Blood Pact: Mistakes other people make
Blood Pact is your weekly warlock digest brought to you by Dominic Hobbs. "So this is hell. I'd never have believed it. You remember all we were told about the torture-chambers, the fire and brimstone, the "burning marl." Old wives' tales! There's no need for red-hot pokers. Hell is--other people" ~ Jean-Paul Sartre
While I try not to read Arcane Brilliance if I can help it, I did notice that the one on January 16th had a lot of comments and an intriguing title. While I didn't expect Mr. Pants to actually start flaming mages I did hold out some hope for all those comments. Anyway, the piece inspired me to write a similar article. Not so much because there are a lot of warlocks that need improvement but rather they need a place to point others, so they may learn how to play with a lock.
So here's a short list of things I see in groups and raids that could be improved and make the whole experience a lot smoother.
Resource management
As locks we are masters of managing our health and mana. While we have limited ability to fill up the green one, this should be no issue when we have a healer around. The problem is that so often the healer doesn't realize that his healing you after Life Tap is a direct link to his being able to get his gear (...emblems or whatever). You are there to kill the stuff for him, he is there to let you do that faster and with less dying. It gets so bad that sometimes we have to actually ask the healer to heal us! This sorry state of affairs has gone on so long that there are even locks that extol the virtues of self healing abilities and Dark Pact simply because they make it easier on the healer.
Healers, please listen. We locks want to kill all the nasty things between you and the goal, be they bosses, trash or that creepy looking spider that startled you earlier on. We will happily do this and never shirk on the dealing of the damage. Please remember us in your healing and think about how we want to use the health bar for our mana. We get through mana so much faster than you (seriously locks, if you have never played a healer you wouldn't believe how long they can go without drinking and they have no Life tap at all!), and while you regenerate it passively all the time we have to tap. Throw us a HoT after every pull and we'll just tap for the duration, or be ready to throw a heal before each pull as we tap between fights.
After all that though, there are some things that us locks can do to make things easier on our more healing-shy healers.
Pet inclusion
Pets are part of the team. Pretty much every pet or minion has some synergy with their master and as such the better one performs, the better both perform. When a minion or pet dies a significant portion of what that character has invested in, has been removed from the fight. Healers, for the love of God, have pets on your healing bars and show them a modicum of care. I'm not suggesting that any pet gets heals in favour of a player (well, maybe a mage) and especially the tank, but to disregard them completely is crazy. Minions these days are pretty damn hard to kill (probably because Blizz knows they are important and can't persuade healers to care) but that doesn't mean they are invulnerable. On the other hand, they are very easy to heal, with all that mitigation something as simple as a disc bubble lasts them for ages and a small heal will normally fill up any health bar.
And buffs. Dear lord how many times have I entered an instance after a wipe and every buffing class rattles through their buffs while I summon my minion. Yes it is good to get back into the fight faster but you wouldn't give the mage a lower rank spell than everyone else just because it saved you a few seconds, would you? That's what you do to pet classes by not buffing their pets. Demonology locks make great use of minion buffs with talents like Demonic Knowledge. So to all buffing classes, don't forget the pets.
Again, there are things we locks can do to help here:
Target selection
Ok, this is a tough one for the PUGs that many of us are doing these days but it is one of the easiest ways to reduce the "WTF factor". Let the tank mark up, if that means he has to become the group leader then so be it. Tanks, mark the target you want us to make dead first. Tanks will often bemoan the difficulty of AoE tanking and blame the AoEing DPS for pulling aggro. This is all very well if you want the DPS to focus one target but if you don't tell them this, then you'll likely get the DPS doing whatever delivers the most damage per second, that's what they are there for. Slap a skull on any mob and most DPS will be itching to see how fast they can kill it, affording you a little time to throw in some AoE moves on the rest. Threat generation in Wrath is crazy and while AoE threat-gen may feel weak in comparison these abilities are tuned to be effective enough for burst damage classes to wail on even with every buff n the game.
What can we locks do to help here?
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 WoW.com's guide to patch 3.3 or find out what's upcoming in Cataclysm from the BlizzCon 2009: Class Discussion Panel.
