Warlock Pet Guide

Warlocks simply don’t summon elementals or make an animal so enthralled with them that it’ll fight by their side. Oh no, Warlocks enslave demons to fight by their side in combat. Warlocks gain the ability right off the bat through a quest to summon an Imp (at level 1) and from there move through other demonic companions that each have their own unique role.

This guide goes over each pets abilities and tactics related to each pet. If you need to know the basics behind Warlocks then check out our Warlock basics. For more advanced tactics see our “Playing a Warlock” guide. If you need to know how to control your pet then see our “Controlling your Pet” guide.

To see how you obtain these pets (through their various quests) , see our Warlock Quest Guide.

Pet Info

• Gear and Warlock Pets

Basic Pets

• Imp
• Voidwalker
• Succubus
• Felhunter
• Felguard

Advanced Pets

• Infernal
• Doomguard

Pet Info

Gear and Warlock Pets

Pet Stat Conversion List:

• 1 Stamina Point = 0.3 Stamina for your Pet (+3 HP for every +10 for you)
• 1 Resistance Point = 0.4 Resist for your Pet
• 1 Armor Point = 0.35 Armor for your Pet
• 1 Spell Damage (Shadow) = 0.15 Spell Damage to your Pet, or 0.57 Attack Power.
• 1 Intellect Point = 0.3 Int for your Pet

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Imp

Spellcaster and Support
Requires: Nothing
Available at level 1

The Imp is an interesting pet and is the first pet you obtain. Available at level one, the Imp has only one attack (Firebolt) and is considerably weak. Its main role is in support, being able to stand back increasing your DPS, increasing your party’s health, and providing a very nice but simple buff.

Skills

• Firebolt: Deals fire based damage and is the only available attack an Imp has. The damage isn’t very much, but it’s not likely to draw aggro. As the Imp is very frail this is a very good thing. Starts at 6 to 8 damage and at level 58 reaches 83 to 94 damage.
• Blood Pact: Starting at level four the Imp is able to give a Stamina buff passively to everyone in your party. It starts at 2 stamina (20 HP) and works its way up to 38 stamina (380 HP) at level 50.
• Phase Shift: Phase Shift allows the Imp to become invulnerable at the cost of it being able to do nothing. This is useful when you want to drag it along and not have it get aggro at start or when in instances and you want to share the Blood Pact buff with everyone. The Imp can autocast this, meaning when it’s out of combat it’ll generally go into Phase Shift.
• Fire Shield: At level fourteen Fire Shield becomes available and is a really lackluster spell. It’s best to turn off auto-cast since it’ll overwrite a Druid’s Thorns spell, unless of course you plan on keeping the Imp out awhile

Tactics

Imps are very VERY weak. When you reach level ten and get your Voidwalker then you should probably shelf the Imp until you’re in an instance or group. Then pull it out and have it Phase Shift/put it into passive to share the Blood Pact buff with everyone. When someone has enough aggro feel free to command it to attack, although its damage will be pretty low.

Imps are useful for pulling enemies sometimes, although they are VERY weak and any kind of elite enemy will one or two hit an Imp on average.

Imp is the pet of choice if you go heavy affliction while soloing, too, since it has the largest mana pool out of all the pets. This means that you can use its MP to regain yours via Dark Pact, the talent deep in the affliction tree. It also means more HP for you to upkeep your life up via drain life tanking.

The imp’s superior mana regeneration helps quite a bit for this spec, too, and is ideal for any situation as an affliction warlock.

Wrath of the Lich King brings more effectivity to the imp when used in a Destruction spec; it will boost your overall damage should your imp crit by giving you a 20% chance of critting as well, so it's to your advantage, especially if a fire warlock, to use an imp companion to burn enemies down fast! This only applies if you have gone down deep in the Destruction Tree and obtained Empowered Imp, however.

If you have demonology spec, AVOID using Soul Link with this poor guy out, he will die oh so fast! (Since when do Imps have a lot of health to begin with?) if you don't want your imp splattered to the floor, avoid Soul Link while our buddy is helping us!

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Voidwalker

Defensive Fighter
Requires: 1x Soul Shard
Available at level 10

The Voidwalker is a pure tank pet. Its abilities allow it to take a good bit of damage before dieing and is the preferred solo pet of most Warlocks. It has a very weak melee attack, but makes up for it by its impressive ability to hold an enemies attention while you slay it.

