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Dive's Drain Tanking Guide
Dive's Drain Tanking Guide
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Talents
The core talents are Improved Corruption, Improved Lifetap, Suppression, Fel
Concentration, Improved Drain Life, Amplify Curse, Grim Reach, Siphon Life,
Shadow Mastery, and Dark Pact.
The Destruction talents Bane and Shadowburn will dramatically increase your
offensive capabilities, which will increase your kill speed.
Utility options Take the non-core talents as you see fit, in the order
Defensive options you see fit. My only suggestion (strong suggestion!) is
that you rush to Dark Pact before anything else. As for
Offensive options
my personal choices, I take 5/5 Suppression,
Shadowburn, and Demonic Embrace.
Talent Explanations:
Core Utility Defensive
IMPROVED CORRUPTION: Arguably the only mandatory IMPROVED DRAIN SOUL: Doubles your normal mana regeneration IMPROVED HEALTHSTONE: Increases the health returned by your
talent for all warlocks, regardless of spec. Allows casting when not casting spells, and allows normal mana regeneration to healthstones by 30%. Since healthstones are already mana-neutral,
Corruption while moving, giving you more space to Drain continue while casting. This talent will act as a reasonable bonus to this actually makes healthstones a net gain in resources. This only
Life. mana sustainability in the later levels, but early on will not be much takes two points, and will both save your life and increase your
IMPROVED LIFE TAP: Increases your life-to-mana conversion better than regular regeneration while wanding. There are also overall sustainability.
efficiency, making 1 life = 1.2 mana. This is a must-have, since other issues/considerations with taking this talent. See the FAQ in DEMONIC EMBRACE: Increases your stamina, which is nice, at the
drain tanking is all about creating life from mana, which is then this document and additional analysis here: cost of a small amount of spirit. This will make you more tanky. Your
worth even more mana due to this talent! http://shorl.com/trenaprosturafru whole build is based on tanking. Also remember: each point of life you
get is worth even more mana, due to Improved Life Tap. If you’re
SUPPRESSION 3/5: Nearly every spell in the drain-tanking IMPROVED IMP: Increases the damage of firebolt and fire shield, undead, this also increases the effectiveness of your Cannibalize
rotation is Affliction, so this talent is straight-up +6% hit. You and also increases the stamina bonus of blood pact. Before you racial.
only need 3/5 points in this, because this will hit-cap you get the succubus, this talent is very very good. After you get the
succubus, this is only useful for doing dungeons (to buff your CURSE OF EXHAUSTION: Slows enemies down. Doesn’t help with
against all mobs yellow to you (+2 level). If you are drain
party). questing or grinding very much (except for maybe the occasional
tanking, you should avoid fighting orange monsters as much
elite quest), and requires several talent points to be useful in pvp.
as possible. SUPPRESSION 5/5: It is a reality that you will have to face If you have Amplify Curse, this becomes much stronger.
some higher-level mobs and occasionally players. This talent
IMPROVED DRAIN LIFE: Increases the life drained by Drain Life. will greatly increase your ability to handle these situations, FEL DOMINATION + MASTER SUMMONER: Will give you a
This increases the point-for-point efficiency of Drain Life by 10% allowing you to land critical fears and maintain high damage nearly-instant, nearly mana-free pet every 15minutes. It will also
(same as Shadow Mastery). and life drains. give you a cheaper, faster demon summon in between
cooldowns. This is typically used to summon a Voidwalker for
AMPLIFY CURSE: For one point, you get a really nice boost to
sacrifice in dire situations, which is very good… except that you
Curse of Agony every 3 minutes. For those times when you
won’t be able to get these until you’re nearly 60 anyway. So this
have a particularly tanky mob or pull more than one mob, this
won’t help you level for the most part.
helps a lot in increasing killspeed and efficiency, since CoA will
be able to tick the whole duration. This also helps a lot in pvp if
you pick up Curse of Exhaustion.
FEL CONCENTRATION: Resist 70% of spell pushback when
channeling drain spells. This talent makes the build work. You
Offensive
simply cannot drain tank efficiently without 5/5 Fel Concentration.
For the reason, I suggest rushing straight to this talent and not
IMPROVED CURSE OF AGONY: Increases Curse of Agony damage,
drain tanking until you have it.
but by a measly 6%. You typically don’t want a fight to last the full
GRIM REACH: Extends the distance of your affliction spells by duration of CoA anyway, making this talent pretty lackluster. Grab
20%. At first, you might not think this talent does much for drain this only if you don’t really like the other options.
tanking, since the mobs are in your face most of the time. NIGHTFALL: Gives you an instant-cast shadowbolt on some
However, it enables safer pulling, and gives you more distance to Corruption and Drain Life ticks. This will proc constantly as a drain
apply dots and drain before you begin taking damage. tank build. However, Shadow Bolt is very mana-inefficient, making
Additionally, you can drain feared targets from far away. This is a this talent not so great for sustainability. The primary reason to
must-have. take Nightfall is for the occasional PvP fight. You may also find it
useful to “execute” enemies who flee.
SIPHON LIFE: The DoT form of Drain Life. If the full duration BANE: Decreases the cast time of Shadow Bolt and, more
elapses, this spell is mana-neutral – meaning that it returns just as importantly, Immolate. Since Immolate is a part of your rotation,
much life (or more) than the mana it costs. However, you usually and typically cast at the beginning, this will speed up the
will not see the full duration of Siphon Life because you want to application of the rest of your dots and, as a result, increase your
kill mobs much faster than that. Nevertheless, this is a great grinding speed. This will also make a large difference in dungeon
addition to the drain tanking gameplay, particularly in double groups. Take Improved Shadow Bolt on the way to this.
pulls. See analysis here: http://shorl.com/vystigraruhista
SHADOWBURN: An instant burst of shadow damage that costs a
SHADOW MASTERY: Increases the damage done, and the life Soul Shard but returns the shard if the target dies shortly after.
drained by, all of your shadow spells. This, in turn, makes your This is a great tool for finishing fleeing mobs and defending
entire kit more efficient. What more is there to say? against the occasional world PvP encounter, but be careful not to
lose shards when using this – remember, shards cost mana due to
DARK PACT: Drains mana from your pet, returning it to you. This Drain Soul.
will make your grinding much more comfortable, since it gives you
mana without draining your life.
Optional
Leveling Priority: A
The leveling priority will depend on a couple of factors:
1. Do you mind respeccing once while leveling? Respec when you get Succubus
2. Do you want to use the Imp or Voidwalker in the early levels? (lv 24 for me)
Personally, I level with the Imp instead of the Voidwalker, using the Voidwalker only for
particularly difficult quests. Thus, I like to grab Improved Imp early on (see A), and respec
(B) once I am able to get 5/5 Fel Concentration and switch to the Succubus. I do this so that B
during level 1-24 I am able to very quickly kill targets using dots, wand, and a buffed Imp. At
level 24 I will have my Succubus, so I drop Improved Imp and invest into full Affliction. Keep
in mind that Drain Life is still a bit weaker than wands until level 30, where it equals Level to 60
wanding. Once you get to level 38, Drain Life is much better than wands – that’s when you’ll
want to be draining a lot more than wanding.
If you want to use the Voidwalker you can use B right away, or you can go down to
Improved Voidwalker instead (recommended).If you want to use the Imp but do not want
to respec, then simply use the order in B right away with no changes. C
Regardless of what you do from level 1-24, from level 25 to 60 you should use C (which is
just a continuation of B, no need for another respec). Note the optional talent choices.
These are up to you, as they are entirely personal preference.
The most important aspects of the talent order is that you rush straight to Dark Pact, and View this build here
then grab Utility/Defensive/Destruction talents.
Spells to learn
Every class has spells that are
unnecessary, or even useless,
during the leveling process.
Here I will list out the spells I
believe you must have, the
ones that you might consider
learning (depending on spec,
and which may have questing
utility, group play, or PVP uses), 78g
and the ones that I believe you
don’t need at all until level 60. 60g
70g
These lists will be a little
opinionated based on my own TOTAL: 208g
tastes, so feel free to take
whichever spells you find Image Source: /u/seguren
useful.
The rotation you use will vary a bit, as you level (obtaining new abilities/ranks) and fight a variety of mobs. Some mobs will be tightly clustered humanoids, some will be
fast-hitting cats, sometimes you’ll fight mechanical opponents immune to Drain Life, and occasionally you’ll even have to kill an elite. Always be thinking about if your
rotation can be better suited to the mobs you’re killing. I will try to give the most general rotation, and add some tips to help you deal with more uncommon circumstances.
Generic Rotation (lvl 38+) 1. If the enemy is easy to kill, like a mob lower level than you, you will want to use lower-duration dots. If the
mob is very easy to kill, you might consider using fewer dots overall. If the enemy is hard to kill, you will
DoTs Drain/Wand until dead want to add more dots. If the enemy is very hard to kill, you should use all of your dots keep the mob
Feared – particularly if it is Elite or just hits hard. Pay attention to the value you are getting from each dot,
Pick one or two
as you level. Use your judgement. There is no absolute rotation.
