Blood Pact: Meet the minions, part 1
We're not hunters. We don't wander about shopping for a pet that catches our eye, like some fashion accessory. We reach through into the nether and wrest demons into this world, binding them to our will. We maintain our bond to this demonic denizen of the shadow, summoning them to our side at need. They are not pets, some companion for the terminally lonely and friendless, they are minions. They are our servants and slaves, powerful beings controlled through dominion, not feeble minded animals cooing for snacks.
This week I will start a review of our minions -- what they can do for us and how best we can use them. My aim is for this to be of use to anyone new to the class and these minions as well as more experienced players looking for tips and tricks. After the break we start right off with our pocket-mage.
The imp is the first demon you learn to summon. It's possible to get this little guy from level one, but until it's a trainable skill in patch 3.3, the quest may well require a few levels to be manageable (more about this in last week's Blood Pact). The Imp is kinda like a little mage, but don't worry, you won't have to read any of Mr Belt's articles to learn to control him. Here's a list of his abilities:
- Firebolt - This is your imp's only attack, a little ball of fire that does damage from range. Your imp will know this from level 1.
- Blood Pact - This is a buff that your imp can apply to you and your group increasing everyone's stamina. You'll have this from level 4.
- Phase Shift - The tricky imp casts this and makes himself unattackable to enemies, though it dissipates if he attacks. He'll start doing this at level 12.
- Fire Shield - A buff for friendly targets that does a little fire damage to anyone that hits them. The last of his spells, available from level 14.
When you first start out, your imp is both your tank and your fellow DPS. As soon as you learn to summon the little guy, cast that spell and find out what he's called. This name (as for all your minions) is not chosen by you, can't be changed by you, and will be the same every time you summon them. So hope for something that you like, or at least something you can pronounce. Controversially, I quite like this naming system. There have been many forum threads devoted to people asking for the ability to name their own demons but you only have to read some of them (and probably some of the comments on this article) to find out how bad an idea that would be. People are generally terrible at naming things, and demons should not be afflicted with a name like "MrFluffykins" or "RogueKillerXXX", they have a reputation to maintain. That said; I almost spilled my drink when I first saw a felguard called Thuthan (say it with a lisp).
On summoning the little-green-monster-with-too-many-hard-consonants-in-his-name you may have noticed a new addition to your user interface -- the "pet bar". This little bar is made up of ten button slots for all your pet's controls.
Three will be dedicated to directly controlling your minions. In the example above, these are the first three icons -- they make your pet attack, follow you around or stand in one place. The last three in that image are your demon's stances; the first icon of a shouty-guy on fire is Aggressive, which means your minion will attack the first enemy target it sees and keep attacking until all targets are dead or he is. The second image, a shield, is for Defensive stance; your demon will calmly follow you about but if you attack anything or anything attacks you then they will attack them. The last one of an "ikkle babby seal" is Passive; your demon will blithely ignore anything that happens around them no matter what.
The other slots on the pet bar are for the demon's abilities, these can be set to either be automatically cast or not. If not, they have solid yellow triangles in the corners of the icon and this ability will not be used unless you say so (by clicking it, for example). If set to auto-cast then a golden marching-ant border will let you know it's active and the pet will cast the spell whenever it can. Since the imp's Firebolt takes him time to cast it you might want to start combat by telling him to cast it first. If you don't then he won't start his cast until you finish yours. It is prudent to become familiar with your pet bar but as with most abilities, it's better to key-bind those you will use rather than click them from the bar.
When leveling, the imp doesn't often get that much of a look-in beyond the first ten levels. Personally I liked having him about but many people prefer to use a tanking pet (Voidwalker or Felguard) for PvE and in PvP the Sucubus and Felhunter offer more use. The two big advantages to using the imp is that it costs no shards to summon him and he can attack from range. Where he does come in very handy is when you already have a player to do the tanking. So if you are leveling with a meat-shield or going into an instance you might want to bring this little fella along with you. Your party will also thank you for the Blood Pact buff. Remember to keep your pet out of the aggressive stance in PvE though, especially in an instance.
For solo work the imp is a good companion of the affliction lock. If you set your imp to not cast Firebolt and turn on Phase Shift then you end up with an arrogant little snotball who can be used as a mana-battery. He can't die, he buffs your health and he constantly regenerates mana that you can steal for yourself with Dark Pact. You do need to be level 40 for that ability but it certainly can reduce down-time when farming and grinding; should you choose to use it.
When you start doing level 80 dungeons and raids then your choice of pet is far more dictated by what talents you choose. I went through the most popular raiding builds in the article about glyphs, while these are liable to change as spell mechanics alter, it seems that Blizzard are keen for deep destruction warlocks to be accompanied by an imp. Spells like Demonic Power and Empowered Imp really bring out the best in the belligerent trip-hazard.
