Warlock Leveling Guide & Best Leveling Talents 1-60 - WoW Classic

By Neryssa Updated: 2024/11/18

Ease of Leveling a Warlock in Classic WoWWarlock UtilityRitual of SummoningFearHowl of TerrorMortal CoilTop Things You Shouldn't Miss While Leveling a Warlock in Classic WoWWarlock

Speak to your Warlock trainer to begin class quests at levels 10, 20, 30, 50 and 60.

Get a wand ASAP! Wands will greatly aid you in leveling: whether in a dungeon or out in the open world

Your mount is free at level 40, but at 60 will require completion of an epic quest chain, which could be costly

When approaching levels 50 and up, begin checking out your Pre-Raid BiS gear and where it drops. You can begin farming certain dungeons early on, while still gaining XP, to obtain some of that Pre-Raid BiS gear before 60.

Leveling a Warlock from 1-10 in Classic WoWSoul ShardAuto AttackShadow BoltAuto AttackShadow BoltEarly Leveling and First Warlock Abilities

When you see a mob, start casting Shadow Bolt. If there are people nearby when you're questing, and you don't wanna risk losing mob tags, instead run to them and use Auto Attack.

Cast Shadow Bolt until the mob is dead.

ImmolateShadow BoltImmolateShadow BoltSummon ImpFireboltCorruptionImmolateCorruptionShadow BoltLife TapOnce you reach Level 10Soul ShardSoul Shards and Drain Soul in Classic WoWSoul Shard

Summon Voidwalker (10), Summon Succubus (20), Summon Felhunter (30): All your demons besides the Imp will require a Soul Shard to be summoned.

Create Healthstone (10): Creates a Healthstone that can be used to instantly restore your own health.

(18): Creates a Soulstone. If you die while buffed with a Soulstone, you will be able to resurrect instantly.

Ritual of Summoning (20): Begins a ritual that will summon a player to the Warlock's location. Requires two additional players to help complete the ritual.

Subjugate Demon (30): Enslaves a demon up to 2 levels above you, forcing the demon to do your bidding for 5 minutes. While enslaved, the demon will have reduced attack and casting speed. If you repeatedly attempt to enslave a demon, it will become harder to control it.

Warlock Leveling Talent Builds in Classic WoWAffliction Warlock Leveling - Drain Tanking in Classic WoWCorruptionWhy Drain Tanking?DiveClassic Warlock Discordvery in-depth guide to Drain TankingDemonology Warlock Leveling - Soul Link in Classic WoWDestruction Warlock Leveling - Dungeon AoE Grinding in Classic WoWSpells to Buy while Leveling as a Warlock in Classic WoW

The first 10 levels: The first 10 levels aren't usually an issue for travel time since you are likely to be turning in quests next to a trainer at all time, Warlock as I've said before is an exceptionally good leveler receiving your Summon Imp quest at level 1, gaining access to Immolate whenever you have 10 copper, and also getting Corruption, Agony, Life Tap, and Fear all in the first ten levels. Level 10 is important because you will get the quest for your Summon Voidwalker and be able to learn your first rank of .

Level 14: This is the first reasonable stopping point as you can get rank 2 , rank 3 , and I think it's worth picking up your first rank of .

Level 18: Here we pick up another rank of and while you are at the trainer I'd take . as well as Unending Breath for those nasty underwater quests. A new rank of can also be purchased.

Level 20: No notable spells are purchasable at this level, but at level 20 the quest for Summon Succubus is available from your Class trainers.

Level 24: This is a big buy for you as you get new ranks of and , in addition to these two you can update the following spells: , , , , and .

Level 28: A new rank of becomes available here which is good but, if you have a lot of momentum going and don't want to go back to town, you can feel free to skip this buy. It's also worth noting that you can get a new rank of and as well.

Level 34: This is going to be your last buy before 40: you get a new rank of ; and, while you're there go ahead and grab the following spells: , , , , and anything else you want before heading out to quest.

Level 40: It's finally time to come and get your (mostly) free mount in Felsteed, learned directly from the trainer, beyond this you can also upgrade a few spells while you are here. Some of the more notable spells include: , , , , and .

Level 42: If you're on a pvp realm, I would suggest going back at 42 because Mortal Coil is probably worth getting all by itself.

Level 44: Here you can continue to upgrade your Affliction spells in and another level of .

Level 48: You have two DoT upgrades in and . You can also purchase another rank of .

Level 50: It's not a requirement to come back to trainers at this level, but a new rank of will be available starting at 50.

Level 54: As you are closing in on max level, you can stop at 54 to buy , , (Rank 8), and your final rank of .

Level 58: Depending on a few different factors (how fast you level in relation to server age, how fast other people level, etc.) you might already be in dungeons but, it's worth noting that at 58 you get the last ranks for , and .

Warlock Leveling Rotation in Classic WoWWarlock Group Leveling in Classic WoWWarlock Dungeon Spell Cleave SetupRitual of SummoningHealthstone

Manage your health and mana accordingly with .

and can cause devastating AoE damage, but be careful with tank threat, especially with Hellfire.

Tab target + DoT is another effective method.

Stay out of melee range unless absolutely necessary (or you have a Mage providing Frost Novas for your Hellfire)

Ensure you have plenty of food in your bags! Life Tapping and eating is more effective for Warlocks than drinking. Also ensure you have plenty of Soul Shards!

Warlock Trainer Locations in Classic WoWHow To Train Your Warlock Demons in Classic WoW

Summon Imp is best used for the initial steps of leveling, as well as the demon of choice when you need one out for dungeons ans raids, thanks in part of the Stamina buff provided by . When used in dungeons, the Imp is pretty much only there for the Stamina buff, and thanks to , it does not need any upkeep at all.

Summon Voidwalker is best used for situations where you need a tank to divert attacks from you, although the Voidwalker does not generate that much threat. It can also be a useful Demon in World PvP - The Voidwalker does not deal that much damage, but the massive shield provided by can be the difference between life and death for you. Although useful at max-level, the Voidwalker is not that great of a leveling pet, as it usually does not have enough firepower to hold threat on his own.

Summon Succubus is the best leveling pet for Warlocks, as it deals the highest amount of damage and has a large mana pool that can be abused with . With Lesser Invisibility coupled with Seduction, the Succubus can also be a nasty surprise against attackers in World PvP who might think you're alone.

Summon Felhunter is the best World PvP pet for Warlocks - With high base spell resistances, Spell Lock and , the Felhunter is extremely nasty against casters. Rogues also have a hard time against Warlocks with Felhunters out, thanks to increasing the Warlock's stealth detection, and making it that much more difficult for a Rogue to jump on a Warlock. However, it is relatively inefficient to go for Summon Felhunter, as the quest lines required for this demons are long and will cause you to spend a lot of time focusing on acquiring a pet you won't use during leveling. We recommend skipping these quests until max level.

Fear Juggling and Voidwalker JugglingjugglingFear JugglingFearVoidwalker JugglingSpells to Buy for your Warlock Demon Pets while LevelingFireboltLash of PainSeductionLesser Invisibility

The first 10 levels: Your Imp will start with Firebolt - On the first 10 levels, you will have access to Grimoire of Blood Pact (Rank 1) and Grimoire of Firebolt (Rank 2).

Level 14: At 14, you can purchase Grimoire of Phase Shift and Grimoire of Blood Pact (Rank 2).

Level 18: As you stop to purchase new skills, you can also purchase Grimoire of Firebolt (Rank 3).

Level 28: This will be the first level to purchase skills for your Succubus. You can now choose between continuing purchasing skills for your Imp (which will be used in dungeons) or simply buy skills for your Succubus. Either way, you can purchase Grimoire of Blood Pact (Rank 3) and Grimoire of Firebolt (Rank 4) for your Imp and Grimoire of Seduction and Grimoire of Lash of Pain (Rank 2) for your Succubus.

Level 32: This is not a required stop, but you can purchase Grimoire of Lesser Invisibility for your Succubus starting at 32.

Level 40: As you start your quest to obtain your mount, you can also purchase Grimoire of Blood Pact (Rank 4) and Grimoire of Firebolt (Rank 5) for your Imp.

Level 44: Your Succubus has access to a new rank of Grimoire of Lash of Pain (Rank 4) at 44.

Level 48: At 48 you can teach your Imp another rank of Grimoire of Firebolt (Rank 6).

Level 50: If you're doing a lot of dungeons by this level, it is a good idea to return and purchase the last rank of Grimoire of Blood Pact (Rank 5). If not, you can skip this until you need to purchase more skills for your Succubus.

Level 54: Your Succubus can get a new rank of Grimoire of Lash of Pain (Rank 5) at this level.

Level 58: At 58, you can purchase the last rank of Grimoire of Firebolt (Rank 7) for your Imp.

Level 60: Although not entirely necessary, if you plan on farming with your Succubus, you can purchase the last rank of Grimoire of Lash of Pain (Rank 6) as you hit 60.

Warlock Weapon Skills in Classic WoWDefault Weapon Skills for Classic Warlocks

Race

Default Weapon Skills

Daggers

Daggers

Daggers

Daggers

Weapon Trainers for Classic Warlock Weapon Skills

Weapon Master Location

Weapons Skills Taught

Ilyenia Moonfire (57.6, 46.6), Warrior's Terrace, Darnassus

Staves

Woo Ping (57.0, 57.6), Trade District, Stormwind

One-Handed Swords, Staves

Hanashi (81.6, 19.4), Valley of Honor, Orgrimmar

Staves

Sayoc (81.6, 19.4), Valley of Honor, Orgrimmar

Staves

Ansekhwa (41.2, 61.4), Thunder Bluff

Staves

Archibald (57.8, 31.6), War Quarter, Undercity

One-Handed Swords

Best Weapons and Gear For Leveling a Warlock in Classic WoWEnchanting Wands

Lesser Magic Wand is the earliest wand you can pick up; it requires 10 skill in enchanting and is created by Lesser Magic Wand. This item is generally pretty cheap on a developed server; you can probably find this on the auction house for just a few silver. If you're on a fresh server, you'll have to invest some time and resources into leveling enchanting in order to get this wand.

Greater Magic Wand is a "greater" version of the previous wand but also takes a bit more effort as it requires to reach 70 enchanting to craft it. If you aren't leveling on a fresh server and the auction house has had time to develop, you will be able to purchase this item relatively cheap as well.

Questing Wands

Item

Location

Spark of the People's Militia

Reward from The People's Militia in Westfall, available for the Alliance.

Elven Wand

Reward from Bashal'Aran in Darkshore, available for the Alliance.

Dwarven Flamestick

Reward from Gathering Idols in Loch Modan, available for the Alliance.

Flaring Baton

Reward from The Escape in The Barrens, available for the Horde.

Wand of Decay

Reward from Beren's Peril in Silverpine Forest, available for the Horde.

Gravestone Scepter

Reward from Blackfathom Villainy in Blackfathom Deeps.

Warlock Leveling Wand and Weapon ProgressionNoteStat Weights while Leveling a WarlockSpell Power > Stamina > Intellect > Spirit

Spell Power: You probably won't get a lot of this while leveling but, if you do manage to get an item with spell power it will increase your damage and thus your kill speed.

Stamina: Increases total health points, and indirectly, your mana pool via Life Tap.

Intellect: Increases mana and spell critical strike (which is not very useful as dots cannot crit).

Spirit: Spirit is usually excellent while leveling in Classic, although not as useful for Warlocks - Warlocks can quickly regenerate Mana via Life Tap. Spirit can pay off when used in conjunction with , but shouldn't be a focus.

Best Warlock Leveling Professions in Classic WoWWarlockEngineeringTailoringWarlockPre-raid BiS

Green Lens (...of Shadow Wrath) - Engineering

Robe of the Void - Tailoring

Felcloth Shoulders - Tailoring

EngineeringTailoringHerbalismMiningSkinningWarlock Class Quests in Classic WoWWarlock

Summon Imp (available at level 1)

Changes to Questing in Classic WoW

Quests and Objectives are not displayed on the map: To put it simply, you will have to do some exploring; if you are lost at some point during a quest you might have to read the quest or go to an external website, to find out where you are supposed to be going. While there might eventually be a leveling addon for Classic, part of the game is feeling immersed in a world to create an adventure all your own.

You may struggle to kill enemies: Even as a Warlock, you won't be able to kill mobs in huge AoE fashion, you'll have to be careful not to bite off more than you can chew; perhaps choosing to kill only a few mobs at a time as opposed to as many as you can tag. The pace of the game is much slower, and you will need to adjust to that.

Zones don't guarantee a certain amount of levels: Once again, coming from BFA or one of the later expansions, you might be used to finishing a zone (Vol'Dun for instance) and expecting to be two levels higher. In Classic, the difficulty of zones vary, luckily as a Warlock, you will be able to handle almost any enemy at any given level range.

Best Warlock Questing Zones in Classic WoW

Darkshore (11-19): Once you complete the starting area for your particular race, you begin to have options of where to go, where to quest, and for Alliance, in particular, one of the best early game zones is Darkshore.

Loch Modan (10-18): Second to Darkshore would be the Gnome/Dwarf 10-18 zone of Loch Modan. The zone isn't as rich as Darkshore, but, it has some relatively easy quests. This is a good place to come back to and complete the quests once you out-level the content.

Westfall (9-18): While these initial questing zones come down to preference, I would not suggest Westfall as a zone in regards to difficulty. However, if you have a group of friends you are leveling with, and you want to go into Deadmines for a quest run and get some higher item level rewards, this zone is worth considering.

Redridge Mountains (15-25): This is the level range where you will have to bounce between zones of equal difficulty if you want to fill your quest bar from questing alone. Forming an efficient route of the next few zones will be important to increase your leveling speed.

Duskwood (20-30): This is probably one of my favorite zones; it's full of quests, full of flavor, and has a lot of solid upgrades. Don't miss out on this zone if you play Alliance.

Wetlands (20-30): This is probably the last "Alliance only" zone, from here on out you will enter into zones that are contested by both Horde and Alliance.

Northern Barrens (10-33): This is the big one, as it is the meeting point for three of the four races of the Horde, this zone has no shortage of quests and will easily propel you toward level 20. As great as this zone is, be ready to compete for mob tags, as there will be a lot of players funneled into this one zone.

Silverpine Forest (10-20): This is the Undead version of The Barrens; it has some decent quests to complete, but, I usually don't end up coming here at all.

Stonetalon Mountains (15-25): Although this zone offers Alliance quests, it is almost entirely a Horde zone. This zone is fantastic as it is right next to the Barrens, and the level range of the two zones overlap.

Hillsbrad Foothills (20-31): Home to the infamous Southshore vs. Tarren Mill world PvP spot, this zone has a lot of good quests for both Alliance and Horde and is usually worked into most people's leveling routes.

Ashenvale (19-30): Another flavorful zone as this is the home to what will become Warsong Gulch, plenty of quests for both Alliance and Horde.

Thousand Needles (24-35): Home to the infamous Shimmer Flats, this is a great zone for both factions to get almost an entire level. It also has a questing hub for Horde.

Northern Stranglethorn (30-50): probably one of the most infamous zones in the whole of World of Warcraft, you will be coming to this zone off and on from level 30 and up towards level 50.

Desolace (30-39): Home of the dungeon Maraudon, this is one of my favorite zones in the game, and I spend many levels here. There are both Horde and Alliance quest hubs here.

Arathi Highlands (30-40): This zone is home to the 2nd battleground Arathi Basin, there are two hubs here (one for each faction), and there are plenty of good kill quests here.

Badlands (36-45): This is a quick and dirty zone, while it only has a hub for Horde; it is a quick level, and if you have enough players around your level you can do an Uldaman quest run.

Tanaris (40-50): Home to the dungeon Zul'Farrak, I recommend questing here as well as doing a full quest run of ZF.

Feralas (41-60): This is one of the less popular zones for people to quest at, it's worth coming here in your early 40s as there are plenty of quests for both factions.

Searing Gorge (43-56): This zone is particularly exciting because you get your first taste of the end-game, On one side of Blackrock Mountain is a lower level zone with various quests coming from the Thorium Brotherhood.

Burning Steppes (50-59): The other side of Blackrock Mountain, this is a higher level zone and has hubs for both Horde and Alliance, you will probably come to this zone a couple of times as the level range is quite large. Some dungeon quests come from this zone.

Felwood (47-54): This zone is a must-complete for me as the quests are quite good and you will need to come here to get your Cenarion Beacon, which is needed to farm various consumables like Whipper Root Tuber.

Un'Goro Crater (48-55): This is another hot zone as it has a plethora of quests and will get you nearly two levels from completing the crater.

Western Plaguelands (46-57): This zone is excellent for quick leveling, as you can complete the "cauldron" questline for massive amounts of experience. It's worth noting that you need a breadcrumb quest from your faction's major city.

Eastern Plaguelands (54-59): Home to the legendary Naxxramas, this zone gives you another taste of the end-game immediately upon questing. You will spend a lot of time here even at max level.

Winterspring (55-60): This is an amazing zone, it has a ton of quests that give a ton of experience, and you can get Cache of Mau'ari, allowing you to farm Jujus, a very good consumable for raids.

Leveling Routes in Season of MasteryAllianceHordeCWL 1-60 Leveling GuideLeveling Dungeons for Warlocks in Season of Mastery

Ragefire Chasm (13-18)

Wailing Caverns (15-25)

Deadmines (18-23)

Shadowfang Keep (22-30)

Blackfathom Deeps (20-30)

The Stockades (22-30)

Gnomeregan (24-34)

Razorfen Kraul (30-40)

Scarlet Monastery (26-45)

Razorfen Downs (40-50)

Uldaman (35-45)

Zul'farrak (44-54)

Maraudon (46-55)

Sunken Temple (55-60)

Blackrock Depths (52-60)

Lower Blackrock Spire (55-60)

Upper Blackrock Spire (55-60)

Scholomance (55-60)

Stratholme (Living) (55-60)

Stratholme (Undead) (55-60)

Bag Space in Season of Mastery

Linen Bag - Created by Tailors. Requires Tailoring skill level 45 and takes 6xLinen Cloth, obtained from Humanoid enemies, and 3xCoarse Thread, purchasable at Tailoring supplies vendors.
If you have the necessary materials, try asking in General Chat or Trade Chat if any Tailor could help you making that bag. If you find someone, make sure to tip them for their help!

Small Brown Pouchselect vendors in early gameKodo Hide BagLeatherworkingPattern: Kodo Hide BagThin Kodo LeatherLight LeatherCoarse Thread

Classic Bags and Storage Guide

Season of Mastery Warlock Level 60 Guides

Warlock DPS PvE Overview - The place to start your journey to be the best DPS Warlock. Best races, best professions, strengths, weakenesses, and much more.

Warlock DPS Talents & Builds - Builds, talents trees, and more. Learn all about talents to minmax your builds and talent tree decisions. Learn more about popular Warlock builds like the DS/Ruin, SM/Ruin, and SL/Nightfall builds.

Warlock DPS BiS Gear - Learn about the best Warlock DPS pre-raid gear to get ready for and what pieces to get inside , including tier pieces and exceptional gear pieces .

Warlock DPS Rotation & Abilities - Everything you need to know to be the best DPS Warlock. Learn about your abilities, rotations, priorities, and much more!

Warlock DPS Stats - Understand more about the stats for your Warlock, learn what stats always to look for and how they affect you.

Warlock DPS PvP Overview - Everything you need to know to destroy and outmatch your enemies in PvP Combat. If it's red, it's dead!