While I try not to read Arcane Brilliance if I can help it, I did notice that the one on January 16th had a lot of comments and an intriguing title. While I didn't expect Mr. Pants to actually start flaming mages I did hold out some hope for all those comments. Anyway, the piece inspired me to write a similar article. Not so much because there are a lot of warlocks that need improvement but rather they need a place to point others, so they may learn how to play with a lock.
So here's a short list of things I see in groups and raids that could be improved and make the whole experience a lot smoother.
Resource management
As locks we are masters of managing our health and mana. While we have limited ability to fill up the green one, this should be no issue when we have a healer around. The problem is that so often the healer doesn't realize that his healing you after Life Tap is a direct link to his being able to get his gear (...emblems or whatever). You are there to kill the stuff for him, he is there to let you do that faster and with less dying. It gets so bad that sometimes we have to actually ask the healer to heal us! This sorry state of affairs has gone on so long that there are even locks that extol the virtues of self healing abilities and Dark Pact simply because they make it easier on the healer.
Healers, please listen. We locks want to kill all the nasty things between you and the goal, be they bosses, trash or that creepy looking spider that startled you earlier on. We will happily do this and never shirk on the dealing of the damage. Please remember us in your healing and think about how we want to use the health bar for our mana. We get through mana so much faster than you (seriously locks, if you have never played a healer you wouldn't believe how long they can go without drinking and they have no Life tap at all!), and while you regenerate it passively all the time we have to tap. Throw us a HoT after every pull and we'll just tap for the duration, or be ready to throw a heal before each pull as we tap between fights.
After all that though, there are some things that us locks can do to make things easier on our more healing-shy healers.
- On long fights (bosses) tap little and often, this plays well with GaLT anyway but also means that you will probably either heal yourself up or pick up incidental heals from the likes of PoM, CoH, CH etc.
- Don't tap away half your life just before the next trash pull. Make sure you have what you need but if you go into the fight with a big deficit then you not only distract the healer from the tank (which may be nasty) but also force that healer into a big(ish) heal at a time when the tank may not have much threat on all the mobs (especially any ranged mobs).
- If you just want to proc GoLT then use a rank one Life Tap.
- Make sure you can see HoTs when they are on you, if you notice one then you can consider using it to top up your mana as well as your health.
- If you use addons such as PitBull you can set this to show any heals incoming. If it is going to have some overhealing to it then you might want to get a quick Life Tap in before it lands. The healer is only going to be frustrated by the lock that taps just after they topped them off.
Pet inclusion
Pets are part of the team. Pretty much every pet or minion has some synergy with their master and as such the better one performs, the better both perform. When a minion or pet dies a significant portion of what that character has invested in, has been removed from the fight. Healers, for the love of God, have pets on your healing bars and show them a modicum of care. I'm not suggesting that any pet gets heals in favour of a player (well, maybe a mage) and especially the tank, but to disregard them completely is crazy. Minions these days are pretty damn hard to kill (probably because Blizz knows they are important and can't persuade healers to care) but that doesn't mean they are invulnerable. On the other hand, they are very easy to heal, with all that mitigation something as simple as a disc bubble lasts them for ages and a small heal will normally fill up any health bar.
And buffs. Dear lord how many times have I entered an instance after a wipe and every buffing class rattles through their buffs while I summon my minion. Yes it is good to get back into the fight faster but you wouldn't give the mage a lower rank spell than everyone else just because it saved you a few seconds, would you? That's what you do to pet classes by not buffing their pets. Demonology locks make great use of minion buffs with talents like Demonic Knowledge. So to all buffing classes, don't forget the pets.
Again, there are things we locks can do to help here:
- If you have the chance to summon your pet before you get to the place where buffs are cast then do so. Even the most fastidious pet-buffer can easily forget how many pets there should be before he can start. No good in TotC, but most other places you can summon as soon as you step through the instance portal then move on for buffs.
- Tell your imp to stand away from you (and anyone else) if the fight includes targeted AoE attacks (such as Northrend Beasts and Professor Putricide) so they don't end up standing in nasty stuff for ages. Just not so far from healers that they can't reach them.