Skills

• Torment: An auto-casted ability to “taunts” the enemy into attacking it every five seconds. This should always be on as it keeps enemies attacking the Voidwalker (unless, of course, you don’t want the Voidwalker tanking).
• Sacrifice: Sacrificies the Voidwalker in order to give you a temporary shield that will absorb all damage (up to a specified amount depending on rank) and keep damage from interrupting you. However, it’s important to note that while the shield may absorb damage and keep you from being interrupted from damage attacks, it won’t stop a skill such as Silence from interrupting you nor does it stop a Shaman from removing the buff effect (although you can kind of cast the water breathing spell to cover it up).
• Consume Shadows: An out of combat channeled heal over time. Basically it’s like the Voidwalker bandaging itself. Very useful. It will also increase stealth detection bigtime while doing so!
• Suffering: An AoE Taunt that is on a two minute cooldown. Useful for gaining extra aggro on one enemy or having the Voidwalker tank multiple enemies. When on Auto-Cast the Voidwalker will use it whenever there is more then two enemies in combat.

Past level 60, Suffering also gains an additional bonus: all targets hit with suffering are given 10% less chance  to hit for a few seconds, improving the voidwalker’s lifespan for a few more seconds when multiple monsters are on him. This is useful for AoE grinding or simply getting away from a tough monster.

Tactics

There are a lot of things you can do with a Voidwalker, although the majority of them involve the Voidwalker tanking enemies. That’s pretty much what it’s very good at, holding an enemy’s attention while you kill it. With light damage to start with (i.e. not unloading your non-DoT offense at the start) the Voidwalker will easily hold the aggro of any mob near your level.

It is also useful for sending into battle near a quest objective, have the Voidwalker take in all of the attention and use the quest objective (for instance, pick up a map). When finished you can get some distance then Sacrifice the Voidwalker for an easy escape, saving you from killing any enemies near a quest objective.

In PvP the Voidwalker can really only be used as health batter for when you’re attacked. When, say a Rogue appears before you, simply Sacrifice the Voidwalker which will give you a very hefty damage shield and time to deal with the attacking enemy. Not only that, if you spec Demonology, you will be able to receive a LOT more damage with the Voidwalker out since it reduces damage taken by both of you by an amount - good PvPers know when to use a Felhunter or a Voidwalker for their PvP matches.

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Succubus

Offensive Fighter
Requires: 1x Soul Shard
Available at level 20

The Succubus is considered the offensive fighter. If the Imp is a Mage and the Voidwalker as a defensive spec’d Warrior then the Succubus would be a Rogue. Although many do not use the Succubus for its damage but instead use for its “Seduction” ability in which it can take a Humanoid out of battle for a little while. This is very useful in PvP and PvE.

Skills

• Lash of Pain: A direct damage type melee attack that does Shadow damage (and benefits for additional Shadow damage of the Warlock). Outside of the standard melee attack this is probably the best source of damage from a Succubus.
• Soothing Kiss: Similar to the Priest’s fade ability, the Soothing Kiss skill make an enemy less likely to attack the Succubus, reducing its aggro. Useful in groups when you want the Succubus to do stuff in combat but is less useful while soloing. Turn it off auto-cast if you want the Succubus to attempt to tank enemies. At the highest level (level 70) it reduces attack speed as well by 10%, making it slightly more useful in group situations since it acts like an extra thunderclap.
• Seduction: This skill takes 1.5 seconds to cast and a lot of the Succubus’s mana to “charm” a Humanoid for 15 seconds. This is similar to Polymorph, except it doesn’t regen the enemy’s health. It breaks on any form of damage and if the Succubus is interrupted then the charm is interrupted as well. In PvE it can be used as much as you like, however in PvP it suffers from diminishing returns and is on the small diminishing returns scale as fear (meaning that the more times you use it the less time it’ll last). In instances it is useful for keeping a Humanoid enemy out of a fight for extended periods of time and in PvP it’s great for stopping someone on their tracks who jump you.
• Lesser Invisibility: This useful skill keeps the Succubus invisible when it is out of combat. When combat starts it will remain invisible until it takes damage or attacks itself. When auto-casted, the Succubus will remain invisible whenever possible.

Tactics

The Succubus is great in instances where you can seduce enemies and keep them out of battle. It’s also great in PvP to seduce an enemy player to keep them out of combat for a little while. It’s not that great as a solo pet since it has little HP. It does decent amounts of damage, though, so you can let it attack in groups only after someone has aggro on something.

Remember to keep the succubus invisible in a safe spot in PvP so she can seduce people who are attacking you, but be wary of AoE damage that will pop her out of stealth and make her a quick kill.

Try to avoid using Lash of Pain much since it’s generally not worth the damage in any scenario and you could benefit more from her other abilities.

