Warrior PvP guide

Introduction

(In Patch 3.1)
In PvP, many classes will avoid melee combat which will make defensive equipment significantly less usable, as well as Protection talents.

The warrior is a very capable player killer with a mix of strong offensive and defensive abilities and excellent burst damage. The class has good attack speed and mobility and can close on a target quickly, combine this with an essential pvp debuff of 50% less healing on his target and a talented Overpower debuff on healers reducing their effectiveness by another 50%, makes the class very dangerous. The warrior always does damage and does not need to break for mana. The more damage warriors take the stronger they become, give them a healer and they become one of the best group pvp classes. Warriors have retribution damage: if he suffers damage, he gains rage and his strikes will become much more deadly. A warrior's major problem is often to avoid being kited by more ranged-oriented classes or being starved for rage. For this, combat controlling abilities such as Hamstring and Intercept are excellent remedies, also this simple array of abilities means damage can be maintained even with limited rage.

These are general guidelines for PvP warriors.

Always have Battle Shout applied in any fight - it's a big damage bonus! Or you can use Commanding Shout, for a health buff (recommended in arenas). Although this is open to debate, in PvP most warriors use a slow, high-DPS 2H weapon, and have spent talents mostly in Arms for Mortal Strike, Bladestorm, Sudden Death and his weapon specialization (MS). Few points are spent in the Fury tree, like Cruelty (+ crit chance). Many warriors take Tactical Mastery in the Arms tree to maintain Rage when switching stances in battle, but most of the time you (as a warrior) will be fighting in Battle Stance.

This setup makes Heroic Strike less useful. In WoTLK, Heroic Strike became a tanking skill. It costs half the rage of Mortal Strike, true, but Mortal Strike is an instant attack and therefore is an extra 'free hit'. This is the advantage of having a slow, heavy-hitting weapon as MS is unaffected by weapon speed. Heroic strike gives additional damage to a swing you get. MS also does more damage and decreases the effectiveness of any heals. You will often find yourself with extra rage to 'dump' on your target while MS is cooling down. If this is the case, spend some rage on other abilities, like Sunder Armor, talented Slam, Demoralizing Shout and Thunder Clap. When fighting casters, never use all your rage; you may have to interrupt a spell at any time.

The use of Heroic Strike however does vary, if used correctly and timed with Mortal Strike can allow you to hit your opponent twice in rapid succession. Since one is an instant, and the other a free swing attack, they can hit directly one after the other for a large burst of heavy damage. However, this is extremely taxing on your rage meter, but well worth the effort in high-rage situations, a fairly common event in PvP. It effectively adds a lot of extra damage to your burst capability.

Your talent build should comprise of the following essentials in the Arms tree: Mortal Strike, Improved Overpower, Deep Wounds, Impale, Iron Will, Taste for Blood, Second Wind, Unrelenting Assault, Juggernaut, Sudden Death, Bladestorm and your Weapon Specialization.

Which weapon specialization you take is largely personal preference and has been the subject of hot debate. Mace specialization now is a direct counter to resilience since Patch 3.0.2 where it removes your opponent's armor constantly, much the same way to Executioner. However we have compiled some advice on which weapon to choose:

1. Axes and Poleaxes: Use when you want to surprise your target with high-end burst damage. Poleaxe Specialization gives you +5% critical chance, and your enemy must have more than 410 resilience to reduce it. Orc warriors have an expertise bonus when using axes.
   
2. Swords: Specializing in swords gives you a chance to hit your opponent twice in one hit. It's a low rate, but it will be, roughly, a 5% bonus damage. Humans have an expertise bonus when using swords.
   
   
3. Maces: Used by warriors to increase overall DPS. 15% armor reduction will be deadly against cloth targets. Recommended only if you have at least a 30% critical strike chance.
   

The patch changes that really apply to warrior PvP are the following abilities:

1. Recklessness, Retaliation and Shield Wall being changed to 5 minutes, and no longer share a global Cool-down. This means they are now usable in PvP.
   
2. Sudden Death A 9% chance to allow the execute ability after any hit. It's effect will not damage like an execution on targets less than 20%, but can crit up to 6500 (at least 20% of target health).
   
   
3. Bladestorm Essentially a warrior version of a BM hunters CDs, you are immune to all stun and CC, while constantly whirlwinding your enemies. It has many, many pvp uses.
   

Recklessness should be used on cloth wearers and casters, or people who aren't hitting you back with melee attacks. It is very useful when combined with execute allowing for guaranteed critical strikes which can take out your enemy instantly. Use macros on your skills to use Recklessness, make sure it's always up.

Retaliation is best used against melee classes, such as rogues, other warriors and even Warlocks in some situations. It is a very good defensive ability and can force people to keep a healthy distance from you.

Shield Wall is best used when you're caught off-guard by a ranged class which is damaging you heavily from afar. Useful for outlasting damaging attacks from enemies when they use their best CDs, examples include BM hunters, demon form warlocks, mages and elemental shamans.

General PvP Tactics

In PvP, warriors primarily focus on:

1. Keeping enemies within melee attack range (and facing the enemy).
   
2. Proper counters to enemies abilities, or proper usage of ability-attacks.
   

Against ranged classes, (Mage, Hunter, Warlock, Priest, casting Druid, Elemental Shaman) the major theme in the battle is whether the warrior can keep the target within, or at least close to, melee range. While in melee, the warrior should be dealing significantly more damage to the low armor foe. Additionally, any non-instant spells cast by the warrior's opponent are in danger of being interrupted or effectiveness reduced. If the target is kept within melee range, the secondary requirement for a warrior win revolves around properly interrupting key spells or at least put a talented overpower debuff. Intimidating Shout can be used from 10 yards away and will stop the targeted enemy in place. This is very useful for closing the gap on ranged attacker or stopping them from damaging you while you wait for an immobilize effect to wear off.

Against melee classes, (Rogue, Warrior, Shaman, Paladin, melee Druid), the warrior tactics are much more class-specific. The common tool against all melee enemies is Disarm. This ability will deny enemy abilities that require a melee weapon (there are many of these for these melee classes), as well as maximize damage differential in the warrior's favor. The timing of Disarming a rogue is critical to preventing of the rogue's finishing move, whereas against Shaman and Paladin, you just want to get in this move as often as you can. Other than Disarm, increased melee combat means more "swings" of the melee weapons by both warrior and foe, providing more opportunities to use the high-value/rage warrior counterattacks of Overpower and Revenge (Revenge is only worthwhile if stun-talent added, and can be caused by shield-block). These two counterattacks can be the difference if they are used within their relatively small time windows (management of weapons and stances required).

Rogue

Notable Rogue Abilities:

• Vanish (Rend damage-over-time breaks stealth.)
  
• Stun Attacks: Gouge, Kidney Shot, Cheap Shot
  
  
• High Damage Finishing Moves: Eviscerate, Envenom
  
• Weapon Poisons: Crippling Poison
  
• Damage over time (DoT) bleed attacks: Garrote, Rupture
  
• Powerful cooldown abilities: Evasion, Adrenaline Rush, Blind
  
  

Rogues deal tons of damage and have lots of ways to control the fight. However since they must get down and dirty with your plate-covered self to do this; unless a Rogue catches you completely unaware, you will have a fairly easy time whacking them down if you know what you're doing and keep your head cool.

Use a two handed weapon and Overpower as much as possible. Rogues dodge quite a bit because most rogues stack agility which simply makes them dodge. Remember to activate Beserker Rage before you switch to Battle Stance for Overpower, otherwise the rogue will Gouge you. You can use Hamstring and other instant attacks to 'probe' for a dodge. The improved overpower talent is amazingly effective, especially with a slow two handed weapon. Disarm can also be useful against rogues and it frequently surprises them and causes them to move away from you, which is the perfect time to Intercept.

Furthermore, many rogues will attempt to backstab you, or use any other attack through Stealthing, if you get your timing right, you can use a Demoralizing Shout or any other Area of Effect spell to remove their Stealth, if successful, you will have a large step ahead from the Rogue, since it's a large part of their Stun Lock tactics. The 'Second Wind' talent is very good at mitigating some of the damage done to you while incapacitated by one of the rogues stun lock abilities, but keep in mind that it cannot outheal a rogue's attacks. In order to avoid in-combat stealthing try to always have a Rend or Deep Wounds on the rogue.

Rogues' Gouge and Sap abilities are often used to buy them time, either to kill another target or regenerate their energy. If hit by either of these abilities while in Berserker Stance, you can activate Berserker Rage, giving you immunity to these Disorient effects and breaking you free to continue fighting. Since a rogue's lower armor makes it difficult for them to beat a warrior in a straight up fight, they often make good use of stuns and disorients to get in extra hits--by breaking a Gouge, you can often turn the battle in your favor.

Remember lots of the rogue's abilities revolve around positioning and by hamstringing him you seriously impair his ability to maneuver around you and use these abilities effectively. DON'T just stand still while fighting a rogue, run round, jump, spin about on the spot......anything you can do to make it difficult for him to use his incapacitate abilities on you, if he can't stun lock you he has no chance against you. Remember you have the upper hand in terms of damage and armor. As soon as it turns into a stand-up fight the rogue is simply outclassed.

A typical rogue fight goes like this:

First of all, most rogues are going to open up with a Sap. They generally do this to stop you from moving, which allows them to position themselves for their opener. In a ranked Arena situation a stealthed rogue that's sprinted over to your side and sapped one of your team-mates will often immediately throw even everything out of kilter, so try to have a strategy for rogue saps (in duels it's going to happen and there's not much you can do about it).

Almost all rogues are going to go with a full stunlock for their opener. The solution to this is to start in Defensive Stance with a sword and shield to mitigate their damage (sometimes not possible, but in the Arena always keep a macro for a shield and defensive stance handy, or a key bound). You can't do anything about the stuns. Do not trinket out of a stun in a one-on-one duel vs a rogue, because you are liable to eat a full-duration Blind which you can do nothing about while the rogue does something to regain health or re-stealths and in that case he gives himself the advantage.

For the rogue, it's a race to do as much damage as possible before you start laying the huge hits down, which means that they're very likely to blow their cooldowns fast. After the stun lock fades he'll likely pop Evasion to avoid most of your damage except for the occasional overpower or hit he doesn't dodge.

Despite what many rogues think, evasion is actually not a bad ability to use when versing warriors, unless the rogue has a remarkably low health pool. They will eat one or two overpower crit's and avoid the rest or most of the rest of your damage. Blowing evasion for them means that they will take one huge hit every few seconds and then avoid the rest, which is far better than being hit by everything. In other words, they'd prefer getting run over by a train once than to get smashed by a truck repeatedly.

Once the rogue pops Evasion get an overpower crit in and a Thunder Clap, then immediately switch to Defensive Stance and go into full tank mode. Demoralizing Shout on him first, then start spamming Shield Block and Piercing Howl (once again that macro comes in handy). I suggest disarming him too, but most of the time that's liable to be dodged as well anyway. I'd also suggest using an Intimidating Shout, but most rogues will be saving their trinket for that, especially against warriors.

