WoW Classic 39 Twink Warlock Guide

Warlocks fill a very interesting cross section of roles in PvP.  They can sometimes compete with other classes for raw DPS at range, but not any of the classes that fill that role especially, like the Hunter, or Mage.  They also can’t compete with the likes of the Warrior or Rogue in basic DPS.  What they do offer, that none of those classes can, is ranged Area of Effect (AoE) Damage Over Time (DoT).  This is achieved through the use of specific talents and by casting the Corruption spell just about as often as one is able.  With the cunning use of other damaging spells and curses like Curse of Agony, a savvy, properly speced and properly geared Warlock can use Corruption to effectively lay down a blanket of DoTs on an entire enemy battle group.

Warlocks also have access to abilities one might not expect from a class that consorts with Demons, like the Healthstone which is essentially a free potion that any Warlock can create and even distribute to their party members.  They also possess the Soulstone ability, which allows them to give their entire party a method of self resurrection.

Contents

• Races:  Which races can play as Warlocks and which offer the best traits for PvP?
• Professions:  Which Professions are the best for PvP and which recipe’s are the best for Warlocks?
• Spells and Abilities:  What spells and curses are available to a level 39 Warlock and how best can they be employed in PvP?
• Talents:  Which talent builds are the best for a level 39 Twink Warlock?
• Gear:  What is the BiS gear for a level 39 Warlock Twink and how can it be acquired?
• Enchantments:  Which enchantments are the best for Warlocks and which are better for PvP?
• Buffs:  What potions, scrolls, elixirs are available to a Warlock at level 39, and which are the best to use in PvP?

Races

Race is one of the most important choices for any character in WoW, but it’s especially important for players wanting to build a Twink.  Whatever race you select, you are stuck with for good, unless you completely restart the character.  The bad news for Warlocks is that there aren’t very many choices of race.  The good news is…there aren’t very many choices for race!  Each faction only has two choices and only one of each of those choices is the best for PvP.  Those are the ones this guide is going to focus on in this section.

Alliance

• Gnome: The Gnome is the best choice of race for a Warlock from the Alliance, as the traits offered by humans are mostly useless to a Warlock and those offered by gnomes are of extreme use in PvP.  The five percent increase in damage from Expansive Mind is a solid buff, while Engineering Specialization is going to be helpful with gadgets and bombs. Escape Artist, probably the most useful racial trait of gnomes, will allow you to escape the crowd control abilities of the druid, hunter mage and warrior classes. While not as useful as the gnome’s other traits, Arcane Resistance offers good protection and is useful to any class.

Horde

• Undead:  The Forsaken are easily the best choice from the Horde for a Warlock Twink.  The argument can be made for the Orc in PvE, but the traits offered by the Undead are too valuable to ignore.  The two most PvP pertinent racial traits to a warlock are Shadow Resistance and Will of the Forsaken. Extra resistance to any kind of damage, especially spell damage, is great in all forms of PvP and will also give you a leg up on warlocks of other races. While WotF will help allow you to escape from the crowd control abilities of both the Priest and other Warlocks, without having to use your trinket to do so.  Cannibalize is a sort of neat free bandage after you’ve killed someone and Underwater Breathing is useful to any class.
• Orcs:  It’s worth mentioning that while Undead might be a better choice, Orcs do have two advantages that are helpful to Warlocks, especially in PvP.  The first is the obvious advantage from Command, giving your pet that flat 5% increase in damage, but of almost more interest is Hardiness.  While only having a percentage chance to proc, this racial talent is always active and counters the CC effects of both the Warrior and the Rogue, who are both the most difficult classes for Warlock’s to counter.

If you’re interested in learning about the other races that can play as Warlocks, or just other races in general, check out the Races page.  It’s a good resource for both practical and lore information.

Professions

There are a lot of professions to choose from, which can make deciding which ones to go with hard.  Fortunately, one of the coolest professions is also an absolute necessity for a Twink of any class.  Engineering.  There are a plethora of gadgets, devices and bombs that are extremely useful within Battlegrounds and you won’t want to miss out on them.

While Engineering is a necessity, you’re other Profession is also important.  Which ones you’ll be interested in will largely depend on your class.

What follows is a description of each of the Professions that should be of interest to a level 39 Twink Warlock and why.

Engineering

For Twinks of any class, this profession is an absolute must-have.  Along with all of the engineering gadgets and doodads you get before reaching 230 in engineering, there are some seriously fantastic items at this level that are of extreme use in PvP.  Make sure you get all of them.

