Having issues fighting mobs 5 to 7 levels below me.

Hello people,

I searched and wasn't really able to find anything, also hope this is posted in the right spot.

So i started playing wow a few days ago for the first time ever.
Decided to go with a gnome affliction warlock and am currently level 23.

Since im new i decided the best approach would be to follow a guide, but i quickly found out that most assume your already level 80.
Still determined to follow one i went for http://forum.warmane.com/showthread.php?t=312383 this guide ( hoping its an alright one).

One of the issues im currently having is that i don't kill quick enough, a real rotation isn't there yet since i miss to many skills, so it mainly consist out of keeping corruption up and spamming shadowbolt.
But on mobs 5 to 7 levels below me i can kill at most 2 before i have to rest to regen enough mp/hp.

Personally think i should be looking into some gears since currently the only thing my gear gives is defense (all quest rewards).
I did see the stuff about glyphs but im not familiar yet with any of those systems in the game.

So that's why i am here with my question.
Is there anything in particular i should be looking into (not just for my warlock but also other classes) like enchanting (might be called different here).
Special gear i should buy, or some quest chain to follow that will give me better stuff.
Or are the glyphs something i should be looking into?

Wat is the best approach for a starter account to stay relevant to the mob levels and quests.
Because i must be doing something wrong, or is warlock really this weak.

Affliction warlock is the easiest class to level up.

What you need to do is forget about other end game guides for now. Warlock at level ~30-31 will be like a tank thanks to correctly spent talents and glyph. Right now you should aim for these talents:

http://talentcalc.deffender.eu/warlo...00000000000000

The most important one is Siphon life. It heals you for 40% of the damage done by Corruption so you need to spam corruption all around. At lvl 30 you should also buy glyph of Siphon life which increases the healing by extra 25% (it should be cheap on auction house). The more targets are dotted with corruption the more healing you get and also the more damage you do to many targets simultaneously.
In addition to corruption the only spell you really should use is Drain life. It deals damage and steals hp from target returning to you so it's another dmg/heal spell. Don't cast shadowbolts - only use instant shadowbolts from Nightfall proc talent.
What is more you really should do the voidwalker quest chain (lock's pet). It has skills like taunt to get aggro from you and the shield which absorbs really high damage (increasing with your spell power amount).

So to sum it up - you use your pet to attack and taunt all mobs around, spam corruption on everything that moves and drain life the target that your pet is attacking. If you pull aggro and mobs start attacking you just use pet's shield to absorb all the damage and finish killing mobs.

Later you should focus on getting items with spellpower (increases both damage and healing you get from spells) and talents that increase healing/damage and you will be able to taunt groups of 5-6 mobs 2-3 level higher than you.

Lovely, that's exactly wat i was looking for!

Few questions tho,
I read a lot about affliction warlocks needing hast for quicker dots, tho you mention going for spellpower, is this because spellpower is better then haste, or do you switch to haste later on, or is that just old information?

Also, i searched all over the place where to start the voidwalker quest chain, and 2 things came up, one was getting it from any warlock trainer, but this doen;t seem to be the case, and the other one is from some mage tower but i can't find where that may be.
Could you tell me where this quest starts?

Again, thank you very much this was an amazingly helpful reply!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Zysal

Lovely, that's exactly wat i was looking for!

Few questions tho,
I read a lot about affliction warlocks needing hast for quicker dots, tho you mention going for spellpower, is this because spellpower is better then haste, or do you switch to haste later on, or is that just old information?

Also, i searched all over the place where to start the voidwalker quest chain, and 2 things came up, one was getting it from any warlock trainer, but this doen;t seem to be the case, and the other one is from some mage tower but i can't find where that may be.
Could you tell me where this quest starts?

Again, thank you very much this was an amazingly helpful reply!

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sp>haste always but haste is VERY important also,currently you are leveling so you will not met a lot of haste items most likely, for affliction use spellstone ofc. I think voidwalker quest starts in ironforge from warlock trainer and he sent you to stormwind then but I'm not sure :P good luck.

Some tips for my Aff guy , i was back then a sneaky crown control on bg

- Voidwalker can taunt your mobs so that you could be free for awhile. I think its pretty good on lvling though. Im stupid with Succubus so i go bg with void also. In your dangerous time use Sacrifice on pet skill could make you a shield though.

- dots only - no shadow bolt only if shadow trance is on - exactly what he was saying. You could auto attack by getting a wand on your other hand.

- you have life tap which is important and also soul shard. Keep your shard and your spell on.

- there was a addson called Necrosis which improved me alot of when to use shadow trance.

I am now 38 with my white wp from lvl 15 buying in Undercity :( pretty hard now. But not before :)

This is your first time so its abit hard but nvm keep going on !!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Zysal

Hello people,
Decided to go with a gnome affliction warlock and am currently level 23.

One of the issues im currently having is that i don't kill quick enough, a real rotation isn't there yet since i miss to many skills, so it mainly consist out of keeping corruption up and spamming shadowbolt.