2. The decision of whether to cast Drain Life or wand can be summed up by two considerations: first, if you
have much more mana than life, cast Drain Life -- if you have much more life than mana (if you risk
Life Tap overhealing your life), shoot your wand. Never waste Drain Life hp recovery, and never wand when you
This is essentially how most of your fights will go. You start have full mana. Also, if the mob is low hp, it is best to not spend any more mana and wand. Second, the
with a few dots, then Drain Life or wand until the mob dies. dps of Drain Life vs. wand is important. See the Stats and Stat Priority section.
3. Newer ranks of spells will do more damage, and usually increase their mana efficiency as well. Consider
Take care to use Life Tap as appropriate to not overheal. making new ranks of spells part of your regular rotation.
The exact rotation you do will depend on some factors: No matter what “opener” you use, you will always use Corruption. It is a high-dps, high-dpm (damage per mana)
1. The difficulty of enemy you face spell with a duration that allows it to deal most or all of its damage for every mob. If you are fighting a mob and
2. The life/mana you have all of your dots fall off, you should usually only refresh Corruption.
3. The wand you have vs the rank of Drain
Life you have For a visual example of some rotations, watch Goetia drain tank in the Classic beta:
4. The spells which have the “newest” ranks https://youtu.be/yzg2rt6bpN4
Wands versus Drain Life On the left is a plot of Wand DPS vs Drain Life DPS
90 by level. The Gray dots represent wands obtainable
by most people such as quest rewards, and Bind on
80 Equip wands. The Blue dots are wands that require
70 going “out of your way” for, typically from dungeons
Blackfathom Deeps or dungeon quests. The Green lines represent the
60 DPS of Drain Life at any given level (and I have
added the level-appropriate talents to each rank).
50 The “Halfway Point” in leveling time of 1-60 takes
SUCCUBUS: The demon of choice for drain tanking, once you FELHUNTER: A decent pet for drain tanking, having fairly good
are able to summon her. She does very good damage (up to dps without having to spend any mana. He also regens mana a
25% of your overall dps), and doesn’t spend any mana doing so. bit faster than the Succubus. One really good use of the
As long as you leave (most or all of) her abilities off auto-cast, Felhunter is when you are killing mobs that heal, since he can
she will never run out of mana like the imp would – making her use Spell Lock to interrupt the heals. The only problem with
great for long killing sessions and acting as a mana battery for using Felhunter is that the quest-chain to obtain him is fairly
Dark Pact. As an added bonus, she helps a lot in survive world lengthy and out-of-the-way for most quest routes, so most
pvp encounters thanks to Seduce and her high dps. warlocks wait until level 60 to get the Felhunter.
Lash of Pain: An instant attack on a 12- Lesser Invisibility: Makes the Devour Magic: Dispel a magic Spell Lock: Silence the target.
second cooldown. Use this when the Succubus sneaky, making your effect from the target (friend or Quite useful against caster mobs,
Succubus almost has full mana, to combined aggro radius smaller. especially healers. Also very good
foe, even yourself!). The Felhunter
prevent her from wasting regen and
maximizing her dps. Keep up-to-date.
Learn this for sure, but keep it on comes with this; no point getting in pvp. Worth getting at least one
NOTE: this can be left on auto – set it to manual! It is a waste of mana to do higher ranks while leveling. Keep rank, possibly more if you expect a
manual if you are having mana issues. after every fight. manual-cast. lot of pvp.
Seduction: A channeled CC. I Soothing Kiss: Lowers the Tainted Blood: Reduce the attack Paranoia: Allows you to spot
recommend learning this spell for Succubus’ threat. This is power of enemies that hit the stealthed (not invisible) enemies
handling accidental large pulls and occasionally useful to prevent her Felhunter, stacking. Not useful at from further away. Useful for
to help protect you in random pvp from taking damage, since her all for drain tanking. Skip this. quests with stealthed mobs, or
scenarios. damage is front-loaded. enemy rogues. Might be worth
picking up.
Purchasing Grimoires
MUST HAVE: MAYBE BUY: SKIP:
NOTE: Unlike spells, you do not 1. Succ – All 1. Imp – Everything past level Everything else.
need to buy all ranks of each demon 2. Voidwalker -- Sacrifice 24
ability. For the abilities you skip while 3. Imp – Everything up to level 24 2. Void – Torment
leveling, you only have to purchase 3. Felhunter – Spell Lock +
Paranoia
the max rank at level 60!
Shadow / Improves the damage done by, and the life drained by, all of your dots and drains. This makes all
Spell of your spells kill faster and cost less mana per damage/life returned. This stat is a win-win-win.
Go for it when you can, but don’t neglect too much stamina for it.
Power