Warlock Class Changes in Shadowlands - Covenants, Soulbinds, Legendaries

By Anshlun Updated: 2020/11/23

ShadowlandsBattle for AzerothWarlock ClassShadowlands

Grey to green text indicates changes between Battle for Azeroth and the current version of Shadowlands.

Class Tools

Affliction

Talents

Demonology

Talents

Destruction

Talents

Shadowlands Warlock GuidesThe State of Warlocks in ShadowlandsWarlock Class Guides for ShadowlandsWarlock Systems Guides for ShadowlandsShadowlandsCovenant AbilitiesSoulbind ConduitsLegendariesAnima PowersWarlock Abilities Earned While Leveling from 50 to 60 in Shadowlands

Shadowlands Abilities Earned Between 50 and 60
General

Fear - level 52 - You no longer suffer spell pushback when casting Fear.

Affliction

Corruption - level 54 - Corruption now instantly deals (12% of Spell power) damage.
Unstable Affliction - level 56 - Unstable Affliction's duration is increased by 5 seconds.

Demonology

Call Dreadstalkers - level 54 - Reduces the cast time of Call Dreadstalkers by 0.5 sec, and teaches your Dreadstalkers how to pursue targets faster.
Fel Firebolt - level 56 - Teaches your Wild Imps how to spend 20% less energy when casting Fel Firebolt.
Soulbound Tyrant - level 58 - Summoning your Demonic Tyrant instantly generates 5 Soul Shards.

Destruction

Havoc - level 54 - Havoc lasts 2 seconds longer.
Rain of Fire - level 56 - Rain of Fire deals 10% additional damage.
Summon Infernal - level 58 - Your Infernal Awakening deals 100% additional damage on impact.

Blizzard's Warlock Patch Notes

Fel Domination now also removes the Shard cost to summon your pet.
Curse of Exhaustion duration has been increased to 12 seconds (was 8 seconds).
Players and enemies afflicted with Howl of Terror can now take more damage before the ability is canceled.
Dark Pact spell power bonus has been increased to 120% (was 40%).
Affliction
Shadow Bolt damage has been increased by 13%.
Inevitable Demise can no longer be dispelled
New PvP Talent: Rapid Contagion – For the next 15 seconds, all of your periodic effects occur 50% more often. Instant cast, costs 3 Soul Shards.
Demon Armor for Affliction Warlocks now increases armor by 150% (was 90%).

Demonology

Axe Toss now stuns and interrupts the target.
Shadow Bolt damage has been increased by 13%.
Dreadstalker’s attack power has been increased by 20%. Dreadstalker’s Dreadbite and Dreadlash damage has been reduced by 10%.
Minions spawned from Nether Portal have had their attack power increased by 15%. Additionally, Vicious Hellhounds, Void Terrors, Wrathguards and Darkhounds spawned from Nether Portal can now charge to enemies.

Classes: Warlock

General

New Ability: Fel Domination – Your next Imp, Voidwalker, Succubus, Felhunter, or Felguard Summon spell has its casting time reduced by 5.5 seconds.
New Ability: Ritual of Doom – Begins a ritual that sacrifices a random participant to summon a Doomguard. Requires the caster and 4 additional party members to complete the ritual.
Demonic Circle is no longer a Talent and is now learned by all Warlocks at level 41.
Demonic Gateway no longer despawns when the caster dies. When the gateway is close to despawning, it begins dissolving out of view to warn the caster and allies that they may wish to replace it.
Enslave Demon has been renamed to Subjugate Demon.
Eye of Kilrogg can now be used in Arenas and Battlegrounds, can be killed by enemy players, and has 1% of the caster's health (was 100%).
Summon Imp, Voidwalker, Felhunter, Felguard, and Succubus cast time is now 6 seconds (was 2.5 seconds).
All Warlocks can now use the following abilities:
Curse of Tongues – Forces the target to speak in Demonic, increasing the casting time of all spells by 30% for 30 seconds. A warlock can only have one Curse active per target.
Curse of Weakness – Increases the time between an enemy's attacks by 20% for 2 minutes.
Curse of Exhaustion – Reduces the target's movement speed by 50% for 8 seconds.

The following Talents have been adjusted:

New Talent: Howl of Terror (replaces Demonic Circle) – Let loose a terrifying howl, causing 5 enemies within 10 yards to flee in fear, disorienting them for 20 seconds. Damage may cancel the effect.
Dark Pact now also provides additional health over 20 seconds.
Darkfury now also increases Shadowfury radius by 2 yards.

PvP Talent changes:

New PvP Talent: Amplify Curse – Your next Curse of Exhaustion, Curse of Tongues or Curse of Weakness is amplified.
Curse of Exhaustion: Reduces the target's movement speed by an additional 20%.
Curse of Tongues: Increases casting time by an additional 30%.
Curse of Weakness: Enemy is unable to critically strike.

Gateway Mastery is now available for all Warlocks – Increases the range of your Demonic Gateway by 20 yards and reduces the cast time by 30%. Reduces the time between how often players can take your Demonic Gateway by 15 seconds.
Curse of Tongues is reduced to 15% effectiveness in PvP. This can be increased to 30% effectiveness with Amplify Curse Talent.
Curse of Fragility has been renamed to Bane of Fragility.
Entrenched in Flame has been removed.

