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Leveling a Warlock to 30

How to level a Warlock from 1 to the level 30 beta cap in WoW Forever: which race, every spell and when you get it, which demon to use when, the published Affliction, Demonology and Destruction leveling builds at 20 and 30, what to press, Life Tap and soul shards, class quests, gear, dungeons for 20 to 30 and what Forever changed.

Written for the WoW Forever beta, where the level cap has been 30 since the 1 October 2026 maintenance (build 1.60.1.70170). Blizzard hasn't said when the cap will rise again. Spells, ranks, tooltips and talents come from the Forever beta client. Class quests come from Classic's data and are labelled as such.

The Warlock in a nutshell

A Warlock is a spellcaster who fights from range with Shadow and Fire magic and brings a demon along to help. Your role is damage (DPS, damage per second). Much of it comes from damage over time spells, called DoTs: you put a curse or a burn on a mob, and it keeps taking damage every few seconds while you do something else.

Your resource is mana, but you have a special trick: Life Tap turns your own health into mana. You wear cloth, and the client lets Warlocks use staves, daggers, one-handed swords and wands.

Good at while leveling

• Little downtime: Life Tap for mana and Drain Life for health mean you can often go from one mob to the next without sitting down.
• A demon that fights with you. From level 10 the Voidwalker holds mobs off you like a small tank (a player or pet who takes the hits).
• Fighting on the move: once your DoTs are on a mob, they keep working while you walk.
• Control: Fear sends a mob running away for a while.

Weak at while leveling

• Taking hits yourself. Cloth armor and low health make melee (close combat) dangerous.
• The first levels. Before the Voidwalker at 10 you only have the Imp, which adds damage but doesn't protect you.
• Keeping your demon alive. Summoning a new one is a long cast, so losing it mid-fight hurts.
• Careless Fear. A feared mob runs where it likes and can come back with friends.

Choosing a race

Five races can be Warlocks in Forever: Human and Gnome for the Alliance, and Orc, Undead and Troll for the Horde. Troll Warlocks are new in Forever. No race is the best: racials (race abilities) are small next to your spells and talents, so pick the faction your friends play and the look you like.

Racials from the Forever client. Starting zones are Classic data.

More on every race is in races, classes and racials.

Your spells, level by level

You learn spells, and stronger ranks of spells you already have, from a Warlock trainer in your starting area and in the capital cities. The client has something new for Warlocks at level 1 and at every even level from 4 to 30, so visit a trainer each time you reach an even level. Here's everything you learn up to 30; the table marks the demons that come from a class quest in Classic's data (see below):

Everything a Warlock learns up to level 30, from the Forever client. Some come from a class quest instead of the trainer; a Classic quest is Classic's data, not yet confirmed in Forever.

The spells that matter, in the order you get them

• Level 1. Shadow Bolt is your main attack. Immolate hits with Fire and then burns the target for 15 sec. Demon Skin adds armor and health regeneration for 30 min; keep it on. Summon Imp brings your first demon.
• Level 4. Corruption deals Shadow damage over 12 sec. Five points in the Improved Corruption talent make it instant, and as Affliction it's the spell you'll cast most. Curse of Weakness makes a mob deal less physical damage for 2 min.
• Level 6. Life Tap converts health into mana. It's the heart of the Warlock's low-downtime play.
• Level 8. Bane of Agony deals Shadow damage over 24 sec, slowly at first and faster at the end, so put it on mobs that will live a while. Fear makes a mob run in fear for up to 10 sec; damage may break it, and only one mob can be feared at a time.
• Level 10. Summon Voidwalker is the demon most Warlocks level with. Drain Soul drains a mob's soul over 15 sec and can give you a Soul Shard. Create Healthstone makes a stone you can use to restore health instantly. Your first talent point also arrives at level 10.
• Level 12. Health Funnel heals your demon for 10 sec while you channel, paid for with your own health.
• Level 14. Drain Life takes health from the target and gives it to you every 1 second for 5 sec. Curse of Recklessness lowers a mob's armor and stops it from running away when it's nearly dead.
• Level 16. Unending Breath lets a friend breathe underwater for 10 min.
• Level 18. Create Soulstone stores a soul: if that player dies, they can come back to life with 400 health and 700 mana. Searing Pain is a quick Fire spell that causes a lot of threat, so keep it for solo play.
• Level 20 is the big one: see the next section.

Level 20: the big level

• Summon Succubus and Summon Incubus: your third demon, a damage-dealer that fights in melee.
• Curse of the Elements is new in the Forever client at 20. It makes the target take 4% more magic damage for 5 min, from you and from every other caster in your group.
• Demon Armor replaces Demon Skin with more armor, some Shadow resistance and more health regeneration.
• Rain of Fire rains fire on an area for 8 sec: your first real pack spell, and an expensive one.
• Ritual of Summoning summons a group member to you. It needs you and 2 more party members at the portal, all out of combat.
• New ranks too: Shadow Bolt, Immolate and Health Funnel.

Levels 22 to 28

• Level 22. Eye of Kilrogg summons a flying eye you can scout with. Create Healthstone makes a Lesser Healthstone that restores 300 health, and Drain Life and Curse of Weakness get new ranks.
• Level 24. Drain Mana drains 42 Mana every 1 sec for 5 sec from the target, which is handy against casters. Corruption, Corruption's third rank, deals 132 Shadow damage over 18 sec. Drain Soul gets its second rank, and Sense Demons shows nearby demons on your minimap.
• Level 26. Curse of Tongues makes the target's spells take 50% longer to cast, so it's the curse for dangerous enemy casters. Life Tap and Searing Pain get their third and second ranks, and Detect Invisibility lets a friend see lesser invisibility.
• Level 28. Banish takes a Demon or Elemental out of the fight for up to 20 sec: it can't act, but it can't be hurt either. Create Firestone makes a Lesser Firestone to put on your weapon for 1% more spell crit and more Fire damage. Shadow Bolt rank 5 (73 to 83 Shadow damage), Bane of Agony rank 3, Curse of Recklessness and Health Funnel get new ranks too.

Level 30: the next big level

• Summon Felhunter: the Felhunter, a demon built to fight casters. The client lists its Devour Magic at level 30, which removes a harmful magic effect from a friend or a helpful one from an enemy. In Classic you earned the Felhunter with a class quest (see below).
• Hellfire burns everything around you, and you too: 82 Fire damage a second to you and every nearby enemy for 15 sec. Since the 1 October build it can critically strike.
• Curse of the Elements raises Curse of the Elements' magic damage bonus to 6%, and Demon Armor adds more armor and health regeneration than rank 1.
• New ranks too: Immolate, Drain Life and Create Soulstone, a Lesser Soulstone that brings a player back with 750 health and 1200 mana.
• Subjugate Demon lets you take control of an enemy demon for up to 5 min, though it attacks and casts more slowly while it serves you.

Above the current level 30 cap, the client has more waiting: Fear rank 2 and Shadow Ward at level 32, the Felhunter's Spell Lock interrupt at level 36, and Howl of Terror at level 40. Blizzard hasn't said when the cap will rise again.

Your demons: which one when

Your demon is your pet. It has its own small action bar where you tell it to attack, follow or stay, and you can set it to passive so it doesn't start fights on its own. The 1 October build brought back Aggressive mode, which Blizzard says is in the pet tab of your spell book. Summoning takes 10 sec in the client, so always summon between fights, never during one.

Demon spells from the Forever client.

For leveling, keep the Voidwalker out from level 10 on. All three published level 20 leveling builds are played with it, and the level 30 Demonology build links it to you with Soul Link: send it in first, let it hold the mob, and cast from behind it. Use the Imp in dungeons, where a real tank holds the mobs and your party wants Blood Pact.

