Contents

This page is way out of date.

For the newer Warlock pages, go to:

• Warlock Overview
• Affliction Warlock in PvE
• Demonolgy Warlock PvE
• Destruction Warlock PvE
• Warlock PvP Overview
• Affliction Warlock PvP
• Demonology Warlock PvP
• Destruction Warlock PvP
• Warlock Leveling Guide

Warlock Class Guide The Warlock 4.1 patch notes Races Tradeskills Abilities & leveling Affliction Demonology Destruction PvP Numbers Gear 1-85 Warlock Leveling Guide

Other Warlock Guides Warlock leveling guide Affliction Demonology Destruction PvP Builds

 

 

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.

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 similar to the other, and that's refreshing.

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 the other player's 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.

Buffs and Nerfs

With the 4.0 patch, any big patch, class balance goes all to heck. Class A becomes a doormat and class B becomes Unstoppable. Shortly after 4.0 Warlocks were solidy in the class B camp. Some of those quakes seen in the game come from Warlock crits, not some giant dragon thing. This will be tweaked and hot fixed and Warlocks will join the "normal" folk. With 4.1, and whatever the next expansion happens to be, it will all happen again.

Since it's hard to track the flavor of the minute we won't do it here. Instead we'll focus on stuff that looks a little more evergreen.

If you like this guide how about sharing it?

4.1 Warlock Patch Notes

Warlocks

• Dark Intent: The friendly target of this ability now receives 1% (stacking 3 times to 3%) periodic spell damage and healing bonus instead of 3% (stacking 3 times to 9%). The casting Warlock still receives 3% (stacking 3 times to 9%).
• Rain of Fire damage has been increased by 25%.
• Seed of Corruption damage has been increased by 20%.

Talent Specializations: Affliction

• Haunt damage has been increased by 30%.
• Shadow Mastery (passive) has been increased to 30%, up from 25%.
• Unstable Affliction damage done when it is dispelled has been doubled, but this damage can no longer be critical.

Demonology

• Mana Feed now restores more mana (four times as much) when the warlock is using a Felguard or Felhunter.

Pets

• Doomguard's damage has been increased by 50%. The Doomguard is intended to be the best guardian for single-target damage, and the Infernal the best when there are multiple targets.
• Lash of Pain (Succubus) damage now scales with level, reducing the damage done at lower levels such that it will deal 50% damage at level 20, and 100% damage at level 80 and above.
• Shadow Bite (Felhunter) damage and effect has doubled.

Glyphs

• Glyph of Soul Swap now increases the cooldown of Soul Swap by 15 seconds, up from 10 seconds.

Warlock Races

Best Horde? Orc (pet damage) or Troll (berserk.)

Best Alliance? Gnome, for the Mana.

Horde Races

• Orc - Blood Fury increases melee and spell damage, the latter of which suits Warlocks just fine. The increased pet damage (on command) makes the Orc one of the better Warlock races. 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 (anything that breaks Fear, etc 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 since it's melee range and you don't want to be in melee range... Well ok, they look good. A truly devastatng Warlock Ability. Really.
  
  
• Troll (Cataclysm) - Hmmm... Increased casting speed, when Berserk, is very nice. Regeneration is increased, but it's trivial. More damage vs beasts is very nice for leveling and some Dungeons, not much PvP utility, though, unless you consider Draenei to be beasts (of burden?) Reduced duration of movement impairing effects is always nice.
  
  
• Goblin (Cataclysm) - Goblins like to blow things up and Warlocks consort with demons. A match made in heaven? Well, maybe not... Goblins can Rocket Launch forward, which might be a nice escape ability. Their Rocket Launcher will be of little use to you, as will Vendor Discounts and your Personal Bank, though both are nice for other reasons. Increased Haste will be nice in end-game raiding since Haste is a very nice thing for Warlocks.

Alliance Races

• Human - The Human Diplomacy skill will allow for more rapid faction gain and the escape ability is nice for PvP, but it's too bad that the Stealth Detection is gone. 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 they get an increased mana pool. Wow.
  
  
• Dwarf (Cataclysm) - Various Dwarves factions are putting away their differences and joining forces after the Cataclysm and that's where the Warlocks are infiltrating...er... coming from. Their Stone Form is a nice PvP talent, and occasionally useful elsewhere, but they have no special Warlock abilities otherwise.
  
  
• Worgen (Cataclysm) - They can periodically move quickly, which is a nice escape talent, and they have a reduced duration of curses and diseases (affecting them.) An increased crit chance is always nce.