Closing Thoughts on Leveling a Warlock in Classic WoW

Quality of Life changes have been implemented over the years: If you are coming from Battle for Azeroth, there are going to be a lot of not-so-friendly changes that make questing harder, or at least take more time. Quests and objectives won't be marked on your map, so you will have to do a lot more exploring. There won't be a steady stream of quests from 1-60, so you will have to combine questing and grinding enemies for the experience to level. There's no AoE looting, and quest items take space in your bags. Cooldown abilities are available much less frequently, and there's significantly less personal healing, which adds much more downtime in between pulls as you sit and eat or use First Aid/Alchemy to heal. Playing efficiently is the best thing you can do to speed up your leveling.

You'll be Affliction While Leveling: Affliction is going to be your go-to talent tree for leveling, although this guide recommends respeccing at level 22 to dip into the demonology tree, you'd be totally fine going straight down the Affliction tree and grabbing and . However, if you're set on other builds, we do provide Demonology and Destruction options.

Level Solo as Warlock: Between your pet and your class' utility, you should have no problems whatsoever handling the leveling content alone.

Buy abilities only when needed: A lot of people don't think it is possible to afford a mount by level 40, in reality, it's much easier as long as you only buy the necessary spell upgrades to save money. It's also worth noting that following this guide for buying spells will save you a lot of travel time as flights back to major cities or your questing hub can take a lot of time away from leveling.

Use Your Imp/Succubus: Unfortunately, our beloved Voidwalker is not as effective in Classic, so you will want to use your Imp initially, then your Succubus once you're able to obtain the demon, both for their high DPS as well as their high mana pools for .

Comments

Comment by HottStepper

Under the lvl 22 tab you have Demonic Embrace linked as tier 2 to select instead of Improved voidwalker.

Comment by parvatiquinta

Undead Warlocks get an added benefit from the racial ability Cannibalize. As long as they have a fresh humanoid or undead corpse available, they can Life Tap to restore their mana and then Cannibalize to get the health back. As a result, I don't recall ever having to buy water in Vanilla - in fact I used this combo even on certain Molten Core fights (Majordomo, with his tasty adds). Just make sure to let your healer know if you are in a group.

Comment by Kurtosis

Edit: reposted longer version in the forums. Also see Dive’s Drain Tanking build guide vid.
----

For leveling on PvP servers you’ll more likely want to run a 30/0/21 Drain Tanking build. Drain Tanking means letting the mob hit you, not your pet, while you DoT it up and Drain Life it. This lets you run Succubus or Felhunter which are stronger than Voidwalker in PvP, and the build itself is also stronger against gankers.

As you level, go all the way down Afflic getting all the talents that buff DoTs, Drain Life, Life Tap and Shadow damage. Then go down the Destro tree for Improved Shadow Bolt, Bane, Shadowburn, Devastation and Ruin.

Talent order:

14: 5/5 Corruption
19: 5/5 Improved Drain Life
24: 5/5 Fel Concentration
26: 2/5 Suppression
28: 2/2 Improved Life Tap
29: 1/1 Amplify Curse *
30: 1/1 Siphon Life
32: 2/2 Nightfall
34: 2/2 Grim Reach *
39: 5/5 Shadow Mastery
44: 5/5 Improved Shadow Bolt
49: 5/5 Bane **
50: 1/1 Shadowburn
55: 5/5 Devastation
57: 2/2 Destructive Reach
59: 2/5 Aftermath ***
60: Ruin

Explanation:

The first 15 points enable basic Drain Tanking with instant cast Corruption, Improved Drain Life, and Fel Concentration.

2/5 Suppression next. At this level (26) you're entering Contested Zones where you may incur higher level enemy players. Suppression reduces your spell misses against them, particularly Fear, saving precious time on recasting.

2/2 Life Tap at level 28 so you only have to Life Tap once instead of multiple times, saves precious time in combat.

Amplify Curse, Siphon Life, Nightfall, and Grim Reach next*. Get Amplify and Siphon Life first. Amplify gives you more burst against gankers, and Siphon Life gives extra damage, leech, and dispell protection (more DoTs are harder to dispell). Nightfall is the next strongest, then Grim Reach.

Finally finish the Affliction tree with 5/5 Shadow Mastery.

In Destro get Improved Shadow Bolt, Bane**, Shadowburn, Devastation, Grim Reach and Ruin. After Grim Reach you have 2pts remaining you have to spend to unlock Ruin. You can put these wherever you like, there aren't any great options left for them***. Recommend 2/2 Improved Lash of Pain with Succubus, or 2/5 Aftermath with Felhunter.

* At level 29-34 Siphon Life and Nightfall are necessary, but for the rest you have a few options: Improved Curse of Agony, Amplify Curse + Grim Reach, or 5/5 Suppression.
- AC+CoA is stronger burst damage for pressuring gankers, and Grim Reach helps against Hunters and other ranged classes.
- 5/5 Suppression lets you go up against significantly higher players (~5 levels) and surprise them.
- Improved CoA is relatively weak for leveling.

** Bane reduces Immolation cast time by .5s, useful on long fights where you need to recast Immolation, less so on short fights where you just open with it and don't recast it. Bane also reduces your Soul Fire cast time in case you like to open with it for kicks and giggles.

*** You have 2pts left and nothing great to spend them on. 2/5 Aftermath is probably the least worst, it gives Immolate and Shadow Bolt 4% chance to Daze. Can be annoying to gankers if you get a lucky proc. Other options are:
- Cataclysm (only helpful in full Destro build)
- Improved Searing Pain (you won't be using Searing Pain)
- Improved Firebolt (you won't be using the Imp)
- Intensity (Fire spells are weak in this Shadow damage build, you won't be using anything Intensity applies to)
- Improved Lash of Pain (a minor damage increase if you're running Succubus, not if you're running Felhunter)
- Aftermath (gives rare but annoying dazes in PvP)
Aftermath and Improved Lash of Pain (if using Succubus) are the least useless options, but neither are consequential so pick anything here you prefer.

How to play it:

Don't bother with Drain Tanking till level 26 when you can get Seduction for your Succubus. That spell is the key to gank defense while Drain Tanking.

From level 1-10 use your Imp, and from level 10-26 let your Voidwalker tank for you. If you get ganked with the Voidwalker out, use its Sacrifice ability to gain a shield, then Fear, DoT, and Drain Life the attacker. Hope they don't interrupt Fear.

From level 26 run with Succubus. Turn off pet abilities, save Succubus’s mana for Seduction only. Body tank mobs, DoT them up, Drain Life till dead. Life Tap to refill mana, Drain Life to refill health. Shadow Bolt when Nightfall Procs. Drain Soul when mob almost dead to collect soul shards. Once you get Shadowburn, use that instead of Drain Soul.

