I'm not really awesome at my lock, nor am i confident in my skills. IMO Affliction locks are glass cannons that don't outlive the dots they cast, they are also the only class whos attacks can be countered by sitting down and eating food. Somehow though, i still manage to score quite decently in BG's. My tactics can be broken down in three stages.
Phase ONE: Someone is beating down your teammates:
Haunt - Unstable Affliction, then run away looking for another enemy while still casting instants (Bane, Corruption), then Glyphed Soulswap
Phase TWO: Once you've placed your instants and found another enemy, the cooldown of haunt is (nearly) over:
Haunt - Glyphed Soulswap - Drain Life
Phase THREE (1): People are pissed and will try to use you as pin cushion
Howl of Terror / Teleport / Glyphed Shadow Flame / Sacrifice / Sharded Soulfire or a combination of the afformentioned.
Just keep them away and hope they used up their cooldowns. Feel free to go for the kill if they were allready wounded.
Phase Three(2): The knuckle dragging drooling !@#$% don't know whats going on.
Fear the enemy melee units to increase survivability of your teammates, especially rogues (give them a dot to disallow steatlth or force them to use Cloak of Shadows). Then rinse and repeat from Phase ONE.
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Class breakdown:
Rogues: Stunlock, die.
Warriors: Charge, DPS, then charge some more, die.
Shammies: Tremor totem, Wind Shear, die.
Pallies: Stun, Bubble, Faceroll, die.
Warlocks: If they are smarter than you are, they will have Demo or Destro. They will outburst you, then you die.
Mages: Counterspell and Deep Freeze, then you die, else they outburst you after which you will still die.
DK's: Deathgrip, Magic Shield, die.
Shadow priests: Dot AND Burst, die.
Hunter: Pet, Auto Attack, Silence Shot, Sleep, Scattershot die.
Disc and Holy priests: Mana drain, then kill. Pray to god that they dont have help from any of the above.
Dying a lot may seem bad, but it will give you time to check the map and think of what to do next. Unless your GY is camped, then learn to enjoy the quality time you spend with the Spirit Healer, especially if she glitches because you looked at her funny.
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General BG behavior
Always be on the move. Either be in a fight or moving towards a fight. Everything else is a waste of everyone's time.
There are plenty of tactics per BG area which definatly work. But in reallity the Chief to Indian Ratio is 5:1, so just make sure to always, ALWAYS keep checking your map and compensate for the weak spots people will leave open. Don't just go with the majority, else you will get plenty HK's, but no wins.
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Personal preference:
Since i have cooking i always start with a Fish Feast, If its AV or Isle of Conquest, i go for small feasts. A smaller size makes it harder for the allies to snipe the healers or estimate how big an army they are about to fight.
Also make sure to Soulstone a Healer. Most locks dont bother, but healers are what make sure your army outlives theirs. As long as they allow others to take the punches you don't you can keep spreading the dots. No need to take damage if there are plenty other meatbags to do that right?
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Disclaimer:
So much whining, why did you pick a lock?Remember the pic of the guy stopping those tanks at Tiananmen Square? Hes my hero, not the guys driving the tanks. I hold that same view for affliction locks.
You're not even fighting, only zerging people who are in combat. That seems really no-skill.From Sun Tzu's Art of War:
"Nothing is more difficult than the art of maneuvering for advantageous positions."
"Be extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness. Be extremely mysterious, even to the point of soundlessness. Thereby you can be the director of the opponent's fate."
"For to win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill."
"All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when we are able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must appear inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near."
Engage people with what they expect; it is what they are able to discern and confirms their projections. It settles them into predictable patterns of response, occupying their minds while you wait for the extraordinary moment — that which they cannot anticipate.
"Opportunities multiply as they are seized."
And my favourite: "He who knows when he can fight and when he cannot will be victorious."
