• 1.0 - The Warlock
  • 1.1 Races
  • 1.2 Tradeskills
• 2.0 - Warlock and Abilities
• 3.0 - Leveling as...
• 4.0 - PvP Talent Spec
• 5.0 - Raiding Build and Gear
• 6.0 - 1-80 Warlock Leveling Guide

1.0 - The Warlock

Warlocks are World of Warcrafts rendition of the classic soul-devouring life-stealing demon summoning class that everyone loves, or at the very least I do.  Quite honestly there’s nothing better than ruling the battlefield with massive amounts of life, ample damage resistance, and the ability to bring down multiple targets at once via a slow and painful, yet inevitable death.

This guide is simply intended to provide a general overview of the Warlock class. For a for more in-depth resource on the warlock, check out the Killer Guides' Warlock guide.

Warlocks rank amongst the caster classes yes, but they stand head and shoulders above both Priest and Mage when it comes to sheer survivability.  Plus, due to an increasing emphasis on high health levels combined with reasonable damage, you’ll find that you generally fair better in the latter raid instances and become less of a target in PvP as well.

I find warlocks to be one of the more fun caster classes simply due to the large change of playstyle gained whenever alternating talent specializations, demonology, affliction, destruction – neither is even remotely similar unless running a largely hybrid build for say soul-link and destruction/affliction.

Sure, all builds of warlock will likely end up using the base-line spells such as shadowbolt, deathcoil, and the various DoT’s from time to time, but gameplay becomes dramatically different when you have use of a Felguard for interception-interruptions or when proccing an instant shadowbolt mid-fight via nightfall.

Then again running as an affliction build can be quite a bit more interesting, at least so far as Battlegrounds and AoE grinding is concerned.  Hiding behind an obscure bush, rock, or tree and throwing off DoT after DoT at unsuspecting players as they run by is a fun way to ruin other players day.

However, AoE grinding is one aspect I see very rarely utilized by affliction warlocks, likely due to the fact that it requires either immense preparation and practice or the assistance of a healer.  Nonetheless, it is indeed a viable method of leveling.

Through strategic DoT placement and pulling affliction warlocks can take on up to 5, 6, sometimes even 7 or more packs of mobs at a time, all it requires is necessary shielding, healing, and perhaps more than a little bit of luck.

Finally, destruction warlocks, my personal favorite as usual, for I possess an immense obsession with the art of total annihilation, and nothing suits that better than a warlock knocking down targets in six seconds flat with some well timed and hopefully critical shadowbolts.

All in all warlocks have it great, all three talent builds are excellent for leveling, PvP, and likely even raiding to a certain point, making it an easy class to enjoy as you have no fear of picking the ‘wrong’ path for a given pursuit in game.

Warlock Races

Orc - Blood Fury and the increased pet damage combine to make the Orc perhaps the best Warlock race. the decreased stun duration is nice for PvP and we can ignore the increased damage with axes.

Undead - Underwater Breathing is nice for some quests, especially once you hit Northrend, but nothing a cheap potion can't handle. Will of the Forsaken is a nice PvP skill. Cannibalize is useful when you just have to rub it in to that other player you killed. Maybe that's good enough reason to go Undead.

Blood Elf - Arcane Torrent is a nice spell interrupt with some PvP utility, but otherwise? Well ok, they look good. A truly devastatng Warlock Ability. Really.

Human - The Human Diplomacy skill will allow for more rapid faction gain and the escape ability is nice for PvP, as is the Stealth Detection. Maces, Swords, and a Spirit increase? Who cares? Go Human if you want to waste less time gaining faction.

Gnome - Escape artist is very nice for PvP, as is their small size, and any caster can use an Int bonus, but otherwise? Go Gnome if you want the increased mana pool and the increased Engie skill.

Tradeskills

As with all caster classes, tailoring is the way to go, it’s just impossible to pass up on the massive gear upgrades available by the set-item cloth armor craftable at high levels, many would even rank it higher than a lot of raiding gear.

Enchanting is a very expensive profession to level up, but you can disenchant the goods you make through Tailoring, and use or sell the parts, saving you considerable gold. So those two professions work well together.

Even so, you better have a good gold stash before starting those two professions or good money making skills. If you don't have either then consider waiting till nearly 80, when you have your mounts, before working these professions.

Additionally, a commonly sought combination with tailoring is either one of the three gathering, and thus money making professions – Mining, Skinning, and Herbalism.

All of the Crafting professions, except Blacksmithing, have their uses, but they are also all expensive to level.