After evasion has gone onto cool down, the rogue has very few options. They will attempt to Blind you and get away to restealth for a Round 2, but you can simply trinket out of that. You should always save your trinket for Blind. They can Vanish, but assuming you got at least one crit in, they'll have at least one Bleed effect on them which make it useless (if you're not specced into bleed effects for criticals then keep a rend up on them, otherwise you're just allowing them a huge advantage). If they pop evasion again, you can just stay in your Defensive Stance and mitigate their damage. If you have a good shield with a very high amount of armor and block (hence, why the PvP shields have ridiculous amounts of armor, block, and raw stamina compared to their PvE counterparts, not to mention resilience), they shouldn't be doing very much damage to you at all unless they're very well geared and you are not.

Warrior

Notable Warrior Abilities (Which you should know):

• Second Wind
  
• Death Wish
  
• Disarm
  
• Mortal Strike
  
  

Warrior abilities are a guessing game as to what their talent build is, in order to guess effectively you must base your assumptions on what gear they are wearing as well as what weapons they are using (or by the less reasonable way of engaging them and hoping they will reveal their higher talent tree abilities). In general, a warrior using a two hander will be Arms, dual wielding will be Fury, and a one hander and shield will be Protection.

The most basic rule in warrior vs warrior is: better gear wins. Warriors are one of the most gear-dependant classes ever and PvP is no exception. It's a DPS race to the finish.

Sword-specced warriors will most likely win against other warrior weapon-specs. The mace-stun might be useful for getting an extra hit in, say, but then Second Wind procs, which just gave the other warrior a healthy amount of rage, and about a HoT worth 10% of their life, which even with a Mortal Strike debuff on will very likely mitigate all damage that the mace-specced warrior is going to do while the other warrior is stunned. And resilence from PvP gear negates the 5% crit that axe/polearm spec grants.

Against a warrior, you just want to start out in a guard mode. Most warriors don't realise this - they simply charge into battle and whack away. Demo shout and Thunderclap, and immediately start stacking Sunder Armor. Stay in Berserker Stance and immediately Berserker Rage so that you take as much rage as possible.

At this point, a lot of the warriors reading this guide will say, "But...warrior vs warrior is just a DPS race, you have to kill him ASAP. Why stack sunder armor and waste rage like that?"

Well, I would agree with you, but there's one mechanism that works to your advantage: Rage.

You see, if you apply Thunder Clap and Demoralizing Shout to them, it cuts their DPS significantly. Less damage dealt = less rage gained = less abilities to use.

Also, if you're not attacking him directly too much (sunder armor does not do any direct damage) he's not taking that much damage either. Less damage taken = less rage gained = less abilities to use.

You don't even need to stack the full 5 sunders on the warrior - 3 is fine. At this point you should have enough rage built up - refresh your Peircing Howl and blow your soft cooldowns (Death Wish, DPS trinkets, and Blood Fury if you're an orc) and open up with a huge sustained burst of DPS(Mortal Strike + Heroic Strike, Whirlwind) using all your saved rage, which should easily match (if not overtake) the damage dealt to you in the time that you were stacking sunders.

Now, you two should be on an equal footing in terms of health, but he has a few stacks of Sunder Armor up on himself, which puts him at the disadvantage. You're in more of a position to win the DPS race now.

If you are prot then you should Charge then throw shield block followed by revenge(and if they are speced right this can stun you for a sec.) followed by demo shout, thunderclap, concusion blow(stuns you for 5 sec.) then devistate which is a damaging sunder armor, then shield slam. The reson you should do this and not really have to worry about the other warrior is because you will have alot more health and more armor. If you end up having trouble because the other guys gear is alot better than yours you should pop last stand and shield wall but only if you get below 25% health as not to waste it.

Note - I did not mention Disarm. Why? Because for some reason if you get disarmed, you can just siwtch to Defensive and disarm the other warrior too even if you're already disarmed. What a strange game mechanic. In my honest opinion, it's a waste of 30 rage.

Priest

Notable Priest Abilities:

• Power Word: Shield
  
• Mind Flay
  
• Holy Fire
  
• Devouring Plague
  
  
• Shadowguard
  
• Prayer of Healing
  
• Shadow Word: Pain
  
• Desperate Prayer
  
• Flash Heal
  
• Psychic Scream
  
• Mind Blast
  
• Mind Control
  

Holy/Discipline priests (i.e. pure healers) are usually overmatched by a Warrior, but Shadow priests are a different story. With the ability to jump out of their Fear using Berserker Rage and with use of Pummel to stop casting, combined with high physical damage that is the bane of casters it would seem that Warriors would have an easy time of them, but the combination of the defenses of a Priest (especially Power Word: Shield) combined with respectable damage of a type that warriors cannot mitigate can often make for an almost unbeatable combination. Beating on a Priest whose shield is up and who is draining the Warrior's life from behind it using Mind Flay is the definition of futility: the Shadow Priest can damage the Warrior, but the Warrior is powerless to respond. Nevertheless with a little luck, judicious use of Pummel to stop the larger, longer cast-time heals, and Bloodrage to recover from the loss of Rage while the Priest is bubbled, they can be defeated. As is usual with casters, a Warrior should try to get the jump on them with an initial Charge, fight always in Berserker Stance, and Hamstring them to keep them from getting out of melee range. If possible, it can help a great deal to save non-rage generating attacks for the shield, leaving your white attacks to generate rage when they can actually deal damage. Though the best advice for encountering a shadow priest is just to mount up and get out there if you can - there's no shame in a tactical retreat! You're 95% sure to lose unless you're seriously kitted out, which most of us aren't. Even with only half a health and mana bar they can often beat a full health warrior! A shadow priest is without doubt the warrior's worst enemy, even more so than the mage now - thanks to spell reflect.

Warlock

While you may often lose to a well-geared Warlock because of the heavily beefed-up damage-over-time spells they can spam onto you, which will eat your health away like popcorn, and the fact that most high-level warlocks have health pools exceedings yours, they are not entirely impossible to beat. To stand a chance against a Warlock you can't really afford to make any mistakes, and even then you can still lose if they don't either.

To fight against a warlock is to fight against the clock. The longer you fight the bigger the chance is that his DoT's will eat you up. So keep the initiative and attack him constantly. You can use your PvP-trinket to break his Death-Coil which will surprise most warlocks and still have your fear-breaking abilities ready. Always keep Hamstring on and try to interrupt his longer casts.

Additional notes: Since warlock play styles vary a great deal, it is very important to watch what spells your opponent is casting. If encountering lower damage dealt onto the lock than you would expect against a cloth player, the lock is most likely Soullink specced. If the warlock has a felguard out, he or she is definitely specced for soullink, and 20% of the damage you deal is transferred to the pet. Soullink is usually the hardest spec to deal with for a warrior since you're generating less rage and his dmg dealt to damage taken ration is in his favor. In a group situation such as arena it may be worthwhile to kill the warlock's pet, since they die quickly to focus fire or a few lucky crits. Destruction warlocks, while rare, can be even more deadly to a warrior if the warrior is not careful: Backlash makes for impressive burst damage. Generally you want to only deal physical damage to the destruction warlock when you are ready to finish him.

Other things to keep in mind: Pummel any shadow school spells. This will mean either an interrupted drain life, drain mana directed towards your healer, shadow bolt, fear or howl of terror. These are all spells you do not want him to cast. While this may leave him open to casting fire spells, generally they'll deal less damage and locking down the warlock's shadow school denies him most of his defenses. Another option is to quickly switch to a shield and cast spell reflect if the warlock is casting fear or shadowbolt, and if you are familiar with warlock playstyles you can occasionally reflect a death coil.

Mage

Notable Mage Abilities:

• Blink - instant cast, 15 sec cooldown, teleports caster 20 meters in front of the caster. frees the caster from stuns or bonds (roots)
  
• Ice Barrier (31 point Frost talent) - instant cast, 30 sec cooldown, absorb next 838 (at lvl 60) damage to caster, lasts 1 minute. While the shield holds, spells will not be interrupted.
  
• Ice Armor - instant cast, lasts 30 minutes, increases caster's armor by 560, enemy melee attacks have a chance to cause the attacker to have movement slowed by 30%, and attack slowed by 20% for 5 sec.
  
• Frost Nova - instant cast, 25 sec cooldown, enemies near the caster take 71-79 frost damage, and are rooted for 8 seconds.
  
• Polymorph - 1.5 sec cast, Transforms the enemy into a sheep, forcing it to wander around for up to 50 sec. While wandering, the sheep cannot attack or cast spells but will regenerate health very quickly. Any damage will transform the target back into its normal form. Only one target can be polymorphed at a time. Only works on Beasts, Humanoids and Critters.
  
• Cone of Cold - instant cast, targets in a cone in front of the caster take 335 to 365 frost damage and are slowed to 50% of their normal movement speed for 8 sec.
  
• Frost Bolt - 2.5 sec cast (with talents), deals 429-463 damage, reduces movement of target by 40%.
  
• Pyroblast (11 point Fire talent) - 6 sec cast, deals 716-890 damage plus 268 damage over 12 secs.
  
  
• Presence of Mind (20 point Arcane talent) - instant cast, 3 min cooldown, any mage spell with a casting time less than 10 seconds will cast instantly.
  
• Ice Block (21 point Frost talent) - instant cast, 5 min cooldown, encases mage in a block of ice protecting them from all forms of damage for 10 seconds and removes all negative effects (stuns, roots, disorients, magic, poison, disease, etc.) Mage cannot move or cast spells during this time.
  
• Arcane Power (31 point Arcane talent) - instant cast, 3 min cooldown, when activated increases mage spell damage by 30% while also costing 30% more mana to cast. Effect lasts for 15 secs.
  

Warriors have a good chance against mages these days (it was not always so). Generally speaking you should have no problems against Fire and Arcane mages so we'll be talking mostly about Frost Mages.

Mages are very soft targets so they will naturally try to put distance between you and them and for this purpose Frost Nova and the snare of Frost Bolt are very good. Always keep Hamstring on a mage (also after an Iceblock) and you should be able to run up to him or at least keep him from casting non-instant spells. There are several options to battle Frost Nova. The first is of course your PvP-trinket but cherish its long cooldown. Another good thing to remember is that the mage must be in melee-range to cast Frost Nova so you can easily fear him, making him waste his Frost Nova or his Iceblock.

Intercept is best used if done in reaction to blink, so that the mage cannot blink away immediately in response to intercept and leave you high and dry. Unfortunately, the mage will have to blink first - hopefully in response to a charge you've gotten off. A mage may actually blink *into* you in order to prevent the intercept and confuse you, so be ready for this. Forcing mages to blink before your intercept is difficult, but can be achieved through mace stuns, improved hamstring, fast dps through ice barrier as soon as it's up, or concussion blow if you're a little prot. Canny mages will do everything in their power to avoid blinking until you've used your intercept. However, blink will teleport the mage directly forwards, and if they are blinking out of your intercept they cannot turn to a new facing. So if you are forced to intercept a mage before they have blinked, immediately run in the direction they're facing. Depending on their reaction times and the openness of the terrain, it is possible to be back in melee range before they have a chance to do anything. Keeping the mage hamstrung really helps with this tactic.

