Warlock Leveling Guide (Level 1-30)

Overview

This guide takes a Warlock from level 1 to 30 in WoW Forever, with a talent plan for Affliction, Demonology and Destruction. Spell levels, costs and talent values come from the beta client (build 1.60.1) and can still change before launch.

Our recommendation: Affliction. Your demon holds the enemy while Corruption, Bane of Agony and Immolate do the killing, and you are already walking to the next target. Drain Life gives Health back and Life Tap turns Health into mana, so the class almost never sits down. Demonology and Destruction have their own tabs.

Why Affliction comes first

• Instant damage over time. Improved Corruption makes Corruption instant at level 14, and Bane of Agony is instant from the start. You apply both while moving.
• One pool for Health and mana. Life Tap and Drain Life let you trade one for the other. With Improved Life Tap the trade gets 20% better.
• Several enemies at once. Because your spells keep working after you cast them, you can spread them over two or three enemies while the demon holds one.
• It scales. Malediction raises all periodic damage, and Pandemic doubles the bonus of critical strikes from your periodic spells and drains.

The honest trade-offs: damage arrives slowly, so in a group enemies often die before your spells have finished; Fear now reaches only 20 yards; and Soul Shards take bag space that you will miss.

The three specializations at a glance

What Forever changes for every Warlock

• Banes and Curses are separate. Curse of Agony is now Bane of Agony, and a target can carry one Bane and one Curse from the same Warlock. You no longer choose between damage and Curse of the Elements.
• Drain Soul can grant a Soul Shard while it deals damage, not only on the killing blow, as long as the enemy gives experience.
• Curse of Recklessness now lowers armor and stops the target from fleeing or being feared.
• Summon Incubus is offered next to Summon Succubus at level 20. The two demons are identical apart from their look.
• Trolls can be Warlocks, alongside Orcs, Undead, Humans and Gnomes.
• New talents within reach: Pandemic and Soul Harvest in Affliction, Demonic Energies in Demonology, Bane of Havoc and Fire and Brimstone in Destruction.

Talents

You earn one talent point per level from level 10, which gives 21 points at level 30.

Main Spells & Rotation

Keep Demon Skin on yourself (Demon Armor from level 20). Whatever your tree, the wand finishes most enemies: it is free, and it lets your mana come back.

Amplify Curse + Bane of Agony macro

For builds that take Amplify Curse: one key that uses the cooldown when it is ready, then casts the Bane.

#showtooltip Bane of Agony
/cast Amplify Curse
/cast Bane of Agony

Ability milestones

• Level 1: Shadow Bolt, Immolate, Demon Skin, Summon Imp. Level 4: Corruption and Curse of Weakness. Level 6: Life Tap. Level 8: Bane of Agony and Fear.
• Level 10: Summon Voidwalker, Drain Soul, Create Healthstone and your first talent point. Level 12: Health Funnel. Level 14: Drain Life and Curse of Recklessness.
• Level 16: Unending Breath. Level 18: Searing Pain and Create Soulstone.
• Level 20: Summon Succubus or Summon Incubus, Demon Armor, Curse of the Elements, Rain of Fire, Ritual of Summoning.
• Levels 22-28: Eye of Kilrogg (22), Drain Mana (24), Curse of Tongues (26), Banish and Create Firestone (28).
• Level 30: Summon Felhunter, Hellfire and Subjugate Demon.

Demons

Your demon is a large part of both your damage and your safety. Each one comes from a class quest, and its extra abilities are learned from Grimoires sold by demon trainers.

Which one? Voidwalker from level 10 to 20 for everyone. After that, Affliction players who are comfortable with Drain Life kill faster with the Succubus, and everyone else is safer staying with the Voidwalker.

Autocast: right-click a demon ability to switch its autocast on or off. In a dungeon, turn Torment off so the Voidwalker does not fight the tank for threat. An enslaved demon that breaks free is brought back with Subjugate Demon.

Utility

• Fear (level 8): the target runs for up to 10 seconds and damage may break the effect. Its range is 20 yards in Forever, and only one target can be feared at a time.
• Curse of Recklessness (level 14): lowers armor, and the target neither flees nor obeys Fear while it lasts. Use it on Humanoids that run at low Health. It also pulls a feared enemy back to you: apply it when the enemy is heading for another pack, then replace it with another Curse to let the Fear work again.
• Curse of the Elements (level 20): the target takes 4% more magic damage and loses resistances, for 5 minutes.
• Curse of Tongues (level 26): spells take 50% longer to cast. Very good on enemy healers.
• Banish (level 28): removes a Demon or an Elemental from the fight for up to 20 seconds.
• Create Healthstone (level 10): a free healing item for you and for each party member. Make one before every dungeon.
• Create Soulstone (level 18): stored on a player, it lets them come back to life on the spot if they die. In a dungeon, it goes on the healer.
• Ritual of Summoning (level 20): with two other party members, you bring a fourth to your location.
• Unending Breath (level 16): 10 minutes of breathing underwater, for you or an ally.
• Drain Mana (level 24): takes mana from an enemy caster and gives it to you.

