Warlock Leveling Guide (Level 1-30) - Talents, Rotations, Races & More

Affliction Warlock has always been one of the strongest and most efficient leveling specializations in Classic, and WoW Forever pushes that identity even further.

Warlock is incredibly fun and pretty safe while leveling. Your Demon can tank enemies while you run around putting powerful Damage over Time(DoTs) on everyone, like Corruption, Bane of Agony, and Immolate. Meanwhile Drain Life restores your Health and Life Tap converts that Health into Mana, letting you keep fighting with very little downtime.

The biggest strength of Warlock is how easily it can keep damage rolling while moving from enemy to enemy. You don't need to stand still and repeatedly hard cast into every target. Apply your DoTs, let your Demon tank face tank the enemy, use your drain spells when needed to heal yourself back up and pull the next enemy while your Demon finishes the last one off.

The Affliction talent tree improves this playstyle significantly as you level. Malediction increases your periodic damage, Pandemic makes your DoTs and Drain spells crit much harder, and Nightfall gives you the chance to proc an instant Shadow Bolt. When you get deeper into the tree, you'll start unlocking talents that buff your Drain Life, Drain Soul and eventually Wrack, all of which scale massively as you get closer to Level 60. Fel Concentration, Siphon Life, Improved Drains, and Soul Siphon strengthen your already strong toolkit and give you even more ways to survive while easily blowing through your enemies.

The end result is a fast, efficient leveling specialization built around constant pressure, strong sustain, and almost no downtime. Keep your DoTs rolling, treat Health and Mana as the same resources through Life Tap and Drain Life and just keep moving from enemy to enemy until you need to sit and eat.

Disclaimer

This page covers the Level 30 Beta cap using our extensive Beta testing and our discoveries throughout the Beta. This guide will be updated frequently as the Beta changes and more Level 30 content is tested leading to the launch of WoW Forever. The final guide will cover the following: BIS equipment, Talent Trees, Rotations, Professions and more.

Leveling in WoW Forever

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Affliction Warlock leveling is all about getting your DoTs rolling ASAP, letting your Demon crank and start wanding until the enemy is low enough that the DoTs will kill it off. This allows you to move onto the next enemy before the current one is even dead. You don’t really have a strict rotation while leveling. Instead, you’re setting up your DoTs, watching for Nightfall procs, and using your Health and Mana like one big resource pool through Drain Life and Life Tap.

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. Use Amplify Curse before Bane of Agony against enemies that will live long enough for the empowered Bane to deal its full damage. It's suggest to macro these two abilites together to help you remember to use it every three minutes.
4. 1. #showtooltip Amplify Curse
   2. /cast Amplify Curse
   3. /cast Bane of Agony
4. 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.
5. Cast Corruption on any elites or high Health targets. This does not have a cast time since we have five points into Improved Corruption.
6. Cast Immolate on any elites or high Health targets.
7. Cast Shadow Bolt or shoot your wand as a filler. Shadow Bolt does more damage at the cost of Mana and more threat. At this level it's recommended to do the quest in Blackfathom Depths quest to get the overpowered Gravestone Scepter Wand. If you have it, then rely on that more than Shadow Bolt
8. Watch for Nightfall proc( Shadow Trance). This gives you an instant cast Shadow Bolt. It procs off your Corruption damage, so the more enemies you have with it, the higher chance of proc'ing it.
9. Use Drain Life when you need Health. This also has a chance to proc Shadow Trance.
10. Finish with Drain Soul when you need Soul Shards.

Keep your Curse on the main target. Bane of Agony, Corruption and Immolate on the target. Cast Shadow Bolt or use your wand if you have a good one as a filler. Watch for Nightfall procs.

Your demon is the biggest part of both your damage and survivability as a Affliction 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 Affliction 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.

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.control periodically. If it does, you must cast Subjugate Demon to control it again.

• 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.

Alliance: Human or Gnome

Horde: Orc or Undead

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 /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.

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.

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, Stats and much more. None of them require you to be an Alchemist, so you can buy all these all on the Auction House:

• Elixirs and Potions
• • 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.
• Food buffs
• • Briny Seafood Stew: Grants 14 Spell Power and 5% more experience from kills for 15 minutes.
  • Sagefish Delight: Grants 7 Spell Power and 5% more experience from kills for 15 minutes.
• Scrolls
• • Scroll of Intellect II: Increases Intellect by 8 for 30 minutes.
  • Scroll of Protection III: Increases Armor by 180 for 30 minutes.

• 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. Alternatively you can make a /cast macro to all your abilities, then you'll never need to worry about accidentally forgetting.
• 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.
• Watch for Nightfall. Once you have two points in Nightfall, your damage from Corruption, Drain Life, and Drain Soul can trigger Shadow Trance. When that procs, your next Shadow Bolt is able to be casted instantly one time. Keep an eye out for this in your Cooldown Manager so you don't miss it and waste the proc.
• 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.