Mages will often open up the fight by trying to sheep you. This allows them to re-establish range and open with long casts with no fear of a charge or intercept. Usually, you should just eat what they're throwing at you and save your trinket for cutting down the last few % of health while they try to kite you at the end of the fight, but it is occasionally worth trinketing out of the sheep. If the mage is trying a pyroblast, you will have enough time to get out of combat, trinket and steal the opener with a charge; in these circumstances the mage may even mistake your charge for an intercept. If the mage used frost nova before sheeping you, or you have just come from another combat, you will have enough rage to bloodrage/spell reflect if you trinket out of the polymorph.

Most Frost mages also have an Water Elemental who can do a ranged Frost Nova and some good damage as well. These fellows are very low on health so it can be wise to dispense of them when you see them and get some free rage. However, don't go chasing them on expense of the mage. Additionally most mages shoot themselves in the foot by Frost novaing you while having the pet firing at you through the fight, thereby making the Frost Nova's break very soon!

If you're quick, you can oftentimes reflect a mage's heavy nukes or polymorphs with a timely spell reflect. Be careful not to let a mage on low health be polymorphed for too long; cunning mages have been known to throw a polymorph when they know you can reflect it just to regain health and buy some time to let their cooldowns reset.

Druid

If a Druid engages you as a bear at the beginning of the battle he has about 1.5 to 3 times as much armor as you do, so do not expect a quick kill. As with all casters, shield bash/pummel is crucial to fighting a druid: you cannot afford to have them get off a heal or they simply will bleed you to death or tank you down. The majority of Feral spec Druids tend to favour Cat form, which is substantially more fragile than Bear. Note, however, most druids will shift into bear form against other melee classes, making use of the form's superior mitigation and substantial stamina boost. Balance is by far the most effective Druid tree for PvP against warriors, but most of them aren't willing to respec to specialize as warrior killers, so they don't use it (The Moonkin form is essentially their caster version of the feral dire bear form, with equal armor but no stamina boost -- a 'mage in plate'). A Cat form Feral Druid is unlikely to cause you significant problems, unless he is well geared or very smart. However, once Druids gain their level 62 skill Maim, they earn some of the stun-lock capabilities of a rogue and Cat druids become significantly more difficult to kill, as they can now stun, heal, and climb behind you for major burst damage at the middle to end of the battle. Druids will often open in cat form, seeking to keep you stunlocked and stacking as many bleeds as possible before shifting into bear form for the long-haul. If you suspect a druid is nearby, don't hesitate to use aoe's to break his stealth and deny early control of the fight. Though only one bleed is dependent upon stealth (Pounce), you will make it more difficult for him to build up combo points with relative immunity. In the worst case, if you are caught off-guard, it is preferable to eat the three- to four second stun duration than to trinket it and risk losing any possible chance of interrupting a heal.

Things to watch out for: druids have the ability to stun you for a few seconds, either utilizing Bash in bear form or Maim in cat form. Expect them to use this as they are getting low in hitpoints. They stun you, change back to caster, heal, then shift back to bear. To counter this, make sure you are in berserker stance (ideally have your rank 2 PvP trinket for breaking stun ready and equipped). When they stun you, hit your trinket. When their hands turn green as they begin to case heal ... pummel them to stop the heal. Blood rage if necessary to get the rage for this, as that heal will likely mean death for you. Also if you are MS spec, keep that on them, that 50% healing reduction goes a LONG way in winning the battle as druids have several Heal Over Time spells, that your MS will nicely gimp. Another classic trick is to cast cyclone giving them ample time to heal. This can be prevented by using trinket to break the cyclone, then pummel his attempted heal. You can be sure hes gonna heal if he casts cyclone or entangling roots so get you finger on that pummel button! Remember to interrupt his Cyclones as they are easy to spot. Note that even if you trinket out of entangling roots or a cyclone, most druids of any spec will have spent one point on Nature's Grasp, which is an instant-cast spell with a minimum 35% chance to passively proc entangling roots. Do not be surprised if upon reaching the druid you find yourself instantly re-rooted and beyond melee range despite no visible cast. Your best bet is to hope the spell is on diminishing returns.

Unfortunately, a good druid is always anticipating interrupts and will generally do everything possible to avoid getting into such a 'heal-now-or-die' situation (druids with Nature's Swiftness don't even have to worry about an interrupted heal). One way he will do this is by shifting earlier than you might expect so that if he is pummeled at that point, he will still have at least one more opportunity to heal (often back to full). He will usually return to bear form ('turtle') to wait out any spell lock before shifting once again to heal. Even if caught in caster form -- by far the best time to catch a druid -- be aware that he will likely instant-cast Barkskin, significantly mitigating damage even in that form, at least over its short duration (as it has a one minute cooldown, it happily will not be used twice in a normal fight). If your pummel missed, note that normal damage will not cause any spell push-back while barkskin is active. Smart druids will also often feign casts if at all possible in an attempt to get you to mis-time your interrupt, either by self-interrupting or by casting something in the arcane school. With any lag at all, this can be remarkably effective. Furthermore, this all assumes of course that the druid will actually need to heal during the fight, and to heal for more than Frenzied Regeneration will patch in bear form. More often than not, equivalently geared ferals do not nowadays need to top themselves off mid-fight in order to defeat warriors.

As druids are the best class at escaping slowing and snare effects be wary of a druid that get low on health as he can quickly shift forms out of a snare/speed debuff and run away much faster than you can catch him on foot. A good trick against an escaping druid is to continuously using Hamstring and Mortal Strike. The trick is to get the druid into his caster-form where he is a very soft target, and this is best done by causing massive damage to him in his other forms (often easier said than done against the armor bonuses in moonkin and bear forms).

Be careful with druids. Resto druids will die, however slowly, but an equivalently geared feral druid who stays in bear form, or a balance moonkin, can usually take out a warrior without a problem.

Hunter

The advice for fighting warlocks applies to Hunters as well, as does the bloodrage/intercept strategy used against Mages. Keep in mind that chasing a hunter who is stunning/dazing you is an entirely futile exercise until intercept goes away; switch to a shield, shield wall if necessary, and build up rage on the pet while doing what you can to mitigate damage until intercept recycles.

Another option is to try to get close enough to successfully cast intimidating shout (10 yard range). If you get the jump on them, the fight becomes even easier. If not, you can still attempt this next idea. Make sure you are targeting the Hunter, and not their pet. This will get their pet out of your hair for more than enough time to punish the opposing Hunter. Most of the time, they freak out that their pet is gone. All you have to do is hamstring, disarm (reason explained below), MS, execute. It really is that easy. If they get the drop on you, attempt to build up rage and intercept. That is one of your strongest weapons against a Hunter.

One tactic to easily kill a Hunter is as follows. If you charge in, the Hunter is very likely to have an ice trap waiting for you. Do not fret, though, because you (the cunning Warrior) has a plan. Spam the AoE taunt ability Challenging Shout as you are charging in. If you time it well, it may force the Hunters pet to attack you once you are frozen in the trap, causing the root to be broken and essentially screwing over your enemy. Once the pet has broken the ice trap, you should immediately hamstring the hunter. Next (this is crucial) you should disarm your opponent. "But Hunters can't do much damage at a melee range" you say? This may be so, but taking away your enemy's melee weapon will take away their single greatest ability: Wing Clip. If a hunter can't Wing Clip you, and they are kept at 50% movement speed for 15 seconds due to your Hamsting ability, you will have more than enough time to destroy your opponent.
Many Hunters have high dodge-rates so it's an good idea to Overpower them for easy damage.

Most of the Hunters you will meet will be Beast Mastery specced. This gives them around 18 seconds of immunity to fear/slowing/snare and all our goodies for keeping them in melee-range. However many hunters have become cocky and think of this ability as a I-WIN button against Warriors. Their arrogance becomes their downfall of course.
If you are fighting a BM Hunter (may it be in duels, arenas, or battlegrounds), be sure not to stand in the open field (which is optimal ground for a kite-class) and find terrain (such as columns or buildings) to hide behind to make the Hunter come to you, within melee-range. Most Hunters will send their pet against you to apply debuffs and inflict damage and this is where the fun begins.

You can use the pet to build 100 rage or you can simply kill it, breaking the Hunters Beast Mastery and making him/her very easy to kill again. A quality tactic would entitle to build 100 rage and fight the Hunter head on using every damaging ability that I have at my disposal. This is both fun and demoralizing for a BM-Hunter who previously beleived that they were invincible.

Paladin

From a Paladin's point of view, warriors are probably their easiest opponents. Should you be fighting a Paladin, you can't afford any mistakes. You need to keep them in front of you in order to maximize your damage output, and try to stay behind them to receive the lowest amount of damage possible. Keep them Hamstringed and have Rend applied at all times. If you are an Arms spec warrior, Mortal Strike won't do anything for you unless they heal before putting on Blessing of Protection or Divine Shield. If the Paladin puts up any of their "Protection" shields, stay back about 10 yards from them and bandage - this way you should be out of range for their Hammer of Justice and Consecration (which will interrupt your bandage). When the Paladin comes out of their shield, you should be far enough away from them to Charge; a paladin fight is all about rage generation. Without an ample supply of rage to fuel your abilities, you will be easily killed. Paladins are easily the most durable class, but also have the least DPS (Untrue if retribution now, they can out DPS a rogue with a good spec). They can survive for long periods of time with stuns, invulnerability, plate armor, and other abilities (e.g. Lay on Hands: Restores their mana and all their health, and costs no mana to themselves!), 1 hour cooldown, lowered to 40 minutes with talents. Luckily, most Paladins use this very rarely, saving it for a critical moment.

Keep in mind that since 1.9, 31 points in Holy tree is growing in popularity, allowing a Paladin to use the spell "Holy Shock", which will interrupt your bandage from 20 yards.
Which spec a Paladin is using can often be discovered by looking at their gear: A Paladin wearing a 2h and low mana gear such as BG-rewards are likely to be retribution spec'd or protection spec'd. If they wear a shield and 1h they are either protection or holy-spec'd, the latter being more common. Also, Paladins with epic dungeon gear, Judgement and/or Lawbringer, are very often holy-spec'd.

Notes:

• MS MUST be applied whenever they are about to heal.
  
• Keep Rend on them.
  
• Keep Hamstring on them.
  
• Keep them in front of you.
  
• Stay behind them.
  
• Try to keep them disarmed.
  
• A Paladin survives based on their mana. A Paladin with no mana is a dead Paladin(LoH can help though).
  
  

Most of the time, if you are able to beat a Paladin, he either made a big mistake or underestimated you.
If they ever try to heal without their precious shields, punish them for their foolishness! Should they stun, just use your PvP-trinket, then pummel them immediately (macro). Don't try to do anything else; what you need to do is silence them, not interrupt their spell! Remember, all the Paladin's spells are holy, so if you silence them, they can't use any of their shields, giving you the opportunity to finish them off before they even realize what is happening. However the exception is that Paladins can divine shield out of a silence but a pummel which interrupts a holy spell locks out the entire holy tree.

