Ok ok, so you want to know about talents, right? Here are some of the popular talent specs.

23/38/0 (aka SL/SL)

This is a primarily PvP spec that enables you to get Soul Link, Siphon Life, and Curse of Exhaustion. It has very low damage output but makes you near impossible to kill. Soul Link is almost a required talent for PvP, as it essentially gives you mail armor. You will be using a Felhound/Voidwalker (against melee teams, the void) as your pets. Also this build is good for farming as you just place your 3 instant DoTs and kill the target, while your Soul Link mitigates incoming damage.

SL/SL:
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/warlock/talents.html?tal=0501220512201110000000052030133250101531300000000000000000000000


0/21/40 (PvE nuking spec, aka DS/SnF)

This build is used for PvE, and PvE alone. At high gear levels it's damage is unparalleled, but gear is an important factor. What you do is you sacrifice a Succubus for the +15% dmg buff, and Shadowbolt things to death. For farming you can sacrifice a Felhunter instead for the mana regen. Note that the build below is purely for PvE, and since you will be sacrificing your demon, it is useless to buff it through talents. Also, I didn't add Conflagrate because the only thing you should be doing is Shadowbolting for max DPS.

0/21/40
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/warlock/talents.html?tal=0000000000000000000002052030133100100000000555000512200410030250


41/?/? (Unstable Affliction)

This build is both PvE and PvP (with slight differences) and is pretty versatile. It also excels at farming mobs (classic dot dot run method), but the damage output is not as high as DS/SnF. HOWEVER, it brings you Malediction, which buffs the entire raid's DPS through Curse of Shadow/Elements. For PvP you would probably like to switch the Malediction for insta-Howl of Terror. The extra points available let you get either Destro or Demo talents, depending on whether you need more ISB debuffs, or stuff in the Demo tree. You decide. Also, you use the Imp for farming and the Felhound for PvP

41/?/?
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/warlock/talents.html?tal=0501220512231115510310000000000000000000000000000000000000000000


7/7/47 (PvP Destro spec)

This is a Destro spec, but for PvP, and lets you have most of the good destro talents. Conflagrate, Shadowburn, Shadowfury, Nether Protection, and Soul Leech are all helpful to you, and provide higher burst damage in exchange for less efficiency (nobody cares). Felhound as pet (duh it's PvP right?)

7/7/47:
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/warlock/talents.html?tal=0500020000000000000000050020000000000000000505000512200513531351


30/0/21 (SM/Ruin)

This spec, as you can see, was used before BC. You use Ruin, so presumably Shadowbolts are what you use (not too sure here). SM doesn't buff Incinerate; don't do that. Just including it here for some reason. Not too sure what pet to use, because nobody actually uses it nowadays.

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/warlock/talents.html?tal=0501220512221115000000000000000000000000000505000512200010000000


5/41/11 +4 (Felguard spec)

Felguard spec with 4 points left for you to play with. Useful in both PvE and PvP, and outputs reasonable damage. The Destro talents are for extra burst in PvP, but hold their own in PvE too. Obviously the pet is the Felguard...

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/warlock/talents.html?tal=0500000000000000000000052030133250103531301505000010000000000000



Ummm.......There's Soul Link/Ruin, a variation of SL/SL with less survivability, but more burst. That's it really.

Sticky this?

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/warlock/talents.html?tal=1502022512230115512010350020000 000000000000505000000000000000000

No improved Lifetap or 1/5 Shadow embrace?

????

Bump...

its simple really...what maxes out the damage u deal and the hp/armor u have...fights rarely last long so being full affliction doesnt seem to make much sense to me...considering the only pet that does any decent dmg is the fel guard...how do u counter for intercept? guess what? u dont...that 3 secs gives u enough time to get curse of agony and corruption off...then a fear...then immolate...bolt bolt...dead...if shit gets hairy...deathcoil...shadowburn...how is this all possible? 5/41/15...instafy ur corruption...get ur FG..and in destro pimp out ur shadowbolt...max ur crit rating and get shadow burn..im a brand new 70(1 week in) but ive been killing 70's since 65...12k hp...8.5k mana...17% crit... Cho'gal bitches

Who says fights don't last so long?

i have been a warlock for almost 3 years now...i am t4/t5 level and really big into pve...i have found that for all out dmg in any situation, survivability, the 40/0/21 build is the best with the constant (and instant dots) and nightfall...for fire locks i find 0/21/40, and of course the ISB destro lock 0/40/21; it's an odd build but you get all the perks of saccing pets plus threat reduction if need be, the extra crit and extra spell dmg out of the demo tree. then out of the destro tree you get the only things you really need which is ISB, shadowburn, bane, and ruin. of course destructive reach and intensity is also nice...feed back welcome but in my experiences these are the best builds. find out how you play and what you like...that's how you should go. keep in mind though these are almost strictly pve builds with the exception of the 40/0/21

a few thoughts:

40/0/21 - taking ruin over UA only becomes a good idea at VERY high gear levels (like >1200 damage, >30% crit) and if you have gear that good going full destro(0/21/40) will be better.
you mention it as a damage/survivability build which is fine but there's better builds for either. hybridising will always fail at both to a certain extent.

0/40/21 - the pro of this build is in it's adaptability. as you say, if you run with a bad tank or pug a heroic with people who aren't t5 level switching to imp for -threat is good. however, again, you make ideal builds to do one thing the best that you can and any concessions to anything other than damage output will lower your damage when you are raiding.
ion this case you gain adaptability and 2% crit but you lose 'shadow and flame' and this is never worth it. shadow and flame doesn't sound too great from the tool-tip but 20% extra gear bonus is massive.
shadowbolt's coefficient is 86% of your gear's damage transferred to actual damage output. this talent raises it to 106% meaning that each point of damage in your gear actually becomes more than 1 point of damage output.

while i agree that there's not much that's awesome after ruin, SnF makes it all worth it and beats anything higher in the other trees. backlash, soul leech and nether prot. also help with soloing and (very) occasionally in groups - not worth factoring in really but they're nice since you're deep in the tree anyway.

-i ought to just temper all this by saying that all this information is only relevant at all for people with good gear already. nre raiders will benefit most from going deep affliction (41/0/18+2)

This is my future spec for my 40 lvl lock and it gives me all destruct powers and 1/2 tree of affliction spells which should be an unbeatable combo for instant casting, DoT night fall and fire/shadow dmg destruct that can crit hit high and enemy and wipe em out for a blast of a finish...powerful in my opinion aff/destr spec..

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/warlock/talents.html?tal=3501221111100000000000000000000000000000000411401512230511111351

Happy casting!
Jsreeffish

this is by far i think the best pvp dps out there look it up see for urself http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/warlock/talents.html?tal=5502222510200000000000000000000 000000000000505000512200510531000