This WoW warlock guide attempts to point you in the right direction when you are starting out with a warlock. Warlocks are masters of the black arts that control fire, shadows and demons. The spells commanded by the warlock class are all focused on inflicting agonizing pain and suffering. They are able to cast potent spells from afar, but are not good at fighting up close since they do not have any substantial physical protection.
Unique to warlocks are soul shards, which are used in certain spells and must be acquired from defeated mobs. The warlock class is a breeze to level quickly due to the fact that they are extremely self sufficient when soloing. They are typically among the biggest DPS dealing classes when in a party.
This class is a choice that is only available to the Gnome, Orc, Blood Elf, Undead, and Human races. Warlocks are only allowed to wear cloth armor, like many of the other spell flinging classes. For weapons, they are restricted to daggers, staves, swords and wands.
Warlocks are best known for their ability to summon and control a variety of demonic minions including Doomguards, Felguards, Felhunters, Imps, Infernals, Succubi, and Voidwalkers. Each of the various minions are valuable, but you will have to determine the advantages of each of them based on the task at hand.
Whether it’s damage over time (DoT), direct damage (DD), or summoning, a warlock is able to cast a full range of spells. Soul shards may be expended for conjuring various items and even resurrecting your dead teammates. Other talents include self healing with drain life, and crowd control with the fear line of spells. One of the overlooked benefits that warlocks enjoy is that they do not have to spend nearly as much as other classes do to get mounts (Felsteed and Dreadsteed).
The Affliction talent specialization relies heavily on curses, DoT’s and drains. For raiding and farming, this is an excellent talent tree to take. Affliction is the way to go if you’re trying to power-level your warlock as quickly as you can.
The Demonology specialization concentrates mostly on summoning spells and bonuses for your demons that make them robust and more powerful. For player versus player, Demonology is a an excellent talent tree. For leveling up, it’s a close second to Affliction. When you want to build the most effective minions, Demonology is the specialization to pick.
Destruction uses talents that amplify the effectiveness of a warlock’s fire and shadow spells, which are primarily direct damage (DD) spells used to quickly kill 1 enemy. This spec is not as popular as the others during lower levels. It requires lots of soul shards, is less mana efficient, and it is hard to use for those who wish to play by themselves.
The above WoW warlock guide is used with permission from www.warcraftcodex.com