The Warlock in WoW Forever keeps its demons, damage over time and Soul Shards, but Blizzard split its damaging curses into a new category: Banes. Bane of Agony and Bane of Doom no longer compete with utility curses, so you can keep a damage Bane and a raid Curse like Curse of the Elements on the same target. Demons now scale with your own stats, and Create Firestone and Create Spellstone turn into weapon imbues that stack with wizard oils.
The specs gained signature spells. Affliction gets the drain-style Wrack, Demonology can combine a sacrifice buff with an active demon through Demonic Pact, and Destruction mixes Incinerate, Conflagrate and Shadowburn with the new Bane of Havoc. Warlocks are still physically fragile and lean on their demons for protection.
This guide sums up every Warlock change, lists the spells you learn at each level, explains demons, Banes and Curses, compares Affliction, Demonology and Destruction and helps you pick a race before the November 4 launch.
Blizzard's Warlock updates open new ways to combine Shadow, Fire and demonic power. The changes fall into three groups: Banes and Curses, demons and stones, and quality-of-life fixes.
The biggest change is a new spell category:
| Change | What It Means |
|---|---|
| Bane of Agony and Bane of Doom | The old Curse of Agony and Curse of Doom are now Banes; you can have one Bane and one Curse from you on a target |
| Curse of the Elements | Now raises all magic damage taken, not only Fire and Frost |
| Curse of Shadows | Removed, since Curse of the Elements now covers Shadow |
In Classic, a raid often asked a Warlock to drop its damage curse to keep a utility curse on the boss. In Forever you keep both, and every talent that improved Curses now improves Banes too.
Life Tap now scales with Spirit and its tooltip shows the real amount, and Drain Soul has a growing chance per tick to give a Soul Shard until one is guaranteed. Farming shards no longer depends on landing the killing blow during the channel.
The October 15 beta build replaced the new Malediction talent with the returning Grim Reach, doubled Shadow Mastery back to 10% Shadow damage, and limited Destructive Reach to Destruction spells again. The racials of the Warlock races were reworked in the same build.
We compare every talent in all three trees with its Classic version in our WoW Forever Warlock talents guide.
A Warlock learns new spells from the class trainer every two levels, while most demons come from class quests. Warlocks wear cloth for their whole career, and talent points start at level 10, one per level, for 51 points at 60. Dual Specialization opens at level 40. Your first mount, Summon Felsteed, comes at 40, and the epic Summon Dreadsteed from a quest chain at 60.
The table lists the level at which you learn the first rank of each spell. Shadow Bolt, Corruption, Immolate and most other spells get new ranks every few levels.
| Level | New Spells |
|---|---|
| 1 | Shadow Bolt, Immolate, Demon Skin, Summon Imp |
| 4 | Corruption, Curse of Weakness |
| 6 | Life Tap |
| 8 | Bane of Agony, Fear |
| 10 | Summon Voidwalker (class quest), Drain Soul, Create Healthstone |
| 12 | Health Funnel |
| 14 | Drain Life, Curse of Recklessness |
| 16 | Unending Breath |
| 18 | Searing Pain, Create Soulstone |
| 20 | Summon Succubus and Summon Incubus (class quest), Curse of the Elements, Demon Armor, Rain of Fire, Ritual of Summoning |
| 22 | Eye of Kilrogg |
| 24 | Drain Mana, Sense Demons |
| 26 | Curse of Tongues, Detect Invisibility |
| 28 | Banish, Create Firestone |
| 30 | Summon Felhunter (class quest), Hellfire, Subjugate Demon |
| 32 | Shadow Ward |
| 36 | Create Spellstone |
| 40 | Howl of Terror, Summon Felsteed |
| 42 | Death Coil |
| 48 | Soul Fire |
| 50 | Inferno |
| 60 | Bane of Doom, Ritual of Doom |
Talents add the rest of the toolkit. The key talented spells are Siphon Life, Curse of Exhaustion and Wrack for Affliction, Demonic Sacrifice, Fel Domination, Soul Link and Demonic Pact for Demonology, and Shadowburn, Conflagrate, Bane of Havoc and Incinerate for Destruction.
Our WoW Forever Warlock leveling guide shows which of these spells to use at each stage from 1 to 60.
Your demon and your choice of Bane and Curse decide most of what a Warlock brings to a fight. Forever changes both: demons scale with you, and Banes free up the Curse slot for utility.
You can have one demon out at a time. Each serves a different job, and Demonology talents turn them into buffs as well.
| Demon | Level | Role | Demonic Sacrifice Buff |
|---|---|---|---|
| Imp (Summon Imp) | 1 | Ranged Fire damage, Stamina buff for the party | More Shadow damage |
| Voidwalker (Summon Voidwalker) | 10 | Tanks enemies while leveling | Restores mana |
| Succubus or Incubus (Summon Succubus, Summon Incubus) | 20 | Melee damage and a crowd control | More Fire damage |
| Felhunter (Summon Felhunter) | 30 | Interrupt and magic dispel, the PvP pick | Restores health |
| Infernal (Inferno) | 50 | Temporary AoE guardian | None |
| Doomguard (Ritual of Doom) | 60 | Powerful demon summoned with help from your group | None |
Sacrifice effects now last 2 hours. With the 31-point Demonic Pact, summoning a different demon no longer cancels the sacrifice, so Demonology can stack a sacrifice buff with the bonus of an active demon from Master Demonologist for the first time.
Only one Bane per Warlock can be on a target:
Curses are now pure utility, and you can keep one alongside your Bane:
In groups, coordinate with other Warlocks so each target gets a different Curse.
All three Warlock specs deal ranged damage, and Blizzard says each now competes with any other caster in its own style. Affliction works with damage over time and drains, Demonology empowers you and your demon, and Destruction mixes direct Fire and Shadow damage.
| Spec | Playstyle | Key New Talents | Strengths | Weaknesses |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Affliction | DoTs and drains | Pandemic, Malevolence, Wrack | Self-healing through drains, strong on many targets | Slow ramp on short fights |
| Demonology | Demon and self buffs | Fel Vitality, Demonic Knowledge, Demonic Pact | Sturdiest leveling, pet holds threat | Damage depends on demon management |
| Destruction | Fire and Shadow nukes | Molten Skin, Bane of Havoc, Incinerate | Burst, cleave through Bane of Havoc | Threat and mana use |
Affliction DoTs can now crit for full value: Pandemic doubles their crit damage bonus and Malevolence adds Shadow crit chance. Soul Siphon makes your drains hit up to 36% harder for each of your other Affliction spells on the target, Nightfall now also procs from Drain Soul and Wrack, and Curse of Exhaustion is the 16-point talent. The 31-point Wrack is a drain-style channel that also makes the target take 10% more damage from your other Shadow DoTs.
Demonology now has real damage of its own. Demonic Knowledge adds spell damage for you and your demon while it is out, Demonic Brand lets your Searing Pain empower your demon's next attacks, and Decimation makes Soul Fire faster and free on low-health targets. Demonic Sacrifice moved to 11 points and its effects last 2 hours, Soul Link is now the 21-point talent, and Demonic Pact at 31 points lets you keep a sacrifice buff while another demon fights.
Destruction weaves Fire and Shadow. Conflagrate moved to 16 points, Shadow and Flame makes Conflagrate boost your Shadow damage and Shadowburn boost your Fire damage, and Ruin sits much higher in the tree. Bane of Havoc at 21 points lets you keep hurting a priority target while you fight adds, and the 31-point Incinerate deals 25% more damage to targets with your Immolate.
Our WoW Forever Warlock tier set guide lists the raid set bonuses along with the crafted pieces.
Five races can be Warlocks in Forever: Orc, Undead and, new in Forever, Troll for the Horde, and Human and Gnome for the Alliance. Skyborne cannot be Warlocks.
| Race | Faction | Key Racials for a Warlock | Best Fit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Orc | Horde | Blood Fury: +10% spell power for 15 sec; Shatter Curse: removes Curses and Banes | Raids and PvP |
| Undead | Horde | Will of the Forsaken: breaks Fear and Charm; Touch of the Grave: health drain | PvP |
| Troll | Horde | Berserking: +10% casting speed; Rapid Regeneration: heals 50% health out of combat | Raids and leveling |
| Gnome | Alliance | Escape Artist: breaks snares; Eureka!: cheaper and stronger spells for 8 sec; Expansive Mind: +5% maximum Mana | Raids and PvP |
| Human | Alliance | Will to Survive: breaks stuns; The Human Spirit: +5% Spirit for Life Tap | PvP and Affliction |
Since Life Tap now scales with Spirit, the Human Spirit bonus has a little more value than in Classic. Gnome remains the stronger Alliance pick for raids thanks to Eureka! and extra mana. On the Horde side, Orc and Troll bring damage cooldowns, while Undead is the PvP choice.
Our WoW Forever race tier list ranks every race for every class.
These are the questions players ask most about the Warlock before launch.
Yes. Warlocks are among the strongest solo classes thanks to their demons, drains and Fear, and Blizzard says all three specs now compete with other casters in damage. The class is still fragile without its demon.
Banes are a new spell category for damaging curses. Bane of Agony, Bane of Doom and Bane of Havoc are Banes, and you can have one Bane and one Curse on a target at the same time.
Yes. Demons now gain stats from their summoner, so your gear upgrades make your demon stronger too.
Drain Soul now has a growing chance per tick to give a Soul Shard until one is guaranteed, so you get shards more reliably than in Classic.
Affliction or Demonology. Affliction heals itself through drains and spreads DoTs across several enemies, while Demonology keeps a strong Voidwalker tanking for you. Both rely on Life Tap and Drain Life to keep going without rest.
These guides take your Warlock from the first level to the first raid:
