A Rare and Dreaded Sight

After playing WoW for about 4 years now, and having almost 360 days /played on my Warlocks, I can honestly say that there isn't much I get blown away by these days. One thing that does stop me in my tracks every time, however, is a Warlock in full Dreadmist gear. Today, that's a given rarity since the rainment is a Level 60 collection of pieces from the heydays of Vanilla WoW. But even back when running Strat and Scholo was the norm, it was still very uncommon to see a 'lock sporting a full Dungeon 1 set. It was inspiring to see, and still is to me.

But that is nothing compared to what you're seeing in the image above.

Resurrected (a fitting name for sure) is a member of my good friend Demordrah's army of alts. Not only did he spend a good amount of time gathering Dreadmist pieces from the several Level 60 dungeons that drop them, but he also invested a lot of questing and gold to put together the super rare and epic Deathmist set. That's DEATHmist, as in Dungeon Set 2 - a full set of which I had NEVER seen before his accomplishment.

To fully appreciate this feat, you really have to go back and actually experience the long and arduous tasks of putting together a full D1 set, and then questing hard to upgrade the pieces to D2. Even today, it would be a hella tedious task, so just consider how difficult it must have been for a Level 60 'lock to get a group motivated enough to help him get the job done. I remember being 7/8 Dreadmist myself (damn Jandice Barov and the shoulders that never dropped for me) and starting the upgrade quests, only to drop them after having put them off for months.

Looking back, and seeing Demo's alt in all of its D2 glory now, I very much wish that I had gone through with the upgrading effort. D1 was more than enough to strike fear into opposing players that loathed getting Feared and DoT'd to death--could you even imagine what it must have felt like for them to come across a 'locked decked out in full D2?! Total dread, imho. The set had, and still has a kind of "oh damn" look to it that just screams Warlock. Even in modern Azeroth, Demordrah was telling me of instances where people in Hellfire were whispering to ask about the "crazy" gear he was wearing. If only all armor design was still that compelling!

Congrats to you, Demo. It's nice to see someone with the motivation (and pain threshold) to get such an epic and true achievement done. I am indeed impressed. Well done, sir! :)

Twit Me My Title!

For those of you who missed out on an opportunity to nab yourself an official Blizzard Authenticator, here's another chance!

Find me ASAP on Twitter -- the first two people to @Jagoex to me my currently "equipped" in-game title will win one of the two remaining pieces of plastic security, courtesy of Warlock Therapy!

Click the link in the right column, or visit www.twitter.com to get started. Good luck!

UPDATE: Both are spoken for. Congrats to the winners!

Contest Winners, Check Your Email!

Fellow blog-aholics, today is the day! After spending many hours with a random number generator and Google Analytics, the winners of the first major Warlock Therapy contest have been chosen! Check your email pronto for the winning message, and follow the instructions provided to receive your free Blizzard Authenticator. Congratulations to all of the winners!

If you didn't receive an email, don't fret -- there are many other contests incoming and many other prizes to give away. Stay tuned for more details. ;)

All of that said -- I must admit that choosing the winners for this contest went about as smoothly as tonight's Retaliation Battlegroup stability (it's crashing repeatedly, for those of you who do not know). Many users made multiple Blogger accounts and posted several comments instead of abiding by the unwritten but common sense rule of "one post per person." As a result, many comments were disqualified, and I am left wondering how to prevent such a debacle in the future.

Any suggestions are welcome.

Patch 3.2: Resilience No Longer Only Applies to DoT Damage

Fellow Warlocks, wannabes (Mages), Shadow Priests, and anyone else with a close relationship to the DoT'ing kind. Go grab yourself some food and a drink, a towel, and then return to your seat, where you will more than likely spend the next few hours frozen in awe and excitement at the glorious news I am about to relay to you. Seriously. It made my wife pee a little.

Hidden deep within the PTR 3.2 Patch notes is a little bit of Warlock love in the form of a major change to Resilience -- the stat that has been the bane of DoT damage for almost 2 years running.

Here's the little nugget in all of it's DoT-loving glory:

Resilience: No longer reduces the amount of damage done by damage-over-time spells, but instead reduces the amount of all damage done by players by the same proportion. The other effects of resilience (reducing critical chance, critical damage and mana drain effects) have not changed.

What does this mean, exactly? It means that DoT damage is getting an indirect BUFF via the direct application that Resilience will equally have against ALL forms of damage. In other words, DoTS will do relatively more damage than they do now, compared to other forms of offensive attacks.

