You've been farming Black Temple for a while and your guild decided to try out Sunwell, the supposed pinnacle of TBC raiding. But how does it look for our class? Sunwell as an instance is built on the concept of high dps output combined with extreme survivability. For most of the later encounters you need everyone alive and the sickest amount of damage imaginable. And that's where we jump in, probably the most valuable dps class in Sunwell - the warlock. However, to reach that status, you need to know how to play properly, how to survive and how to get most out as a dpser. This guide will try to answer questions on how to do that, while going through every boss encounter, talking about gear selection, build (singular intended) and any other matters we might need to cover.

 

 

1.0 Gear'n'gemz'n'stuff

1.1 Gear selection before SWP
A lot of the players already have "best of the best" gear when they try to tackle Sunwell, at least the harder part of it, but what is the best gear selection for pre-SWP? There are a lot of misconceptions going around, a lot of people gearing up badly, or should I say ahead of their time. First rule is you do NOT stack on haste with anything but the best items. Sadly, there are only 4 haste items good enough to wear before Sunwell, and those are [Bracers of Nimble Thought], [Ring of Ancient Knowledge], [Zhar'doom, Greatstaff of the Devourer] and [The Skull of Gul'dan]. Latter two should be your top priority, mainly because they are THE items you want to take on any SWP encounter. Since itemization there consists of minimal +hit on gear, don't be afraid of being way above the cap, it will come down soon enough. Zul'Aman and badge haste stuff just don't cut it, don't even bother, rather go for 25 man classic items with hit and crit on them; also in this phase gem for crit and damage or purely damage. I've been asked a lot about trinkets; logically your best choice is [The Skull of Gul'dan] + [Hex Shrunken Head]. Difference in quality of other available trinkets is so small, that it doesn't really matter which combination you choose. Also you want to have 4/5 T6, fifth piece being replaced by either  [Robes of Rhonin], [Cowl of the Illidari High Lord] or [Leggings of Channeled Elements]. As for other pieces, selection is quite obvious since you don't have many options anyway.  One of best gear builds for this stage would be something like this: www.chardev.org/?template=63739.

1.2 Gearing up in Sunwell, for Sunwell, from Sunwell
Naturally you want your guild to progress as fast as possible, so dkp hogging, saving for better drops and passing is not really recommended in my opinion, especially since progress in Sunwell depends a lot on warlock performance. You simply start with 3 new T6 items which are so awesomely good, you will want to have them until WOTLK. The added bonus is that you get to remove one of the worse T6 pieces from BT and MH which you wore only because of the bonus. Pieces you want to replace your old stuff with are [Leggings of Calamity], [Amice of the Convoker], one of three available robes and [Grand Magister's Staff of Torrents]. This staff from Felmyst, while maybe not that good on first sight, is a very important item most warlocks will and should want. When your hit starts dropping, you start making compromises and eventually it will go below the cap. I can't stress how inconvenient that would be, so this staff is THE item to have to prevent that. Simply gem it with 30 haste and still have a decent haste weapon while again having sufficient +hit to equip new items freely. Now, there are some nice craftable items available, one that I'd recommend to every caster is  [Sunfire Handwraps], while tailors can craft [Sunfire Robe]. One might want to replace these gloves with ones from Kil'jaeden, but the robes are irreplacable. Another thing you might want to craft down the road is [Loop of Forged Power], a direct upgrade to BT trash and ZA chest ring. If you don't have ROS neck, [Amulet of Unfettered Magics] is a valid alternative but sadly just a dps sidegrade more or less, so it shouldn't be on anyones loot prio list. Items from M'uru and KJ are clearly superior to most of the items before, so i won't waste words, M'uru ring and trinket should be a priority and items you will not change that fast even in WOTLK. [Shifting Naaru Sliver] and [The Skull of Gul'dan] becomes an ultimate trinket combo every warlock should aim at, ofcourse not on the cost of skipping too much improvements on the way. Dream gear for everyone is a bit different, just a matter of preference, and one of the options is www.chardev.org/?template=56904.

 

1.3 Gemming
In segment 1.1 I said how players in pre 2.4 end game content should be gemming crit and damage, same as i stated in the first guide. That is true, but once in Sunwell one should gem new stuff exclusively with [Reckless Pyrestone] and even regem their old gear with same gems, unless you are thinking of replacing it soon. In any case, gems grow on trees nowadays(or well NPC's) so regemming your full gear shouldn't be a problem. Some like [Quick Lionseye], although id go as far to put it only in [Grand Magister's Staff of Torrents], nowhere else, but again thats my preference, since i don't like to gimp my damage too much. As metagem, there is only one option, [Chaotic Skyfire Diamond]. Do not even think about alternatives, there aren't any. This is about it when it comes to gems, SWP makes it pretty straightforward for us, especially since the new magic word is HASTE. Somewhere at M'uru you want 300ish of it, so inteligent geming and gear selection is the way to go. Also don't be afraid of losing damage, at this point you gain a lot more with stacking haste, just don't go overboard. Also, if you got unlucky with drops and your hit is too low, don't be afraid to gem hit temporarily, much better to lose those couple of haste numbers than let your gear rot in bags or even worse, go in the fight nonhitcapped.

 

1.4 Proffessions
By now your guild leader probably made you roll leatherworking, and if he didn't... than he should. I know mining is sweet, that you have some nice JC recipes going on and that alchemy is all that, but also maybe you can sacrifice one of those. Simply because SWP is so dps focused instance and that big majority of people don't have two usefull proffesions anyway. And even if they do, there's plenty of time before expansion to level it again. Other viable proffession is tailoring for the robes and enchanting for them ring enchants. Others you should sacrifice for the greater good, aka the holy pew pew 5% haste. And if your whole group does the same you will be a god of dps, and imagine if your whole raid had it? Sweet huh? Now get your ass to the trainer, its 1k gold to level it anyway.

 

 

2.1 Builds, all 1 of them

I'm not known for my tolerance to alternative builds or how some like to put it, shitbuilds (OK, I like to put it like that). Anyway, same as end of pre-2.4 content, situation in Sunwell stays... it's 0/21/40 baby and you will learn to love it. We do have few variations though, that differ in choosing Nether Protection or not, Cataclysm vs fire talents and how many points in Improved Healthstone you wanna take. The rest is not optional, since it is a quite straightforward spec and there is no science in making it. Selecting which version you want to use its dependent on your preference, if you like to farm stuff with fire outside of raids then use it, if you think 5% less manacost on Shadow Bolt will help you, then do that, and skip Nether Protection only if you will be tanking. If you won't be tanking though, NP is one of best talents you can have in Sunwell. I myself dislike Cataclysm and always have, you will never notice the difference anyway, TCfags might differ tho, but not like I ever cared what they think.
To clear any misconceptions that might occur I gotta bold it, no other spec will do you any good in Sunwell, so don't even try it, 0/21/40 is the win and you know it deep inside even if you like your DoT rotation and felguard micro. OK, now that this is done, let's go to another misconception and something I get spammed with nine hundred times every day. To make it even more obvious in empty hopes of not having to discuss it one more time, I'll bold it AND put it under its own point.

2.2 Fire vs Shadow agony
Shadow is superior to fire in every way imaginable, unless your idea of PvE raiding is killing mobs in Terokkar or you don't have shards to sacrifice succi with in actual raid. So if you didn't get my point here it goes again: SHADOW IS BETTER SHADOW IS BETTER SHADOW IS BETTER SHADOW IS BETTER SHADOW IS BETTER SHADOW IS BETTER! So please, let's not discuss it anymore, I don't care if you think incinerate is gods gift because of its cast time, or scorch debuff, we went through this millions of times before, SB leads to improved SB which leads to more damage for you, your warlocks and your shadowpriests, which in return give more mana back to you, your fellow locks, your mages and maybe even your healers AND it has no immolate dependancy. On the other hand you get to cast incinerate faster, weeeeeeeeee.

2.3 Art of destro - Buzz Tsu
This might be a really heavy concept to grasp for people without above average intellect and a PhD, but the one and only destro rotation that you should use once you get some decent haste is pure shadowbolt spam. Yes, you heard it, no Immolate, no advanced DoT rotation, nothing but a pure SB bonanza, so get your spare keys ready. Thing is, that even if Immolate would be under some circumstance a better personal dps, our "duty" is to have as long an ISB uptime as possible. Although, just because a rotation is simple (or well, nonexistant), it doesn't mean you can just spam senselesly. Smart target switching, as little downtime as possible because of moving, smart usage of pots and of course outliving the boss are aspects a good warlock has to have covered. I'll go through those later on though.

 

 

Following warlock tactics and tips are applicable with most boss strategies, unless you use some crazyass strat no one heard of. In basis I assume the boss is fought the way Nihilum does it, so if there are any deviation from your "ways", don't take it literally.

3.1 Kalecgos - RP'ers wet dream
After an hour of joyful trash cleaning we run into this introductory boss of SWP, Kalecgos. Whole fight consists of two phases, where groups of people enter portals one after another to fight the "demon within", in a spectral overbloomed world. Be sure to have curses assigned so first lock that enters does CoS, 2nd one CoE and I wouldnt recommend CoR on any of the NPC's. It's not a dps race and in certain situations any of the tanks can die due to healer ports or individual screw-ups. Aggro apart from start of the fight isn't an issue, be sure you are spread in dragon phase, and to be clumped for AoE heals in demon phase. Other than that make sure to activate drums of battle when everyone from your group is inside, and to tap safely, you can always get a stray 5k nuke in your face, so watch it. Don't die, stop dps when your raid leader tells you to and zerg it down when called. Also make sure to enter/not enter the portal depending on a situation when both NPC's are low, for example if dragon is at 2% and demon is at 10% enter the portal regardless of it being your turn, help where needed.

3.2 Brutallus - "No more play?"  Sunwell style
Brutallus - the gearcheck extraordinaire, fun and again a very simple boss for us, in most strategies warlocks are used as damage soakers, so be sure you always get the Meteor Slash when "your" tank is tanking. Memorize your burn spot well and be sure you don't burntag anyone while running to it, also make sure you're in range of the healers when at burn spot. All 3 curses on him are needed, and if your raid leader even mentions CoW or Shadow Embrace educate him how wrong he is and/or mention that he should die in fire. Aggro in this fight is not an issue after first 30 seconds or so, make sure to shatter as late as possible, and then senselessly go all out while laughing at mages how screwed up their class is. Enjoy your 2500 dps for a second, make a screenshot of it for epeen purposes and get ready for Felmyst.

3.3 Felmyst - Nightbane on steroids
He, she, it? is a mix of Nightbane, Heigan with a touch of Onyxia and a bit of Gluth maybe. In short, we need to nuke, nuke some more, run a bit, AoE and then run some more. Basically, in the first repetitive phase you have two ways of dealing with Encapsulates; one is wearing a few items of arcane resistance gear and not moving, popping an AR pot if needed, or go Indiana Jones style and run away whenever it targets someone in your group. Either way your health pots, fel armor and healthstones should keep you alive, there is no excuse for dying here whatsoever. When she flies up make sure to replace CoR with CoD and nuke until she is out of range. I don't know every strat on this boss, but usually if you get targeted by vapor guilds tend to handle it with that person running away from the supposed tanking position. It's bad to vapor the hell out of middle, because it makes it that much harder for tanks. After both vapors are cast, go to the raid position and start AoEing only when its safe to do so, doesn't help anyone to epeen your way high on the meters while having skellies running loose. Also Nihilum warlocks are using Rain of Fire on this fight, because threat gets much more spread so there aren't any unfortunate SoC threat spikes, they will go down before next landing anyway so no need to push it. Before your "cloud announcer" calls out where to go be sure to stand on the edge of the cloud, so you have shorter distance to run. Also having a stack of swiftness potions doesn't hurt, just in case if you're lagging or some-other-lame-excuse-for-not-making-it. After clouds go back to your position and repeat everything again. And, when she lands for the first time, be sure to shatter because tank might have a hard time catching it.

