You want me to do what?!?!

...knowing your role in an instance.

Let's talk about some of the things that locks can do in a group and more importantly some of the things that people will expect you to do as a lock in an instance:

Soulstones: Your party will and should be able to expect that you will provide that purple ball of pop-back-upedness on an appropriate class, which means not on you. Now I know, "Yes, squishies do die easier. Yes you're awesome and you deserve to live. No, I think the priest deserves it more."

Healthstones: Especially at level 70, you have to provide these to your party. As mages can give people food and water, you can give people a yellow orb of health restoring goodness. If you are feeling really generous, you can give them multiple ranks of healthstone. I say that especially at level 70 it is a must because of the ritual you can perform to make a well of healthstone provided goodness.

Crowd Control: As we've already mentioned a couple of times, there are several types of crowd control available to a lock, and depending upon where you are heading, you might be asked to use any or all of them. You need to be familiar with your abilities and be equiped to use them to the best of your ability. Know where the spells live on your action bars for enslave demon, banish, and your three kinds of fears: death coil, howl of terror and fear proper. Also, be familiar with what demons can do what. Void or Felguard as a potential off tank, (depending on your spec. This is best with full demo). Succubus as a seducer obviously. (See our previous post). With all those options, it seems like you might be called upon to CC, don't you think?

Demons: You might be asked to pull certain demons for certain kinds of fights or scenarios. For instance, my guild loves the stam buff that my imp gives, so on a lot of fights, if I need extra dps and can keep the impy safe, I'll have it out for that beautiful blood pact. The void provides you personally an escape route through sacrifice that can be good for healers that aren't able to spread their damage around very easily in a particularly damage heavy fight. The succubus obviously has specific CC uses, and the felhunter or felguard can be very effective as well. Felhunter as a great anti caster pet, and the felguard as an excellent off tank. If you think your group is asking you to pull a minion that doesn't make sense... don't be afraid to tell them nicely. They may think they have a good concept of what demons do best, but may not actually know as well as you do, especially given your particular spec and therefore, these decisions are often best left up to you. With that said, try to choose intellegently for the situation at hand and be proactive about what kind of demon is going to be most beneficial to the group.

DPS: You are a DPS class. You provide ranged DPS in contrast to rogues and warriors. Even if you are doing all of the above, you still have to help your group kill stuff. After all, you are a warlock, you like it when things die, right? "Mmmmm, souls!" You SHOULD have DOTs up at all times on the enemies you are fighting. You SHOULD NOT have DOTs up on any of the other mobs that might need to be crowd controlled or managed other ways. Please don't be the lock that puts CoA on the sheeped mob because you tab targeted something that everyone else wasn't focusing on. Assist of your tank or Main Assist and DOT up the bejeezus of that mob. Don't do it to the others. Your party members will be sad.

After you have DOTed up the enemy, you need to be smart about your spell rotation. Think about how long the mobs are living and what are the most mana efficient spells and highest damage dealing DOTs to be casting. How are you managing your life/mana through lifetap and drain life? Are you soul siphoning appropriately to keep your shard bag full? Are you dealing too much direct damage early that your tank is having a problem keeping agro. Are you dealing the appropriate amounts of direct damage you should be given the life span of the mobs? How about how often you pop those trinkets. These are all considerations that you need to be thinking about to do the basic jobs that the group expects of you well. For the most part, your party won't be telling you what spell rotation, when to direct damage, how often to drain soul, etc. You need to be aware of these concepts though to make sure that you are contributing to your best ability.

Keeping in mind what a party will expect and then tailoring those expectations to your playstyle and spec can create a great grouping experience for you and your party. Just because locks are supposedly evil, doesn't mean you have to be to your group. Be nice and helpful, while dealing death and destruction. It's the right thing to do.