• If the Voidwalker gets low, channel Health Funnel before it dies. It costs your health, but re-summoning costs much more time.
• Consume Shadows (from level 18 in the client) heals the Voidwalker out of combat, so you don't have to spend your own health between fights.
• Keep the demon on the mob you're hitting. If a second mob attacks you, send the demon at it, or Fear it.
• If the demon dies anyway, finish the fight and re-summon afterwards. Blizzard's September 24 notes also fixed Voidwalker Sacrifice so it scales with 10% of your spell healing.

Talents: which spec to level

Your first talent point arrives at level 10 and you get one more every level, so you have 11 points at 20 and 21 at 30. Forever's Warlock talent window is one tree with three sections, Affliction (DoTs and drains), Demonology (you and your demon) and Destruction (direct damage), and your spec (specialization) is the section you put most points in. Each row of a section needs 5 more points in the rows above it: the first row is open from level 10, the second from 15, the third from 20, the fourth from 25 and the fifth from 30, once you have 20 points in that section.

ForeverDB publishes a leveling build for each tree at 20, and the same build carried on to 30, on the Warlock builds page. You can try them in the talent calculator. Here's what the level 20 leveling builds take:

The published level 20 leveling builds. The builds page explains every point.

Talents at 30

By 30 you have 21 points: enough for the fourth row (open from 25), and for one point in the fifth row (open from 30) if the other 20 sit in the same section. The published level 30 leveling builds carry the level 20 builds on:

The published level 30 leveling builds (21 points each). The builds page explains every point.

Our pick for a first Warlock is Affliction, which the builds page calls the easiest way to level to 20; at 30 it adds Siphon Life and Nightfall's instant Shadow Bolts. Pick Demonology if you die a lot and want a tougher Voidwalker, or Destruction if you like big direct hits. In Forever, Improved Corruption needs all five ranks to make Corruption instant, so only the Affliction build takes it; the Demonology and Destruction builds cast Corruption with its normal cast time and spend their points in their own sections.

Every rank of every Warlock talent has its own tooltip in the Forever client, so the builds page shows exactly what each point gives. Demonic Brand, a new Demonology talent at 25, makes your demon's next attacks on a target you hit with Searing Pain deal extra Fire or Shadow damage that grows with your level; none of the published leveling builds take it.

Tip: Changing your mind is cheap in the beta. Blizzard's September 24 notes set a talent reset to 1 silver if you haven't reset recently; after a reset the next one costs much more, and the price drops back to 1 silver after an hour. Blizzard says this is for the beta only.

What to press

Your rotation is the order you use your spells in. This is the level 20 leveling rotation from the builds page, in plain words. A pull is how you start a fight, and a mob that's attacking you is said to have aggro on you.

One enemy (Affliction or Demonology)

1. Send your Voidwalker at the mob and let it get the mob's attention for a moment.
2. Cast Bane of Agony, a curse and Corruption. Corruption is instant in the Affliction build; as Demonology it has a short cast, so cast it while the Voidwalker holds the mob. Solo against a melee mob, Curse of Weakness is the curse to use.
3. Fill with Shadow Bolt. Immolate is worth a cast on mobs that will live through its whole burn.
4. Mana low? Life Tap. Health low? Drain Life.
5. Finish a dying mob with Drain Soul whenever you want a Soul Shard.
6. As Affliction, Corruption is instant, so you can put it on the next mob while the first one is still dying.

Before level 10 you don't have the Voidwalker. Let the Imp shoot, open with Immolate or Corruption, and Shadow Bolt from range; finish with your wand to save mana.

Destruction

Open with Immolate, add Bane of Agony (and Corruption on mobs that will live through its ticks), then Shadow Bolt, which Bane makes faster to cast. Shadowburn, the build's level 20 talent, finishes a nearly dead mob instantly and gives you a Soul Shard; Searing Pain is the quick cast while Shadowburn is on cooldown. Keep the Voidwalker out: the builds page calls it the safest demon while you level.