In a raid situation your imp is pretty much a simple point-and-shoot weapon. I would suggest having a keybind for Pet Attack as mentioned before as well as one for Pet Follow -- this can be handy to stop them going after the wrong target (for whatever reason they decide to) and also for moving them out of sh... stuff on the ground. In a stationary fight with player-targeted AoE damage (such as Northrend Beasts phase one) it's a good idea to tell your imp to stand somewhere others (including yourself) are not. This way he won't get toasted when whoever they are stood next to has a fire bomb thrown at them. All minions have Avoidance but they can still get fried if left in fire for too long.
Dark Pact is simply not worth using in a raid situation these days (or any situation where you have a load of healing available). Life tap returns more mana and doesn't deplete the mana of your pet. Don't bother having Fire Shield switched on, I can't remember if it uses an imp's GCD but it will use it's mana and offers next to no gain.
One final imp raiding tip from me (feel free to add your own) -- your imp can make tricky boss pulls easier. Most of the time this won't be needed but he's able to move away from the raid, shoot from range and is fairly expendable which makes him ideal in some circumstances. I've used the imp to pull on Auriaya and back in Black temple we used him on Council. Remember to call him back as soon as he casts the first Firebolt and wait for the boss (hopefully a tank will step in). This is a very situational use of an imp but by Balgaras' beard, it's the way imps are supposed to be (ab)used!
Blood Pact is a weekly column detailing DoTs, demons, and all the dastardly deeds done by Warlocks. If you're curious about what's new with Locks since the last patch, check out the Patch 3.2 Warlock Guide or find out what's upcoming in Cataclysm from the BlizzCon 2009: Class Discussion Panel.
Filed under: Warlock, Analysis / Opinion, How-tos, Leveling, Guides, (Warlock) Blood Pact
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 4)
Jehanne Nov 3rd 2009 12:12AM
My imp's name is Nokuri. I rp him as a greedy old man who collects kobold skulls and steals gold and silver knickknacks from local nobility. I love him.
paragorillabear Nov 3rd 2009 1:37AM
I myself got Voltuk for my imp and Charon for my VW, so i'm quite happy with those.
One of my guildies always calls her Imp her little sparkplug, so I thought Voltuk fit an imp quite nicely.
But, many of my guildies first referred to my Imp as "Joe C" from the late partner of Kid Rock and the nickname stuck, even to the point of my VW becoming "Big Joe"
Kittens Nov 3rd 2009 5:18AM
Ahhhh the pet not following when you jump down... so frustrating, when will they fix it?!
As for names, I'm also for keeping the random names (but maybe with a reset option like others here mentioned!)
I'm quite happy with some of the names I got.. Pizrot for my imp (piss rot, seems to fit him) and Jhazmon for my voidwalker.. the big blue guy who likes jazz, awesome! One of my Succies is called Viltai, sounds nice and.. Russian? The other is called Helna, like Helga and from hell, or something. I always like the moment when you start casting them for the first time, anxious what their names will be!
I once saw someone with a vw named Phantast, made my day :)
Darky Nov 3rd 2009 9:00PM
Yeah back when i was new at wow i was leveling my priest and my lock buddy was running me and my hunter friend through that instance in ashenvale (my memory is shot) well anyways we all jumped over a cliff and the void walker jumped half way then went down almost instantly about 20 feet agroing about 20 mobs on the way, good times.
kia Nov 3rd 2009 9:23AM
My boyfriend has a Voltip. I have Zilgup. Being destro, Zilgup is my lock's BFF. I'm glad I don't mind his name. My felpuppy is "Sloofun" and while I enjoy using the pet when appropriate his name is offputting to me.
Minos Nov 3rd 2009 10:55AM
The best imp name I've ever heard was "Nublok"
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=101922942&postId=37728684801&sid=1
Noscy Nov 2nd 2009 8:35PM
"We reach through into the nether and wrest demons into this world, binding them to our will."
Have you silly locks not heard of the Wilfred Fizzlebang incident?
Although Belt does like to see a good lock splattering of their own making.
Lemming Nov 2nd 2009 8:45PM
re: naming demons.
I 100% agree with not being able to do it ourselves, for one important reason..
They are sentinent beings. They have names because you do. Hunter pets are just animals.
That said, I think the naming convention is pretty bad. Especially for the Felhunter and Felguard.
Rubitard Nov 3rd 2009 8:27AM
There's also some ancient wisdom that states one can control anything if one knows it's "true name." The fact that a lock can summon and control a bound, sentient force from another dimension would seem, then, to indicate he's figured out this thing's name. Sure, everyone can see that name, but who knows how all those letters actually get pronounced, besides the lock controlling it? So, good luck with trying to get my demon under your control, Mr. "I'm pretty sure the "Th" sound is the one I use."
Oteo Nov 2nd 2009 9:08PM
/hovers over Mr Belt link
......
