Warlock Spell Effects
Q: What is the debuff limit?
A: The current debuff limit is set to 40. I don't believe the current Blizzard UI allows you to see all 40 debuffs at the same time, but they're there.
Q: How do curses and/or DoTs stack?
A: Corruption, immolate, CoA and CoD can be cast by as many warlocks as you like, taking into account the debuff limit.
There can, however, only be one CoS, CoEl, CoW or CoR be on each mob at once. If another Warlock tries to cast CoS, CoEl, CoW, CoEx, or CoR on the same mob, it will overwrite the previous Warlock's curse. The effects of CoS and CoEl apply to anybody dealing the related schools of damage.
Q: If I fire a Shadow Bolt, and then Curse of Shadows the target before the bolt lands, will that Shadow Bolt benefit from CoS?
A: No. The Shadow Bolt's damage is calculated the moment you finish casting the spell, meaning the damage has already been determined while the bolt is moving towards the target.
Q: Why would you ever cast Hellfire?
A: Hellfire doesn't see quite as much use anymore, now that we have Seed of Corruption. However, before 70 and in certain situations after 70, you may find a time to use it. Hellfire is made to be a secondary AoE - you use it to support the Mage's damage while he has the AoE agro. In many situations this helps despite the damage from Hellfire; you're finishing the battle earlier and it will be easier on the Mage's mana pool.
Q: Why would you ever cast Searing Pain?
A: Searing Pain is considered by many to be a primarily PvP spell. However, it still has its uses in PvE since you can use it to tank certain encounters and pull agro off the healer or your pet other situations.
Q: Why would you ever cast a high ranked Drain Soul?
A: Don't bother, it's a waste of mana. Drain Soul has a high +dmg coefficient, but keep in mind that it is a channeled spell that lasts 15 seconds - the DPS will be far lower than that of a Drain Life.
Q: Why would I ever want to use Fear in an instance?
A: Fear is actually a decent CC in instances, but it's a hassle. It's usable against a lot of mobs and can save your group from a wipe in certain situations. When you cast Curse of Recklessness on a Feared target, the target will act as if it isn't Feared. However, the Fear debuff remains on the target, so if you replace the CoR, it will start running away again. By using this trick to your advantage, you can make sure your Feared mob does not run into another pack. The best curse to replace CoR with is Curse of Exhaustion.
Q: Once I get Fel Armor, is Demon Armor still useful?
A: Demon Armor will net you about 5% physical damage mitigation at 70. In most situations, this is not worth the healing bonus and the damage from Fel Armor.
Q: How does Shadowburn work?
A: The shard-gaining mechanic of Shadowburn was changed in patch 1.8. Shadowburn now adds a debuff to the target for 5 seconds, and if that target dies while the debuff is it, you will gain a shard. Using this effect with Drain Soul will allow you to gain two shards (...with a net gain of ONE).
Shadowburn used to deal its damage, then deal a 1 damage "check" soon after, and if the damage fails to hit the mob (as in it's dead), you gain a shard. This system was pretty unreliable and made Shadowburn slightly frustrating to use in PvP. It's not 100% fixed still, though - there are still situations where you can cast Shadowburn and not gain back your shard, even if the target is dead.
Q: How does Curse of Doom work?
A: Curse of Doom is basically a DoT with a single tick. This means a couple of things:
-Curse of Doom CANNOT crit. I know you hit Curator for 50k with CoD. No, that was a HIT.
-For CoD to benefit from DEBUFFS like Improved Shadow Bolt and Misery, the debuff has to up when it ticks (as opposed to when you first cast it)
-When CoD to benefit from BUFFS like trinkets and Power Infusion, the buff has to be up when you cast the spell (as opposed to trinketing just before the damage occurs)
Q: How does Dark Pact work?
A: Dark Pact simply drains a portion of mana from your pet and adds it to your mana pool. It scales with +shadow gear [Note: Need coefficient]
Q: How does Seed of Corruption work?
A: Seed of Corruption starts off as a DoT, but with a missle graphic. After the target takes 1044 damage (from almost ANY source besides Life Tapping, falling, and other random things), Seed of Corruption deals AoE damage to enemies near the target. A few other notes:
-The target does NOT take the AoE damage, only enemies around him
-The damage from one SoC will NOT count towards the 1044 damage to proc other SoC's, so one SoC cannot proc another.
Q: How does Life Tap scale with +shadow gear?
A: Both the health cost and mana cost are increased, meaning you lose more health, but your mana regeneration rate is much faster.
Other things
Q: What about shard bags?
A: They're just big bags that can only hold shards and sort them out for you. They come in the 20, 24, and 28 slot variety. The average cost of them is about 4g, 50g, and over 1000g, depending on how much raiding the server does. No, that is not a typo - the 28 slotter requires lots of MC and ZG mats that really bump the cost to near or over 1000g.
Shard bags currently have a "shard counter" on them, but they only show the number of shards in the bag, and not in the rest of your inventory. Shard Tracker Ressurection FTW.
You can only equip one shard bag at a time.
In a somewhat recent patch, they have added shard bags as additional rewards for the Warlock pet quests at level 20 and 30. Yay!