- Switch off Phase Shift. Seriously, it was standard form in TBC to have your imp act as a portable and immune mana-battery but these days he is (or should be) actively taking a part in combat. Having Phase Shift on auto-cast is just a waste of his mana and means he is safe when he is out of combat and is completely impervious to getting buffs. Switch it off.
Target selection
Ok, this is a tough one for the PUGs that many of us are doing these days but it is one of the easiest ways to reduce the "WTF factor". Let the tank mark up, if that means he has to become the group leader then so be it. Tanks, mark the target you want us to make dead first. Tanks will often bemoan the difficulty of AoE tanking and blame the AoEing DPS for pulling aggro. This is all very well if you want the DPS to focus one target but if you don't tell them this, then you'll likely get the DPS doing whatever delivers the most damage per second, that's what they are there for. Slap a skull on any mob and most DPS will be itching to see how fast they can kill it, affording you a little time to throw in some AoE moves on the rest. Threat generation in Wrath is crazy and while AoE threat-gen may feel weak in comparison these abilities are tuned to be effective enough for burst damage classes to wail on even with every buff n the game.
What can we locks do to help here?
- If the leader marks something to die then kill it first. The tank should be generating their threat hard and fast on that target so go for it. If you are asked to nuke skull then don't AoE simply because there are more than two mobs within 20 yards of each other.
- Get a feel for your tank's abilities. While it's the tank's fault if they're about as threatening as a sock puppet it's still the DPSers fault if they pull aggro. Use a threat meter and watch it. If you are constantly well behind the tank then you know you can open up with every can of whoop-ass in the larder.
- Know how to ramp up damage. This might be by starting with slow DoTs (CoA for example) or even waiting a little while. If your tank needs time to generate threat then give it to them; it's frustrating but better than paying repair costs.
- Be aware of threat ranges. In the Blood Pact about voidwalkers we talked about threat mechanics; remember that you can have more threat before taking aggro if you stay at range.
- Know when you have aggro. It may sound silly but many people don't even know if they pull aggro. Addons like PitBull again make this very easy with the banzai module but there are many, many ways to know and this is something not to be ignorant of.
- Run towards the tank. If you do get aggro, then running from the fight and leading the mob away from your tank like some Benny Hill sketch will probably result in the mob chasing you till he catches you and kills you. if you run towards the tank then they have a better chance of getting it off you.
- Shatter. I know it uses a shard and has a cooldown but don't be that guy that never uses his cooldowns in case one day he needs them. If you rise high on threat then dump it if you want to carry on blasting. If you get aggro then get rid of it.
- Don't always just assist the tank. This is kinda opposed to what Pants said but he made the assumption that the tank was not swapping targets much or at all. It is true that what the tank is looking at as he starts the fight is probably what he wants dead first, this isn't sure enough to work with. Having the focus frame and seeing their target is good but a decent tank will be tabbing away and making sure none of the mobs he is controlling runs off and splats their healer (yes, they care more about the healer than you). Get used to knowing which mob is next to die (assuming you aren't AoEing) and work on that. Often it's better to reduce the enemies number one at a time than keeping them all alive until the end, even if that makes the fight shorter. A mob on half health hurts just as much as one on full health (normally).
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 WoW.com's guide to patch 3.3 or find out what's upcoming in Cataclysm from the BlizzCon 2009: Class Discussion Panel.
Filed under: Warlock, Raiding, (Warlock) Blood Pact
Reader Comments (Page 5 of 8)
Reuben Jan 25th 2010 5:26PM
I life tap frequently, and also conservatively. I'll pop it not to regain all of my mana, but just enough to get me by. Doing this has allowed me to keep a reasonable amount of both health and mana between boss fights.
thebl4ckd0g Jan 25th 2010 5:30PM
When I'm on my tank all I ask is that the Warlocks soulshatter when they pull aggro. If you don't have enough shards (until they change this in Cataclysm) - please farm them before you queue up, or at least farm them on the first few pulls of the 5 man. You can get at least 2 if you time it right on each mob (I'm only speaking from experience on my warlock whom I tend to get at least 2 shards if I"m lucky per drain soul).