Affliction

New Ability: Malefic Rapture – Your damaging periodic effects erupt on all targets, causing Shadow damage per effect.
Unstable Affliction duration is now 16 seconds (was 8 seconds), no longer costs a Soul Shard, and no longer stacks.
Unstable Affliction damage backlash when dispelled has been increased substantially.
Sow the Seeds now embeds demon seeds into 2 additional enemies (was 1).
Shadow Embrace is no longer a Talent and learned by all Affliction Warlocks in Shadowlands.
The following Talents have been adjusted:
New Talent: Inevitable Demise (replaces Deathbolt) – Damaging an enemy with Agony increases the damage of your next Drain Life by 15%. This effect stacks up to 50 times.
New Talent: Dark Caller (replaces Shadow Embrace) – Reduces Summon Darkglare's cooldown by 1 minute.
Nightfall now procs more often as Corruption spreads to more targets.
Writhe in Agony now causes Agony's damage to start at 4 stacks and may now ramp up to 18 stacks (was 15).
Deathbolt has been removed and is now a PvP Talent.
Haunt duration is now 18 seconds (was 15 seconds).
Dark Soul: Misery no longer has a global cooldown.

PvP Talent changes:

New PvP Talent: Rampant Afflictions – Unstable Affliction can now be applied to up to 3 targets.
New PvP Talent: Deathbolt – Launches a bolt of death at the target, dealing 60% of the total remaining damage of your damage over time effects on the target. With Absolute Corruption Talent, counts up to 14 seconds of your Corruption's damage. Costs 3 Soul Shards.
Soulshatter now consumes all of your Corruption effects on the 5 nearest enemies instead of damage over time effects, and you no longer gain Haste for each enemy hit by Soulshatter.
Curse of Shadows has been renamed to Bane of Shadows.

Demonology

Wild Imps now spawn more immediately after Hand of Guldan, and 2-3 imps spawn in faster succession. In addition, if they path fail, they now teleport to the Warlock.
Axe Toss now interrupts stun immune targets, such as dungeon or raid bosses. This does not affect PvP combat.
Felguard's Felstorm now capped at 8 targets.
The following Talents have been adjusted:
Power Siphon now also adds 30% damage to your next 2 casts Demonbolt.
Demonic Calling reduces shard cost of Call Dreadstalkers by 2.
Doom no longer has a small chance to summon a Doomguard when it kills the target.
From the Shadows is now triggered by Dreadbite (was Call Dreadstalkers).
Inner Demons random demons summoned attack power increased by 21%.
Nether Portal demons summoned attack power increased by 21%.
Demonic Consumption no longer sacrifices imps. Now instead drains 15% health of all active demons, empowering itself based on HP consumed.

Destruction

The following Talents have been adjusted:
Soul Fire now generates 1 Soul Shard (was 4 Soul Shard Fragments), applies Immolate, has a 3.5 second cast time (was 1.5 seconds), and a 45 second cooldown (was 20 seconds).
Shadowburn, now costs a Soul Shard, has 50% critical strike chance on targets that have 20% or less health, and its cooldown is now reduced by Haste.
Fire and Brimstone now generates 2 Soul Shard Fragments (was 1).
Inferno now also increases Rain of Fire damage by 20%.
Grimoire of Supremacy renamed to Rain of Chaos and now every Soul Shard you spend has a 20% chance to summon an additional Infernal that lasts 10 seconds (was increase Chaos Bolt damage by 8%).
Roaring Blaze has been redesigned – Conflagrate increases your Soul Fire, Channel Demonfire, Immolate, Incinerate, and Conflagrate damage to the target by 30% for 8 seconds.
Channel Demonfire primary target damage increased by 10%.
Dark Soul: Instability no longer has a global cooldown.

Warlock Class Change Highlights

New Baseline Abilities: Curse of Tongues, Curse of Exhaustion, Curse of Weakness, Demonic Circle

Warlock Global Cooldown Changes for Shadowlands

Dark Soul: Instability

Dark Soul: Misery

Warlock Baseline Ability Changes for Shadowlands

Corruption Corrupts the target, causing (63%78.75% of Spell power) Shadow damage over 14 sec.
Instant2 sec cast
Now available to all specs

NEW Curse of Exhaustion Reduces the target's movement speed by 50% for 12 sec. Curses: A warlock can only have one Curse active per target.

NEW Curse of Tongues Forces the target to speak in Demonic, increasing the casting time of all spells by 30% for 30 sec. Curses: A warlock can only have one Curse active per target.

NEW Curse of Weakness Increases the time between an enemy's attacks by 20% for 2 min. Curses: A warlock can only have one Curse active per target.

Demonic Circle Summons a Demonic Circle for 15 min. Cast Demonic Circle: Teleport to teleport to its location and remove all movement slowing effects.
Demonic Circle: Teleport: Teleports you to your Demonic Circle and removes all movement slowing effects.
Glyph: Kilrogg's Cunning: If you cast Demonic Circle: Summon while controlling an Eye of Kilrogg, the circle will appear where the eye is located.

NEW Fear Rank 2 You no longer suffer spell pushback when casting Fear.

NEW Fel Domination Your next Imp, Voidwalker, Succubus, Felhunter, or Felguard Summon spell is free and has its casting time reduced by 5.5 sec.

NEW Ritual of Doom Begins a ritual that sacrifices a random participant to summon a doomguard. Requires the caster and 4 additional party members to complete the ritual.

Shadow Bolt Sends a shadowy bolt at the enemy, causing (45%39% of Spell power) Shadow damage.
Demonology: Generates 1 Soul Shard.
Affliction: Applies Shadow Embrace, increasing your damage dealt to the target by 3% for 12 sec. Stacks up to 3 times.
Available to all specs

Shadowfury Stuns all enemies within 8 yds for 3 sec.
Now costs 1% of base mana

Soulstone Stores the soul of the target party or raid member, allowing resurrection upon death. Also castable to resurrect a dead target. Targets resurrect with 60% health at least and 20% mana.
Cost: 1.0% of base mana

Subjugate Demon Subjugates the target demon up to level 22, forcing it to do your bidding for 5 min.
Name changed from Enslave Demon to Subjugate Demon

Summon Felhunter Summons a Felhunter under your command, able to disrupt the spell casts of your enemies. 2.56 sec cast.

