• DS/SnF (0/21/40) - *Nuke Spec / Destruction*
  http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/warlock/talents.html?0000000000000000000002050030023050100000000505000512200510531050
  
  Pros: High damage, very versatile, biggest numbers.
  
  Cons: No instant Corruption. No Improved Life Tap; mana inefficient. VERY dependant on you not being on imp duty. If your guild forces you to have an imp out, don't use this build.
  
  Gear: As much +damage/+shadow as possible. +crit and +hit are also important, as usual.
  
  Weapons of Choice: You can either go Immolate + Incinerate, or straight up Shadow Bolt spam. Shadow Bolt is higher damage because it receives a larger +damage bonus (86% compared to 71% for Incinerate), but Incinerate is about 20% more mana efficient which is important in this build due to the lack of Improved Life Tap.
  
  Summary: If nuking is your style, this build is for you. In fact, this build is a direct replacement for the 7/21/21+2 (DS/Ruin) warlocks of the pre-Burning Crusade era. DS/SnF draws its immense direct damage power from nuke-enhancing talents such as Shadow and Flame, Backlash, Emberstorm, Ruin, and Demonic Sacrifice (Succubus/Imp). One obvious drawback is that you cannot have a pet out - and in cases where it's necessary to be on imp duty for an encounter, you gimp your damage done by 15%. Two other big things you'll have to live without are instant Corruptions and Improved Life Tap, both staples of the original DS/Ruin build.
  
  With this build, your main tools are Incinerate (boosted by regular Immolates) and/or Shadow Bolt. Incinerate benefits 15% less from your +damage gear, but is 20% more mana efficient. A few of your talents are at odds with each other. For example, SB doesn't benefit from Emberstorm, and Incinerate doesn't benefit from Improved Shadow Bolt. Your best bet is to use your brain and use one or the other (or both) based on the situation at hand.
  
  You can also have Curse of Agony up at all times to enhance your dps, but chances are you'll be stuck on CoS/CoE/CoR duty since it's better raid dps for your affliction locks to have all of their DoTs up.
  
  This build is also one of the most versatile; you can sacrifice different pets depending on the situation. If you're going to be AOEing, sacrifice the imp for +15% fire damage. On long boss fights where your raid can't support your Life Taps, sacrifice a voidwalker for health regen.
  
  
  
  
• UA/DR (43/0/18) - *DoT Spec / Affliction*
  http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/warlock/talents.html?5502122012235105510010000000000000000000000505000510200000000000
  
  Pros: High damage, can have imp out, very mana efficient, awesome for multiple targets, will be helping out your raid with 5/5 Shadow Embrace.
  
  Cons: Can't think of any at the moment.
  
  Gear: As much +damage/+shadow as possible. +hit is important up to a certain point (check the Gear section for more info), but less so than other specs since you have 5/5 Suppression. +crit is even less important since DoTs cannot crit.
  
  Weapons of Choice: Corruption, Curse of Agony, Siphon Life, Unstable Affliction, Drain Life, and Shadow Bolt.
  
  Summary: For all of the warlocks out there, your time has come! Affliction is now a genuinely viable raid spec with some amazing damage over time power, especially since the debuff limit for mobs is 40 so you can rest assured your debuffs won't be wiped off by that hunter's stupid Serpent Sting. CoA, Corruption, Siphon Life, and UA are staples of this build, and with 12 total affliction "effects" on your target (from all warlocks in your raid), you can then proceed to drain life for 60% more effectiveness. Keep in mind that Shadow Embrace counts as an affliction effect. Therefore, if there's more than one affliction lock in your raid/guild, only one of you should spec 5/5 Shadow Embrace, and the others should put only 1 point into it and the 4 remaining points somewhere else.
  
  People have been debating about the dps viability of Drain Life with this build versus Shadow Bolt spamming after putting up the DoTs. It looks like SB is still the king, although Drain Life will definitely pack a punch. The nice thing about this build is that you still have Bane, so you won't feel gimped in the SB department. Also, I feel that it's necessary to note that UA does indeed contribute more to your dps than Ruin would, so you can rest easy knowing your 41st point was well spent.
  
  The biggest pro of this build is that you will have incredible mana regen capabilities with all of the leeching skills (Drain Life, Siphon Life) and Dark Pact. This build is the polar opposite of DS/SnF as far as mana efficiency goes.
  