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Felhunter

Support/Anti-Spellcaster
Requires: 1x Soul Shard
Available at level 30

The Felhunter is the ultimate Anti-Spellcaster demon and is extremely useful in PvP with somewhat limited uses in PvE. It has the ability to lock down most any kind of magic user and keep them from casting spells. It also has a ton of magic resist built right in making it very hard for casters to kill.

Skills

• Devour Magic: Removes a buff from an enemy or a debuff from an ally and heals the Felhunter. Used every six seconds and is very useful in removing debuffs from yourself in PvP.
• Tainted Blood: Reduces the attack power of any enemy that attacks the Felhunter. It’s alright, just leave it on auto-cast unless you plan on using a lot of the Felhunter’s mana.
• Spell Lock: This skill shouldn’t be on auto-cast, it’s basically like a Mage’s Counterspell. When used it’ll interrupt a caster and keep them from casting from that school of magic for six/eight seconds.
• Paranoia: Increases stealth detection of everyone in the Warlock’s party. Like Blood Pact it is always on, costs no mana, and is somewhat useful.
• Fel Intelligence: A raid-wide buff that adds INT and Spirit to all members, kind of like Arcane Intellect!

Tactics

In PvP use the Devour Magic ability as much as possible to keep yourself clean of debuffs (for instance, removing Polymorph) and use Spell Lock to stop enemy casters. It’s very weak against enemy melee classes so it may not always be the pet to bring out in PvP, but it’s a magic user’s bane.

Remember to also use Devour Magic on the enemy priests or mages, or whoever have barriers on to eat them and make them vulnerable to attack. Having the pet on them also makes it hard for them to let off a spell and gives you the edge to fear them or deathcoil them and finish them off.

In PvE it’s useful in instances were people will get a lot of debuffs. Since it can devour them (and heal itself) it makes a decent pet. If there is a lot of debuffs moving around then the Felhunter can off-tank and heal itself. It’s got decent HP and MP and could keep an enemy busy for awhile.

In later instances, the felhunter is essential for its spell lock, it can be used to interrupt casting of many spells and stop enemy monsters from unleashing powerful attacks on the party for a little while longer. Also remember, you may devour magic any positive magical buff the monsters gain, like “Demonic Power” on the Mog’arg bosses in Mechanar, letting your tank avoid getting pummeled more than he should.

New to Wrath of the Lich King, Felhunters may also buff the entire raid with Fel Intelligence, allowing for lack of mages if you want an INT buff in your party. This will make you sacrifice your imp, though, so decide which is better for the situation!

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Felguard

Balanced Fighter
Requires: 1x Soul Shard
Available at level 50 (Talent)

Felguard was added during the “Before the Storm” global talent revamp. It is 41 points into the Demonology talent tree and with all those talent points comes one really buffed pet. It’s got massive amounts of offense and defense and copies a few of the Warrior’s movies like Intercept and Cleave. It’s a great pet for instances (where a pet’s pathing won’t ruin things) and for general soloing (he’ll hold aggro about the same as a Voidwalker).

Skills:

The Felguard has a total of five skills, which is very different from the other pets. He also starts with nothing (being a talent pet) and has to be taught all of them through Demon Trainers.

• Anguish: The same skill as the Voidwalker’s Torment, available at level fifty when you first get him (be sure to buy the book). Taunts the enemy a good deal. In PvP you might as well turn this off to save the mana.
• Cleave: Cleave is another skill available at level fifty, it’s the same skill as the Warrior’s Cleave except it uses 10% of the Felguard’s mana. It’s great at getting even more aggro from an enemy do to it’s high damage and it’s something like Suffering for a Voidwalker in that it’ll grab aggro from multiple enemies.
• Demonic Frenzy: A passive ability that allows the Felguard to have a chance to increase its DPS on hit.
• Avoidance: Increases the chance for the pet to passively avoid AoE damage by 25-50%. Passive, what’s to hate?
• Intercept: Same as the Warrior’s Intercept, the Felguard charges the target and stuns for it a second. Great for getting that initial aggro.

Role

The Felguard plays two different games, one is the PvE game and the other the PvP game.

In PvE the Felguard is, pretty much, a replacement for the Voidwalker. Not all the way, obviously, but it’s a very rounded out melee fighter who can hold aggro slightly better then the Voidwalker due to it’s increased DPS causing more aggro generation. It’s not as tough as the Voidwalker, so it’s not going to take as many hits, but with all those points in Demonology that may not be an issue. He doesn’t have sacrifice, though, making him less attractive.