Stat Priority

Gear is not laid out as in Classic: Spell Power appears on low-level items in Forever. Treat this order as a starting point for levels 1 to 30.

1. Spell Power — more damage on every spell and every tick. Your best stat whenever it is on offer.
2. Stamina — worth more to a Warlock than to any other caster, because Health is also mana through Life Tap.
3. Intellect — a larger mana pool and a little critical strike chance.
4. Spirit — in Forever it increases the amount Life Tap converts, and it speeds up regeneration between fights.
5. Hit and critical strike — rare before level 30. Suppression covers hit, and crit gains value once you have Pandemic or Ruin.

Wand first. Up to level 20 or so, a good wand is a real share of your damage. Enchanters craft the Lesser Magic Wand (level 5) and the Greater Magic Wand (level 13); after that, look at dungeon and quest wands.

Professions

• Tailoring — turns the cloth you loot into armor and bags, with no gathering profession needed. Tailors also make bind-on-pickup robes that suit Warlocks well, and bags matter more to you than to anyone, because of Soul Shards.
• Enchanting — disenchant the quest rewards you do not use, enchant your own gear, and craft your first wands.
• First Aid (secondary) — bandages restore the Health you spend on Life Tap without costing mana or time at the table.

Consumables

Forever's profession revamp gives Alchemy several new low-level elixirs. You do not need to be an Alchemist to use them: buy them from the Auction House. Effects and required levels below are those shown by the Forever item database.

For ordinary questing, none of these is required. Keep them for dungeons, elite quests and the last levels before the cap, and do not forget your own Create Healthstone.

Campfire Buffs

Camping is new in Forever. A campfire (from Cooking) can hold objects placed by the players around it, each player adding one from a profession, and every object gives a buff to those who rest there. All camping features share a one-hour cooldown. The ones a Warlock cares about:

Leveling Tips

• Train every two levels and put the new ranks on your bars. A new rank of Corruption or Drain Life is a big step.
• Learn when not to cast. If your periodic spells will finish the enemy, stop casting and wand, or walk to the next one. Most Warlock mana problems come from spells that land on an enemy already as good as dead.
• Life Tap at the right time. Tap right after a fight, while your Health can recover as you walk, not at the start of the next pull.
• Carry a few Soul Shards, not a bag full. You need them for demons, Create Healthstone, Create Soulstone and Ritual of Summoning. Four or five cover an evening of questing; Drain Soul refills them.
• Watch for Nightfall. The instant Shadow Bolt it grants is free damage. Do not let it expire.
• Fear with care. A feared enemy runs toward its friends. In caves and camps, use the demon and Drain Life instead.
• Keep food on you anyway. Drain Life and bandages cover most of it, and in Forever a food buff also gives 5% extra experience.

Races

Humans, Gnomes, Orcs, Undead and Trolls can be Warlocks. For the Alliance, Gnome brings 5% more mana and Eureka!, and Human brings 5% Spirit, which now feeds Life Tap, plus 2% critical strike chance with a sword in hand. For the Horde, Undead has Cannibalize, which restores Health and mana together on a Humanoid or Undead corpse, and Touch of the Grave; Orc has Blood Fury for 10% Spell Power; Troll has 5% damage against Beasts and Rapid Regeneration, a second way to refill the Health you tap.

In dungeons

Between levels 13 and 30 you can run Ragefire Chasm, The Hall of Thanes, Ruins of Lordaeron, Wailing Caverns, the Deadmines, Shadowfang Keep, the Stockade, Excavation Site: Wetlands and Blackfathom Deeps (see the dungeon guide).

• Imp out, Blood Pact on, Phase Shift active so it never draws attention. With a Voidwalker, turn Torment off.
• Healthstones for everyone and a Soulstone on the healer before the first pull.
• Enemies die fast in a group. On normal packs, Corruption on each target is enough; keep the full set of spells for bosses.
• Rain of Fire (level 20) on large packs, once the tank holds them.
• One Bane, one Curse on bosses: Bane of Agony with Curse of the Elements or Curse of Recklessness, depending on the group.
• No Fear unless the group asks for it.

Class quests

Level	Reward
1	Summon Imp
10	Summon Voidwalker
20	Summon Succubus or Summon Incubus
30	Summon Felhunter