Summon Imp Summons an Imp under your command that casts ranged Firebolts. 2.56 sec cast.

Summon Succubus Summons a Succubus under your command to seduce enemy Humanoids, preventing them from attacking. 2.56 sec cast.

Summon Voidwalker Summons a Voidwalker under your command, able to withstand heavy punishment. 2.56 sec cast.

Unending Resolve Hardens your skin, reducing all damage you take by 20%10% and granting immunity to interrupt and silence effects for 8 sec.
Old effects re-added with Rank 2

NEW Strength of Will Rank 2 Unending Resolve now grants immunity to pushback and also reduces 20% additional damage.

Warlock Talent Changes for Shadowlands

Dark Pact Sacrifices 20% of your current health to shield you for 250% of the sacrificed health plus an additional (Spell power * 1.2) for 20 sec. Usable while suffering from control impairing effects.

Darkfury Reduces the cooldown of Shadowfury by 15 sec and increases its radius by 2 yards.

NEW Howl of Terror Let loose a terrifying howl, causing 5 enemies within 10 yds to flee in fear, disorienting them for 20 sec. Damage may cancel the effect.
Instant

Warlock PvP Talent Changes for Shadowlands

NEW Amplify Curse Your next Curse of Exhaustion, Curse of Tongues or Curse of Weakness is amplified.
Curse of Exhaustion: Reduces the target's movement speed by an additional 20%.
Curse of Tongues: Increases casting time by an additional 30%.
Curse of Weakness: Enemy is unable to critically strike.

Gateway Mastery Increases the range of your Demonic Gateway by 20 yards, and reduces the cast time by 30%. Reduces the time between how often players can take your Demonic Gateway by 15 sec.
Now available to all specs.

Nether Ward Surrounds the caster with a shield that lasts 3 sec, reflecting all harmful spells cast on you.
Now costs 1.0% of base mana

Affliction Warlock Shadowlands Class Change Highlights

Unstable Affliction Sacrifices its stacking effect to torture its victim longer, without consuming a Soul Shard.

NEW Malefic Rapture deals damage to all enemies afflicted by their periodic spells (increased for each periodic effect on the target)

NEW Sow the Seeds now embed two additional seeds into nearby enemies which, when combined with Malefic Rapture, can make for explosive results.

Affliction Warlock Shadowlands Talent Tree

Level 15: Nightfall, Inevitable Demise, Drain Soul

Level 25: Writhe in Agony, Absolute Corruption, Siphon Life

Level 30: Demon Skin, Burning Rush, Dark Pact

Level 35: Sow the Seeds, Phantom Singularity, Vile Taint

Level 40: Darkfury, Mortal Coil, Howl of Terror

Level 45: Summon Darkglare, Haunt, Grimoire of Sacrifice

Level 50: Soul Conduit, Creeping Death, Dark Soul: Misery

Affliction Warlock Talent CalculatorAffliction Warlock Ability Changes for Shadowlands

Agony Inflicts increasing agony on the target, causing up to 7.2%((1.12% of Spell power) + 0.1) * 18 / 2 * 6] Shadow damage over 18 sec. Damage starts low and increases over the duration. Refreshing Agony maintains its current damage level. Agony damage sometimes generates 1 Soul Shard.

NEW Xavian Teachings Rank 2 Corruption is now instant.

NEW Corruption Rank 3 Corruption now instantly deals (12% of Spell power) damage.

NEW Malefic Rapture Your damaging periodic effects erupt on all targets, causing Shadow damage per effect.

Mastery: Potent Afflictions Increases damage done by Malefic Rapture, Agony, Corruption, Unstable Affliction, Siphon Life, Phantom Singularity, Vile Taint, and Seed of Corruption by 20.0%.

Seed of Corruption Embeds a demon seed in the enemy target that will explode after 12 sec, dealing (24%40% of Spell power) Shadow damage to all enemies within 10 yards and applying Corruption to them. The seed will detonate early if the target is hit by other detonations, or takes (Spell power * 50 / 100) damage from your spells.

NEW Unstable Affliction Afflicts one target with (184% of Spell power) Shadow damage over 16 sec.
If dispelled, deals damage to the dispeller and silences them for 4 sec.
Generates 1 Soul Shard if the target dies while afflicted.

NEW Unstable Affliction Rank 2 Unstable Affliction generates 1 Soul Shard if the target dies.

NEW Unstable Affliction Rank 3 Unstable Affliction's duration is increased by 5 seconds.

Affliction Warlock Talent Changes for Shadowlands

NEW Summon Darkglare Reduces Summon Darkglare's cooldown by 60 seconds.
Build 34714: Tier 6 Talent, in place of Shadow Embrace

Dark Soul: Misery Infuses your soul with the misery of fallen foes, increasing haste by 30% for 20 sec.
Now costs 1% base mana

Drain Soul Drains the target's soul, causing (112.5%140.625% of Spell power) Shadow damage over 5 sec.
Damage is increased by 100% against enemies below 20% health.
Generates 1 Soul Shard if the target dies during this effect.

Grimoire of Sacrifice Sacrifices your demon pet for power, gaining its command demon ability, and causing your spells to sometimes also deal (35%43.75% of Spell power) additional Shadow damage.
Lasts 1 hour or until you summon a demon pet.

Haunt A ghostly soul haunts the target, dealing (55%68.75% of Spell power) Shadow damage and increasing your damage dealt to the target by 10% for 1518 sec.
If the target dies, Haunt's cooldown is reset.

NEW Inevitable Demise Damaging an enemy with Agony increases the damage of your next Drain Life by 5%15%. This effect stacks up to 50 times.

Nightfall Corruption damage has a chance to cause your next Shadow Bolt to be instant and deal 50% increased damage.