Don’t Fear mobs or they’ll probably pull others, just let them hit you while you Drain Life them, aka Drain Tanking.

If you get ganked, cc the ganker with Seduction so they can’t interrupt your Fear, then Fear them, DoT them, Drain Life, Shadow Bolt on Nightfall, Shadowburn to finish. If you fight another Warlock, Seduce them first, Banish their minion, Fear them, then repeat the above.

At 30 you get Felhunter which is arguably even stronger than Succubus, especially for an Affliction build. Learn how to use Felhunter’s Devour Magic, one of a warlock’s most powerful and versatile spells. It can remove many useful enemy buffs, anything not classified as “Undispellable”, as well as most magic debuffs applied to you like Fear, Polymorph, etc. It also has increased Stealth detection to help catch Rogues and Druids before they can open on you.

A simple Amplify Curse + Curse of Agony macro casts the two together with one keypress:

#showtooltip
/use Amplify Curse
/use Curse of Agony

This will cast CoA both with and without the Shift key pressed, and Amplify first if Shift is pressed.

Gear:

Stack Spell Power, Intellect, Stamina. Ignore Spirit since you restore mana with Life Tap.

Other Drain Tanking variants:

1. Heavy Affliction 41/5/5. This is actually the strongest pure PvP leveling build, because in 30/0/21 you don't get the most important Destro talent, Ruin, till you hit 60. This build gives more useful talents earlier in the build. Same talent order as above, but after you get Improved Shadow Bolt go back and fill in the other Afflic talents - Improved CoA, Curse of Exhaustion, and more stamina and/or Healthstone healing in the Demo tree. You lose harder hitting Shadow Bolts and Immolates from Devastation and Ruin, but at least keep the Improved Shadow Bolt shadow damage buff.

2. Defensive Afflic/Demo 30/21/0. Go into Demo instead of Destro for Fel Domination and Master Summoner. This lets you insta-cast resummon your minion if a ganker kills it. Some PvP'ers know they can gimp a warlock if they kill your Succubus or Felhunter, but not with this build. You also get Improved Health Stone and increased Stamina, and Improved Succubus which increases Seductio

Comment by RanLive

You should be exceptionally careful using drain life. It deals damage AND heals meaning it generates double the threat. Never really use it in dungeons or raids. For your voidwalker, you should wait about 2-3 casts of its taunt spell before going ham. If you really want to conserve mana get a good wand and use wands after dotting.

Comment by LilyValentin

The level 60 build could be better improved. Most people at 60 are not using demons, you're going to tank your own pulls. You should pick up talents in improving your Imp, because you're only using it as a mana battery, so you might as well get the max benefit of it being constantly out (not to mention it's passive buff will be very beneficial in groups). Unholy Power and Improved Void Walker are a waste, again, because you'll mostly need imp out for dumping mana, and you shouldn't waste your time trying to solo elite mobs with a void walker, the elite mobs will decimate it, and you'll be wasting shards and time trying to kill elite mobs. Just group up with other players, like you should, or better yet, invest into Curse of Exhaustion, because you can kite with it, and if you get ganked, you can use it effectively in PvP. Put points into Improved Drain Life so you can better tank mobs.

If you get ganked a lot (because you're on a PvP server obviously) you should invest into Destruction instead of Demonology, but if you plan on raiding or running dungeons a lot, make that imp into a battery to maximize DPS.

This is from my own experience when I played a Warlock in Vanilla.

Comment by Fluctuate

Affliction is pretty much the best way to level at first, as you will be playing with your void walker and just needing to grind out mobs as quickly as possible.

For raiding on the other hand, I remember almost exclusively playing two specs through the first half of vanilla. Shadow Master / Ruin for almost all dungeons and Molten Core, or Soul Link/Heavy Demonology with a few scattered elsewhere for some heavy Hellfire aoe bosses (like Nefarian).

Remember a few notes:
1: Raid bosses are higher level so having at least a few points in Suppression helps.
2: Healthstone vending is a pre-raid job, so you might as well improve those.
3: Your raid will likely need your Imp's Blood Pact to put one warlock in the tank group and likely 2 or 3 other groups depending on raid comp. So outside of PvP and some odd ball dungeon groups where you need seduce CC or felhunter interupt, you won't be able to use Master Demonologist to get their passives in order for the rest of the group you're in to have some extra hp to stay alive.
4: Improved Shadow Mastery is a debuff that no one else wants to waste a debuff slot on.

Comment by Talimar

Here are some leveling thoughts I gathered from vanilla forums(July 2006). I just updated the links. I did not make the guide.

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I have leveled up multiple Warlocks, and this is the talent order that I have found to be the fastest.

Talents:
10-14: 5/5 Imp Corruption
15: 1/5 Demonic Embrace
16-18: 3/3 Imp Imp (For the instances you should be running right now)
19: 2/5 Demonic Embrace
20-22: Imp VW
23-25: 5/5 Demonic Embrace
26: 1/1 Fel Domination
27-29: 3/5 Fel Stamina
Level 29 Spec: https://classic.wowhead.com/talent-calc/warlock/ATADPMGQAA

Respec #1 (Level 30): https://classic.wowhead.com/talent-calc/warlock/AzDzPAAA
30: Respec to 5/5 Imp Corruption, 5/5 Imp Drain Life, 2/2 Imp Life Tap, 5/5 Fel Concentration, 2/2 Nightfall, 2/2 Grim Reach
31: 1/1 Siphon life
32-34: 3/5 Suppression
35-39: 5/5 Shadow Mastery
40: 1/1 Dark Pact
41-45: 5/5 Demonic Embrace
46-49: 4/5 Fel Intellect
Level 49 Spec: https://classic.wowhead.com/talent-calc/warlock/BZw8zxDQAgwoAA

Respec #2 (Level 50): https://classic.wowhead.com/talent-calc/warlock/AzDk3wQ8zTkQAA
50: Respec to 5/5 Imp Corruption, 2/2 Imp Lifetap, 3/5 Imp Drain Life, 5/5 Fel Concentration, 2/2 Grim Reach, 2/2 Nightfall, 1/1 Amplify Curse, 5/5 Demonic Embrace, 3/3 Imp Imp, 3/3 Imp VW, 3/3 Imp Succubus, 1/1 Fel Domination, 2/2 Master Summoner, 3/5 Unholy Power, 1/1 Demonic Sacrifice
51: 1/1 Siphon Life
52: 1/1 Curse of Exaustion
53-55: 3/4 Imp. Curse of Exaustion
56-60: 5/5 Shadow Mastery
Level 60 Spec: https://classic.wowhead.com/talent-calc/warlock/BTDk3xZwBDzNORAA

Note about Drain Tanking:
Common knowledge is that Drain Tanking is the most efficient leveling spec. Few realize, however, that it is nearly useless before level 30, due to the weakness of the lower versions of the Drain Life spell.

