Authors note on the Compendium itself
Finding, compiling, formatting and reposting all this information is a LOT of work.
I'm personally thankful for any comments, useful additions and stupid questions - keeping track of it all is very time consuming.
The purpose of this compendium is not to discuss raiding specs, best in slot gear or raid encounters - it is to give Warlocks a good look at Cataclysms changes to their class, suggested levelling and gearing routes and other eventually missed information.
For quite a few readers a lot of this compendiums content will be familiar, but to the majority this will be quite interesting and informative.

As unfinished as this may seem at any point, it all starts with one or two stones and once I have parts out of my head, I can write on others.

Instances
In order to queue into instances with the Dungeon Finder, you need to have 2 requirements fulfilled:
a) Discovered the dungeon entrance
b) Adequate average item level
You can always jump into the dungeon manually, avoiding b).
Following the list of required ilvl per dungeon(Patch 13117) as well as the ilvl of items that drop in them

Instance name	ilvl required	ilvl drops
Blackrock Caverns	xxx	279
Throne of the Tides	xxx	279
The Stonecore	272	316
Vortex Pinnacle	272	316
Grim Batol	305	333
Halls of Origination	305	333
Lost City of the Tol'Vir	305	333
Heroic Instances	329	346

Dungeon entrances
Cataclysm Beta - 5-man Roundup and Navigation Guide
Special notice: By all means get a sea horse before trying to swim down to The Throne of the Tides.

Factions
One of the more interesting questions is, which factions does one come across and which should one prioritize to do heroics with first with a tabard of choice. Revered items are all 346 rare, exalted items are all 359 epic.

Dragonmaw Clan / Wildhammer Clan
The Dragonmaw Clan is native to Twilight Highlands(so doable at 84+). You will get reputation throughout the zone with them and will get friendly after the first small quest series.
Their Quartermaster is, contrary to popular believe, not located in Dragonmaw port, but in Bloodgulch(center of map).
The Alliance equivalent of him is residing in Thundermar.
Potential interests:
[Bone Fever Gloves]
[Band of Lamentation]
[Yellow Smoke Pendant]

The Guardians of Hyjal
The keepers of Hyjal are your friends throughout the zone, takes no more than a handful quests to get friendly with them.Their Quartermaster is located inside the very first building at Nordrassil.
Potential interests:
[Arcanum of Hyjal]

The Earthen Ring
The Earthen Ring, introduced way back as keepers of nature, are now native to Vashj'ir, Deepholme and Twilight Highlands. Their Quartermaster resides at the Silver Tide Hollow in Vashj'ir.
Potential interests:
[Mercury-Coated Hood]
[Helm of Temperance]
[Cloak of Ancient Wisdom]
[Flamebloom Gloves]

Therazane
Therazane can only be found in Deepholme. At the end of the Deepholme questlines you are left with <to be checked> honored of Therazane, while being hated with them before that. Additional rep can also be gained with daily quests.
Their Quartermaster resides at Therazanes Throne.
Potential interests:
[Lesser Inscription of Charged Lodestone]
[Greater Inscription of Charged Lodestone]
[Diamant's Ring of Temperance]

Ramkahen
Ramkahen is the faction you'll get in touch with during Uldum. After the inital quests(granted you take 1000 rep over 200gold) you will almost be friendly with them.
Their Quartermaster resides in Ramkahen itself.
Potential interests:
[Robes of Orsis]
[Desert Walker Sandals]

Tol Barad Factions
[Insidious Staff]
[Stump of Time]

Profession crafts
Several early raiding items can be crafted again.
Full list of WoWhead
[Breeches of Mended Nightmares] / [Flame-Ascended Pantaloons]
[Dreamless Belt]
[Dungeoneering Guide]
[Elementium Spellblade]
[Darkmoon Card: Volcano]

Quest rewards worth noting
[Overly Intelligent Robes]
[Sandals of the Courier]
[True Archaeologist's Bracers]
[Very Manly Staff]

Gems
sp00n opened a highly interesting topic in the Public Discussion regarding gems and changes.
You might want to check out his detailed gem conversion overview.

Blizz stated lately(granted I ever find that particular blue post of GC again I'll link it) that socket bonuses will be better in Cata.

Archaeology
Archaeology has only a few nice BoA items you can get, and besides chances of getting them being totally random, do not underestimate the time needed to level it. As long as it is unconfirmed whether there is a Archaeology level requirement on actually getting these rares I will go with the assumption that it's just random.
Staff of Sorcerer-Thane Thaurissan
Ring of the Boy Emperor
undecided
Tyrande's Favorite Doll

The staff and the trinket are fairly "easy" with being dwarf and night elf, you get those commonly and can farm them without much "overhead" in other fragments.
The ring however is Tol'vir. As of right now on Wowheads data there are 6 rare Tol'vir items and it is a huge pain to gather those fragments.

