Warlock Talents - Level 30

Here is a look at the Level 30 talents for warlocks. This tier is all about added crowd control abilities.




Howl of Terror

Comments: This spell use to be a baseline ability with a cast time. Affliction warlocks could talent this ability and make it instant cast. Now it is only going to be available through talents and will be a tough choice for many warlocks. I like seeing that the cooldown is reduced when you are hit by a damaging attack and this gives this talent some strength.

For PvE I do not see much use for this spell. Generally as a warlock you want to avoid having multiple mobs on you and you certainly don’t want to fear those mobs into other ones and bring back more. I never use Howl of Terror now in raids or dungeons so I don’t see using this version of it for Mists of Pandaria.

For PvP, this ability has some strength. I will be curious to see if this shares diminishing returns with Fear. I am also looking forward to testing and seeing how quickly the ability comes off cooldown when you are being attacked. But this will fall under the age old problem that the target feared may break early if there are any DoTs on the target, thereby making it useless. Only testing in the Beta will find out whether this talent is more useful than Mortal Coil.




Mortal Coil

Comments: This talent is fairly strong. Similar to Death Coil but with a much shorter cooldown.

In PvE it might have some uses as a way to get a quick heal if needed, but the last few words, “if the target is horrified” has me wondering if you cast this at a boss, will you still get the 25% heal? If not, then this talent will be completely useless for PvE.

In PvP this talent has some use. It gives you healing and also gives you a quick CC every 45 seconds. I could see this ability being used along with a pet silence to get a kill. It also might help with those pesky melee or if you need to interrupt a cast and your pet silence is on cooldown.




Shadowfury

Comments: A spell that was only available to destruction warlocks now is possible for all the specs. Rather than fears as our means of Crowd Control this ability stuns the target and is on a different diminishing returns.

In PvE this ability works best on trash mobs and anything you need to kite. I always liked using this ability while farming as it allowed me to get an extra cast in before a mob reached me.

In PvP, this ability has some strength in that it is on a different diminishing returns than fear and it could be used to interrupt spell casting. I think ultimately though it might come down to playstyle for the PvP warlock and which you prefer to use.

My Choices:

In PvP, I have a feeling that I will use Mortal Coil. The heal, that is provided by this ability, I feel will counter some of the initial burst damage that a bunch of Melee can do as well as gives you that ability to get the melee off of you. I also feel that this spell is strong when used in arenas and going for that killing blow.

In PvE the only choice I feel is to go with Shadowfury. Mortal coil might have some benefit if you are able to get the heal from casting this at a Boss but if you can’t, then I think Shadowfury will be the go to spell for PvE.