it, even if the threads don't relate to your class. The more you know about OTHER classes, the better you'll get at reacting instead of panicing.

Those are my 3 pieces of advice for you, starting out.

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.

I am currently in the process of writing up a mini guide on gear and spec for those who are playing "catchup" (aka missed out on Season 1 or are new to Arena in general), I'll post it here when I'm done (should be finished by weekend).

As far as Warlocking goes, there's one other spec that is very dependant on your class makeup, if you have a Shadow Priest you could go 41/x/x for Unstable Affliction which synergizes with all the debuffs your SPriest can spam along. Note, this build has no Soul Link or Demonic Resilience, and you already admitted that you have 0 Resilience, so maybe it's not such a good idea at this point.. but keep it in mind when you do start gearing up.

As for your "PVE" gear, resocket it up to make it more "PVP" until you can outright replace pieces that have Resilience.

Solid Star of Elune = 12 STA, don't leave home without it.
Glowing Nightseye = 5 Spell/6 STA, nice hybrid.

Those 2 gems are Lock's best friend.

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.

Tiz has been respeccing alot lately I've noticed, I'm sure now that S1 is over and ratings are irrelevant he's just expirementing.

In 5v5, you'll get focus fired alot unless you have something squishier in your group. I've got 12,300 health and 440 resilience and often times I find myself dead in the first 15 seconds of the match if they can CC my healers.

This is just my personal opinion but as a Warlock we really shine in 2v2/3v3 therefore I find them more fun because it's easier for us to dominate those brackets. I prefer playing 5v5 with my friend's Paladin. Have you given 2v2 & 3v3 a chance or are you just assuming you'll like 5v5 more? Just curious.

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.

Lock Rogue Priest is a very solid lineup. Always have your Rogue lock down opposing dispellers (offensive dispellers first like Priest or Shaman) to increase the longevity of your own Priest's PW Shields (which then in turn denies their Warrior's Rage). Juggle some Fears and COT on support, depending on whether or not they are focusing on you will determine how much DPS you can add to. Wait for a ripe opportunity (such as after they blow an essential cooldown) and you and the Rogue should assist someone down.

Don't worry too much about what top Locks do in videos, etc. it's going to be very important at this stage of the game to gear up (Resilience) and lay the foundation for teamwork with your partners.

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

I can try to help give you a strategy against two warrior & paladin groups, but what is your group composition.

Your talent tree is EXACTLY how it should be, nice job.

You will become more resistant to insta-gibs as you gear up. At the beginning, it's just going to happen unfortunately. One of the reasons why many above have recommended SL to begin with.
I've seen some locks pull the VW sac, then summon another pet right before the match starts trick. It can make opponents more wary about attacking you first. Sometimes. If you do that though be sure to put your 2 garbage buffs on, otherwise it could be pre-emptively purged/dispelled/etc.
I PvP'd as 7/43/11 for a very long time and your variation is actually probably better than the one I was using, so no problems there. I considered trying a 22/31/0 +8 spec for a while there because Felhunter is typically far more useful than Felguard in an arena situation, unless the opposing team has no casters whatsoever. Not that Felguard is bad. I love the guy. He just doesn't keep casters locked down as well as I'd like, also easily banishable by any opposing 'Lock with half a brain.
I eventually went for a full affliction spec instead. However my gear is able to support such a spec currently. You will probably want to hold off.

Well, I do not have an arena team anymore at the moment, so I can't give you a group compisition. I am mainly looking for just simple things I can do to improve my game. I am well aware that it really all comes down to teamplay, my group set up vs thiers. However I will go back to the biggest problem I had before. My team at the time (a very short time) was Me, a rogue, and a holy priest. We were just kind of goofing around since we were all pve from raiding ect. We did fair agianst some teams, but we just got decimated by a paladin and two warrior teams.

Needless to say the two warriors would just charge me and start ripping me to shreads. I would try to use as many instant casts as I could because there was no way I was getting a spell off with 2 pummels staring me in the face. it did little to no good really seeing as how I just hit the floor in a matter of seconds since the priest could not outheal that damage + MS. The rogue tried various tactics, but all of which failed horribly.

I know that is not a good example to go off of since we were not serious about it at all. And that's fine really since I am just wondering what I should do really. For example, should my main priority be to keep CoT on the healers and try and fear to interupt casts and just dot the DPS whenever I can? Should my main focus to be to dot up everything as much as possible first to add damage and keep their dispelers busy? How much should I rely on LoS? in videos I notice almost all ranged classes hiding behind pillars constantly LoS'ing out of peoples abilities. What do I do when I get two warriors or a warrior and rogue on me? Just stand there still casting dots hoping the heals hit me in time? What target should I sic my pet on first? Assuming I have fel guard should I have him help assist train down someone or should I svae intercepts and help keep healers occupied?

All of these may sound like noob questions, but I do find myself in "What do I do now?" situations where I am spending a second thinking about what I should do instead of just doing it instantly.

Hmm, that is a very interesting build. Seems like it would give me more survivability with drain life, and more DPS through emp corruption at the same time. In the end I would lose out on 3% crit for me and my pet, and ISB and faster SB's, but I dont imagine I would use SB a lot in arenas anwyay. Hmm....something to think about for sure!

Hmm, I'm trying to understand sacrifcing an extra 4 yards on your fear (amazing for CC'ing healers) over 50 more damage/tick (average) on a fully dispellable dot. Given our main role in arenas is CC, I can't see the logic.

Searing pain is a better nuke then Shadowbolt with FG build 20/41/0 or 6/44/11.

So, I'll start with a bit about myself:

I ran a 2v2 team all season, shadowpriest/lock. I ran a 3v3 team near the end shadowpriest/lock/druid.

I run a UA spec (it's been changing a lot lately, it's currently: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=Ai0riRfkqtbobxZxx0z), and here are the general strategies:

For my 2s team:
Against 2 dps teams, dot everything, kite and live, it comes down a lot to you and your partner being individually good, lots of BGs is a good thing for practice.

Against healer/dps teams either dot up the dpser and then dot the healer and go for an interupt, or just burn the healer (depending on what class the healer is)

For the 3s team it's even simpler:
Pick a target that can't become immune to dots(warriors are perfect). Apply 10 dots, druid interupts the heal, burn the initial target. Win.

Both these team set up have gotten me withing at least the top 15 in both 2v2 and 3v3 bracket, they work.

The nerf to cyclone doesn't really hurt the strategy, since once the heal is interupted it's generally all over.

In my experience it all comes down to a few simple playstyles based on class:

As an affliction lock: try to sneak on a UA whenever you have an opportunity, then load them up with dots. Keep moving, blow your trinket and AoE fear if you get too much heat on you. Honestly against average players in BGs you can take on 2 players at a time or 3 or 4 in a row once you get good at keeping moving and staying out of range/LoS as much as possible, dots are king.

As a Demo lock it's really a survivability thing. Going with affliction as a secondary tree is a great idea to improve your drains, increasing your life span. Doing damage to other people is secondary, do it whenever you can, but the big thing you need to be doing is fearing and draining as often as possible. Good playstyle takes you from hard to kill to impossible.

Honestly, I would take a spec you like (keeping affliction is a decent idea) and work on getting good in a one vs many pvp environment. Do some battle grounds and kill the hunter with a rogue stealthed beside him, kill the pally warrior going for the flag. It will seem impossible at first, but most of the BGs (WSG is the best) have great walls/doorways to LoS around. Getting good at knowing your location, moving, and dotting people up while keeping safe will help you regardless of spec or team makeup. If you have 2 or 3 people who know how to BG and have a decent class makeup you will go far in arenas.

Even a PvE affliction spec can do very well in the 2s and 3s brackets, and getting better in BGs will net you a ton of good gear for battlegrounds.

These are all very good ideas, I appreciate it very much!! I am currently working on a 5vs5 team with a few of my guildy friends so I can get some good practice in BG's and in arena at the same time. I think I will be going for demo spec because my biggest dowfall currently is survivability. So far we have Arms warrior, Feral druid, Me (soon to be affliction/demo I am thinking) and will probably be getting a holy pally and a ele shaman or something of the sort.

Instead starting a new thread Isurvivabilt have a semi related question, I mostly pve and I'm working way through ssc. My gear for pvp include all of the new honor gear along with battlecast set and the unyeilding set. I do the weekend BG and thats about it. I would love to start arena as Blizzard decided to make the spellblade op. In arena I have 3 problems.

> First one is staying alive. I spec soul link and sac voidwalker, but I seem to still be getting hit and die, just takes longer. I play a frost mage sometimes and survive much better as I am not getting hit constantly. I use death coil and such, but feral druids, warriors, and rogues still seem to get to me and get back to work pretty fast. When I am soft spec with CoR i can keep feral druids and warriors kited, but I don't have soul link.

> Second is fearing. All I hear is cried for how OP it is, but after death coil even if I have instant howl of terror it seems the trinket or will of the forsaken or a totem nukes it. Advice on how to better use my fears would help alot surving and the ability to focus fire.

> Lastly, I would love to know to to counter warriors, rogues, and feral druids. I get my death coil up and try to fear, but I eaither get stun locked pretty hard or they are immune. These three classes give me more trouble then I think they should so advice is welcome.


Thanks alot guys in advance