The Warlock Leveling Guide for Shadowlands

This page is a Warlock leveling guide, so assumes you are not using the “Instant level to max” boost that comes with new expansions and the WoW store.

Even if you are boosted it will help with the last ten levels.

Warlocks are one of the greatest powerhouse classes of the game, they have high damage, high survivability, and a pet that offers support (and complaints) through damage, tanking, crowd control, etc.

Above all, the Warlock offers efficiency. A well played Warlock will never run out of mana and will be a leveling machine. In the end game, well, they can be pretty awesome.

For PvP and that end-game stuff, see the links below.

Please feel free to add your comments or to use that “like” button (and the rest) to the right on at the bottom of this page. And if you want to see all of the Warlords of Draenor changes to Warlocks, go here.

Warlock Leveling Contents

This Page: The Short Warlock Guide – Quick and Dirty Warlock Races Warlock Abilities Spec abilities Your demons Warlock Leveling Builds and a discussion of talents. Demonology Affliction Destruction Warlock Stats and Gear – What the well-dressed leveling Warlock is wearing. Professions Tips and Notes and Macros 1-Max Warlock Leveling Guide

Our Other Warlock Guides Warlock Guide – An overview of Warlocks Warlock PvP – Some basics Affliction DPS Affliction PvP Demonology DPS Demonology PvP Destruction DPS Destruction PvP

 

The Warlock is a fun class to play as well. Among other things (death, destruction) you have the ability to solo quests that normally require groups.

You have fear, DOTs, great green blobs of Doom (depending on your spec,) soul stones for a self resurrection, and much more. All of these contribute to making the class a great choice for anyone.

Basically, Warlock leveling is easy. Read on and find out how to keep your warlock on the path to maximum efficiency as one of the games fastest levelers.

Buffs and nerfs: With the release of new patches the balance between Warlocks and other classes changes. For example, at the start of 4.0 (Mists of Pandaria) some claimed that Warlocks were way overpowered. Then the nerfs hit.

Every expansion, including the upcoming Shadowlands, is pretty much the same in that regard. Shadowlands shifts some abilities around, but the big thing is the level smash. What was 120 is now 50, and 60 is the cap. Items have also been squished accordingly.

Oh, and a lot of talents and abilities have been moved or removed.

Now, onward!

 

The Short Warlock Leveling Guide

This is just the brief version of how to set up your leveling Warlock. Scroll down for more details.

Race:

Play what you like, the racial differences aren’t that great. If you really have to be efficient, though, Humans might be the best overall Warlock race (in PvP) and Orcs the best Horde race.

Some other races:

• Alliance: Gnome for the mana pool and escape; or Human for the rep gains and the escape.
• Horde: Orc for the pet and personal damage increases,
• Troll for “Berserking.”

The Build:

All the Warlock specs are fine for leveling, but we’ll work with these two:

• Demonology – Teaming with your Demons
• Affliction – Suck out their souls
• Destruction – Burn ’em to ash.

The Pet:

For most situations, while leveling, just use the Voidwalker or Felguard. Their “tanking” abilities will help keep you safe while you destroy the opposition. If you’re decked out in enchanted heirlooms then it just won’t matter which pet you use.

Stats:

• Stack Stamina at lower levels until survival isn’t an issue
• Then stack Int. for the rest of your leveling and end-game experience.
• Secondary stats: Haste & Crit are nice for all ‘locks.
• Mastery is great at 80+ and is the best secondary stat for most Warlocks.
• Just say no to Str, Agility, Spirit.
• More about gear, stats, demons, etc.

Gearing Up

• If you have heirloom items you’re golden. Get them enchanted, ideally with Int., though Haste and Crit are nice.
• Int and Stam all the way for any other gear. You don’t have to worry much about the other stats while leveling, unless you’re doing serious PvP or instances.
• You get XP, often a lot, from mining ores and picking herbs. Consider grabbing both Herbalism and Mining.
• If you’re Ok with PvP do some set War Mode to “On” and get 10% bonus XP while leveling. Maybe more if your side is outnumbered.
• More about gear, stats, demons, etc.
• (More gold, faster and easier than ever, Click here to get yours.)

Gems

Gems slots are very uncommon while leveling unless you’re in higher level dungeons. There are a few pieces that will pop up, though. If you want to bother gemming (it’s far from essential while leveling) then go for the Int or Haste gems.

Enchants

Some useful enchants can often be found on the Auction House for very little gold. Grab them if you like. Every little bit makes your leveling a bit faster.

Professions

• Stick to the gathering professions, pick two: Herbalism, Mining.
• If you’re rich then Tailoring and Enchanting make a good match.

Tips:

• With Shadowlands your heirlooms have a “set bonus,” and two of those bonuses make your rested XP last longer.
• Always log out in an Inn to get the rest XP when you come back.
• Guilds are nice for possibly being able to get groups going or to get help if you need it. Especially if you’re being ganked on your PvP server.
• Carry the biggest bags you can afford
• Stock up on healing & mana potions
• Keep some buffing potions or scrolls.
• Always push yourself to see how much you can handle.
• Dungeons are good XP, so Queue for these while questing.
• A high level buddy can run you through dungeons for fast XP.
• Get a speed leveling guide to go even faster.

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Warlock Races

So what race you gonna be?

Unless you’re going for every last drop of efficiency then the choice of race doesn’t matter much. Go for the weird (Gnomes) or pretty (Orcs) or whatever. Warlock leveling as Orc or Gnome won’t be noticeably faster than any other race.

Best race? If you’re PvP leveling then Humans have an edge by being able to equip two offensive trinkets, since they already have an escape trinket in “Every Man for Himself.”  Their Versatility also helps. Orcs have their Blood Fury for added burst.

Shadowlands brings a nice change to the Allied Races: You no longer have to achieve “exalted” reputation with each race, just certain campaign quests. Then hit the appropriate embassy (in Stormwind or Orgrimmar) for the final tasks to acquire the race.

• • This is the achievement to earn Void Elf: You Are Now Prepared!
  • This is the achievement to earn Nightborne: Insurrection
  • This is the achievement to earn Dark Iron Dwarf: Ready for War
  • This is the achievement to earn Mechagnome: The Mechagonian Threat
  • This is the achievement to earn Vulpera: Secrets in the Sands

Starting Out

When you start your new character with one of the original races, you will be at level 1 and will have the choice of starting in your own racial zone or the new Exile’s Reach zone. If you are brand new to World of Warcraft then Exile’s is where you will start. Your second character will have the option of starting in their racial starting zone.

Exile’s is a starter zone for people brand new to the game, though it’s also fine for experienced types. It will teach you some of the “how to” about getting around and using your abilities. Allied races will skip both zones.

At level 10 you will be able to choose which area you want to level in. Just talk to Chromie in your capital city (Stormwind or Orgrimmar) or check the mission board (near the front gates to the city.)

Allied races start at level 10, so skip the starting areas.

Horde Warlock Races

Orc

• Enrage ( Blood Fury ) to increase all of your damage (increased Attack Power and Intelligence) every 2 min. Lasts 15 seconds. A very useful cooldown.
• Your Hardiness makes you resistant to stuns (20% shorter duration, about 1 second off a 5 second stun) – Useful in PvP, but also nice at times while leveling/raiding.
• If your have a demon up, then your Command ability gives that pet 1% more damage.

Undead – The perfect Warlock race.

• Your Will of the Forsaken removes fear, sleep, and charms. Definitely useful in PvP and of occasional use elsewhere. It also allows indefinite underwater breathing.
• Your Touch of the Grave is a passive ability that will add a small amount to your overall damage and self-healing.
• Cannibalize is a nice “in your face” ability for PvP and eliminates the need to use a bag slot for regular food (you’ll want to keep any foods that provide buffs.) Just go full zombie mode and eat what you kill. Humanoids only. Restores 35% of total health over 10 seconds.
• You also have a bit of Shadow Resistance , taking 1% less damage from those shadows.

Blood Elf

• Arcane Torrent is a nice spell interrupt with some PvP utility (silence only in PvP), but since it’s melee range and you don’t want to be in melee range…
• Acuity adds +1% to your Crit rating, which is a good stat for ‘locks.
• Belves are good with Enchanting, via their affinity.
• Belves take slightly less Arcane damage, via their Resistance.
• Blood Elves look good. A truly devastating Warlock Ability. Really.

