Character Profile: Faerolin - Forsaken & Formidable

Faerolin Mithain is my level 70 Undead Warlock. She was my 3rd WoW character to reach level 70! She is also my first Horde character. She was created pre-burning crusade. I had finished leveling Devarien and was looking for a new class to try. I loved the pet aspect of Hunter so much, that I wanted to try WoW's other pet class, the Warlock. I also wanted to try WoW from the perspective of a Horde character...so the combination of Undead & Warlock just seemed like the perfect fit!

After the first 20 levels of Warlock, I wasn't so sure I liked it. I guess I kept trying to compare it to Hunter, which really isn't fair. Hunter pets are much more customizable from appearance to stats. As a result, when you are stuck with just one viable pet to solo with for the first 20 or so levels (the voidwalker), it can get a bit boring. However, I stuck with it and sometime in my mid to late 20's I was able to start drain tanking. This is where my view on Warlock changed. Drain tanking is awesome!!! It just amazes me that a cloth wearer can stand toe to toe with a mob like she is a warrior! My pet of choice during my drain tanking days was the Succubus. I would turn all her abilities off autocast except for seduce and just use her for extra dps and to get back mana using dark pact. It really is an amazing build & one I used until level 60. It is especially good when fighting humanoids as your succubus can deal with adds with her seduce ability! She is pretty smart about it too!


When Faerolin was high enough level to start questing in the Outlands, I switched to a Felguard build. Since I am a pet fanatic, when the 41 point talent abilities were introduced just prior to the expansion, I was really intrigued by the Felguard. It seemed to me to be the perfect balance between the Voidwalker and Succubus. At that time, Faerolin was only in her 40's, so I had to wait. Also, I was just having too much fun with my drain tanking build that I was hesitant to switch. However, as I continued to level Faerolin, I would see more and more Warlocks with their Felguard. I started to become envious...lol. I mean seeing intercept & cleave in action...how could I not? So, I finally gave in....my thinking was that after 35 levels of drain tanking, it was time to try something new. A quick trip to my local Warlock Trainer to pay for my respec & it was done!!! Let me tell you, I've never looked back. The Felguard build is absolutely amazing!!!

The Felguard in my opinion is the best warlock minion. He might not have the same amount of armor as a voidwalker, but his high damage output and cleave/intercept abilities more than make up for it. He is also the best minion for AOE tanking. His cleave ability not only does great damage, but keeps the attention of multiple mobs, even if you have some DOT's ticking away on them! Two talents I found to be important for the Felguard are Fel Stamina and Mana Feed. Fel Stamina really helps your Felguard be a better tank & mana feed keeps him pumped up with mana so that he can cleave to his heart's content! I really have to recommend putting your final 20 points into the affliction tree. Improved Corruption, Soul Siphon & Improved Life Tap are a must. The combination of Soul Siphon and Improved Life Tap gives you almost an unlimited amount of mana. When low on mana, life tap & then use drain life on the mob you are fighting to get your health back. If you are able to keep your pulls to one or two at a time, you almost never run out of mana & never have to rest between kills! Improved Health Funnel is also an extremely important talent. It allows you to heal your pet without having to sacrifice too much of your own health. Worried about your personal dps with this build? Don't be...I find I do more than enough damage by dropping my 3 dot's (immolate, curse of agony & corruption) and by using drain life. Also, when you get Fel Armor at level 62, your dps goes through the roof! Fel Armor also bolsters your health funnel!

As far as playing a Horde character for the first time, I really had a great time. There are a lot of cool lore aspects of playing as a Forsaken. In addition, the quests in Nagrand dealing with Thrall's return to the Orc homeland are fantastic! I haven't been able to complete them myself, but I was lucky enough to see someone else complete the Thrall quest chain & I watched the whole "cinematic" of Thrall arriving in Garadar. One of the coolest things I've seen in the game. One final observation of playing a Horde is that it seems like there are many more quests to take along the way. Maybe it was just my imagination, but I never had the "slow" period of questing in the mid to late 40's like I did on the Alliance side. There just seem to be so many more Horde quests available in places like the Swamp of Sorrow, the Badlands, Dustwallow Marsh & the Hinterlands to name a few. Here are some screens of Faerolin: