Warlock Talent Build Guide
Introduction
Well, let's see here. I think, in total, I've spent well over a thousand gold in respecs on my warlock. It's taken me this many swaps to find a talent spec I 'prefer', and even then I'm currently on a different spec for honor reasons. I can't even get around to levelling an alt, because warlocks are simply put, my favorite class. They're abosutely one of the most diverse talent-wise out of any of the classes, and finding a specific talent specialization that 'fits you' can be hard. So, I've decided to share some of my experiences with the most common talent specs to try and give a helping hand to new and old warlocks alike.
(Please note that the linked talent builds are often times just one example of what path you can take)
-Elyvin
Dark Pact/Shadowburn
This is both an equally diverse specialization for both PvP and PvE. Dark Pact gives you a limitless mana supply, bottlenecked only by the amount of times you can hit that Dark Pact button. This also gets you shadowburn, which is one of our only insant cast direct damage spells. Damagewise, this is the middle ground spec. You don't have the sheer damage output of a SM/Ruin build, or the burst damage of Conflagrate; However, your shadow bolts are still fairly powerful. An added boon is Curse of Exhaustion, which is not only a life saver, but great for kiting/stopping players in their tracks.
Overall, this is just about 'the best' talent path to go for the grind up to 60. Fel Concentration makes life a lot easier, and when you get Dark Pact, your downtime becomes next to nothing. At 60, it still gives a good fight against the other specs for viability.
Soul Link
Smply put, the best 1v1 PvP talent spec for warlocks. With about a 95% certainty, a Soul Link warlock is simply the best 1v1 character in the game to date, even with the 1.8 nerf to soul link. When you consider that once decently equipped, a warlock should have at least 5000 health, then factor in 30% damage absorption plus another 10% vs. melee or +60 to all resists vs. casters, it's just simply too hard to kill someone like that. While they're wailing away at your massive health reserve, your DoTs and other spells do the work for you.
Getting away from PvP, this isn't the strongest PvE spec, even if you choose the alternate route of ditching shadowburn for nightfall. The thing that keeps it afloat in PvE, though, is Master Demonologist. While Felhunter and Voidwalker are your two PvP pets with this talent, Succubus and Imp are your two PvE. Simply having the succubus out gives you a 10% damage bonus, equal to that of Shadow Mastery. If you're drawing too much hate, take out the imp for 20% threat reduction. Alternatively, you can also sacrifice the succubus with Demonic Sacrifice if the mobs are AEing too much for a pet to be in melee, so you get a 15% to your shadow damage. As you can see, the sheer versatility of this build is what makes it shine so much.
Overall, this is a good path to go for the PvP minded, or the mixed crowd. If you can't stand the thought of PvP, or are on your way up to sixty, I'd reccomend you to try out one of the other builds instead.
Conflagrate
The closest to a mage we get. Sheer burst DPS in its purest form. This build trades in the defenses of Soul Link or Curse of Exhaustion for damage, damage, and even more damage. Between Soul Fire, Immolate + Conflagrate, Death Coil, and Shadowburn, you can take targets out before their healers even realize what is going on. The 'unload'ness of this build is also good if multiple monsters aggro you at once - you can take one out quickly and work on the rest.
The one place where a Conflagrate spec'd warlock begins to falter is in the endgame raids. So far from what we've seen, all of the large raid instances have been fire focused (MC/Onyxia/BWL), which means its monsters will have obscene resistances to fire, or they're just plain immune to it. Thanks to talents like Ruin and Devastation, you can still compete DPSwise with shadow bolts, though. Just don't expect to throw soul fires at Ragnaros.
Another point some players like to point out is that people decked out in MC gear will usually have an annoyingly high fire resist. While a minor issue, it's just that - a minor issue. If someone has more than 75 fire resist in their ordinary PvP gear, switch targets and move on. Simple as that.
Overall, this is a solid PvP talent spec, and a great one for instances and PvE. If you're a fan of seeing large numbers pop over someone's head in rapid succession, this is the build for you.
Shadow Mastery/Ruin
Conflagrate's evil brother. If Conflagrate is the King of Fire, then SM/Ruin is the Emporer of Shadow. Spamming shadow bolts is what it does best, and to devastating results. It has the plus of having both a defensive talent (CoEx) and a payload of damage to boot. It works wonders in PvP, and until we get new non-fire resistant endgame instances, it's the king of warlock raid damage.
There's not too much else to talk about here. Overall, it's strong like Conflagrate in PvP, but surpasses it in PvE. If you like seeing *really* large numbers pop over someone's head periodically, this spec is for you. Plus, it has a REALLY cool looking questable staff made for it
Master Demonologist/Ruin
An odd mix of the versitility of MD and the damage output of Ruin. I think ideally this build has its roots in PvE, as it misses about the two core talents for any warlock - Improved Corruption for instant cast Corruption, and Improved Lifetap, which is mostly optional but helps magnitudes in both PvE (especially without Dark Pact) and PvP. The general idea is that you're prepared for a wide berth of situations, but in the end, you ideally want the succubus out (or sacrificed) for the damage boost so you can pump out shadow bolts SM/Ruin style.
It's an alternative to SM/Ruin if you don't dig the affliction tree, or if you want some more options. This build is not reccomended for pre-60 characters - it requires both the Master Demonology and Ruin talents to be at full effectiveness, and lacks the PvE punch you will get from affliction going SM/Ruin.