Warlock Leveling Guide 1–60 for WoW Forever

Affliction relies on DoTs and life drain: you spread your curses, your pet tanks the mobs, and you need hardly any downtime. Starting at level 41, your points go into Demonology for more Stamina and stronger pets.

Talents and abilities on this page come from the WoW Forever game data. The tips are based on Classic experience, so values and details may differ in Forever.

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Recommended leveling talents

Affliction 31 · Demonology 20Open build in the talent calculator

Last updated: beta, Oct 14, 2026. These builds are planned for the new WoW Forever talent trees and will be reviewed after launch.

Starting at level 10, you get one talent point per level. The table shows which talents to take at each level range; the number after the name is the rank you end up with.

Level	Talents
10–19	Improved Corruption 5/5 · AfflictionImproved Drains 3/3 · AfflictionImproved Life Tap 2/2 · Affliction
20–29	Improved Bane of Agony 2/2 · AfflictionAmplify Curse 1/1 · AfflictionFel Concentration 3/3 · AfflictionNightfall 2/2 · AfflictionMalevolence 2/5 · Affliction
30–39	Malevolence 3/5 · AfflictionSiphon Life 1/1 · AfflictionSoul Siphon 3/3 · AfflictionShadow Mastery 5/5 · Affliction
40–49	Wrack 1/1 · AfflictionDemonic Embrace 5/5 · DemonologyImproved Voidwalker 3/3 · DemonologyFel Vitality 1/3 · Demonology
50–59	Fel Vitality 3/3 · DemonologyMaster Summoner 2/2 · DemonologyImproved Health Funnel 2/2 · DemonologyFel Domination 1/1 · DemonologyUnholy Power 3/5 · Demonology
60	Unholy Power 4/5 · Demonology

Abilities to train by level

New abilities by level range, with the key leveling abilities listed first and highlighted. Below them are the ranks you can upgrade at your trainer.

Level	Abilities
1–9	Immolate 1Shadow Bolt 1Summon Imp 1Corruption 4Life Tap 6Fear 8Bane of Agony 8Demon Skin 1Curse of Weakness 4 New ranks: Shadow Bolt
10–19	Create Healthstone 10Summon Voidwalker 10Drain Soul 10Health Funnel 12Drain Life 14Explorer Imp 10Curse of Recklessness 14Unending Breath 16Create Soulstone 18Searing Pain 18 New ranks: Demon Skin, Immolate, Curse of Weakness, Shadow Bolt, Corruption, Life Tap
20–29	Summon Succubus 20Demon Armor 20Rain of Fire 20Summon Incubus 20Ritual of Summoning 20Eye of Kilrogg 22Sense Demons 24Drain Mana 24Curse of Tongues 26Detect Invisibility 26Create Firestone 28Banish 28 New ranks: Immolate, Health Funnel, Shadow Bolt, Drain Life, Curse of Weakness, Create Healthstone, Drain Soul, Corruption, Life Tap, Searing Pain, