Warlock builds
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| 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.
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Leveling to 80
Affliction or Demonology are generally considered the trees to use for leveling, due to the extra downtime spent eating and drinking required by Destruction warlocks. Demonology contains many talents to increase survivability, but has few talents to increase damage until level 40, meaning that leveling will likely be slower than an affliction warlock.
An Affliction warlock applies DoTs to the target and then uses Drain Life to deal extra damage while gaining health. This health can then be converted to mana via Life Tap. Improved Drain Soul gives additional mana back when killing a target while draining its soul. With practice an affliction warlock can grind through many mobs without having to stop to eat or drink. At level 40 Dark Pact becomes available, allowing you to use a (talented) Felhunter or Imp on passive and use their impressive mana regeneration to supplement or replace life tapping, even further reducing downtime.
Full Demonology builds only start to show comparable benefits around level 40 when Demonic Knowledge and Demonic Empowerment become available. At level 50 the warlock can respec to receive their Felguard, at which point a Demonology warlock will get a considerable boost to their damage.
Destruction builds will kill enemies quickly at the expense of having to eat and drink a lot between fights. This may be of more value to you if you plan to do a lot of Instances. Some players like to spend 11 points in Destruction to obtain Shadowburn while spending most of their points in their other tree (usually Demonology, as Affliction has several other sources of damage, making this less useful).
A more 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 spells available for the Warlock. That is, the amount of damage per mana is higher compared to Direct Damage spells like Shadow Bolt. The Affliction talent tree can improve on these even more.
There are problems using DoTs in parties and raids. There is a risk that the mob is killed before the completion of a DoT. This is especially bad for Curse of Agony, that causes more of its damage near the end of its duration. If this happens, then mana and time will be wasted. Curse of Elements is often used instead to avoid this problem for Curse of Agony, though it still applies for other dots.
Generic Affliction (56/0/15)
| Purpose | PvE |
| Talent Link(s) | Wowhead |
| Tested patch | Untested |
An easily adaptable build to any Affliction Warlock's preferred playstyle. Eradication can be gotten easily by trading it for Malediction, and your Improved Curse/Exhaustion can be taken with the points from Improved Felhunter. Your damage with this build (or variants of it) will be quite good, but your spell rotation can be pretty frantic at times. There's not much time for Shadow Bolt spamming, so I put those 15 points into Destro for Bane, Imp. SB, and Ruin to make the Bolting worth your while.
SL-SL with Nether Protection (32/11/28)
| Purpose | PvP |
| Talent Link(s) | Wowhead |
| Tested patch | Untested |
A flexible PvP build that combines strong DoTs with Dark Pact for mana and Soul Link and Nether Protection for survivability. With the Felhunter Master Demonologist buff nerfed, Nether Protection (now applying to all schools) provides protection from casters. Once the enemy is dotted and feared, watch Molten Core proc and finish with a few Searing Pain crits.
Heavy Affliction with SL (57/14/0)
| Purpose | PvP |
| Talent Link(s) | Wowhead |
| Tested patch | Untested |
This build has all the atributes of SL/SL and a lot more damage. This build is specced to put as most affliction effects on the target as possible. That gives your drain life the maximum possible health gain.
Shadow Spec (31/0/40)
| Purpose | Raid |
| Talent Link(s) | Wowhead |
| Tested patch | Untested |
This build is my new version of a "shadow"lock,regarding the Sacrfice Succ. debuff.It's in affliction so you can put DoT's on the enemy and make them vunerable to shadow damage and spamming shadowbolt.It's also a good leveling spec,while having CoE(Curse of Exhaustion).Having a shadow priest in raid also will make you put out even more higher dps.I have not yet found a rotation for it. -Edgeiz
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.
