WoW Forever Warlock Leveling Guide & Talents

Introduction

Welcome to our Warlock Leveling Guide for World of Warcraft Forever. I’m Roguery, a Retail Tank and Affliction Warlock main and I have played World of Warcraft consistently since 2006. Check out my content over at:

This guide will cover everything you need to know to level a Warlock in WoW Forever, including our recommended Talent Build.

Guide Contents:

Strengths & Weaknesses
Recommended Leveling Talents
Best Races for Warlock
Playstyle and Core Abilities
Best Weapons for Leveling as a Warlock
Key Spells & Levelling Milestones
Best / Suggested Professions
Maximising Rested XP: Campfire & Cozy Sleeping Bag
Best Consumables for Leveling Warlock
Other Warlock Leveling Info

Strengths & Weaknesses of Warlock in WoW Forever

Strengths

Varied Specializations (DoT for Affliction, Pets for Demonology and AoE for Destruction)
Suppression Talent makes Hit very accessible early in the game
Great Utility & CC (Healthstone, Fear and Curses)
Can be VERY tanky for a cloth-wearer
Ritual of Summoning only summoning method in Forever

Weaknesses

Highly dependent on pets
Soulshards are an important resource and take up inventory slots
Only Destruction has scaling Area of Effect damage
Low Mobility

Recommended Leveling Talents for Warlock in WoW Forever

We recommend leveling as Affliction, but all three specializations are completely viable. Demonology activates a little later in the game so is not the best for early leveling. We have included talent builds for all three specs, which on low levels have a lot of similarities.

This Talent Build prioritizes taking 4 points in Suppression, which means you are guaranteed to never miss enemies that are the same level as you. The next 5 points go into Improved Corruption to make your Corruption instant cast and deal more damage. Then we put a point in Improved Life Tap, so that Life Tap grants more mana when used.

The next points are placed in Pandemic. In Forever, Damage over Time abilities (DoTs) can critically strike. Pandemic increases the critical damage from 50% to 100%. Even with a low chance to crit, with so many DoTs this adds up to a lot of damage.

Fill out Fel Concentration, so you can start to comfortably drain tank mobs, as this reduces the chance for your drain spells to be pushed back by 70%. We then place 2 points in Nightfall so our Corruption and Drain Life can cause instant cast Shadow Bolt. we then put 2 points in Malevolence to access the next row.

Fill out Soul Siphon to buff our Drain Life to further improve our Drain Tanking. Then take 2 more points in Malevolence to be able to access Shadow Mastery, which you fill out all 5 points of.

Then head back through the tree putting a point in Malevolence, Siphon Life and Improved Life Tap. Then place three points in Improved Drains to further increase your ability to drain tank.

At level 46 swap to the demonology tree and take 5 points in Unholy Power to buff your Succubus, then two points in Demonic Energies and three points in Fel Vitality.

Your final five points will be used in the Affliction tree taking Improved Bane Of Agony, Grim Reach and the final point of Suppression.

A Word on Drain Tanking

Drain Tanking is an important part of this build, this is a different style of play where you tank mobs instead of using the voidwalker.

How it Works:

Apply Corruption and Bane Of Agony on your enemies.
Use the Succubus as she does the most damage.
Let the enemies hit you.
Use Drain Life to recover health while dealing damage to the enemies.
Use Life Tap to recover your mana.
Drain Life to recover your life lost by Life Tap

Why Drain Tanking is a Good way to Level

Low Downtime as you rarely eat or drink.
Fast at leveling as your rarely stop
Good Damage output from the Succubus over the Voidwalker
Very efficient as you use your life as a resource, you only need food in your bags.

When to start Drain Tanking

Drain tanking becomes available at level 20 once you unlock the Succubus. However, we don't recommend doing it until level 30 as you will then start to unlock better ranks of Drain Life and talents like Soul Siphon start to buff it.

The Demonology build starts by taking 4 points in Suppression in the Affliction tree to avoid misses against targets the same level as you. Then place 5 points in Unholy Power to increase your pet damage.

The next points are placed in Fel Vitality to increase the Health and Mana of your pet. We then place 2 points in Demonic Energies to help keep the pet alive and keep their mana healthy.

