How does death coil and dark pact function? Anyone mind to give detail explaination? Thanks.

Death Coil (aka skill coil) is a basic Warlock instant cast spell with a cooldown that damages the target as well as gives you some health. In addition, the target would lose control for a few seconds, called a "Horror" effect which is different than "Fear". Death Coil is the Warlock counter to a Warrior who is immune to Fear (Berserker Rage / Deathwish) and a Rogue giving you a few precious seconds to get away from their melee range. Of course, Rogues have their Cloak of Shadows (aka cloak of skill) to render this useless. Death Coil can also be used to interrupt a caster's spellcast, as it is instant. Furthermore, while the target is under the influence of the horror effect, the Warlock can cast Fear and frustrate the target even further, giving the Warlock time to bandage and prepare a counter attack.

Dark Pact is a very powerful Warlock Affliction tree talent. Because Warlocks can already Drain Mana (on mobs/players with mana) and Life Tap (convert his HP to mana), having Dark Pact in addition to the two spells means an Affliction Warlock basically would very rarely find the need to sit down and drink to regen mana. Dark Pact is instant cast with no cooldown and what it does is drains mana from the Warlock's pet to the Warlock himself. In essence, the pet becomes the Warlock's mana battery, which is especially true for the Imp and Succubus due to their large mana pool and fast regen.

To reinforce, Death Coil's cooldown is 2 minutes and the horror effect lasts for 3 seconds. The damage caused by Death Coil is Shadow and you gain 100% of the damage caused. Because this is a "horror" effect and not "fear", not only warriors are not immune to it when in berserker stance but also it cannot be dispelled nor be countered by WoTF. You get this spell at level 42 (I know because I was DYING to get this skill while lvling my lock).

Dark Pact is awesome not just for gaining mana OOC but also you can use dark pact while in combat, hence, you don't have to life tap your health away.

Okay last question, overall dps, mage or warlock wins? I mean in instance and raid

Short trash mob fights, mages i'd think.

Long boss fights where mana is a problem for most classes, warlock wins hands down. Nothing like lifetapping/dark pact to restore to full mana again and resume dpsing.

mages can evocate anyways if mana is the problem

aggro management = raid dps

Thats y got mana batteriessssss.

my thoughts exactly.

it also boils down to the gear that a person has. hell, for lvl 70s just starting to gear up, the pally tank out-DPS the lock and the shadow priest. all because of the damage output is not enough based on the gear that they're currently wearing.

Playing a warlock and playing a mage is essentially, very different. For burst dps, no doubt, mages win. Warlocks are more about DoT and USUALLY has the higher dps in long boss fights (many instant cast DoTs). But if you gain aggro, whether you're a mage or a lock, it's gg for you and many times gg for the raid too. It really depends on what style you go for and of course, Warlocks are always the kewlest looking lot. :b

ya warlock is blizzard's favorite character... >.< even the big boss sargeras is warlock... same goes to kil'jaedan and ner'zhul >.<