Phantom Singularity Places a phantom singularity above the target, which consumes the life of all enemies within 15 yards, dealing 18%22.5% of Spell power)] damage over 16 sec, healing you for 25% of the damage done.
Now costs 1% of base mana

NEW Shadow Embrace Drain Soul/Shadow Bolt applies Shadow Embrace, increasing your damage dealt to the target by 3% for 12 sec. Stacks up to 3 times.

Siphon Life Siphons the target's life essence, dealing 25 Shadow damage over 15 sec and healing you for 30% of the damage done.
Now costs 1% of base mana.

Sow the Seeds Seed of Corruption now embeds demon seeds into 12 additional nearby enemies.

Vile Taint Unleashes a vile explosion at the target location, dealing (75%93.75% of Spell power) Shadow damage over 10 sec to all enemies within 10 yds and reducing their movement speed by 30%.

Writhe in Agony Agony's damage starts at 4 stacks and may now ramp up to 1518 stacks.

Affliction Warlock PvP Talent Changes for Shadowlands

Bane of Fragility Reduces the target's maximum health by up to 15% for 10 sec.
Name changed from Curse of Fragility to Blight of Fragility

Bane of Shadows Magical damage over time effects will strike the target an additional time for 20% of their damage as Shadow. Lasts 10 sec.
Name changed from Curse of Shadows to Bane of Shadows

NEW Deathbolt Launches a bolt of death at the target, dealing 20%40% of the total remaining damage of your damage over time effects on the target.
Absolute Corruption: Counts up to 14 sec of your Corruption's damage
Instant0.5 sec cast, 3045 sec cooldown
Cost: 3 Soul Shards
Moved from Talent to PvP Talent

NEW Rampant Afflictions Unstable Affliction can now be applied to up to 3 targets.

Nether Ward Surrounds the caster with a shield that lasts 3 sec, reflecting all harmful spells cast on you.
Cost 1.0% of base mana
Now costs 1% of base mana

NEW Rapid Contagion For the next 15 sec, all of your periodic effects occur 30% more often.

Consumes all of your damage over time effectsCorruption effects on the 5 nearest enemies within 40 yards, dealing 10% of their maximum health in Shadow damage.
For each enemy hit by Soulshatter, you gain a Soul Shard and 10% Haste for 8 sec.

Demonology Warlock Shadowlands Class Change Highlights

Darkfury In addition to the cooldown reduction it provides, it empowers Shadowfury by increasing its area of effect as the spell crashes down on in the battlefield.

Demonology Warlock Shadowlands Talent Tree

Level 15: Dreadlash, Bilescourge Bombers, Demonic Strength

Level 25: Demonic Calling, Power Siphon, Doom

Level 30: Demon Skin, Burning Rush, Dark Pact

Level 35: Wicked Maw, Soul Strike, Summon Vilefiend

Level 40: Darkfury, Mortal Coil, Howl of Terror

Level 45: Soul Conduit, Inner Demons, Grimoire: Felguard

Level 50: Sacrificed Souls, Demonic Consumption, Nether Portal

Demonology Warlock Talent CalculatorDemonology Warlock Ability Changes for Shadowlands

Axe Toss The Felguard hurls its weapon, stunning or interrupting the target for 4 sec.

Demonbolt Send the fiery soul of a fallen demon at the enemy, causing (66.7%73.4% of Spell power) Shadowflame damage.
Demonology
Generates 2 Soul Shards.

Hand of Gul'dan Calls down a demonic meteor full of Wild Imps which burst forth to attack the target. Deals up to 16%17.6% of Spell power)] Shadowflame damage on impact to all enemies within 8 yds of the target and summons up to 3 Wild Imps, based on Soul Shards consumed.

Implosion Demonic forces suck all of your Wild Imps toward the target, and then cause them to violently explode, dealing (24%26.4% of Spell power) Shadowflame damage to all enemies within 8 yards.

NEW Soulbound Tyrant Rank 2 Summoning your Demonic Tyrant instantly generates 50 Soul Shards.

Summon Felguard Summons a Felguard under your command as a powerful melee combatant. 2.56 sec cast

Demonology Warlock Talent Changes for Shadowlands

Bilescourge Bombers Tear open a portal to the nether above the target location, from which several Bilescourge will pour out of and crash into the ground over 6 sec, dealing (21%23% of Spell power) Shadow damage to all enemies within 8 yards.

Demonic Calling Shadow Bolt and Demonbolt have a 20% chance to make your next Call Dreadstalkers cost 12 fewer Soul Shards and have no cast time.

NEW Demonic Consumption Your Demon Commander now drains 15% of the life from your demon servants to empower himself.

Doom Inflicts impending doom upon the target, causing (150%175% of Spell power) Shadow damage after 20 sec.
Doom damage generates 1 Soul Shard.

Wicked Maw Casting Call DreadstalkersDreadbite causes the target to take 20% additional Shadowflame damage from you for the next 12 sec.

Power Siphon Instantly sacrifice up to 2 Wild Imps, generating 2 charges of Demonic Core that cause Demonbolt to deal 30% additional damage.

Demonology Warlock PvP Talent Changes for Shadowlands

Call Felhunter Invoke the power of Felhunter from the nether to instantly Spell Lock the enemy target. Call Felhunter cannot be used if your current pet is a Felhunter.
Spell Lock: Counters the enemy's spellcast, preventing any spell from that school of magic from being cast for 6 sec.
Now costs 1% of base mana

Call Observer Summons a demonic Observer to keep a watchful eye over the area for 20 sec.
Anytime an enemy within 20 yards casts a harmful magical spell, the Observer will deal up to 5% of the target's maximum health in Shadow damage.
Now costs 1% of base mana

Destruction Warlock Shadowlands Class Change Highlights

Fire and Brimstone Upgraded. Now generates 2 Soul Shard Fragments for each additional enemy struck by the warlock's empowered Incinerate.