If you are a collector going for all and have spare time, which is unlikely in the early cata days, have a shot at it.
But if you are planning on trying your luck - rather keep your hands off Archaeology till you have a decent amount of gear and time off.

Video Box
Please bear in mind that videos reflect the knowledge at a given time and information given might have changed from that point already.
Optecs detailed Cataclysm Warlock changes guide - Date 6th October 2010 - Patch 13117
Part 1
Part 2
Contains pretty much everything that has been changed up to this point.

And the more detailed guide Optec did for TotalHalibut:
Destruction
Demonology
Affliction
Random things and questions

#note Points to write about:
Items crafted by professions

Good start.

Will you be including anything about warlock gameplay in this? Rotations/specs/etc?

Also, information about the soul shard system change might be helpful.

Is currently not the case @ beta build 13117, not that it matters all that much but felt like saying it.

5.0 Compendium test

Let me start with a word of my own:
Something done right by a few people, or a single person, can save a whole lot of people time and headaches.

As much as I enjoy the thought and process of getting knowledge out of my head and down on paper to provide others with it, I do not enjoy writing hand-holding guides for the masses(even if I sometimes drift towards it).
While I get that 99% of EJs readers come here to understand the basics of the class and a bare minority comes here to maximize their own(and others) performance in the process, I still stand by the believe that writing long winded essays, quoting tool-tips or stating base knowledge will, in general, not help anyone to actually enjoy playing the class nor motivate him to spend some time figuring out things for himself.
Some would call writing guides selfless, I myself call my own reasons for doing so mostly selfish(though the result once again is for the community). I do these posts to also get feedback on things I haven't seen through or things I got wrong while compiling stuff, a result that helps me and others in the long run.

Compendium
This thread is intended to provide general information on warlocks for the start of the MoP expansion.
Intentions

• Provide up to date information on talents / glyphs
• Provide compiled information on talent combination / boss
• Provide a list of easily obtainable starter gear once level 90

Not planned

• Listing or writing out each and every ability that has changed in MoP -> You can read them yourself.
• Providing detailed rotation information for each spec -> See class specific threads and Simcraft
• Proving lists of enchants you should get -> Unless certain circumstances apply, that would completely change the general idea

Talents
As everyone knows by now, MoP overhauled the talent system as a whole.
As per date of writing this(29.07.2012), the 6 tiers of warlock talents only have 1 tier that generally affects your DPS(Leaving Archimonde's Vengeance aside) which is the 5th tier of Grimoires. All other talents are basically down to personal preference(!) and adjustment to each specific encounter.
I do not want to "suggest" a general spec because of prior stated reasons, I would just like to use this section to point out at which encounter which talent does work better than others or, as the general consensus would be, is a necessity for being at the top of your game on the encounter.

Suggested Grimoires per spec as per simcraft including respective pets:
Date of change: 29.07.2012

Affliction	Demonology	Destruction
Supremacy	Service	Service
Observer	Felguard	Observer

Suggested Glyphs

Spec	Date	Glyphs
Affliction
Demonology
Destruction

Talents per encounter
At this point(pre MoP) I would think that with 99% chance each and every spec will use the same talents for one particular encounter, but I'll leave it open for MoP to surprise me on this.
This section intends to point out some easy to go with choices, if need by, for specific heroic encounters.

Heart of Fear	Affliction	Demonology	Destruction	Comment
Imperial Vizier Zor'lok
Blade Lord Ta'ya
Garalon
Wind Lord Mel'jarak
Amber-Shaper Un'sok
Grand Empress Shek'zeer

Mogu'shan Vaults	Affliction	Demonology	Destruction	Comment
The Stone Guard
Feng the Accursed
Gara'jal the Spiritbinder
The Spirit Kings
Elegon
Will of the Emperor

Terrace of Endless Spring	Affliction	Demonology	Destruction	Comment
Protectors of the Endless
Sha of Anger
Salyis's Warband
Tsulong
Lei Shi
Sha of Fear

Stat priorities


Thresholds and caps
The hit cap for level 93 bosses has moved down to 15% which equals ...... rating


Gems
One of the major changes of this expansion is the shifting in gem stats.
The best quote on this matter comes from Ghostcrawler himself:

Now, what impact does this have on gemming?
Meta gem:
....
....
....

Racials
In order of DPS increase(and possibly values)
Orc
Troll
Gnome
Goblin
Undead
Worgen
Human
Dwarf
Blood Elf
Draenei
Tauren
Night Elf


Items
This time around LFR will provide a way to get some starter gear early on(with a tad of luck) but, granted you're investing some more time, quite a bit of gear can be earned from different factions early on. Seeing that Darkmoon Faire starts on the 7th of October, I've also included the caster trinket in the list.
Profiler - Wowhead

Now currently information on where these Quartermasters are is a bit scarce, so here's the breadcrumbs:



Crafts
.....