3.4 Eredar Twins - Strange feeling we've seen it before
There are many tactics out there for these two demonic sisters, so I wont spend much time theorizing about dps PoV, but rather describe tanking a bit more. But first of all in short, nuking PoV. It all depends on your strategy, although it don't think there's any where conflagging the raid is a good thing. So watch your raid warnings, be fast to react and please, don't try to cast that extra shadowbolt and risk wiping the raid, move asap, it's your most important assignment. Make sure you never get over 10 stacks of any debuff, intelligently remove it with either jumping in Blaze or running in Shadow Nova. Ability to improvise and play smart is very important here, don't be a tool and die because you forgot to reset your stacks.
As a tank, it gets a bit trickier, there is many discussions on what gear to have, what to spec and so on. Simply have over 15k hp with Fortification flask and hp food, spec out of Nether Protection and you should be fine. Extreme cases such as SL builds and 19k hp are redundant, it can help some on progress if your healers are incompetent, but in general it's not needed. About tanking itself, in a "reverse" order your threat generation is not necessary, because the raid nukes the other mob first, make sure you have CoE on and that you take as few blazes as possible. I've used 6 position movement most of the time, close enough to melees for them to be able to jump in to reset shadow stacks if needed and far enough so i don't get their conflags if they have to run a bit weird. Also switch between 1SP move, 2SP move 3SP move depending on the situation, number of stacks and if she's casting stuff on raid or not. In any strat where both twins are tanked next to eachother resetting stacks for you shouldn't be a problem, if you use some other strat make sure to reset stacks accordingly. In a reversed order in P2 only thing that can kill you is fire, so be sure to reset stacks with nova by running in the group, that should be clumping around your NPC anyway. You barely even need to cast Searing Pain in P2 so either dont cast at all and make sure to get every nova or help them with shadowbolts. This phase is a piece of cake anyway, so just execute and bring it home. In a non-reversed order your threat is of bigger importance, so sacrifice some moving for an extra Searing Pain cast. On progress you might wanna spec Improved Searing Pain too, especially if your healers can't handle extra stacks and you haven't got much time to build threat.

3.5 M'uru - We get to change targets in this fight, whoa
One thing I'd like to point out on this fight is "flow". Make sure to always cast something, there is so much to help with, so don't ever just idle. In our strategy, warlocks are assigned to dps M'uru, kill Sentinels and AoE voids. Get your whole team coordinated, CoS on both sides of the room, learn when to AoE so you won't pull aggro for sure, position yourself close enough to darkness so you have range on stuff and far enough so you don't wipe the raid if dispel gets resisted. Phase 1 is repetition, it's only practice, when raid leader calls out stop dps on M'uru for transition purposes help on melee adds and so on.
At the transition itself, make sure to kill Sentinel fast enough and AoE adds asap without pulling aggro, because you need to go on Entropious fast and you will most probably need shatter there too. Phase 2 is all about vision, so look around you for orbs and try to predict its movement, position yourself so you will be in bosses range and learn how the void zone animation looks like. Also if void spawns near you, go few steps away, you never know if dispel resists. Keep nuking the boss, I wouldn't recommend destro pots, but rather save your cooldowns for Super Healing Potions because if it saves your life later on its way better than some extra random dps. Also make sure to stay alive as long as possible, dying in this fight without both pot and HS used is a disaster, and should never happen. Best tip for P2 is to keep calm, don't panic and always have an overview of whats going on around you, a smart play in this fight is better than any gear or crit luck.

 

3.6 Kil'jaeden - aka the original voiceover guy, oh wait.
Not many accurate tips i can give about this fight, since I don't know many strats to it. Basically, here it's all about multitasking for us and fast reaction time. Don't kill others, don't die yourself, move smart towards the shield, especially if you're bloomed. Help on orbs after shields and get the adds down asap without overaggroing. Protip no1 - meteors have a bigger range than hellfire indicates, protip no2 - shield buff applies only like 0.5 seconds after you enter the shield, so don't use the "I swear on my grandma's grave I was under" excuse, you get damage reduction on the 50k nuke only if you started to "glow". Again, don't panic, it's nothing hard, just do your job and look around you, be focused and last protip no3 - if you're slowed by any chance, move towards shield faster than others, you can't have a valid excuse for dying from it ever so don't even try. Also no, don't count on BoF.

