Leveling Builds for Locks now

[Ticktac]

I just re-rolled a Warlock. I checked the sticky post, but didn't really find anything about leveling. So where do I start with talents? I assume affliction is still a valid leveling build. It has changed quite a bit since I last played a Warlock. It seems we now get instant corruption rather then dumbing your first 5 talent points in Affliction to get it. So any links that can be provided would be great. Again just looking for some help/pointers on the leveling the build. What are the core talents of the tree? What are talents to skip for now?

[gherkin]

1-30, both Affliction and Destruction are viable. Improved Shadowbolt, Bane, and Ruin for Destruction. Soul Siphon, Improved Drain Soul for Affliction.

PLEASE KEEP IN MIND THAT WARLOCKS SUCK BALLS UNTIL 14. You get Drain Life at 14, and it makes your life easier. For the love of all things demonic, please buy a Lesser and Greater Magic Wand from the AH and use them until ~18 or so. Example: Immolate / Corruption / Shadowbolt / Wand, next target.
Focus on green quests (do two starting areas - if gnome, do Dun Morogh then Elwynn forest. Stay out of Westfall till 14. If undead, do Tirisfal and the Blood elf zones. Stay out of Ghostlands until 14.)

30-55, Affliction is a great deal better than Destruction, but Destruction still works.
Summary of specs:
Affliction - Never worry about your mana, ever. Siphon Life will always keep you topped off, and you have a buffed version of Drain Life, and Drain Soul grants you mana. Things die slower, but you can kill more of them in one pull.

At 30 you get Siphon Life, and you can use glyph of siphon life. This means that 60% of your corruption damage (or was it 48%?) heals you. This is when you can start aoe-dotting and drain tanking. Agony, Corruption, next target. Voidwalker on Defensive with all abilities turned off. Shield as needed. Drain Life after 3 mobs, increase this number if you feel comfortable. Feel free to put your lvl 32 and 33 points into Fel Synergy to heal the Sacrifice bubble damage if you find you have to stop and heal it all the time.

Destruction - Mana is an issue, but things die fast. The time you save from killing things faster than Affliction is spent drinking. It works out in the short term, but by lvl 55 Affliction done correctly will have saved you a few hours of playtime.

Destruction is viable because you get Molten Skin, 10% less mana consumed, and 10% crit (Improved Shadow Bolt + Devastation). Conflag does decent damage at 40. You don't get Incinerate until Outland, so make sure you take Improved Shadowbolt. I'd try a Shadowbolt / Immolate / Corruption / Conflag rotation myself. Soul Leech is mandatory when you get to that level. Take the talent to drop Lash of Pain CD by 6 seconds, then put the succubus on defensive with all but lash of pain turned off. She will need mana here and there - dismiss her and resummon her to get it all back.


Demonology is the tree of choice 55+. 41 points into Demo then start working up the Affliction tree again. If you were affliction until this point, you will be grinding fewer mobs to start (Felguard is squishie until you get outland gear) but as you get better gear and more Affliction talents you will be able to deal more damage to more mobs faster. At 71 you get Siphon Life back and can chain pull most of a continent without dying. Your only restraint will be the Felguard's mana pool, which is circumvented by Mana Feed. Remember that you can use Rank 1 Life Tap to eat less of your HP at a time.


Work towards these:

Affliction at 30:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#IfxbbzMho

Destruction at 31:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#IZZEchV00z

Affliction at 55:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#IfxbbzMho
The last 10 points you can distribute as you see fit. Eradication, Contagion, UA, and Pandemic are mandatory. The other points do as you like.

Destruction at 55:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#IZZEcGVbcuzscf

Felguard at 55:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#I0xZ0GchkAdi0sxz

Felguard at 71:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#IcxrbzMhoZ0GchkAdi0sxz
You'll notice we dropped Agony for Suppression - You and your pet have a 5% miss rate. You never needed it before because your pet did paltry dps and the other options for you were worth it. Now your pet is insane and things won't live long enough for agony to fully take effect. Hit increases both of your dps.