The Major Recombobulator is especially useful for countering the Crowd Control (CC) effects of Polymorph.  Other items of note are the   Alarm-O-Bot, which can help in detecting Rogues and other Druids and the Dark Iron Bomb, which is the absolute best bomb in early Classic WoW, with the most damage and longest CC duration.  There are also three energy reflectors; Gyrofreeze Ice Reflector, Hyper-Radiant Flame Reflector and Ultra-Flash Shadow Reflector, which all reflect their type of damage for 5 seconds.  This is extremely useful and can quickly turn the tables on any caster in the game.  Finally, there is the Arcane Bomb, which absorbs mana and does half of what is absorbed as damage to anyone in range.

All of these items are incredibly useful in PvP and are the best engineering has to offer at this level.  Not to mention all of the fun fireworks and pet companions you can make.

Enchanting

Enchanting is probably the best choice for players who are not supporting their Twink with another character.  It has few expensive reagents that must be truly gathered, most being products of disenchanting items you are already likely to pick up.  It also offers lucrative selling opportunities with the many materials you will acquire from breaking down all of the Green and Blue items you do not need.  It can also offset the cost of getting your own enchantments some, as higher level enchanters are sometimes on the lookout for lower level materials.

Alchemy

If you are being supplied herbs and reagents by another character, then Alchemy can be an extremely useful Profession to endeavor upon.  The ability to simply create the many potions and elixirs that offer decided advantages in PvP instead of having to go shop for them, almost pays for itself.  Alchemy can also be a great way to make money, especially if the reagents and materials can be acquired cheaply.

Other Professions

Unless you don’t have funding from your Main (not advisable) the gathering professions (Herbalism, Mining, and Skinning), should be completely avoided.  The only other profession worth talking about for a Warlock Twink is Tailoring, and only then to supplement your BiS gear with solid leveling gear until you get it.

Another use for for Alchemy, Leatherworking and Tailoring is to sell the various high level components and transmutes that only these Professions can craft.  Alchemists can transmute metals with recipes like Recipe: Transmute Arcanite, Leatherworkers can craft the Cured Rugged Hide and Tailors can use Pattern: Mooncloth to purify Felcloth.

Secondary Professions

• Cooking:  Cooking has but one benefit to any Twink at any level bracket.  The Well Fed Buff.  The food that offers the highest possible Well Fed bonus at this level is Spider Sausage, the recipe for which can be purchased from virtually any standard Cooking trainer.  Another fun and useful food the cooks can make at this level is Dragonbreath Chili, the recipe for which can be purchased from Helenia Olden (Alliance) or Ogg’marr (Horde) in Duskwallow Marsh.  It can also be purchased from Super-Seller 680 in Desolace.
• First Aid:  The only thing to worry about here is to get your First Aid maxed as high as it will go, so that you can use the Heavy Runecloth Bandage, which can heal you almost completely full with just one bandage.  To do this, you will need the three books Expert First Aid – Under Wraps, Manual: Heavy Silk Bandage and Manual: Mageweave Bandage.  The only trouble is that, because you still can’t get your Secondary Skills up to 300 yet, you’ll have to find someone to craft the bandages for you.  Alternatively, you could simply purchase them off of the AH.
• Fishing:  This skill is not as important at this level bracket, but it’s still a great way to increase your income, especially while you’re bored and waiting around near some water.  Take any opportunity you can to fish, because each time you fish is a chance to catch a rare fish that can earn you some good money.  It’s also not a bad way to get Cooking and Alchemy reagents to increase those skills.

Spells and Abilities

Warlocks at level 39 have some very powerful spells at their disposal, as well as some very powerful allies.  Not only do they possess their obvious abilities to do damage and summon demons to do their bidding, but they also have access to some interesting utilitarian spells as well.  Warlock abilities break down into three groups:  Affliction, which is mostly curses, damage spells and debuffs.  Demonology, which encompasses all of your summoning abilities and enhancing them, along with some other utility and buffs spells, and finally Destruction, which is almost entirely direct damage fire based spells.

What follows is a list of all of the spells and summons available to a Warlock at level 39 that are useful in PvP.

• Affliction
• Demonology
• Destruction

The name of the game with a PvP Warlock is AoE DoT.  Spread out that damage as much as possible, but don’t forget to lay it on as thick as you can.  Spells like Siphon Life are for when things get dicey, or someone gets too close to you.

Talents

As stated above, the main focus of a Warlock Twink, especially in a BG, should be laying down a banket of AoE DPS.  To achieve this, your talent build (along with your gear selection) will want to focus heavily on increasing your Shadow Damage as much as possible.  For this, look no further than the Affliction tree.  Below is a look at the kind of build you’ll want to go for with this spec.

Again, the goal here is to increase your Shadow Spell Damage, so that every time you cast Corruption, or Curse of Agony, you are doing as much damage as you possibly can.

Another school of thought involves reducing the casting time of your spells.  More specifically, you Shadowbolt spell.  This build focuses on reaching the Nightfall and Shadowburn talents, for the related synergy they offer together.