Within the current state of World of Burst-craft, this is a VERY big deal! It not only means that Resilience-heavy Affliction Warlocks will see more survivability, but it also means they will be dishing out a higher percentage of overall damage done!

Shwing?!

Together with all of the other pro-Affliction changes that 3.2 is slated to bring (the Pandemic Buff to Haunt that we will discuss in an upcoming post, for example), this should be a big help to a long-ailing tree in PvP. Only time will tell if it will be a large-enough step in the right direction to make a difference.

Now, go clean up a bit, and be sure to check back for an update on Affliction's performance on the PTR very soon.

See you then. ;)

Warlock 101: "Drain Some Dummies"

Warlock 101 looks to shed some light on the basic truths of Warlocking, for those that are new to the class, or just may have missed them while QQ'ing about the constant nerfs to Fear.


Ask a Warlock, any Warlock, what changes they would like to see implemented in a future patch, and amongst the calls for "green fire" and a new Megan Fox succubus skin, you are more than likely to find a few that will wish for stack-able Soul Shards.

We 'locks have often complained that our shard reagents are an inconvenience, taking up too much space and taking far too long to farm before a night of raiding or PvP. Even after the recent lifestyle tweak to Drain Soul, we still complained that the shard mechanism was too costly, taking up too much of the the time we could be spending doing something else equally as unimportant as shard-farming.

Well, my friends, the reality is that the Soul Shard mechanism isn't that big a deal, and it is far less time consuming than you think. Check out the video below for a hot tip on how to make Soul Shard farming super efficient, no matter your level or experience.

Free Authenticator Contest Ending Soon!

Just a quick update to let you all know that the contest giving away 25 Blizzard Authenticators is almost over! If you haven't posted a comment in the active contest thread, head over there right now and do so!

The contest ends June 10, and winners will be notified on June 19. And don't forget that you must comment using a valid Blogger account!

Good luck!

CLICK HERE TO COMMENT AND ENTER THE CONTEST!

The Best Questions a Warlock Can Ask

Ladies and gentlemen, it's that time of year again. The great (and sometimes sexy) Dr. Eyonix has made his Summer rounds on the official forums, summoning the "questions you may have concerning your class." Playing a Warlock, I know we got a whole bunch of them. But before you go off running to ask why we haven't seen green fire applied to all of our spells just yet, hear me out. There are far more important matters at hand.

Here are 10 of the best questions we Warlocks can ask in the current state of the game. And please feel free to bombard Eyonix's thread with them. Maybe we'll get some much-needed attention!

Will incoming pet/spell-pathing and redirection after a Demonic Teleport ever be tweaked to result in a miss?

While defending the Farm in AB the other day, I was approached by three mouth-breathing Death Knights. After being LOL-Gripped by two of them back-to-back (that's where the "lol" comes in), I Teleported into the shed to escape the ridiculously high damage they were doing... and that's when it happened! A Deathcoil that one of the DK's had fired off came through the wall and hit me square in the face!

If a Rogue Vanishes, a spell headed towards them will miss (unless it's still bugged), and a pet will run back towards it's master. If a Warlock Teleports, a spell will redirect and shoot straight for them, and a pet will hunt them down and continue to attack. Sure, Vanish and Teleport are different spells, but shouldn't their effect on spell/pet-pathing be treated the same? If not, why not? At best, it's an awkward mechanic difference as is, and is in desperate need of a change.

Will our pets ever be allowed to Teleport with us if they are set to Passive?

Our pets. Sometimes I love them. Sometimes I hate them. And I ESPECIALLY hate them when they lead opponents straight to me after I break off a Teleport. They're like the worst little back-stabbing snitches ever, and I often find myself having them attack an opponent and get killed just to keep myself alive. Broken, imho.

Will melee always be able to cut-off spells when "running through" the caster?

At range, Destruction Warlocks are where it's at. They have some of the best combos and burst in WoW (which we'll talk about in an upcoming post), and are game-makers as a result.

In close-quarters, however, they are about as useful as a pair of scissors with no handles. This is mostly because of melee's ability to "run through" a caster and interrupt his class if timed right, and which isn't that hard to do. Melee have a huge advantage over casters as a result, and it is a shame this long-broken mechanic hasn't received the attention it deserves.

Will the Soul Shard cap ever be raised?