If you're losing (which happens more often than not), there is really nothing you can do other than fight to your death and try to kill them. Watch out for their Hammer of Wrath from 25 yards, if they try to do it either pummel them, stand behind them, or Concussion Blow them if you have it. Your survival hinges on your ability to prevent this killing blow.

Now for the good news:
Warriors who spec protection have a better chance of killing any kind of paladin. Shield Slam takes away their seals and blessings (unless they are specced deep ret, then you would already have a much higher chance beating them), Improved Shield Bash silences them, and Improved Disarm takes away their weapon (which is devastating for any paladin, specifically ret specced ones which are starting to get popular). Remember that paladins do not stand around and heal most of the time, they do try to attack with their seals. Improved Revenge greatly increases your survivability when you parry/block/dodge their weak, seal-less attacks. If you can bash their heals, silence them and Shield Slam away their buffs, the paladin is greatly crippled. Recasting buffs takes away precious time and mana, which is exactly what you need to kill them.

Except for Retribution spec'd paladins, paladins have trouble regenerating their mana without seal of wisdom, and if you take it away constantly, they will generally recast it again and again until their mana pool is completely gone. To top it off, as a protection warrior you have Concussion blow which is usable every 45 seconds. Your concussion blow is not for you to beat on them while they're stunned (that's what improved revenge is for). Concussion blow is your queue to bandage (so prepare a macro for it!). Bandaging for at least 5 seconds every 45 seconds can keep you alive against a paladin for a very long time. At the same time they can trinket out of it so be ready for them to do that unless they haven't used their trinket already (this will always happen late fight, then they will bubble and heal, and probably interrupt your bandaging). Unless you can kill them extremely quickly, bandaging is always your best option after a concussion blow and if they do trink out of a stun and you havent started bandaging yet make them pay by using your intimidating shout to fear them then heal for almost the full 10 sec..

Keep in mind that if Paladins use Blessing of Protection, Bandage as much as you can. They can't stop you unless they remove their own blessing to interrupt your bandage (which they aren't likely to do). In the case of Divine Protection, you may try to bandage, but the paladin might just attack you to interrupt. Best thing you might want to do is switch to battle stance (if you haven't yet) and stay a good distance away to at charge them when bubble fades away.

Shield Slam can take away these buffs (which would generally kill non-protection warriors otherwise):


Holy Shield



Blessing of Sanctuary


All Seals


All Blessings

Shaman

Totems, totems, totems! Shamans depend on totems like Warriors depend on weapons. Bring down the totem and the shaman will fall. Unfortunately Hamstring is no longer viable for this as it no longer does damage as of 3.1.0. You should easily be doing more damage to him than he is to you while in hand to hand combat (which, as a shaman, he cannot realistically avoid). Disarm the Shaman early on in the fight and he will lose most of his DPS on you early fight. This will pretty soon force him to resort to healing himself. Interrupt any heals that the Shaman attempts and you will win, when he gets a heal in it generally results in a loss. Just bash him down. Shamans are probably the simplest (though sometimes not the easiest) fight for a warrior. The formula is always the same - Charge; Hamstring; Disarm; beat him up and Pummel his attempts to heal. You do not really need to do too much thinking, complicated tricks or stance swapping as you would when fighting a mage or a rogue. One thing to look out for is when the shaman drops down to 20-30% and panics. He will then use Bloodlust and spam Lesser Healing Wave which can be impossible to interrupt. Be prepared for this and save your stunning and fear for this moment and quickly nuke him down.

While not a shaman ability, the Tauren racial ability Warstomp is worth mentioning. The vast majority of Horde Shamans are Tauren, so you will likely see this ability used frequently. It can be very effective in close quarters. The simple solution to this is to use your trinket as soon as he uses Warstomp. He will be guaranteed to be attempting a heal when he does this. Just quickly trinket out and Pummel and you will be fine.

The other race worth mentioning is Draenei (as all Alliance shamans are Draenei). Gift of the Naaru is now an instant cast (15/4/09, Patch 3.1.0) and so cannot be interrupted, the way around this is to Mortal Strike the Shaman as soon as he casts it (plus it is a heal over time so fearing him will not work, he will still be healing).

Throughout levels 1-50, a skilled Shaman will probably beat a warrior. Level 51-59, Shaman start to become horribly gimped compared to other classes, and you should destroy them easily.. At Level 60+, a well-played warrior should never lose to a shaman, better geared or otherwise (in a one on one situation).

At level 70, a warrior will begin to have problems with Restoration Shaman. Restoration shamans are near impossible to kill because of Earth Shield, so Mortal Striking early may be a better the solution in order to cut down the heals they get back (as opposed to Mortal Striking when they're lower on HP). Earth Shield is expensive to cast, so the less they benefit from it, the better. Some shamans will try to kite you with Earthbind Totem and Frost Shock, but you'll only have to tap the Earthbind and Intercept before they become helpless again.

In the case of elemental shamans (which have a tad more survivability than that of an enhancement shaman, due to their shield), they are likely to put up Water Shield and kite using the method above. Mortal Strike when they're low to reduce their survivability further(about 60-50% is low enough). Most elemental shamans at this point will stop kiting and try to get off a quick heal. This is your cue to get in there and gib them. If you don't have Mortal Strike, the fight will be a bit harder, since most elemental shamans have the Nature's Focus talent which gives them a 70% chance to avoid interruption when casting heal spells, however you will still be able to kill them easily. The key is to hit really hard, or hit really fast. You never want to allow them one regular Lightning Bolt. If their only form of DPS on you is their cooldowns and shocks, the fight is likely yours. If you have Mortal Strike, save your Pummel for their bolts, not their heals. If you don't, then pummel their heals and try to delay their bolts.

DeathKnights

Death Knights (a.k.a. DKs) are very difficult to beat because they are very good at kiting and also very good at toe to toe battle. If you are prot then he will use frost presence to raise his armor above yours, if you are Furry he will use Unholy to counter Flurry, If you are arms he will choose either Blood to counter your Mortal Strike or Frost to prevent huge bursts of DPS. If you are a prot warrior like I am start out with just running up to them try not to use charge because if you do they are going to Death Grip you then you get no rage and dont stun them. Then an experienced DK is going to use Chains of Ice which slows your movment down so much if you are prot speced down to improved charge charge him if not intercept. Then you must HAMSTRING HIM!!!!! If not you are done. He will still keep trying to get away using Chains of Ice. He will DoT you with Plague Strike and if he is smart he will use Strangulate which silences you. I know what you are thinking so what I dont use spells silencing me wont do anything. You are wrong all of your shouts will be stoped and so will you Thunder Clap. This is detramental. With alot of luck and very good gear you can win, but if the DK knows what he/she is doing then you will be down faster than you can say "That Gnome is in my pants!!!!!"

When I was lv. 56 I took down a DK that was lv.60 and I was like DKs are way over rated. Boy was i mistakin The ones that know what there doing will frustrate you because there is nothing you can do. Even if you are a higher lv then them.

Arena

The problem most warriors have in arena is that they will have a tendency to close fast on the enemy team with a charge. Effectively all this does is 'run away' from your team-mates, and choosing the time to charge can be very difficult in the high pressure environment of the Arena. If you charge too early you will have closed on the majority of the opposing team and will be killed fairly quickly, thus disadvantaging your team early on. If you hold off charging until it is too late then a spell will probably hit you and put you in combat denying you necessary rage generation early on.

If you have a healer in your team make sure that you are within healing range of them so that they can heal you because with a well geared healer a warrior can be almost invincible.

If one of your teammates or you is hit by a sap (in early game, or when a stalemate arises because you can't see any of the opposing team) then you have two choices, move away and hope the rogue will show them self and allow you to beat on them before his team gets a look in, or your team can stay close. The former (moving away and hoping) is preferred as the rogue may deide to switch targets and stun-lock another player if you stay close to sapped player, effectively freezing two players in the early game (in 2v2 arena this is a fairly common tactic, with the rogue team then attacking and killing the healer or least armored member of your team).

Keep in mind that if the rogue is on your team and he has sapped someone ignore them and make sure any AoE's you cast (like thunderclap) do not hit them, it's up to the rogue to decide what to do.

If you see one of your team-mates getting beat upon, make a quick decision based on your health at the time and either intervene (and take some hits for the team) or run up to them and hamstring everyone in the vicinity and try to make them switch targets (which they probably won't do if they think they can kill the person, but may do if they can't get close enough to attack them).

If you are a Draenei then think of your Gift of the Naaru as a very effective weapon (even more effective in 3.1.0 as it is an instant cast) and be ready to use it. If you have any Draenei's in your group remind them of the ability as it can mean the difference of a loss or win.

Lifeblood (gotten from doing Herbalism) is another instant cast heal over time that should be used as much as possible, but especially in dire situations, remember that it can only be cast on you, and that your herbalism should be maxed out to give you the best healing possible.

PvP Macros

Please visit the macro page, http://www.wowwiki.com/Useful_macros_for_warriors, and try to build macros to do the following things:

Charge and Hamstring (Both in Battle Stance)

Intercept and hamstring (Switch to Berserker Stance, intercept, switch to Battle Stance, hamstring)

Switch to Shield and Defensive Stance

Switch back to main weapon/s

Intimidating shout followed by bandaging (especially useful in end fight when they've blown their trinket)

If you have a potion or plan on having potions in your fights then create a macro that you always have which tries to drink every potion in the game (arrange it so it drinks the highest healing potion first, second highest next and so on, followed by /cast autoattack). This macro allows you to not worry which potion/s you have in your inventory as you'll always drink the best one. The important thing to remember with this macro is the /cast autoattack, which means you don't have to right-click on the target again, because it does it for you immediately, meaning you get in those precious milliseconds of attack. Also, as warriors don't have to many ways to actively heal themselves it's always a good idea to have a potion for any scheduled arena fight (preferably several potions). This macro is not as useful in a Battleground because you die a lot more and will end up wasting your potions.

A macro that casts your trinket then immediately casts pummel (mostly for spell-casters and it may confuse you when not vsing spell-casters because of the trinket cast)

Concussion Blow followed by bandaging (if you think you can kill them in six seconds then just cast concussion blow, or if your health is so high that bandaging is made redundant, be careful they don't trinket out of it, because it is a 45 second wait each cooldown)

You should create macros that suit your PvP style, so you needn't create all of these, or indeed any.

Warlock PvP guide

General Tips

A few general tips:

• Since the WOTLK expansion, very few talent specs have found their way into the "famous" realms of past specs for warlock pvp like SL/SL. Many players find themselves dividing their talents in many areas.
  

• One of the few specs which has begun to be popular in pvp would be the Haunt / SL (54/17/0): This spec goes deep into the affliction tree for the abilities of Haunt and instant AoE fear while still reserving enough points in Demonology for Soul Link and often Master Summoner. This spec allows for high DoT damage with minimal "casting" spells (often which lead to interrupts) while still providing some of the increased survival allowed in the demonology tree.
  
