Minion: The Voidwalker.
Role: Mini-Tank.
Good Stuff: High Armor, High Health, the ability to attract an enemy's attention and can be sacrificed to provide a shield for the Warlock.
Not So Good Stuff: Low damage, tendency to loose aggro.

Big, blue and resembling an elemental, the Voidwalker is a common Minion often seen accompanying mid-level Warlocks. Simply put, the Voidwalker is a Warlock's mini-tank. High armor and hit points allow the Voidwalker to front the battle for a Warlock. With proper management the Warlock often never has to get into melee themselves and thus can concentrate on casting. A Voidwalker's ability to inflict damage isn't his strong suit, and thus must rely on two voidwalker-spells to hold a target's attention. However this taunt is not quite the same as a warrior's taunt and not as effective.

A Voidwalker is only as good as the investment his Warlock has put into him. Proper investment in spells and talents can keep him effective into the end game and make him an excellent companion for Player versus Environment play, especially if his Warlock is spec'ed heavily into Demonology. In Instance or Raid situations, however, it is important to remember that that the Voidwalker is at best a mediocre tank when compared to a warrior or a paladin, and while you might rightly pull the enemy immediately off of him, he can still give you that first free shot or two.

Minion: The Succubus.
Role: Femme Fatal and Crowd Control.
Good Stuff: High Damage, may be invisible when not in combat, and can Seduce humanoids.
Not So Good Stuff: Relatively Fragile, Medium Health and tends to be distracting to male players in general.

The Succubus is the Warlock's third available Minion and is often seen in the company of mid to high level warlocks. The Succubus can inflict a goodly amount of damage with her whip and is useful for dealing with multiple opponents.

The Succubus can seduce an enemy so they won't attack. When this happens little hearts appear over the target's head ... so don't hit or blast them!

The Succubus is often the Minion of choice of Warlocks who fight Player versus Player, since, when set invisible and aggressive she's pretty good at foiling ambush attempts and her high damage output helps take down foes faster. The downside of a Succubus is that she tends to be a bit fragile, with significantly less ability to take damage as a Voidwalker.

Minion: The Felhunter.
Role: Mage Destroyer.
Good Stuff: Medium Armor, Medium Health, can eat debuffs off of friendly characters and buffs off of enemy targets, can prevent a mage from casting a spell and then preventsubsequent use of that school of magic for a period of time while also temporarily silencing the mage, and has a decent set of fangs.
Not So Good Stuff: While a fairly evenly balanced Minion it is specifcally designed to go against enemy casters and is not as tough as a Voidwalker and does not do as much damage as a Succubus.

The Felhunter is a big, bouncy and very red Minion. The Felhunter bites, and like the Succubus, has a moderate amount of stamina and armor. The Felhunter's speciality is casters. Amoung the Felhunter's talents the following two directly effect enemy magicians. First, it can literally eat buffs off of the enemy and debuffs off of the Warlock and party members. When it does this the Felhunter's health goes up! Second, a higher level Felhunter can spell lock a caster - that is, stop them from using a spell and then subsequntly prevent further use of spells of that school. When he does this it also casts a short silence spell on the caster. Thus, you'll most often see the Felhunter out when the Warlock is hunting other sorcerous types.

The Felhunter also provides the Paranoia Buff to the warlock and any group Member the warlock is partied with. Because of this and its general overall utility the Felhunter is also a favored choice as a Player versus Player combat.

Minion: The Felsteed.
Role: Level Forty Mount.
Good Stuff: Attainable by a simple quest.
Not So Good Stuff: Summoning the Felsteed costs the Warlock mana.

Minion: The Dreadsteed.
Role: Epic Mount.
Good Stuff: Attainanble through a fairly detailed series of Quests, best looking Epic mount, especially for gnomes.
Not So Good Stuff: Envy-aggro and summoning the Dreadsteed costs the Warlock mana.

The Dreadsteed Quest is an excellently conceived adventure for both the Warlock and his companions. First it requires the Warlock to collect a variety of items from a great many places, each providing an different kind of challenge. The second is that it has specifically been designed to not be solo-able. The skilles required - leatherworking, mining, herbalism, alchemy, disenchanting - cannot all be done by one person, requiring the Warlock to search their friends to help in the collection of Quest items. The Dire Maul and Scholomance quests require five character parties, and the final quest in Dire Maul is unique and fun for all those involved.

Minion: The Infernal.
Role: Shock Combat.
Good Stuff: Very quickly summoned, automatically enslaved to the Warlock upon summoning, does not uses a soulshard,
Not So Good Stuff: Requires a moderately priced reagent to summon and must be re-enslaved or killed to prevent it from turning on the Warlock.

The Infernal is a smaller scaled version of the those found scattered about Azeroth. As opposed to the Warlock's other minions the Infernal is more of a wild critter and will eventually break from the Warlock's control.

When first summoned, the Infernal is automatically enslaved to the Warlock's command for five minutes. After that the Infernal must be enslaved in order for the Infernal to maintain control. Like other enslaved demons once control breaks it usually decides to attack the warlock who summoned it first, unless some other victim has managed to snare its attention. While the Infernal does not require a soulshard to be summoned, it does require a moderately expensive reagent, and each enslavement costs the Warlock a soulshard.

It also stays around until it is killed, which can be a very good or very bad thing depending on who it decides to go beat on.

Infernals can only be summoned out of doors.

The Infernal is a very situational Minion, and while it can be very effective in certain situations by imaginative Warlocks, its inherent dangers and relative weakness - being about as strong as a Succubus - tends to only be rarely seen. It does, however, tend to have a very strong psychological impact whenever it shows up. Both the Infernal and the Doomguard have been slated for improvements with the upcoming patch.

Minion: The Doomguard.
Role: Shock Combat.
Good Stuff: Area of Effect attack, can Cripple and is slightly better than the Succubus in combat.
Not So Good Stuff: Dangerous, hard to summon and must be immediately and continuously enslaved to prevent the demon from turning on the Warlock.

Like the Infernal, the Doomguard is a smaller scaled version of the those found scattered about Azeroth. And similar to the Infernal the Doomguard is a wild critter, and even more so. Upon summoning the Doomguard MUST be enslaved, else he goes after the Warlock who summoned it and then his friends, family, pets or whoever else happens to be nearby. And, like the Infernal, the Doomguard must be repeatedly enslaved in order to be kept under control.

There are two ways to summon a Doomguard. The first is through the use of the spell Curse of Doom. If the victim of the spell dies to the Curse, there is a small chance a Doomguard will be summoned. The second way is through the Ritual of Doom. This is a high level spell that allows a party of five to summon a Doomguard. However, one member of the party, chosen at random, will be slain. This, of course, could become problemattic depending on who is the one who gets killed. While the Doomguard does not require a soulshard to be summoned, the Ritual of Doom requires the use of a fairly expensive reagent and each enslavement costs a soulshard.

Like the Infernal, the Doomguard is a powerful but very situational use Minion. Because of this and the difficulties in summoning one, they are very rarely seen. Both the Infernal and the Doomguard have been slated for improvements with the upcoming patch.