Warlock Leveling 1-120 Help.

[Atrieus]

Hello there fellow Warlocks.
I used to play warlock as a main, back in TBC up until around Cata.

And with the new XP buff, i decided it was about time i leveled up a new warlock, my question is this.
Which is the best spec for levelling?

I have always thought Afflicition was the best in the lower level zone, then switch to destruction, though i have been levelling characters for the past week and every warlock i have came across has been Demonology. Is there something i am missing here or is Demonology now the best for efficient and fast levelling.

Thanks All, Atr

[Hobbidaggy]

Play destro and you’ll be fine

[Atrieus]

No worries, thanks for the response, ill give Destro a whirl. just curious as to why everyone seems to be running around with Felguards.

[LordVargK]

All warlocks play demo, because it's the most fun. And the best for dungeons. I for myself would level as affliction, just DoT everything and run around. But of course that depends on how you are going to level. Quests: Affliction, Dungeons: Demo, A mix of both or PvP: Destru.

[Tehterokkar]

Demo is the coolest looking, but is terrible for leveling since you have a big ramp up to your damage. Destruction's damage is front-loaded, so it kills mobs faster and more efficiently.

[Shinrael]

Destro is just overpowered when leveling. You basically 1-shot everything with Chaos Bolt so you can:

One-shot a mob with Chaos Bolt then kill another mob with Conflagarate and Incinereate to build up Shards, rince and repeat.
or you could do gigantic pulls, stun with Shadowfury, go Rain of Fire + PvP talent that makes your Havoc AoE then Conflagarate one mob and boom everything is dead. Or just spawn Infernal on top of the mobs and it will melt everything away.... Mobs don't even get to touch you. I was always running around with Voidwalker to take care of the aggro just in case. Also extra AoE.

I also leveled as Affli and Demo for a while. Affli is cool but the DoTs take too much time to kill a single mob. If you were in a dungeon where your tank is taking all the damage and the mobs take a lot more time to die because they have more HP than open world mobs, then Affli could probably do more damage in an AoE setting? Because Destro would eventually run out of resources for their burst damage. But in the open world it sucks.... You can still go with it if you like a bit more slow-pace questing.

Demo is actually quite good as well for leveling, not as slow-paced as people say. With the right talents (those that focus on your Dreadstalkers) you can destroy large packs of mobs in mere seconds and the gameplay is fun too. But yeah, Destro just beats it all.

[Atrieus]

Loads of excellent points here,

Turns out ill more than likely be switching specs as i go, as certain areas may require different strategies.
Though with full Heirloom im expecting to just Annihilate anything and everything as i go. time will tel..

Thanks for all the excellent info folks.

[Amariw]

All speccs are perfectly valuable and fun, but if you want the top:

Dest is easiest. Dmg is frontloaded and you just one shot with cb. Its a bit boring that its so easy.

Demo not as frontloaded, but it feels more like a rotation and if anything survives your felstalkers (say multi pull), you get demonbolts to finish them off.

Affliction lost a lot of its cool pandaria tools in legion that let it ramp quicker, so now its just slow due to dots. Shame, it was really fun to do 3 dots in one global then drain, but now you gotta apply each dot individually which is just terribly inefficent time wise. It works, just needlessly slow. Hopefully they add two shards instant version of unstable affliction and seed of corruption next expac.

[Atrieus]

A little update as to what i have discovered, and based on some of the points explained.

With the 100% buff we have currently some of the rules dont apply. All of the points below assume your in full heirloom, enchanted etc.

Affliction : strong in early levels as things die with one dot, falls off slightly later on.but still not that weak. In dungeons especially in classic. Everything just dies before any dots do most. Probably overall weakest of the 3 specs.

Destruction : yep, front loaded and with honor talents chaos bolt destroys all, really flies off the handle past level 52 when you unlock double conflag, efficient and bursty, well rounded and versatile though i would place it 2nd of the three.

Demonology : admit i was curious as to why everyone levelling warlocks was demo, and now i know, Dreadlash. The only reason, combined with instant Doggies, and a strong tank pet you can wipe out entire camps of mobs in a few globals. Also between 1-60 unlike some classes you have access to AoE early which is a huge buff to dungeon speed and overall xp.

So, Destruction and Demonology are both the same speed due to the changes we have received and it is all based on playstyle. Granted Legion/BFA may be a different experience. As it stands i am currently level 84 with 4 hours/played. 15-60 entirely in dungeons. As stated the raw aoe damage is a massive help to xp per hour.