Destruction Warlock Shadowlands Talent Tree

Level 15: Flashover, Eradication, Soul Fire

Level 25: Reverse Entropy, Internal Combustion, Shadowburn

Level 30: Demon Skin, Burning Rush, Dark Pact

Level 35: Inferno, Fire and Brimstone, Cataclysm

Level 40: Darkfury, Mortal Coil, Howl of Terror

Level 45: Roaring Blaze, Rain of Chaos, Grimoire of Sacrifice

Level 50: Soul Conduit, Channel Demonfire, Dark Soul: Instability

Destruction Warlock Talent CalculatorDestruction Warlock Ability Changes for Shadowlands

NEW Havoc Rank 2 Havoc lasts 2 seconds longer.

NEW Rain of Fire Rank 2 Rain of Fire deals 10% additional damage.

Summon Infernal Summons an Infernal from the Twisting Nether, impacting for (60% of Spell power) Fire damage and stunning all enemies in the area for 2 sec.
The Infernal will serve you for 30 sec, dealing 88100) / 100] damage to all nearby enemies every 2 sec and generating 1 Soul Shard Fragment every 0.5 sec.

NEW Summon Infernal Rank 2 Your Infernal Awakening deals 100% additional damage on impact.

Destruction Warlock Talent Changes for Shadowlands

Cataclysm Calls forth a cataclysm at the target location, dealing (180% of Spell power) Shadowflame damage to all enemies within 8 yards and afflicting them with Immolate.
Now costs 1% of base mana

Channel Demonfire Launches 15 bolts of felfire over 3 sec at random targets afflicted by your Immolate within 40 yds. Each bolt deals (16%19.36% of Spell power) Fire damage to the target and (7%7.7% of Spell power) Fire damage to nearby enemies.

Dark Soul: Instability Infuses your soul with unstable power, increasing your critical strike chance by 30% for 20 sec.
Now costs 1% of base mana

Fire and Brimstone Incinerate now also hits all enemies near your target for 40% damage and generates 12 Soul Shard Fragment for each additional enemy hit.

Inferno Rain of Fire damage is increased by 20% and has a 20% chance to generate a Soul Shard Fragment.

NEW Rain of Chaos While your initial Infernal is active, every Soul Shard you spend has a 20%15% chance to summon an additional Infernal that lasts 108 sec.

REDESIGNED

Shadowburn Blasts a target for (60%130% of Spell power) Shadowflame damage, gaining 50% critical strike chance on targets that have 20% or less health. If the target dies within 5 sec and yields experience or honor, Shadowburn's cooldown is reset. Generates 3 Soul Shard FragmentsRestores 1 Soul Shard if the target dies within 5 sec.
2 Charges. Cost: 1 Soul Shard

Soul Fire Burns the enemy's soul, dealing (100%420% of Spell power) Fire damage and applying Immolate. Cooldown is reduced by 2 sec for every Soul Shard you spend.
Generates 41 Soul Shard. 1.54 sec cast. 2045 sec cooldown

Destruction Warlock PvP Talent Changes for Shadowlands

Bane of Havoc Curses the ground with a demonic bane, causing all of your single target spells to also strike targets marked with the bane. Lasts 10 sec.
Now costs 1% of base mana

Chaos Bolt damage is increased by 65%40%, but no longer strikes additional targets afflicted by Havoc.

Blizzard

In this week’s Beta build, we’ve made some changes to Warlock’s baseline abilities to make sure Warlocks have new spells and rank-ups available for most of their levels. Along the way, we made a few changes that affect Warlocks at max level.

Ritual of Doom

Learned at level 37. Begins a ritual that sacrifices a random participant to summon a Doomguard. Requires the caster and 4 additional party members to complete the ritual. 1 hour cooldown.
This summons a hostile Doomguard that soon becomes automatically subjugated as an additional guardian pet for the Warlock. Currently, the Doomguard lasts up to 15 minutes, but has a small chance to break free from the subjugation at any time and attack your group. We’re still working on the details of this ability, but we’d love to hear your feedback about it.

Fear (Rank 2)

Learned at level 52. You no longer suffer spell pushback when casting Fear.
This functionality has existed in the past but was never explicitly tool-tipped anywhere. We removed the pushback resistance at first, but decided to bake it in as a rank-up instead.

Curse of Recklessness

This spell has been removed.
While we liked Warlocks being able to stop enemies from fleeing, we didn’t feel the physical damage increase was working out. Warlocks gave feedback that they felt required to use Curse of Recklessness on as many creatures as possible for the damage gain, and weren’t having fun with the ability. Warlocks still have access to Tongues, Weakness, and Exhaustion in their repertoire of Curses.

Eye of Kilrogg

Eye of Kilrogg is once again attackable by enemy players, and is usable in rated PvP.
This was partly in support of using the new conduit Kilrogg’s Cunning, but also to provide more uses for Eye of Kilrogg in all areas of the game.

Blizzard

In the next build, we’ve made a few Destruction Warlock talent adjustments to address concerns with how the new talents are fitting into the rotation. While we’re not yet focused on making broad class tuning adjustments, we want to make sure these new talents are in a reasonable place for Beta.

Destruction

Talents

Soul Fire cooldown is now 45 seconds (was 1 minute) and now applies Immolate (was an instant Incinerate).
Internal Combustion reverted to consuming 5 seconds of Immolate (was 7 seconds).
Shadowburn reverted to 2 charges (was 1) and its cooldown is now also reduced by Haste.
Shadowburn Spell Power coefficient increased to 141% (was 130%).
Roaring Blaze lasts 8 seconds (was 6 seconds).
Rain of Chaos Infernals now always spawn where your first Infernal landed.