BiS Gear

• Head
  • What: Green Lens (of Shadow Wrath) / Whitemane’s Chapeau / Gnomish Mind Control Cap / Goblin Rocket Helmet
  • Where: Buzzek Bracketswing – Engineering Trainer / High Inquisitor Whitemane, Scarlet Monastery 33% / Gnomish Mind Control Cap – Engineering / Goblin Rocket Helmet – Engineering
• Neck
  • What:  Necklace of Calisea / Triune Amulet
  • Where:  Murderous Blisterpaw, Tanaris 0.0056% / Burgle Eye, Duskwallow Marsh 0.0056%
• Shoulders
  • What:  Lunar Mantle (of Shadow Wrath/of the Eagle)
  • Where:  Razortalon, The Hinterlands 0.641%
• Cloak
  • What: Gossamer Cape (of Shadow Wrath/of the Eagle)
  • Where: Razortalon, The Hinterlands 0.0641%
• Chest
  • What:  Robes of the Lich / Sorcerer Drape (of Shadow Wrath)
  • Where:  Amnennar the Coldbringer, Razorfen Downs 20%/ Snarler, Feralas 1.124%
• Bracers
  • What: Royal Bands (of Shadow Wrath/the Eagle)
  • Where: Razortalon, The Hinterlands 0.641%
• Gloves
  • What: Royal Gloves (of the Eagle) / Black Mageweave Gloves
  • Where: Rumbler, Badlands 0.641%/ Tailoring – Black Mageweave Gloves
• Belt
  • What: Defiler’s Cloth Girdle/Highlander’s Cloth Girdle / Royal Sash (of the Eagle) / Deathmage Sash / Star Belt
  • Where: Sold By – Illiyana Moonblaze/Kelm Hargunth / Rumbler, Badlands 0.641% / Mordresh Fire Eye, Razorfen Downs 33%  / Pattern: Star Belt
• Legs
  • What: Shadoweave Pants / Necromancer Leggings
  • Where: Tailoring – Shadoweave Pants / Prince Raze, Ashenvale 0.005%
• Boots
  • What: Defiler’s Cloth Boots / Highlander’s Cloth Boots / Royal Boots (of Shadow Wrath/the Eagle) / Gnomish Rocket Boots / Goblin Rocket Boots
  • Where: Sold By – Illiyana Moonblaze and Kelm Hargunth / Razortalon, The Hinterlands 0.0641% / Gnomish Rocket Boots – Engineering /Goblin Rocket Boots  – Engineering
• Rings
  • What:  Underworld Band / Advisor’s Ring / Lorekeeper’s Ring
  • Where:  Crushridge Warmonger, Alterac Mountains 0.0013%/ Sold By – Illiyana Moonblaze/Kelm Hargunth
• Trinket One
  • What: Rune of Perfection / Tidal Charm / Nifty Stopwatch
  • Where: Sold By – Illiyana Moonblaze/Kelm Hargunth / Prince Nazjak, Arathi Highlands 45% / Quest – This Is Going to Be Hard
• Trinket Two
  • What: Arena Grand Master / Arena Master/ Mark of the Chosen
  • Where: Quest – Arena Grandmaster / Arena Treasure Chest 100% / Quest – The Pariah’s Instructions
• Main Hand
  • What: Sacrificial Kris (of Shadow Wrath) / Hypnotic Blade
  • Where: Rumbler, Badlands 0.641% / Arcanist Doan, Scarlet Monastery 25% 
• Off-Hand
  • What: Umbral Crystal / Skull of Impending Doom
  • Where: Murderous Blisterpaw, Tanaris 0.0056% / Quest – Forbidden Knowledge
• Two Handed
  • What: Staff of Jordan / Staff of Dar’Orahil
  • Where: Colonel Kurzen, Stranglethorn Vale 0.0013% / Warlock Quest – The Completed Orb of Dar’Orahil
• Wand
  • What: Ember Wand (of Shadow Wrath / the Eagle)
  • Where: Ruul Onestone, Arathi Highlands 1.064%

Enchantments

The enchantments for your gear are almost as important as the gear itself.  Make sure to get all of the best enchantments for each gear slot item that can be enchanted.  If your Main is not an enchanter, then acquiring these enchantments will be expensive, so keep that in mind.  Here are all of the best enchantments for a level 29 Twink Warlock.

