Warlock Aggro

I finally learned a lesson about warlock aggro last night. But, before I get to that, I'll give some background.

(Good) Healers are always aware of who is drawing aggro in a group. And in my previous guild there was one warlock who couldn't control himself. I remember gritting my teeth in Mana Tombs, chiding him one more time for not having given the tank long enough to secure aggro before he went all out. In my early days of healing I'd do what I could to keep the warlock alive as the big bad boss was pounding on him. But I quickly learned that doing so was just suicide...we all know that once the warlock went down, the boss turned his focus to me.

After dozens of guild runs, he finally got it. Then he went to the other extreme. Instead of casting, he would use his wand. There were two reasons for this. The first was to control his aggro, which I appreciated. The second was that he had no idea how to use Life Tap...but that's another story altogether.

Then Wrath came and the cycle started all over. He got this wonderful new spell that turned him into a demon. He would blow that cooldown at the very beginning of almost every boss fight. And, consequently, he was the first to die. I was so convinced he understood threat in the game, but I was sorely mistaken.

We're no longer guildies and I rarely see him anymore. But I thought about him yesterday.

You see, I was in Zul'Farrak yesterday on my lvl 47 affliction warlock. As affliction, my dps on trash is naturally low compared to that of others in the group. As we worked our way through the instance, I kept watching the gap between my dps and that of the others continue to widen. My ego began to suffer. I didn't need to be on top of the dps chart, but I couldn't accept being so far behind.

So, what did I do? I started dotting everything. Of course, I know how threat works, so I *cough* gave my tank time to gain aggro before dotting. But, for some unkown (lol) reason one or two mobs in each pull became interested in me. How could that happen? Why was the tank so bad? *cough*

My dps was rising...slowly. And so were the amount of heals directed my way.

Then we came to Gah'Zrilla. A big boss...time for the affliction warlock to shine. I'd be able to load him up with dots and the fight would last long enough for me to reapply them.

Tank goes in. I fire shadow bolt. I figured the casting time would be just enough for the tank to draw aggro. Aggro meter: 20%.

I cast Curse of Agony then Corruption. Aggro meter: 35%.

I cast Immolate. Aggro meter: 70%

I cast Life Tap then Drain Life.

I was dead about 5 seconds later.

Time to apologize to my old warlock friend.