Leveling a warlock

[kevindv]

Hi,

I'm lvling a warlock atm, he is now level 30.
But i know wich spec is the best for the leveling in dungeons.
Now in dungeons my dps is always lowest (i'm demonology),

Wich spec u advice me to level with in dungeons?
Thx in advance

[Deleted]

Affliction is not good anymore for leveling. Low level dungeons are very fast and before you are able to apply all the dots your target is dead anyway. Health you get back from siphon life and drain life is relatively small (compared to mana cost of spells; remeber you will get bonus health on BC+ items and another bonus between 81-85 and drainig life is balanced about having those two bonuses) so you will be out of mana quickly.

Demonology might be good after level 45 when your pet gets felstorm (weeeeeeee) but you will heavily rely on this ability. If it will be on cooldown you will do less damage and you will probably not catch up when you can use it. My lock leveled 45-50 as demonolgy and i was able to use it at every third pull. I also noticed that searing paid does higher dps than demon bolt (Hand of Guldan). Strange.

I think your best bet is destruction. It is not true that it's mana ineffecient anymore and backdraft will give you much needed haste. In last patch they also lowered level requirement for soul fire so you will also have fire spell in your arsenal. I am not sure if its worth casting over shadow bolt but with soulburn its nice adition to your burst. Also use felhunter. After they buffed him in 4.1 its best pet for any spec.

[Peyj]

Also use felhunter. After they buffed him in 4.1 its best pet for any spec.

Really? Well, now I feel sheepish. I was using Imp in my Destro spec because I thought I was meant to.

[op3l]

I still prefer affliction because it has absolutely no downtime at all. I leveled to 80 back in WoTLK and honestly never had to eat/drink while levling and was always at full health even with 3-4 things sometimes more hitting me.

Just go affliction + destro/demo dual spec and respec to affliction for solo and destro/demon for instances?

Edit: Affliction lets you multidot mobs out in the open and honestly with the heirloom gears and such, a few dots and the monster just dies. It's honestly the fastest way of solo grinding. Too bad the DPS sucks in instances cause things just die too fast.

[RomanceBlitz]

My warlock is a lowbie in the 10's... I gotta say, With my full chanted heirloom set, Im tempted to go lvl as Affliction, one Corruption seems to kill a mob, and what the DoT wont kill, Im sure my pet will...

[Snowy Vixen]

As terrible as this may sound, I mostly spammed hellfire in dungeons while levelling and was almost always top dps. Also, make sure to hit Hand of Gul'dan.

[op3l]

Yes, yes it does. I leveled with voidwalker on defensive and all I did was corruption and agony early on, then haunt and the other dot with a cast time later on. Whatever those don't kill the voidwalker will finish off. Should your HP get low, just life drain the mobs and rinse and repeat.

Also in low level instances, there's really no skills involved, just spam one spell over and over and you'll likely be top dps.

[Dotspwn]

i leveled my lock Destro before 4.1 hit and liked it, didn't switch to Affliction till after i was 85, it's all about play style

although i do agree to not go Affliction for low levels because the bosses/mobs die too fast and people will hate that you're not doing much and might result in a kick (experience)

Destro is fast damage which is why it's good to level with, Demo is great to survive with but unless you're in an aoe situation it, well, it blows (kinda anti Demo)

[InfernalDark]

Really? Well, now I feel sheepish. I was using Imp in my Destro spec because I thought I was meant to.

Ignore him, imp is still better.

[Deleted]

I used to level my lock as Affli but that was back in Vanilla/TBC. Demo is probably the best spec for leveling since WotLK. I'm not really familiar with how the latest changes affect low level Warlocks, but it has worked out for me.

[Deleted]

I'm leveling my Warlock as Affliction now, I've done a macro with a castsequence of unstable affliction, corruption, bane of agony, curse of weakness (I'm level 19) that resets if the target dies, if i change target or after 5 seconds, you just need this, your voidwalker and drain life. I don't need to rest, and I can handle 3-5 mobs. No heirlooms just normal greens from quests.

[Kadist]

For dungeons I'd recommend Destro because of the enhanced fire damage. You'll prolly use Rain of Fire very often because the dungeons require lots of AoE.
I'm kinda sad because I wanted to level as Affliction but I didn't want to do stay at the bottom of the dps charts. Yes, DPS isn't everything but it just felt like I wasn't contributing enough.
Last night I switched to Affliction to give it another try (I'm lvl75 now, so there's Seed of Corruption..yay) but it's still a nightmare for me to play.
I get mobs down but I haven't figured out the "best" rotation/opening yet because it simply doesn't matter wether I apply Unstable Affliction, Corruption, Haunt etc first or not because once the DoTs etc are up the mob is usually dead.