We then place 2 points in Master Summoner, which increases the cast speed and reduces the mana cost of summoning a demon. Mostly this helps us recover if our pet dies, or if we die and need to resummon it.

The next points are placed in Demonic Aegis, and a single point in Demonic Embrace. This increases your tankiness, which can help keep your pet alive through Health Funnel if needed.

From level 29 you should place 3 points into Demonic Brand, to help with your pet keeping threat. Then place 1 more point in Demonic Embrace, and then take Fel Domination. you will now be able to reach the next row to place 3 points in Demonic Knowledge. Then take Demonic Sacrifice but never use it, then follow that down to Soul Link. You can then access Mastery Demonologist and Demonic Pact. Once you have Demonic Pact start using Demonic Sacrifice on your Imp for additional shadow damage if you are using the Voidwalker for tanking. Otherwise sacrifice the Succubus and use the Imp for damage.

We then move over to the Affliction tree and take 5 points in Improved Corruption to make it instant cast, take the remaining point in Suppression. This lets access Pandemic and Improved Bane Of Agony for a little more Damage over Time.

Your final 5 points will go into Malevolence to increase the critical strike chance of your shadow damage.

The Destruction build starts with 4 points in Suppression, to guarantee hits on targets the same level as you. We then recommend placing 5 points in Bane to reduce the cast time on commonly used abilities.

Aftermath increases the initial damage of Immolate, making you a little more bursty. At level 24 you will gain the iconic Shadowburn ability, which makes you a lot more bursty. Then place the next 4 points in Ruin to increase your critical strike damage with Destruction spells.

At level 29 you can access the Conflagrate talent, which will let you burst single target enemies very effectively. At 30 put a final point in Ruin, then fill out Agonizing Flames. Then fill out Fire And Brimstone and take Bane Of Havoc. Put a single point in Cataclysm to get to Shadow And Flame which you fill out to access Incinerate which you use as your filler instead of Shadow Bolt.

This point fill out Cataclysm for the reduced mana cost. Your final points I d recommend picking up Improved Life Tap as Destruction is very mana intensive, Improved Corruption to make it instant cast.

For your last points, put 5 in Unholy Power and two in Demonic Energies. If you are fighting high level mobs then put one point in Suppression instead of Demonic Energies.

Best Races for Warlock in WoW Forever

While Race choice matters a lot more in Forever than in Retail, we still recommend playing the race you prefer rather than something you visually don’t like. However if you are open to suggestions, this is how we'd rate them.

S

A

B

C

Here's our breakdown by faction.

Alliance
HORDE

Alliance

On the Alliance side Warlock has two choices: Human and Gnome. Gnome is significantly weaker for Affliction as Eureka! doesn't affect damage overtime.

Gnome

Gnomes have access to Eureka!, which makes non-periodic damaging abilities have their Mana cost reduced by 10% and deal 10% more damage for 8 seconds. This is particularly powerful for Destruction and Demonology, and a nearly useless for Affliction. Gnomes also have Expansive Mind, increasing your mana pool by 5%. As some of our spells are particularly expensive, the extra mana is a nice bonus.

Escape Artist is also great if you are snared and need to get out of a sticky situation.

Human

Humans have Ruthless, granting 1% critical chance. This is very powerful for both Affliction and Destruction who both like a lot of crit. Humans also get an increase to Spirit, which only really buffs Life Tap.

Human also have Will To Survive, which is arguably the strongest PvP racial in the game.

Horde

Horde has three choices for warlock, Orc, Undead and new to Forever Troll.

Orc

Orcs can activate Blood Fury, which is a great damage cooldown increasing spell power by 10% for 15 seconds. However, Orcs also have the Command skill which increase pet damage by 5%, as the succubus does a fair bit of damage this is a nice passive bonus.

Hardiness and Shatter Curse are great for PvP and PvE content where you may end up stunned or need to remove a curse or bane effect.

Undead

Undead Warlock is a great leveling choice, Cannibalize being updated to include mana regeneration, reducing your need for food and drink in your bags. Their new Touch Of The Grave passive does a fairly decent amount of damage and keeps you healthy.