At level 30

The level 30 leveling rotations from the builds page add a few steps:

• Affliction: keep Corruption, Bane of Agony and Siphon Life on the target, with Amplify Curse just before Bane of Agony on elites. Fill with Shadow Bolt, and cast it at once whenever Nightfall's Shadow Trance makes it instant. Finish dying mobs with Drain Soul: in the leveling build a kill also starts Soul Harvest's Mana regeneration.
• Demonology: summon the Voidwalker and cast Soul Link, then Bane of Agony, Corruption and a curse, and fill with Shadow Bolt. Soul Link sends part of your damage to the Voidwalker, so watch its health as well as yours and Health Funnel it. If it dies, press Fel Domination, summon again and recast Soul Link.
• Destruction: open with Immolate, Conflagrate it when it's nearly done (or at once on a mob about to die), re-apply Immolate and fill with Shadow Bolt. Shadowburn finishes a nearly dead mob and gives you a Soul Shard.
• Drain Soul is a channel, and since the 1 October build casting another spell stops it, so let it run until the mob dies.

Several enemies

• As Affliction, press Tab to switch targets and put instant Corruption on each mob; the other specs spread Bane of Agony, which is always instant.
• Put Bane of Agony on the mobs that will live longest.
• Fear one extra mob to take it out of the fight for a while. Don't put DoTs on it, or the damage may break the fear.
• Rain of Fire (level 20) hits a whole pack, but rank 1 costs 295 mana in the client, so save it for packs of three or more.
• Hellfire (level 30) burns every nearby enemy and you as well, so use it only with a healer or on a pack that is almost dead, and stop before your health gets low. It can critically strike since the 1 October build.
• In the level 30 Destruction dungeon build, the Bane of Havoc talent goes on a second mob that will live a while, so part of the damage you deal to the first also hits it.

Curses and Banes

In Forever, Banes are a separate kind of spell from Curses. The client allows one Bane and one Curse from you on the same target, so Bane of Agony and Curse of Weakness (or Curse of the Elements) can both be on a mob at once. Bane of Havoc, a Destruction talent from 30, is a Bane too, so it shares that one slot with Bane of Agony.

• Curse of Weakness: solo against mobs that hit in melee, and it also lowers the damage your Voidwalker takes.
• Curse of Recklessness: lowers armor, and cursed mobs won't flee, so it stops a nearly dead mob from running off to fetch its friends.
• Curse of the Elements (20): in groups and on long fights, where every caster gains from it. Rank 2 at 30 raises the magic damage bonus to 6%.
• Curse of Tongues (26): on a dangerous enemy caster, whose spells then take 50% longer to cast.

Life Tap, health and soul shards

The Warlock loop is simple: when you're low on mana, Life Tap; when you're low on health, Drain Life. Demon Skin or Demon Armor adds health regeneration, and the Healthstone is your emergency heal. That's why Warlocks usually eat more than they drink.

• Life Tap's tooltip in the client doesn't show fixed numbers; Blizzard's September 24 notes say it now shows the right amount and that Spirit increases it.
• Tap between fights or while the Voidwalker holds the mob, not when a mob is hitting you and your health is low.
• Create Healthstone makes a Healthstone that instantly restores 120 health. Keep one in your bags and make a new one as soon as you use it. At level 22, Create Healthstone makes a Lesser Healthstone that restores 300 health.
• Create Soulstone stores one player's soul so they can come back after dying. In Classic, solo Warlocks kept one on themselves before risky pulls to skip the run back after a death. At level 30, Create Soulstone brings them back with 750 health and 1200 mana.
• Forever adds campfires: sit by one for a few moments to get rested and pick up one-hour buffs. The Deep Dive recap explains how they work.

Soul Shards

A Soul Shard is a reagent (an item a spell uses up). The client's Drain Soul tooltip says a mob that isn't trivial for you has a chance to give you a Soul Shard just by being hit by Drain Soul, and always gives one if it dies while you drain it. Grey mobs, far below your level, are the usual trivial ones and give nothing. The same tooltip says Soul Shards are required for other spells. The Affliction talent Soul Harvest rewards the same habit: since the 1 October build it really does raise your Mana regeneration after a Drain Soul kill, by 100% for 10 sec at 2/2.

