If your a warlock PLEASE READ!!!

[grapples are cool]

hey guys. so i made this warlock and im only on lv 9 but im not sure what i should specialize in once i get talent points. So please help if you know anything about warlocks! thanks

[Your Average WoW Player]

Affliction and Demonology are the better leveling specs for Locks as they help reduce your need for mana...
Demonology boosts the abilities of your pets (damage done, effectiveness of skills etc.) reducing your need to cast a lot of spells.
Affliction allows you to put your DoTs on with very nice effectiveness and you can pretty much drop your DoTs and let them and your pet do all the work for you.
Destro is great if you intend on grouping a lot. Soloing you wind up using mana a lot and have awful downtime. I've heard Destro-locks are like Fire Mages (Lots of damage right in the front, awful mana efficiency) but without the ability to summon water.

My choice? Either Affliction or Demonology. Both are good, and both reduce your need on mana reducing your downtime. I think Affliction is slightly better though.
I'd wait on Destro if you really want it until you are fully leveled and will be doing raids/intances a lot.

[ChaosSaber]

Spec Affliction until you have 41 points, then respec demonology with Felguard. Having a Felguard to tank for you makes things really easy :)
Use the remaining points in Affliction and possibly splash some destruction or a few more in demonology.

[Tanitha]

I'd stay in Affliction until 56 and then going Demonology, if you are so inclined. The Felguard picks up his most devastating powers then. However, Det has a very good guide right here (http://wow.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=397203) that explains all the talents, what to choose and why to choose them.

[Beruen]

Affliction is loads of fun, though I've heard that respecing felguard is common when you hit the outlands. I stuck with affliction, and other than switching out the sucubus for the void walker (I need my minion to hold aggro at least until I get the dots applied), the biggest change is that now I do have to pay attention to my minion's health. Solo draintanked Boglash (lvl 62 or 63 elite) last night. It worked, but man was it close. I was well under 1K health at the end, and had been hovering there since Boglash was at about 40% health, getting back just enough from Drain Life to keep me alive. And then, when done, had my D'oh moment when I realized that previously, I always fear kited elites and never had a problem. Guess I was starting to feel too invincible.

Tanitha, you've recently hit the outlands, how has it affected your play style?

[Tanitha]

I dropped Affliction at level 56, because I wanted to gain some experience in using the Felguard before approaching Outlands. He requires a fundamental shift in timing and general play style. My DoT cast timings are out of whack, the first few times we went a rumble, I'd be on my sequence heading for my second drain life and the mob would be dead.

Many was the fight where I wanted to slap that Felguard - like - give me a chance to actually KILL something, would you?

Having him around in Outlands though helps a lot. The intercept stun and demonic frenzy works wonders because the opponents are just that bit above your level. He hits like a truck and in a single mob situation there is no chance of me drawing aggro from him. In fact, farming the Voidwalkers in Void Rift last night (59) I found that charging one of the casters, applying CoShadow and Corruption I could still Soulfire them (They have heavy shadow resistance) and Drain Soul without him losing aggro. It's a bit mental.

Problems come in when you draw adds. Two mobs are okay, three begins to become a little bit of a problem, particularly if one is a healer. So, it's definitely changed from taking on a handful of mobs and managing them through Fear / HoT and so forth to focussed fire on a single mob.

I do find myself running out of mana every once in a while though. But man, going from a level 58 Blood Elf with 2400 Life, 4000 mana and +180 spell damage to a level 60 Blood Elf with 5000 life, 5000 mana and +220 spell damage. That is just lovely!

[lofta]

Affliction is all you need for levelling atm.

[Findariel]

Affliction is all you need for levelling atm.
Agreed.

As most guides tell you, affliction is the way to level up, at least to lvl 40.
A bit like combat for rogues, although that's a bit less black and-and-white.

[Aerath]

Go with what you enjoy - I specced Affliction and was bored to tears with it, so respecced to Demonology.

[Beruen]

I dropped Affliction at level 56, because I wanted to gain some experience in using the Felguard before approaching Outlands. He requires a fundamental shift in timing and general play style. My DoT cast timings are out of whack, the first few times we went a rumble, I'd be on my sequence heading for my second drain life and the mob would be dead.

Yeah just the boost in +shadow damage has thrown off my sequences. I don't get a second drain life in unless I skip some DoTs or something goes wrong with the fight. Then again, judging by what you said later in this message, it sounds like my gear was more focused on +shadow damage than yours is. I was at about +300 coming through the portal, but only about 3K health and maybe 3.5k mana. At lvl 63I'm at +447 shadow damage now (+371 fire) before food/potions/oils, but my stats have gone way up (at about 5K health, 6K mana). Then again, this is my 4th character to hit the outlands on that server, so my warlock is loaded with stuff that was crafted by/dropped for my other characters. Part of the reason her +shadow damage was so high was she had a complete set of felcloth, including the gloves, except for those parts where I had better.

Now that my health and mana have jumped, I'll usually send minion, dot the mob, then immediately start looking for the next mob and repeat. Keep that up until I go OOM, which doesn't take long since I'm not using drain life to keep myself topped off for life tapping.

While it's common for my voidwalker to lose aggro, the mob usually dies just about the time it reaches me.

All in all, of the 5 characters I've got that have reached the outlands, the warlock is definitely the most fun for solo play (though fun in groups too). The disc/holy priest is a blast too, but she never solos, so the fun comes more from the company.