Will Of The Forsaken is great for breaking any Charms, Fears and Sleeps you may encounter in PvP or PvE content.

Troll

The Troll Berserking racial can be okay for Destruction Warlock, but the cast speed doesn't affect damage over time abilities, which is what so much of Warlock's damage consist of. Rapid Regeneration is great, as you can use Life Tap to get your mana back, and then Rapid Regeneration to regenerate your health.

Regeneration is a nice passive that lets a small amount of our health regen to happen in combat. Finally Beast Slaying is a nice bonus when questing in zones with a lot of beasts, like The Barrens, and can possibly be useful in the endgame; but it is a poor racial compared to universal buffs like Weapon Specializations.

Warlock Playstyle and Core Abilities

At low levels all three warlock specs play in a similar way.

Level 1-10

Starting at level 1 you will have access to Shadow Bolt and Demon Skin. You can also learn Immolate from the trainer for 10 copper, which we recommend doing as soon as possible. Early on Shadowbolt is very expensive, and you will be waiting for mana and using auto attacks fairly often to finish off enemies.

Make sure you apply Demon Skin as it increases armor and regens health, keeping you going. We recommend using Immolate to engage enemies, and then using Shadow Bolt and Auto Attacks to finish them off.

Already at level 1 you will have access to a quest to unlock your first demon, the Imp. Once you’ve learned the Summon Imp spell, make sure to keep it out at all times for the damage.

Make sure you pick up the Grimoire of Blood Pact at level 4 from a Demon Trainer. At level 4 you can also learn Corruption and Curse Of Weakness. At this point we recommend applying both Immolate and Corruption to your target, before finishing them off with Auto Attacks and Shadow Bolt.

At level 6 you will be able to learn Shadow Bolt Rank 2 at the warlock trainer and Life Tap. Shadow Bolt Rank 2 will do significantly more damage but also cost more mana. Make sure to replace Rank 1 Shadow Bolt on your bars with the Rank 2 version in your Spellbook. Also, now that you have Life Tap, make sure to carry food so that you can Life Tap to get your mana back and then eat to restore your life.

At level 8 you will learn Bane Of Agony. With the changes in Forever, this spell will instantly tag a mob, making it great to pull with if you are in a busy zone. The rotation doesn’t really change at this point other than adding Bane Of Agony to the pull.

At level 10 you can learn Drain Soul. This is a key part of the warlock kit, allowing you to get Soul Shards, which are used in a variety of Warlock spells and abilities. You will also be able to do the class quest to unlock the Voidwalker. The Voidwalker is a large upgrade over the Imp, since it can tank mobs for you.

Voidwalker Quest

If you are at the trainer in Orgrimmar and pick up the quest to unlock the Voidwalker, it will take you into Skull Rock (death cave), which is a particularly scary area. We recommend heading to Undercity and unlocking the Voidwalker through the Undead quest as it is much easier.

For Alliance both the Ironforge and Stormwind trainer quests are fairly easy, with the Stormwind one being slightly faster. We would recommend doing whichever is closest when you hit level 10.

Levels 10+

Now you are level 10 you can start specializing into whichever spec you want to, and depending on which one you pick your rotation will be different. For all three specs make sure you use pet attack before attacking the enemy to make sure they are attacking the pet.

Tip: Get a wand as early as possible as this saves your mana and allows you to keep killing mobs without much down time.

Affliction

For Affliction apply Corruption and Bane Of Agony and then either use a Wand or Drain Life to finish enemies off. We recommend using your wand over Drain Life unless you need the health.

Demonology

For Demonology you can apply Immolate and Bane Of Agony. Then use Shadow Bolt and Wand to finish off enemies. Once you have access to Searing Pain use this as well, although be very careful of pulling threat from your pet until you put a point in Demonic Brand. Once you have a point in Decimation, you can start using Soul Fire to finish off enemies whenever Soul Fire is free and doesn't cost a soul shard.