Cooking is a good profession to take, partly for the healing foods (even if you're undead,) but more for the buffing foods you will be able to create.

First Aid is a handy skill for those times when you just didn't quite drain enough life.

2.0 - Warlock Abilities

Warlocks are all-rounder engines of destruction, each and every tree open to us is specifically designed to improve our killing ability, just in a variety of different manners.  Additionally, each tree presents an increase to either our survivability, mass killing abilities, or PvP capabilities in its own manner, making them all viable choices for nigh any stage of the game.

Primarily I would say that affliction enhances killing speed in general PvE, that is to say grinding, leveling, dailies, etc.  It focuses entirely on our DoT’s and allows you to drain tank monsters, basically ending fights with 100% life/mana.

Demonology enhances survivability without truly sacrificing much DPS comparative to other builds while leveling.  The differences however for those fully fel-guard specced will become more apparent once you hit 80 and start PvP or PvE raiding.

Finally destruction is the premier raiding spec for endgame raiding, once you’ve achieved the required gear from medium-level raid bosses you’ll find that it pulls away from affliction for overall DPS.  Finally, destruction is a viable choice of build for Arena/battlegrounds.

Affliction

Affliction is the build I see most commonly either with leveling warlocks or those who chose to run the arena route having completed the leveling grind.  It presents an interesting and wildly powerful survivability strategy when combined with demonology for soul link.

Additionally affliction is the warlocks one true method of mass grinding through any given area of mobs.  This is accomplished by utilizing either personal survivability or a healer and proceeding to run through the target area, picking up as many mobs as possible to hold at once and proceeding to drain tank while the healer keeps you up.

End result if all goes well is a massive amount of XP and at the worst a fifteen second mana/life break before commencing pulls again. Then again once you've passe dthe leveling side of things and should you choose the endgame raiding path Affliction is still a highly viable build throughout the earlier and mid-rank raiding spectrum, only being noticeably surpassed by destruction far later once extreme gear is available.

You'll find more info on this spec in our Affliction Warlock guide.

Demonology

Demonology is one of my original favorite talent tree specializations and the reason I actually rolled warlock in the first place: demons.  Demonology gives you massive increases to all survivability, solo capabilities and, past level 50, an immensely capable pseudo-warrior pet to boot.

Initially the imp gives you a nice additional DoT, and improving it can be potentially useful at higher levels, and just not while within the leveling process. 

Regardless, the initial talents of choice will be demonic embrace and fel intellect, the former giving you a massive health increase and dramatically increasing the viability of lifetap due to your new life pool.

Finally what is the crown jewel to some, rather the crown jewels, will be demonic sacrifice and soul link – both will provide immense improvements to your lasting power as well as damage dealt for hybrid builds such as destruction/demonology or afflicition/demonology.

All in all if you go purely demonology to 50 you’ll gain the support of a pseudo-warrior pet capable of tanking and dealing massive damage all at once.  The demonology tree is well rounded and very useful to first-timers or those favoring the more demonic side of operations.

For more on the Demonology spec, including builds, PvP, and leveling, see our Warlock Demonology guide.

Destruction

Destruction is the build of choice for both myself in PvP and endgame raiders for consistent high DPS, it’s also a hell of a lot of fun when blasting away people in Arena and BG’s with massive shadowbolt criticals or conflagrate.

Leveling wise destruction loses some of its luster, mana efficiency goes down the drain early on and it’s highly recommended that you either use it in a team setting/instancing or simply skip it entirely and go for affliction or demonology.

Destruction is very fun I must admit, but for leveling not so much – I’d only recommend taking this up if you really have to blow things up immediately or have already reached your high 40’s/mid 50’s.

Want more on Destruction? Here's our Destruction Warlock guide.

This section is only an overview of Warlock leveling, check out our Warlock Leveling Guide for more in-depth information, builds, and tips.

3.0 - Leveling

Considering all the multitude of grinds possible in this game, leveling a warlock is comparatively relaxing.  Likely you’ll never find yourself feeling too slow, quests too hard, or really any distress whatsoever considering how easy the process should be.

DoT’s take mobs down with a dual purpose of efficiency and effectiveness, our direct damage spells scale quite well once you pick up some +shadow damage, and of course we always have pets to make up for any given weakness within a fight.

But of course, like most classes the Warlock has more than a few styles of leveling, and there’s always a way to maximize your XP per hour, avoiding spending any more time than necessary on the grind as a whole.

Affliction Warlock Leveling

Leveling as Affliction is the recommended build above all others, specifically for the reason that it becomes quite possible to attain an infinite level of grinding without fear of downtime whatsoever, a perk no other build, and few builds for any class, can begin to offer.

Drain tanking is essentially the secret behind Affliction's success, a strategy whereby you utilize Dark Pact, the 41 point affliction talent, in combination with drain life and lifetap.  Essentially what you do is dark pact or life tap for mana, and then proceed to drain life to recover any lost HP.

End result is that, whether you life tap or dark pact, you have practically endless mana reserves as well as recharging your life bar continually via drain life in each fight – Nothing works better for grinding and this is the most efficient, effective method of leveling for warlocks.

Demonology Warlock Leveling

Demonology is the second fastest leveling Warlock build and in many cases the easier build, depending on your style of play.  By speccing into this talent tree you pick up large amounts of extra life, which helps an extraordinary amount considering lifetap, as well as numerous other survivability improvements.

Pets: by talenting up your summoned demons they become somewhat more than either crowd control (succubus) or a throw-away tank (voidwalker,) instead you can actually and effectively utilize the voidwalker as a reasonable tank to around level 30 or so should you desire, and switch off to the succubus if you find yourself pulling aggro more often than not.

Finally, upon reaching level 50 and beyond things just turn upwards as the felguard takes over tanking duties making the occasion of you being injured, much less killed, far rarer than ever before – Even better, it deals amazing DPS, making Demonology a fair contender for leveling against Affliction.

Destruction Warlock Leveling

4.0 - PvP

Yes, Warlocks can be very effective in Battleground, Arena, or world PvP, as long as they stay aware of their stengths and certain limitations, eg: cloth armor.

Three Arena Builds:

The 54/17/0 build is the most common arena build, by about 3:1.

1. 54/17/0 Affliction PvP Arena build - Demonology talents are there to increase survivability.
2. 54/17/0 Affliction PvP Arena build
   • Drops: Curse of Agony, 1pt of Suppression, Improved Life Tap
   • Drops: Improved fear, Eradication
   • Adds: 1pt of Shadow Embrace
   • Adds: Improved Felhunter, Dark Pact
3. 0/20/51 Destruction 2x2 build - from a 2800+ rated Gnome Warlock, teamed with a Disc Priest.

Macros

Have a Shammie who's put up his totem nest? This macro sends your pet to attack Totems. Add the names of the totems you would like to kill. Highest priority at the bottom. If there is no Totem it will attack your target.

/petattack
/petattack [target=Healing Stream Totem]
/petattack [target=Mana]
/petattack [target=Tremor Totem]
/petattack [target=Grounding Totem]

Are there Rogues about? Cast this if you think so, or you get sapped.

#showtooltip Devour Magic
/dismount [mounted]
/cast Devour Magic

One button DoT caster. Hitting the button three times will cycles through the three DoTs. Holding down the shift/alt/control keys will throw the appropriate spells.

#showtooltip
/cast [mod:shift] Curse of Exhaustion
/cast [mod:alt] Curse of Agony
/cast [mod:ctrl] Drain Life
/castsequence [nomod:shift/alt/ctr] reset=target/combat Siphon Life, Corruption, Curse of Agony

BattleGround Tips

• Always protect your healers
• Backup your teammates, especially the ones you might want to have helping you
• If your teammate is carrying a flag so what you can to peel the defenders away from him, eg: fear, CofE, etc.
• If it's your flag being carried do what you can to strip buffs and slow the carrier, allowing melee and casters to catch up.
• Never stop moving or that Rogue (or feral druid) who's stalking you will try to gank you.
  
  
• Arathi Basin - Kill the enemy and they have to run a lot farther to get to your nearest base than the on on the other side of the map. So if you're Horde, Holding the Farm is better than the Stables for that reason. You have a short run to get there, they have a long one. Hold three bases and you will win. Always fight at the flag, never in the middle/road.
• Warsong Gulch - Protecting your flag carrier and killing the guy carrying your flag are far more important things to do than fighting random peeps in the mid-grounds.
• Eye of the Storm - Forget the flag. Hold three bases and you win. Hold three and it doesn't matter how many flags the other side gets. Fight at the flags, not in the mid-grounds.
• Altarac Valley - You need enough defense to break their assault and enough offense to break their defense. Burn their towers and try to hold or recap yours. Towers are more important than graveyards, but GYs close to the other base are important. They're crowding the entry to your area? Drop an infernal into the middle of their group.
• Strand there is no point to fighting behind their group. If you're on Offense then fear their attackers away from your tanks. If on D then abondon your position when they pass you. Stay in front of them.
  