Timus Jan 25th 2010 7:17PM
i guess most of the people that responded to this article are dealing with or are Destro locks. Being an Affliction lock i rarely need heals as i get enough self heals from Haunt and Siphon Life to keep me topped off even with life taps.
Let it be known that i only tap after pulls or right after i cast Haunt a second time so i get the heal from Haunt after my tap. This has worked vary well for me.
As for the aggro issue i have a huge problem with any tank other than pallys. as i spam Seed of Corruption on different targets, if there is no aoe then one will set itself off and how ever many other i have put up after that one was applied. So i get this huge aoe blast of 5-8k damage about 2-4 times in less than a second. when this happens i aggro a few mobs and the tank doesn't pick them up cause im not the healer and i die. so most the time im reduced to putting my DoTs on all the mobs in the pull and suffer from slow dps as the other people in the instance rag on me for low dps. until the boss anyways.
Sorcefire Jan 26th 2010 1:13PM
^This
I think the core issues with LT is that there are a lot of destruction locks out there pretending they are mages and LT away so they can spam more AOE. I've seen it far too many times than I care to remember and each time it's because some spam-happy warlock insists on LT down to 10% health right before a pull.
Affliction locks rarely worry about heals after LT (if we even need that if we are using DS to execute) and demonology locks tend to let their pet do the work whilst they spam Incinerate. Just seems that Destro is the noobtastic spec of choice right now.
Hrothgar Jan 25th 2010 6:06PM
I have an 80 Disc Priest, 80 Mage, 80 DK, 80 Hunter and recently began leveling a lock. The lock is at 65.
I hate healing locks and that is why i started one. I wanted to see for myself WTH is wrong with locks that the process of eating and drinking that my mage, hunter and DK go through doesn't seem to work for them. So far, I see life tap as a great way of maintaining uptime while leveling but it sucks in groups. Gee, it's just like how I play all of my other toons differently while solo.
Locks have a cool process for getting life back. Why don't you use it in groups? Oh, I know, it hurts DPS. Kinda like hunters going into Aspect of Viper reduces damage by 40%. Or mages have to evoke, or shadow priests have to... bah, you should be getting the picture by now. Sit your ass down and eat/drink and quit yer bitching.
Now, as to the question of pets. Because I have a hunter, I know that the pet represents between 15% and 40% of the hunter's overall dps depending on how they are specced. I guess asking a hunter to play without healing his pet is exactly like asking you dumb ass healers to play without equipping your weapons/off hand items. Does the huntard that won't cast mend pet and refuses to put his pet on passive if it's getting it's ass kicked deserve to be put in his place? You bet. But by refusing to even consider healing pets for any pet class is stupid. They are members of your group. They are not frills that hunters, locks, DK's and now frost mages drag around because they look cool.
Bottom line for all pet classes... Don't be lazy, watch your pet you moron
Bottom line for healers... Don't be lazy, heal the pet if you can you moron
Bottom line for locks... Don't be lazy, eat something you moron
Tusker Jan 25th 2010 6:19PM
Lock pets absolutely aren't frills. It shows that you've only played yours to 65. On affliction, the felhunter is a major dps/mana component (yes, for affliction dark pact is now better) and brings a good buff. A destruction warlock's damage depends on the imp for crit bonus uptime. And on demonology, the pet is the point of the build. No demonic pact without a demon.
Get to 80 and tell us what you think about the pet.
Possum Jan 25th 2010 6:26PM
L2 Reading comprehension
Osden Jan 25th 2010 6:06PM
I have no problems at all with tossing an HOT on a lock between fights - it is simply part of working with a lock. I mind even less if they are a good lock and bring the face-melty goodness properly (I'm annoyed if they aren't contributing).
Honestly, I don't get the annoyance. There are far worse wastes of a healer's resources than making sure your team is ready to kick butt such as stupidly taking damage or not bringing anything to the table.
In all seriousness, the worst class I have had to group with as a healer is the mage - I have lost count of how many aggro-stealing, wasteful damage-taking biscuit-makers I have grouped with ; )
On average, I like grouping with locks - all business, bring the hurt, not (too) stupid.