Speculation: In Classic, summoning the Voidwalker and the Succubus and making Healthstones and Soulstones each used up a Soul Shard, and the Imp didn't need one. The Forever client's tooltips don't list reagents, so check the spell in game before you count on your shards. Keeping a few spare is cheap insurance: finish a dying mob with Drain Soul now and then.

Class quests up to 30

In Classic, Warlocks earned their demons through class quests. The Forever client lists Summon Imp at level 1, Summon Voidwalker at 10, the Succubus and Incubus at 20 and the Felhunter at 30 as abilities, so it isn't confirmed whether you still need the quests. The Forever game cache that ForeverDB has seen does include the Durotar imp quest, Vile Familiars, where Ruzan still asks for six Vile Familiar Heads before he teaches you the art of summoning. The table is Classic's data.

Classic data (CMaNGOS classic-db) for class quests the Forever client has. Map pins use Classic positions placed on Forever's maps.

Speculation: The Orb of Soran'ruk is a level 25 quest in Classic's data that you can pick up from level 20, so it fits inside the level 30 cap. Its staff, Staff of Soran'ruk, tops the level 30 gear lists for Demonology and Destruction, and for Affliction only Staff of the Shade from Razorfen Kraul (Classic's loot table) scores higher. The Small Soul Pouch is a Warlock-only bag in the Forever client, most likely for your shards.

Gear, weapons and professions

You wear cloth. Look for spell power and Shadow damage (they make your DoTs and Shadow Bolts hit harder), Intellect (more mana), Stamina (more health, and more room to Life Tap) and Spirit, which Life Tap's tooltip says increases what it converts. Blizzard's Deep Dive says caster weapons now give spell damage, so staves and daggers with spell power are real upgrades while you level.

The gear planner scores every item for your spec and level, and the gear lists on the Warlock PvE page show the best items for each slot at 20 and at 30 and where they come from. Some highlights from those lists:

• Tailoring makes a matching Shadow set: Shadow Circlet (level 20), Filigreed Shadow Gown (level 15), Filigreed Shadow Leggings (level 20), Shadow Gloves (level 15), Shadow Sash (level 17) and Shadow Boots (level 12). Spidersilk Boots (level 20) is on the lists too.
• Tailoring at 30: Filigreed Shadow Circlet (level 25), Shadow Gown (level 22), Shadow Leggings (level 25), Hands of Darkness (level 24) and Black Slippers (level 30) are at or near the top of the level 30 lists.
• Dungeons: Classic's loot tables put Witching Stave, Necrology Robes and Belt of Arugal in Shadowfang Keep, and Staff of the Shade and Death Speaker Mantle in Razorfen Kraul.
• Wands: Enchanters make Novice's Practice Wand (level 1), Lesser Magic Wand (level 5) and Greater Magic Wand (level 13). Blizzard's September 24 notes say wands no longer gain damage from your spell damage.

Professions that suit a Warlock: Tailoring, because you loot plenty of cloth from humanoid mobs and it makes your gear and bags, and Enchanting, which makes wands and breaks down green items you don't need. If you'd rather make money, pick two gathering professions (Herbalism, Mining or Skinning) instead. The professions guide explains how each one works in Forever.

Grouping and your first dungeon

In a group your job is damage. The tank (a sturdy player who holds the mobs' attention) starts each fight, the healer keeps everyone alive, and you damage what the tank is holding. Every hit and every DoT tick builds threat (how much a mob wants to attack you), so give the tank a few seconds before you start.

• Bring the Imp, not the Voidwalker: Blood Pact raises the party's Stamina, and Fire Shield on the tank burns everything that hits it. Set the Imp so it doesn't attack before the tank does.
• Put Curse of the Elements on the kill target: every caster in the group deals more magic damage to it.
• Before each boss, put a Soulstone on the healer. If they die while it's stored, they can come back and save the run.
• Ritual of Summoning (level 20) brings a missing group member to the dungeon, with two more players helping at the portal.
• Don't DoT a mob that's crowd-controlled (CC'd): a Mage's Polymorph and a Rogue's Sap both break on damage.
• Fear is risky in dungeons, since a feared mob can run into another pack. You have no interrupt by 30 either: the client puts the Felhunter's Spell Lock at level 36.
• Banish (level 28) takes a Demon or Elemental out of a pull for up to 20 sec. It can't be hurt while banished, so the group kills everything else first.
• Skip Searing Pain in groups. Its tooltip warns it causes a lot of threat.