Destruction

For Destruction apply Immolate, and use Shadow Bolt or Wand to finish enemies. Once you have access to Shadowburn, make sure to use this just before enemies die to be refunded the Soul Shard. When you hit level 29 and have Conflagrate: apply Immolate, use Conflagrate then reapply Immolate, then use Shadow Bolt or Wand until an enemy is low enough to finish off with Shadowburn.

Best Weapons for Leveling as a Warlock

Weapons can make your leveling journey much smoother. This is especially true for Warlock as wands are very powerful at the start of the game dealing almost as much damage as a Shadow Bolt without costing any mana.

I have included lists for both wands and staffs. While there are strong one handed weapons you need to find an off-hand. so I generally recommend running staff. While leveling you will be prioritizing +spell damage, if you do find a good one-handed weapon and off-hand definitely run that if it gives you more spell damage.

Best Wands for Leveling Warlock

While we have included lots of options you don't necessarily need to get each one, just make sure you upgrade wand regularly. The levels are roughly the earliest you could realistically obtain these. For example Deepblaze can be obtained at level 9, however finding a group will be difficult at that level.

Wand	Location	Level
Lesser Magic Wand	Enchanting, Bind of Equip	5
Deepblaze	Old Ironforge Incursion, Alliance Only Hall of Thanes, Dungeon Quest	13
Branding Rod	Barrens Quest Isha Awak	13
Greater Magic Wand	Enchanting, Bind of Equip	13
Cookie's Stirring Rod	Cookie, The Deadmines Dungeon	17
Gravestone Scepter	Blackfathom Villainy, Blackfathom Deeps Dungeon Quest	22
Wand Of Mana Concentration	Arcanic Enigma, City of Dalaran Dungeon	27
Necrotic Wand	Azshuir the Sleepless, Scarlet Monastery Dungeon	30
Twisted Nether Wand	Enchanting, Bind of Equip	37
Dreambough Wand	Enchanting, Bind of Equip	43
Lesser Eternal Wand	Enchanting, Bind of Equip	49
Greater Eternal Wand	Enchanting, Bind of Equip	55
Torch Of Light	Enchanting, Bind of Equip	60

Best Staffs for Leveling Warlock

Your staff is where you will obtain a majority of your spell damage. Making sure its up to date will increase your damage and level speed considerably.

If you can get a Staff Of Jordan, this will be best in slot until level 60 but it is a random World BoE that will probably fetch a high price.

Staff	Location	Level
Makeshift Stormcaller	Stormy Potential Horde Only	7
Apprentice's Spellstaff	Rare Books Alliance Only	7
Darkwood Staff	The Family Crypt Horde Only	13
Oakthrush Staff	The Fragments Within Alliance Only	13
Staff of Orgrimmar	Hidden Enemies Horde Only Ragefire Chasm Dungeon Quest	16
Emberstone Staff	Captain Greenskin, The Deadmines Dungeon	17
Rod of the Sleepwalker	Twilight Lord Kelris, Blackfathom Deeps Dungeon	24
Hydrocane	Vicious Fallout, Gnomeregan Dungeon	27
Spine Of The Devourer	Mana Devourer, City of Dalaran Dungeon	28
Illusionary Rod	Arcanist Doan, Scarlet Monastrey	34
Greatstaff of the Necrokhans	Khan Jehn, Desolace	38
Zum'rah's Vexing Cane	Witch Doctor Zum'rah, Zul'Farrak	43

Key Spells & Leveling Milestones for Warlock

Warlock has some very important levels where it learns some powerful abilities. We have outlined the ones you should prioritize learning from the Warlock Trainer and upgrading, we have included the level you first learn them and if they are for a specific spec.

All Warlock Spells: Check out all of the Warlock Class spells by level to track what new spells or upgrades you have coming up and how much it will cost you.