Possum Jan 25th 2010 6:12PM
I don't think many healers mind tossing hots on a lock.
Avhi Jan 25th 2010 7:11PM
Today, while healing a 10 man ToGC on lord jax, a warlock went banana's in my raid cause no one healed his pet. Now, keep in mind, this fight requires me, as a priest, to shield the tanks taking damage, heal those with all of the debuffs he gives out, target the portal for a quick SW:D when it comes out, use my CDs, such a PI, to help burn down the portals, and dispell the boss. After he got through with his nerd rage, he justified it to me by talking about this article, which I hadn't read yet. I paused the raid, came to WoW.com and read this.
Then I alt tabbed back over to my raid, and kicked him from the group.
And I'll be glad to kick any other warlocks you send my way thinking with the stupid idea that anyone else but themselves is responsible for their pet.
Dominic Hobbs Jan 25th 2010 7:45PM
"Healers, for the love of God, have pets on your healing bars and show them a modicum of care. I'm not suggesting that any pet gets heals in favour of a player (well, maybe a mage) and especially the tank, but to disregard them completely is crazy."
At least one of you missed this bit.
You are responsible for maintaining the viability of the DPS (which is what will kill the boss), pets are a component of that. The least component for sure, but you can't dodge the responsibility.
A lock or hunter may be perfectly capable of managing their pet to minimise damage but it is in everyones best interest if they can instead manage their pet for maximum damage. Things like leaving a felguard in for Mimiron's Shock Blast increase DPS but risk pet death. A good healing team can handle it. A bad one doesn't even know what's going on.
Darkorical Jan 25th 2010 6:12PM
As a lock I have my life tap macroed with text that says "Tap Tap Tap"
I do this so the healer can easilly tell if I am getting pounded by a mob and need heals or if I've just tapped a few times and my Fel Armor will heal me shortly and they don't need to bother with me. However I do keep a please heal me macro handy incase things go ape and I just told the healer not to heal me and then need heals afterall
As far as locks that dont eat or drink between fights
I tap to 70% or so and then if health is low Ill eat some form of buff food or mage food if I have it but if both are high I dont worry about it as my Fel Armor will refill my Health quick.
Another thing to note is locks need to get proficient at swapping Fel Armor and Demon Armor if you tap alot and need heals Please be kind to your healers and switch to Demon Armor as not only will it help keep you alive it makes it easier to heal you back up. After they toss you a heal you can switch back to Fel Armor and while you will lose a bit of SP the tap you just did will give some back if you are glyphed for it.
Kara Jan 25th 2010 6:20PM
To be fair, some healers aren't being vindictive if they aren't healing you after a massive tap-o-rama. Sometimes in random PUGs you may come across a healer in blues or is well new at healing and combined with a tank that is all "CHCHCHCHAAAAAAIIIIIN PULL HOOOO!" and you have a healer that is stressed and maybe even a little confused.
Take the time to notice what your healer is wearing. If they are well geared enough to be somewhat bored in a heroic by all means run around with an empty health bar, it'll give 'em something to do. But if luck of the draw has you with someone in more than a few blues be nice and do the small taps frequently routine. They will love you for not giving them a heart attack every five seconds.
Claude Jan 25th 2010 6:48PM
Speaking as one of the original warlocks in this game. Don't know if that counts for much, but I just like the sound of it.
Warlocks have life tap and drain life. My play style has always been the same. Dump load, life tap, next pull drop dots and if need health then drain life, even a death coil if the situation warrants. Hell if I'm really not caring (as most heroics seem to be dictated by not how difficult it is but how quickly you can run it) I might even use a healthstone, or even a pot for laughs. If I get a heal in the middle of all that, awesome. But warlocks are solitary creatures and we don't need the help of fasemelters/droods/pallys with the day to day running of our classes as we can make mana and health for minimal investment.
Healers don't heal the pets, unless you want to, or you're just a nice person. That's what Health Funnel is for. If the lock is any good and is worried about his pet, he'll health funnel, or he'll just resummon the minion.
From experience with this newer PEWPEW generation of locks, I find that most would never even consider using drain life or health funnel. And from the comments, it seems to be that few if any have even considered it. There seems to be some anathema to lower your dps for a second on trash mobs. Recount is the bane of our existence. Remember junior locks, we are the swiss army knife of DPS, we can get out of any problem as long as we remember our tools, their strengths and limitations.
It's all kablammo and badoom with kids these days. Warlocks arn't about that. We're leeches. We sit there and we destroy your life bit by bit and occasionally we'll start taking big chunks out of you once you're dazed and confucius (TISM side reference).
I've never asked for a heal, and I never will. I play as a shaman as well and as a healer if you can't see that someone's health is low (especially in a five man), then it's time to reroll. So chances are that the healer already knows you're low on health, so why bother stating the obvious. I may as well tell them that the sky is blue repeatedly. I'm sure if I went up to a group of random four people and kept whispering to one guy that the sky is blue or Washington DC is the capital of the USA repeatedly, he'd get annoyed pretty quickly.
Anyway, that's Claude's two cents.
Deeoh Jan 25th 2010 7:46PM
I think Claude has conclusively won this discussion. Good job!
Dominic Hobbs Jan 25th 2010 8:13PM
Claude makes some fine points and when DPS is not a problem then every lock should remember all the things they can do to look after themselves.
On the other hand, when DPS is a premium all lock should know how to maximise it and all healers should know that they play an integral part in that.
LK Jan 25th 2010 10:37PM
Couldn't agree more Dom (and thanks for the column btw).
Although I will say that when DPS is a premium you're generally (these days anyway) in a raid situation and your healers have to bring their A game or else it's all over red rover anyway.
Having said that, there needs to be some grounding where we accept that not all healers are superman and asking them to look after a manic raid with people taking damage left right and centre and the warlock life tapping and asking them to heal their pet as well is a bit of an ask.
The way I see it, if you life tap as a warlock, you accept that you're the one responsible for getting your health back up. Likewise if you're using a pet, remember that he/she is your pet and you take any and all responsibility for it. Don't expect the healers to look after your pet, unless they have been specifically asked to by the raid. Naturally the best of the best will already be looking after all pets, but the expectation for them to consider healing 'your' pet in the middle of a firestorm when you can heal them yourself is a bridge too far in my books.
Apart from that, good points. I'm just a grumbly old warlock who has never accepted handouts from healers.
Celtian Jan 26th 2010 2:56PM
I think you hit the nail on the head with this one. As an 'old-school' lock (I actually remember the quest for the dreadsteed) I think you are absolutely right. I have never pestered the healer for heals, and I normally whisper the healer to tell them not to heal me when I tap, and to only really worry about it when we're at a boss. I usually get a response telling me to 'tap away' since most 5-man content is easy these days, but I think it's up to the dps (and locks especially) to be mindful of our mana and health. We have many tools to get life back, and we shouldn't expect the healer to act as our mana battery.
Faltor Jan 26th 2010 10:55AM
The suggestion to heal pets is a reasonable one. People need to remember that not every suggestion is a command. Look at the situation and act accordingly. I've never played a lock but it seems the following would be good advice:
Healers: Do you have mana? Will you run out before the end of the fight? If not, heal. Yourself first, tanks second (swap this near the end of the fight), then dps, then pets. The question of "do I heal this pet?" is no different than "do I heal this dps?" except in the above mentioned mana or GCD limited cases. Same with life tap. Letting someone die to "teach them a lesson", while good schadenfreude doesn't actually help the team in any way.
Locks: Is it appropriate to ask for a pet to be healed? Yes. Is it okay to explain (in nice tones and leaving out the word "newb") to a reluctant healer why it is good? Yes. If that healer doesn't listen does that give you the right to be an ass about it? No. If a healer doesn't heal your pet and it dies are they a bad healer? Depends on the situation, but probably not. If you life tapped a lot, and then died from damage, is that the healer's fault? Depends on the situation, but probably not. If you bitch about it are you being an ass? Yes.
Crystaleth Jan 25th 2010 6:42PM
Ok, perhaps it's just me, but there are times when pally buffing everyone and their pets before a run and I'm not able to buff 'lock pets (any of em, not just phased out imps).