Warlocks are a pesky bunch.

Warlocks. Well, this should be interesting. Perhaps no class has suffered such an ignominious fall from grace in PvP reputation as that of the warlock. Once a fearsome -- quite literally, in this case -- force to be reckoned with, the class has suffered a few bumps in the road that has led it to become less of a threat on the battlefield. Mostly, this has something to do with the ridiculous burst of the low resilience Season 5, which resulted in warlocks getting blown up in the opening ten seconds of a match, the rise of death knights, who are kind of like warlocks in plate armor, and the homogenization of caster gear, which meant far less Stamina for warlocks than they were used to prior to Wrath.

As resilience built up in Wrath of the Lich King and burst decidedly went down, warlocks have once again taken a return trip to power. Well, at least respectability. While with the balancing of crowd control, players no longer cry about how OP warlocks are, they still have a powerful arsenal at their disposal. They've also never been more fun to fight. With the distinctiveness introduced in Wrath, warlocks are now (a little) more than just getting your butt feared into oblivion. After the jump, we'll take a look at the common tools you should expect from every warlock and how to counter them.

Fear

Needless to say, this is still every warlock's bread and butter. Fear has been nerfed to the point where it's no longer quite as, well, fearsome because it has a much lower damage threshold and shorter PvP duration than the old days. Still, it's something every player should expect from a warlock. Because Fear is absolutely terrible in a PvE environment, warlocks relish using it in PvP. In the Battlegrounds and world PvP, they'll tend to use it less strategically and with abandon. Remember a couple of things: it suffers from diminishing returns, so even if warlocks can recast it, it won't last as long. Is it worth a cc-break? For classes who don't have built-in counters to fear effects, yes. It also has a 1.5 second cast time, making it perfectly interruptible and locks the warlock out of the Shadow family of spells, preventing most of their DoTs and other crowd control effects. It's arguably the most interrupt-worthy spell because it occurs before losing control of your character, and because their other spells are instant cast.

Death Coil

Speaking of instant cast spells, Death Coil is a spell that warlocks use in a pinch to peel. Some warlocks even use it as a precursor to Fear. The notable thing is that it is a horror effect, so warlocks can actually stack Fear on top of it. It's almost never worth it to trinket out of a Death Coil, so don't be baited into it. Be aware of the difference and never mistake being Death Coiled for being Feared. Instead, wait for the inevitable Fear. It's an instant cast spell, so there's not much you can do about it. Just be mindful of its two minute cooldown.

Corruption and Curse of Agony

Two of the warlock's basic Damage-over-Time spells, Corruption and Curse of Agony are instant cast, so they're uninterruptible. They also don't share the same debuff slot, so most of the time these two work in tandem to bring down opponents' health. The good news is that there are a lot of utility curses that take up the curse slot, so it won't always be a damaging spell. The bad news is that only druids, mages, and talented shamans can remove curses. Still, if you are able to shake off a curse or magical effect (Corruption), you shouldn't allow them to stack. DoTs soften you up for the kill, so keep your health up with defensive dispels and self-heals if you can manage it.

Demonic Circle

Recently at the office (or what passes for the WoW.com office these days), one of our writers posted a pic of a Demonic Circle on the ground and asked, "what is that?" and noted that she'd never seen it before. Interestingly enough, when warlocks started getting the spell at Level 80, Dalaran was filled with them. Now that the novelty has worn off, you're more likely to see them in the Battlegrounds. Good warlocks will always have a Demonic Circle prepared. If they don't, take confidence in the fact that you're probably fighting an average 'lock. Always keep your eye on where the Demonic Circle is and always fight near it, or at least know what direction you should head when they get the spell off. The teleport itself has a fairly long range, so if they manage to get away from you using it, they can create a large distance. Just remember two things: it doesn't allow them to escape any crowd control except snares, and it has a long 30 second cooldown. At best, force them to blow it and take away one of their few escape mechanics.

Howl of Terror

This spell is one of the warlock's other means of escape. Howl of Terror is an awesome peeling spell but it suffers from two big drawbacks -- it has a casting time and has a long 40-second cooldown. Affliction warlocks can reach deeper into the tree and make it instant, so keep an eye out for their spec. The spell shares diminishing cooldowns with Fear, so this is also worth the trinket use. Because this is a peel for melee at 10 yard range, if you're a ranged class, you needn't worry about this so much.