 

I've covered most of them in my first guide, everything about overview, adaptation and smart play still stands. Try to always know more than you "see" on your screen, try to approximately learn timers by heart and always know whats coming next and what you can expect. There are not many situations where one should get surprised, everything in this game is either timed or has cooldowns, so knowing the boss and knowing the encounter is the key to great game. Everyone is saying how warlocks are "one button class" and so on, yes it's true, but that doesn't mean there aren't any bad warlocks out there. People that constantly die, have no clue whats going on around boss are everywhere, don't be one of them. Watching every movie imaginable and reading all the specific tactics is not always a good thing, try to think for yourself and to look at the fight from your own perspective. I was talking about HS and pot usage before and I'll say it again, don't ever die without those on cooldown, that of course doesn't mean that you should just spam them when your health is on 90%, but use it wisely, in Sunwell often having a HS save your life just saved the raid a possible wipe. Have them on an accessible hotkey, Alt-Shift-K is not a good place fyi, so use Q, E or something "close" for them. I know all these things seem intuitive, but a huge amount of people don't play like that, and they should if they want to have best of their character. Also shatter, always helpful, but ten times better if you don't use it on 90%, but on 70% instead. Also have Recount or a similar addon, it's crucial to analyze your gameplay in order to improve. Comparing uptime activity with your fellow warlocks, number of shadowbolts cast, amount of damage to a certain type of a mob, small things like that can improve you, and with it, improve your raid. Learn when it's best to pop a destro pot vs mana pot, many times its best to pass on both and rather save your cooldown for health pot. Similar with lifetaps, you don't do it when you run out of mana, you do it ahead when it's best time. Tapping with 15 twin stacks or when Meteor Slash is about to hit is bad, tap when you won't risk dying because of it and preferably when you can't dps anyway, for example while running. It's all small things, but remember, every second of dps loss makes you lose 2000 damage. Doesn't seem much, but it's really easy to lose 20 seconds, much harder to compensate it with dps.


4.2 Few thoughts for warlock officers and classleaders
Compare warlocks with WWS or Recount, as mentioned before most important things to look at are activity and number of casts, of course have haste in mind. It's easy to spot a bad warlock even if he does relatively high dps compared to rest of the raid by simply seeing what he is doing. If someone has 90 bolt casts and he has 75, and you guys have similar haste... well, one of you is doing something wrong and my guess is it isn't the 90 SB one. Delegate curses and assignments according to gear level, worse geared people should focus on lower prio stuff like adds and support, while better geared on primary stuff, usually boss nukage. It's a waste of gear is a best geared warlock has to chase around adds and nuke them nondebuffed with being 125% on Omen permanently. Also there are always people that can multitask better than others, so just give the "slow" ones unimportant and less risky assigments. And in the end, your primary job is to educate your raid leader about your class, casters and our needs. Many guilds don't use shadow priests in caster groups, or only one etc, make sure your leaders know every detail to regarding us that will make the raid better. Clear misconceptions that we don't need priests because of lifetaps, or that we dont need shamans in groups. All of us warlocks know whats best for us, but its up to CL's and officers to do what's best for the raid.


4.3 Links and macros
- One macro I'd like to add since last time is the LW Drums of Battle macro, which is pretty helpful in hectic raiding. Basically it's simple
/use Drums of Battle
/in 29 /p Drums over, next one go!
/in 29 /w [name of a guy after you] Drum now!
If everyone in the group has it, drumming should be smooth as silk, since people get the whisper sound and not everyone is perma reading party chat anyway.
-best warlock spreadsheet out there, everyone that wonders what happens when he gets a new item here and there, check www.leulier.com for max theorycraft potential
-for warlock discussions and to comment on the guide or ask questions, you're welcome to www.nihilum.eu
-http://chardev.org/, good site for comparing items, stats and building your dream gear.