Let's face it: Soul Shards will never stack. So the question is, will we ever need anything beyond an Abyssal Bag? Inquiring Warlocks, especially ones that Arena regularly, want to know... because if the Soul Shard cap isn't going to see a change, it's time to get a maxed out shard bag, pronto.

Are there any plans to lower the Soul-shatter cooldown?

Of all the spells a Warlock has in his arsenal, Soul-Shatter is by far one of the most poorly maintained. As a spell, it's fine, just as any aggro-reducing ability is. As a spell that has a 5-minute cooldown and costs a Soul Shard, however, it is not. Almost every other class has an aggro drop on a much shorter cooldown... why not Warlocks?

Are there plans to introduce more consistent burst damage to the Affliction Tree?

Affliction burst is based upon RNG DoT crits that are great during long PvE boss encounters, but not so hot for PvP. In order to make Affliction a viable Arena spec again, it needs to have a controllable amount of burst that is not dependant on an automatic, uncontrollable, and untimable DoT tick. Perhaps make Shadowburn trainable? Or even better yet, give the Afflicton 'lock an ability to consume a DoT for 50% of it's overall damage on-command. That'd be a start!

Are all pets going to scale equally from their master's stats?

When I heard that Ghostcrawler and his development crew had finally decided that it was time to work on pet scaling, I called Hell to see if it had frozen over. It hasn't, so I remain cautously optomistic. We are Warlocks, afterall, and whenever we see something good come our way, there is often a catch.

So I have to ask, when the pets get these incoming buffs, are they going to receive them equally across the board, or are each of their specific weaknesses going to be addressed?

And semi-related to this question comes the next:

Will switching between pets quickly ever become an untalented option?

Warlocks are dependent on their pets, now more than ever at least since the "mushroom" era of PvP. Each has a very specific use and strength meant for a very specific environment. So when we find ourselves stuck in the mud with the wrong pet out... we're pretty boned.

Currently, the only way to summon a pet quickly is to spec at least 10 points into the Demonology Tree, where you'll find Fel Domination. Fifteen points in, you'll find Master Summoner, which will reduce the cast time of your next summon by 9.5 seconds to a mere half-second. Unfortunately, each of these talents is on a 15 minute cooldown, which doesn't do much for the Warlock enjoying World PvP or a day in the Battlegrounds.

We need more... and faster too!

Is Fear going to be tweaked to better compliment the Affliction tree?

After the recent Fear "nerf," the spell seems fairly balanced to a Destruction Warlock. Destro 'locks don't DoT, so the spell can easily be used as an off-target CC or to setup a powerful destruction spell combo.

As an Affliction 'lock, however, whose quasi-purpose and strength is to afflict damage to as many targets on the field as possible, it is quite useless. It cannot be used as an off-target CC, because Affliction Warlocks SHOULD be doing consistant, constant, dependable damage to as many enemy players as possible. And almost any damage to Fear currently breaks the CC, making it one of the worst offensive spells in the game.

And yes, you read that right. I wrote "offensive," because that is how it was originally designed. Afflicton Warlocks are SUPPOSED to DoT their targets and Fear them to death. Now, sadly, that's not the case, and they need Affliction-tree-specific buffs to Fear that will allow them to do so competitively. Add a talent, add a glyph, whatever. Just do it already.

Is Immolate going to get some much-needed dispel protection?

As is stands, Immolate is one of the most important spells in a Destro 'locks arsenal. It increases the damage of Incinerate and Chaos bolt via Fire and Brimstone, and is the opener of choice for an instant-Conflag. However, it's as easily removed as Paris Hilton's panties, yet unlike those panties, it comes with no STD penalty whatsoever.

An Afflicton Warlock's DoTS are the bread and butter of his offense, and protected by Unstable Affliction. Immolate is the core ability of a Destruction's Warlocks offense, and has no protection whatsoever. Without Immolate, we lose the burst damage of Conflagrate, and the CC of Aftermath -- both of which are very necessary to keep the spec a successful one.

So those are my questions -- ten issues that need addressing. Hopefully they won't fall upon blind eyes or deaf ears, and hopefully yours won't either.

Speaking of yours, what Warlock questions do you have for the devs? Is there anything that you see as vitally important to the class and wonder why it hasn't been addressed? Let me know in the comments section -- link to it in the official thread if you wish.

Now, lets get this done, people. Good luck to us all.

What's Up With Ferarro & Paladin Schmaladin?

I have to take a quick time-out from the norm to outline a concern that I have about the honesty of blogging and bloggers. For those of you who normally read blogs, it may impact you on some level, so it won't be a complete waste of your time.

If you found yourself over at fellow WoW-blogger Ferarro's website today, Paladin Schmaladin, you were greeted with a new message that the "blog is open to invited readers only." According to her Twitter updates, she believes that she has a stalker, and things are getting a bit too uncomfortable with all of the private information she has been posting.

Now let me be serious for a second (it's all I can muster): if she does have a legit stalker, she made the right decision in closing shop. Playing it safe is the only way to go in that scenario. There is nothing worse than feeling exposed, after all (we Warlocks know that all too well). However, I am getting reports that the stalker story is about as straight as Tom Cruise, and that I should have listened to my mother when she told me to never believe everything I read on the internet... that I don't write myself.

According to multiple sources in-WoW and out, Ferarro was outed as a fraud when an astute Warlock posted a convincing link on the WoW Forums, pointing to a website called TechDarling. All over the site are pictures of a girl that we know as Ferarro. In fact, many of the pictures there are identical copies of those we've seen on Paladin Schmaladin. But instead of the WoW game-tester we all know, we see a real-life social-blogger who is into the tech scene and has posted pictures from various blogging expos and web design events -- pictures stolen by and featured on Paladin Schmaladin and that Ferarro presented as of herself, and her job as a game-tester for WoW.

Doing a little bit of digging, it seems that all of the self-portraits posted of Ferarro on Paladin Schmaladin originate from TechDarling and its author's own web pages, including Facebook and Flickr. In fact, there are many images there that authenticate TechDarling as the legitimate source and owner of the pictures and events. Oh, and btw, WoW is never mentioned on these other sites. Not once.


So what does all of this craziness mean, exactly?

Well, for starters, a bunch of love-struck boys are going to experience some heavy frustration when this comes to light, and we are bound to see some nerd rage soon. For bloggers like me, it is a little disheartening. Ferarro has basically been lying about her identity for years, and stealing someone else's content and posting them as her own. She has taken advantage of another blogger and her reader's trust, and that makes my job as a fellow blogger just that much harder.

On a WoW-related front, this mess also means that Ferarro isn't a game tester for Blizzard. The "game-testing" images that were posted on Paladin Schmaladin were relabeled TechDarling images that were taken at a blogging expo.

I gotta admit, just thinking about this gets me a little angry, and my mind is going crazy with a series of difficult questions: what drives a person to do this kind of thing? Why would anyone lead people on like that? And for what means? And do you know what the worst part about this whole thing is? Paladin Schmaladin was a great resource and excellent WoW blog. Why it needed to be masked by someone else's pretty face is straight attention-whoring.

And here's a piece of advice from your friendly neighborhood Warlock Therapist: if you post someone else's picture and get caught, don't take down your blog and try to explain it away as a problem with a stalker. Don't go into hiding and conjure up 7 different identities when that doesn't work either. Fess up, make things right, and move on. It may hurt at first, but it is the only way to help guarantee yourself respect and friendship in the long-run. And lets face it, you owe at least that much to your readers, right?

It will be quite interesting to see where Ferarro goes from here. While watching the changing status of Paladin Schmaladin's accessibility, I wish her, or him, some much-needed sanity.

I am Jagoex. I'm a husband, a father, a professor, and a warlock. That's all you need to know. ;)

UPDATE: Apparently, Ferarro has closed her Twitter account and many of her articles at Retpaladin.com are MIA. Threads started on the WoW Forums linking to TechDarling or this post are being reported as harassment and immediately removed. Also, many young boys are in complete denial.

UPDATE 2: TechDarling is aware of what is going on and according to her Twitter page, she was unaware anyone was stealing her images and content and using them as her own.

UPDATE 3: Retpaladin.com admins played no hand in the posts that were being deleted on their website, and were clueless on what was going on until after the fact. Also, Ferarro's character on Alexstrasza is no longer showing up on the Armory.

UPDATE 4: Paladin Schmaladin is available for viewing once again, with a long explanation of what has happened -- including a creative story detailing 7 different owners of "Ferarro" the Paladin.

UPDATE 5: WoW.com just posted a very detailed look into Ferarro's explanatory post, basically debunking her statement that Ferarro was operated by 7 different people over the years.

