Destruction Warlock Guide - Talents, Rotations, Races & More

Before combat, it's highly suggested to make sure your Demon is summoned, and make sure you have Demon Armor on and that you have a Create Healthstone in your bag just in case you need a heal. Create Soulstone should be on a healer, so if they die they can resurrecf in combat, or if everyone dies in the raid they can resurrect instantly and start reviving the team.

1. Send your demon in and let it into the target first so it can establish threat. We suggest usingSummon Succubus once you unlock her at Level 20, unless you prefer the tankiness of Summon Voidwalker.
2. Apply Curse of Recklessness or Curse of the Elements on dungeon bosses or elites, depending on your group. Curse of the Elements will buff your group's magic damage and Curse of Recklessness will buff your group's Physical damage.
3. Cast Bane of Agony if the enemy will survive long enough for it to deal decent damage. This is the first DoT casted only if the enemy will live long enough to get value out of the DoT. It also is the the longest duration DoT and has to ramp up to deal damage, so the earlier this is up, the better. It also causes the least amount of threat, giving your Demon ample time to gather threat before you start pumping the enemy down.
4. Cast Immolate
5. Only cast Corruption if you put five points into Improved Corruption. Otherwise it's not worthy using as Destruction.
6. Use Drain Life when you need Health.
7. Use your wand as a filler or when an enemy is low enough that spending Mana on another spell is unnecessary.
8. Finish with Drain Soul when you need Soul Shards.

• Fear: Causes the enemy to run around in fear, unable to attack. All damage has a chance to break the fear.
• Howl of Terror: This is a melee range AoE fear. When in trouble, run to melee range and use this.
• Curse of Recklessness A curse that debuffs the enemy, making them take more melee damage. This is also used to stop a target from being feared. If you Fear something and it starts running into another group of enemies, you can put Curse of Recklessness on it and it will run back to you. You can also immediately cast Curse of the Elements to put the enemy back into a feared state and redirect it away from the group of enemies. This is known as "Fear Juggling" or "Babysitting Fears".
• Curse of the Elements A curse that debuffs the enemy, making them take more spell damage.
• Create Soulstone This is a buff that can be put on yourself or any other player from the same faction. When the buffed player dies, they will have the option to resurrect immediately. This works in combat.
• Create Healthstone: Stones that you can make for yourself and others. It will heal when you use it.
• Underwater Breathing Allows you or whoever you put it on breathe underwater.

Your demon is the biggest part of both your damage and survivability as a Destruction Warlock. You unlock each of these from a quest you can obtain from a special Warlock trainer located in your factions main City. You have many talents as Destruction that make every one of them significantly stronger.

Summon Imp is a ranged DPS pet. Summon Voidwalker is a beefy tank pet. Summon Succubus / Summon Incubus is a melee DPS pet and your strongest demon. They both do the same exact thing, just one is Female and the other is Male. Summon Felhunter is a melee DPS pet that comes with utility like Spell Lock. It's mainly used in PvP. It is suggested to use Summon Succubus / Summon Incubus due to their extremely high damage. The other three demons do significantly less damage. However Summon Voidwalker is an amazing tank and great to use if you prefer the safety of it over the damage of the Summon Succubus / Summon Incubus

All about the Warlocks Demons

Summon Imp is your first Demon and is unlocked right when you start the game at Level 1, which helps out tremendously in the early levels until you unlock Summon Voidwalker. It shoots Firebolt, buffs you and you party with Fire Shield, and buffs your party with Blood Pact, which gives you all a massive amount of Stamina.

Summon Voidwalker is unlocked at Level 10 and quickly replaces the Summon Imp. He comes equipped with Torment, which is a single target Taunt, Suffering, which is an AoE Taunt, Sacrifice, which gives you a massive absorb shield and Consume Shadows, which allows the Voidwalker to heal himself up if you're out of combat. As of right now the Voidwalker has very high threat and can tank very well. This is very helpful because you can send it into a pack of 3-4 enemies and use Suffering to Taunt them all at once, then it can use Suffering to singly taunt each enemy one at a time, while you're applying all your DoTs on the enemies.

