Minions, Minions!

We love our minions. Well, most of the time. But all too often, I see warlocks running around with their Voidwalker when they really should be using one of their other pets. Granted, I usually use one minion about 90% of the time (my Felguard), but there are times when he's not the best. Here are my thoughts on minion use.

The Imp - My little Kupkin only comes out in instances these days, and even then, that's usually only when the tank can't keep threat off me or we really need the stanima bump. I also use him in situations where my Felguard tends to get eaten by a special ability. There are a few bosses that require you to hide behind pillars and such, and convincing your minion to do that can be a little difficult! Taking the imp, phase shifting him, and telling him to stay put can be easier.

The Voidwalker - He's great for soloing until you get the Felguard. Other than that, he's not what you want to see in instances. In fact, many groups will tell you to put him away if you haven't already done so. That's because he's mainly designed for tanking, and your group should already have a tank. His DPS isn't good enough to warrant keeping him out when you could use the imp or succubus.

The Succubus - She's all sexy and kinky, but honestly, I very rarely pull out my succubus. She seems to get shredded in only a few hits. The only time I use her is when I'm asked to help with the crowd control. Her seduce ability can help handle humanoids, but that's all it works on. Some warlocks like to sacrifice her for the 15% shadow damage increase, and that's certainly not a bad idea in some areas.

The Felhunter - My little felpuppy has limited use in PvE, but in PvP, he can be a warlock's best friend. He can lock casters out of a spell class for a certain amount of time, stun them, remove magical buffs/debuffs, and provide a 10% reduction in damage from spells (his master demonologist effect). If you're fighting a lot of casters in PvE, he can be handy, too, but Voidy/Felguard are usually more effective there. I pull him out for battlegrounds, though, and watch him eat mages for lunch!

The Felguard - The Felguard is my minion of choice for PvE. He tanks fairly well (although Voidy seems to be able to take more abuse), has good DPS, and has a couple of nice abilities. His dash attack stuns the enemy for a few seconds, and cleave does damage to multiple enemies at once. In PvP, dash can be useful, especially since it can interrupt casting.

I honestly don't have much to say about our two other minions, the Infernal and the Doomguard. I haven't used either that much. With the recent changes to the Infernal (the ability to summon it indoors and the instant-enslavement) may make it something of a last resort if an instance encounter is going badly.