  

• The most important statistic for pvp as a warlock is resilience... ideally 800+ however at a minimum you should strive for 600+ before concentrating on other stats.
  

• Since WOTLK Blizzard has gone completely away from each class having their own 'set' of gear. This hits warlocks harder then most others simply because we always used completely different stats then other cloth casters. We cared nothing for spirit and Intel, opting instead for stamina... due to these changes, the days of warrior level health on a warlock are gone. This change hits at the heart of warlock pvp as tanking is rarely an option in the modern PvP battlefield. Therefor, it is more important that you learn tricks and gain resilance to stay alive... Time is your best friend as a warlock, the longer the fight lasts the more the fight will swing in our direction... whereas many other classes rely on short quick kills, we need to pace ourselves, fears are still very powerful and you need to learn to use them.
  

• Keep your First Aid skill as high as possible. Not only is it handy when you Fear/Death Coil/Seduce an enemy off you in PvP, but it is more handy than food to regen health after Life Tap in an instance with long fights, since it can be used in combat and heals faster (though it is slightly more expensive).
  

• Utilize time... unlike most class/builds, for the warlock (especially Affliction) the longer the fight goes on, the more likely the warlock will win. Thus controlling your opponent through CC and kiting is extremely advantageous. The warlock class is not a "burst damage" class, even as destruction... so don't treat them as if they are.
  

• Although many trinkets and equipment provided by Engineering has been removed from use in arena, there are still enough viable abilities that warrant investment into the Engineering profession. Almost all are still usable in battlegrounds; and in world pvp they can be life-saving.
  
  

• Learn the value of our newest skill (level 80): Demonic Circle (and the corresponding ability: Demonic Circle: Teleport). Once created, the warlock can summon themselves instantly to the circle, even when under the influence of a snare or trap affect. In addition, the teleport ability will allow the warlock to teleport up hills, through walls, and around pillars. For pvp, especially arena, this skill is invaluable.
  

• There one big bonus of an Imp in PvP: you don't need a Soul Shard to bring them back. If you can keep them separate from the enemy, they can deal out some nice damage. Any class with a decent ranged attack or a way to use some form of crowd control on you will kill them pretty quickly, but if you can keep them up, they supply solid support damage, a nice stamina boost Blood Pact, and can be great for those annoying shaman totems.
  
  

• The Voidwalker has long been viewed as a poor pvp pet; however since WOTLK the warlock's survivability has gone down considerably forcing the warlock to look to other sources to stay alive. With new additions, the voidwalker now has two main reasons to be used in pvp: Consume Shadows and Sacrifice. Consume Shadows now reveals all stealthed units within 30 yards, allowing the detection of both rogues and druids. Sacrifice grants the warlock a shield which is the most powerful 'non-divine' shield in the game with a base hp of over 8,000 (level 80) and over 11,000 when improved with talents. Combined with Fel Domination the warlock can summon back-to-back shields that prevent interruption and pushback on spell casting for over 20,000 hp, effectively doubling a level 80's warlock's health. Be warned, mages love to spell-steal this ability.
  
  

• The Succubus is generally the best insurance while soloing when you are open to PvP attacks. Seduction works wonders. With you and your pet both having a form of Crowd Control, you can tag-team the opponent in a way. If they attack you, Seduce, if they attack her, Fear. Unless she is in combat, your Succubus should be invisible, and therefore there should be almost no way for them to prevent at least 1 attempt to seduce (unless you are attacked by another warlock who can see her and Banish her; in which case you Banish their pet as well). Even if you are fighting a class that has the PvP trinket to remove Fear, they will use their trinket to remove the Seduction and won't have it again for another 5 minutes. With a 1.5 second casting time, recasting Seduction isn't hard (instant with talents). They will be open to your Fear as well, but since they are more likely focusing on you, any class that has an interrupt will prevent that. She also offers solid DPS once the fight actually begins and you don't have to worry about her DPS stopping if she is out of mana, as you would have to consider with the Imp. Largest concern is she will die quickly to any enemy attack, so be prepared to summon a new pet upon the loss of her.
  

• The Felhunter ever since Patch 3.0.2 is now a very useful pet in PvP. It's Fel Intelligence buff gives a good intellect and spirit increase to all party members within range. The felhunter can even does moderate dps if you're an affliction warlock, because of its Shadow Bite ability which does bonus damage for every DoT on the target. And probably the most useful spell for the felhunter is Spell Lock, which can interrupt and silence casters.
  
  

• The Infernal is fun in PvP, but not something you can really rely on with the 1 hour cooldown; if you're losing to someone and just really want to throw them a curve ball, or if you get attacked by multiple people (or just want to scare the sh** out of someone). Keep in mind that unlike the rest of your pets, the Infernal does NOT disappear when you die. It will continue to attack people (even your comrades if they're close). An interesting little trick to play when you know you're going to die to 1-3 people and you are Soulstoned, is to summon the Infernal right before you die and let it beat on them a bit while you watch. When it looks like they're in trouble or one of them needs a heal, pop up and rejoin the fight. Try to Fear the healer if there is more than one enemy to maximize the Infernal's hurt on them.
  

• The Doomguard is a even more fun than the Infernal in one-on-one or small group PvP. It does respectable DPS and its abilities are extremely viable in PvP. However, its low health won't help it much in large scale PvP since it looks pretty damn scary and everyone will want to focus on it. If you have a healer with you, remind them to keep it healed and you can have lots of good times with it. It will have all of its abilities except Dispel on auto-cast when you enslave it; it is recommended to take Rain of Fire off auto-cast since it will not only stop it's movement if it's chasing someone, but it wastes its mana for a low amount of damage. If there is a nice group to cast it on, you won't need auto-cast since you can command it to use the ability itself. Cripple will help it catch anyone trying to kite it. War Stomp can interrupt casting and it works on a sizable area (same as Tauren racial ability). Dispel can be used just as the Priest's Dispel Magic ability can - to remove debuffs from friendly units or to remove buffs from enemies. One of the downsides of the Doomguard compared to Infernal is that it can itself be feared; one way to remedy this is to cast Rank 1 Curse of Recklessness on it right before you enslave it; this will only last 2 minutes but if you know you're going to PvP soon, it can help.
  
  

• If you get jumped by someone and take heavy damage early, attempt to Fear or Seduce them and bandage yourself. If at all possible, hold off using your potion or Healthstone until you've bandaged. Obviously there are exceptions, but it is generally better to do first. First Aid has a 60 second cooldown, while healthstones have a 2 minute cooldown, and potions can only be used once per battle, so it is possible to bandage multiple times in a long fight if you use it early. Sacrificing your Voidwalker if you have them out can buy you some time to fear / heal as well; if there are no other options.
  

• Every caster has a defense against melee attackers. Priests have Power Word: Shield, absorbing damage. Mages use crowd control tactics with Polymorph and also use eluding spells like Frost Nova or Blink. Druids can use Roots and Travel Form to escape melee. Our main defense, Fear, is easier to remove or be immune to than some others. Make sure to remember Death Coil, Seduction, and Howl of Terror (when facing multiple enemies). Soul Link also helps reduce the hurt; if you have it, there should rarely be a time when you do not have it on (having an Imp out is one of those times, as it will die quickly). When you're being attacked by someone with many interrupts (namely a Rogue) or being attacked very quickly (namely a Hunter with a cat pet) it can be difficult to cast Fear. In these situations, open with Death Coil and follow it up immediately with Fear.
  
  

• Most of these tactics assume that your opponent will do the most common thing the class does. You will probably fight people with several different tactics. So if someone kills you, go back in the combat log and see what kinds of things they did that messed you up. Often the choice of pet makes a huge difference. Duels are a good way to practice and prepare for PvP.
  

• Drain Mana works fine against casters, especially healers. Draining their whole mana pool is almost impossible, but as soon as they are low on mana, you can easily keep their mana constantly near zero. Your DoTs can still tick, whereas the enemy will not be able to cause a lot of trouble. If your minion is still out, you can maintain a constant drain and watch as your pet whittles his or her health to nothing.
  

Rogue

The central problem with Rogues, from a Warlock's point of view, is the fact that Warlocks don't in general have any defenses against melee damage from other players -- Warlocks wear cloth armor and lack melee damage absorption. Some abilities of these types do exist but are interruptible (Fear, Howl of Terror), pet-dependent (Seduction, Sacrifice) or talent-dependent (Soul Link) -- moreover, all of them are easily dispellable. The same applies to Warriors, but Rogues' ability to prevent their target from taking any kind of action while doing massive melee damage is particularly devastating to Warlocks. A Rogue is a Warlock's natural enemy. More to the point, rogues even go so far as to specifically seek out warlocks as targets. Various PvP guides for rogues advise them to attack destruction warlocks in particular saying destruction warlocks are easy to defeat. Unfortunately rogues are a very tough class for warlocks but it isn't all doom and gloom.

• DoT as soon as possible. Your goal is to use DoTs as a weapon against the rogue's famous ability of Stealth, while at the same time inflicting reasonable damage on the rogue. Rogues are frail at range so DoT as much as you can while kiting them, use Curse of Exhaustion to give yourself time to reinforce their damage taken with another DoT. Avoid melee as Rogues can stun or even cripple you when they finally do get their chance, focus on moving and using your pets to their outmost capabilities. DoTing early can also force the Rogue to utilize his Cloak of Shadows (CoS), which although effectively giving him immunity from your spells, gives you a chance to kill him during the CoS cooldown.
  

• Rogues can now start pulling Cloak of Shadows on at level 66. This gives you even more incentive to put as much dots on him as you can to lure the CoS out of him. CoS removes all debuffs and boosts resists by 90% for 5 seconds, making them effectively spell immune for 5 seconds. With a 66+ rogue, try to get all your key abilities out when you can. If you wait too long the rogue will pull on CoS and attempt to burst you down you in those 5 seconds (or rack up enough cp and stunlock you during CoS, the impact of this however is largely reduced when you have enough stamina while having Soul Link up and your pets seducing or stun the rogue). Your Demonic Circle ability is your best friend during this horrible spell's duration.
  
  

• The Succubus (as mentioned above) is the ideal pet for situations that you are jumped by a rogue. If they try to stun lock you with the succubus out, it will be much easier than if they crit Ambush followed by a Backstab before you move. Seduce them ASAP, move away, and bandage. If possible avoid using your potion or healthstone at this point unless they break out of the seduce. If they use their trinket to break it, recast it right away. Curse of the Elements and Soul Fire are handy on a seduced target regardless of the class (if you have Ruin and get a crit it can pretty much set you up to win). Immediately after the seduction breaks hit them with Curse of Agony (or Corruption if you have it as an instant-cast from affliction) to keep them from stealthing. It's ideal to keep 2 DoTs on them throughout the fight so they can't use vanish. They will most likely use Sprint to close the distance, which is your cue to begin casting fear. Their speed bonus will turn against them when they're running away from you and opening up the distance again. If they manage to gouge you before you can cast fear, hit them with death coil as soon as they hit, followed by fear. Teleporting away can give you enough time to cast a fear if needed as well.
  
