Best leveling specialisation - BFA

[Deleted]

Hey guys, in order to reach lvl 120 as quickly as possible, I was wondering what will be the best warlock specialisation ?
In my opinion, I think that going affliction is the best way if you have a decent ilvl (240-250), but with a lowest ilvl (200-240), the fastest way will be destruction.

What do you guys think about it ? Btw, which legs will be the best ?

Thanks in advance !

[Emaias]

While granted I haven’t actually played a Warlock since MOP, but decided to main it in BFA (btw the MOP legendary cloak is super broken even leveling to 110). I have done quite a bit of research and found that all around Destro is going to be the best spec for leveling. From what I can gather Afflictions ramp up time and general need to multi pull is slower then the raw power of a Chaos Bolt nearly one shoting everything it hits. In fact I think most people will be running even Demo > Affliction as well.

Now, I could be entirely wrong on this, but I have done an unhealthy amount of research while in the head.

As far as Legos go I’m unsure but from what I’ve read it’s thought that legendaries providing 3 stats will reign superior. My lock is currently only 106 and the only ones I’ve gotten is the talent ring and the belt which increases fire damage dealt. Somehow both are top 3 so I think I’ll stick with those.

[Eleriol]

While granted I haven’t actually played a Warlock since MOP, but decided to main it in BFA (btw the MOP legendary cloak is super broken even leveling to 110). I have done quite a bit of research and found that all around Destro is going to be the best spec for leveling. From what I can gather Afflictions ramp up time and general need to multi pull is slower then the raw power of a Chaos Bolt nearly one shoting everything it hits. In fact I think most people will be running even Demo > Affliction as well.

Now, I could be entirely wrong on this, but I have done an unhealthy amount of research while in the head.

As far as Legos go I’m unsure but from what I’ve read it’s thought that legendaries providing 3 stats will reign superior. My lock is currently only 106 and the only ones I’ve gotten is the talent ring and the belt which increases fire damage dealt. Somehow both are top 3 so I think I’ll stick with those.

Demo suffers from even worse ramp up time then affliction and also movement wise affliction beats demo by a mile.

In all honesty if you are planning on leveling on the first days after release affliction will work pretty well since the number of players will mean that in many cases all youll need to do is to tag mobs.
But other then that destro is probably the better leveling spec because like stated chaos bolt one shots shit and its oh so satisfying.

[Deleted]

Affliction is the way to go, just like in Legion, tag everything with infinite corruption, and you will finish quests in seconds .

[Verazh]

Affliction is the way to go, just like in Legion, tag everything with infinite corruption, and you will finish quests in seconds .

Yeah. Do that in BFA and you’ll die.

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Demo suffers from even worse ramp up time then affliction and also movement wise affliction beats demo by a mile.

In all honesty if you are planning on leveling on the first days after release affliction will work pretty well since the number of players will mean that in many cases all youll need to do is to tag mobs.
But other then that destro is probably the better leveling spec because like stated chaos bolt one shots shit and its oh so satisfying.

As it is yes. But numbers are very likely to change before launch. Demo might be made viable by not being totally undertuned. Take the Felguard. Right now he’s more squishy than a puppy.

Well have to wait and see.

[Emaias]

Yeah. Do that in BFA and you’ll die.

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As it is yes. But numbers are very likely to change before launch. Demo might be made viable by not being totally undertuned. Take the Felguard. Right now he’s more squishy than a puppy.

Well have to wait and see.

Maybe Demo will be viable. After nearly 13 years in the game if I’ve learned anything it’s that:

Blizzard has NO idea how to balance. They see X class doing 13% more DPS then Y class in middle of the pack. Blizzard then nerfs X class damage by 10% to bring them in line. But, what blizzard never seems to realize is that it’s never an entire toolkit that’s making X class perform better, it’s usually one ability in certain situations. Like Demo doing INSANE AoE with Implosion. Now they reduced all damage and it’s pretty pathetic.

[Deleted]

Affliction is the way to go, just like in Legion, tag everything with infinite corruption, and you will finish quests in seconds .

As I said, you can do that only with at least 250 ilvl and still, it'll be hard to survive.

In all honesty if you are planning on leveling on the first days after release affliction will work pretty well since the number of players will mean that in many cases all youll need to do is to tag mobs.
But other then that destro is probably the better leveling spec because like stated chaos bolt one shots shit and its oh so satisfying.

Yes, that's the point, destro is very slow for that (way more than affli) and the multi targets depends a lot of the cd of havoc, cataclysm and co.

[BicycleMafioso]

On the alpha (I didn't do it in beta because of the character wipe and Lordaeron event was bugged for a while), I had great fun and success with Destruction, actually. Either play Conflag-dot with Volkswagen or DemoSac. Cataclysm->Channel Demonfire into either RoF or Shadowfury while you finish of the pieces.

