Each week Dominic Hobbs brings you Blood Pact. A journey into the shadowed side of your magical being, taking in all the sights from the dark heart to the withered soul. Where we learn the true price of power.

In the last 'Meet the minions' we looked at how to control your summoned demon and had a good look at the imp. This time we are showcasing the voidwalker and learning what threat is all about. Knowing how to make sure the enemy leaves you alone and hits someone (or something) else is a key ability in the game and the voidwalker is the ideal tool for learning it.

Your voidwalker is a tank. You usher him to the fore and while he keeps your target busy, you destroy them with shadow and flame. I tend to think that the image of a voidwalker is pretty bland, the other demons are much more evocative. Despite this the voidwalker is probably the most evil of minions to use on your enemies. It will reach into their minds and cause such anguish that they will desperately try to beat away this monster. This affords the warlock all the time he needs to safely curse and corrupt their bodies with exquisite slowness and care.
You first gain the ability to summon your voidwalker from a quest you can pick up at level ten. The quest giver will be in your home city (unless you're a gnome in which case they're in Stormwind) and will tell you how to learn the spell. The basic form is 'go get this thing,' 'use thing to summon a voidwalker,' 'defeat voidwalker,' 'win.' get this done and you have your very own blue, braceleted bully-boy -- so now you're gonna need to know all about threat.

Threat is a measure of how much a mob wants to attack something, generally you increase your threat on a mob by damaging it. The more threat you have the more they are inclined to attacking you. This is different from aggro which is a binary thing -- you either have it or you don't. You get aggro by engaging a mob (attacking or walking too close to them) or, if someone else has a mob's aggro already, you can take it off them by raising your threat enough so that the mob wants to hit you more then them. This is important stuff for fighting in a group but also fighting with your voidwalker.

For a long time the only way to measure your threat was through addons like KTM and Omen, now there is an inbuilt threat meter. Personally I still prefer Omen as it lets me know the threat levels of my whole group and gives a better idea of how much threat my tank is generating. Whatever tool you use it is important to keep your threat low enough that the tank is the one getting hit and not you. For the default UI, reaching 100% means you will become the mob's target (gain aggro). For Omen 100% of the current target's threat will not mean you take aggro, you need 110% in melee range or 130% if outside it (as you normally will be).

[View Remaining 12 Paragraphs]