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There are two issues working against you here.

First, no matter what you've read, affliction isn't a good low level grinding spec. There's barely any meat in the 21 points it takes to get Siphon Life, the first serious mana efficency perk. 31 points finally gets you Dark Pact, but its pretty bleak getting there, frankly. Your second issue is Shadowbolt spam, which will rip aggro away from your pet while burning mana. Between these two issues, your downtime must be insane in both hp and mp.

I will always stand by Demonology as the low level grinding spec. It's assembly line murder. In the 21 points it took to get to Siphon life, Demonology gives you a number of survivability/dps perks to both you and your pet. A 3/3 voidwalker can hold chain more aggro than it can possibly survive while you roll dots on everything it touches. 31 points gives you Demonic Knowledge. It's not efficiency per say, but it's a decent increase in killing power. Basically it's Pet attack, torment, dots, next target, torment, dots, next target, torment, dots... for as long as mana holds out. You shouldn't be rolling shadowbolts unless you need dead asap. In fact, invest in a good wand. It's basically another dot without the mana cost. Sure you'll have downtime, but the sheer amount of mobs you can successfully engage simutaneously offsets that.

Now after 31 points if you want to switch to affliction, by all means do so. It's finally competetive at that point. But Demonology holds its own, even at higher levels. If you asked this question pre-tBC back in the days of 30 second soul link I'd probably say f*ck no to Demo. It was almost as bad as priest leveling ;)

My opinion is that Affliction is the best leveling spec.
Voidwalker pet and good wand , 2/2 improved drain soul and you never sit down to drink.
Basicaly you put corruption and Curse of Agony on every mob you see , shield yourself with the Sacrifice and kill whatever tries to kill you.
I use glyph of life tap, because gives you extra spell power.
If you want some mobs to die faster apply immolate to them aswell. Nightfall procs - shadowbolt. Mob below 25% hp? Drain soul untill ded - boom- free mana.

The rotation looks like this:
Life tap - corruption -curse of agony - drain life -drain soul.
Spam dots everywhere, curse the **** out of everybody , and when it comes to world pvp- man, you are beast - jumping around laughing when they die trying to get you.(exept hunters. chase these mothe****es down and shield yourself)
At lvl 40 you get Dark pact and now is impossible to run out of mana.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Panzercat

There are two issues working against you here.

First, no matter what you've read, affliction isn't a good low level grinding spec. There's barely any meat in the 21 points it takes to get Siphon Life, the first serious mana efficency perk. 31 points finally gets you Dark Pact, but its pretty bleak getting there, frankly. Your second issue is Shadowbolt spam, which will rip aggro away from your pet while burning mana. Between these two issues, your downtime must be insane in both hp and mp.

I will always stand by Demonology as the low level grinding spec. It's assembly line murder. In the 21 points it took to get to Siphon life, Demonology gives you a number of survivability/dps perks to both you and your pet. A 3/3 voidwalker can hold chain more aggro than it can possibly survive while you roll dots on everything it touches. 31 points gives you Demonic Knowledge. It's not efficiency per say, but it's a decent increase in killing power. Basically it's Pet attack, torment, dots, next target, torment, dots, next target, torment, dots... for as long as mana holds out. You shouldn't be rolling shadowbolts unless you need dead asap. In fact, invest in a good wand. It's basically another dot without the mana cost. Sure you'll have downtime, but the sheer amount of mobs you can successfully engage simutaneously offsets that.

Now after 31 points if you want to switch to affliction, by all means do so. It's finally competetive at that point. But Demonology holds its own, even at higher levels. If you asked this question pre-tBC back in the days of 30 second soul link I'd probably say f*ck no to Demo. It was almost as bad as priest leveling ;)

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First of all, almost all of the points leading up to siphon life are excellent and highly increase both damage and survivability simultaneously. Your corruption damage equals healing, so Improved Corruption and Empowered Corruption are excellent. Soul Siphon and Fel Concentration are amazing survival talents that allow you to both heal more reliably and do more damage with your drain life. Nightfall, Improved Life Tap, and Suppression are all great supporting talents, giving you many many free shadow bolts with how many corruptions you will be using simultaneously, making sure you constantly have mana, and making sure everything lands. There are no wasted talents getting to Siphon Life.

Second, no leveling affliction warlock should rely on their pet to tank, much less hard cast shadow bolts. Affliction warlocks have absolutely zero downtime between pulling packs of 4-5 mobs at once, easily self-healing through any life taps necessary to maintain full mana.

A major flaw in leveling philosophy is that you need a pet to tank for you. Ignore your pet, put your void walker on passive. Use it only for the shield in emergencies, YOU are the tank, not your pet.

If you're speccing demo to level just so you can have a void walker or felguard tank mobs one-by-one, you are going to level dramatically slower than an affliction warlock who will blaze through 5-6 mobs in the time it takes you to kill 2 or 3.