So what we can't sheep... SEDUCE!

The mage's polymorph, it's true, is THE crowd control option. Reliable, applicable to many different kinds of mobs, but it's basically all the mage has. (Besides applications of mage tanking, etc...) Hunters can trap of course, and can really chain trap quite effectively if they've practiced and know what they're doing. Priests of course can shackle, pallys can AOE tank, warriors can... er, hit things and Druids can spin people in the air with the power of wind. (neat). Rogues can SAP and shamman, well, I'm not sure what they do, but I'm sure they do something.

Warlocks though, what crowd control options to they have available to them. Seducing, Enslaving, Banishing and Fear Yo-Yoing, that's what. While the types of the mobs they have control over is somewhat limited, there are so many different types of CC that a warlock can offer up, that they can be an invaluable member of a party, in ways that go beyond being the stone vendor. Let's take a look at the goodie bag of warlock crowd control options and how to use each effectively.

Seduction

True, to use seduction, you do have to pull out the Succubus. So, because Blizzard seems to refuse to allow us to turn of the emotes for our pets, means that you are subjected to the whip-cracking, ass-smacking sounds of our hot-pants demoness. However, she's a useful little demon for taking on humanoids, provided you set yourself up for success.

Much has been said, (if nothing else by me and my guild mates), about the lack of reliability of a seduce. It is true that it tends to break often, the succubus is a weak little pansy of a demon in terms of health points and armor, and so if the mob gets free and starts hacking on her, she'll go down quicker than... well, insert the improper metaphor of your choice. Here's the tools you need to make this work:

1) Quartz, DOTimer or some similar cooldown/cast bar addon that will show you a) whether your seduce is still active, and b) how long it will remain so if it doesn't break early. I really like Quartz because it will show me my focus target even while I continue to DPS on the current burndown. While I mash CoA, Immolate, Corr, Siphon Life, UA and SB over and over again with an occasional life tap in between, I'm able to always keep an eye on that seduction timer at the bottom of my cast bar to make sure it is still there so I can reseduce the moment it goes away if that is needed.

2) A succubus. Duh. Though, I'd take the improved one actually. This talent improves "the effect of the Warlock's Succubus's Lash of Pain and Soothing Kiss spells by 30%, and increases the duration of her Seduction and Lesser Invisibility spells by 30%." [wowwiki.com] I really found a pretty noticable increase in the effectiveness of the succubus by specing this way, though I'd also say a lot of warlocks would probably feel like it's a waste of points that they'd rather put into another tree. As an affliction lock myself, a lot of other locks would probably go the route of putting more points into destruction and skipping the imp. succ, but I really find a great usefullness in it. There are CERTAINLY advantages to specing this talent in a pvp setting. Oh the invisible love that comes and smacks the unsuspecting opponent upside the head.

3) A good focus macro for your sucky. I use this one:

/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 a couple of fantastic things. First of all, if you hold down alt, you clear your focus. This eliminates the need for a separate macro just for that function. Second, it sets the current target as focus, if there isn't one already, or if the previous focus has died. Finally, it casts seduction on the target if you have a succubus out.

Personally, I put this on one of my action bars and bound it to the ctrl-~ key and love it. I'm able to quickly seduce something or reseduce my previous target without much problem. I also have another simple macro button that I made which sets my focus to a new target in case the attack plan changes midstream:

/focus

Seriously, that's all there is to that macro. Just target the thing you want your new focus to be and click your button or do like I do, map it to a key combo. I use shift-v.

Now, how to use them all together:

Step one - Mark the target. Your raid/party leader marks the target to seduce. This is important because it assumes that your leader knows that you have the succubus out for this reason and is intending you to use it. Plus, the party should now be aware of the seduced target as well. All good.

Step two - Focus the target. I have taken to doing this prior to the pull as of late so that I can continue to look at other mobs, click on myself for whatever reason, or go ahead and target the first target in the kill order. If you are using the above macro, you don't have to focus first. I just like setting my focus ahead for my own comfort. (Especially if I'll be needing to crowd control in another way as well).

Step three - Wait for it... It is probably not your job to pull, and if it is, it probably shouldn't be. If you have a hunter in your party and they aren't pulling... why not? They are made for it. If you are pulling and not the tank... really? Warlocks have lots of function, but in general, they really shouldn't be pulling, so wait for the pull so that you don't agro all of the mobs yourself and take a quick trip to squishy heaven.

Step four - Pop your macro. Hit your key binding for your macro, preferably early enough that the seduced target will be away from the main fight, yet still in your view. Now watch that focus section of your cast bar, or your focused unit frame, or whatever indicator you have to know that you currently have a seduced target. Even if it is just the visual confirmation of the hearts over the head. You do not need to worry about getting to DPS right away. Your first and most important task in this kind of pull will be to make sure that your crowd control worked! So, if it got resisted, didn't happen for some reason, try again until that mob is in love.

Step four (b) - Curse of Shadow. You can also throw this down on the mob. You can even cast at the same time as the seduce since they share separate cooldowns. This way, your seduction will be less likely to break. That's a good thing!

Step five - Do whatever it is you are supposed to do next. DPS the main target, crowd control the next mob, something. Whatever it is you are supposed to be doing, get to it. But, keep an eye on your seduced target so that you can reseduce if it hasn't made it's way to the top of the kill order by the time the CC breaks.

Once your mob is ready to be taken down, let that succubus wail on it or just let her come back to your side as you add your ranged DPS to the party.

A couple of last pointers, you need to watch your succubus, because while it is a really effective tool, it tends to die on you if it gets wacked by something, so have those reseduces ready to go, and if at all possible, have your mob that you're seducing agroed on you, not the succy since the succy won't last but a couple hits against most mobs. Hopefully, if you are any kind of warlock worth your salt, you will last more than a couple of hits.