Warlock builds
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| PvE: | Dk | Dr | Hu | Ma | Pa | Pr | Ro | Sh | Wl | Wr |
| PvP: | Dk | Dr | Hu | Ma | Pa | Pr | Ro | Sh | Wl | Wr |
| Useful macros: | Dk | Dr | Hu | Ma | Pa | Pr | Ro | Sh | Wl | Wr |
Warlock talent builds are many and varied. Each tree is worth spec'ing up to 51 points in, and many builds invest more than 51 points in their primary tree.
Regardless of which path a player eventually chooses, it is sure to be littered with many tough choices.
Contents |
Leveling to 80
A comprehensive guide to leveling, including talent selection, can be found under Leveling a warlock.
Affliction Builds
The DoTs Curse of Agony and Corruption are some of the most mana-effective and time effective spells available for the Warlock. The Affliction talent tree can improve on these even more.
There is always the issue of the mob dying killed before the full completion of a DoT. This is especially bad for Curse of Agony, that causes more of its damage in the last third of its duration (and is often omitted or Curse of Elements used instead for this reason).
There are also some issues with using DoTs in parties and raids. In particular, many Crowd Control abilities break if the affected creature takes any damage. A mob affected by a DoT spell essentially becomes immune to a significant number of CC measures.
Haunt/Ruin (56/0/15)
| Purpose | Raiding |
| Talent Link(s) | Wowhead |
| Tested patch | 3.2.0 |
This build places more emphasis on your own DPS. Updates to the trees in 3.1 has removed hit from Cataclysm leading to 3 points being freed. In the linked build, 3 points are available from Improved Drain Soul and Fel Concentration to be moved to Improved Imp and Demonic Power to buff your Imp if you let the little fellow pound away all the time which is worth at least a couple of hundred DPS. Only issue is if you have a threat problem needing the threat reduction from Improved Drain Soul
The basic opening rotation:
Life Tap Rank 1, Shadow Bolt, Haunt, Corruption, Unstable Affliction, Curse of Agony, Shadow Bolt filler. Renew DoTs as needed. Life Tap max rank to maintain the Life tap Glyph buff every 40 sec.
Under 25% HP of the mob, Shadow Bolt is replaced by Drain Soul.
The doomguards and infernals will increase your DPS more than in other trees/builds.
Deep Affliction (63/0/8)
| Purpose | PvP/Solo PvE |
| Talent Link(s) | Wowhead |
| Tested patch | 3.1.1 |
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This build plays to the strengths of of the Affliction spec by sacrificing raw DPS for improved PvP capability through Grim Reach, Improved Fear, Improved Howl of Terror, Glyph of Fear and Curse of Exhaustion. Use these to keep your opponents at a comfortable distance and kite them until your DoTs suck them dry.
Siphon Life, Glyph of Siphon Life and Molten Skin improve survivability considerably in both PvP and PvE. As a direct consequence, PvE uptime is also excellent, especially if you have your Imp or Felhunter out since you can use Dark Pact to keep your mana pool topped up. Between Siphon Life and Haunt your health hardly ever comes down either, and you can keep grinding mobs without stopping to eat or drink. You will quickly get used to having two or three mobs attacking you at any given point in time without visible effect since Siphon Life and Haunt keep your health topped up. You can have a grand time both questing in PvE and PvPing in battlegrounds with this build. I have not tried this build for world PvP however, but in theory it should work well.
Remember to pick your minions carefully for PvP - Imp when you want raw DPS (or if you leave him passive and phase shifted, you can use him for a mana battery through Dark Pact), Felhunter for casters and the Succubus for melee opponents.
Raid DPS can be maintained at reasonable levels. Between Nightfall and Glyph of Corruption you have a 7.84% chance of proccing an instant cast Shadow Bolt per tick of your Corruption per mob, which goes a long way toward keeping that DPS number high. Between Pandemic and Malediction, your Corruption and Unstable Affliction spell can crit for 100% extra damage per tick, so remember to keep that spell crit percentage high. 11% to 15% base crit is not unreasonable using WotLK gear with critical strike rating (the amount of crit you get from Intellect is quite low, which is why you explicitly need the crit rating gear).
For PvP spell rotations, read the Warlock: How to Kill A... page. Remember that your Corruption and Unstable Afflictions are the only DoTs which crit, so make sure you have them up on your opponent all the time. Also remember to place Unstable Affliction last, making dispelling that stack of DoTs an unpleasant business for anyone who cares to try.
For raid DPS on individual mobs, my rotation basically opens with Haunt, followed by Curse of Agony (or Curse of Elements or Curse of Weakness if the mob will die early because your party has lots of DPS - keep in mind the CoA does 75% of its damage in the last 25% of its period, so its a massive waste if not allowed to run its course). This is followed by Corruption and then Unstable Affliction.