Troll  – Taste me Voodoo, Mon!

• Increased Haste when Berserk is very nice. 10% for 12 seconds, with a 3 min. CD. Drop it into a macro with your other buffs.
• Your regeneration is increased, but it’s too small to notice.
• More XP from beast slaying is very nice for leveling, given a few zillion beasts between level 1 and 60.
• Shuffle reduces snare (slow) duration. Helpful in PvP.

Goblin  – Goblins like to blow things up and Warlocks consort with demons. A match made in heaven? Well, maybe not…

• Can Rocket Jump forward and away from, on into, stuff. so is a bit like the hunter ability disengage. Note that any effects like slow falling will be suppressed for 10 seconds. So no Rocket Jumps off cliffs. The fall is fine, the impact at the end hurts.
• Speaking of rockets… Rocket Barrage !!! The perfect Goblin ability. Can launch rockets at enemies. Damage is trivial, but you can probably find a use for it. Maybe.
• A bit (1%) more Haste, Time is Money ya know.
• Being an expert negotiator, of course, you receive the Best Deals Anywhere . You pay whatever the minimum price is for stuff, regardless of faction.
• Your relentless urge to try “Crazy New Things” gives you the Better Living Through Chemistry ability, which adds +15 to your Alchemy skills.
• Check your bank stash from anywhere, every 30 min, with your pack Hobgoblin . A truly deadly ability.

Nightbourne

• You can do an Arcane Pulse , which damages all nearby enemies and reduces their speed for 12 seconds. Note that this will break most “crowd control” effects you might have on those enemies. 3 minute cooldown. Keep in mind that this is a melee range effect, so hop in, fire it off, hop out.
• Can read your mail from anywhere, with your Cantrips ability. Get a note while you’re in the middle of nowhere? No problem.
• Your love of lore and Ancient History give you +15 to your Inscription skill.
• Your Arcane Resistance   allows you to take 1% less damage from Arcane energy and you also have a Magical Affinity which allows you to do 1% more magical damage.

Zandalari Troll– Starts at level 10. 

• Your Embrace of the Loa ability allows you to choose which Loa you are associated with. Has a 5 day cooldown. Each embrace also lasts through death.
  • Embrace of Bwonsamdi  – Your damaging abilities have a chance to deal Shadow damage and heal you for 100% of the damage done. Pretty good general ability for tanks and damage dealers.
  • Embrace of Kimbul  – Your damaging abilities have a chance to cause the target to bleed over 6s. This effect stacks up to 3 times. More damage is always good.
  • Embrace of Pa’ku – Your abilities have a chance to grant you +4% critical strike for 12 seconds. Live by the crit? This is for you. This is your default Loa.
  • Embrace of Krag’wa  – Taking damage has a chance to grant you additional Health and 66 Armor. Good tanking ability.
  • Embrace of Akunda – Your healing abilities have a chance to heal their target for some extra points. Good for anyone with a ranged heal.
  • Embrace of Gonk  – Increase movement speed by 5%.
• Regeneratin’ – Regenerate 100% of your maximum health over 6 sec, interrupted by damage. 2.5 min cooldown.
• Pterrordax Swoop – Slows your fall for two minutes. Time for some serious cliff jumpin’.
• Your also have your City of Gold ability, making you the envy of Goblins, since it lets you loot an extra 2% gold from your targets.

Vulpera – Starts at level 10. 

• 

  Bag of Tricks : Cunning thing that you are you can use a trick on an enemy to damage them or on an ally to heal them. You can rummage your bag to change tricks. Your bag can eventually have a few additional Tricks:
  

  • Flames of Fury : Deal Fire Damage – Drops from  Ragnaros  in the Firelands.
  • Sinister Shadows : Deal Shadow Damage – Drops from  Cho’gall in Bastion of Twilight.
  • Holy Relic : Heal with Holy Magic – Drops from  Entropius  in Sunwell Plateau.
• Make Camp : Set your camp location outdoors and then you can use  Return to Camp , which teleports back to your camp location. Basically another hearthstone.
• Nose For Trouble : Take a little less damage from the first strike inflicted by an enemy and due to your being wary around fire, your Fire Resistance reduces fire damage taken by 1%.
• Your  Alpaca Saddlebags  increase the total size of your backpack by 8 slots.
• Cannot be: Paladin, Druid, or Demon Hunter.

Alliance Warlock Races

Human

• The escape ability is nice for PvP, since it removes stun effects (3 minute CD). It’s even occasionally (ok, rarely) useful when leveling outside of PvP.
• The Human Spirit : You gain 2% more of all secondary stats (Haste, Critical Strike, Mastery, Versatility) from all sources.
• The Diplomacy skill will allow for more rapid faction gain (very nice if you’re working towards any of the zillion faction in WoW.

Gnome

• Escape artist is very nice for PvP, with a 1 min. CD, as is their small size which makes them a bit harder to target.
• More – +5% more mana, which isn’t really a concern for you.
• Nimble – +1% more Haste, which is a decent stat.
• Resistance – Gnomes take a bit less arcane damage
• Engineer – Gnomes are good with Engineering.

Dwarf 

• Stone Form is a nice PvP talent, and occasionally useful elsewhere. It washes away bleeds, various magical effects, and adds a 10% damage reduction for a few seconds. Not a lot of use questing, sometimes useful in the dungeons, and pretty nice for PvP.
• Might adds 2% to your critical damage (not crit rating.)
• Resistance allows a small reduction to incoming Frost damage.
• Explorer – Dwarves are good with Archeology.

Worgen

• Your Altered Form allows you to switch between your human and Worgen forms and your Two Forms lets you turn into your currently inactive form.
• Then your Darkflight activates your true form, increasing current movement speed by an additional 40% for 10 sec. Always nice to have an extra Sprint.
• You also have your Running Wild ability, where you drop to all fours to run as fast as a wild animal.
• Flayer  increases your Skinning skill by 15 and allows you to skin faster.
• And your inate Viciousness  increases critical strike chance by 1%.

Void Elf

• Your abilities have a chance to empower you with the essence of the Void, Entropic Embrace , which increases your damage by 5% for 12 sec. It has a 33% proc chance with 60 seconds internal cooldown. Nothing like a bit of Void energy added to your attacks, right?
• Spatial Rift : Tear a rift in space. Reactivate this ability to teleport through the rift. 30 yd range. 3 min cooldown. You can activate this, then change direction, hit it again, and be back to the original spot. Practice this to get a good idea of how it works.

Dark Iron Dwarf

• Your Fireblood removes all poison, disease, curse, magic, and bleed effects, just like your Dwarven “brethren,” but your ability increases your primary stat (Strength, Agility, Intelligence) by 600(!) (scales with level) +200 for for each additional effect removed. Lasts 8 sec. with a 2 min cooldown.
• You’re a tunnel dweller and Dungeon Delver and you’ve learned how to move 4% faster while indoors, plus your people have the  Mole Machine : While out doors you can summon a Mole Machine that tunnels through the earth and can pop you up in a variety of places.
• Being tough you have your Forged in Flames ability, and take a bit less physical damage.
• Having spent your life working in the forges you have a Mass Production skill , giving you +5 to your blacksmithing skill and letting you work 25% faster.

Mechagnome

• Hyper Organic Light Originator summons a couple of images of you to distract your foes. Added damage or use it to give yourself a moment to set something up. See it in action here .
• And you get some Racial Passives:
  • Combat Analysis : You gather and analyze combat data every 5 sec, increasing your Int by 25, stacking up to 10 times. The data decays while out of combat.
  • Mastercraft : You function as a personal Blacksmithing Anvil, Cooking Fire, and Mining Forge. In addition, your limbs include every profession tool.
  • Emergency Failsafe : When you fall below 20% health, heal for 15% of your maximum health. This effect cannot occur more than once every 2.5 min.
  • Skeleton Pinkie : Allows opening of locked chests and doors.