PvP Talents

damage increase is now 40% (down from 65%).

Thanks for all of the detailed feedback! While there are still some planned changes coming for Warlock, we've made a few recently that you should be seeing in the Alpha:

Affliction

Agony base damage increased by 12%.
Inevitable Demise increases Drain Life's damage by 12% per stack (was 5%).

Demonology

Axe Toss now interrupts stun immune targets, such as dungeon or raid bosses. This does not affect PvP combat.

Destruction

Soulfire damage increased by 40%.
Infernals summoned from Rain of Chaos no longer trigger Infernal Awakening.
Rain of Chaos Infernals now have some bad luck protection built in. Chance also increased to 20% (was 15%).

Blizzard

For Warlock, we're focused on improving talent choices for Destruction and Demonology, as well as adding rewards for leveling up. In particular, we'd like there to be more viable builds for these specs to experiment with. This led to changes for the highly popular talents Demonic Consumption and . Please continue posting your feedback on these changes in this thread. Thank you!Warlock

Demonic Gateway no longer despawns when the caster dies. When the gateway is close to despawning, it begins dissolving out of view to warn the caster and allies that they may wish to replace it.

Developers' notes: We've heard feedback that the routine of replacing your Demonic Gateway for each boss attempt can be tedious to the point of irritating. We've made a change that allows the gateway to persist through death and we'll be listening for feedback on this change.

Affliction Warlock

Unstable Affliction reverted to Limit 1. Spell coefficient reverted to its previous amount.

Developers' notes: Even without picking talents like Siphon Life and Phantom Singularity, Affliction was unable to keep up with their dots being active on more than 3 targets. Unstable Affliction should now be used on your priority target, which causes Malefic Rapture to do increased damage to that target.

Talents

Haunt now applies Shadow Embrace.

PvP Talents

grants Soul Shards equal to the number of targets hit, instead of Haste.
Malignant Affliction is a new PvP talent. Unstable Affliction is no longer limited to 1 target, but deals 10% less damage. If your Unstable Affliction is dispelled, you instantly gain 15% haste for 10s.

Developers' notes: With Unstable Affliction now at limit 1, we want to provide an avenue for a Warlock to be able to protect their dots on multiple targets, particularly in battlegrounds.

Destruction Warlock

Summon Infernal (Rank 2) is learned at level 52. Infernal Awakening deals 150% increased damage on impact.
Havoc (Rank 2) is learned at level 54. Havoc duration is increased by 2 sec.
Rain of Fire (Rank 2) is learned at level 56. Rain of Fire damage is increased by 30%.

TalentsLevel 15 Row

Soulfire is now a 4 second cast. Damage increased from 100% spell power to 300% spell power. 1 minute cooldown. Causes your next Incinerate to be instant cast and generates 1 Soul Shard.

Developers' notes: This spell hadn't found a niche as an additional short cast time spell. It returns to a 4-second cast time, serving as a pre-pull opener spell to kick-start your damage.

Level 25 Row

Shadowburn is now a 1 shard spender. Damage increased to 130% spell power (was 60%), with a 12-second cooldown. Has 50% increased critical strike chance on low health targets, and generates 1 Soul Shard if the target dies within 5 seconds.

Developers' notes: Shadowburn as a generator was not exciting enough. Shadowburn now provides an alternative way to spend shards, especially while on the move, and also adds burst damage in an execute window, similar to its historic design.

Internal Combustion consumes up to 7 seconds of your Immolate (was 5 seconds).
Level 35 Row

Cataclysm damage decreased to 180% spell power (was 200% spell power).

Level 45 Row

renamed Rain of Chaos. While your initial Infernal is active, every Soul Shard you spend has a 15% chance to summon an additional Infernal that lasts 10 seconds.

Developers' notes: was too integral to Destruction's damage output, even without Vision of Perfection. It also created unhealthy gameplay in PvP. We want this talent to remain powerful and exciting, so instead of ramping Chaos Bolt damage, Warlocks can try to maximize the amounts of Infernals spawned. The goal is to provide the same fun gameplay, without being too reliant on getting a very high modifier on your Chaos Bolt.

Roaring Blaze redesigned, now causes the target to take 30% increased Fire damage from the Warlock for 6 seconds.

Developers' notes: This does not affect Chaos Bolt – only pure Fire damage spells. We want to try opening up other talent builds that can work with your Fire spells.

Level 50 Row

Channel Demonfire primary target damage increased by 10%.

Demonology Warlock

Soulbound Tyrant (Rank 2) is learned at level 52: Now generates 5 Soul Shards when cast.
Call Dreadstalkers (Rank 2) is learned at level 54. Call Dreadstalkers cast time is reduced by 0.5s, and they gain a Pursuit spell to close the gap when their target is greater than 10 yards away.
Wild Imps now spawn more immediately after Hand of Guldan, and 2-3 imps spawn in faster succession. In addition, if they path fail, they now teleport to the Warlock.

Developers' notes: This should both improve quality of life and help prevent purposely getting your imp stuck somewhere to prevent them from casting.

Wild Imps Rank 2 is learned at level 56. Imp energy cost on Fel Firebolt decreased by 20%.

Developers' notes: As a result, they can cast one additional Fel Firebolt before despawning.

Talents

Demonic Consumption no longer sacrifices imps. Now instead drains 15% health of all active demons, empowering itself based on HP consumed.

Developers' notes: This is a fusion between modern Demonic Consumption and Thalkiel's Consumption from Legion. The goal is to give the Warlock more incentive to care about summoning other demons, and to allow for Implosion and Power Siphon to have their unique flavor be sacrificing imps.

Power Siphon now also adds 30% damage to your next 2 casts Demonbolt.
Nether Portal demons summoned attack power increased by 21%.
Demonic Calling reduces shard cost of Call Dreadstalkers by 2.
Inner Demons random demons summoned attack power increased by 21%.