As far as legs go, I believe Sephuz. Prydaz will obviously be useless, but you can so easily trigger Sephuz on cooldown for both speed and invaluable haste. Conflag-roots, Shadowfury, Fear, (havoc)Mortal Coil, Infernal..

Affliction will also be something I do. Remove Shadowbolt from the bars (RIP drain soul) and replace it with Drain Life, DoT pull a lot, shadowfury them into a Vile Taint and throw a seed or two up. This is less effective than Destruction though, but I have the head and chest leggo on my Alliance warlock and KJ-trinket on both of them. So at least I will be having fun.

Never was a fan of Demo in TBC (apart from SL/SL) or after. Was fun-ish in vanilla.

[Lucrece]

For the sake of tagging mobs affliction will always be better as many times in high density times players can kill mobs before you even get an immolate off and conflagrate won't always be up.

If I knew there wasn't going to be player density, though, I'd take destruction 100% as its kill time on smaller packs of mobs is so much better.

I wanted to level demo but they totally overnerfed it into irrelevance.

[Deleted]

For the sake of tagging mobs affliction will always be better as many times in high density times players can kill mobs before you even get an immolate off and conflagrate won't always be up.

If I knew there wasn't going to be player density, though, I'd take destruction 100% as its kill time on smaller packs of mobs is so much better.

I wanted to level demo but they totally overnerfed it into irrelevance.

How so? I haven't really kept up but I was considering leveling as demo.

[Drutt]

Destro + KJBW + Cataclysm.

Affliction + dot everything other people have already pulled.

Both will do very well.

Demo has a bit of an issue in that it has a ramp up time combined with no reliable way to instantly tag mobs like Affliction or Destruction both have. Core stacks aren't enough to mitigate this.

I'm probably going to run Sephuz and KJBW regardless of which spec I decide to roll with.

[Lucrece]

How so? I haven't really kept up but I was considering leveling as demo.

Damage output received ridiculous nerfs on the magnitude of 20%+ for some of its abilities during the final stages of beta. Now it's one of the lowest DPS specs in the pre-patch.

[BicycleMafioso]

Damage output received ridiculous nerfs on the magnitude of 20%+ for some of its abilities during the final stages of beta. Now it's one of the lowest DPS specs in the pre-patch.

I mean, whilst demo still needs setup to get going, you are not pushing meters in the questing experience? Demo is safe in that you and your pet is love. But I also would not pick it, no matter its strength in dungeons, for leveling. Ramp up seems cumbersome.

[Graddod]

Affliction is king = Infinite Corruption + Sacrolash Ring (15% Corruption dmg & 60% Movement speed slow) = Guaranteed death and easy to kite
Pair that with Sephuz for 10% extra speed + 70% speed on proc, its really easy to dot everything and wait for them to die while running around dotting more.

Works until 116, after that its a different story and Destruction may gain the advantage.

[Cainium]

I can recommend demon skin as affliction.

Started leveling on beta without it, and at one point where i died why do much switched back to it, and will definitly use it for leveling. Survivability is a lot better, no dismount if damaged, and the pet lives longer too.

If rot and decay still works with drain soul I recommend warmode. No elite mob can stand that burst. And usually one doesn't have to resummon the voidwalker 'cause the soul leech shield is more than enough that he'll survive the fight.

That was on a completly new premade character, so with decent geared characters on live with legendaries this will get even easier.

[Lucrece]

I mean, whilst demo still needs setup to get going, you are not pushing meters in the questing experience? Demo is safe in that you and your pet is love. But I also would not pick it, no matter its strength in dungeons, for leveling. Ramp up seems cumbersome.

If you are doing 1k damage with hand of gul'dan and the patch after it does 700-800 that is still 200-300 HP being added effectively to the mob. Nerfs don't just affect DPS or relative standing; it affects frontloaded damage just as well.

It's why assassination rogues are currently top dog despite being a bleed/poison based spec, because the base damage is high enough that the dot ticks are doing really high damage to begin with.

[Soulstone]

Hey guys, in order to reach lvl 120 as quickly as possible, I was wondering what will be the best warlock specialisation ?
In my opinion, I think that going affliction is the best way if you have a decent ilvl (240-250), but with a lowest ilvl (200-240), the fastest way will be destruction.

Demonology has always been my favorite. I find it the most relaxing while questing. Your English is great!

[Jahrastafari]

the raw power of a Chaos Bolt nearly one shoting everything it hits

LOL, no. Death Bolt even hits harder that than wet noodle.

[Verazh]

Never was a fan of Demo in TBC (apart from SL/SL) or after. Was fun-ish in vanilla.

I call bullshit. What exactly was fun about demo in vanilla? Everything good was in the destruction or the affliction trees. Only Soul Link was good.

[Lucrece]

I call bullshit. What exactly was fun about demo in vanilla? Everything good was in the destruction or the affliction trees. Only Soul Link was good.

When people have anything to say positive about class gameplay in vanilla WoW compared to other xpacs it makes it really simple to me to discard any further opinions from them as worthless rose-tinted glasses bullshit.