Level	Skill	Impact	Specialization
1	Shadow Bolt	Basic filler spell	All
1	Demon Skin	The base version of our buff	All
1	Immolate	Fire DoT used by all Specs	All
4	Corruption	Shadow DoT used heavily by Affliction	Affliction
6	Life Tap	Sacrifice Health for Mana	All
8	Bane Of Agony	Instant Cast DoT (great for tagging mob)	Affliction
10	Drain Soul	The way we generate Soul Shards	All
10	Create Healthstone	An instant heal we can make from Soul Shards	All
10	Summon Voidwalker	Our personal Tank	All
14	Drain Life	Can be used to “Drain Tank” several mobs	Affliction
18	Create Soulstone	Can place on us or other players to res in combat.	All
18	Searing Pain	Short cast, high threat	Demonology
20	Demon Armor	Upgraded version of Demon Skin	All
20	Rain Of Fire	Our AoE	All
20	Ritual of Summoning	The all important summoning spell!	All
24	Shadowburn	Deals heavy damage using a Soul Shard	Destruction
29	Conflagrate	Consumes Immolate to deal Damage	Destruction
30	Siphon Life	Affliction DoT that heals the Warlock	Affliction

Best / Suggested Professions for Warlock

Crafted gear is very impactful in WoW: Forever. Alongside this you also have camp buffs that can also make you a lot stronger. For that reason we recommend taking Tailoring and Enchanting as a Warlock,

Tailoring

Tailoring can craft some very powerful BoP cloth gear. Depending on the specialization you are playing you will want to craft different gear. Destruction and Demonology mostly use fire damage, whereas Affliction uses a majority Shadow Damage. For example, for Affliction you will want to craft Filigreed Shadow Gown as it has a large amount of Intellect and increased Shadow Spell damage. For Destruction or Demonology you will most likely want to craft Filigreed Flame Gown which has Fire Spell Damage instead.

Enchanting

Enchanting pairs very well with Tailoring, as you will be crafting a lot of cloth items just to level up Tailoring, which you can then disenchant. While there are no BoP wands which enchanters can craft early on, you can craft some powerful staves.

Maximising Rested XP: Campfire & Cozy Sleeping Bag

Rested experience really helps speed up the leveling journey in WoW Forever and there plenty of tools that can assist in that. Rested Experience increases the amount of experience rewarded when you defeat an enemy by 50%.

Camping

You gain rested experience while you are offline in a rested area such as inn. However, in WoW Forever you can earn 5% bonus rested experience by resting at a campsite with a Camp Tent present, these are crafted by leatherworkers.

The Cozy Sleeping Bag

The Cozy Sleeping Bag is a powerful item, that takes a very long quest chain which sends you all across the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor.

Once you have obtained it, you can place the Cozy Sleeping Bag on the ground and by simply standing on it you can get 1% increased experience each minute, stacking 3 times.

We have outlined how to obtain this useful item in our How to Obtain The Cozy Sleeping Bag Guide.

Best Consumables for Leveling Warlock

Consumables can greatly improve your leveling experience with warlock. However, they are not mandatory but can improve your damage, tankiness and leveling speed.

Elixirs

Elixirs are a great way to buff your damage, they usually last between 30 minutes and 1 hour. We have included a list of early elixirs you could use:

Remember some of these will not stack with class or camping buffs.

Potions

Having Potions can definitely save you when you are in a tough spot. First Aid crafts healing potions and having a stack in your bags can save you if your health or accidentally Life Tap when you where already low.

Minor Spellblasting Potion is a great way to boost your damage for 30 seconds, if you overpull an extra couple of mobs or want to kill an elite fairly quickly. Minor Spellblasting Potion are fairly cheap to craft so even if you are not an alchemist you can probably find them for cheap on the Auction House.

Food

Buff food in WoW Forever usually has a 5% boost to experience. You can either craft your own using the cooking profession or can usually find stuff for cheap on the Auction House. There is buff food that increases your spell power in addition to the increased experience for example Sagefish Delight increase spell power by 7.

Other Warlock Specific Leveling Info

Getting a Wand early on definitely improves your leveling experience as you use less mana and have less down time.
Make sure to maintain Demon Skin or Demon Armor at all times for health regeneration.
Don’t be afraid to use your health as a resource, since you have strong abilities like Drain Life to recover your health.

We hope our Warlock Leveling guide for WoW Forever was useful to help you know where to spend your talent points and how to get the most out of the class whilst leveling. This guide will be updated to cover 1-60 shortly after the full release of WoW:Forever so make sure you bookmark the page to check for updates.