Warlock Leveling

[Aimis]

I've been leveling my warlock as afflic off and on for quite some time now, but when cata came out I noticed a huge drop in my dps.
I'm thinking about switching to demo to better damage as I do most of my leveling in instances.
Would this be the right choice, and if so what rotation/pet should I be using? Also I'm only about to hit 60 at the moment.

[Leadros]

I've been leveling my warlock as afflic off and on for quite some time now, but when cata came out I noticed a huge drop in my dps.
I'm thinking about switching to demo to better damage as I do most of my leveling in instances.
Would this be the right choice, and if so what rotation/pet should I be using? Also I'm only about to hit 60 at the moment.

If you are Demo, use your felguard.

as for the DPS if mobs fall fast, cast shadowbolts, if mobs dont fall very fast, you may cast Corruption and Immolate.

Outside of the instances open with immolate, Corruption and your felguard should do the rest.

[Deleted]

I levelled my lock to 70 as demo in TBC and then destro in wrath and cata not had much downtime, didn't die much either and the dps increase was quite a breath of fresh air aswell

[Nivrax]

Demo is the king of leveling right now, at least up to level 80. Felstorm each/second pull, boosted Hellfire on move. As level 72, I'm hitting around 2,5-3k dps overall in dungeons, 60%+ damage done (granted I have few pieces of s4 arena gear, but everyone can get it now since it's dirty cheap).
3 mobs or less -> Immo (+Corr if rest dps sleep) while tabbing, then HoG/Incinerate (SB before lvl 64). 4+ - just Hellfire them.

And if you are leveling on pvp server, I had around 10-15 gank attemps (at similiar level) and I didn't lose a single one, unless it's a mage who know when to cast Ice Block, Felguard can solo everyone within his 4 second stun and Felstorm.

[Jiraiyah]

I switched to destro at 60. It was fun as hell. You'll burn through a good portion of quest mobs in under 1.5 seconds. But that was when you could get chaos bolt by then, so maybe it's different. Otherwise, everyone else is right wrt demo. Hard to pass up a felguard for leveling.

But don't underestimate affliction. I leveled my first lock 1-80 in pure affliction and it didn't see,m any slower. Rather than one or two at a time, I juggled 5-6 constantly (meaning as one or 2 go down, grab another one or two to replace them) for hours on end, limited only by the supply of enemies.

[Deleted]

I switched to destro at 60. It was fun as hell. You'll burn through a good portion of quest mobs in under 1.5 seconds. But that was when you could get chaos bolt by then, so maybe it's different. Otherwise, everyone else is right wrt demo. Hard to pass up a felguard for leveling.

But don't underestimate affliction. I leveled my first lock 1-80 in pure affliction and it didn't see,m any slower. Rather than one or two at a time, I juggled 5-6 constantly (meaning as one or 2 go down, grab another one or two to replace them) for hours on end, limited only by the supply of enemies.

Too many people effectivly talking cross-purposes. The game changes drastically for classes on each expansion. For example, affliction WotLK pre patch 4.0 feels nothing like post patch 4.0/Cata. Pre patch 4.0, affliction was a DEMON for levelling. Easily the fastest levelling spec across all classes in the game by a mile. Combined with demo/afflic builds for elites, there were literally only 5 quests (if that) it would be very difficult to solo before 80 (one of them being Ring of Champions in Northrend. Yes, Ring of Blood in Nagrand is soloable around 68-70!).

Demo has always been one of the strongest levelling specs, especially against elite. I would have LOVED to level as demo from scratch post patch 4.0, but I no longer play...

I have no idea about destro. Burning through my mana while levelling to kill a handful of mobs when affliction spec could eat through an entire quest hub at a time without no downtime whatsoever, didn't feel too attractive. But this again was pre patch 4.0.

[Heliorad]

In instances, demonology is the way to go, at least if you're of a level where your felguard has felstorm. Insane aoe DPS, and the leveling dungeons are mostly AOE-fests even now.

As for downtime due to draining mana on nukes...barely exists. You tap once or twice, then between the fel armor heals and Soul Harvest you're topped off. Often I just run around at part health while fel armor tops me off.

[Aimis]

Thanks for the help guys, I switched over to demo and I've already seen a huge improvement. Looks like that's the way I'll be going for the rest of my leveling.