WoW: Forever
Warlock
Warlock kills slowly and inevitably, with a demon tanking for you. Forever split damage curses into Banes, so you now hold one Bane and one Curse at the same time — and Life Tap gives twice the mana it used to.
Which spec?
| Spec | Role | Levelling | In one line |
|---|---|---|---|
| Affliction | Ranged DPS | 5/5 — joint best | Instant Corruption from level 14, and DoTs can now crit |
| Demonology | Ranged DPS | 5/5 — joint best | Demonic Energies turns your damage into pet healing and your Life Tap into pet mana |
| Destruction | Ranged DPS | 3.5/5 — the weak one | Hard-cast direct damage, and a wand currently competes with Shadow Bolt |
Affliction and Demonology are rated identically — 5 out of 5 for levelling — and Destruction is the only Warlock spec marked down. The published reasoning for the gap is concrete: Destruction has "less passive sustain than Affliction and less pet support than Demonology", most of its damage requires standing still, and Forever cut its direct-damage numbers hard. One guide declines to publish a level-20 Destruction build at all, on the grounds that a free wand deals comparable damage to a mana-costing Shadow Bolt at that level.
Your demon matters more than in Classic, in every spec, because demons now scale with your gear. Voidwalker at 10 is the levelling pet; Succubus at 20 is the damage pet; Forever trains the Felhunter at 30, where Classic gated it behind a quest and withheld Spell Lock until 36.
Is Warlock for you?
Play Warlock if you want the strongest solo levelling in the game and you do not mind tracking half a dozen things at once.
Levelling milestones
| Level | What you get |
|---|---|
| 1 | Shadow Bolt, Immolate, Demon Skin, Summon Imp |
| 2 | Imp class quest |
| 4 | Corruption, Curse of Weakness |
| 6 | Life Tap — now scales with Spirit, and gives roughly double the mana it did in Classic |
| 8 | Bane of Agony (renamed from Curse of Agony), Fear |
| 10 | Voidwalker class quest, Drain Soul — now grants shards from damaged targets, not only kills — and Create Healthstone |
| 14 | Drain Life, Curse of Recklessness — no longer gives the enemy attack power, so it is a straight buff now |
| 20 | Succubus class quest, Ritual of Summoning, Rain of Fire, and Curse of the Elements moved much earlier — from 32 in Classic — and now hits every magic school |
| 28 | Create Firestone — reworked into a weapon imbue giving up to +2% spell crit |
| 30 | Summon Felhunter, Hellfire, Banish |
| 36 | Create Spellstone — reworked into a weapon imbue giving up to +2% spell haste, notable because haste is on no gear |
| 40 | Summon Felsteed — your free mount, Howl of Terror |
| 60 | Bane of Doom, Summon Dreadsteed, Portal of Summoning, new |
Curse of Shadow and Dark Pact are not in Forever. Curse of Shadow was folded into the all-schools Curse of the Elements.
Which demon, when
- Imp, levels 2 to 10 — fragile and runs out of mana.
- Voidwalker, from 10, and it is the answer — in Forever it generates enormous threat and can compete with real tanks for aggro.
- Succubus, from 20, as your damage pet — measured at roughly a quarter of your total damage, by far the strongest damage demon. Keep the Voidwalker for elites.
- Felhunter, from 30, for Spell Lock and Devour Magic.
Demonic Sacrifice inverted its buffs and now lasts two hours: sacrificing the Imp gives +15% Shadow, and the Succubus gives +15% Fire. The Classic muscle memory is backwards.
Which race
Horde — Undead for levelling. Cannibalize restores 35% health and mana, which on a class whose whole loop is spending health for mana is close to a free full recovery on every corpse.
Horde — Orc for long-term damage, now that Blood Fury gives +10% spell power. But note Forever deleted Command, the pet-damage racial that was the entire reason Orc was the Classic Warlock pick. Orc is now a caster race, not a pet race.
Alliance — Human. Sword Specialization is +2% spell and ability crit, and since timed damage can crit in Forever it applies to your whole damage profile. The Human Spirit feeds Life Tap.
Skyborne cannot be a Warlock. Both major guides decline to name an overall winner.
Quality of life
- Soul shards got better but not fixed. They are now classed as a Reagent, and Forever added a reagent bag slot, so your soul bag no longer eats one of your four real bags. They still do not stack.
- Four class quests, all mandatory: Imp at 2, Voidwalker at 10, Succubus at 20, Felhunter at 30. They are short and they are how you get your demons.
- Tailoring and Enchanting. Tailoring makes your bags including the soul bag, and Enchanting makes the wand you should be using instead of Shadow Bolt.
- Budget for Grimoires — Warlocks spend more gold than most classes keeping demon abilities trained.
What changed from Classic
| Change | What it means for you |
|---|---|
| Damage curses became Banes | You hold one Bane and one Curse on the same target |
| The 16-debuff limit is gone | Nothing gets cut for slots any more |
| Life Tap scales with Spirit and gives about double | Spirit is suddenly a real Warlock stat |
| Curse of the Elements at 20, all magic schools | It was level 32 and Fire/Frost only |
| Firestone and Spellstone are weapon imbues now | +2% spell crit and +2% spell haste respectively |
| Timed damage can crit, and nothing snapshots | Buffs apply live to ticks already running |
Demonic Sacrifice buffs inverted, now 2 hours | Imp gives Shadow, Succubus gives Fire |
| Soul shards are reagents with their own bag slot | Still do not stack |
At level 60
Unknown. Nothing about level-60 Warlock is known — no build, no gearing, no rotation, no spec ranking — because the beta caps at 20 and the longest play session anyone has had was a level-38 demo. Raids open 9 December.