How to level:
Grind and quest at the same time. Either look for multiple quests that involve killing the same mobs, or look for multiple quests in the same areas. The more quests you can get done before running back to turn in, the faster your leveling will go. Also, remember to set your hearth to new places frequently. Every time you plan to level in a new place for more than an hour, set your hearth there, as the time saved by teleporting back to the nearest down instead of running is incredible.

Leveling Guides:
James' Alliance Leveling Guide - http://www.wow-pro.com/node/600/revisions/826/view
Joana's Horde Leveling Guide - https://www.joanasworld.com/azeroth.htm
Proxy/Vince's Mage Leveling Guide - http://wow.allakhazam.com/wiki/WOW_Guide_The_Proxy_System_%28Grinding_Guide%29

While the last one is meant for mage, it shows some good grinding areas.

Summary:
1-9: Do your lowbie quests. Should take 2-3 hours.

10-29: Stack all your DoTs on a mob, send in the VW, stack all your DoTs on a second mob, and then wand the second mob to death. Repeat until low health, and then bandage/Consume Shadows. Each level should take about an hour, moving towards an hour and a half as you get closer to 30. If they are taking longer, figure out what the problem is (mobs too far apart, mobs have too much life, too much downtime) and move to an area that solves it.

30-39: Drain Tank: Load the mob up on DoTs, send in the Succubus, cast Drain Life while the mob beats on you, rinse and repeat.

40-49: Drain Tank, but instead of Life Tapping, use Dark Pact. A good rule of thumb is, DP only if your pet is over 50% mana, because if they run out it will slow your fighting time down. The easiest way to do this is to turn off all autocast abilities on your Succubus, and remember to DPing during the fight (rather than after) as a good time-saver because your DoTs will help keep up the DPS.

50-59: The Drain Tanking gets even better now. By Demonic Sacrificing your pet, you are able to regen even more life per fight, keeping up with increasing monster damage, while still 'Tapping up to full mana whenever you want because of the passive regen.

60: You are now specced SM/DS, which is generally accepted to be best grinding spec. Do whatever killing you need to do, grind factions etc., and then respec to your high-level build of choice.

Equipment Choice:
"I found that during early levels it was best to focus on +sta, and at around 35 or so to switch to +shadow or +dmg. If you are specced into affliction and are draintanking, +dmg will be vastly superior to +sta. You kill the mobs much faster for the same mana, and heal yourself that much faster." -Clutchsama

It's my personal opinion that up until about level 40 you should stack +sta and "of the Eagle" gear. At 30, start looking for Shadoweave gear, and around 40 switch into it. Full Shadoweave can be made by tailors, and will give a bonus of +114 shadow damage, along with some Int and Sta, and can be equipped at level 44.

In general, while using Dark Pact I stack as much +damage gear as possible, and while using Demonic Sacrifice, I stack as much +sta gear as possible, while keeping a minimum of +100 dmg.

Counterpoint to DS switch at 50:

I can't agree. The rest of this guide is pure gold, but switching to Demonic Sacrifice at 45, or even 50 as you used to recommend, is a step backwards. Here's why:

DS gives you 3% health every 4 seconds. At 45 with full +sta gear you'll be lucky to sc!#*% 3000hp. That means 90hp per tick, or 22.5 hps.

DP, on the other hand, gives 100 mps between fights or while dots are ticking. Even alternated with Drain Life, it gives 150 mana every 6.5 seconds*, or 23mps. However you slice it, in or out of combat, DP replenishes your health/mana pool faster than DS.

But does it increase downtime?

From experience, quite the opposite. Wearing quest rewards and cheap self-tailored gear I routinely take down +1 and +2 mobs somewhere between Corruption expiring and Curse of Agony expiring. I drain life constantly for the extra 41dps (55 later on) rather than resorting to wands, and I end every fight with 80-100% health (invariably filled up by the first DL in the next fight). DP between fights, or occasionally during if I notice my pet mana bar is full, supplies me with all the mana I need. By contrast, as soon as I respecced to DS I noticed I was waiting around for regen and eating after every 2/3 fights. Reason backs this up: Dark Pact means Shadow Mastery, +dmg gear and a pet helping. All that extra DPS means shorter fights, less health lost, and less mana spent. If I'm spending less on each fight, and DP gives me better regen than DS to boot - it's no contest.

On top of that, having a pet out gives me controlled add management and a better chance to survive gank attacks.

I want to make it clear that I'm not knocking the demonology tree, or trying to say DP is the 'best' build. What I am saying is that I followed the guide and noticed a sudden, nigh on catastrophic drop in performance when I respecced at 50. What I've presented here is my analysis of why that might be.

*assuming uninterrupted Drain Life. If your DL is curtailed, DP helps out even more, since it can be fired off at will unlike DS's fixed regen rate.

Comment by Talimar

Some more thoughts on drain tank leveling from 2006. I can't reply to my own post as character limit is too small.
If there's a lot of posts in here on day, I'm referring to this post.
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Leveling a Warlock

Q: What is the best grinding build?
A: Dark Pact, with Improved Corruption, Nightfall, and Fel Concentration along the way. Here is the what is considered the best build for Dark Pact, provided by Psy:

(Going up the Aff side, then Dest, then Demo): https://classic.wowhead.com/talent-calc/warlock/BZww3xZ0AXwCzAE

People argue that a DS build is better for the grind. Statistical data (also courtesy of Psy) shows that Dark Pact is the way to go.

Here is the statistical data on Dark Pact vs. DS: https://web.archive.org/web/20060618190736/http://www.saichotictech.net/Others/Warlock/DP.html

Thanks to Psy for the calculations and data.

That data aside, the main argument that Dark Pact Warlocks have against DS is that not only does Dark Pact benefit from higher mana regeneration, but it also benefits from better grinding talents such as Improved Corruption, Fel Concentration, Nightfall, and Improved Lifetap.

Q: What is the best method of grinding? What pet should I use for grinding? What is "drain tanking?
A: "Drain tanking" is generally the most efficient method of grinding as a Warlock. Basically, you're using Fel Concentration to help you use Drain Life on the mob until it dies, while your Succubus is beating on it and DoT's are ticking on it. Here is the general "drain tank" strategy:

1. Locate mob. Succubus should be out, with no auto-casts activated.
2. Open up with Immolate/Shadow Bolt.
3. Stack CoA and Corruption
4. Mob is in your face. Send succubus to attack.
5. Drain Life. Drain Life. Drain Life. Shadow Bolt if Nightfall procs.
6. Mob is dead. Dark Pact to regain mana. Succubus should have no auto-casts activated so that all of her mana can be used for Dark Pact and the emergency Seduce.