  

• No rogue in his right mind would focus his attention on your Voidwalker, but sacrificing it for the shield should give you some time to fear. The voidwalker's Consume Shadows is also useful since WOTLK has gave this spell a stealth detection feature. Finally, if you have Fel Domination, you can sacrifice the voidwalker and then immediately summon a second pet, either a void for a second shield or a succubus for the seduce.
  

• The Imp dies quickly when confronted with the extreme DPS a Rogue dishes out, so it's best if you can put some distance between yourself and your imp before you have it start firebolting the rogue.
  

• If you are a Warlock with the demonology tree maxed out, then you will have a Felguard. Now a Felguard can be used in your advantage against a rogue. When you know you're about to be attacked by a rogue this is the best situation to be in. First put the Felguard on defensive mode then put your Felguard on stand, you will then want to get a little distance from the Felguard. Then you jump around in the same spot trying to avoid a Ambush or Backstab, natually the rogue is gonna attack! Once the rogue does it's first hit (don't worry it won't hurt to much because of Soul Link), Bam the Felguard has locked on and used Intercept and therefore stunned the rogue for 3 seconds and disabling the rogue to hit you twice. The good Thing about this is the rogue stunned you before you stunned it!! therefore you will be free to run, as you're running use some dots to make the rogue use CoS, the rogue will naturally stealth again cause it can't catch up. Once the rogue does this the pet will disengage and go back to where it was. at this point it is optional to use a Health Stone while you run in circles so the rogue has a hard time catching up. By the time the rogue attacks again you pets charge should be cooled down if so the rogue is royally boned. You must then wait again for the rogue to make his next move then Bam!! (not again he cries!) this time he can't CoS! so run back dot and Death Coil then Fear and finish him of by running in circles and dotting or Drain Life. If your pets charge is on cooldown you will just have to take the first 3 or 4 shots which if you have plenty of health should be fine (if you don't believe you can take 3 to 4 shot then use a Health Stone or Potion ), then use death coil. Then fear and dot spam fear or run in circles and dot or dot and drain health. The Felguard is by far the best pet to use against our most feared class.
  
  

• In general keep your distance, placing any instant DoTs you can. Kiting is the way to go. If the rogue gets upset enough about the seductions to focus on the succubus, take the opportunity to fear. Keep in mind that Undead Rogues will have Will of the Forsaken, and many opponents may have items that can cancel fear and charm effects. Rogues are all leather, so melee damage of the sort that the Succubus can dish out will actually be somewhat effective. They tend to have a fair amount of Stamina, but not a huge amount, so a well-timed Immolate plus Shadow Bolt will hurt them. Chances are high that he'll now try to gain on you, stun, and heal. Try not to expose your back to him - this allows you to avoid backstabs, which do a lot of damage. Also try to avoid facing him, as the rogue's gouge ability only works from the front. The best (and hardest) place to be is facing his back. Try running through him, jumping and spinning around if necessary. If you're stun-locked AND don't have out a succubus AND your death coil is on cooldown (even the best stun-lockers slip up for a split second sometimes) you could be in trouble. The hitpoints gained from a Healthstone might help get over the initial Ambush or similar attack, but don't count on it. There isn't much you can do against the poisons Rogues are so fond of putting on their weapons, and don't try to outlast him in melee. He'll win.
  

• Destruction warlocks in general have a tougher time against rogues than affliction or demonology locks. Affliction and demonology trees have talents that either heal the lock or split the damage with the pet. In the destruction tree, there is Soul Leech which will return health on a dest spell hit when it procs, Aftermath and Pyroclasm might daze an enemy when they proc and Shadowfury will stun a target when it hits. Note that all these talents only proc on a successful spell cast and there is only a chance at that anyway (aside from Shadowfury). The problem is that if a dest lock is incapacitated by a rogue before the lock can strike then none of these talents will matter at all because no spells are cast and the warlock becomes a pin cushion for the rogue. In the end, the best defense against a rogue for a dest lock is likely attacking first because that will give you the best chance of maintaining distance between you and the rogue. Felhunter's Paranoia and the human trait Perception are all useful in this regard. Make no mistake, rogues are difficult for destruction locks but a well-prepared destruction lock can win if played well.
  
  

Note to Demonology warlocks with tlaent tree maxed out- USE MATAMORPHOSIS!!! Not only does it freak the rogue out hen you turn to this huge demon with a bunch of unique moves, that 600% armor really helps against their stunlock, destroy combo.

• [Affliction] Hard
  
• [Demonology] Hard to Medium Hard
  
• [Destruction] Very Hard
  

Warrior

Warriors become more and more a challenge to Warlocks as you progress in level.

As with Rogues, your chances of success are increased the more you can stay out of melee range. Run around a lot -- run through them if they're on top of you. Warriors can't attack you if you're behind them. Anything that's instant-cast is good, because Warriors can Pummel to interrupt your casting, and having all your Shadow spells shut down is crippling. So the most likely way to win is to keep them covered with instant-cast DoTs and stay out of melee range.

Your primary defense, Fear, is all but useless against warriors. It's perfectly reasonable to want to kite a Warrior with Fear in the lower levels or when their abilities are on a cooldown -- although the problem is that pesky diminishing returns counter. Undead Warriors with WotF also make Fear less useful, as do Fear-canceling items. The 3 most annoying abilities they can use against your Fear (not horror from Death Coil or charm from Seduction however, see next paragraph) are:

• Berserker Rage, usable only in Berserker Stance every 30 seconds, breaks Fear and makes them immune to Fear for 10 seconds. The warrior also gains triple rage from taking damage while affected. This is the most common method used to break fear because of its quick cooldown and its fear-breaking action. Also note that Fury specced warriors become a greater threat with Berserker Rage, as their level 31-point talent Intensify Rage will cut the cooldown of their Berserker Rage ability from 30 seconds down to 20.
  
• Recklessness, usable only in Berserker Stance, will make them immune to Fear, increases their damage taken by 20%, and all of their hits will be criticals for 15 seconds. Has a 30 minute cooldown and is a level 50 skill. If you do not seduce the warrior, Recklessness will generally kill you.
  
• Death Wish (21 point Arms talent) breaks Fear and makes them immune to Fear, increases their damage dealt by 20%, but increases damage taken by 5% for 30 seconds (3 minute cooldown). If you do not chain-seduce the warrior, Death Wish will generally kill you.
  
  

Remember that when a warrior breaks your fear with one of these skills, your next seduce will also be halved in duration. Thus, it is better to open with seduce and avoid fearing the warrior. It is quite possible (and entertaining!) to catch a warrior in Battle or Defensive stance and fear him, although on the occasion when said warrior has Death Wish, you will wish you had just seduced him instead.

Also note that a warrior will also try to either hamstring, fear or stun you pet.

If you have it, Curse of Exhaustion can help you keep one step ahead while running away, but it is likely to be countered with Intercept (30 second cooldown, 20 second cooldown if he is an arms spec and has the 26-point talent Improved Intercept). There is also a trinket that blacksmiths get from the Thorium Brotherhood that makes them immune to fear for 20 seconds. So if you're against any high level warrior that has any skill at all, your fear will not be much use. Curse of Weakness may seem tempting, but it makes little difference when taking into account the melee DPS of a warrior and the cloth armor of a warlock.

The Succubus is the ideal pet for warrior encounters; although the Voidwalker sacrifice has its perks, you can still be shield bashed and pummeled through the absorption shield. The Imp can do some damage if you can keep it away from you and thus the warrior. The Felhunter offers nothing but its meager melee damage. If you get the jump on them with a Succubus: Seduction, Curse of the Elements, Soul Fire is a nice way to start any fight (especially if you are Destruction spec). Also, all those fancy abilities that prevent fear do NOT prevent charm (remember you will likely have DoTs on them by the time they use their fear immunity abilities, so plan ahead). As with the Paladin bubble, coaxing them to use their fear immunities early in the fight (namely before you DoT them) will work to your advantage if you have a succubus out.

Kiting is the name of the game at higher levels. When they hamstring you, jump around them like crazy and use instant-cast abilities to minimize the damage you take. If you manage to get enough lead time, make the most of it with an Immolate or Shadow Bolt. Don't die without using your Healthstone and Death Coil.

Utilize your Demonic Circle AFTER you get them to charge. If timed correctly, the fight is yours after a successful teleport, especially with curse of exhaustion.

Above all, keep your health above 30%, or one solid execute will find you running back to your corpse.

• [Affliction] Medium
  
• [Demonology] Medium Hard
  
  
• [Destruction] Hard
  

Priest

Priests can be a challenge, but there are some tools warlocks have to help out (namely the Felhunter). If you have a Felhunter out, it will be hard for you to lose if you use it properly. If you don't, managing to fear them and summon one will change your odds drastically (remember that the priest PvP trinket will remove fear though). The Felhunter can not only fulfill its usual role of interrupting healing, but it can devour Shadow Word: Pain from you and devour their Power Word: Shield. With its innate mage resistance, it is also less likely to be feared, or if it is, it doesn't usually last as long. (It can also devour Mind Control if they try to use you for some twisted purpose.) The Voidwalker sacrifice will be dispelled by any good priest, and the Imp or Succubus will fall to Shadow Word: Pain pretty quickly.

• Remember that priests can remove most of our DoT spells, so unless you are specc'd for Unstable Affliction, your curses are your only reliable Debuffs. Personally I have found Curse of Tongues to be the most valuable spell to keep up to slow their heals and castable spells.
  
• The Felhunter is the ideal pet for the priest for its silence and devour magic abilities. Remember that you can remove their shield or their DoTs through the use of your pet. At certain times, the Succubus can also be used but overall the Felhunter will be a better support pet for this fight. The shield of the Voidwalker can be removed through mass dispel, so careful not to waste this ability.
  
  
• Drain Mana is probably one of the most useful abilities to use during this fight, especially once the Priest gets low on mana. If they use their Shadowfiend, throw a fear on it immediately as the longer it hits you, the more mana the Priest will regain. This pet only lasts for 15 seconds, keeping it out of the fight is very important.
  
• Always be prepared for the priest the Fear, save your trinket and your racial abilities (undead) to neutralize this threat. Often you will see the fear coming as the priest suddenly charges straight at you.
  
• One of the most valuable spells to use against Priests would be your Shadow Ward as many Priest spells are shadow. It will absorb over 3000 shadow damage and can be cast every 30 seconds.
  
• Most critical is interrupting those timely heals through fears, deathcoil, or felhunter. Often the fight can be swung 180 degrees in the time of one priest heal.
  