Dungeons from 20 to 30

Dungeons open in the beta per Blizzard's 1 October notes. Levels are the Forever client's minimum, or Blizzard's own numbers where Blizzard gave them. Loot is Classic's data.

Ragefire Chasm, the Hall of Thanes, Ruins of Lordaeron, Wailing Caverns and the Deadmines are open too and suit lower levels. Since the 1 October build, dungeon quests give 50% less extra experience beyond normal quest values, so a run is less of a leveling shortcut than it was.

The first dungeon guide walks you through your first run. The dungeon list has every instance with its bosses and quests, and the Warlock PvE page has a dungeon build for each spec.

Common beginner mistakes

• Skipping the trainer. New ranks are big upgrades; check in at every even level.
• Summoning in combat. It's a long cast; summon between fights.
• Letting the Voidwalker die. Watch its health and Health Funnel it in time.
• Fearing a mob into other mobs. Look where it can run before you Fear it.
• Putting DoTs on a feared or crowd-controlled mob. Damage may break the effect.
• Life Tapping at low health in a fight. Tap when you're safe, then Drain Life the health back.
• Wasting DoTs on mobs that are about to die. A DoT only pays off if the mob lives long enough; finish low mobs with Shadow Bolt or your wand.
• Running out of Soul Shards. Finish a mob with Drain Soul now and then.
• Casting during Drain Soul. Since the 1 October build, starting another spell stops the channel, so let it finish.
• Forgetting your armor. Keep Demon Skin, and later Demon Armor, up at all times.

What Forever changed for Warlocks

• Banes: Curse of Agony is now Bane of Agony, and Banes are a separate kind of spell from Curses, so you can keep one of each on a target.
• New spells: Curse of the Elements at level 20 is new in the Forever client, and so is the Bane of Havoc talent.
• Soul Shards are easier to get: Drain Soul can now give a shard just by damaging a mob, not only when the mob dies.
• A new talent tree: Forever's talent window adds talents such as Malediction, Improved Drains, Demonic Energies, Demonic Aegis and Molten Skin, moves Soul Link and Conflagrate up so they open at 30 and 25, and swaps Demonic Sacrifice's buffs: the Imp now gives Shadow damage and the Succubus or Incubus Fire damage. Demonic Embrace gives up to 15% Stamina with no Spirit penalty.
• Spells scale better with gear: the client gives Shadow Bolt rank 1 0.486 of your spell power, up from 0.14 in Classic, and Corruption and Immolate get similar boosts.
• September 24 notes: Life Tap's tooltip now shows the right amount and says Spirit increases it, and Voidwalker Sacrifice scales with 10% of your spell healing.
• New race option: Troll Warlocks.
• The Incubus sits next to the Succubus at level 20, and talents like Improved Sayaad and Fel Vitality cover both.
• Cooldown Manager: Warlocks can test Blizzard's new Cooldown Manager (Options, Gameplay Enhancement). The known issues say it can lose track of your Banes and Curses when you change targets, and it can't track the Healthstone cooldown yet.
• Known issue: the character sheet doesn't show your demon's stats correctly yet (work in progress).
• 1 October build (level 30): Blizzard's notes say Drain Soul now stops if you start casting another spell, Hellfire can critically strike, the Soul Harvesting talent is now called Soul Harvest and really grants its 50% or 100% Mana regeneration increase, pets' Aggressive mode is back in the pet tab of your spell book, and the Incubus has a new, lower-resolution model. Dungeon quests also give 50% less extra experience.

Every change we've found is on the Warlock changes page. Level 30 build goes live covers the whole 1 October update, and our Warlock outlook looks further ahead.

Checked against WoW Forever beta build 1.60.1.70170.