 

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Abilities for the Leveling Warlock

The world changed with WoW 4.0 (Cataclysm) and again in Mists of Pandaria, especially for Warlocks, and all previous builds were wiped out in a instant. Warlock mechanics didn’t change much, unlike Hunters and Paladins, but all the spells and talents got quite the overhaul. In Mists of Pandaria the wipe happened with a totally revised talent system, but at least the world and mechanics didn’t change.

Shadowlands moves a bunch of stuff around, but again, the basic feel will be pretty close to what it was.

One of the cool things about Warlocks, like Rogues, is that all specs to damage and they do it well. All level nicely. Which spec to use depends entirely on what you like to do. Demonology is probably easiest, as your demon pet will take a lot of the pressure off. Destruction is for those who want to see the world burn and Affliction just likes to suck souls (and does it very well.)

 

At level 10 you pick your Specialization (spec.) As you level you will gain a set of abilities unique to your spec, as well as the other Warlock abilities and talents.

Warlock abilities

These are the abilities the define you as one or another Warlock spec. (The basic abilities are here.) They all work fine for leveling, but maybe Destruction is the “hardest” due to less reliance on the pet and more on you. That doesn’t mean it’s hard though, and some prefer it that way (more you, less pet.)

You abilities will be powered by mana and/or Soul Shards. You will want to avoid running out of either and, if you do run out, have a means of getting them back quickly.

BTW – you can find a guide that will get you leveled much faster, below.

(P) = Passive ability
DOT = Damage Over Time.
CD = Cooldown

Spells Common to all Warlocks

Summoning, DOTing, draining, all of you can do this stuff.

1. • Shadow Bolt (1) is your basic attack spell. If you’re Demonology then it will generate a Soul Shard.
   • Corruption (2) is a DOT that does its damage over 14 seconds.
   • Soul Shards (3) are one of your resources to cast your more interesting spells. The other, of course, is mana.
   • Summon Imp (3) – summons an imp that tosses fireballs and complains.
   • Unending Resolve (4) – reduces damage by 20% and blocks “shut up!” (interrupt and silence effects) effects for 8 seconds. At 39 it reduces incoming damage by an additional 20% and keeps you from being pushed back.
   • Fear (5) – one target runs away for 20 seconds, brings friends back if it can.
   • Curse of Weakness (6) slows the enemy’s attacks, rather than movement speed, by 20%. Lasts for 2 minutes. Works on at least some dungeon/raid bosses.
   • Create Healthstone (7) – create a stone that restores 25% or your health your health
   • Health Funnel (8) – sacrifice up to 25% of your own health to heal your demon (for twice as much.)
   • Drain Life (9) drains health from the enemy and regenerates yours by 5x as much.
   • Summon Voidwalker (10) for the tanking job. It keep the target’s attention while you play cards, check your phone, and DOT/Drain/Burn the target.
   • Curse of Exhaustion (12) causes the target to be too tired to run. So it walks at 50% speed for 12 seconds. Then gets its second wind and attacks or runs away or is already dead.
   • Eye of Kilrogg (17) is a nice “spy eye,” good for poking around to see if your parget is in one place or another.
   • Unending Breath (18) is, of course, redundant if you’re already Undead, but otherwise allows 10 min. of underwater breathing and +20% swim speed (which the undead don’t have.)
   • Summon Succubus (19) brings up a demon to seduce opponents (homanoid only) to keep them from attacking you.
   • Subjugate Demon (21) allows you to subjugate some masterless demon, just wandering about, minding its own business. Can be your level +1 and subjugation lasts 5 minutes.
   • Fel Domination (22) has a 3 min. CD, is instant cast, and makes your next demon summon free and almost instant. Need a quicker summon ?
   • Summon Felhunter (23) – nice doggie. Eats spells.
   • Soul Leech gives you and your demons a small shield based on the damage you and they do to the main target of your attacks. Lasts 15 seconds and absorbs 8% of the damage you are doing, up to 10% of your max health.
   • Command Demon (29) orders your demon to cast its best ability. This will obviously vary depending on which one you have up.
   • Ritual of Doom (31) sacrifices a party member to summon a Doomguard. Requires you, the caster, and at least 4 other dupes, er… party members to participate.
   • Soul Stone (32) can be given to someone for his own rez. or, at 48+, can be cast as a spell to resurrect the ally.
   • Ritual of Summoning (33) – For summoning party/raid members. Requires the sacrifice, er… assistance of two team members. 2 minute channeling time, 2 minute CD.
   • Curse of Tongues (34) causes the caster to speak in demonic, which for 30 seconds will add 30% to their casting time for any spell.
   • Shadowfury (38) is a 3 second stun to all enemies in the targeted area, 1 min. CD.
   • Demonic Circle (41) creates a Demonic Circle for 15 minutes allowing you to teleport to its location. Experiment. Put at the top of a cliff, jump off, ‘port back before hitting the ground. Put at mailbox and port from the auction house to the mailbox.
   • Demonic Circle: Teleport sends your to your circle and also removes all slowing effects.
   • Demonic Embrace (44) increases your Stamina by 10%.
   • Banish (46) – keep the targeted demon out of the fight for 30 seconds or until damaged. Recast Banish to dispell the effect, such as when someone banishes your demon.
   • Create Soulwell (47) – creates a well that your team can use to grab health stones. 2 min CD. Does not heal as much as a potion, but is still useful.
   • Demonic Gateway (49) – set up a gateway to ‘port you from point A to point B. 1.5 minute CD between uses. Another one to experiment with.
   • Fear, rank 2 (52) eliminates spell pushback when casting Fear. 

Spells and Abilities unique to your specialization.

Affliction Masters of drains and DOTs . The Affliction Warlock can use Drain Tanking to great effect. Set the pet to round up targets, DOT ’em up, use the drains to stay healthy, rinse and repeat. You can use the same abilities to great effect in both PvE and PvP.	Demonology Demonology gives you massive increases to all survivability and solo capabilities. Your demon(s) take all the enemy attention while you blast away. Things just get better as you level. Demonology is in many cases the easiest leveling build, depending on your style of play.	Destruction Less pet and more you. Destruction is great for leveling and endgame raiders due to consistently high DPS, it’s also a lot of fun when blasting away people in BG’s with massive shadowbolt criticals or conflagrate. Destruction is a very viable leveling build, raining death on all manner of opposition.
Agony (10) – 18 seconds of damage that starts low and finishes high. Refreshing it keeps it at the point where it was refreshed, so try to refresh it near the end of its duration. Has a chance to generate a shard. At 28 it can stack up to 10 times. Mastery: Potent Afflictions (10) – increases the damage of your main DOTs by 20% Malefic Rupture (11) causes all DOTS on all targets to erupt, causing some nice shadow damage. Unstable Affliction (13) does damage over 16 seconds, lowered by Haste. Damages anyone who dispels it. At 43+ it refunds the soul shard if the target dies quickly. at 56 it lasts 5 seconds longer. Corruption, rank 2 (14) is now instant cast. Seed of Corruption (27) – parks a seed in the enemy target which will detonate later, sooner if it’s hit by enough damage from you or by other seed detonations. Damages all enemies within 10 yards and applies Corruption to all of them. Summon Darkglare (42) from the nether, which causes all of your DOT effects to be extended by 8 seconds. It hangs around for 20 seconds, blasting away at the target. The damage it does will be increases by 10% from any DOT you have on any target. DOT up your targets and then summon this thing. 3 min. CD. Corruption, rank 3 (54) does some instant damage as soon as the spell hits.	Hand of Gul’dan (10) – A meteor full of wild Imps crashes down on the unsuspecting target, damaging it and all enemies within 8 yards. Also summons up 1-3 wild imps. Costs 1-3 shards and 1 imp appears per shard. Mastery: Master Demonologist (78) gives your demons +12% damage. Summon Felguard (12) – A tough demon warrior comes to your aid. Less tanky and more damage than the voidwalker. Call Dreadstalkers (13) – Summon two of the things to attack the enemy for 12 seconds. Demonbolt (14) rips the soul from a fallen demon and blasts the target with it.  Generates 2 shards. Implosion (27) sucks all of your Wild Imps to the target and explodes them, also damaging all other targets within 8 yards. Demonic Core (28) gives you a chance to gain a “stack” of Demonic Core, which will give you an instant cast Demonbolt. This can stack 4 times. Expiring Wild Imps have a 10% chance, and expiring Dreadstalkers a 100% chance, to give you a stack. Summon Demonic Tyrant (42) brings up the Big, Bad, and Ugly thing, for 15 seconds,  which not only damages the enemy, but extends the duration of your other demons, and also increases their damage. Soul Link (43) – 20% of the damage you take is taken by your demon instead. Also, your Soul Leech heals you for 25% of the damage it absorbs and your demon for 50%. Call Dreadstalkers, Rank 2 (54) gives you slightly faster summoning and makes them a bit faster. Fel Firebolt, Rank 2 (56) allows your imps to cast their Fel Firebolts using 20% less energy. This will give them an extra cast before they run out of energy. Summon Demonic Tyrant, Rank 2 (58) causes your summon to generate 5 soul shards. (Tooltip might say otherwise…)	Chaos Bolt (10) – Blast the enemy with a shot that always crits and adds your crit chance to the damage done. Costs 2 shards. Incinerate (10) – 40 yards, does fire damage to the enemy. Generates 2 shard fragments +1 on a crit. Mastery: Chaotic Energies (10) – Your spells do +8% plus a random amount of additional damage, up to 8%, and all damage that you take is reduced, though by a much smaller amount. Immolate (11) – burns the enemy, doing some instant damage and then more over 18 seconds, Generates a Soul Shard fragment and has a 50% chance to generate another fragment when your DOT crits. Conflagrate (13) – target explodes and generates 5 soul shard fragments. At level 14 it gives you a buff which cuts the cast time of your next Incinerate or Chaos Bolt by 30 seconds. At 23 it has 2 charges. Havoc (27) – marks a second target and causes your next single target spell to also strike this target for 60% of the normal damage. Lasts 10 seconds. At 54 that is extended to 12 seconds. Rain of Fire (28)  provides area effect burnage for 8 seconds. Summon Infernal (42) from the nether to attack your enemies. Does damage when it lands and stuns all in the area for 2 seconds. Serves for 30 seconds, doing damages to all nearby enemies every 2 seconds. Also generates 2 shard fragments per second. At 58 it does 100% more arrival damage.

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All the Warlock Demons

At level 1 all Warlocks will get an Imp as their pet.  Each demon has certain uses, some being more specialized than others, and some are basically just buffs.

Dem = Demonology, Aff = Affliction, Des = Destruction
T = Talented ability, DOT = Damage over TIme

1. 1. Summon Imp, level 3, Throws fireballs and complains a lot. Just extra damage.
   2. Summon Voidwalker, 10, brings up your big, blue tank. Pretty good tank, tough, not much damage.
   3. Summon Felguard, 12, Dem, Decent tank and decent melee damage with its mighty axe. Not as good a tank as the Voidwalker, but does more damage.
   4. Call Dreadstalkers, 13, Dem, Summons a pair of Dread dog things to chew on the enemy for 12 seconds. At 54 the cast time to summon this is a bit faster and they also pursue the enemy more quickly.
   5. Summon Succubus, 19, Are you sure you’re the one in charge here? Your opponents love her.
   6. Summon Felhunter, 23, Nice puppy. Eats magical effects. Good against spell casters, but not a tank or damage. Useless against melee.
   7. Summon VileFiend, Dem, T, 35, A fiend that will fight for you for 15 seconds.
   8. Summon Darkglare, Aff, 42, which extends the duration of your DOT effects on all enemies by 8 sec. It will serve for 20 sec, blasting its target for some Shadow damage, increased by 10% for every DOT effect you have active on any target.
   9. Summon Demonic Tyrant, Dem, 42, that increases the duration of your lesser demons, by 15 seconds, and to empower all your demons for +15% damage, and also attack the target. at 58 will instantly create 50 Soul Shards.
   10. Summon Infernal, Des, 42, Drop a meteor, stun the enemy, and a big thing crawls out of the crater to do your bidding. Closest thing in your arsenal to “Hulk Smash!!” At 58+ will do 100% more damage on impact.
   11. Grimoire: Felguard, Dem, 45, Summon a bigger Felguard to smash the opposition, but only hangs around for 17 seconds. Stuns the enemy when it appears and deals +25% damage.

 

 

 

Warlock Leveling Builds

Which spec to play? Any. They all do lots of damage and they all get better as you level up. Experiment.

If you want a recommendation then start with Demonology. It’s the easiest and has the strongest demons, which takes the pressure off of you.

Give the others a try, also. For example, a lot of people like Destruction once you get a few levels, others like to stick with Demonology. Others call both of them noobs and insist on Affliction.

The build below is aimed at Demonology and assumes that you’re questing, but there are notes for the other specs as well as for dungeons and PvP.

Your talents can easily be changed IF you’re in a “rested XP” area, such as your garrison, an inn, or the big city. No reagents, trainers, or special rituals required. You can change your spec (go Blood, back to Frost, then Unholy) any time you’re out of combat, but for the individual talents you need to get to the rested area. As with changing specs, no special items are required for changed talents. So if you want to DPS one fight and then you need to tank the next one, or try unholy because it looks like a bitter fit, then switching is easy.

If you are in the raid/dungeon and need to change talents (or Azerite Essences) before the next fight? Buy or make (with Inscription) a stack of Tome of the Quiet Mind, which will work up to level 59. From 51 to 60 you can use a Tome of the Still Mind. That will give you one minute to switch up.

 

Warlock Talent Descriptions

Keep in mind that most of your leveling will be against quest mobs which don’t last long. If you’re PvPing, or seriously dungeoning, you will want to change things up a bit, and some notes about that will be in the descriptions.

Our general picks are checked, .

Demonology Warlock Build

CD= Cooldown, DOT = Damage over Time

Demonology Tier 1, level 15:

1. Dreadlash charges up your Dreadstalkers to do 25% more damage, with their first bite, and hit all targets within 8 yards of your main target. Some nice extra damage if you’re fighting singles or groups.
2. Bilescourge Bombers drops several Bilescourge onto your targets over 6 seconds. Each one does damage to all targets within 8 yards of the main target. More overall damage than Dreadlash. 30 seconds CD
3. Demonic Strength enrages your Felguard and causes it to charge the target, doing 400% more damage. Can’t use your Felguard for some reason? Then this just won’t work so well.

Demonology Tier 2, level 25:

1. Demonic Calling causes your Shadobolt and demonbolt to have a 20% chance to make your next use of Call Dreadstalkers instant and cost 2 fewer Soul Shards.
2. Power Siphon ills off two of your wild Imps to add 30% damage to your Demonic Bolt. Generally it’s better to keep the imps around.
3. Doom is not the video game. It’s a hit that happens 20 seconds after you drop it on the target. Most of your questing mobs will not last nearly that long. Might have some use in PvP, if it is not dispelled, or in areas with fairly tough elites or bosses.

Demonology Tier 3, level 30

• Demon Skin: recharges your Soul Leech shield by .5% every second and increased the shield by 50%, to 15% of max health.
• Burning Rush will last until cancelled, all the while draining your health at 4%/second. You do get that 50% speed boost, though…  If you’re running through old content (dungeons & raids) then you can keep this on full time and use your Drain Life when you get low. It will heal you to full.
• Dark Pact exchanges 20% of your health for a shield worth 250% of that amount, plus some based off your spell Power. And you can use it while controlled. Might be good if you’re running into those “Yikes!” situations. For general leveling, Demon Skin is better.

Demonology Tier 4, level 35

• From the Shadows causes your Dreadstalker’s Dreadbite to boost your Shadowflame damage for 12 seconds.
• Soul Strike has your Felguard strike the enemy with Shadow damage. 10 second CD. Generates 1 Soul Shard.
• Summon Vilefiend costs 1 shard, takes 2 seconds to cast, with a 45 sec. CD. Summons up a Vilefiend for 15 seconds.

Demonology Tier 5, level 40

1. Darkfury extends the radius of your Shadowfury to 10 yards and reduces its CD to 45 sec. Use Shadowfury a lot? Especially in dungeons? Then this might be useful.
2.  Mortal Coil: Horrifies the enemy and heals you for 20% of your maximum health. Pretty useful. Heals even if the target is immune to fear. 45 second CD.
3. Howl of Terror fears up to 5 enemies with 10 yards, for 20 seconds. They will bring back and friends in the area when the effect wears off. Can you handle that? If so then it might have its uses.

Demonology Tier 6, level 45

• Soul Conduit gives a 15% chance for any Soul Shard used to be refunded.
• Inner Demons causes you to passively summon more demons. An imp every 12 seconds and a 10% chance to summon a random additional demon, which will fight for 15 seconds.
• Grimoire: Felguard summons a stronger Felguard which will fight for you for 17 seconds and do 25% more damage. It will also stun your target when summoned. 2 minute CD. Might be useful when fighting elite or other tough opponents.

Demonology Tier 7, Level 50

• Sacrificed Souls causes your Demonbolts and Shadowbolts to each do 4% more damage per demon you have summoned. A straight-up damage increase, which is nice.
• Demonic Consumption buffs your Demonic tyrant by allowing it to drain 15% of the life from your other demons.
• Nether Portal pops open a portal for 15 seconds. Each time you spend soul shards a random demon will emerge from the portal and fight for you. 3 minute CD and the demon might be an imp or something… more interesting. Fun talent, but maybe not as practical as the

Demonology PvP (War Mode) Talents

Like to live dangerously? Such as leveling with the enjoyment of PvP? Turn War Mode on.  You gain +10% XP, which can go as high as +30% if you side is greatly outnumbered on your server.

The talents suggested here are for general questing and are not optimal for PvP. Of course, like any other talents, you can change them whenever you are in a “rested XP” area, such as an Inn. You can also turn War Mode off there.

Grab them in the order that works best for you.

• • Call Fel Lord to guard a location. 1.5 minute CD, lasts 15 seconds and damages anything that comes close. Also briefly stuns any players getting close. If you need to stay put for 15 seconds or are in a tunnel or something, then this can be quite useful. Requires level 20.
  • Bane of Fragility reduces the target’s health by up to 15% for 10 seconds. Instant cast. Will help you drop the target that much faster. Requires level 25.
  • Master Summoner lets you instant cast your Dreadstalkers. Very nice. Requires level 40.

 

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Destruction Warlock Build

As above, these picks assume you are wandering the world, questing and solo (at least mostly) leveling. For dungeons and PvP you might want to change a few.

CD= Cooldown, DOT = Damage over Time

Destruction Tier 1, level 15:

1. Flashover boosts your Conflagrate to do 25% more damage and also gives your Backdraft an extra charge.
2. Eradication: Chaos Bolt increases the damage you do to the target by 10% for 7 seconds. Are  you casting a lot of Chaos Bolts? Then this is worth it, otherwise Flashover is better.
3. Soulfire is your “sniper shot,” with a 45 second CD and a 4 second cast time. Hits very hard, but it’s best use will be sniping those targets, then using something else to finish the fight.

Destruction Tier 2, level 25:

1. Reverse Entropy gives your spells a chance to boost your Haste by 15% for 8 seconds. That’s a pretty decent buff which will pop up often enough to be useful.
2. Internal Combustion causes your chaos bolt to take 5 seconds off your target’s immolate and make that into instant damage. Probably better for dungeons, where the targets will live a bit longer.
3. Shadowburn is sort of your “execute” spell. 2 charges, 12 sec. CD, hits hard and if the target is at 20% or lower health then adds 50% to your Crit chance. If you kill your target within 5 seconds of the hit then you get a shard back.

Destruction Tier 3, level 30:

• Demon Skin: recharges your Soul Leech shield by .5% every second and increased the shield by 50%, to 15% of max health.
• Burning Rush will last until cancelled, all the while draining your health at 4%/second. You do get that 50% speed boost, though…  If you’re running through old content (dungeons & raids) then you can keep this on full time and use your Drain Life when you get low. It will heal you to full.
• Dark Pact exchanges 20% of your health for a shield worth 250% of that amount, plus some based off your spell Power. And you can use it while controlled. Might be good if you’re running into those “Yikes!” situations. For general leveling, Demon Skin is better.

Destruction Tier 4, level 35

• Inferno increases your Rain of Fire damage by 20% and also has a chance (20%) to generate a Shard. Good if  you’re facing large groups, such as in the dungeons.
• Fire and Brimstone: Your Incinerate hits all enemies near your target for 40% damage and your get 2 Soul Shard fragments for each additional enemy hit.
• Cataclysm: This talent hits all enemies within a 8 yards radius for 700% of your Spell Power and affects them with Immolate. It’s cooldown is 1 minute. Nice area attack. Beware of all them coming after you if they live.

Destruction Tier 5, level 40

1. Darkfury extends the radius of your Shadowfury to 10 yards and reduces its CD to 45 sec. Use Shadowfury a lot? Especially in dungeons? Then this might be useful.
2.  Mortal Coil: Horrifies the enemy and heals you for 20% of your maximum health. Pretty useful. Heals even if the target is immune to fear. 45 second CD.
3. Howl of Terror fears up to 5 enemies with 10 yards, for 20 seconds. They will bring back and friends in the area when the effect wears off. Can you handle that? If so then it might have its uses.

Destruction Tier 6, level 45

• Roaring Blaze causes your Conflagrate to add 25% to the damage of your Immolate, Incinerate, and Conflagrate for 8 seconds. The most generally useful talent of this set.
• Rain of Chaos has a 15% chance to bring up an infernal every time you use a shard, and it will hang around for 8 seconds, dong its thing. It will appear where your original infernal appeared, so if your targets have moved away, it’s not so interesting.
• Grimoire of Sacrifice sacrifices your demon to give you occasional additional shadow damage. this lasts for 1 hours and your also get your demon’s Command Demons ability. this one is only useful if you do not need a tank (such as your Voidwalker.)

Destruction Tier 7, Level 50

• Soul Conduit: Every Soul Shard you spend has a 15% chance to be refunded. Decent for solo questing and generally for any single target fights. Nice when that random 15% pops in a few times, not so nice when it waits a while.
• Channel Demonfire: You channel, for 3 seconds, 15 Firebolt‘s onto random targets already afflicted by your Immolate, for 20% of your Spell Power to the target and about a third of that to each of the nearby enemies, within 40 yards. 25 second CD. Nice choice if you’re fighting groups.
• Dark Soul, Instability Is a nice burst talent, usable every 2 min. It gives you 20 seconds of +30% Critical Strike chance. Always a useful ability.

 

Destruction PvP (War Mode) Talents

Care to do a little open world PvP with your leveling? Turn War Mode on.  You gain +10% XP, which can go as high as +30% if you side is greatly outnumbered on your server.

The talents suggested here are for general questing and are not optimal for PvP. Of course, like any other talents, you can change them whenever you are in a “rested XP” area, such as an Inn. You can also turn War Mode off there.

Grab them in the order that works best for you. You can choose PvP talents at 20, 30, and 40, though certain talents require other levels.

• • Amplify Curse boosts your various Curse effects. For example: Curse of Weakness makes the target unable to critically hit for the duration. 45 second CD, requires level 20.
  • Bane of Fragility reduces the target’s max health by up to 15% for 10 seconds. I’m sure you can find a use for that. Requires level 25.
  • Bane of Havoc replaces your Havoc and creates a 10 yard radius bane for 10 seconds. All of your single target spells will also hit everything else in the bane. Can you round up some mobs? Requires level 30.
  • Focused Chaos increases your Chaos Bolt damage by 40%, but it loses the “strike multiple targets” ability that Havoc normally grants. +40% is pretty nice for single target fights.  Requires level

 

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40.

 

 

Affliction Warlock Talents

CD= Cooldown, DOT = Damage over Time

Affliction Tier 1, level 15:

1. Nightfall causes your Corruption damage to have a chance to power up your next Shadowbolt for +50% damage and to be instant-cast. Great when the random chance is in your favor. Not so much if you have to wait awhile for it.
2. Inevitable Demise
3. Drain Soul to do damage for 5 seconds, and damage is doubled if the target is at 20% health or lower. Gain one shard if the target dies while being drained. Channeled for 5 seconds.

