This installment of All the World's a Stage is the fifteenth in a series of roleplaying guides in which we find out all the background information you need to roleplay a particular race or class well, without embarrassing yourself.

The Warlock is the ideological counterpart to the Paladin. Where paladins strive to wipe out evil wherever they see it, warlocks enslave those evils and use them for their own purposes. Being a warlock is all about harnessing the most wicked, corrupting, and evil forces in the universe.

Why are these forces evil, you ask? Aren't magical powers neutral in themselves depending on how you use them? Isn't killing with one weapon more or less the same as killing with another? Well, if you consider that a warrior basically cuts or bashes things, and a paladin cuts or bashes and brings down the righteous energy of justice. But a warlock uses curses and spells, which, like horrifying biological weapons of modern days, destroy his enemies' minds and eat away their bodies from the inside; wreaks massive havoc with great explosions and persisting fire; and sucks the souls out of people and creatures and uses them to power even more horrifying abilities, such as summoning demonic creatures who would just as soon pluck out your eyeballs as look at you.

To suffer at the hands of a warlock is significantly more excruciating than the attacks of any other class -- a slow, painful, torturous, agonizing death. If warlocks existed in modern earth, their abilities would be against all international agreements on human rights and rules of warfare; they would be squarely in the evil company of terrorism, drug-trafficking, slavery, and biological germ warfare development.

And yet if your warlock works for the Alliance or the Horde, he or she claims to do all of these things all for the greater good.

Soul Shards: love them or hate them, they're iconic of the Warlock class. Most choose to hate them, but I think locks are just full of hate in general and need to vent it somewhere. Along with a tantalizing note about "exciting changes to how soul shards might work," European CM Vaneck has just let us know that one common shard-based ability, Ritual of Summoning, is going to be changed Before the 3.1/Ulduar Patch (a promise I'm seeing a lot of lately; we can only hope that patch is soon).

Essentially, the new RoS will create a meeting stone-like object. It'll still take two players in addition to the Warlock, as well as one shard, but once the ritual has been cast, the stone can be re-used to summon as many people as desired within its five minute duration, and that summoning action will merely require any two players, just like a meeting stone. You can also summon multiple people simultaneously, and all just for one shard. You won't be able to summon in situations where you currently can't (Netherstorm, battlegrounds, in combat), but this will make summoning much easier, quicker, and less shard-intensive. A great idea.

Blizzard has put together two new TV spots for the holiday season. The first, seen above, features Steven van Zandt (better known as Silvio Dante on The Sopranos, but also a real-life performer in Bruce Springsteen's band) spouting an old Godfather III reference (that a lot of returning fans are probably saying to themselves after re-entering Warcraft for level 80).

And the second (definitely the more hilarious one) features Ozzy Osbourne as an Undead Warlock having it out with the Lich King over just who's WoW's Prince of Darkness. It's embedded after the break, definitely a must-see. Blizzard's doing terrific already -- their games are setting records, and subscriptions are higher than ever. But it doesn't look like they're taking this holiday season lying down at all.

This past week on our podcast, Wrath was the topic -- getting it, playing it, loving it, hating it. Our own co-lead Dan O'Halloran and rogue blogger Chase Christian joined us, and we talked Wrath of the Lich King. Dan was at the midnight launch in Anaheim, so we asked him about that -- not only were there about 2000 people (and 100 Blizzard employees there), but there was a bubble sword and a hot dog-on-a-stick stand, so listen in for that. And we talked about what the starting zones were like (including two don't-miss quests in Howling Fjord) and our main annoyances with the game so far (none of which include, surprisingly, lag -- despite the queues, Blizzard has really kept the game alive).

And we answered emails, including whether a listener should play through his Warlock or Death Knight, and the perils of going after Mr. Pinchy. Don't forget, if you'd like to send us email, the address is theshow AT wowinsider.com -- drop a note, and you might hear it live on the show next Saturday, which we'll stream right on our Ustream page.

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Bat Boy, everyone's favorite tabloid freak, has gotten in on the Wrath of the Lich King fervor -- unfortunately, he's too young (and creepy) to actually earn money, so instead he reportedly (reported by the Weekly World News, of course, your number one source for Bat Boy news) scared a Warcraft fan, causing him to drop his copy, and sending Bat Boy off to Northrend to level up to 80 with the rest of us. You can add "stealing the expansion" to the list of crimes Bat Boy's already perpetrated.

Bat Boy could not be reached for comment for this story, which is too bad -- we really wanted to know what class the West Virginia legend plays (is that an Undead Warlock on the screen? And why doesn't he have any skills on his action bars?), and whether he started in Howling Fjord or Borean Tundra.

Thanks, JPM!

I think it's safe to say a good chunk of us have been able to play Wrath at least a little bit by now. What do you think? How's your leveling going? I managed to hit level 72 yesterday before I retired for the night, and while I'm not leveling as quickly as I'd like, I've deemed my progress acceptable. I did some pretty serious beta testing during the Wrath beta, so I've quested through every single Northrend zone already.