  
  
  
• DT/Ruin (0/40/21) - *Demonology*
  http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/warlock/talents.html?0000000000000000000000350030133250100501350505000512200010000000
  
  
  

• Hits which are resisted do not eat up a charge.
  
• The debuff is occassionally resisted separate to the damage spell itself (ie, the Shadow Bolt will still hit, but the Shadow Vulnerability won't go up).
  
• Crits will reset the counter to 4 charges.
  
• Can be consumed by any Shadow Spell such as Shadowburn and Death Coil.
  
• Since patch 1.11, DoTs no longer eat up the charges. However, DoTs still DO benefit from the +20% shadow damage as long as the effect is active.
  
• ISB slightly increases the value of each +1% crit you get from gear.
  

• "Aggro" is whoever the mob is attacking. "Threat" is a numerical value the mob assigns to each player it is threatened by. The mob keeps track of all players with threat on its threat list.
  
• Nearly everything you do offensively or defensively generates threat. Generally, 1 point of damage = 1 threat. 1 point of healing = .5 threat. So if your Shadow Bolt hits for 1340, you now have increased your aggro on the mob's threat list by 1340.
  
• To pull aggro, a player in melee range of the mob has to exceed 110% threat of the person currently tanking. A player outside of melee range (often casters such as warlocks) has to exceed 130% threat of the person currently tanking.
  
• Your goal, during raids, is to do as much damage as you can to the mob without getting aggro - that is - passing the tank on the threat list by generating more than 30% threat than him, or you risk either dying or wiping the raid in position-sensitive encounters.
  
• Certain spells have a special threat modifier, such as Searing Pain which deals 200% the amount of threat per damage (2 threat per 1 damage).
  
• Aside from the 1 threat per damage DoTs cause, there is also an extra "cast threat" which is applied the moment you cast it, which is why you will often find a mob targetting you after laying on a dot before the tank obtains initial aggro. This number is pretty small though, so it's not a big deal. See a few questions down for approximate "cast threat" values for some spells.
  

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Q u o t e:
[...] Id like to make one additional clarification to quell any arguments that are still raging: Life Tap does not generate threat.

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• Talents: Master Demonologist (20%), Improved Drain Soul (5/10% Affliction), Destructive Reach (5/10% Destruction)
  
• Class Set: 8/8 Nemesis (20%)
  
• Other Classes' Abilities: Blessing of Salvation (30%, Paladin blessing) OR Tranquil Air Totem (20%, Shaman totem)
  
• Enchants: Subtlety cloak enchant (2%)
  
• Gear: Fetish of the Sand Reaver trinket (70% for 20 sec., 3 min cooldown); Grace of Earth trinket (-650 threat to enemies within 30 yards, 5 min. cooldown)
  

• Direct damage spells - Shadow Bolt takes 3 seconds to cast (without talents), so it receives (3 / 3.5) = 86% of the damage bonus. If you had +100 damage gear, your Shadow Bolt (Rank 10) would hit for an average of 510 + 86 = 596 damage. Talents, buffs, and debuffs do not affect how the damage bonus is calculated, so Bane does not affect Shadow Bolt's damage bonus. As of patch 2.0.1, there is no longer a cap of 3.5 seconds max to determine how much bonus spells get. Soul Fire, for example, receives 6 sec / 3.5 = 1.71 = 171% of the damage bonus.
  
  
• Instant cast spells, such as Shadowburn are considered to have a minimum of 1.5 sec casting time. Example: Shadowburn would be (1.5 / 3.5) = 43% damage bonus.
  
  
• DoTs receive (duration / 15) of the damage bonus, spread over each of its ticks. Example: "DoT X" lasts for 18 seconds, so it receives 18 / 15 = 1.2 = 120% of the damage bonus. Since DoT X is spread over six ticks, each tick receives 120% / 6 = 20% of the damage bonus. (Note: Corruption, Curse of Agony, and Curse of Doom were nerfed in patch 2.0.3 (1/9/07) with hardcoded coefficients, so that they no longer observe the above rule for DoTs)
  
  
• Hybrid spells that both deal damage and heal the caster only receive 50% of what they "should". This is because although you are damaging for 50% more, you are also healing for 50% more. The health spread between you and your opponent therefore increases by 100% of the damage bonus. Drain Life and Siphon Life are both DoTs that are affected this way. Death Coil, on the other hand, is not a DoT but an instant cast spell, so it receives 43% (as an instant cast spell) divided by 2 = 21%.
  
  
• AoE spells are calculated like direct damage spells, except they only receive 1/3 or 33% of what they "should", spread over each tick. Rain of Fire, for, example is 8 sec / 3.5 = 2.29; 2.29 * 1/3 = 76%.
  
  
• Life Tap - Life Tap receives 80% of your bonus spell damage effects. Talents and items can further modify those values. Rank 1 and 2 receive reduced effect (38% and 68% respectively). Life Tap benefits from +damage/+shadow gear and buffs that increase your shadow damage by a fixed amount (ie ToEP, shadow power potions, flask of supreme power, etc.). It does not benefit from percent-based buffs and talents such as DS, SM, and Power Infusion. Improved Life Tap is calculated after +damage gear. To calculate your Life Taps, use the following math:
  
  Without Improved Life Tap: x = [420 + (+dmg * .8)]
  With Improved Life Tap: (x * 1.20) mana for x health
  

• Affliction
  Corruption - 93%
  Curse of Agony - 120%
  Curse of Doom - 200%
  Dark Pact - 96%
  Death Coil - 21%
  Drain Life - 71.5%
  Drain Soul - 215%
  Life Tap - 80%
  Siphon Life - 100%
  Unstable Affliction - 120%
  
  
• Destruction
  Conflagrate - 43%
  Hellfire - 141%
  Immolate* - 20% direct damage, 65% spread over the DoT
  Rain of Fire - 76%
  Searing Pain - 43%
  Shadow Bolt - 86%
  Shadowburn - 43%
  Shadowfury - 14%
  Soul Fire - 171%
  

• Direct damage component:
  (2 / 3.5) = 57.14%
  [279 / (279 + 510)] = 35% of Immolate's total damage dealt
  .57 * .35 = 20% total damage bonus
  
  
• DoT component:
  100% - 35% = 65% of Immolate's total damage dealt, and since DoTs get 100% of the damage bonus, the DoT part of Immolate gets the full 65%.
  

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Q u o t e:

PvP Resistance:
Vs. +0 level player (same level): 4%
Vs. +1 level player: 5%
Vs. +2 level player: 6%
Vs. +3 level player: 13%
And so on (+7% for each additional level)

PVE Resistance:
Vs. +0 level mob (same level): 4%
Vs. +1 level mob: 5%
Vs. +2 level mob: 6%
Vs. +3 level mob: 17%
And so on (+11% for each additional level)

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• Every additional +crit you get from gear decreases the hit rate. So you are now critting for 1% where you would have been hitting for normal damage before.
  
• Every additional +hit you get from gear decreases the resist rate. So you are now hitting for 1% where you would have been resisted completely before.
  

• Binary spells are spells that have two outcomes (which is where the name comes from): they either hit for full effect or miss completely. The binary spells in WoW are those that have a non-damaging component to it, such as Frostbolt (snare effect) and Death Coil (leech effect). These spells cannot be partially resisted, they either hit for 100% of their damage or they miss. All of our Affliction spells are binary on application.
  
  
• Non-binary spells are spells that only have a damaging component. Shadow Bolt is a non-binary spell since it only does damage. Immolate is a non-binary spell since both the direct damage and DoT portions only do damage. Non-binary spells can be partially resisted.
  

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Q u o t e:

PvP Resistance:
vs +0 level player (same level): 4%
vs +1 level player: 5%
vs +2 level player: 6%
vs +3 level player: 13%
And so on (+7% for each additional level)

PVE Resistance:
vs +0 level mob (same level): 4%
vs +1 level mob: 5%
vs +2 level mob: 6%
vs +3 level mob: 17%
And so on (+11% for each additional level)

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• First Roll: The first roll is based on the level difference between you and your target (aka your "chance to hit"). Since the mob is three levels higher than you, you will hit 83% of the time and miss 17% of the time (see the PvE table above). You can increase your chance to hit for this check through +hit gear. Let's say you equip +6% hit from gear. You will now hit for 83 + 6 = 89% of the time and miss 11% of the time. Note that if you miss during this roll, it will say "RESIST" even though your spell wasn't technically resisted.
  
  Because of the 99% hit chance cap, for PvE you would need +16% hit from gear for maximum effectiveness. Any more than that and the extra +hit is wasted. For PvP, at level 60 you would only need +3% hit gear to maximize your hit chance.
  