In PvP the Felguard is kind of out of place. It’s great for stunning enemies and doing damage, but a Priest is just going to instant PBAoE fear it away and once it’s used intercept it’s not going to be doing much with all of the crowd control moving about. It’s not useless though, far from it, but it’s not going to be this massively amazing PvP pet.

In the Arena however, the Felguard can prove to be quite an annoying pet to handle to the other team’s caster(s), since it has high HP and is fast, acts like a warrior and interrupts their spellcasting, it lets you get out your fears and if you have soul linked your felguard, you have a pretty hefty amount of hitpoints. This makes him a very viable arena pvp pet thanks to all the advantages he gives you. Do try him out with stamina gear.

There are really no tactics for this pet, other then having it attack an enemy and use its skills. It’ll play like a Voidwalker and to a smaller extent a Succubus (at least damage wise).

Its best role is probably with either casual leveling or in the Arena. When you’re fighting enemies that die way before the Felguard needs to heal then it’ll help a ton by doing a lot more DPS then your Voidwalker.

The most important thing to remember is that you’ll have a full set of Demonology talents with this pet which means that it’ll be pretty tough.

Many warlocks use the Felguard to level and solo pretty tough elite monsters you couldn’t otherwise, with health funnel and all its aggro abilities, you can go a long time with him against a high HP monster.

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Infernal

Special Summon/Enslaved Demon
Requires: 1x Infernal Stone
Available at level 50

The Infernal is a “gimmick pet” in the sense that it’s rather powerful, but not that great. You get to keep it under control for five minutes which gives you about five minutes of a really cool pet that is roughly more powerful then most of your base ones. After five minutes you’ll have to re-enslave it (cast Curse of Shadow before you use Enslave Demon) at which point it’ll randomly break free and attack you. That’s pretty much why it’s a gimmick, since you only get a good five minutes of use out of it every hour.

It’s not recommended to use this pet for anything other than showoff purposes, since their power doesn’t scale well and they’re one of the weaker pets as you level up more past 60, and still highly unreliable as far as their timing and uses go. You’re better off with  a Felguard than this novelty pet you can show around every hour in a major city.

It may work in PvP as an added AoE stun and wow factor, but it’s really nothing out of this world and it will probably get banished for atleast half of its duration, so there’s better alternatives out there.

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Doomguard

Special Summon/Enslaved Very Powerful Demon
Requires: 1x Demonic Figurine, 1x Player Death OR Curse of Doom Proc (10% chance if target dies from curse)
Requires: Level 60

Like the Infernal, the Doomguard is a situational gimmick pet that will only be pulled out in special situations. After a lengthy quest to obtain it (or with Curse of Doom) you’ll find yourself with a very powerful but annoying pet. When summoned, it isn’t automatically enslaved, so you must manually enslave it (Curse of Shadows helps). Afterwards you get to battle with it as it constantly breaks free and attacks allies.

During the Ritual of Doom (the summoning process), you’ll need a total of five party members (yourself included) to activate a statue. When all five have activated the statue, one will randomly die and the Doomguard will spawn. If the person who died as the Warlock then that Warlock will need to use a soulstone or a REALLY quick rez to get back up and enslave the Doomguard. Otherwise, the Warlock will need to use “Curse of Shadow” on the Doomguard then use “Enslave Demon” to bring it under control. From here, they can control a rather spiffy pet with a very high attack power and lots of HP.

The Doomguard has four skills, Rain of Fire (kind of useless channeled AoE fire spell), Dispel (very useful, dispels debuffs), Cripple (very useful, snares an enemy and slows their attack), and War Stomp (same as the Tauren one but with a mana cost). It’s got a powerful attack, lots of defense, and lots of health. It’s also got a temper will enjoy breaking out of Enslave Demon to fight your party as well.

The only situations when a Doomguard is actually viable is either for fun or in well, for fun. If you have five party members, you’re going to be better off keeping all five alive and not having to worry about the Doomguard bothering you. There is one scenario where it’s useful, that is in PvP where you have one or two enemies and you’re willing to sacrifice one of your own to really make them mad. Summon the Doomguard, enslave it, then send it towards them. When it’s fighting them, let it go after gaining a lot of distance. Hopefully, HOPEFULLY, it’ll continue fighting and killing them.

All in all, past novelty and fun situations the Doomguard is not to be relied on. Enslave Demon is flimsy at best and it breaking loose on you when you’re fighting a monster is the one situation you should want to avoid at all costs. Unless you want to take risks and use a fairly mediocre pet to fight with you for under 5 minutes, stick with your base pets.