While I love the content and don't really mind doing it a second time, I'll admit that Nymh's accomplishment makes me a little jealous. At least that way if I could finish up with my main in a day or two, I could go right into my alts (who I didn't get to play much in the beta) until my friends caught up. It'd make things feel a little more new to me than they are. That's not really something I'm able to do though, so level 72 it is. I'm going to aim for a level a day, and if I manage something at least close to that I'll be happy. Do we have anyone nearing 80, or in the high-70s reading WoW Insider this morning? My server has a few already, so it wouldn't surprise me much at all!

Reports of the first character to reach level 80 are flooding in, and there are screenshots to back it up. Congratulations to Nymh of EU Drek'thar on your achievement! Nymh's Armory displays her (him?) as an SL/SL Warlock, which I've been told is an exceptionally good grinding spec, especially when coupled with a healer. Judging by her buffs in the full screenshot, it looks like she just may have had a pocket healer on the journey to 80. A Discipline Priest, specifically. Whether the Priest was there the whole way through or just happened to be partied with Nymh at that moment, we're not really sure.

That screenshot also seems to be from the Grizzly Hills, which is roughly a mid-70s zone. Nymh may have dinged 80, but she still has plenty of content ahead. I hope the trek to 80 was an enjoyable one! How long until you start leveling your alts, Nymh?

[via MMO-Champion]

Over the last two days, the WoW Insider team has been busy reviewing and gathering all of the still-current class information to bring you up to speed for your first steps into Northrend. You've probably had a chance to get a handle on your class since most of the changes were pushed through in patch 3.0.2, but you have an extra ten levels ahead of you, an extra ten talent points, and a whole bunch of new skills and abilities you're going to need to learn. Don't know what to expect? We're here for you. If you do know what to expect? Well, I guess you can keep reading if you want. We'll let it slide just this once.

• Death Knight - Being the new class on the block, there's certainly been a lot to talk about in the recent months. Daniel Whitcomb points you toward much of it, including leveling builds, in-depth looks at their core abilities and mechanics, as well as some sage advice from Allison Robert.
  
• Druid - Speaking of Allison Robert, she'll be your guide today if you're looking for more on the Druid class. Talent builds, a glimpse at raid healing as Restoration, the rise of the Moonkin and much more can be found within.

Having fun yet? I know I am, and I'm not even playing Wrath yet, even though it's already out. The changes to the game have brought the Warlock to a different level of playability -- not quite as overwhelmingly powerful as before, but a whole lot of fun nonetheless. That's the point of this game, isn't it? To have fun? Well, congratulations for playing a Warlock, because from here to Level 80, I think you'll have a lot of fun. Let's see what we've got...

STATE OF THE CLASS

• If you're only checking in now, you might be a bit surprised to see how much of the game has changed from The Burning Crusade. Our coverage of Patch 3.0.3 and the associated Warlock changes should get you up to speed.
• You can learn the Dreadsteed spell without doing the quest now. Cheater.
• Did you know that DoTs can now crit?
• You might need to set your demon to Passive, by the way. The new Defensive for pets works somewhat differently now... kind of a passive-aggressive that gets us into trouble.
• Speaking of pets, did you hear about that time when a big blueberry actually tanked Illidan? True story. Too bad the threat component has been nerfed somewhat.

TALENT TREES

• Blizzard definitely shook things up when they unleashed Patch 3.0.2 upon Azeroth and I really took a liking to Affliction (I lie, I've always liked Affliction) and didn't quite get the hang of Demonology. My thoughts on the two trees can be found in an old Blood Pact.
• I surprised myself by actually enjoying Destruction. Give it a shot. You might surprise yourself, too.
• We ran through some talent choices for Affliction when 3.0.2 came out.
• We also took a look at, ugh, Demonology.
• And then there's Destruction.

GENERAL TIPS

• Have a look at our Demonology 101 series, which gives an overview of the different Warlock pets such as the popular Voidwalker, the sexy Succubus, and even the conditional-but-now-usable-indoors Infernal.
• Learn how to unleash the full potential of a skill with our Skill Mastery. We took a look at Haunt, one of Affliction's staple spells.

We have a plethora of stuff on Warlocks, but you'll probably have to wade through all the other posts just to get to them. That's not so bad, actually... so get reading!

The mail debacle isn't the only strange thing coming out of today's maintenance. PvP armor, both honor gear and arena gear, have had their prices all screwed up.

• Select Season 4 weapons have had their rating requirements removed.
• Select Season 2 weapons have found themselves bearing rating requirements they didn't previously have.
• Warlocks and Priests can purchase full sets of Season 2 gear at absolutely no cost whatsoever.
• Select Season 4 accessories can be acquired at no cost.
• The Brutal Gladiator's Hatchet is completely free as well.
  

Those are only the things we know of right now, the problem may even go farther than that. I've checked the Tiers 4, 5 and 6 vendors with a few friends of various classes and haven't run into any oddities there yet. It seems exclusive to PvP gear.