Contest Preview: Commenter of the Month

Being a blogger, I thrive on the comments of my readers. Being a learning and behavior guy, I also thrive on principles of reinforcement. What does that mean, exactly? Well, it means that you reward me by giving me feedback to my posts, and in return, I should reward you too. That's where the Commenter of the Month contest comes into play.

At the end of every month, I will be giving away an in-game WoW item to a steady, dependable, and strong commenter here at Warlock Therapy. For example, June's item is the Tabard of Flame, one of my favorite-looking tabards of all-time and which fits the 'lock personality quite well.

Items will change monthly, and may or may not be announced just to keep you guessing. But believe me, you WANT to comment. So get to it, and good luck!

Post Preview: Battlemaster as a Solo Warlock

In my mind, one of the greatest achievements currently implemented in WoW is the Battlemaster achievement. Aside from getting what many consider to be the "best" title in the game, it is also widely considered to be the ultimate BG achievement, akin to the Rank 14 grind. That, my friends, is up for debate. But what isn't is that when Warlock Therapy "officially" goes live on June 3, one of the first articles I'll be posting will take an in-depth look at the achievement's requirements, how a solo Warlock player stacks up against them, and how to improve your chances at getting the deed done.

Personally, I am currently in the midst of a semi-hard push towards fulfilling Battlemaster, and in many ways, it actually does remind me of the High Warlord grind. It is probably due to the fact that it requires a lot of time invested in the Battlegrounds, but thankfully, you can take a break if you want to, which wasn't the case back in the old honor system. As a result of regular break-taking, I have a long way to go to finish the achievement, but I have already completed a good chunk of the chain and am pretty excited about fulfilling the remaining requirements.

I'm hoping I'm not the only one. ;)

An Authentic(ator) Giveway

Want a Blizzard Authenticator? Of course you do, and I don't blame you. Who wouldn't want to keep their account safe from hijackers and gold thieves? So then, why haven't you picked one up just yet? Is it the $6.50 fee? The fact that you cannot pry yourself away from WoW long enough to complete the transaction?

No worries bud. I understand, and I got your back.

To help celebrate the return of Warlock Therapy, I'm going to be giving away 25 Authenticators on June 19!

All you will need to do is leave a comment to this post by 11:59 p.m. on June 10. Twenty-five of you will be chosen at random, and whether you play a Warlock or not, I will send you a Blizzard Authenticator at no charge to you. I'm even covering the shipping cost, so you really have nothing to lose!

Oh, and one other thing. You MUST have a Blogger account in order to participate in this contest. But don't worry if you do not have one -- they are free and take just a minute or so to register. Anonymous posting will do you no good.

Not a bad way to get things started again, am I right? And since there are only like 2 people reading this blog these days (you and me, I'm thinking), odds are pretty good! Now get commenting, and good luck to all who participate.

Mobile Photo Test

Again, just making sure the blogging app features are WAI.

This poorly-lit image is of a boxed Razer Mamba, the first product I'll be reviewing, which will coincide nicely with an upcoming post on key binding and Warlock PvP.

Testing Mobile Blogging

This post is just another test looking into some mobile applications. Gotta potentially be ready whenever and wherever, right? If it works, it would make live-blogging from Blizzcon super streamlined.

More to come!

UPDATE: Works great!

Soulstone Resurrection

This is just a quick post to check the look of the blog. More to come. ;)

Once Upon a Time

A License to Warlock

Like driving heavy machinery or working in a specialized profession, sometimes I think that playing WoW should require a license to operate. Not that I think the game is difficult to play or anything like that, but so few people actually take the time to learn the intricacies of their class, that it'd be nice to have a simple and clean way to separate those that do from those that don't.

Achievements are a step in the right direction, but won't help in picking out the Warlock in Kara gear that can out-perform T6-level 'locks in Black Temple content (*cough* more on that later this week)... even though the system totally should.

But because we will never see licensing of that kind implemented in-game, I guess we'll just have to turn to our good friend novelty to get our licensing fix. =)

Inspired by Mike Schramm's post over at WoW Insider, I threw together these Warlock "licenses" for the sheer heck of it. They're pretty fun, if I do say so myself, and best of all, they are totally unspoken for in the State of California! I'm actually thinking about picking one of them up myself. =D

So here ya go, friends in curses, and be sure to let us know if you got some of your own novelty statements to share, or if you are sporting an auto-based tribute yourself!










See you guys soon... even on the road, maybe. ;)