Affliction Tier 2, level 25

1. Writhe in Agony starts at a higher damage level (4 stacks) and can go to 18 over the 18 second duration. Are the targets you are fighting going to last 18 seconds?
2. Absolute Corruption makes your corruption permanent. Well, until the target dies, anyway. It also does 15% more damage. Not so useful against short lived targets while questing, but more interesting for bosses, rares, and players (only 24 seconds on players.)
3. Siphon Life: is an additional dot that does damage and heals you for 30% of the damage dealt. It’s not channeled, unlike Drain Life. It’s not big damage, or a big heal, but it is an instant cast and does a bit. And, of course, you can pop it with your Malefic Rupture.

Affliction Tier 3, level 30

1. Demon Skin: recharges your Soul Leech shield by .5% every second and increased the shield by 50%, to 15% of max health.
2. Burning Rush will last until cancelled, all the while draining your health at 4%/second. You do get that 50% speed boost, though…  If you’re running through old content (dungeons & raids) then you can keep this on full time and use your Drain Life when you get low. It will heal you to full.
3. Dark Pact exchanges 20% of your health for a shield worth 250% of that amount, plus some based off your spell Power. And you can use it while controlled. Might be good if you’re running into those “Yikes!” situations. For general leveling, Demon Skin is better.

Affliction Tier 4, level 35

1. Sow the Seeds causes your Seed of Corruption to embed 2 additional seeds to nearby enemies.
2. Phantom Singularity is instant cast and does not use a shard. It damages all targets within 15 yards of your main target and heals you for 25% of damage done. 45 sec. CD. If you need that heal then grab this one.
3. Vile Taint adds a DOT to the target and to all enemies within 10 yards and slows their run by 30%. Costs 1 Shard. This DOT also results in more damage from your Malefic Rupture, making it Better than Phantom Singularity for groups. 20 sec. CD.

Affliction Tier 5, level 40

1. Darkfury extends the radius of your Shadowfury to 10 yards and reduces its CD to 45 sec. Use Shadowfury a lot? Especially in dungeons? Then this might be useful.
2.  Mortal Coil: Horrifies the enemy and heals you for 20% of your maximum health. Pretty useful. Heals even if the target is immune to fear. 45 second CD.
3. Howl of Terror fears up to 5 enemies with 10 yards, for 20 seconds. They will bring back and friends in the area when the effect wears off. Can you handle that? If so then it might have its uses.

Affliction Tier 6, level 45

• Dark Caller reduces the CD of your Summon Darkglare by 1 minute. That spells now has a 2 min. CD and does damage in addition to increasing the damage of any DOTS on your target. Pretty nice.
• Haunt damages the target and increases your damage by 10% for 18 seconds.
• Grimoire of Sacrifice sacrifices your demon to give you occasional additional shadow damage. this lasts for 1 hour and you also get your demon’s Command Demons ability. this one is useful if you do not need a tank (such as your Voidwalker.)

Affliction Tier 7, Level 50

• Soul Conduit: Every Soul Shard you spend has a 15% chance to be refunded by your abilities.
• Creeping Death causes your various DOTs to do their damage 15% faster. Those are Agony, Corruption, Siphon Life, and Unstable Affliction. Good pick for those short lived mobs you face while leveling.
• Dark Soul: Misery is a Haste buff with a 2 minute CD. Lasts 20 seconds and grants +30% Haste.

Affliction PvP (War Mode) Talents

Besides getting crushed by people many levels higher than you, if you turn War Mode on you will gain +10% XP, which can go as high as +30% if you side is greatly outnumbered on your server.

The talents suggested here are for general questing and are not optimal for PvP. Of course, like any other talents, you can change them whenever you are in a “rested XP” area, such as an Inn. You can also turn War Mode off there.

Grab them in the order that works best for you. You can choose PvP talents at 20, 30, and 40, though certain talents require other levels.

• • Essence Drain reduced damage you take, by 5%, when you have your Drain Life running. Last 6 seconds and stacks up to 5x. Works nicely with Rot & Decay. Requires level 20.
  • Rot and Decay increases the duration of your Unstable Affliction, Agony, and Corruption by 1 second each time your Drain Life deals damage. Requires level 20.
  • Bane of Fragility reduces the target’s max health by up to 15% for 10 seconds. I’m sure you can find a use for that. Requires level 25.
  • Deathbolt has a 45 sec. CD, costs 3 shards, and fires a bolt that does 40% of the total remaining damage of all of your DOTS on the target. It does not consume them, so this is added damage. Requires level 45.

 

Warlock Glyphs

Legion made a few changes to glyphs and Shadowlands has not changed them. In short, it pretty much killed all of them off. You do have a few minor ones, but they are cosmetic only, there is no combat value to them. Note that changing the form of your demon does not change its abilities.

Shadowlands has other items, but not glyphs.

• Crimson Banish – Gives you a red Banish spell.
• Ember Shards – For Destruction, Your Soul Shards can now appear as burning embers floating over your head.
• Felguard – requires you to carry various large weapons in your backpack so that your Felguard can randomly pick from them when summoned.
• Fel Imp – You now have the awe-inspiring Fel Imp!!! instead of the standard variety.
• Fel Touched Shards – your Soul Shards have been corrupted and now glow with fel energy.
• Floating Shards – Your Soul Shards now float over your head.
• Inquisitor’s Eye – Your Eye of Kilrogg now takes on the appearance of an Inquisitor’s Eye.
• Observer – Your Felhunter pet now becomes an Observer.
• Shadow Succubus – Your regular ol’ Succubus now takes the form of a Shadow Succubus.
• Shivarra – Now wouldn’t you rather have a 6 armed War Machine then a regular ol’ Succubus? Then take this glyph. Does not change tha abilities, just the appearance.
• Soulwell – Your Soulwell now looks even more eerie.
• Voidlord – Your Voidwalker is now a VoidLORD!
• Wrathguard – Your Felguard becomes a Wrathguard, the better to lay waste to all who oppose you.

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Stats and Gearing your Warlock

Warlock Stats

Stat wise you should find things quite simple, the stats that Warlocks need for leveling are: stamina, in massive amounts, at least at lower levels. Secondly, having achieved massive amounts of stamina, +Int becomes important, since it is your Spellpower. More Int = more damage. Once you hit the level cap (go here to get there fast) you will be more concerned with the “secondary” stats. For now, Int and Stam are “it” and any of the others are just a nice bonus.

Here’s an overview of your stats:

• Item Level: If a piece has more Int, then it’s better.
• Intellect – 1st in importance. Int is your spell power.
• Stamina – stack this at low level (enchants, scrolls, potions, gear.) At higher level the Stam on you gear will be fine.
• Haste is an important stat for any Warlock. What it does is make your cast times shorter, your DOTs click faster, and burns your mana faster, but you won’t care about that since ‘locks don’t use mana very fast.
• Crit rating is nice, as it doubles any damage you do when you “crit” (only 1.5 times in PvP.)
• Mastery boosts your damage, it may or may not be your best stat, depending on a variety of things, but it is always a good stat.
• Versatility adds its % value to your damage and your healing. It also adds 1/2 that value to your damage reduction.
• Agility & Strength are all of absolutely no use to a Warlock.

For more exact stats, see our other ‘lock pages: Affliction, Demonology, Destruction.

The Warlock Gear

First off, if you do not have the gold to buy heirlooms, do not worry about it too much. Gear obtained from questing will be fine, you just won’t be able to rampage through all content like someone with the best gear. Get a gold guide if you want gold ASAP, otherwise just enjoy the world. You can also check our gold pages.

The value of ‘looms is that they level with you, so you never need to upgrade them. At least until you exceed their level cap. For example, your basic ‘looms are good to level 29 max. Hit 30+ and the other gear you find will soon be better.

Heirloom Gear is what most are wearing these days, at least those who’ve been around long enough to handle the costs. You can now buy them with gold, for a few hundred gold each, and they’re good through level 29. Spend a fair amount more and the items are good to level 50 in Shadowlands. (Figure 9k gold to give the armor, ring, or trinket a level 50 cap and 13.5k for a weapon. Need more gold?)

Start at level 29 max, then upgrade to 35  > 40 > 45 > 50 > grind new gear from 51 to 60.

Why bother? Because they’re better than any other gear you’re likely to find, at any level, with rare exceptions. And they scale with your level and no other gear does.

Heirlooms live in a special storage area from which you can summon up a copy at any time. Use the copy till whenever, destroy it, and the ‘loom still exists in that area. (It’s a tab at the bottom of your mounts/pets window.) If you enchant the ‘loom and then destroy it then the enchant is lost. So mail the enchanted ones back and forth.

To get your heirlooms go see:

• Alliance: Krom Stoutarm is in the Library of Ironforge, which is found on the north-eastern edge of the outer ring.
• Horde: Estelle Gendry lurks around the south-western side of the Rogue’s Quarter of Undercity. Note that if you have seen the “Undercity Sacked” cutscene (at the beginning of the BFA expansion, then she is on top of the front gates of Orgrimmar.
• Guild Vendors will have several items for sale.
• PvP heirlooms in your main PvP hall in Orgrimmar or Stormwind.

No heirlooms? No problem. All of your gear will have Int on it and you can enchant any piece that you’re going to keep awhile. If you’re going to buy pieces off the Auction House, PvP vendor, or whatever, try to get the big pieces first as they will have the best stats. In order of preference: Weapons > big armor pieces (head, chest, legs) > other armor pieces > jewelry (rings, trinkets, neck.)

If you PvP then make sure you have an escape trinket. You can get one from a PvP Honor vendor or use the heirloom Inherited Insignia of the Horde. (There’s also an alliance version.) This trinket will be mostly useless if you don’t PvP.

 

Warlock Enchants for Leveling

While you’re leveling skip the enchants unless you have plenty of gold and/or have gear that you will keep for awhile.  If you are going to enchant your gear then I’m sure you have already figured out your priorities: Stamina > Int > Haste > Crit

Stamina at low levels will help a lot with survival.

Don’t forget to enchant your Heirloom items, if you can afford it. Get the best enchants that you can afford. Any high level enchant from the Enchanting profession can be added by a level 1 character to a level 1 item. Enchants from other professions, such as the Tailoring enchant Greater Cerulean Spellthread will require a level 32+ to apply it to your item, but can then send it to your level 1.

Note that Shadowlands enchants require you to be level 50+ to use, so you cannot use them on your heirlooms or other gear at any lower level. Other enchants can be used and all of these enchants will scale to whatever your current level is.

Enchanting your Heirloom items….

Note that Item level is not character level.

• • Head, Trinkets: : None.
  • Neck: Mark of the Claw: Sometimes increase Crit and Haste by 16 for 6 seconds. Max item level 60.
  • Back: Binding of Intellect, +3 Int. Cannot be used past item level 60.
  • Chest: Glorious Stats: +4 to all stats, max item level is 50.
  • Shoulders: Crane Wing: +5 to Int and +2 Crit., max item level is 50.
  • Legs: Powerful Ghostly Spellthread: +3Int, +2 Vers, max item level is 50.
  • Rings: Get Accord of Haste for +9. Max item level 140.
  • Weapons: Machinist’s Brilliance:  Sometimes gain +28 Int and +18 Mastery, Haste, Or Crit (it picks your highest stat.) 15 seconds.  Alternately: Torrent of Elements, for the occasional +10% elemental spell damage. Max item level for either is 140.

And non-heirloom items…

• • Wrist: Intellect, +5 Int, max item level is 50.
  • Gloves: Superior Haste, +7 Haste, 50 item level max.
  • Belt: Engineers can add some “enchants” to their own belts and Blacksmiths can add a gem socket.
  • Boots: Greater Precision, +4 Crit; Greater Haste, +4 Haste; Panda Step, +3 Mastery and slightly faster run; all max out at item level 50.

 

Warlock Gems for Leveling

Every once in awhile, while leveling, you will find gear with gem sockets, especially at higher levels. Consider that you will likely be leveling fast enough that the expense of the gems isn’t worth it.

Browse the Auction House or your Jewelcrafting buddy for appropriate gems. Try to get +Int or +Haste

 

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Warlock Professions

Skip all crafting professions while you’re leveling since they’re very expensive. If you do have a ton of gold then tailoring is a good skill to get. You can buy the enchants you need for a lot less gold than you’ll spend leveling that skill, so skip enchanting. That said, tailoring and enchanting can work well together. You disenchant your extra greens that you make with Tailoring and use the parts for Enchanting.

Herbalism, mining, and skinning are all great cash earning skills, and Herbalism and Mining both award nice XP.

If you’re leveling in the Warlords of Draenor area, then you will be able to create a professions hut. These will help you with your crafting and materials generation through work orders. You can assign a follower to that hut and the follower allows greater output and access to certain profession perks.

• • Herbalism is a nice gold maker and will provide mats for your Alchemy or Inscription skills.
  • Mining and Skinning are nice money makers, as well.
  • Cooking will allow you to make some useful buffing foods, so is highly recommended. Fishing is a nice supplement to cooking, but takes a lot of time.
  • First Aid is essential, even with your health taps. Keep it maxed at all times. Draenor 1st aid will let you make some very nice healing potions.
  • Alchemy will allow you to make tons of useful potions, flasks, elixers, a sweet trinket, etc.
  • Tailoring will allow you to make your own gear, including PvP gear for 90 and below, and raid level gear (extremely expensive) for draenor. Plus there’s a flying carpet.
  • Jewelcrafting will let you make all those gems and some useful jewelry (rings and necklaces.)
  • Enchanting allows you to “enchant” your gear. In Draenor you’ll be able to make Illusionary enchants (requires garrison building and a follower with the enchanting trait) which will change the look of your enchants.
  • Engineering will allow you to make a lot of very useful gadgets, including gliders, shields, rockets, etc. The Goblins perfected rockets in Draenor and they’re frequently one-shot kills on quest mobs. Not bad Vs. players, either. You Garrison minion will sell you, cheaply, various useful items, such as “Walter,” a portable bank.
  • Inscription – Glyphs, shoulder enchants (90 and lower,) and a couple of nice weapons and items. Very nice Draenor caster staff. Just as expensive to upgrade as the armor. Your follower will let you create merchant orders. Combine any two of the same type and then sell the result to any vendor for 75-250 gold.
  • Leatherworking – No value to you, but at the Draenor level (90+)  your follower in your Garrison building will allow you to make tents which will boost your stats by 10% for an hour. Through the Leatherworking hut in your Garrison you can make single use tents that will increase all of your stats by 10% for an hour, though not in raids or rated PvP. These tents are account bound, so you can mail them to all of your alts
  • Blacksmithing – Can make a couple of decent caster weapons, the Draenor ones are upgradable. For a price.
    • Song of the Anvil – “Your armor and weapons do not lose durability from use for 4 hrs.” Just the thing for an extended tanking/dungeoning session, right?
    • Solace of the Forge might be helpful when leveling through Draenor, as a molten elemental will sometimes come to your aid.

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Warlock Leveling Tips & Notes

• • Of course, you can always boost your character to 50, skip all those levels, and go straight to Shadowlands. Only costs $60, per boost, through the in-game blizzard store.
  • Better gear makes for faster and easier leveling. Heirlooms can be enchanted.
  • If you skip the looting of mobs, don’t gather herbs or anything, and don’t level a crafting profession then you’ll move faster. Just pick a target, kill it, and move to the next… boom, boom, boom. But… we all like to loot. 😉
  • While leveling the only stats you really want to worry about are: Int, Stam, and Spellpower.
  • It certainly isn’t essential to keep your gear 100% up to date, though it will help. If you have a ton of gold then go for all the upgrades that you want. Otherwise only upgrade when the new piece is a definite improvement over the old one. Check our gold guide if you need gold tips. Prioritize your weapon(s) over any other gear pieces, Weapons give you the best bang for the buck.
    • You can, at your option, go Hardcore. Only white titled gear is allowed, though I’d say that any green gear earned strictly through questing is Ok. If you want to be really hardcore, like the Diablo games, delete your character if it’s killed. Not recommended on PvP servers!
  • Whether you’re questing, dungeoning, or PvPing you need to stay stocked:
    • Have the biggest bags you can afford. Netherweave bags are a great start for most, in terms of cost per amount of bag space. Plenty of bag space means you can keep all the junk you find and then dump it when you normally get back to town.
      • Or you could skip looting and/or throw stuff away as you find it.
    • Keep stocked on healing & possibly mana potions (if you ever have mana problems.)
    • Buffing potions or scrolls are nice, though they don’t stack with each other.
    • Some foods buff stats. Keep a nice stack handy.
    • Bandages and first aid can come in handy.
  • Grab all the quests in an area and use the map to group them. Knock out all the quests over there, then hit the next batch. Your regular in-game questing system will pretty much show you where to do and what to do. It’ll be up top you when to move on. Hit the Command Board at your Capital City for “that next quest.” Or get a guide and make it easy.
  • Do as many quests at one time as you can. Save the travel quests for a time when you are going “over there” anyway.
  • Always log out at an Inn to get the rest XP when you come back.
  • You can also Recruit a friend (RaF) for 3x XP.

Targeting Macro

This macro looks for your target and puts a skull (icon ‘8’) on it. You will have to enter the name of the new target every time you are looking for something different. The /cleartarget line clears anything currently targeted, [no dead] won’t let it target a dead body.

Nice way to quickly locate targets which might not be right there. You can also use it in dungeons. Select a target and use the macro, the target will then have a skull marker. Insert a different number for a different marker. For example, ‘1’ is a yellow star.

This macro will also target enemy players (you’ll have to enter their name,) but it will not put a marker on them.

• /cleartarget
• /target [nodead] Name of Mob
• /script SetRaidTarget(“target”,8);

The fastest possible leveling?

Since you’re DPS (Damage) you’ll queue as that with the Random Dungeon Finder tool. (Recruit a friend for 3x XP. Use Zygor’s while questing.) (Also see our top 10 fast leveling tips post.)

Alternate the questing with your dungeoning and you’ll level at a pretty good pace.

Questing is much more efficient than just grinding for gaining XP. It used to be that grinding (just endlessly burning down any mobs you find) was faster, and might still be in very particular situations, but questing really blows the doors off of grinding these days.

If you can, always log out in an Inn to earn the “rest XP bonus.”

Dungeoning is great XP if you like to group and you like the dungeons. See our dungeon guide for more. You can get better gear that you will be likely to get otherwise. With most of the dungeon quest-givers now being inside the dungeon and with the Dungeon Finder tool making travel unnecessary, it can be an easy experience. It’s not a lot faster than questing, you being a DPS type, but it has its virtues.

• As a “damage” class there might be a fairly long wait time to actually get into any particular dungeon. Do quests while you wait or go fishing or hang our with your friends in an inn (and role-play) or something.
• The only downside is if the groups don’t work for you or you don’t work for them.
• Let the tank pull (gather up all the enemies) and only then attack.
• Dungeon groups also tend to move pretty fast, so if you’re fast and efficient and don’t mind the groups then it’s a good way to go.
• You can find some nice gear in the dungeons. Especially if you are NOT in heirlooms.
• Make sure you grab all the available quests when you enter the dungeon and hand them in at the end. You can use the dungeon icon in your mini-map to “leave dungeon” and then quickly “re-enter.” This will pop you back to the entrance. Note that in some dungeons (M of P dungeons, for example, also a few others) the quest givers come to you at the end.

PvP leveling can be awesome, if your side wins, but it’s not too bad even if you lose. If your side wins then it’s even faster than dungeon leveling.

• Don’t fight in the middle of the battlefield.
• Do fight at the flag or at the flag carrier or at the tower or at the tank. For example, in Eye of the Storm or Arathi Basiin, if you look at your buff list you will see a buff that gives you more honor for fighting at the flag.
• Don’t fight in the middle of the battlefield.
• Don’t cry about how much (fill in the blank) sucks.
• Do ask for help guarding/protecting/carrying whatever. Sometimes you’ll actually get it.
• Don’t jump into or fight in the middle of groups by yourself.
• Don’t fight in the middle of the battlefield.
• Do stay with your allies and help them out. Solo fighters don’t last long.
• If you don’t know what to do then follow someone who seems to know and stick with that person.
• Don’t fight in the middle of the battlefield, even if it’s fun. It’s less honor and less experience.
• Buddy up with a healer and kill the other teams’ healer(s.)

What to do while leveling:

1. Tank and Spank: Let your pet hold the mob’s aggro while you burn it down with spells. Only useful with Voidwalker and Felguard.
2. Drain Tanking: You DoT up the mob, set your pet on it (any pet) and use Drain Life while it beats on you. You’ll stay fairly healthy and the mob drops. It’s even better if you pet can hold the aggro. The difference here, of course, is that you are the tank.
3. Keep an eye on your DoT timers so that you can always have your DoTs up on the things you’re killing.
4. Targets that are feared tend to run and collect other mobs, which means that fear is more useful, generally, in PvP than while leveling.
5. Learn to use keybinds and macros.

Keeping Things Interesting

Keep in mind that leveling is not the same thing as end-game raiding or arena. At the end-game you have a lot more abilities, far better gear, and more need to pay attention to stats and squeezing out every last bit of power.

1. All Warlock specs are fine for leveling. Really. Maybe Demonolgy is easier, but Aff and Destro toss out a lot of damage. You can switch specs anytime you are out of combat.
2. Level your way. So if you’re tired of quests and want to run dungeons or battlegrounds, then do it. You can run quests while waiting for the queue or just go fishing.
3. Think of your leveling as training for the end-game, if you’re going to participate in that. Learn all about what you can do. Try new things, mix it up a bit, and have fun.
4. Don’t just set your pet on some mob and suck all it’s life away. Try your other abilities, as you get them. Try other pets. Mix up your spells. Learn how your fears and other “crowd control” abilities work in various situations. Hint: Do NOT use fear in the dungeon. 😉
5. You’re not really a tank, meaning that you can’t just round up all the enemies in the area and burn them down, but that doesn’t mean you can’t try that a little bit. Try two mobs at once. When that starts to work add a third. You may surprise yourself with what you can do, even if you aren’t a tank.
6. It’s always a good time to level a Warlock. Even if in patch abc.27b they aren’t the hottest thing since lava pools, they might well be there the next patch. WoW always fusses with game balance, tweaks abilities, rewrites whole classes (Paladins in Cataclysm,) rewrites the whole talent system (Mists of Pandara) and so on. The point is, that if you like playing your Warlock then do it. If you really stretch your abilities then at any level you will be well ahead of many of those who are playing this week’s “better class.” Oh, and by the way, Warlocks are generally near the top anyway. In all categories. And if they aren’t this week they probably will be soon.
7. If you just want to burn, DOT, drain, and demon your way through the levels fast then just scroll down a bit and check out that in-game leveling addon. It’ll get you to the level cap faster than anything else.

 

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The “Get There Fast!” Warlock Leveling Guide

Ok, you have your ‘lock all ready to go and now you’re looking at thousands of quests and a ginormous number of mobs to kill. To make it all easy you should grab an in-game Warlock leveling guide to get yourself leveled as quickly as possible. Among other things, this will let you get into all that juicy endgame stuff, raids and the rated BGs and arenas, just that much sooner.

Zygor’s is an addon that will place a small guide window on your main screen and which keeps track of your current quests and tasks and also counts your kills and tasks and so on.

Start from any level and use Zygor’s to blast to the finish. Heck, you can even grab a few levels in the dungeons and battleground PvP. Zygor’s guide will figure out your new level and the best spot to continue your questing and youi’ll be on your way.

Pick your starting point and the guide will show you where to go and what to do. It automatically updates and advances as you complete tasks and quests, sets a waypoint arrow automatically (always showing you where to go next,) and includes all the important quest info.

You will probably never need to look at your quest log again, much less stop mid-play to browse some website. It will also tell you when it’s time to move on from the current zone.

Zygor’s always quickly updated for the latest patches and expansions and it makes leveling amazingly fast and easy. Get yours here.

 

Related Posts & Stuff

• Affliction PVP, Affliction DPS
• Demonology PvE, Demonology PvP
• Destruction PvP, Destruction PvE
• Warlock Overview, Warlock PvP & Tips