I play a warlock from time to time. Actually, i play three warlocks from time to time. I used to have it so that each of the three would have different specs. Akeelah on Ravenholdt is affliction and goes apeshit with the affliction spells. Rivendale, another Ravenholdt resident, is spec'd for demonology and tops meters 75% of the time running through outlands. he should be 65 or 66 right now and enjoys the aoe goodness of metamorphesis+rain of fire. he doesnt enjoy the soulfire procs as things die so fast by the time he is done casting the spell, the boss is already dead. El Segundo, (the second, as in, my second character) is actually Elsegundo from Shadowmoon and rocked Destro, until one day i logged on him and found out that his talents were reset. I promptly made him demonology that day since i cant friggin remember how to spec as destro.
In any case, when im instancing, playing around on my locks, i find myself doing a lot of tapping. Life Tap is one of those spells unique to warlocks, where we take some HP and turn it into MP. sounds reasonable. sounds awesome actually. mana regen? who needs that when you can have lifetap! its an awesome idea actually. i get all the benefit of having a full mana bar, able to dps and get things done without having to slow down for a drink or to wand things down. When im questing outside of instances, i also use lifetap. this is mainly because i know for sure i will be getting life back through corruption and sometimes drain life. why only sometimes? because corruption's life draining ability is good enough for me. after every fight, i can, if i choose to, bandage or eat. its pretty simple. and foods/bandages often give me health quickly as compared to drinking for mana recovery.
but you say, mobs are attacking me, why would i lifetap? because i have fear. i have howl of terror. and in dire straights, i have deathcoil (which is 200% cooler than the death knight's death coil, btw). what do all these spells offer me? one, fleeing mobs grab more mobs so i can drain more life, gain more exp, and run around to collect loot. second, they offer me a little bit of breathing room to regain mana, lifetap and apply my dots. i often go around and pick up at least four mobs for this to be anywhere effective. demonologist, i suggest you activate soul link. affliction locks have a bunch of talents that make draining life super easy. destro locks? sorry, you guys are drinking. play like a mage, drink like a mage. thats your punishment.
So when should you lifetap?
Lifetap between spells. yes. please. i hate healing warlocks who dont lifetap between spells. i dont mind the lifetap, really i dont. the less you have to drink, the faster we get through our instance. but the problem lies in this, i've finished drinking and ready for the next pull. then the lock decides to lifetap. like wtf? it also happens at the end of the fight, when im low on mana and im drinking. they lifetap and wait. they dont sit to eat. nothing. im drinking so you drink. please. its only polite.
For affliction locks, there's a lull when it comes to casting. when? when you're waiting for haunt to fall off, or when you're waiting to refresh unstable affliction. sure i might fill in that wait with a shadowbolt since you do want to keep your improved shadowbolt debuff up, but lifetap dammit. dont wait. just do it. i tap right before i get my haunt back. really? yea. it works awesome.
For demonology locks, you're working a different set of spells. try to get it in there somewhere. you dont get a nice health return like from Haunt. but you do get some health back. demo locks are a little more reliant on the healer to heal us tho, so remember when a good time to tap would be. during the fight. this is when the healer is able to toss you a renew, or a rejuvenate, or a riptide before they go back to healing the tank. it flows for them.
what i find in instances is that warlocks dont lifetap as often as i'd like them to. not only that, when they do lifetap, they do it at the most inconvenient times.
1. tap during combat, in between spells and upon anticipation of a big heal from Haunt. if you do this right, you wont have any mana or health problems. any gaps in health will be covered by the healer.
2. tapping after a battle will annoy your healer (ie. me) because i would have already evaluated everyone's health and, after topping everyone off, would have started to drink. if you lifetap now, chances are i wont heal you until the next pull. why? because i dont know if i have "extra" healing to spare. actually, whats more the case is that i dont have time. i have to first shield/hot/buff the tank first, then i can go to the lock and heal you. and by then, you're in need to life tap again because you're now low on mana. that's just how it goes. its kinda like a domino effect here.
3. same as #2, dont lifetap right before a pull. it annoys me as now im thinking, crap, this guy might die. and you might just die. please dont do that. tap when its safe. tap when you know you're getting health back from your spells first and foremost.
4. dont take it personally when you dont get heals. eat a health stone. cast corruption on everyone. drain life. if it stifles your dps, know that this is because you're bad at managing mana/tapping. its your fault and only your fault.
5. run with the mentality that you dont need the healer to heal you all the time. again, you have health stealing spells at yoru disposal. use them. when you're sitting there at 100% health, those spells are wasted. why? because they're not healing you. you cant have more than 100% health. so tap once, get it refilled, tap again. easy isnt it?
im just rambling now. life tap is your friend. it helps you dps longer. please use it. but use it wisely. weave it into your rotaions. dont drop to 0% mana and tap all at once. that's annoying. especially if im healing you. it shows you dont know how to manage your mana. its a game within a game. if you dont find it fun then maybe you should have been a mage, or a hunter. anyway, that's really all i have to say.
oh and to the druid who said that his mana pool is not my mana pool, a big middle finger to you. then dont heal me. i can heal myself. no im not writing this blog entry just because of one experience with a bad healer who doesnt know that healing me = less healing overall. but im writing this because some people still dont know how to life tap, or dont know when to life tap. last straw was when i was in an instance with two locks, both of which likes to tap at the end of a fight. grrrrrr.
anyhow, heal the lock. lock does more damage (instead of just standing there with zero mana or wanding). things die faster. when things die faster, i dont have to heal the tank as much. i dont have to heal the melee's collateral damage as much. i can start to regen out-of-combat mana earlier. i will drink less. i will finish the instance faster. i, as a healer, would love to heal locks who lifetap. i dont know why others dont. its stupid.
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