Drain Tank 101

At this point I feel like I should elaborate on that which I have been preaching so much about - that is the art of Drain Tanking as an Affliction Warlock.

Drain Tanking is the fighting tactic of chain-casting Drain Life to effectively "tank" a mob while both damaging the mob and healing yourself in the process. You really need 5/5 in Fel Concentration to make Drain Tanking feasible as this will give you a 70% chance of resisting interruption. Since you will be taking hits this resistance towards interruption is invaluable.

In addition to 5/5 in Fel Concentration, there are other Affliction Talents that make Drain Tanking more feasible:

• Soul Siphon - Directly improves the amount drained with Drain Life based on the number of Affliction effects on target (IE. the more DoTs, the more you can drain.)
• Improved Life Tap - You will want to Life Tap to keep your mana up; this makes it better
• Siphon Life - A drain life DoT so to speak. Always good to have more life coming your way.
• Shadow Embrace - Reduced the amount of physical damage you take
• Nightfall - Gives you a chance to proc an instant Shadowbolt from using Drain Life, which you are a lot. Since you don't have time to get of a casted SBolt, this is very helpful to improve DPS or finish off a mob quicker.
  

In addition, improvements to any of your DoTs will greatly aid your ability to Drain Tank by making the mob(s) die faster. This means Improved Corruption, Embowered Corruption, Improved Curse of Agony, etc.

Basically when you Drain Tank, you will be "tanking" the mob(s) and thus taking all the hits and damage. You will let your DoTs and Succubus do the damage to the mob while you "tank" it. So it's important to get those DoTs on the mobs quickly.

It will greatly vary depending on the type, level, and number of mobs you are facing, but the typical Drain Tanking method that I use goes something like this:

• Send in Succubus and let her "tank" for a few seconds while you get your DoTs up. (You may not want to do this if there are multiple mobs as she could get eaten up quickly)
  
• Cast Siphon Life first since it lasts the longest and gives you some healing done till you can start to Drain Life.
• Cast Siphon Life on other mobs (if facing multiples)
• Life Tap if needed, probably might be if facing multiple mobs. Don't worry, the Siphon Lifes will bring that HP right back up.
  
• Cast Curse of Agony followed by Corruption on all mobs.
• Life Tap
• Drain Life on the mob with the most health.
• Repeat Drain Life with some Life Taps whenever your HP gets full or when you need more mana.
• Refresh any DoTs if needed.
• Laugh as all the mobs die and you walk away from the fight with nearly full HP and Mana.
• Laugh some more when you see a Mage next to you sitting down to drink!

It will take some practice to get used to exactly how to efficiently and effectively Drain Tank, as well as how many mobs you can comfortably handle simultaneously. But that is the basic concept and tactic.

The benefit of Drain Tanking is huge - it is very mana efficient. The Warlock is very un-Mage-like. A Mage casts spells until his or her mana is gone and then sits to drink and repeats. A Warlock, on the other hand, can keep his or her mana up with Life Taps and never have to drink unless really pressed. Warlocks also naturally value stamina over intellect and generally shun spirit entirely. Thus Drain Tanking makes a lot more sense than to just stand there and nuke your mana away as a Warlock.

In addition to being mana efficient and generally faster to level with, I also personally find this method of play style to be very fun and enjoyable and still used it at later levels and even as lvl 70. At later levels (and with better gear) I just use the Imp for the extra HP through Blood Pact and being my mana battery through Dark Pact. One of my favorite things to do is to just jump into a group of mobs and DoT them up one by one and just out last them. As one dies, I pull another and keep going till I run out of mobs or health/mana after a while. My DoTs do all the work and I merely have to do some Drain Tanking in between to keep my HP up.

In a similar manner I was able to solo almost every elite mob or group quest in TBC through this method. As long as the mob didn't hit too hard or the fight didn't last too long, I could just outlast it. And if the mob is in anyway fearable, it's a piece of cake.

Tailoring offers the Frozen Shadoweave set which Shadoweave Tailors can invest in which serves as an excellent set for Drain Tanking Locks. In addition to pretty huge increases to shadow damage (considering you can get it before even going to Karazhan) the set bonus gives your shadow damage the ability to heal you. That's even more self healing for you while Drain Tanking.

Drain Tanking can be effective in PVP too, if you couple the Drain Tanking talents with some PVP type talents. I am not familiar with PVP so I will not go on with it, but I did try one PVP build that relied on Drain Tanking when I needed to PVP for a bit and found it quite effective.

Drain Tanking does have it's limitations though. Warlocks are still only clothies and can't take too big of a hit or that many. In particular you probably are going to get eaten up on dungeon bosses or trash in raids zones. While Drain Tanking will mitigate some damage till a real tank can pick the mob up, you certainly won't last long on your own. Drain Life is also lower DPS than Shadowbolt and is not recommended while grouping or especially raiding. Don't kid yourself. No matter how many talents and buffs to Drain Life you get and no matter how much you neglect Shadowbolt, Shadowbolt will still out DPS Drain Life, every time, no questions asked. You will be gimping yourself, probably highly gimping yourself, if you rely on Drain Life in a raid setting. Don't be the noob who does that.

But for leveling and solo PVE purposes, Drain Tanking is an excellent tactic and one that I have personally found to be quite enjoyable, efficient, and effective. After mastering the art of Drain Tanking and you will never be the same again, for the better. You will also find it extremely hard to play a Mage, ever! Class dismissed.