If the pull has two or more mobs in it, rotate Corruption on all of them to begin with (so that the Nightfall procs begin), then rotate CoA (which is really fast because of Amplify Curse), then focus on one mob and drop Haunt and Unstable Affliction onto it. Use Drain Life, Rain of Fire, Shadowbolt and Searing Pain as fillers; I always favour Drain Life because it adds to the probability of a Nightfall proc (4% chance per tick while channelling), keeps your health topped up and does respectable damage. You're committing to long casts with long channelling spells like Drain Soul which gives you considerably less flexibility in keeping Corruption live and making full use of Nightfall as soon as it procs (if you don't use it immediately and it procs again, it will not stack; instead it resets the Nightfall timer, effectively wasting an instant Shadowbolt), so keep this in mind before casting them. When dealing with groups of mobs, a respectable portion of your DPS will be from instant Shadowbolts so make sure you keep Corruption live on all the mobs. If a particular mob is not currently targeted by your party members, drop a Seed of Corruption onto it (it's very mana inefficient if the target is taking a lot of damage).
Note that you can sacrifice some PvP capability for significantly increased DPS by swapping Glyph of Life Tap for Glyph of Fear. If you're going down this path, you'll need to bind Life Tap Rank 1 to a easily reachable key because you'll be throwing this up every 20s or so. The Rank 1 binding is needed because otherwise you'll wind up killing yourself pretty quickly - Rank 7 Life Tap consumes 580 health as opposed to 20 for Rank 1.
This build depends on Siphon Life and Dark Pact for the high uptime, for which sufficient talent points are available only at Level 40. Pandemic and Malediction take even longer. Until you get to 40 (or even 60), you may want to consider going hybrid Affliction/Demonology until you have enough points to obtain both Siphon Life and Dark Pact, and re-spec at the trainer at that point. In the demonology tree, you should invest points in Demonic Embrace, Demonic Brutality and Soul Link. During this phase your primary pet in PvE will be the Voidwalker. That said, remember never to use the Voidwalker in PvP unless you're looking for stealthed Rogues, Druids in cat form or Shadowmelded Night Elves by using Consume Shadows. Any opponent worth his or her salt will simply ignore the Voidwalker and focus on you.
Demonology Builds
The Demonology talent tree and the use of summoned demons are what mainly distinguishes a Warlock from a Mage.
With patch 3.0.2, Demonology became a far more viable building for PvE and PvP. Though, it will still not top the damage meters in a group of even geared players, you most likely will not be the bottom anymore. With the new talents added we are also able buff fellow casting allies the same way a Hunter buffs Melee based allies. In 2v2 Demonology is far more viable as well. With the addition of Metamorphasis and the spells that come with it, you are a force to be reckoned with.
Demonic pact/Devastation 3.1 build (0/50/21)
| Purpose | Raiding |
| Talent Link(s) | Wowhead |
| Tested patch | 3.1.1 |
Glyphs to use/ LIFE TAP, FELGUARD, IMMOLATE
The purpose of this build is to offer the most to the raid that you can using demonic pact if there is no shaman available. The rotation is EXTREMELY easy. COE or COA depending on make of group, life tap, immolate, corruption. Making sure to use demonic empowerment as much as possible and spamming shadow bolts like crazy. This is a medium to high dps build that offers a LOT to the raid especially if you have other casters with you. Good burst damage not very gear oriented.
By passing up metamorphosis for Devastation we increase our dps out put CONSIDERABLY seeing how Metamorphosis is not very useful for raiding purposes.Make sure to use spell stones for increased haste.
Fel Guard/Emberstorm Raid (0/41/30)
| Purpose | Raiding |
| Talent Link(s) | Wowhead |
| Tested patch | 3.1.0 |
This build takes both Emberstorm and Decimate, with Emberstorm increasing Soul Fire damage by 15% for spectacular synergy. Spare points in Demonic Tactics further improves nuke damage. The beauty of this build is the cycle is VERY easy. Curse of Agony or Curse of Elements, immolate, corruption then spam Incinerate like crazy making sure to pop Demonic empowerment when ever you can. When Decimate becomes available, interleave Incinerates with Soul Fires. The downside is the lack of Demonic Pact given by deeper Demo builds.
Imp/Conflagrate Demonology-Destruction (0/40/31)
| Purpose | Raiding |
| Talent Link(s) | Wowhead |
| Tested patch | 3.2.0 |
A slight variation to the 41/30 FG/Emberstorm build, this one sacrifices the Felguard to obtain Conflagrate in the Destruction tree and modifies the Demonology talents accorndingly. Now Imp is the minion of choice and the Demonology synergies with the Imp will compliment the Destruction rotation well (and the Imp is much easier to work with than the Felguard in many boss encounters). The benefits of this build are easily obtained high spell power, high crit chance, and increased fire damage for both you and the Imp for sustained burst damage. Basic opening rotation will be Life Tap, Curse of Agony, Immolate, Conflagrate, and Incinerate spam, making sure to keep Immolate and Curse of Agony up on the target at all times (don't clip DoTs!) and to cast Conflagrate when it is off cooldown. Soul Fire will be interweaved with Incinerate when Decimation procs once target is below 35%. Curse of Agony will serve to proc Molten Core increasing fire damage even further.
| Major Glyphs | [Glyph of Life Tap] | [Glyph of Conflagrate] | [Glyph of Immolate] |
| Minor Glyphs |
Fel Guard/Siphon Life (30/41/0)
| Purpose | Instances/Grinding |
| Talent Link(s) | Wowhead |
| Tested patch | 3.1.0 |
This build was originally conceived after switching over to a Demo/Destro and missing the low down time of a full Affliction build. It does not have the highest DPS nor is it intended to. Rather it allows a warlock with mediocre gear to be on par with the rest of the party when it comes to trash mobs unlike a full Affliction build, but does not have the downtime of Destruction. The DOT rotation while grinding is a simple Curse of Agony, Corruption and Shadowflame kept up on 4-5 mobs with Demonic Empowerment triggered whenever possible.