Seed of Corruption

In many cases, warlocks will opt to place a Seed of Corruption on a target instead of the run-of-the-mill Corruption. In the Battlegrounds, where it can get really chaotic, it's an awesome spell to put on a focused target. Unmolested, warlocks can have their fun placing a chain of Seeds of Corruption on enemies while hiding a fair distance from the crowd. Pay attention to this spell. They won't cast it when they're facing off against you solo, but they will use it with abandon when against a group, so beware of those instances. It is a magic effect.

Warlock pets

Unlike hunters, warlocks only have a limited choice of pets and it's fairly easy to determine the strategy against a pet and their master. In the case of a Felguard, it will even dictate what spec the warlock is, allowing you to figure out what to expect. Most warlocks will have the Felhunter out because it affords them the most versatility on the battlefield. Felhunters can Devour Magic, and considering the number of magical buffs and debuffs going around in a battle, this makes them ideal pets to have out. If you're a caster, beware of Spell Lock, which good warlocks will have off auto-cast.

The good news is that most warlocks will have it on auto-cast. It's too much to micromanage for casual, occasional PvPers otherwise. The bad news is that the spell is a 3-second silence, which means it'll have an effect whether or not you're actually casting anything. If you get caught casting something, you'll be locked out of your school for an even worse 6 seconds. If the Felhunter charges at you and Spell Locks you right off even if you're not casting anything, that should already indicate your opponent's skill level. They don't deal much damage, so the only reason to kill them is if they're being well managed. Keep in mind that they're no longer as easy to kill, either, so in most cases, going after the warlock herself is better proposition.

If you don't see the warlock with a pet, she's probably got a Succubus lurking around somewhere, so be wary of getting crowd controlled with Seduction. Just remember two important things -- one is that Seduction breaks on damage, so it's not a good idea to waste your trinket on it unless you or an ally you intend to help is really close to death. The second is that Seduction shares diminishing returns with fear effects, so allowing the spell to take effect works in your favor. Of course, keep in mind that most warlocks only use Seduction to keep one opponent out of play while demolishing another. The Succubus is also the easiest warlock pet to kill next to the Imp, which never sees PvP play, so going after it is never a bad idea.

The Felguard is a demonology warlock's signature pet and is arguably the strongest demon a warlock can bring into battle. It has the highest health, so targeting it would be a bad idea. If you're a warlock, you can simply Banish any demon, but other classes will need to be more creative with their crowd control to keep the pet out of play. The Felguard can stun, and most warlocks will use it as an opener. The spell has a minimum range of 8 yards, so getting into melee before the warlock can pull it off sometimes works, but it's usually best to just 'eat' the stun. It has a short, 3-second duration and a longish thirty second cooldown, so just absorb it. It should be noted that Felguard has a small mana pool and very mana intensive spells. If you have a means of siphoning mana, targeting the Felguard's mana pool should greatly hamper its efficiency in battle.

Sometimes, and because it's often the only place they get to do it, warlocks will unleash an Infernal (or even a Doomguard) in the Battlegrounds. Now those are fun. They cause a short stun when called upon, but mostly they just wreak uncontrolled havoc. Ignore them. They're too big to bother with, and they make warlocks perfect targets because Infernals can't be micromanaged and thus warlocks can't use them to save themselves. If you see an infernal on the battlefield, find the summoning warlock and zero in. They're practically pet-less for about a minute. CLARIFICATION: Infernals can be controlled, but they have no special abilities to speak of -- no crowd control abilites, no activated attacks, just one flaming hunk of mass.

Occasionally, warlocks will use a Voidwalker to PvP. This might seem funny at first, but be wary of the warlock who has it out. The Voidwalker has extremely high health and provides excellent buffer when combined with Soul Link. These pets can also be Sacrificed to give the warlock a shield buff that absorbs damage. In general, expect a warlock with a Voidwalker to be able to take on a lot of damage. Rogues should also watch out for Consume Shadows, which affords the Voidwalker some form of stealth detection. Sacrifice no longer kills the Voidwalker since Patch 3.1, making it a far more resilient pet than one expect.

That's all we'll discuss for today, but when we continue we'll take a look at the warlock herself and what you should expect of the three different specs and how to counter them. Fighting warlocks these days are just a tad more complex than the fear-fear-fear-dead encounters of old. They're certainly much easier to handle now, but also a whole lot more fun. Until then, stay on your toes and don't be afraid of battle. Unless, of course, you're Feared.