Warlock specc

[Kogerbarnet]

Okay so heres the kicker, i'm leveling a warlock, its level 50 atm, i'm not leveling it that much, like in weekends or so, but ive just gotten my felguard, and it's awesome, but I wonder which specc would be best for leveling, Is it really demo? I just dont belive it, I haven't tried anything but demo yet,

So what would you recommend for leveling?

[Bakis]

If you only tried demo, how about trying the other specs? Doesnt matter what you level with cos leveling is so faceroll, why not take the time to try them all so you are faimiliar with them untill you ding 80.

[Calath]

I can't really recall exactly, but I leveled as mainly affliction with voidwalker with me. I'd dot up everything I'd run past with Sacrifice (VW-spell) active and thus AOE-farm like a madman. Not much downtime with Deathcoil once you get it and Drain Life if you're really getting low. Could also bring some food. I'm pretty certain I played this way all the way to 80. Went fast, smooth, was easy, had no troubles what so ever. Oh and, improved Howl of Terror is a lifesaver. If I'm not entirely wrong, I think I picked up SL at some point after I'd gotten Siphon Life as well. D:

[Veyne]

Honestly, Demo sucks for leveling. In fact, most people don't recommend it until you can spec into both Felguard and Siphon Life in the Affliction tree.

Demo really offers nothing too great for leveling.

I'd recommend affliction.

Just DoT up, Drain Life/Soul. Great damage, but manageable for your Void Walker, but if you do get hit a few times, you do enough self healing to counter act it.

Not only that, but Affliction is amazing for dotting multiple targets to keep the grind going constantly. Any damage you take, including life tapping your mana back, is countered by drain life, siphon life from your corruption ticks, and a little later, haunt.

[Bubbahotep]

I would say that for pure leveling speed Demonology is the way forward, Demonic Aegis, Master Conjurer and Demonic Knowledge are all really powerful. And your Felguard can tank a few mobs if you over pull.

As Bakis said it could be more enjoyable and worth trying another spec if you never have.

[MCC1701]

It just so happens I know a lot about leveling locks. I have tried everything there is to try, and even made up my own. Here is the best warlock spec for leveling 1-71:
http://www.wowhead.com/talent#IfxbbubhkiVRhkt0Gbho:wT

With that you should be able to solo any elite you come across, level faster than anything else in the game, have loads of fun, rock at PVP, have no downtime, put out good DPS, and never die. Once you get to 30, stop using VW to tank, and you are the tank now. Simply run around, throwing your dots on mobs, dots heal you for more damage than you take, and the worst part is looting. You can use succy or imp as DPS, or VW for 2 "OH SNAP" buttons as he will no longer tank. At 42 you will have improved felhunter, dark pact, and felhutner will get shadowbite. After this you will use felhunter 99% of the time. At 71 some people may advise SL/FG, but haunt/SL(this build) is better now, so when you get to 71, feel free to try both, but haunt/SL is best.

If you have any questions about the spec or playstle, feel free to ask. This is way better than demo, and while it may seem strange at first, I guarantee you will love it

[Bakis]

how will that spec ever hold agro to anything? less haunt, more demo points imo. Leveling with constant spell pushback is not very fun tbh

[MCC1701]

how will that spec ever hold agro to anything? less haunt, more demo points imo. Leveling with constant spell pushback is not very fun tbh

The point is that you the warlock hold agro, after 30 VW no longer tanks. Your damage is actually fairly high, and what else is there to pull agro, your minion? At the most he will pull one out of 12+ mobs who you have dotted, and the mob will die on its own soon enough. Fel concentration takes care of all spell pushback. Demo has some nice talents that aff locks can benefit from, but better than haunt? NOT A CHANCE!

Oh, and to the below poster, felhunter is a better pet for the drain tank playstyle, as the VW is useless except for bubble, which is on a 1 min CD, and gets taken down when you have several mobs beating on you. Felhunter is the best choice for several reasons. He buffs you, he can dispel magic, he can silence, he does AMAZING damage now, has near infinite mana, and with dark pact so will you. The amount of health you save by not life tapping is MUCH higher than what bubble will save you.

[frester]

if you want to lvl fast @50 i think affic is best chice if you never tried it, now with vw bubble it should be pretty OP, if you don't need gold and shiet just want to lvl asap just run'n'dot never stop dot everything in sight (that's doing quests ofc).

but i recently discovered that BGs are great around that lvl as you get 1lvl every 2-3bgs and they should take around 15-20mins top so if you don't mind bit of pvp gogog bg as i find that last few lvl before outland really painful to quest through.

[BuNNyRespawned]

I would highly recommend leveling as Affliction.