This strategy, of course, is made to be used with the Dark Pact build, linked above.

Some Warlocks incorporate Siphon Life into their Drain Tanking strategy. The common consensus is that Siphon Life is only mana efficient if it lasts its entire duration. That means it can be added if you're fighting a tough mob.

Q: Help, I can't get my VW to keep agro! Is he bugged?
A: No, he just sucks at holding agro on you. On the levels before each rank of Torment, you'll be pulling agro off him extremely easily, even with Improved Voidwalker talent. Most Warlocks decide to forget the idea of having your pet tank for you, and go with the Succubus instead.

If you do plan to use the VW though, know that you're going to have to control your agro. Many people don't learn about this concept until many days of /played past 60. Limit your damage so that the mob will keep hitting the VW. Some Warlocks argue, however, that if you do this, the VW will cause downtime anyway because of his low mana regeneration and reliance on mana to hold agro... and also because if you're limiting agro, you're limiting damage, which means you're killing mobs slower.

The VW still has his uses. He's better at handling multiple mobs at once. His shield is decent for accomplishing certain tasks. He can serve as a ghetto offtank in instances up to Mara.

Comment by Lostelf

Not really sure I want to waste one gold (And increase the cost of my next respec) just so I can be slightly more efficient at levels 10-21. Will I have any problems if I follow the 22 talent point tree from the get go instead?

Comment by Magrimable

I have a few things to add. The original vanilla VW totally sucked, I leveled imp w/imp imp till I got 40 then when dark pact and wow! Imp by far was the best Mana buddy, (turn off firebolt auto cast, turn off all his auto cast spells actually) BOOM infinite Mana! If you get some scrolls of spirit PUT IT ON HIM! Even more amazing. However this was actual vanilla. I did play some private servers and WOW VW could actually hold aggro and tank (if you never played vanilla you have no idea how bad he sucked before). And yes he was good. I didn't play to 60 on that patch so I can't offer precise advice but I would like to give more advice on efficiency in general.

Lets talk a little bit about how your spells work. So shadowbolt (SB) is a "carry spell" meaning, it does not do damage or make aggro until it flies from you and impacts your target. Immolate is a direct damage spell and a dot, it does damage as soon as you are done casting and generates its aggro. Corruption does damage AFTER 3 seconds but does aggro instantly for 0 rage. So when competing with mobs with someone with fast ranged damage, corruption is probably a bad choice because it will aggro the mob right away but won't actually tag it until the 3 seconds are up and does damage and same with SB, you won't tag it till it hits, so if you're really competing for mobs immolate might be your best pull spell. Also, drain life, does damage and heals, from what I can tell from private servers, 1.12 gives you threat for both, so its one of the most threat producing spells in the game, AND the threat from the heal affects all mobs you are in combat with, use at your own risk.

So, given this information you can front load a lot of damage on a mob by standing at max range, you can usually get off a shadowbolt, immolate, corruption (run back if you have instant corruption while you wait for GCD) then fear(see because you are casting immolate as shadowbolt is carrying to the target). Now if its a mob a few levels above you, you might want to add COA but always think of the mana cost and how long it will last because it back ends most of its damage (the last 25% of the spell probably does about 50% of its damage). Now the biggest threat really isn't aggroing more mobs if you are making sure you have plenty of space, its actually losing the mobs aggro and having it run back to its starting location. Two ways to avoid this is to cast a spell on it or wand every 10 seconds or so, ( in vanilla siphon life would always keep aggro on it but i dont know if this version will, since it heals you and that would always generate aggro on the mob) or send your pet after them which is another form of a DoT that will also keep the mob from going invulnerable and back to starting position, also good to keep in mind if the mob is far enough away no matter how much damage you've loaded up, when it would normally lose aggro on you and run back to start it will instead turn to your pet, kind of like a free taunt.

Fear is a great tool but it is tricky to use, one it costs a lot of mana itself, two, breaks easy on DD(including immolate, that's why i suggest front loading it when pulling), three, very unpredictable a mob can b-line it for a huge groups of mobs two football fields away and sometimes make it, just be prepared to run, the wasted mana is not worth dying over. Also, keep in mind that there's two ways for a warlock to stop the target being feared, one is Curse of Recklessness the other is fearing a different mob. So chain fearing a few mobs can be a tactic as well but again, fear costs A LOT of mana.

Now if you have destro talents bane and destructive reach you can actually get off two shadowbolts (don't underestimate shadowbolts efficiency, and its important to keep it as a yard stick for the mana that your DOTs cost, because the tooltip makes the DOTs the obvious choice but the amount of time a mob is typically up can greatly change those statistics).

Its really hard to explain the art form because its much more situational then I could explain, even trying to generalize is hard. Typically before howl of terror (aoe fear) you can rotate about 2-4 mobs at a time fairly comfortably. Once you get howl of terror you can easily do 5-6. I remember leveling with a mage in winterfell and man, could she burst down 4-5 guys so dang fast but while she drank, I would kite dot and fear another 4-6. Another note is I always like leveling with another decent character because it makes you less perceptible to PVP attack but also it adds more creativity to the art form, if you are good you can always make a good duo with any other class as a warlock.

Gear +1 shadow dmg/spell dmg=2 stam, everything else is *!@#(though you do want a certain amount of intellect, but its more a certain level, since stamina is worth 120 mana with improved dark pact). I suggest checking the AH for "of shadowrath" every time your in town, some people will sell it for pennies, some people will try to gouge the crap out of you, especially if its a *8-*9th level which they should because it makes awesome twink gear. But you can always friend the person selling, when you see them online, try to barter with something they want or give them a good story about your high hopes of being the ultimate god of darkness and you just need this one little piece of gear and only have XX money, also buy for future levels ahead.

You basically have 4 tanks, your pets, health, your health, your pets mana, your mana, like a beer, never full but never empty ;)

Always go for yellows, oranges would be okay but you only have +hit on your affliction spells and they are very slow and almost never a 100% of the damage you deal. Greens will die much too quickly to make good use of your DoTs and if you're just going to go around shadowbolting everything, why didn't you pick a mage? One or two levels above is probably the best by far.

Ideally you can have your pet tank a mob, a mob fear kited and drain tanking/kiting a mob yourself all at the same time. Just make sure the dots on it are enough to kill them.