/grabs popcorn
sephirah Nov 3rd 2009 10:19AM
We need more mage hate!
But probably the warlock community is too superior to care about our inferior cousins...
Brouck Nov 2nd 2009 9:19PM
I started leveling a Lock about a month or so ago.. I don't get much play time but damn is she fun to play. I have found my Main and DK to both be ignored almost entirely this past month, even during my most favorite holiday, Hallow's End. Your articles just help keep my lock love going! Great job
Rai Nov 2nd 2009 9:47PM
Got my lock to 80 last night after two months of leaving it at level 78 as a disenchanting slave, fell in love with the class all over again.
The best voidwalker name I ever had (on a previous 'lock) had to be Grimvhug. Strikes fear into the hearts of men. Well, maybe.
alpha5099 Nov 2nd 2009 9:53PM
I'm looking forward to the rest of this series. After you're last column, I decided I wanted to play a warlock. I could've dusted off my Gnome warlock bank alt, but I decided to go with a Belf, because I've never played through their starting area. I'm not a fan of the Belfs, but I am liking this character. Currently just starting in Ghostlands at 14.
I'd definitely like to hear more about the minions. I'm using my Voidwalker right now, and I'm liking him quite a bit, but I think I'll probably be switching to the Felhunter once I can. I realize he's more of a PvP pet, but given the buffs he's getting in 3.3 he sounds like he'd work quite well for leveling Affliction.
I obviously haven't had as much time to deal with the shame of a silly minion name (hell, I couldn't even tell you what the names of the imps and voidwalkers associated with my Belf or Gnome warlocks are), but one way that could work is simply being able to go to a Warlock trainer and having some functional where you cut your ties with your current demon and summon a new one. "I tire of Thuthan, we cannot work together, I wish to barter for a new partner." Have some cost or cooldown associated with it, but let people have some options on what the random name generator gives them.
oowxam Nov 3rd 2009 11:18PM
Imp - Karbis. Actually wasn't too bad...
VW - Zhar'kresh - Not bad either.
Felhunter - Gzaatom - No comment
Succubus - Zahora - LOL.
I prefer the Voidwalker the most, since when I leveled, it was usually by myself. With the VW, I was able to kill elites that normally took 3 folks by meself, and always had sacrifice as a backup. On the downside, it took a few minutes, as the mob would get bored of the VW, and I usually ended up spamming Curse of Exhaustion and corruption while running like hell.
poggg Nov 2nd 2009 10:00PM
*TF2 'Meet the' ending music*
First thing that popped into my head when I saw the title.
joeredous Nov 4th 2009 7:16PM
"terminally lonely and friendless"
Oh snap!
Hellwraith Nov 2nd 2009 10:19PM
Yeah, I remember when I got my little fellah, Gobyal, I thought I was the uber-world destroyer; it was such an experience. And even though I changed him while I leveled, either for soloing (VW) or PvP (succy), I just loved the little guy's comments so much, I kept summoning him to hear him biatch about everything, even if people at raids or at BG's told me not to. Now that I'm 80, and specced Destro, he's always next to me.
jnk796 Nov 2nd 2009 10:21PM
I have never played a warlock, but i can agree with you on one thing. Locks should not be able to name their minions. They are just as you put them, slaves to the lock. They shouldn't be given normal names, they arn't there to be your friends. I'm a hunter and we tame pets. They don't come with names, so we name them. We dont force them to do our will, we tame them and make them our companions. It's a different situation.
Though if I ever tame a beast that already has a name (i.e. Loque'nahak, or any rare spawn) I will keep that name. I wont take a powerful beast like loque'nahak and degrade him to walk around with the name fluffy (ironically loque just sits locked in my stable since neither of my specs are BM anymore).
I think hunter pets are nameable because a hunter and it's pet are companions and being able to name them emulates that sort of bond. A minion isn't there to be your friend.
TL;DR - I'm a Hunter who agrees minions shouldn't be renameable
azuri Nov 2nd 2009 11:34PM
I approve of above post. Honestly though, the relationship between a hunter to pet and warlock to minion are two completely scenarios. I play a hunter as a main, though I recently just started a lock. For a hunter, the term "pet" doesn't capture what the true relation is between hunter and beast. Companion, guardian (hell in my case partner in crime) better suits it I guess. The talent spirit bond also captures this quite nicely. A hunter tames a beast and then works to keep em happy. Once upon a time, pet would get pissed and would eventually leave your behind too if you didn't. By contrast, a lock minion doesn't need the upkeep because they are slaves, no real gain to keep em happy if you can just crack the whip. Also, it's hard enough seeing some of the hunter pets float around. Though some are creative, others I have to wonder what they were smoking and where to get me some of that ****. To be fair though, I have seen some minion's with odd names. Just got my VW other day, held my breath and out popped.....Hukjuk. Really?