Blizzard

Hello!In this build of the Shadowlands Alpha, we've made some changes to Affliction Warlocks, based on your feedback. We want to address concerns with pet summoning, Curse of Doom, and Affliction's single target rotation, among other things.Thank you for all your posts!Warlock

Fel Domination is now a baseline ability, learned at level 34, with a 3 minute cooldown. Fel Domination reduces summoning cast time by 5.5 seconds.

Summoning your pet shouldn't be always easy, but sometimes you need a new pet in a pinch.

Curse of Curse of Doom removed for Affliction and Destruction.
Curse of Exhaustion is learned at level 58 for all three specializations.
Curse of Exhaustion slows the target by 50% for 8 seconds.

Developers' notes: We love Curse of Doom, but it wasn't working out well at a 60-second period. Also, we feel that Curse of Exhaustion will provide interesting choices when deciding which Curse to use.

Affliction

Shadow Embrace is now baseline as a part of Shadow Bolt (Rank 2), learned at level 52 for Affliction.

Developers' notes: Shadow Bolt for Affliction was falling by the wayside in the rotation. This should encourage Warlocks to use it more often, and provide more gameplay while fighting a single target.

Unstable Affliction no longer has a limit of 1, and no longer amplifies damage on your target.
Unstable Affliction's damage backlash on dispel increased substantially.
At level 56, Unstable Affliction is ranked up to gain an additional 5 seconds of duration.

Developers' notes: This is a more of an experimental change than the rest, but we feel that Unstable Affliction is not meeting player expectations at a limit of 1. This change allows Affliction to focus more on spreading dots to many targets at once.

Corruption now ranks up at level 54 to gain an initial period, dealing .12 coefficient damage instantly.
Talents

Writhe in Agony now also causes Agony to start at 4 stacks, in addition to increasing its maximum stacks to 18.
New Talent: Inevitable Demise. Damaging an enemy with Agony increases the damage of your next Drain Life by 5%. This effect stacks up to 50 times.
Nightfall now activates slightly more often as Corruption spreads to more targets.

Developers' notes: Previously, Nightfall was not occurring more often as you spread Corruption to multiple targets. This felt counter-intuitive, so we added functionality to increase its rate with multiple Corruptions. Similar to Agony, its increase is not linear, but you will see more Nightfalls multi-target.

Deathbolt is now a PvP talent.

Developers' notes: With Unstable Affliction stacking gone, the instant burst single target damage from this felt more appropriate as a PvP talent, to act as a finisher.

Tongue Tied Removed. Replaced with–
Howl of Terror: Fears 5 targets within 10 yards for 20 seconds. Has a 1.5 second cast time and 40 second cooldown.
New talent: Dark Caller (in place of Shadow Embrace). Reduces the cooldown of Summon Darkglare by 1 minute.

Developers' notes: This talent should allow Warlocks to specialize further into keeping lots of dots on many targets at once, and give them more room to use Malefic Rapture in that window.

PvP Talents

removes all active Corruptions, dealing 10% of their maximum HP and grants 10% Haste, stacking 5 times. Lasts 15 seconds, and is magic dispellable.

Developers' notes: This talent was very under-utilized due to the heavy cost of removing all dots, so it now removes Corruption instead, and no longer generates soul shards.

Deathbolt now deals 60% damage equal to remaining duration of your dots, has a 0.5 second cast time, and a 45 second cooldown. Deathbolt missile is slower and more apparent.
Amplify Curse now affects Curse of Exhaustion, causing it to slow the target by 70%.
DemonologyTalents

Curse of Doom reverted to Curse of Doom, with damage increased.

Shadowlands Class Changes by Build

Comments

Comment by Kramsey95

So am I the only one that sees hellfire in the list of spells. I really hope they give that back even if its just for destro or demon

Comment by feluny

6 second cast on pet summons? Seems overly punishing ....

Comment by Renolution

So, if unstable Affliction is now max 1 stack, is the idea in single target to spread them out and maintain 100% up time? Or else what am I spending my soul shards on...

Comment by Dante971

Curse of Doom now deals an additional 100% damage, the period is reduced by 50%, and Doomguards summoned by Curse of Doom are automatically enslaved.

Does someone know what it could mean ? Is the doomguard going to last by our side any longer ?

Comment by Morpheuss1

Would be nice to have Burning Rush and Dark Soul as a baseline ability again..

Comment by Tackett

THe 6 second cast time for a demon is incredibly stupid, especially considering how easily demons can get unsummoned by certain portals or mechanics, forcing an excruciating resummon every time. Also, Doom is a horrible ability and I'm going to make a conscious effort to never use it.

Comment by Vantrina

I feel so bad for Warlocks. Nobody cares about curses, they want things back like Meta(Demo,) Soul swap (Affl,) and mop fire and brimstone (destro.)

These things in themselves would help massively for warlock players. Also demo needs some hard tweaking if it's going to be viable. (It's actually doing okay right now in Ny'alotha, which is surprising because it's been garbage for all of BFA except for half a patch in BoD.)

How hard is it to look at class discords and what did/didn't work in previous expansions.

Comment by Nohadon

I literally just want Metamorphosis back, Demonology lost all its identity and meaning when Demon Hunters stole that

Comment by LunerSpooner

The only change I really care about is giving Demonology a baseline interrupt.

Comment by jwdazed

The class has lost the entirety of their identity. Originally things like life tap and hellfire were examples of warlocks sacrificing life for power. It had major abilities stripped from talents (i.e. howl of terror, metamorphosis, etc) and some ported to other classes, baseline abilities moved to talents, and never got much in return. Shadow Priests drain life from foes and rely on damage over time. Unholy Death Knights are disease/affliction based and even have burst to go with it. Demon Hunters actually can turn into demons (something Demonologists worried about losing control of during questlines for warlocks). And the only thing really separating Destruction from Fire Mages is that Destruction is weaker, but can have a pet, and has a chaos spell.