• [Affliction] Easy - Medium
  
  
• [Demonology] Medium
  
• [Destruction] Medium - Hard
  

Warlock

Pop up your Shadow Ward before they do. If you are Demonology a Felhunter brought out with Fel Domination can help out. They can banish your pet and any warlock whose worth his salt should, but the high resistance of the Felhunter can make them waste precious time and mana when they have to cast it several times for it to stick. With both of the pets out of the fight, your spec will play a major part in the difficulty of the fight. Destruction warlocks will probably have the greatest advantage in this situation and demonology will have the most trouble. The same curses work on them as the ones for priests, Curse of Tongues, Curse of Agony, Curse of the Elements. All your shadow spells are subject to getting through their Shadow Ward, which takes usually ~1.5 Shadow Bolts or 5 ticks of Corruption for Rank 4, which means countering a Shadow Ward with a Devour Magic will often put you ahead. Landing a fear will help turn the tide, especially if your pet comes out of banish to use its abilities while they are feared. There is no specific strategy to use or tactic to expect. The bag of tricks is too deep to take everything into account. Practice dueling with fellow warlocks and it gets easier. An undead warlock will have a slight advantage due to Will of the Forsaken.

Mage

The mage vs warlock setup heavily favors the warlock, especially if he has the felhunter out, and obscenely so if the warlock is also soul link-specced with the Master Demonologist's resistance bonus. Most of the mage's defensive abilities are about kiting melee targets and blowing them up before they can do harm, not about a caster that does comparable damage, has more crowd control options available, and potentially huge stamina and resists.

• Curses can be removed instantly by mages, though if you catch them off-guard you may slip one in while they're trying to figure out what to do first (Curse of Tongues is ideal). Furthermore, removing the curse comes at the cost of time, which works in your favor (DoTs). Fear is handy, though they can remove it once with their PvP trinket (and again with WotF if they are undead). Corruption is the most reliable DoT to use on them since they can remove your curses and use Fire Ward to weaken (or completely absorb) the damage of Immolate.
  
• Expect to be Counterspelled early, as such you often should first place your instant cast spells on them. Dequeuing a fear will often make them waste their counterspell. Counterspell has a 24 seconds cooldown.
  
  
• If you have the Felhunter out, use Devour Magic regularly to remove any magic debuffs on you and then heal the Felhunter. The Felhunter can remove the two specifically annoying abilities. Namely it can remove Polymorph, which is something mages usually use early in the fight, and it can remove the 4 second silence if they have Improved Counterspell. The frost effect from any frost spell can also be devoured. Use Spell Lock to shut their casting down. When possible, pay attention to their spells and try to figure out where they have their talent points. Spell locking a line they are fully specced in is obviously much more useful.
  
• The Succubus can use her seduction on mages if you are polymorphed, and it is a good idea to seduce several seconds after they polymorph you (your succubus should be invisible anyway). This way, polymorph will break before seduce does and you will have the upper hand. Your PvP trinket will break polymorph, but they can recast it right away (though for a lower duration of course) and set up a Pyroblast or take out your pet.
  
• The Voidwalker is relatively useless, you can sacrifice him, but any mage worth his salt will Spellsteal the shield for themselves, negating your whole point in sacrificing.
  
  
• The Imp is somewhat useful, while it can be killed with an instant-cast Fire Blast (if they have a good amount of fire damage) or arcane explosion, two points in the talent "improved firebolt" (1s casts) will provide a serious amount of damage and a good number of interruptions to the mage, if he fails to take out the imp early on - and many do. That said, your felhunter is definitely the preferred choice.
  
• Many mages will try to get close to you. It is best to avoid this, as many close range spells (Frost Nova, Dragon's Breath, Cone of Cold) are deadly. Your Demonic Circle can be a huge help in this situation.
  
• Finally save your Howl of Terror for when the Mage uses Mirror Image. Typically I will DoT each with Curse of Tongues and Siphon Life, you can find the actual mage by their buffs, since they will have many more. The actual mage will most likely be moving as well.
  
• Overall remember your best defense against a mage is time. You need to keep them in a cc chain long enough for your dots to work their magic. When not being feared, spell lock them with your felhunter, or teleport out of range of their spells using your Demonic Circle. The longer the fight lasts, the more likely you will be the victor.
  
  

• [Affliction] Easy - Medium
  
• [Demonology] Easy - Medium
  
• [Destruction] Easy - Medium
  

Druid

With the WOTLK expansion, Druids have become much more of a challenge for Warlock through the addition of the Berserk talent point, allowing the druid to break fear every three minutes. Between that and their trinket, you will find keeping the druid feared has become much more difficult. Remember that although they can break Fear and Howl of Terror, they cannot escape your Deathcoil.

• For feral druids: The Feral variety of druids are your most dangerous opponent, with their largest concern being their burst damage and stuns. You need to keep your distance, which can be difficult between the druids fear breaks and charges. The succubus is a great pet choice in this situation as it could allow you to regain some distance when locked up... without a succi you may have to rely on Deathcoil or an instant fear (if spec'd for it). Throw out a fear, wait for them to break it and charge (which they most certainly will), then use your Demonic Circle and teleport away. Once their charge is on cooldown and they are out of melee range, the fight will have shifted into your favor. Most druids at this point will switch forms and begin healing or spell casting to snare you.
  
• Expect this fight to last a while, even if you do everything perfectly, killing a druid is no fast task. If they are not feral or are forced out to heal / range dps, then you need to move into full dps. Get all of your dots up and keep them up; Siphon Life is a great help to keeping your mana full if you have the talent, along with the WOTLK talent: Haunt. You can curse the druid with Curse of Tongues however much of the druids heals are instant and the druid can easily remove the curse. Keeping Curse of Agony seems to stay up longer as the druid is less likely to waste the GCD or mana to remove it; however they will be quick to remove CoT when they find themselves slow to cast. Curse of Exhaustion is also a great choice for druids, keeping them somewhat more manageable.
  
  
• If you are Affliction and are able to establish all 5 of your dots, plus Haunt, the match is essentially yours. The Druid can heal through them, but it will be relatively easy for you to keep the dots refreshed while refilling mana and fearing the druid to interrupt their heals. They will eventually end up out of mana and out of options.
  
• Watch for the druid to charge and heal, or cast Cyclone before healing. Save your trinket for these moments; or keep your Felhunter nearby and ready to silence the druid. Although Cyclone is a pain, if your dots are up and ticking and your felhunter is silencing the druid, there is no need to utilize your trinket; take the time to enjoy some hp refill through Siphon Life and plan your next move.
  
• The Felhunter is by far your best option when dealing with any kind of druid; however the Succubus has its place as well... but I wouldn't recommend a succubus unless you are full destruction and not utilizing very many DoTs. Be aware that a smart druid will root your pet and/or cyclone them out of a fight. With any luck it will be roots, which will still allow your felhunter to silence the druid so long as it is somewhat close.
  
  
• Save your Demonic Circle for immediately after Feral Charges or you will find the druid back on-top of you without any way of escape. I try to avoid using this for roots... instead relying on my deathcoil or fears to save me. Your trinket is best used in die-or-use-it situations, be it for roots or cyclone.
  
• If the druid is Balance, then at some point you will find yourself surrounded by Treants. Personally I use my Howl of Terror and drop a Siphon Life on each one... banishing one if I have to. Drain-tanking works well most of the time against Balance druids, as you can nearly gain as much hp as they can take withe moonfire / insect swarm spells.
  
• Some final hints include keeping your mana topped off, especially when facing a restoration druid, where the fight is mostly a mana battle. Keep the druid slowed as much as possible (Curse of Exhaustion) and keep your dots ticking. If the druid is inexperienced and chooses to go into tree form, they can be banished if you need a break to bandage.
  
  

• [Affliction] Easy - Medium
  
• [Demonology] Medium
  
• [Destruction] Medium
  

Hunter

Your number one goal against a Hunter is to maintain melee range and stay alive long enough for your DoTs to kill them. This is not a simple task, but with draining life and snares, for the most part it is doable.

• Best pet to have out against a hunter in my experience would be the Voidwalker for their Sacrifice. Especially if you have Fel Domination and can re-summon one immediately, and if needed, sacrifice again, this will help provide you with enough buffer to survive long enough for your dots to work their magic.
  
  
• If you are Affliction, keeping Curse of Exhaustion up at all times will allow you to stay in their melee range. If you are not affliction, this task becomes harder and nearly impossible against a skilled hunter. However even if you don't stay in melee range, forcing the hunter to keep moving will cut their damage nearly in half. Utilize Siphon Life and Drain Life as much as possible (if spec'd for them) for the damage you will be taking is significant, even at melee range.
  
• Be cautious of a hunter's Traps, especially as you chase them or stay in melee range. Avoid these ground mines at all cost as they can swing the battle rather quickly into the hunters favor.
  
• Many Hunters today are part survival spec and thus will have another danger in their weaponry. Wyvern Sting will put you out of a fight for 12 seconds, after which it will apply a dot. Utilize your trinket immediately upon this spell as the hunter will be powering up for a massive barrage to break you of the sleep. If the hunter succeeds or follows with The Beast Within you will find the fight over before it begins. Trinket and fear as quickly as possible, forcing the Hunter to use their trinket or The Beast Within prior to when they would prefer. If you can force the hunter to use his trinket before any Beast Within abilities, you will be miles ahead.
  
  
• Finally, most dangerous of all, a beast-spec hunter will have The Beast Within. This nasty ability makes them immune to all fears and snares while simultaneously significantly increasing the damage of both them and their pet and increasing their speed. Surviving this spell is an extreme challenge... one of the best ways to do so is through Demonic Circle, especially if you have it well placed across a wall, up on a roof, or at least a long ways away (~40 yards). If you survive the hunter's red deathly form, the fight is yours. Fear both the hunter and his pet, dot up and Drain Life to replenish. Once through Beast Within, the hunter has only their trinket to escape fears and no way of refilling their own health.
  

• [Affliction] Medium - Hard
  
• [Demonology] Hard
  
• [Destruction] Hard
  
  

Paladin

Paladins today do much more damage then pre-WOTLK; combined with their multiple lives they can be a significant threat to warlocks.

• Most of a paladin's damage is melee ranged and also mana based. Therefor you have a couple objectives; keep them out of melee range and force their mana pool to go to 0. One of the quickest ways to force the paladin's mana supply to 0 is through Drain Mana, which you will find is your most valuable spell when facing a Paladin. Secondly, they have few ways of breaking fear beyond the bubble or their trinket. Ideally we want the paladin to bubble as early as possible in a fight, since it will effectively reset the entire match. Use any opportunity you can to increase distance. No matter what spec you are, the warlock has longer range then the paladin by a considerable margin and keeping this advantage throughout the fight will be critical.
  
• Today the Paladin has several stuns at their disposal, trinket for the first one and use your Demonic Circle to escape after the second. Fear, fear, fear.
  
• Best Pet: For the most part, having out your Felhunter will be by far your best option; between the Devour Magic and Silence these little beasts will drive the Paladin to insanity. Remember the Paladin only has one tree of magic; Holy... if you can lock them out of this they are effectively without spells.
  
  
• Keep Curse of Tongues up the entire fight, as this will help tremendously against their heals (for Affliction warlocks, Curse of Exhaustion is also a valuable curse, although most paladins will blessing their way free of its affects).
  
• Affliction grants the warlock a significant advantage when fighting a Paladin through Unstable Affliction, preventing the paladin from removing your dots. Destruction and Demonology Warlocks will find this fight much more difficult.
  
