When building a Warlock for PvP, it isn’t enough that it has a wide assortment of skills or good DPS. It has to be perfectly geared for melee. You will never know what class would hit you or in what manner so it is best that you have your best offensive and defensive attacks. So, which Warlock PvP build is the best build?
The best PvP Warlock has to have a good mix of high DoT and DPS, spells and curses, pushback abilities, and decent maximum damage output for close range combat.
Well, that’s the ideal spec and isn’t necessarily possible to realize. After all, Warlocks are by no means designed for melee. Because of this, they work better as PvE fighters and not as PvP warriors. If you want to gear up your Warlock for PvP, you have to go the extra mile of enhancing all its abilities suitable for close ranged combat and melee. This basically gives you just two options – the Affliction build and the Destruction build. Although you may also find some decent talents in the Demonology build, most talents here were engineered for power leveling, not for PvP’ing.
Affliction Build In this build, there are several talents in each tier which you may find interesting. These are damage-dealing talents like Amplify Curse and Improved Curse of Agony, Corruption and Nightfall for reducing the casting time of certain spells, Grim Reach which essentially improves the range of your attacks, and Improved Life Tap which gives you extra mana boost.
Destruction Build This build is, perhaps, your best hand when making a PvP Warlock. Complete with destruction spells, decent Shadow bolt and Fire bolt, and an ability that works to make your imp more efficient, this skill tree is definitely your best hand when building a PvP Warlock.
The Destruction Warlock has an assortment of abilities that can make you a better damage dealer. These include abilities such as Improved Shadow Bolt for increasing the critical strike produced by your Shadow bolt; Devastation which gives 5% boost to your Destruction spells; Ruin which allows extra damage bonus to your Destruction spells; Shadowburn which increases your Shadow Damage; and a talent that increases the damage inflicted by your Immolate spells by up to 10%, the Improved Immolate. For higher-level Destruction Warlocks, talents such as Shadow and Flame, Empowered Imp, Fire and Brimstone and Chaos Bolt make your character the ultimate fighting machine.
There are also some decent skills that help keep your mana pool filled like Improved Soul leech, skills that reduces the casting time of your Immolate spells and Shadow Bolt such as Bane, Improved Fire Bolt that reduces the casting time of Fire bolt hurled by your imp, and Intensity which reduces the pushback effect of attacks you suffer.
Whether you choose Affliction over Destruction, which is arguably the best Warlock PvP build, it is best to remember that you always have to attain a certain degree of balance between maximum damage output and keeping your opponents at a safe distance.
Warlocks aren’t made exactly for PvP environments as they often have more talents that veer towards PvE. However, there are ways to manipulate the builds of this class to attain the best Warlock PvP build. Check out the tricks here.