My main is a level 62 shammy and I joined a guild of RL friends who all were at 70 when I joined. So I have found that with all of my toons, guild runs of instances at level are infrequent. I am actually a big believer in PUGing instances all the way through your levelling experience. For one thing learning the ropes in a PuG is ironically less pressure on me than learning it in a guild run. In a guild run, I would want to be perfect off the bat so as not to waste the time of people that were doing the run just for me. In a PuG I feel much more able to experiment with different stuff, because chances are everyone is going to call you a noob anyway. Anyone who is a decent human being in a PuG will be perfectly reasonable with you when you explain that you are learning your class etc.

Secondly I think that PuGs are great ways to teach you to deal with less than ideal situations. A well balanced group with good players can get through most instances pretty well, but you might never learn how to deal with a real panic situation.

So, my thoughts on your questions. To prepare for instances you should have bandages, food and water if you need it and you should be fully repaired. You can quest while you are waiting, so long as when everything is ready to go you immediately head somewhere to repair and get your butt to the instance.

Some people have been great in instances. I have received gifts from people who have a good run (armor patches eg) and given them also to people that I appreciate. You can build up a healthy friends list. Use an addon like karma to record notes about people you group with - chances you are going to get in groups again with them if you are levelling at the same rate.

The surprise has often been people who are prepared to take their time and run things through properly, marking targets and discussing strategy on fights without just running in.

I always appreciate warlocks who are willing to give everyone a healthstone and explain how it is used. You should give a soulstone to the healer regardless of what class. The only exception is that if your healer is a shammy and you have another class in the run capable of rezzing (eg a spriest or paladin) then you may opt to give the soulstone to the second rezzer and effectively have two people who can reincarnate.

You should not assume that people know how your crowd control works but you should volunteer to the party leader that you can crowd control, what types of mobs you can do it for etc. It is ultimately up to the party leader/marker as to whether they use crowd control but if things are going pearshaped, I would suggest it. Always request that the leader marks your mob for crowd control so that everyone is clear and you can justifiably be mad at people who break CC.

Worst warlock stuff? Life-tapping and calling for heals. Calling for heals any time is pretty lame. Having minion on aggressive is pretty annoying. Any DPS class that refuses to eat or bandages between pulls or after wipes is very annoying and a big waste of mana.

DPS have a bad name but one of the best things that happened to me in an instance was with a rogue in stocks. We had had a bad wipe. He had died first and released to try and run back and help with the fight. By the time he got back we had wiped totally. So everyone runs back and when we get there, the rogue had healed himself up and ran around slapping bandages on everyone saying “rogue healer FTW!!” That was pretty cool.

The most face palmy thing I had ever done in an instance? As the tank in SM, it was the first time that I had run with a hunter who could trap. Nobody was paying attention to the marking and everything was a big nightmare. I was super paranoid that a mob would run off and munch a clothie and wasn’t confident with holding aggro. So when I saw a mob run behind me, I turned and made chase. And started beating on an iceblock thinking “what a weird ability for a mob to have”. Of course the hunter had trapped a mob away from the fight and I didn’t know what it was because I had never seen one before.

How can I follow that up?

I agree with all of his tips Phil.

One time I was in a 10 man raid with a “lock” who left his imp out the whole instance because he said he didn’t have any other demons! We were in BRD for petes sake. He got booted when he kept asking what dropped when things were linked up and being rolled on.

Good luck.

Ironically, I pulled a Rogue healer yesterday, running a few guildies through Sunken Temple on the shade dragon..

Paladin was getting slapped hard, healer got stunned, I didn’t have hate, and I runecloth’d the Pally…

Lol. =)

I would recommend just running a lot of instances. The more you do, the more experience you get, the better you get. WoW is mostly just about experience, and learning from it..

Like when you got ganked by that lock in pvp that’s 3 levels above you, I bet the next time you saw him, while alone, you turned heel and ran. Unless you don’t learn from experiences.

PhilLogical - You probably already know this, but the worst thing a Warlock can do in a PUG is Fear. Nothing brings adds like Fear. If you’re lucky you’ll only bring in one or two more to the party. If you’re not, you’ll get to be part of someones most memorable wipe stories.

Whenever I’m in a PUG that does really, REALLY well, I give them a little gift. After we’re done I’ll run to the mailbox and send a note to each one saying how awesome they were at doing X. I have the coin so I usually add a couple gold to the mail as well. At the very least you’ll make someone’s day. More than likely you’ll make some new PUG buddies that are more than likely to join with you in the future.

The gold isn’t the important part. Letting people know they’ve done a great job is enough.