Now you're left with an off-brand Shadow Priest/Unholy Death Knight spec, an off-brand Fire Mage spec, and a clunky Demonology spec that matches lore for Demon Hunters. And with the exclusion of Mages in that list, those other classes can also heal or tank, providing them flexibility in play style.

It honestly feels like Blizzard wants the class disbanded. Possibly they see the class as "evil" while other classes can be portrayed as "good" - making it better off as a permanently villainous role. Perhaps down the line they want Warlocks to "repick" into Priests, Demon Hunters, Mages, or Death Knights.

If that's not the goal then the class needs an entire re-design. There are aspects that seem like relics from "before" things were in essence retconned and/or explained in detail:

* Gul'dan seems to use "Fel Magic" but Warlocks use Fire, Shadow (Void?), Shadowflame (for possibly two spells now), and Chaos (barely)
* Warlocks summon Voidwalkers (when they supposedly focus on the demons in the Twisting Nether)
* Warlocks only being able to "enslave" the same four minions (or a fifth if you spec into Demonology)

I don't mind that the lore has been expanded upon and some things have been retconned to make aspects fit - 20 years of lore will cause that. But the class has really lagged behind in implementing these aspects - and for everything they've given up they really haven't gained much. They've lost their identity as something distinct - even while the most infamous Warlock (Gul'dan) became expanded upon more and more. Mechanics-wise the class has serious issues that need addressing, but identity-wise it is basically healthstones and summoning portals.

At this point - if they let me carry over my reputations and the like to a new "main" class, I absolutely would. As it is, I'm just likely to play less/not at all.

Comment by Traeken

I really wish they would just do away with pets for all except Demonology. It's part of the lore for Demonology specs but there is really no reason that a Destro/Aff warlock should have pets. Give them some of the pet abilities as base abilities and do away with the pet aspect of it.

Comment by wil9330

I just want fire and brimstone back like it was in MoP. I really want to like destro again, my fav class thematically.

Comment by Lanycera

I really hope this is not final. 6 sec to re-summon a pet? This is so punishing and unnecessarily long. Someone mentioned it makes it more 'significant' to keep pets alive. There has been many times where my pet in high M+ died for stupid reasons. It's not a 1 sec increase, or a 2 sec increase...no it's double. And it will feel like an eternity.

All I want for Destro is a bit more mobility, the (almost) 2min CD from the corruption gear this xpac as baseline instead of 3 minutes for Infernal. Because it actually sucks waiting 3 minutes for your burst and hitting like a wet noodle in between. And agreeing with other commenters, MoP Fire & Brimstone.

I care more about high M+ than raiding, and Destro is actually not doing too great compared to many other classes. Infernal CD too high (without corruption), cataclysm is a wonky AoE at best especially when you need to kite mobs, and you gotta decide between DF as additional AoE or Darksoul - with Darksoul just overall being the better pick.

Whoever balances and designs classes in this game, are y'all even playing these specs in all of your content? Quite frankly, considering I'm playing FFXIV as well and they're doing a good job mostly with changes, I'm completely shook at some of these class Shadowlands previews.

Comment by Sarthorius

Like with hunters, 6second cast (to dismiss on their case) is BS.

Comment by mtb2k

More unending garbage for Warlocks. 6 second cast time for demons? Wow. I was about to renew a sub after about a year but that right there was enough to say um, nah, i'm good. got plenty of other games to play.

Warlock class has received a significant update? LOL. Weak non dps curses? THANKS.

I'm guessing Demo is still a stationary firing turret, the most BORING spec in the game now and used to be my absolute favorite for so many years. Demo is not at all fun now in PVP. Not sure about PVE since I don't do any raiding.

I'll stick to PS's. I can play my favorite demo specs at a time where they were actually fun to play. I have no need or interest in retail until Demo is completely overhauled for the umpteenth time. Seriously, since MOP they just didn't need to even touch Demo at all. It was perfect in 5.4.8. It was also great before MOP, but MOP did an overhaul the right way even though it wasn't really necessary.

Comment by Kesit

If they don't give demo locks a baseline kick, can they at least bring all the other pets up to felguard dps (for demonology), so we can at least pick the pet abilities that are most useful at the time?

Comment by calaverazoar

``Haunt mini-rework´´

I think that Haunt's healing should come back for more self-sustain, and also for making ''Haunt" a more competitive option, considering it's in the same tier as "dark calling". I also think that it fits the class fantasy of "healing by hurting others" like it was in wotlk. What do you think?
Also, appart from drain life which is baseline, the rest of self-sustain abilities that the warlock has are optional and weaker compared with their Tier competitors (like siphon life competing with agony or corrution options or phantom singularity competing with vile taint). I also think that the healing wouldn´t be overpowered but it would feel extremely nice for sure.

I found the description of the ability in wotlk, here it is:
Haunt. You send a ghostly soul into the target, dealing X Shadow damage and increasing all damage done by your damage-over-time effects on the target by 20% for 12 sec. When the Haunt spell ends or is dispelled, the soul returns to you, healing you for 100% of the damage it did to the target.

In top of that, I would like to see a reworked animation of Haunt because, actually, it's just a white balloon that travels straight to the enemy, nothing really spectacular...

Comment by shadowstabby

I wish the Soul Fire can gain its CD again (2 secs per soul shard used). Its going to be a nuke, so i get the 45 sec base, but with out some kind of CD its going to be really clunky and not maintainable for a Inferno build.

Warlock Class Changes in Shadowlands - Covenants, Soulbinds, Legendaries

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