Top Warlock builds
Warlock talents
Points left 0Required level 6028/21/2 split
Affliction28 / 51
2/2M
5/5C
5/5C
0/5N
2/2N
3/3N
0/2C
3/3C
1/1C
3/3N
0/5N
2/2C
1/1C
1/1
0/3N
0/5C
0/1N
Demonology21 / 51
0/2C
0/3C5/5C
4/5C
2/2N
0/3
3/3C
2/2N
0/3
1/1C
2/2M
0/2N
1/1M
0/3N
0/3N
1/1C
0/3N
0/5C
0/1N
Destruction2 / 51
2/2C
0/5C0/5C
0/5N
0/3C
0/5C
0/5C
0/1C
0/3C
0/3C
0/1C
0/2C
0/1N
0/3N
0/5N
0/1N1–10
11–20
21–30
31–40
41–50
51–51
- Add a point with a click. Take one back with a right-click or Shift+click.
- Tap a talent to read it, tap again to add a point, press and hold to take one back.
- Each row opens after 5 more points in that tree. An arrow means the talent it points from must be maxed first.
- Where the demo only showed one rank, the other ranks are estimated and say so in the tooltip.
- Press C to toggle the Classic diff.
Found a wrong number, arrow or rank? Report it with the class and talent name and it gets corrected.
Warlock in WoW Forever — What Changed from Classic
52 talents19 new27 reworked3 relocated3 unchanged17 gone from the trees
Warlock lost more Classic talents than any other class in WoW Forever, seventeen, and gained nineteen new ones, so the trees are closer to a rewrite than a revision. All three 31-point talents are new: Drain Hope, Demonic Pact and Incinerate. Of 52 talents only three are unchanged. Curses were partly renamed: Curse of Agony and Curse of Doom are Bane of Agony and Bane of Doom, and talents like Improved Bane of Agony follow suit. Enslave Demon is Subjugate Demon, Shadow Ward is baseline, and the Incubus is a separate summon from the Succubus.
The cuts are concentrated in the "Improved X" filler. Affliction dropped Improved Curse of Weakness, Improved Drain Soul, Improved Drain Life, Improved Drain Mana, Improved Curse of Exhaustion, Grim Reach and Dark Pact. Demonology dropped Improved Healthstone, Fel Intellect, Improved Subjugate Demon, Improved Firestone and Improved Spellstone. Destruction dropped Improved Firebolt, Improved Lash of Pain, Devastation, Improved Immolate and Emberstorm. None came back as trainer spells.
Afflictionnew 31-point talent
Affliction is about periodic damage and drains. Malediction raises all periodic damage, Pandemic raises DoT and drain crit damage, and Malevolence adds Shadow crit. Improved Drains scales Drain Life and Drain Soul with each other Affliction effect on the target; Soul Siphon makes them tick faster. Soul Harvesting rewards a kill during Drain Soul. Drain Hope, the new capstone, is a channel that deals Shadow damage every second and amplifies your other Shadow damage over time; it requires Siphon Life. Improved Life Tap moved in from Demonology, and Nightfall, Amplify Curse and Curse of Exhaustion still work the old way.
Demonologynew 31-point talent
Demonology has seven new talents and now covers five pets. Demonic Aegis buffs Demon Skin and Demon Armor. Demonic Energies heals the pet from your spell damage and shares Life Tap mana with it. Decimation shortens Soul Fire and makes it an execute. Demonic Brand turns Searing Pain into a pet damage setup. Improved Felhunter and Demonic Knowledge scale the caster with an active demon. Demonic Pact, the 31-point talent, lets your Demonic Sacrifice effect survive summoning a new demon, so the Classic choice between a sacrificed pet and a live one is gone. Soul Link still requires Demonic Sacrifice.
Destructionnew 31-point talent
Destruction is a Fire tree that ends in Incinerate. Molten Skin is flat damage reduction in row two. Bane of Havoc, one point in row five, copies 15% of your damage to a second target for five minutes. Fire and Brimstone adds Conflagrate crit and requires it. Shadow and Flame makes Conflagrate and Shadow Bolt buff each other's school. Incinerate, the capstone, deals more with Immolate on the target and requires Bane of Havoc. Agonizing Flames replaces Improved Searing Pain, Aftermath adds a Daze to Conflagrate, and Ruin, Shadowburn and Pyroclasm are still on the way up.
Popular Warlock builds
Three starting points at level 60. The link carries the placement order, so the leveling build doubles as a pickup order; open one, then change what you like.
- Leveling · 31/20/0Affliction levelingImproved Corruption, Malediction and the drain talents, Siphon Life and Drain Hope at 40; Demonology for Fel Domination and Decimation.
- PvE · 20/0/31Destruction IncinerateRuin, Conflagrate, Bane of Havoc, Fire and Brimstone, Shadow and Flame and Incinerate; Affliction for Improved Corruption and Pandemic.
- PvP · 31/20/0Affliction drainCurse of Exhaustion, Siphon Life, Soul Siphon and Drain Hope; Demonology for Demonic Embrace, Demonic Sacrifice and Demonic Aegis.
Beyond the trees
5 of the 10 races can be a Warlock; their racials are on the WoW Forever racials page. The baseline spells that changed, and the demo spellbook, are under class abilities, and the account-wide Legacy perks apply to every character. For the picture across all nine classes, read the guide to every talent change in WoW Forever.
Warlock FAQ
- What's new for Warlock in WoW Forever?
- Nineteen new talents and three new capstones: Drain Hope, Demonic Pact and Incinerate. Bane of Havoc, Decimation, Malediction, Pandemic and Shadow and Flame are the other headline additions. The Incubus is a new pet.
- Why are Curses called Banes?
- Curse of Agony and Curse of Doom were renamed Bane of Agony and Bane of Doom in the demo. Curse of Weakness and Curse of Exhaustion keep their names, and the talent Amplify Curse lists both kinds.
- What's the best Warlock leveling spec?
- Affliction. Improved Corruption, Malediction and the drain talents keep the pet healthy and the mana flowing, with Siphon Life at 20 points and Drain Hope at 40. The leveling build above is in pickup order.
- How many Warlock talents are there?
- 52: 17 in Affliction, 19 in Demonology and 16 in Destruction.
- Did any Warlock talents get removed?
- Seventeen, the most of any class. Seven from Affliction including Dark Pact and Grim Reach, five from Demonology including Fel Intellect, five from Destruction including Devastation and Emberstorm.
- Does Demonic Sacrifice still cancel when you summon?
- Not with Demonic Pact, the Demonology capstone: the sacrifice effect persists through summoning a different demon. See the Warlock's new baseline spells.