Using the Succubus in Instances

Hey there.

Thank you for the sticky, Warlocks!

Little note about the succubus before I say how to use her- Warlocks already have useful spells that Mages don't, and as such, the Succubus was designed to give Warlocks a quasi-CC with also having her own weaknesses. Indeed, she only lasts 15 seconds, she goes down like a fly and her mana pool is limited; she takes up a demon slot and last but not least she also continously makes that stupid joke that just is not funny!

With that said, properly handled, the Succubus can CC just as well as a Polymorph against Humanoids, but this ability on a warlock naturally requires a little more complex use and awaremess than the Mage's variant. With the Warlock's natural ability to Fear, Banish available Elementals and potentially require Seduction on a third Humanoid target any help is appreciated when needing to keep potential one-shotters in check (Heroics, anyone?). Without further ado, here is my suggestions and advice on how to handle this combat control tool.

Focus Targeting and the One-Size Fits All Macro

In order to maximize the effectiveness of the Succubus, you will need to understand Focus.

Apply Focus: /focus
Remove Focus: /clearfocus

Focus is a way to select a target and refer to that target over and over again in a macro, directing spells as that focused target without having to actually target it yourself. This is the crux of using the Succubus well.

First, simply type /focus when targeting the mob you need Charmed, and the mob's frame will highlight and light up. This means you have that target focused.

Then, use this macro:

/cast [target=focus] Seduction

This macro will mean that your Succubus casts her Seduction spell, on the focused target; meaning you don't have to do anything while she takes care of it. All you need to do is push the button when it runs out, which can be bound to any key- it needs to be put on the hotbar and that button keybound via the Keybindings Menu in the main menu. Personally, I have my macro on the key combination Alt+` (the key left of the 1 key).

Now here, we have this macro; a macro that literally ends all other seduction macroes.

/clearfocus [modifier:alt]
/focus [target=focus,noexists]; [target=focus,dead]
/clearfocus [target=focus,help]
/petstay
/petfollow
/stopcasting
/cast [pet:succubus,target=focus,exists,harm] Seduction; Seduction

This macro does the following:

* Upon use, the macro will Focus your target, and have your succubus Seduce it.

* When used for the second time, and your Focused target, i.e. the Seduction target, is alive, it will re-seduce it, regardless of what your current target is. It will not focus your current target, and seduce that; it will re-seduce it's focused target.

* If used during Seduction, it will break the seduction and re-seduce the focused target.

* If clicked while "Alt" is being pressed, it will cancel the previous focus and assign a new focus on your current target.

This one macro is all you need for correct Succubus useage.

Many mobs will have a high Shadow Resistance due to Shadow Protection buffs, or a natural Shadow Resistance. For these mobs, Seduce will very often resisted and the mob will run wild. In this case, the Curse spell "Curse of Shadow", lowering Shadow Resistance by 60-80 points, is essential. Placing it on the target prior to the Seduction itself will lower the target's Shadow Resistance to almost zero, allowing easy Seductions time and time again.

Monitoring Seduction

The Succubus' Seduction only lasts 15 seconds, so how can you tell when it's run out? Personally, I use Dotimer, the addon that displays your Damage Over Time's duration in a window. This addon will additionally show the duration of your Succubus' Seduction, or indeed, if it's Seducing at all.

If the Seduction bar is present, then it's being seduced. If it's not, and it should be (or your Succubus is walking around beside you) then it's not seducing, and such, hit the macro. If the Seduce bar is present on your addon, then you can monitor it to know exactly when the Seduce will break, and when a re-application is needed.

There are also addons such as PerlUnitFrames that will allow you to monitor the debuff list of your focused target, in a different unit frame completely. This is equally helpful in knowing exactly what is happening to your focused target- if the target receives a DoT, for example, then you'd quickly get confused as to why your succubus isn't seducing properly.

Two important points to note is that the Succubus sports a severely low health pool. My Succubus has a health pool of almost 3500 health points. This, combined with her low armour, makes her as fragile as glass. Having her near fighting mobs will guarantee certain death, very quickly. Her Seduction has a 30 yard range- that's the distance of a Shadowbolt, Fireball, et cetera- manipulating her position using Stay and Follow to have her out of harm's way while Seducing is critical to her, and thusly your party's, survival.

Additionally, the second important point to note is that the Succubus' Seduced Target, your Focused Target, will have a clear threat list if nothing but your Succubus has directly interacted with it, upon coming out of Seduction. The mob will do one of three things:

A) Attack your Succubus as it is the only entity that has actually interacted with the mob by placing the Seduction debuff on the target.

B) Attack the target that has done the most relevant healing.

C) Attack the target that accidentally hit it with a damaging AoE spell.

These three actions are the most common, and they can be circumvented with the use of "Searing Pain", a Warlock ability that takes 1.5 seconds to cast and deals 500-or-so damage. The damage Searing Pain deals is unique in that it will deal twice as much threat as any normal attack. Using Searing Pain on your focused mob prior to Seduction (not during!) will ensure that the mob will attack you; while this doesn't sound like a good idea at first, it will be rapidly learned that it's better to have the mob where it's alot more obvious to you that the seduce has broken or the mob cannot be seduced for any reason than to have it out of sight, knocking your favourite Priest on their hindquarters.

With the combination of both the focus-method-macro and a duration-watch addon such as Dotimer or Natur's Bars, Succubus management is alot easier to swallow.

DoTimer can be found at Curse-Gaming at this URL: http://www-en.curse-gaming.com/downloads/details/3260/dotimer/

-Fel