Metamorphosis/Ruin Raid (0/55/16)
| Purpose | Raiding |
| Talent Link(s) | Wowhead |
| Tested patch | Untested |
This build is based off the damage boost from the Metamorphosis and the typical Shadowbolt spam of a raid lock, the crit bonus from Ruin, and a Felguard or a Succubus for the increased damage from Master Demonologist. You can also opt to have Glyph of Corruption of a Nightfall proc, depending on what you prefer.
Your spell rotation is going to be CoE, Shadowbolt, Shadowbolt, etc. Pop Demonic Empowerment whenever you can, as well as using Metamorphosis whenever possible (and Corruption if you have Glyph of Corruption). The way Blizzard redesigned the destruction tree you can get all the talents that made shadow locks good in raids early on, except for Devastation. With the spell power bonuses from Demonic Knowledge and Demonic Pact, and damage bonuses from Demonic Empathy, Master Demonologist, and Imp. Shadowbolt, you can hit much harder than a regular pre-WotLK Destro Lock could. And even without all the procs you’ll be able to hit just as hard, with more raid utility since Imp. SB is now a self buff, where as Demonic Pact is not.
Fel Guard/Emberstorm (0/41/30)
| Purpose | raiding/pvp |
| Talent Link(s) | Wowhead |
| Tested patch | Untested |
This build is a basic build for PvE or PvP,With survivability and Fel Guard pet for damage and fire/shadow damage from destruction.
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".
Destro/SL pvp (0/11/60)
| Purpose | pvp/instances |
| Talent Link(s) | Wowhead |
| Tested patch | Untested |
A heavy destro build based on my early exp. Now destruction is damage efficent and has the Soul Link survival ability.
Fire Destro (Raid, no Conflag) (7/13/51)
| Purpose | pve/raiding |
| Talent Link(s) | Wowhead |
| Tested patch | Untested |
A "fire" destruction spec, based on an old spec from here for lv70. Note that the spec does not include Conflagrate, due to the awkwardness of removing the immolate spell. Use an imp in raiding (perhaps moving points from improved life tap and/or improved healthstone into improved imp). Spell order is Chaos Bolt, Corruption, then either Curse of Agony, or perhaps Curse of Elements (less recasts) (check your DPS, still untested), Immolate, spam Incinerate, then just pop Chaos Bolt whenever you can, and reset your DoTs whenever they run out, and keep spamming Incinerate at other times.
Little note, I'm speccing this now I've hit 80 to test it in hcs and raids - fingers crossed!
Fire/Imp Destro (0/19/52)
| Purpose | pve/raiding |
| Talent Link(s) | Wowhead |
| Tested patch | Untested |
Destro build that utilizes the warlocks fire abilities. The points in demonology provide a dps and stam buff for you and your imp (and raid) as well as more survivability. Fel Domination/Master Summoner is for when your imp gets nuked. The points in improved healthstone (especially if you raid with other warlocks) can be spent in Soul Leech or Nether Protection.
Havent really perfected a rotation yet but what I've been using is Curse of Elements, Immolate, Incinerate, Chaos Bolt then spam Incinerate until immolate is about to expire and Conflag. Then Immolate, Incinerate, and Chaos Bolt rinse repeat.
If you have another lock that's dedicated to Curse of Elements or Affliction with the improved talent, use Corruption and/or Curse of Agony to proc Molten Core (any dps boost is nice!).
I've found this is best for bosses or mobs w/ 130k+ health.
Fire lock/Major Imp (0/20/51)
| Purpose | raiding |
| Talent Link(s) | Wowhead |
| Tested patch | Untested |
This build is similiar to other Fire/Imp builds but kinda different.This build only uses points in Destruction to boost fire damage and has choas bolt and got empowered imp.In demonology,it has improved imp and has 5 points in Unholy power to boost the imp's damage even more.(I reccomend getting glyph of imp,also.)
This build is a high dps build and is very viable for bosses.The rotation I think is best is Curse of Elements,Immolate,Choas bolt,Spam incenerate until immolate is about to run out then conflagerate.Rinse and repeat. -Edgeiz
Older Builds
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