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 heroic 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 much higher levels when you have a decent cash flow.

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. Heck, even Blacksmithing will allow you to add a couple of gem slows to your gear.

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.

Professions for End Gaming:

For those who are into the min-maxing game, each of the professions offers a self-only buff which has some nice benefits. Blacksmithing and Jewelcrafting might be the best profs for this game. All the main profs give a roughly 80 Int boost via self-only skills.

• Alchemy gives increased results to you from certain potions & flasks, including those that boost Int.
• Blacksmithing can put sockets on gloves and belts (but the belt socket is tradeable.)
• Enchanters can enchant their own rings with increased spellpower
• Engineers get a "haste" for their gloves and a nice cloak upgrade. Their gadgets stack with enchants on some armor pieces for the moment. This may be a bug.
• Herbalism's Lifebloom has been improved and it now offers Haste rating (about 480 points worth for 20 seconds) in addition to a heal.
• Leatherworkers get a fur lining which adds more Spellpower to your bracers than any enchant.
• Inscription has the best shoulder enchants, by far.
• Jewelcrafting makes some nice self-only gems that are better than otherwise available.
• Mining adds Stamina, which is great for tanks, not so hot for DPS.
• Skinning provides ~40 crit rating, which is not only lower than the other ratings provided by other profs, but crit also seems to be weaker than other stats (eg: haste, hit, etc.)
• Tailors get the Lightweave Embroidery which offers a chance for a big Spelpower boost.

Warlock Abilities & Leveling

Warlocks are all-around 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 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 80-85 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.  Destruction is a viable choice of build for Arena/battlegrounds.

With the 4.0 patches Destruction is also a very viable leveling build.

Warlock Demons

At level 1 all Warlocks will get an Imp as their pet. At level 10 the Demonology spec will get the Felguard.

Your Demon	Level	info
Summon Imp	1	link
Summon Voidwalker	8	link
Summon Succubus	20	link
Summon Felhunter	30	link
Summon Infernal	50	link
Summon Doomguard	58	link
Demonic Circle: Summon	78	link

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.

• Learn to fight multiple mobs at the same time and do as many quests as you can at the same time.
• Look into the Dungeon Finder tool and sign up for the random dungeons. Or, if you want to be more organized, look at our dungeon leveling guide. All the dungeons come with quests that will help maximize your XP and gear. With 4.0 the quest givers are actually insides each dungeon, making it easy to pick up and return their quests.
• At level 10 you become eligible to enter the battlegrounds. Battleground PvP can provide some very fast XP, especially on the BG weekends and if your team wins.
• Questing still has plenty value. The stories are tighter since 4.0 and you'll gain rep with the various factions. You can do it on your own time and don't have to deal with the occasionaly whiney or irritating group. Leveling through questing is also much faster since Bliz tightened everything up.

Affliction Spec

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.

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 passed beyond the 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.

Talents gained upon choosing the Affliction spec:

You're a master of shadowmagic and have an assortment of Fears, Drains, and DoTs (Damage over Time spells.) Traditionally Drain Tanking has been a feature of this specialization. You and your pet work in close synergy to bring down the opposition.

• Unstable Affliction - This is a DoT which, when dispelled, damages and silences the dispeller
• Shadow Mastery - increases shadow damage by 25%
• Mastery: Potent Afflictions: (obtainable at level 80) increases your periodic damage. Stacking Mastery Rating will increase this effect.

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 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.

You'll find more info on this spec in our Affliction Warlock guide, leveling info is on our Warlock leveling page, and our recommended 1-85 leveling guide is below.

Click Here now to level fast

Demonology Spec

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

All in all the demonology tree is well rounded and very useful to first-timers or those favoring the more demonic side of operations.

These are the Demonology specific abilities gained at level 10:

• Summon Felguard - Summons a demonic warrior with a big axe.
• Demonic Knowledge - 15% more Fire and Shadow damage
• Mastery: Master Demonologist - Your pets, and you, while in demon form, do more damage and this is increased by stacking more Mastery rating.

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 life tap, 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.

Previously (before WoW 4.0) upon reaching level 50 your Felguard would take over the 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.

Now, as Demonology spec, you get this beastie at level 10 and your Voidwalker can maybe go back to playing Solitaire, except that the Void has more health and a better taunt.