Trinkets
The first tier provides you with the following trinkets, in their respective versions.
Essence of Terror - Item - World of Warcraft
Light of the Cosmos - Item - World of Warcraft
Jade Magistrate Figurine - Item - World of Warcraft

Also for reference the other 2 more easily obtainable trinkets for the start(leaving aside the horrendous Darkmoon prices at the start )
Blossom of Pure Snow - Item - World of Warcraft
Relic of Yu'lon - Item - World of Warcraft


Boss specific infos

Heart of Fear

Imperial Vizier Zor'lok

Blade Lord Ta'ya

Garalon

Wind Lord Mel'jarak

Amber-Shaper Un'sok

Grand Empress Shek'zeer

Mogu'shan Vaults

The Stone Guard

Feng the Accursed

Gara'jal the Spiritbinder

The Spirit Kings

Elegon

Will of the Emperor

Terrace of Endless Spring

Protectors of the Endless

Sha of Anger

Salyis's Warband

Tsulong

Lei Shi

Sha of Fear

The Video Section
Making videos on beta content is ungrateful for most, because you simply end up never being accurate in the ever changing flow of the beta updates.
Sparkuggz of Method found himself a few(more like a whole lot) of hours to record and voice several as well as record most PTR fights.
As a matter of courtesy: Please note that this is PTR footage and is ALWAYS suspect to change. I'm pointing this out because that's just how it is and I wouldn't want to discredit the effort put into each of these movies, just to see Blizzard completely change stuff around days later. Use these to get a feel and impression of the class, don't use them as facts.
Raiding as Destruction
Raiding as Demonology
Raiding as Affliction




Base

You can also get group buffs from Archaeology items

Stonecore - Dwarf Rune Stone - 5% physical damage reduction
Lost City - -5% crit

Haven't confirmed if this buff is perm or needs to be applied each time you enter.

Creating Perfect green gems is back in cata as well.

You said dungeons won't give much faction rep - Does this means that the reputation-tabards won't give us rep until we're in heroics?

You no longer need to discover the dungeon entrance. It was supposed to go live in 4.0.1, but they decided against it, though Wailing Caverns is currently bugged on live realms and will not let you queue unless you've discovered it.

My first suggestions (most of them have to be proven soon):

My experience with shadowburn on the beta shows thats it could be worth to use it in a standard rotation with a very high priority, right after conflagrate. Its crits lied somewhat around 35-40k last couple of raids, whilst my incinerates only crit for about 28-31k. There may be a point where at high haste and especially mastery rating most of the actual common destruction casts will surpase it, but I'm not sure about it.

Do you mean stacking burning embers up on max on your primary and your bane of havoc target as well by speaking of "imp twist"? If so, I guess its haste-related a lot but may squeeze out some extra dps. Didn't tested it yet.

I don't know if it was already mentioned in Warlocomotifs Thread already, but I stood under the impression that the infernal is quite inferior to the doomguard when it comes to single target and the other way round in a multitarget fight. In case the doomguard does what it should do. Of course if you want to rank - the doomguard does not show up in the logs, the infernal does instead.

If shadowburn is worth a GCD even above a filler (see above) and you manage to switch targets without damage loss it should be used to replenish Soulshards whenever possible.

Yes, 5% crit should way outweigh a single missing incinerate in my opinion. If the Numbers SimC 4.0 pointed out are reliable, Crit should have a very high performance in the first tier of raiding anyway.

Hello,

my experience in the beta and I'll try to make tests as soon as I'll be able to login again.
Does Shadowburn have a use in a warlocks DPS rotation? Yes it should be usable, in raid tests I had crit for an average 23k and 10k not crit.

When using BoH(Bane of Havoc) with a steady secondary target, should we also dot this target with Immolate/Corruption? Never tried it, I'll take a look but it'll force to manage other timers and on raid bosses I tried, I spent my time moving and trying to not take aoe damage.

In which cases should I use Felguard and in which would an Infernal be better? I use doomguard on single target boss and infernal on multi-target ...meaning almost never.

If no class in my group/raid provides the 5% spellcrit debuff, should a Destro warlock shoot a SB every 30 seconds? Definitively yes.

Does Searing Pain have any use in a warlocks DPS rotation? No math to prove it, but the mana cost is important (12%).

Hope it helps.

So I am sitting here looking a bit into how much hit we will need for leveling.
I am not aware of what the highest lvl mob you meet while you are leveling, but I dont think its totally out of the way saying 2 levels higher, so lvl 86 in while were are in lvl 84. That means you will need 6% hit.
The combat rating for this level is 78,0128. For 6% that is 468,1308. Lets say 469
Does this seem about right or has anyone met a mob higher than 2 levels higher than themselves?

It seems to be enough to have an adequate avg Ilvl including any items in your inventory.
So in case you dont want to break a set/loose some special item while leveling just keep random blues in your bags and ilvl should be no problem.