[gherkin]

I feel the need to emphasize how much warlocks suck until 14, and how anything you can do to get past this barrier is important.

1) I enjoyed my warrior 1-20 more than I did my warlock. This should not be.
2) I could kill things faster, with fewer mana problems, as a mage.
3) I died less on my rogue, who had zero tricks, no poisons, and no stuns.
4) My priest, without a wand, killed stuff just as slow, had the same mana problems, but could heal herself in a pinch.

Drain life makes or breaks you. Get a wand. Use it. Stay out of lvl 12+ zones until 14+. Green quests are your friends.

[gherkin]

One last thing. Do not forget to use your Firestone (Destruction) or Spellstone (Affliction, Demonology), your Armors (Fel Armor as soon as you get it), Soulstone yourself, and keep a healthstone on hand. Wipe recovery and unlimited potions!!

[Bananengurke]

no demonology builds?

I did from start till 60 demonology
then destruction, just because that is definitely the fastest way to kill things, its better than waiting for your dots to eat the target up if you can just spam incinerate ( you get that spell at lvl 67 i believe) 3-4 times and target is dead.
mana probs:
mmm not really well it feels alot like mages, but didn't really matter.

What I really wanted to tell you is, it doesn't matteer what you specc in untill 50s-60s, after that you just roll what you like best, and make it work

[gherkin]

The problem with demonology is that the bottom half of the tree has no +damage abilities. The best choices for talents are all +Stamina, +Intellect, +Demon Armor (no fel armor till 64), Soul Link, Summon pet faster.

By the time you get to the +damage abilities, you also get the option of 10% Crit or Siphon Life. Both are much better than moderate pet buffs.

Edit: not bashing you for leveling demo. I leveled Destruction in 1.9, when destruction was horrible. Do what you enjoy and what feels right. I didn't get the hang of Affliction until halfway through Outland.

[fattyboomkin]

Affliction for all levels.

[archibal]

See this on WoW v3.1 Warlock specs:


I used this 21/41/0, as discussed in this Warlock FAQ and I feel like a god at lvl72.

[Furbs]

Aff for leveling always imo. Stack SP and throw up a corruption and coa and the mob dies. You can run around dotting everything and let it die as you pull even more.

If you run low on health? No problem, demon armor + haunt + corruption + drain life till it dies is about 8-9k health at about 1.1k SP which I had at 70.

Then just life tap your way back to full mana if you run low there, for leveling spec make sure to get (not sure how to link spells so you can read them) Imp Drain Soul, Imp Lifetap, Siphon Life, Haunt, and anything that increases dmg done by corruption. Curse of exhaustion is great for killing those elites. dot dot kite dot dot kill = win. Also make sure to get soul siphon and fel concentration, they make life easier.

I leveld all the way 1-80 with this build, it is very efficient to just run around, throw up two dots, watch them die and point and laugh.

http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?warl...0&version=9947

I would say this is basically the major things in aff you'll need for leveling. After that you can put more points into it to get the real goodies or go put the rest into demo for soul link or destro for that ruin and fast sbolts.

Happy Leveling!

[Separate]

Might want to go 10 it is I believe into the Demo tree for the stam/intellect buffs for survivability.

[gherkin]

Might want to go 10 it is I believe into the Demo tree for the stam/intellect buffs for survivability.

Not necessary once you hit level 14, so why respec for 4 talent points?

See this on WoW v3.1 Warlock specs: I used this 21/41/0, as discussed in this Warlock FAQ and I feel like a god at lvl72.

Already covered this.

Affliction for all levels.

This is viable as well, but some people don't like Affliction when your spell power doesn't increase as fast as mob health does. Also, mobs hit twice as hard in Outland and as your spell power increased, the healing does not keep up.

Suddenly going from 5-10 mobs at once to 3 or 4 makes people think they're doing it wrong. It's not a pleasant feeling.