If you've been reading my Blood Pact posts in the past, you might already be of the idea that I'm not a big fan of Destruction. I'll be the first to admit that it just doesn't suit my playing style. I really enjoy DoTs because I like being able to move around, which is why I was a huge fan of SL/SL before Patch 3.0.2 broke it. I like Demonology, too, because it takes a bit of strategy to play well if you choose to go the route of utility. But I've never liked Destruction. Spamming nukes and not having a pet out -- I raided with 0/21/40 before Echoes of Doom -- didn't feel right. I felt like a Mage in Warlock's clothing.

But let's get this out of the way before I get (Shadow)flamed. I understand that some of you enjoy Destruction. I know that some of you like playing with Fire and Shadow. That's cool. I want to play with it, too. So I did. This whole week, all I did was muck around with a full Destruction build that went all the way up to Chaos Bolt, casting alien-like nukes, jets of fire, and burning things up. So how did it go? I surprised myself... because I actually had fun.

Patch 3.0.3 isn't a hefty patch by any means, but it did bring some pretty nice changes for Warlocks. Some were simple bug fixes but others were outright improvements. As we reported, the Dreadsteed spell will become trainable to all Warlocks at Level 61. Players no longer need to do the quest line, which opens up at Level 60. The character must have Journeyman riding skill and the Felsteed spell learned.

Despite this welcome change, I implore all Warlocks to do the quest. It is one of the best and most flavor-rich quest lines in the game, and any Warlock worth her salt will have fun keeping up the Bell, the Wheel, and the Candle. The cost of materials are trivial in the new economy, so there really shouldn't be any excuse not to do the quest now. High level friends can and should (we're Warlocks, after all) be bribed to chaperone Level 60 Warlocks with the Dire Maul Achievement.

[UPDATE: Thanks to our industrious readers, I needed to change my shorts (I'm sending you my dry cleaning bill, Augustus) when I read about this change... the coefficients to Corruption and Immolate were significantly buffed to 20%. That's just... wait, let me change my shorts again (blast you, Augustus!). Oh, and apparently Ritual of Doom is actually cool now. It no longer kills a party member, the Doom Guard lasts for 15 minutes and just disappears afterwards like a zit to Oxy afterwards. How polite. So wow, yeah. Bdew, you can split my dry cleaning bill with Augustus.]

Welcome back to Ask a Beta Tester, where we answer your questions about the Wrath of the Lich King beta! Let's get things started with Chris's question...

I really enjoy the Epic quest in Nagrand to bring Thrall to meet his grandmother. Is there anything like that in Wrath where you have to complete all the quests in one zone before you get an epic quest to complete?

Well, there are a lot of quest chains. Maybe not that long, but certainly not less epic. That doesn't mean the chains are short, either. They just don't necessarily require completing every other quest in the zone. Some of the stories start the moment you step into a zone and last straight through until you're ready to leave it again, but there are plenty of other quests you do on the way. They're less of a prize for 'beating the zone' and more an everpresent story.

Step aside, hunter pets. There's a new raid tank in town: Voidwalkers. The guild Hexed from Dragonblight-US got a little bored raiding the old fashioned way with all of the nerfs that have gone in, what with Killy J down already, so they decided to do things a little differently. They pulled out a Voidwalker and sent it a-tankin'.

Through liberal use of Demonic Empowerment (and its associated threat bug) and their awesome healers, Mister Voidwalker successfully tanked the Priestess mob in the Illidari Council encounter and most of Illidan himself. An incident with Parasites caused a little chaos, which ultimately spelled the voidwalker's demise. Illidan hits juuust a little too hard to live through a few of the healers scrambling away from parasites. Even if it had 23,000 HP.

It was also mentioned in the e-mail to us here at WoW Insider that they used the Voidwalker to tank the first three bosses in Mount Hyjal as well. I think even a baby kitten could tank the first three bosses of Mount Hyjal nowadays, but using a Voidy for it is still pretty dang cool. I hope to see more off the wall stuff like this before Wrath launches, so if you have it, please send it in to us!

It's easy to be disappointed with Warlocks, really. The best tree we have right now is Affliction, and is just really fun to play while dealing incredible damage. This is sad news for a lot of players who enjoyed playing Demonology or liked pressing their Shadow Bolt button with a dead Succubus. For one thing, going deep Demonology nets us a half-baked 51-point talent (more on that later) and killing off your Succubus for 10% more Shadow damage doesn't seem as compelling anymore.

To top it all off, we're simply squishier than ever in PvP. We've lost Stamina, lowered survivability, and need to make major sacrifices in PvP if we're to pursue deep Affliction or Destruction. Thankfully, Blizzard recognized this and -- according to Ghostcrawler -- will be making an important change to Soul Link by increasing the damage absorbed to 20%. It will still be inacessible if we take 51-point talents at Level 70, but it should be alright by Level 80. Unfortunately, when we finally get there, we'll be sharing gear with lowlife Mages and Priests. I mean that literally -- those guys simply used to have lower life totals.