Demonology Warlock Guide - Talents, Rotations, Races & More

Level 30 Talents (5,8,8)

The most powerful Demonology Talents are deeper in the talent tree. It isn't really realistic to go heavy into Demonology during this BETA so we'll spread our points out a bit to make you and the Imp both powerful for a very comfortable leveling experience.

1. Start off by putting 5 points into Improved Corruption. The quality of life of it being an instant cast is just too good to pass up first.
2. Next put 5 points into Bane to reduce the Cooldown of your Shadow Bolt.
3. Now that you're strong we buff up the Imp. Put 3 points into Improved Imp and then 5 points into Unholy Power
4. Put your final 3 points into Cataclysm to help with your Mana sustain.

Level 60 Talents (5/31/15)

Here's a look at what we think the level 60 Demonology Warlock Talent Tree will look like. As mentioned above, this guide will be updated as we go through the beta and during launch to include any other Endgame Demonology Warlock Talent Trees, along with all the other information you need to excel in the endgame and Raids as a Warlock.

Playable Races

Alliance - Human & Gnome

Horde - Orc, Troll & Undead

Recommended Races

Gnome is quite possibly the best race in the game and the one you want to pick as Alliance. Eureka!reduces the cost of your next 3 abilities and gives them 10% increased damage. Expansive Mind gives you 5% more maximum mana. Escape Artist grants you immunity to Roots and Snares.

Troll is great since you’ll be fighting a lot of beasts in the early game and they have 5% increased damage to beasts. Their Berserking buff grants you 10% casting speed for 10 seconds and they also have Rapid Regeneration which allows you to restore 50% of your health every 3 minutes. This is especially great on warlock since you can use Life Tap to get all your Mana back between encounters, then use Rapid Regeneration to get all your health back without having to stop for a water break.

Orc is the other competitive Horde choice. Blood Fury boosts your Spell Power by 10% for 15 seconds. Shatter Curse grants immunity to Curses, Banes and reduces Magical Damage taken. Hardiness decreases stuns by 20%

For every race's complete ability list, see our racial abilities guide.

The primary Skills you’ll use are Shadow Bolt, Corruption, Immolate, Bane of Agony, Fear & Life Tap.

1. The best way to play Demonology Warlock is to use your Summon Imp along with yourself to form a type of "triangle formation" with the enemy. Have your Imp engage first with Fire Bolt so the mob goes to attack them. Then time the cast of your Shadow Bolt to hit the same enemy right as it gets to your Imp. This will pull threat off your imp and have the mob then go running to you (who's standing away form your Imp to start with). This time spent running towards you both is usually enough time to take them down with you and the Imp both taking zero or very little damage.Learn to juggle mobs between you and the Imp and you'll feel unstoppable.
2. After opening up on them with a Shadow Bolt you can either just spam Shadow Bolt or get a Immolate / Corruption on them before going back to Shadow Bolt.
3. An important tip for Bane of Agony is that it isn't worth using if the enemy is going to die long before they complete their duration, it takes TWENTY FOUR seconds to get its full value. When fighting a durable enemy or boss get it up. When you're just out fighting raptors 1 at a time stick to Shadow Bolt + Immolate or Corruption to get the job done.

Check our WoW Forever tier list to see how Demonology Warlock stacks up against Affliction and Destruction.

• Visit your Class Trainer often to get your new skills, levels 4, 6, 8, 10 & 20 are essential so you can learn Corruption, Life Tap, Bane of Agony, Drain Soul, Create Healthstone & Ritual of Summoning respectively. Don't forget you have a Pet Trainer as well and can learn Summon Voidwalker through a class quest at level 10 and Summon Succubus at level 20!
• Remember your Health as a Warlock can be seen as another Mana bar. Use Life Tap between encounters to convert your Health to Mana and eat/bandage to get your health back, this is usually faster and cheaper than drinking water the whole way.
• Remember to right click your pets abilities that you want them to auto cast by default. Summon Imp Fire Bolt, Summon Voidwalker Torment and Summon Succubus Lash of Pain are essential to have on auto cast whenever they're engaging in combat.
• Use your Drain Soul when a mob is about to die to generate Soul Shards. Soul Shards are essential so you canCreate Healthstone
• Ritual of Summoning is one of the most unique class abilities in the game. With 2 party members around to click the portal you can summon an ally to your location anywhere in Azeroth. You can even make some money doing this if you have some friends help you summon people to a far away location, or to help groups get their friends to their location when they don't have a Warlock. Make sure to stock up on those Soul Shards, you wont regret it!

A Warlocks Favorite Stats are Intellect and Stamina (remember health is mana!), Spirit is also decent but not as important for this class as some other casters. Intellect increases your maximum mana pool and increases your Spell Critical Strike Chance. Stamina increases your health and Spirit helps your Health and Mana regenerate faster when out of Combat. Prioritize Intellect and Stamina on items but don't be disappointed when a good item has Spirit on it

In group play you'll be pulling more than 1 mob at a time so leaning into Corruption, Immolate and Bane of Agony allows you to get damage over time up on all of the enemies before you start casting Shadow Bolt at them.

This playstyle fits the Affliction build a bit better since you talent into those skills more heavily, but it's still the best way to do DPS in groups or dungeons as Demonology as well. At a minimum you should put up Corruption on every mob in a pack before you start spamming Shadow Bolt.

Bane of Agony can be a bit more mana intensive so you might want to just reserve that for bosses where you know you'll for sure get the full value out of it.

Wand Tips

For all casters the #1 tip for leveling is to obtain wands early and upgrade them often. Tailors can make Lesser and Greater Magic wands that deal incredible DPS for their level range. Either get the Tailoring Profession and make your own or head over to the auction house to buy one!

Loot has changed in WoW forever and the location of great wands may be different from original Classic. Here's a quick rundown of wands that you can look out for to stay on top of it:

• Level 5 - Lesser Magic Wand, 11.3 DPS (Tailoring or Auction House)
• Level 13 - Greater Magic Wand, 17.5 DPS (Tailoring or Auction House)
• Level 18 - Gravestone Scepter, 29 DPS (Blackfathom Villainy Quest in Ashenvale)

While the Gravestone Scepter is technically available at level 18, the dungeon itself has enemies in the high level 20 range. You likely won't be able to obtain it this early unless you have a group of high level guildies or friends just carry you through the dungeon. Aside form new wands being available up to level 30 in WoW Forever this is likely the best wand you'll be able to obtain in the BETA.

Other

Like melee classes Food and First Aid are you best friend on this class. Make sure to train First Aid early and keep your bandages relevant to your level. You'll be stopping to eat and bandage often since you'll be using Life Tap to restore you mana very often. This is a Warlocks biggest advantage over other casters.

Always keep your Soul Shards stocked up, nothing is worse than wishing you had one and realizing you have to go create one.

Auto Shoot Wand Macro

#showtooltip Shoot
/cast !Shoot

Pet attack and pet follow are the key basic macros while leveling up your warlock. I like to bind them individually to my mouse wheel. You can also combine pet attack with your Shadow Bolt to be able to push one button and get all hands on deck right away.

Pet Attack

/petattack

Pet Passive

/petpassive

Shadow Bolt / Pet Attack

#showtooltip Shadow Bolt
/petattack
/cast Shadow Bolt