Charm is good apparently. I just know I was in a group and the GL kicked a warlock cause he refused to pull out his Succubus and charm.

DOTS DOTS more DOTS, STOP DOTS

Phil, most of what the other commenters have stated is spot on. Be cautious with Fear in instances unless you’re certain the mob won’t aggro a nearby group. Healthstones are an automatic win. Soulstone the healer, always. And if you master the art of CC’ing with your Succubus, my hat’s off to you. I’ve tried more times than I care to count and have failed epically every single time.

Also, as a Demonologist, when you get your Felguard and you’re running instances with a mage who’s sheeping or a rouge that’s sapping or a hunter that’s frost trapped a baddie, be sure to turn off Cleave if the CC’d mob is nearby. That is the number one cause for breaking crowd control with a demon lock.

Get a threat meter (Omen) and learn how to juggle aggro between yourself and your pet, this helps a TON when you find yourself in a PUG with a tank that doesnt generate a lot of threat.

Run instances whenever you can, I only had the opportunity to run 8 instances total on the way to 60 on my lock (after BC and the BE lvling craze was over). Instances really break up the monotony of soloing and can be a ton of fun as well.

The biggest surprise I had in a PUG was when the healer actually healed my fragile little succubus (the only thing keeping an angry mob from devouring said healer) instead of letting her die, then spamming ‘wtf aggro’. By the way, you will learn to hate the succubus and her pathetic CC ability as things go on. Hitting her CC target with a searing pain before seduce helps a little, but not enough to make a huge difference if things get out of hand.

Good fear kiting is better than seduce any day. Fearing then toggling Curse of Recklessness and CoE/CoA/CoW to somewhat control the feared mob is an awesome skill to learn, and it actually allows you to fear in an instance instead of seduce. Its always fun to go to Heroic Shattered Halls and be able to kill/CC 2 mobs out of a 6 pull as a lock.

Healthstones are very nice if you have the spare shards (always give one to the tank just in case), Always SS a rez class when you can, unless you like being called a noob. When grouped, start with your imp, unless you were invited to CC, then go with the succubus.

Demonology spec really doesnt come into its own until lvl 50 (Felguard), but really teaches you how to maximize the use of your pet.

I’d personally recommend leveling as Affliction (until 50 or when you hit outlands at 58-60 when tanking in cloth w/o T1/2/3/PVP gear gets messy), the combonation of DoTs, Drains, and (Improved) Syphon Soul really minimize down time. Having near full health and mana at the end of every fight is awesome.

The worst thing I have seen a warlock do in an instance was pull aggro off of the tank, then run away (into another group of mobs), then AOE fear that group (into yet another group) then realize he’s toast, SS himself, DIE, call everyone noobs, watch the group die, pop up, leave group and hearth out.
The biggest *facepalm* was grouping with that same lock 5 lvls later, and watching his felguard DIAF every pull that run, with him yelling at the healer for not healing his all important pet (these things cost shards you know!) instead of the tank .

There are a TON of good resources out there for locks, just look around the net, and see what you come up with.

@Doug - I agree with most of what you’re saying except for one thing: Leveling as Affliction, particularly if you’re ultimate plan is to respec as Demon. Affliction is certainly a useful build, one, however, I don’t care to play. Personal choice and all. But if you spec Aff, get used to spell rotation and damage output for 50+ levels, then respec into Demon, it’s going to take a bit of getting used to, especially considering you now have noticably fewer spells at your disposal and are much more reliant upon your minion.

Again, this may very well just be me, but I’ve always found it easier to stick with one build and adjust accordingly once at 70 for max damage output. Relearning new talents and becoming used to an entirely different spell rotation requires a pretty steep learning curve, one that is more relevant now with the faster leveling between 10-60.

Also, as a Demonologist, healers should throw a tiny bit of love at our minions. Master Demonologist and Soul Link pumps up our damage output by 5%, which is a significant and scalable amount of damage. If our minion dies and Fel Domination is on cooldown, that’s 6 seconds where we’re out of the battle summoning a new minion or recasting spells with 5% less damage. A simple Renew from a Priest should suffice, though if the tank is topped off, a more powerful heal would be much appreciated. It’s why I preach karma to my readers and suggest providing a stack of water or mana pots for my healers.

BTW, if you’re able to switch specs and master the new spec in a short time and be a viable, valuable member of the group, then my hat’s off to you. It’s simply something I’m not good at without a bunch of solo practice to perfect my timing and spell selection.

I can’t recommend http://www.wowmb.net enough for all warlocks

There’s a shitload of information there, and a great community, hands down the best warlock resource on the web imho