  
• Second Roll: The second roll is based on your level and the resistance rating of your target. The "resistance rating" is how much Shadow Resistance he has, for example. During the second roll, non-binary spells can be resisted for 0% (full damage taken), 25%, 50%, 75%, or 100% (full damage resisted) of their regular damage. Here is a formula to calculate "average resistance" (how much damage you or your target will resist, over time).
  
  Formula
  Target's Average Resistance = [Target's Resistance Rating / (Caster's Level * 5)] * 0.75
  
  Average resistance means the amount of damage resisted by the target over time. The higher your average fire resistance, the more often you will resist fire spells for high percentages such as 50%, 75%, or 100%. If you have low average resistance, you will resist most often for 0% or 25%, but you will still have a small chance of resisting for 50%, 75%, and 100%. Average resistance may be no higher than 75%. This is why versus level 63 mobs in resistance intensive fights like Ragnaros or Huhuran, you can max out your average resistance by getting 315 of the respective resistance type (fire resistance, nature resistance, etc). Plugging in 75% = [x / (63 * 5)] * .75, you get x = 315. Any more than 315 and the extra resistance gear is wasted.
  
  The Target's Resistance can be negated through -resist gear and curses such as CoS and CoE. By using -resist gear you can decrease the amount of damage resisted by your target. Using Ogdin's resistance analysis mod GLOCK (http://www.curse-gaming.com/en/wow/addons-4169-1-glock-mob-magical-defense-analysis.html), you can figure out how much each boss or mob's resistance rating is and, using the formula above, figure out how much -resist gear you should use on specific encounters.
  
  
• Note: It has been tested that mobs will gain an additional 8 spell resistances for each level above you (so +24 resistance rating for level 63 mobs). These level based resistances cannot be negated by any means, resulting in about a 5.5% reduction in overall dps over a fight. It has not been confirmed whether this is a bug or working as intended feature, but it apparently was introduced in patch 1.09 when negative resistances were removed. These additional resistances factor into the formula for the Second Roll. For more reading on this somewhat controversial subject, read:
  
  
  
  • http://forums.subcreation.net/viewtopic.php?t=482
    
  • http://forums-en.wow-europe.com/thread.aspx?FN=wow-mage-en&T=132218
    
  
  

• One Roll: There is only one roll for binary spells since it either hits for full effect or misses completely. There are no partial resists involved so it's somewhat less complicated to calculate compared to non-binary spells. This roll is based on your the level difference between you and your target (aka your "chance to hit") and the resistance rating of your target. Chance to hit and resistance rating were both previously explained in the Non-Binary Spells section above.
  
  Formula
  Chance to land your binary spell = (Chance to hit) * [100 - (Target's Resistance * .25)]
  
  For example, if your target mob is level 63 and you have +6% hit from gear, your chance to hit would be 89%. Let's say his shadow resistance rating is 75. The chance for your Death Coil to land would be .89 * [100 - (75 * .25)] = 72%.
  
  You can reduce the chance of your target to resist your binary spells through +hit gear and -resist gear. Since most of our binary spells are also Affliction spells, you can also put points into the Suppression talent to reduce chance of resists.
  
  It seems that Suppression is able to transcend the 99% hit cap (although this may have changed in a recent patch). In PvP, you have a 96% chance to hit your same level opponent. If you have no +hit gear, but have five points in Suppression, your chance to hit increases to 106%. If your target has less than 22 resistance rating, you will land 1.06 * [100 - (22 * .25)] = 100% of your Affliction spells on him.
  

DoTs are binary spells whose ticks can be partially resisted. This is contrary to the popular misconception that DoTs always hit for 100% damage. They are binary in that the initial cast of the spell either hits the target or it is resisted, and this is calculated as a binary spell. After the DoT lands, each tick is subject to the non-binary "Second Roll" - that is, the tick can be resisted for 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, or 100% damage. Since the target would require a pretty good amount of shadow resistance for this to happen, these partial resistances don't occur frequently.

This effect specifically applies to Corruption, Curse of Agony, and I assume Curse of Doom. The ticks of Siphon Life are binary (they have a non-damaging component: leech), so Siphon Life ticks cannot be partially resisted.

• Assign curses. Decide who puts up CoS, CoE, CoR, and dots for the current raid. This way you can all get used to putting up the same debuff instead of spending ten minutes every raid picking and choosing.
  
• Call out summons, soulstones, and healthstones. For example, when someone in raid chat requests a summon, you can simply say "I got it" in the warlock channel and no double summons will ensue.