• Head:  Lesser Arcanum of Constitution / Arcanum of Focus
• Shoulders:  Power of the Scourge
• Cloak:  Enchant Cloak – Superior Defense / Enchant Cloak – Greater Resistance
• Chest:   Enchant Chest – Greater Stats
• Bracers:  Enchant Bracer – Superior Stamina
• Gloves:  Enchant Gloves – Shadow Power / Rugged Armor Kit(applicable by higher level characters only) -or- Thick Armor Kit (Can use at level 30 and above)
• Legs:  Lesser Arcanum of Constitution / Arcanum of Focus
• Boots:  Enchant Boots – Minor Speed (Have always, unless you have AB boots)/ Enchant Boots – Greater Stamina
• Weapons:  Enchant Weapon – Spell Power

Buffs

There are a plethora of buffs to be had at this level and some of them are incredibly useful.  If you’ve taken Alchemy, you’ll be able to acquire most of these, fairly easily.  Otherwise, you can get them through other players who are Alchemists, or simply from the AH. Some of them are often sold by vendors in a limited quantity as well.

Elixirs

Remember that you can only have one Battle and one Guardian Elixir active at a time.

Battle Elixirs

• Arcane Elixir:  Gives a massive boost in spell damage and finally there is a decent Battle Elixir for casters!

Guardian Elixirs

• Elixir of Greater Intellect: A very good choice if you can get it, as it offers an even higher bonus to Intellect than Arcane Intellect at this level.
• Elixir of Fortitude:  Not a single character in all of WoW has ever complained about having more health.  You shouldn’t either.
• Mighty Troll’s Blood Potion:  This one is great to pop right before a long fight.  It helps mitigate damage to you and let’s your Healer take it a bit easier.
• Elixir of Greater Defense:  More armor is always a good thing, especially in these quantities.
• Gift of Arthas: Hard to come by and somewhat situational with respect to the resistance, but definitely worth the defensive proc.  Being able to disease opponents is very useful in PvP.
• Elixir of Water Walking This one might only be useful when running away from something, but when you can walk on water and your opponents can’t you’ll be glad you bought this.

Potions

• Lesser Stoneshield Potion: One thousand extra armor?  Yes, you can easily find a situation where this is useful.
• Invisibility Potion: Makes you invisible.  What’s not to love?
• Swiftness Potion: No matter what bracket you’re in, no matter what class you play, this potion will never not be useful in some way in PvP and in CTF it is invaluable.
• Restorative Potion: Expensive, but worth the price and extremely utilitarian.  You can just keep this in your back pocket just in case and rest easy, knowing you have an answer for almost every debuff.  Good to hold on to these to use yourself and save your spells for allies.

• Magic Resistance Potion:   If 50 resistance in all schools of magic doesn’t seem like enough to you, you are wrong.  This potion is perfect for when every caster on the field is flinging different colored light at each other.
• Dreamless Sleep Potion:  Makes you vulnerable for awhile but pretty much completely restores your health and mana.  Good to use right after some kind of mass CC has just occurred, like Psychic Scream, or Fear.  Also, good for when everyone else is back to full health and you need to get back to 100%.  Try popping it right after casting Renew or Power Word: Shield.
• Superior Healing Potion:  The healing potion is a staple of adventurers everywhere.  Good for you, or and ally.  Use it in good health.  Heheh.
• Superior Healing Draught:  Not as effective as the above, but plentiful and cheap.  You can only use them in BGs though.

• Greater Mana Potion: An absolute must have for all casters.  Make sure you have at least a couple of these before ever even heading out.

Scrolls

• Scroll of Protection III: Use this when you don’t have an Elixir of Defense.
• Scroll of Intellect III: Use this when you don’t have a Mage who can give you Arcane Intellect.
• Scroll of Spirit III: Use this when you don’t have a Priest who can give you Divine Spirit.
• Scroll of Stamina III: Use this when you don’t have a Priest who can give you Power Word: Fortitude.

Use all of them if you are alone, because they are cheap and why not?

Team Buffs

You are pretty much going to benefit from every class buff.  Power Word: Fortitude  from Priests beefs up your Stamina, which is kind of a necessity in PvP.  Arcane Intellect is also extremely useful, as it increases your Mana pool, so get it from Mages when it’s available.  Mark of the Wild raises all of your stats a little and stacks with most buffs.  Blessing of Kings does kind of the same thing as Mark of the Wild, only a bit better and only for Alliance players.

Other Consumables

• Rumsey Rum Black Label: Being a little tipsy is a small price to pay for an extra 15 Stamina.
• Minor Wizard Oil:  These things are great, because imbues will stack with weapon enchantments. So if you’re a caster, get this on your weapon.
• Dragonbreath Chili: An addition from cooking that gives you a slight edge when you’re surrounded.  Might be fun to combine with Hellfire!
• Spider Sausage: Again, make sure you have some of this sausage before heading out there.  The well fed buff shouldn’t be ignored.

You possess all that you need to create the perfect level 39 Warlock Twink.  The circle is now complete.  When you began this, you were but a learner, now you are the master!  Whether you choose to be a master of evil or not is your decision, but you have to power to do as you will.  So go, take your demonic minions and your curses to the Battlegrounds of Azeroth and let your foes feel the withering touch of your Corruption.  Have fun!