  
• Use terrain to your advantage. If you can position yourself to cast spells whenre they can't easily see (or find) you then you're golden.
• Get your PvP trinket from the Honor Gear vendor as soon as you can. Get the cheap one. The "break free" will save your hide more than once.
• While hot gear is nice skill counts for more. Skill will also get you into good gear faster. So practice your skills.
• Set up hot-keys for your most used abilities and macros for those abilities that might require several commands, such as the DoT caster above.
• Keep alert at all times. Be aware of your teammates and what they're doing. Help them whenever you can.
  
  
• If you're really serious about PvP then practice seriously and treat yourself yourself to a full blown PvP guide. You'll get far more in-depth detail on how to kill any class, win any BG, and learn to get some pretty good arena ranking. Do it now and get a big edge over the other guy.
  

5.0 The Gear

This gear list is for level 70 raiding, and is suited to a hybrid Demonology/destruction or demonology/affliction build looking to get into karazhan raiding or similar level dungeons, EX: Gruul, Magtheridon, etc. This is is for the players who want to try raiding at that level or who have not upgraded to Wrath of the Lich King.

A level 80 List is coming Real Soon Now.

Helm:

Battlecast Hood - Crafted
Demonfang Ritual Helm - Drop(Heroic Underbog)
Exorcist's Silk Hood - Vendor(18 Spirit Shards)

Neck:

Pendant of Dominance - PvP Honor Reward
Manasurge Pendant - Vendor(25 Heroic Badges)
Charlotte's Ivy - World Drop BoE

Back:

Shawl of Shifting Probabilities - Vendor(25 Heroic Badges)
Sethekk Oracle Cloak - Drop(Sethekk Halls)
Baba's Cloak of Arcanistry - Drop(Mechanar)

Shoulders:

Mantle of Three Terrors - Drop(Black Morass)
Spaulders of Oblivion - Drop(Shadow Laybrinth)
Mana-Sphere Shoulderguards - Drop(Arcatraz)

Chest:

Imbued Netherweave Robe - Crafted
Robe of Oblivion - Drop(Shadow Laybrinth)
Stormspire Vest - Reputation Reward(Consortium Revered)

Wrist:

Crimson Bracers of Gloom - Drop(Heroic Ramparts)
Shattrath Wraps - Quest Reward

Hands:

Gloves of Oblivion - Drop(Shattered Halls)
Energis Armwraps - Drop(Botanica)

Belt:

Sash of Serpentra - Drop(Steamvault)
Hierophant's Sash - Halaa PvP Reward

Legs:

Battlecast Pants - Crafted
Trousers of Oblivion - Drop(Sethek Halls)
Imbued Netherweave Pants - Crafted

Boots:

Imbued Netherweave Boots - Crafted
Shattrath Jumpers - Quest Reward

Rings:

Seal of the Exorcist - Vendor(50 Spirit Shards)
Seer's Signet - Reputation Reward(Scryers Exalted)
Band of Dominance - PvP

Trinkets:

Scarab of the Infinite Cycle - Drop(Black Morass)
Oculus of the Hidden Eye - Drop(Auchenai Crypts)

Weapons:

Continuum Blade - Reputation Reward(Timewarden's Exalted)
Runesong Dagger - Drop(Shattered Halls)
Mana Wrath - Drop(Mechanar)

Off-hand:

Hortus' Seal of Brilliance - Drop(Shattered Halls)
Star-Heart Lamp - Drop(Black Morass)
Lamp of Peaceful Radiance - Drop(Arcatraz)

Wand:

Wand of the Netherwing - Drop(Shadow Laybrinth)
Nether Core's Control Rod - Drop(Arcatraz)

1-80 Warlock Leveling Guide

Leveling with a 'lock can be easy, fun, and fast, but there's still a bazillion quests to do and mobs to kill. If your friends are already high level, or if your guild needs a Warlock, or you just want to get into that juicy endgame raiding and/or PvP, then consider a full blown Warlock leveling guide to get yourself to 80 as quickly as possible.

Zygor's Guide is our guide of choice. Just pick your starting point and the guide shows you where to go as well as what to do. Zygor's automatically updates and advances as you complete quests, sets a waypoint arrow automatically, and includes all the important quest info. You will probably never need to look at your quest log again, much less browse Thottbot.

You'll also level faster than you ever have before. Grab your copy here or read a review.