You can easily kill groups of enemies (not sure how well the other specs works with that), and I don't see life as an issue at all once you have Haunt :b

[gan12ohman]

I levelled my lock back in TBC as demo, and the nice thing about it is that with a felguard you can take on elites and many mobs, while still allowing your felguard to do decent damage.

At this point, I'd definitely recommend speccing affliction and putting a few points in demo to make your voidwalker a hefty tank. With siphon life being a passive ability, you can take huge packs of mobs, just let your VW tank em, and if required you can pop the VW shield. Life tapping wouldn't really put your health in a danger since you'd regain that health back quickly with siphon life ticking, and you can also keep health stones as a backup.

[MCC1701]

I levelled my lock back in TBC as demo, and the nice thing about it is that with a felguard you can take on elites and many mobs, while still allowing your felguard to do decent damage.

At this point, I'd definitely recommend speccing affliction and putting a few points in demo to make your voidwalker a hefty tank. With siphon life being a passive ability, you can take huge packs of mobs, just let your VW tank em, and if required you can pop the VW shield. Life tapping wouldn't really put your health in a danger since you'd regain that health back quickly with siphon life ticking, and you can also keep health stones as a backup.

A lot has changed my friend since BC my friend, and while demo can still solo elites well, a new playstyle has emerged for affliction, drain tanking. VW tanking is a thing of the past, all I have to do is just run around throwing CoA+corruption on everything I see. Once those spells are on the mob will die, he will end up giving you more health than damage he will do, and you can do it to as many mobs as you possibly can. This has been gaining popularity as of late, so I am surprised I am the only one to bring it up. You can go look on the official warlock forums, this build is all over there...

Example: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/th...38740924&sid=1

[Ghurrnna]

upto WOTLK i alwayse leveled demo. it was and i guess still is like being a hunter. but when i got to 70 i just leveled up as afflic with the voidwalker out. its very quick and u have a few oh shit buttons if u pull one too many mobs

[Deezlar]

A lot has changed my friend since BC my friend, and while demo can still solo elites well, a new playstyle has emerged for affliction, drain tanking. VW tanking is a thing of the past, all I have to do is just run around throwing CoA+corruption on everything I see. Once those spells are on the mob will die, he will end up giving you more health than damage he will do, and you can do it to as many mobs as you possibly can. This has been gaining popularity as of late, so I am surprised I am the only one to bring it up. You can go look on the official warlock forums, this build is all over there...

Example: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/th...38740924&sid=1

erm... drain tanking in BC was one of the reasons we got nerfed so hard in WOTLK. A lock with 30k hp and 650 resilience would just not die in PVP. And it was a viable way to kill mobs fast without losing any HP at all.

I know things have moved on since I leveled, but I still feel that Demo is the way to go, with affli filling in the blanks. When you get siphon life, its just insane.

Find a group of mobs. Start Dotting Corruption and COA while Kiting then into a nice tight group. Pet charge and cleave while you drain life and watch them fall.. And for even more roflstompage, Meta and stand in the middle of them with Immo aura going!

[Savara]

I recommend affliction, just because it's easy and you never get oom/out of hp through tapping.
Also if you play on a pvp server it's awesome. ;D Easy to bring down hordes/alliances (except rogues/wars ofc).


I always lvlt as affliction and you just dot every mob you see in eyesight, howl and they will drop dead at your feet.

[Bakis]

The point is that you the warlock hold agro, after 30 VW no longer tanks. Your damage is actually fairly high, and what else is there to pull agro, your minion? At the most he will pull one out of 12+ mobs who you have dotted, and the mob will die on its own soon enough. Fel concentration takes care of all spell pushback. Demo has some nice talents that aff locks can benefit from, but better than haunt? NOT A CHANCE!

Oh, and to the below poster, felhunter is a better pet for the drain tank playstyle, as the VW is useless except for bubble, which is on a 1 min CD, and gets taken down when you have several mobs beating on you. Felhunter is the best choice for several reasons. He buffs you, he can dispel magic, he can silence, he does AMAZING damage now, has near infinite mana, and with dark pact so will you. The amount of health you save by not life tapping is MUCH higher than what bubble will save you.

And my point is felguard and talentpoints in dots hold agro. Sure you dont burst them down as fast but you got zero downtime cos you never need mana or health. Saves ppl repbill as well cos you will never get hit
If anyone want to use a spec when leveling where the warlock itself is meant to tank then they might as well go destro, it will however be some downtime eating.

[TelDrud]

affliction is best for leveling if you ask me. Demonology relies too much on your demon. I mean that is good when you have Felguard but before that..... I mean felguards are great but still I think that affliction is the way to go cos after every fight in my solo play I ended up with full mana and full almost every time with full health and that is really great.

