Alliance Warlock?

[Handlock]

If you intend to do serious PvP of any kind, being alliance is a problem. Almost every PvPer will be undead (for the classes that can) and it'll take a considerable bite out of your chance to win any given fight. It's not impossible to do well as an alliance warlock, but it's a -20% disadvantage or something.

[Numi]

If you intend to do serious PvP of any kind, being alliance is a problem. Almost every PvPer will be undead (for the classes that can) and it'll take a considerable bite out of your chance to win any given fight. It's not impossible to do well as an alliance warlock, but it's a -20% disadvantage or something.

in 1v1 scenarios, undeads have a slight advantage yes. But then gnomes has a slight advantage vs rogues and warriors compared to undead, both of which I consider to be bigger threat to us than other warlocks (as the other warlocks have more important targets to take care of than you).

In ANY GIVEN bg scenario, the pure reason that alliance has paladins means an alliance warlocks win chances will be higher. So if you want to win 1v1's and that's all you care about, go Undead. If you ever want to PvE, Alliance.

Honestly, just play what you want to play, they're all slightly different and the slight difference won't make a difference, skill & gear >>>>>>>> racials.

[Noselacri]

It's a pretty big deal. Like imagine living in a world where most horde have an extra trinket slot with a PvP trinket (on a 2m cooldown instead of the actual PvP trinket's 5m) that they're saving just for you. Some people will try to claim that it's not that important, but it is. Think of it like this:

PvP trinket is great, right? Most players use it in BGs. It's a huge boost to your PvP performance. It's not some tiny, insignificant thing that you can forgo without any consequence, it's a key part of optimizing yourself for PvP. Anytime you get to use your trinket to counter someone's CC, your chance of winning/surviving skyrockets.

WOTF is an extra trinket. From the warlock's perspective, it's actually way better than trinket because in addition the much shorter cooldown, WOTF doesn't get used on things like stuns and sheeps. Everybody who has this "trinket" always saves it for a fear, so this ability's value is even greater than that of the PvP trinket as far as enemy warlocks are concerned.

So think of it like this: is PvP trinket good against the classes to whom it applies? Yes. And WOTF is way, way better than that against warlocks.

[Numi]

So think of it like this: is PvP trinket good against the classes to whom it applies? Yes. And WOTF is way, way better than that against warlocks.

You're missing the single most important thing. You'll never get to pvp with a PALADIN. Which trust me, is worth so much more than a pvp trinket. Best PvP healers and utility by far.

[Aethelwulf]

Shamans have Chain Heal. For PvP healing, it can't be beat. They also provide Grounding Totem and the like.

Paladins just aren't the ace in the hole you make them out to be. And you're still overlooking the fact that anything a Paladin contributes for a Warlock, he can also contribute for a Mage. Frankly, you'd be better off playing a Mage than a Warlock on the alliance side. There is one special Paladin+Warlock trick though: BoP+Conc Aura+Spellstone+Hellfire. With 2/2 intensity it gets fairly nasty. But you can still get CC'd, interrupted, silenced, etc. right out of it, or they could just run away. The higher the PvP skill level, the less viable the combo.

[Noselacri]

So think of it like this: is PvP trinket good against the classes to whom it applies? Yes. And WOTF is way, way better than that against warlocks.

You're missing the single most important thing. You'll never get to pvp with a PALADIN. Which trust me, is worth so much more than a pvp trinket. Best PvP healers and utility by far.

That's not much consolation for a warlock who instead has to play against shamans. Paladins are useful but I think you overrate them, they aren't powerhouses. There's a reason horde is widely regarded as the superior PvP faction in this era. As a warlock, I'd probably rather play against paladins than shamans. Paladins are nice for classes that benefit significantly from Blessing of Freedom, and that's honestly about it.

Since a) horde is objectively stronger than alliance and b) paladin doesn't help warlock any more than shaman hinders warlock, playing with paladins isn't something I'd be that thrilled about unless I'm playing a class that synergizes specifically with paladins. This is especially true if you don't run premades, because healers in PUGs are usually an afterthought and not something you can expect to benefit much from.

[diogenes]

[Paladins are useful but I think you overrate them, they aren't powerhouses. There's a reason horde is widely regarded as the superior PvP faction in this era.

This is a side note, but I 100% dispute that horde is "superior," I don't care what is "widely regarded" I care about what is actually true. While I wouldn't consider alliance far superior, i dont even know if I'd consider them better, but I would say horde=offensive alliance=defensive. The difference between paladins and shamans should make this fact apparent to anyone who has a rudimentary understanding of the two classes.

I will make the argument that I ally have the stronger racials, namely the dwarves and gnomes. Escape artist and stoneform are easily the most under rated racials, and I would argue, are actually better than wotf hands down.

[Numi]

Orc stun resist better than wotf.

Yea exactly, if you're a horde warlock, you should be orc because that racial is much much better for you than the undead one. There's many classes where this is true, like Warriors, Hunter, Shaman, Priest, etc. (I know undead and orcs can't be many of those things) These are some examples of classes that benefits a lot more from a chance to resist a stun over a break fear on command thing.

[Wolfrig]

Does Life Tap scale with spellpower? Is there any way, aside from the talents, to make it give more mana for the same amounth of health?

[Aethelwulf]

Life Tap scales with spellpower. Talents improve the multiplier. Aside from that there are Warlock set bonuses from 8piece Felheart (which reduces the cost of all shadow spells including Life Tap by 15%) and 8piece Plagueheart (which is Naxx gear and reduces Life Tap by 12%).