If you want to use this as a leveling build it is possible but will not work as intended until level 71 and will just be very annoying until level 57 when you get Improved Life Tap. The glyphs that complement this play style are [Glyph of Curse of Agony], [Glyph of Felguard], and [Glyph of Life Tap]. An alternate verified version of this can be found here
Deep Demonology Raid Buffing (3/53/15)
| Purpose | Raiding |
| Talent Link(s) | Wowhead |
| Tested patch | 3.1.1 |
This build provides high burst damage, high crit chance, and high rate of attack to further boost minion crit chance, which boosts coverage of Demonic Pact. Single target rotation is Metamorphosis + Demonic Empowerment, Life Tap, Shadow Bolt, Curse of Elements, Immolate, Corruption, Shadow Bolt until DoTs need refreshing or cooldowns are up. Multi-target Metamorphosis + Demonic Empowerment, Life Tap, Demon Charge, Immolation Aura, Rain of Fire (and hope your tank has good AoE taunts going). Nemesis means that the Felguard will be buffed with Demonic Empowerment once every 42 seconds (roughly 35% of the time), and that you'll be in Demon Form 36 out of every 126 seconds (28.5% of the time, but front loaded so you should have better coverage with trash). Investigating the benefits of Lightweave Embroidery, which should have high chance of proccing during the flurry of initial casts (does Metamorphosis count as a spell cast? If so, there's 3 spell casts before the first GCD).
| Major Glyphs | [Glyph of Metamorphosis] | [Glyph of Felguard] | [Glyph of Life Tap] |
| Minor Glyphs |
Destruction Builds
An interesting thing has happened since 3.0.2 came out. We 'locks are no longer tied to a specific school of magic. While this can be perceived as a boon to our kind due to the endless possibilities, it can also be considered a bit of a hindrance. We've become so much more complex, especially when it comes to the Destruction tree. No longer do I simply sac my Succubus, throw out a CoA and spam SB's until everything around me falls into a pile of steaming flesh. There's more to the Destructo-lock than before. Now that Spell-power is the way of the world, our gear no longer relegates us to being either a "shadow 'lock" or a "fire 'lock".
PvP Destro (0/20/51)
| Purpose | PvP |
| Talent Link(s) | Wowhead |
| Tested patch | 3.1.0 |
The current most popular build for destruction warlocks (as per data mining done at TalentChic). Common variants are 0/17/54 by moving 3 points from Improved Succubus to Soul Leech, trading off the advantage of fast Seduction for a bit of returned health, and 0/17/54 with 2 additional points moved from Fire and Brimstone to Improved Soul Leech for limited raid buffing and some mana regen.
Fire Raiding Destro (3/13/54 +1)
| Purpose | Raiding |
| Talent Link(s) | Wowhead |
| Tested patch | 3.1.0 |
This build is pure DPS. No raid support or survival talents. Minion of choice is the Imp due to Empowered Imp and is supported by Demonic Power and Improved Imp. You will have the imp on Defensive and will disable auto cast of Phase Shift so he will be buffed as well.
Opening rotation with the expectation of Improved Shadowbolt/Improved Scorch being provided by someone else, as well as Curse of the Elements/Earth and Moon/Ebon Plague:
Life Tap Rank 1(only with [Glyph of Life Tap]) > Curse of Doom > Immolate > Chaos Bolt > Conflagrate > Corruption (if you have 2pceT7 set bonus) > Incinerate filler.
Refresh according to the following priority:
- Life Tap
- Immolate
- Conflagrate
- Chaos Bolt
- Curse of Doom (Curse of Agony when under 60 sec remaining).
Sustained Fire Destro (3/13/55)
| Purpose | Raiding |
| Talent Link(s) | Wowhead |
| Tested patch | 3.1.2 |
This build sacrifices the Improved Imp talent in exchange for talents that keep your Warlock casting more spells without stopping to replenish your mana by using Life Tap or other mana replenishing abilities which will detract from time spent dealing damage. No talents are given to Shadow spell damage, leaving the Warlock with very few spells to use in combination.
The Opening Rotation expects the Destruction Warlock to assist themselves and the raid by using Curse of the Elements and refreshing it when necessary, followed up with:
Immolate > Incinerate (to be used until 5 seconds are left on Immolate) > Chaos Bolt > Conflagrate
If the Warlock feels it necessary, Life Tap may also be used at the end of every rotation.
Older Builds
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