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The Warlock in World of Warcraft has had a long history of buffs and nerfs, going from powerful to weak and back again. So much so that it often seems that the Warlock is the class that Blizzard loves to hate.

A Warlock is basically a Mage gone bad, straying from the art of the arcane and delving into more demonic sources of power. The World of Warcraft Warlock is a pet class, using dark abilities to summon demons from the depths of some long-forgotten abyss. Unfortunately, for the beginning Warlock, that will mean a lot of traveling around during the early levels as you strive to complete the quests that your trainers require before teaching you the respective summoning rites.

You can obtain your Imp as early as level 2, your Voidwalker at level 10, Succubus at 20, and finally your Felhunter at 30. The ever-popular Felguard can only be obtained with talent points in Demonology, the Doomguard is most often summoned when your Curse of Doom kills a Non-Player Character but there is a quest you can do to learn a summoning ability that will randomly kill one of the summoners (you are not excluded from the lottery of death), and the Infernal can also be learned by completing a quest.

Each pet has its uses, strengths, and inherent weaknesses. A truly skilled Warlock learns these traits and uses the correct pet for right occasion. Likewise, each of the three Specializations that a Warlock can choose (Affliction, Demonology, and Destruction) are all geared around dealing damage, each in its own way. Which one you choose will greatly depend on the type of play style you enjoy and what your group needs you to bring to the table. Do you want to cast damage over time spells on several targets while running to safety, leaving a trail of death in your wake? Do you wish to have more survivability and stronger demon companions? Or are you the wicked, fallen Mage who takes pleasure in reigning chaos and fire upon your foes?

There are certain benefits when it comes to leveling a Warlock, like trainable class-specific mounts at levels 20 and 61. Also, grinding for a Warlock includes far less downtime than for a Mage, none at all if you are a skilled player. This can make for an extremely fast level grinding experience, slaying multiple enemies at a time and ending epic battle chains with full health and mana.

Another benefit of the Warlock class is that it currently scales much easier at level 80 than the Mage class. Where a Warlock can spec right into the optimal damage talent selection, a Mage must switch specs as gear improves - in essence relearning cast sequences for optimal damage output until they finally reach the gear level that will allow them to effectively spec into their highest DPS talent selection.

As of this writing, however, Blizzard has announced that changes are on the horizon for the Warlock class. In the next expansion, which will increase the level cap to 85, the Shard system (a thorn in the side for Warlocks since Closed Beta) will be getting a massive overhaul to be reflective of the Rune system for Death Knights. Will these changes be good for Warlocks? Only time will tell.

Learn more about this author, Brady Frost.
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