Summon Succubus and Summon Incubus is unlocked at Level 20 and for many is their main choice of demons due to their extremely high damage. There is no difference between the two demons besides Summon Succubus is Female and Summon Incubus is Male. They come with Seduction which charms an enemy for 15 seconds or until it takes damage before then. Lash of Pain which deals more damage and they can go invisible with Lesser Invisibility.

Summon Felhunter is unlocked at Level 30 and is typically only used for PvP, due to it's really high spell resistances and utility spells. It has Spell Lock to interrupt casters. Devour Magic which can either dispel you or purge the enemy and Paranoia to help find any stealthed enemies.

Inferno is a on use spell with a long one hour cooldown. When used it will slam down in a meteor dealing fire damage and stunning everyone around it. Once The Inferno come out of the crater two seconds later, you will have full control over it for five minutes. You cannot use another demon while Inferno is active and it can break out of your control periodically. If it does, you must cast Subjugate Demon to control it again.

Remember to right click your pets abilities that you want them to auto cast by default. Most of them have their spells auto casted, but at times it's better to have them set to manual so you have better control over when they cast them. Summon Voidwalker's Torment is a great example. I never play with on auto cast, instead I manually cast it on enemies to ensure the correct enemy is taunted.

Gear has changed a lot in Forever. Spell Power is now on the low level gear, giving us access to a decent amount of Spell Power already. Use the order below as a starting point while comparing items and take note that this is subject to change as we get to higher levels in the Beta and when the game launch Below, we've covered stats to look out for in order of priority, and how each stat interacts with your toolkit. Stats that aren't available on gear currently due to its low level aren't covered, but will be included as more items are released.

1. Spell Power: This is our strongest stat. Spell Power increases the damage of all of your spells.
2. Hit Chance: Reduces the chance for your spells to miss. Suppression in the Affliction can give you 5%.
3. Intellect: Our main Primary Stat. This should be on every piece of gear.
4. Critical Strike Chance: This gives you a higher chance to Crit. Since our DoTs and Hellfire can Crit, we love Critical Strike Chance.
5. Spirit: Life Tap scales off Spirit, so we like it!
6. Stamina: This gives you Health. This will naturally be on most of your gear, so you shouldn't ever have to focus on finding it.
7. Haste: There is no haste to get yet. Once more is in the game, it will be a higher priority, however our DoT's and Drains are not effected by Haste, so you should never be hunting it down.

Alliance: Human or Gnome

Horde: Troll or Orc

Warlock have five playable races in WoW Forever. Human and Gnome remain available on the Alliance while Orc and Undead return on the Horde alongside the newly added Troll Warlock. Every race also received major racial changes, including several new active abilities that can directly affect Warlock gameplay. The racial decision is much closer than it's ever been in Classic.

It's too early to tell which race will end up being the most powerful based on our current Beta testing. The Gnome racial Expansive Mind now grants 5% Mana instead of Intellect and Gnomes also bring the new Eureka! racial, making the two races much closer than before. The racial changes give Humans 2% Spell Crit Chance while using a sword, but you must keep a sword equipped for the racial to provide any benefit. Humans also give 5% Spirit, which scales our Life Tap

Horde is also up in the air, with Undead, Orc, and Troll all bringing very strong racials. Blood Fury remains a very strong choice for damage, and the new racial Shatter Curse brings some Curse and magic protection. Undead get the very powerful racial Touch of the Grave, giving your spells and attacks a 10% chance to drain Health from the target, up to 5% of your maximum Health. Troll brings the infamous Berserking, which is very strong for hard casting, although as of right now DoTs, Drains, and channeled spells aren't affected by the additional cast speed. This makes Berserking significantly more appealing to Destruction than Affliction and Demonology.

Human: Human receives some substantial racial changes in WoW Forever. The new Will to Survive racial instantly removes all Stun effects on a two minute cooldown.Perception retains its familiar ability to dramatically increase stealth detection for 20 seconds. Sword Specialization is particularly interesting for Warlock, granting 2% Spell Crit Chance while using a sword. The Human Spirit continues to increase Spirit by 5%. Human is considerably more competitive for Warlockthan it was in the original Classic, especially if the Best in Slot weapon is a sword.

Available Racial Options Warlock

Human: Human receives some substantial racial changes in WoW Forever. The new Will to Survive racial instantly removes all Stun effects on a two minute cooldown.Perception retains its familiar ability to dramatically increase stealth detection for 20 seconds. Sword Specialization is particularly interesting for Warlock, granting 2% Spell Crit Chance while using a sword. The Human Spirit continues to increase Spirit by 5%. Human is considerably more competitive for Warlock than it was in the original Classic, especially if the Best in Slot weapon is a sword.

Gnome: Gnomes still have their life saving Escape Artist, which removes all movement impairing effects and now also grants immunity to them for 3 seconds. The biggest addition is Eureka!, a new two minute cooldown that causes your next three damaging abilities to cost 10% less Mana and deal 10% increased damage. Expansive Mind has also been redesigned to increase your maximum Mana by 5% rather than Intellect. Engineering Specialization continues to improve the reliability of all Engineering Devices.

Orc: Blood Fury increases your Spell Power by 10% for 15 seconds, finally giving Warlock a massive buff from the racial. Shatter Curse is also a powerful new defensive, removing all Curses and Banes, granting immunity to them, and reducing all Magical damage taken by 15% for 8 seconds. Axe Specialization grants 1% Crit Chance with all spells and abilities while wielding an axe. The problem is that Warlock can't use axes of any kind. Hardiness now reduces the duration of Stun effects by 20% instead of providing the massive Stun resist chance seen in the original Classic, which is a significant reduction to its PvP strength.

Troll: Troll is an entirely new Warlock race in WoW Forever. Berserking increases spellcasting speed by 10% for 10 seconds, making it a potentially strong offensive cooldown for Destruction builds, whereas it's not as strong for the other two builds and is particularly weak for Affliction since it relies on Drains, channels, and DoTs. Rapid Regeneration is a channeled racial that restores 50% of maximum Health over 6 seconds, although moving, taking another action, or taking any damage cancels it. Trolls also gain Beast Slaying, increasing damage against Beasts by 5%, and Regeneration which allowing 10% of normal Health regeneration to continue during combat.

Undead: Undead retains much of its familiar PvP identity, although several racials have changed. Will of the Forsaken still removes Charm, Fear, and Sleep effects, but no longer provides immunity afterward. Cannibalize now regenerates 7% of total Health and 7% of total Mana every 2 seconds for 10 seconds while consuming a nearby Humanoid or Undead corpse. Underwater Breathing allows you to remain underwater 300% longer, while the new Touch of the Grave gives spells and attacks a 10% chance to drain Health from the target, up to 5% of your maximum Health.

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

Tailoring and Enchanting are a popular starting pair for a Warlock. Tailoring gives you a use for all the cloth you'll find while leveling, including crafting extremely useful armor and bags. Half of the Best in Slot for Warlocks right now comes from Tailoring, making it highly suggested.

Enchanting lets you turn unwanted equipment into materials that you can then use to enchant your gear. Enchanting is also able to craft both Lesser Magic Wand and Greater Magic Wand. Check what the trainers actually offer before spending too much gold on a specific crafting plan. When I was leveling, I had enough money to keep one profession leveled up and had to farm some Silver to keep another profession leveled up. Warlocks typically spend more money than most classes due to having to buy Grimoires for our Demon.

First Aid is another popular option for professions because this is a secondary profession, meaning you can train First Aid and still have your two primary professions. First Aid Allows you to make very helpful bandages out of cloth to quickly heal up. With Forever, it also meansyou can make health potions, making First Aid ever more valuable. The main bandages you should be using are:

• Heavy Silk Bandage
• Mageweave Bandage
• Heavy Mageweave Bandage

WoW Forever's profession revamp allows Alchemy to make new extremely powerful potions and elixirs that will significantly boost your Spell Power, Defenses, Sats and much more. None of them require you to be an Alchemist, so you can buy all these all on the Auction House.

• Lesser Arcane Elixir: This gives you 15 Spell Power for 30 minutes.
• Elixir of Lesser Spirit: This gives you 6 Spirit for 30 minutes.
• Elixir of Defense: This gives you 250 Armor for 60 minutes
• Elixir of Lesser Fortitude: This increases your Health by 120 for 60 minutes.
• Lesser Mageblood Elixir: This lets you regenerate 6 Mana every 5 seconds for 30 minutes.
• Lesser Trollsblood Elixir: This lets you regenerate 6 Health every 5 seconds for 60 minutes.
• Elixir of Fire Power: This gives you 10 Fire damage for 30 minutes.
• Elixir of Wisdom: This gives you 6 Intellect for 60 minutes.
• Lesser Spellblasting Potion: This increases your Spell Power by 11 for 30 Seconds.

• A basic campfire is made with from Cooking, and at the early stage has room for three profession features, with each player contributing one. You need spend at least 60 seconds sitting or crafting nearby to pick up the benefits. Equivalent camp and class buffs do not stack, so check what you already have before looking for another camp.
• Camp Chair comes from Skinning and gives 2%. Critical Strikes for spells and attacks. Since our DoTs can critically strike, this is useful for Warlock. It is exclusive with Moonkin Form
• Faction Banner comes from Tailoring and increases Spirit, buffing your Life Tap. It is exclusive with Divine Spirit.
• Incense Candle comes from Herbalism and increases Intellect, giving you a larger Mana pool. It is exclusive with Arcane Intellect.
• Mana Well comes from Alchemy and restores Mana every 5 seconds. It gives you another way to recover Mana along side your drains and Life Tap. It is exclusive with Blessing of Wisdom.
• Fish Bowl comes from Fishing and increases all of your stats by 8%. This is extremely useful while leveling. It is exclusive with Blessing of Kings.
• Camp Tent comes from Leatherworking and brings your rested experience up to 5% of a level. It has no effect if you already have more than that amount stored.

• Keep your spells trained! Rank upgrades matter a ton, so visit your Warlock trainer regularly every two levels(2, 4, 6, 8, etc.) Check your spellbook and action bars after you train to make sure you are using the newest rank of the spell.
• Keep your armor buff active. Use Demon Skin early on and switch to Demon Armor once you train it at Level 20. These cannot be used at the same time, so it will replace Demon Skin.
• Let your DoTs finish the job. Try to avoid spending Mana on another spell when your existing DoTs are already going to kill the target. Even with Life Tap Mana is precious and the better you get at balancing your Mana and Health, the easier leveling gets. Learning when to not cast is an important part of efficient leveling.
• Use a wand! Wand attacks are extremely useful at all the way into the 30's and remain a good way to finish weakened enemies without spending additional Mana. Keep upgrading your wand as better options become available.
• Use Life Tap when you have enough Health to do so safely. Starting the next pull nearly dead defeats the purpose of gaining more Mana.
• Always have Soul Shards available. Once you learn Drain Soul at level 10, use it to often to replenish your Soul Shards and try to keep some on you at all times so you can summon another demon or make another Create Healthstone, Create Soulstone or summon a friend with Ritual of Summoning.
• 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!
• Keep a stack of food and water in your bags at all times. Your drains and Life Tap reduce downtime by a lot, but there will still be situations where stopping to recover is the safest and fastest option. You can buy food and water from many vendors like the General Goods Vendors located in most towns, or ask a friendly Mage to conjure some for you.
• Check your class quests. These are vital for Warlocks because this is how you unlock all of your Demons, as well as some very strong gear to help you on your leveling journey. Summon Imp is unlocked right when you start the game at Level 1. Summon Voidwalker at Level 10Summon Succubus at Level 20 as well as a Staff of Soran'ruk. Orb of Soran'ruk and your first Soul Pouch, which is used to store your Soul Shards. Lastly Summon Felhunter at Level 30 with a bigger Soul Pouch. At Level 50 you get a quest to unlock Inferno and Level 60 to get Ritual of Doom.