For more on the Demonology spec, including builds, PvP, and leveling, see our Demonology spec page and check out our Warlock leveling page for more leveling info. Also see our recommended 1-85 leveling guide below.

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.

Before the 4.0 patch leveling as Destruction lost some of its luster, mana efficiency went down the drain early on and it was highly recommended that you either use it in a team setting/instancing or simply skip it entirely and go for affliction or demonology. After 4.0 mana is no longer an issue and damge is rather good, making for a fast leveling experience.

Destruction Warlock Leveling

The Destruction Warlock is indeed good at what it’s supposed to do: destroying things in spectacular and often speedy fashion. But that’s not what all leveling is about.  Leveling is about efficient, consistent killing, and this is where destruction used to fall flat.

With the mana and damage changes in patch 4.0, assuming they stay anywhere near the current levels, Destruction is now a very viable leveling build, raining death on all manner of opposition.

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

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.

• Affliction
• Demonology
• Destruction
• PvP Builds

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 that 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.
  

PvE, Numbers, Gear, Etc.

With the 4.0 patch the numbers of interest have been adjusted. In order of importance, for raiding:

1. Hit rating above all else until you hit the 17% rating cap.
2. Int is a close second as it now provides Spellpower, as well as some crit and, of course, manapool.
3. Haste
4. Spellpower
5. Mastery - Yeah, it's not so hot.
6. Crit - not hot right now.
7. Spirit is useless with 4.0
8. Strength, and Agility are useless.
9. Stamina has definite value in PvP, as does...
10. Resilience - decreases player damage by an amount depending on the current state of Res. buffage. Lots of Resilience is nice when looking at Rogue Ambushes.

Warlock Level 85 Gear

PvP

• Here is the iLevel 365 PvP gear, Vicious Gladiator, purchased with Conquest points (from arena or rated BG).
• Here is the iLevel 352 PvP gear, Bloodthirsty Gladiator, purchased with Honor points.
• Your tailoring (525) skill can create the iLevel 339 PvP gear (and you can also buy these items off the Auction House if you have enough gold:
  • Emberfire set
• Fireweave set

PvE, Tier 11 Gear:

• Here is the 5 piece iLevel 359 Shadowflame set
• Here is the 5 piece iLevel 372 set, which requires the iLevel 359 pieces (and a dropped raid loot item, below) to buy.
• The items that you will need to have in order to upgrade are:
  • Chest of the Forlorn Conqueror drops from Halfus Wyrmbreaker in The Bastion of Twilight
  • Gauntlets of the Forlorn Conqueror drop from Magmaw in Blackwing Descent
  • Leggings of the Forlorn Conqueror drop from Maloriak in Blackwing Descent
  • Shoulders of the Forlorn Conqueror drop from Cho'gall in The Bastion of Twiligh
  • rown of the Forlorn Conqueror drops from Nefarian in Blackwing Descent

Warlock Gems

Your main gem will be the Brilliant Inferno Ruby, with its +40 Int. You should place this gem into sockets of any color, unless the socket bonus is at least 20 Int (since you lose at least 20 Int by not placing this gem in that socket.)

• Meta
  • Burning Shadowspirit Diamond - 54 Int, +3% Crit damage. Requires at least 3 red gems.
  • Ember Shadowspirit Diamond - 54 Int, +2% max mana, at least 2 yellow gems.
• Red
  • Brilliant Chimera's Eye - 67 int, self-only Jewelcrafting gem
  • Brilliant Inferno Ruby - This should go into all slots unless some requirement has to be met or the slot bonus is really good (see above.)
• Yellow
  • Reckless Ember Topaz - 20 Int, 20 Haste
  • PvP - Mystic Chimera's Eye - 67 Resilience rating, self-ony Jewelcrafting gem
  • PvP - Mystic Amberjewel - 40 Resilience
• Blue
  • Veiled Demonseye - 20 Int and 20 Hit
• Green (fits blue or yellow socket)
  • PvP - Steady Dream Emerald - 20 Res, 30 Stam
• Orange (fits a red or yellow socket)
  • PvP - Willful Ember Topaz - 20 Res, 20 Int

Enchants

See our individual Warlock spec pages for enchants, but they will be very similar. A good rule of thumb is to go for Int > Spell Power > haste.

• Affliction spec
• Demonology spec
• Destruction Spec

Level 70 gear

This gear list is for level 70 raiding, and is for the player 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. Some of the gear may become unavailable when Cataclysm launches, but similar gear should be available.

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)