• Paladins will very greatly depending on the gear, skill, and spec of the paladin; so where one may be easy, the next could tear you to shreds. Never underestimate them, for in the hands of a master, the paladin can become your worst enemy.
  

• [Affliction] Medium - Hard
  
• [Demonology] Hard
  
  
• [Destruction] Medium - Hard
  

Shaman

As with the Paladin and Druid the Felhunter is your best friend for fighting these healers. However, Shaman can make life a little harder for you by using Tremor Totems (which pulses once every 4 seconds)to get in the way of fear kiting, using Earth Shock to interrupt your casting and lock that school out for 2 seconds, and many shaman have much better DPS then paladins or druids. It is also pointless to cast Demon or Fel Armor since any good shaman will just purge it right away. Therefore (as with priests), be careful with any mod that auto-casts your buffs, as casting demon armor multiple times in a fight is an embarrassing way to go. If you are preparing for the fight it is advisable to buff yourself with everything you have, including Underwater Breathing and Detect Invisibility

• The first thing you need to when fighting a shaman is to check the ground for a Tremor Totem (they are green) and get rid of it ASAP. If you haven't cast anything yet, hitting it with your melee weapon or wand is often the fastest way. They also might use a Grounding Totem (dark blue). It is possible to create a macro which targets a Grounding or Tremor totem and then sends your pet to attack it. This kind of macro can be used even while channeling a spell like Shadow Bolt. Both totems work using similar mechanics - they 'pulse' at regular intervals. Using this knowledge to your advantage usually catches a shaman off guard, most consider themselves immune to fear with their totems up. The Grounding Totem will pulse when it is cast, and then every 10 seconds, adding a "Grounding Totem" buff to the shaman and his nearby party members. The next spell cast against the shaman will remove the buff, and redirect the spell to the Totem. The totem is immune to all debuffs, so that if you cast Fear or Corruption, the totem will tell you that it is Immune. However, Grounding Totems have 5 health, so any direct damage spell (Immolate, Shadow Bolt, esp. Searing Pain) directed at the shaman will redirect to the grounding totem and destroy it. A wand is useful for destroying a totem, or it can be handy to try to have your pet hit it, since the pet is usually right next to the shaman attacking when the totem is dropped.
  
• The Tremor Totem is not a constant protection like the Grounding Totem, but it too 'pulses' at intervals of 4 seconds if the shaman is within its range. The first pulse is right after casting. Each pulse removes any of your crowd control debuffs (namely Fear, Seduce and Sleep), but the pulses are 4 seconds apart. On occasion, it is possible to fear (with some duration) a shaman with a tremor totem because your fear lands right after a pulse. Another interesting bit of info is that tremor totems cannot remove horror (the effect inflicted by Death Coil) so it is possible to use Death Coil to get them out of their totems range. Tremor Totem now has a 40 yard range, making it even more important to destroy the totem, rather than force the shaman out of its range.
  
  
• After the totem has been taken care of - other shaman totems are of considerably less importance - try and see if you can get them to "waste" their earth shock on an Immolate or other fire spell, many times the shaman will Earth Shock the first casting spell you preform. If they fall for it cast fear as their earth shock is cooling down then fear kite/nuke them as you would most other classes.
  
• Another strategy to deal with their totems is to just kite the shaman out of the range of his totems, however any shaman worth their salt with Frost Shock and Earthbind Totem to keep you in range. Get your Felhunter to eat this debuff or destroy the totem, allowing you to run at full speed again. Realize all their shocks are on the same CD, so once they shock they cannot use any shock again for a brief period of time.
  
  
• The main shocks you will have to worry about are Earth Shock, which will interrupt you, and Frost Shock, to stop you from kiting. However the strength of one is the weakness of the other. If you are frost shocked, fear them (mind their totems). If you are earth shocked and they are not right on you, you can kite them and let your dots tick away, which will most likely lead them to frost shock you (then: see above).
  
• Sometimes a Shaman that is losing or low on health may try to shift into Ghost Wolf form to escape or close the distance. If you have your Felhunter out, you're in luck. The Ghost Wolf effect is considered a magical effect and can be devoured. Their Lightning Shield, Earth Shield, and water shields can also be devoured... be aware that water shield is free for them to cast and will still proc when you devour it. Be wary of the cooldown on your devour magic however, since it is handy to remove frost shock to stay out of range of those nasty windfuries. Unfortunately, Windfury is a buff they cast on their weapon and cannot be removed.
  
• With a Succubus out: The Seduction can be helpful, but keep in mind that it is also affected by the grounding and tremor totems. Also, many shaman have enough +spell damage to just about insta-kill any succi.
  
• With a Voidwalker out: Your pet is going to do little more than tickle them, since shamans can purge the sacrifice shield. Not the best pet to have in this situation.
  
  
• With an Imp: Try to keep it away from them, if you kite them or have a few moments before you engage, tell your imp to 'stay' so the shaman is less likely smack it in melee (although if they shock it and get a crit your poor imp may be doomed anyway). An imp can be very handy for quickly taking out totems however.
  
• With a Felhunter: Kiting is much more viable when you can remove frost shock from yourself. If you can land some dots on them and keep your distance you can hurt them a bit while minimizing your own pain (there is a 2 second difference between their shocks and your fel hunter's devour magic, so keep that in mind before deciding to try to win only by kiting. You have one of the most important abilities available when fighting a class that can heal itself, spell lock (so make sure to turn off auto-cast).
  

• Enhance Shaman: Recognized by their dual wielded weapons, these nasty characters can just about one-shot a poorly geared warlock and combined with a shock, kill most warlocks straight up. Keeping your distance is absolutely critical in this fight. Keep your Demonic Circle ready and utilize all your tricks... Curse of Exhaustion is a great tool for these guys.
  
• Restoration Shaman: Recognized by their key spell, Earth Shield, these are probably the hardest class/build to kill in pvp, rivaled only by the druid. That said, for a warlock this is an easier fight then a resto druid since you have time on your hand. Having your Felhunter out will a tremendous help here, for both Devour Magic to remove their Earth Shield and the Silence to help against their heals, they can be extremely helpful. This will be a battle of some length, so keep your health up and your mana topped off. Utilize Curse of Tongues to help slow those heals and lighting bolts while your dots keep them healing. As affliction, a full set of dots (all 7) should be enough to force the shaman into near heal-spams, which makes the fight yours, since your mana will outlast his. Keep wanding their totems since they will pickup some of your dots and increase the shamans mana regen. In arena, a mana-drain can help immensely against them. Once the mana is empty, the fight is yours.
  
  
• Elemental Shaman: Best way to recognize this build is the lack of dual wielding or Earth Shield. Keep up Curse of Tongues and Drain Life as much as you can, the shaman will out burst-damage you (possibly not as destruction) so be careful to keep interrupting his casts as much as you can. Remember that even if their tremor totem breaks the fear, it can still interrupt their cast. As affliction I have found that if you can get full-dots up on them before using your Demonic Circle to portal away, many shaman will stop to heal. From there I will utilize Curse of Exhaustion to kite them and let the dots tick. If you can force them into heal spams, the fight is yours.
  

• [Affliction] Medium
  
• [Demonology] Medium - Hard
  
• [Destruction] Medium - Hard
  

Deathknights

The new deathknight class is a unique challenge to the Warlock class; most notable are their Interrupts and healing abilities. It is advisable to utilize as many instant cast spells as possible before moving into casting spells. One nice trick I have found is to throw up my instant dots before casting immolate. More often then not, the deathknight will interrupt my immolate, silencing my fire spells, but leaving all of my shadow spells still available to cast. In the past I often made the mistake of opening with Unstable Affliction, Fear, or Haunt; at which point the deathknight would silence all shadow spells, which includes most of the spells I have at my disposal.

• Deathknights do an incredible amount of damage in melee range, often while healing themselves (depending on spec), so it is vital that you keep the knight at range through fears, Demonic Circles, or Kite'ing. They are one of the few classes to not have many natural defenses to our main cc ability: fear. There is a frost talent which can help and they can use their magic shell, but compared with most other classes the DK class is very susceptible to our fear and has only the trinket as a defense to break fear once running. That said, they have a medium range shock which will slow you; and there are also talents available to a deathknight which increase their speed by 15%; both of which make keeping your distance a challenge. Finally they have Chains of Ice which will lock you down for a period of time. For me, I save my trinket to break this cc. I often find a quick fear and then running while keeping my dots ticking to be the best strategy. If the deathknight can't get to melee range, they won't have much luck killing you.
  
• For pets to have out, the succubus is great, but a smart deathknight will kill her before she has a chance to tell you how "she isn't touching you." For myself I am a huge fan of the voidwalker for their Sacrifice, but in this case the felhound works nearly as well, helping to keep the DK's buffs from stacking too high while adding considerable damage for you. Most Deathknights won't bother trying to kill your felhound if they can see and attempt to attack you.
  
• Utilizing your Demonic Circle at the right times is probably one of the largest items to master when dealing with a deathknight. If used at the wrong time, the deathknight will simply Death Grip you back within melee range. Ideally you use your teleport immediately after being Death Griped in order to re-establish distance... staying close will lead to your quick death.
  
  
• Watch for the Deathknight to cast his Gargoyle. This 'pet' can deal some significant damage and must be dealt with immediately upon its arrival. For me, I keep a macro to target the beast, which has relatively little health and dies quickly to dots.
  
• If the Deathknight has a ghoul by their side, fear it and dot it with Siphon Life (if spec'd for it), otherwise try to refrain from heavy DPS on the pet (see Mark of Blood below). Chain fearing their pet can be a pain, but for the most part, relatively easy and effective. If the pet ends up in melee range you will find its interrupts and dazes to be troublesome.
  
• Finally, be wary of the deathknight healing.... they have several abilities which allow them to do so. Simplest of all are when they deal damage, they get healed. If you keep your distance, this affect should be minimal. Secondly, the deathknight can heal through the use of bloodworms which deal you damage and heal the deathknight. These small bug-pets can be destroyed by a quick AoE, for me 1-2 ticks of Hellfire usually does the trick. Finally the Deathknight has Mark of Blood. Mark of Blood will refill a DK's health in a matter of seconds in larger areas like battlegrounds or 5v5 arena, where you may have DoTs up on several targets. This Ability will heal the DK for 4% of his health every time the marked target does damage. When you have multiple dots up on several targets, this can add up to 20% of their health every tick of your dots. In duel situations there is little that you can do except wait it out or dps through it with direct damage spells (ie: shadow bolt). Warlocks are especially susceptible to this ability as much of our damage is spread out across many seconds, and each "tick" will heal the DK.
  
  
• Remember for many deathknights, death is only the end of round one, with round 2 beginning immediately thereafter as they rise from the dead as a ghoul. Don't be too discouraged, for although the ghoul does a great deal of damage, it has a relatively low amount of health and dies quickly. Be aware that although the Deathknight's pet is fearable, the deathknight himself when in ghoul form is immune to fear. Curse of Exhaustion is a huge help to keep distance.
  

• [Affliction] Medium - Hard
  
• [Demonology] Medium - Hard
  
• [Destruction] Hard