1/2

Comment by Magrimable

Beware of crap talents that sound cool. First off Improved drain soul, this piece of @#$% in the beginning would only trigger if IT killed the mob and the spell does crap for damage, then i think it was "buffed" if you killed it, so if your pet killed it, no extra regen for you (also, constantly filling up your bags with soul shards gets annoying as F*k), in reality having a decent wand and staying out of 5 sec rule is better. Improved Drain Life, let me be very clear, this talent SUCKS ASS, it is before spell dmg, meaning the base damage of the spell, so if you see ticks for 10 pts, you will get 11 pts for FIVE talent points, its not good, especially if you've been collecting a lot of shadow dmg gear the increase will be trivial. Improved Curse of Agony, again before + spell dmg, so when you first get it its equal to about 8 pts of spell dmg.

Dark pact is amazing, I don't really care what anyone says I used it almost a 100% of the time at 60 PVP, 60 instances, 60 raids. Sure I wasn't front loading some epeen stretching giant (and very low probability) shadowbolt crits but I wasn't needing a full time healer devoted to my DPS either. As for PVP well, first off make sure you never give the felhunter the upgraded books for anything but the silence, using his level 1 spells he has lots of mana to spare while giving you a ton of utility, the imp is really fun in pvp too but the felhunter is a juggernaut against any spell casting class and helps a little with rogues too. The only other serious build I would consider would be a super high stamina soul link build, which is hard to beat but I just like a more damage orientated then tank playstyle. The seduce destro build was also very popular amongst warlocks, but I'm not really sure why, I could just silence or eat the buff off with my felhunter and then destroy them. Also, I found that the succubus was very buggy and unpredictable.

Here's what I would go:
5/5 imp. corruption (while you have the GCD still takes effect it makes you much more mobile and really improves your ability to kite and pull)
2/2 Imp. Lifetap (much better then improved drain soul unless you stack spirit instead of +shadow dmg, but no real reason to do that)
3/5 Suppression (what a lot of people don't understand is it also helps your fears from being broken/resisted on damage or on tick)
1/1 Amplify Curse (it was nice in original vanilla that you could just chain it to a macro so it was used everytime it was up, now you'll have to some sort of shift thing with it)
4/5 Fel concentration (this now makes drain tanking a possibility still not that great considering the high cost of drain life and its low coefficient but its good in a pinch, not to say that drain life isn't great when you're fear kiting or a pet is tanking though especially with the increased mana from imp.lifetap)
2/2 Grim Reach/nightfall (mostly pull with shadowbolt but you take your pick which to take first, get both)
5/5 Fel Concentration (okay drain tanking even better)
1/1 Siphon Life (the spell is super expensive, super long, it really only shines in the fact it stops mobs from losing aggro, which might not be the case in the patch, if it is, this spell sort of sucks, this is one too keep a good eye on how many ticks you get, you might find out its just costing you mana)
4/5 Curse of exhaustion, great for kiting, this is when amplify curse really starts to shine, great on rogues.
5/5 Shadow Mastery, one of the only talents that actually is added AFTER spell damage, woot woot!
1/1 BOOOOM Dark Pact, welcome to infinite mana, you're welcome.

5/5 Imp. Shadowbolt, not good with this build but beats a measly 5% mana.
5/5 Bane this is pretty sweet 2.5 sec shadowbolt and 1.5 sec makes those pulls much smoother and also doesn't reduce the dmg coefficient
1/1 Shadowburn given it costs a soul shard it kind of sucks because you can't farm soul shards while queing for matches because the mobs are way too far away and you can't farm them as a twink either. But if I do have lots of shards this isn't a bad opener because then it is also usually up for the ender as well.
4/5 Devastation, crit, who could really snear at crit?
2/2 Destructive reach, really makes those pulls catastrophic for mobs, sometimes in dungeons if the tank/healer couldn't take a full trash pull, i'd pick one off and run it back by shadowbolt, shadowbolt, immolate, cor, coa and then fear, running really far back so it couldn't aggro anything else, was fun.

The last 3 pts are up to you but I personally would go 5/5 Suppression and 5/5 CoEx. Also, like to say improved curse of weakness isn't that bad, its actually pretty great on hunter's pets in pvp and on fast attacking mobs like cats.

Comment by hotaru251

this will prevent your pet from losing aggro

i am sorry but...even the rank 3 torment AT lvl 30 VW losses threat from merely 3 DoT's and wanding 3 or 4 times <_<

Comment by darbotareu

I find the level ranges for the "Best Questing Zones" extremely unrealistic. Going into Duskwood at level 10? Good luck. Can you please fix this, as I mistook that for you can start questing there at level 10, went in and died horribly because I never played Classic before. Thanks.

Comment by YungGnome

The spellcleave section is completely off.

"Your primary objective will be AoEing and provide utility with your Ritual of Summoning and Healthstone and more:" - not it's not. A 4th mage is strictly superior to warlock when it comes to damage, and the bit of extra utility/convenience doesn't change that.

Spellcleave is usually 3 mages, 1 priest, 1 lock. Locks are taken in place of a tank. Their primary job is to ball up and pull mobs with Eye of Kilrogg (which the priest shields so it doesn't die in one hit).

When eye pulling isn't needed, locks straight up get dropped in favor of a 4th mage or a tank. The damage they have is okay, but far from being their main selling point.

Comment by sammyz69

Under Best Warlock Questing Zones Redridge Mountains should be listed in Contested Zones, not the Alliance only.

Comment by Pyromanci

Your missing Captain Rackmore's Tiller for wands.

Comment by kpiaum

Could you warn why the talent changes instead of changing all the leveling talent out of nowhere? They changed the entire leveling talent session without prompting or telling why, instead of simply adding another leveling talent option.

Comment by bobbybobson

This guide tells you to talent into improved life tap, but then doesn't tell you when to be buying it and the upgrades
It also doesn't explain grimoires anywhere in the guide, so new players (me) have no clue why their pets don't do the things they should do.

Comment by cadinsor

Level 20: No notable spells are purchasable at this level

I'd love it if you stated clearly that this guide assumes you're leveling solo, because if it doesn't you failed to mention a nice spell here... (Ritual of Summoning)

Comment by DiveHasFun

Some credit would be nice...

Comment by Marshmarrow

Why not just put Dive's actual pdf as this page instead?

Comment by Utharion

I don't find it clear which spell should I buy or not, for me and the pet.

Is there a clear list somewhere ?

Comment by Angelhearth

Spell Power over Stamina, Intellect, and Spirit. I can see that in the end game, but Spell Power over everything when you level, and your main damage dealer is a wand?

Warlock Leveling Guide & Best Leveling Talents 1-60 - WoW Classic

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