[Bakis]

affliction is best for leveling if you ask me. Demonology relies too much on your demon. I mean that is good when you have Felguard but before that..... I mean felguards are great but still I think that affliction is the way to go cos after every fight in my solo play I ended up with full mana and full almost every time with full health and that is really great.

I totally agree with this VW and dots untill Felguard, then Felguard and dots at least that is the least downtimespec and unless someone really enjoy leveling that's what they should focus on, smallest possible downtime.

[MCC1701]

And my point is felguard and talentpoints in dots hold agro. Sure you dont burst them down as fast but you got zero downtime cos you never need mana or health. Saves ppl repbill as well cos you will never get hit
If anyone want to use a spec when leveling where the warlock itself is meant to tank then they might as well go destro, it will however be some downtime eating.

This is the biggest reason why talking with someone about drain tanking is hard, because it is very difficult for them to grasp without having seen it themselves. This is not your fault, nor is this meant to be insulting, but it just hard to grasp for most people. I will do my best to explain it:

While leveling my warlock can simply run around with felhunter out, throwing only CoA+corruption on mobs. A mob will be agroed by the dot, attack me while I am running around, but soon die from JUST the 2 dots. Since I only spent 2.5 seconds on the mob, and only cast 2 spells, one of which is healing me, this makes the spec VERY fast and mana efficient. For example, lets say in 3 seconds the mob does 400 damage to me, but in turn I receive 500 healing is the same amount of time(the ratio is generally much higher) so you can see why you never die. On top of having great heals coming in, you no longer life tap, you dark pact. Improved felhunter will make sure your pet has amazing mana regen, plus lets it do VERY high DPS. The idea is that you run around, receiving more heals than damage you take, either life tapping your mana back with the extra healing you receive, or dark pacting it, and you are only limited by the amount of mobs in the area, level range, and how fast you can loot, since this is what is the most time consuming. For tougher mobs, you can still do this, but you simply tack haunt or UA at the start as an extra dot, and alternate as you dot up mobs. In this way it matters not how long it will take for the mob to die, just as long as it dies from just the dots you put on. The longer it is alive the more +healing you get. No need to use AoE, round them up for your pet, etc they just die in a trail behind you. If you are killing mobs this way and DON'T end up with near full health/mana, then you probably did something wrong. I could compare this to demo, but chances are the rest of you know what that is like, and can see what advantages this build offers. However if you remain unconvinced I would be happy to, I just don't want to make this too long(too late, I know).

I hope this explains it enough, but if you don't believe me, go ahead and ask on the official wow forums. The leveling sticky is out of date, but just ask on the forum and you will be told haunt/SL. I leveled my lock as aff/demo from 44, and demo just doesn't compare, at all. Fun playstyle after you get past 60, but IMO less fun than aff and much slower. Once you hit 71 and can get haunt/SL it just becomes dumb how overpowered you are for killing stuff.

Also about drain tanking back in BC, I know. I was playing at that time and locks were HORRIBLY OP that way. While they did nerf it for PVP, through a few changes, they actually ended up making it better today for leveling purposes than it ever was before. It also is a tad confusing since there are 3-4 ways to "Drain tank" this one being officially known as "mass drain tanking" or "corruption drain tanking" but currently is referred to as just plain drain tanking.

And OP, if you are reading this, try the spec and playstyle I advise, and DON'T like it, I will give you 100G(granted you would have to come to my server, unless you already play on bronzebeard or shadow council) even if I give it to a level 1 alt and you just delete it. I use that same offer for every lock I talk to about drain tanking in-game, who still is unconvinced. Dozens of warlocks later, I still have NEVER given 100G to a lock because they didn't like aff drain tanking. I have gotten multiple responses like "HOLY CRAP THIS IS AWESOME!" after they have tried it out, as well as a some "thank you" mail from time to time if I have logged soon after helping them.

Demo and destro are decent enough specs for leveling after 60, but nothing out-levels an aff lock. Honestly this is the first time I have come to a forum like this and no one has heard of it. Maybe it is becasue it is super early in the morning, maybe this forum doesn't concern itself about leveling much, IDK. This post is already long enough, though I would still be happy to answer any question you have about warlocks and leveling

[Jamara]

i have a warlock myself (lvl 61/62 can't remember) and im lvling affliction and i gotta say its really handy to get healed by your spells and in the time you overaggro your void the target will be dead due to your dots.
so i would recommend afflication, as one said before me, you nearly never die/ go oom, i think i will stick to the affliction specc at 80 aswell since i have pretty much learned the specc and my mate is playing destro so it could be good to be something different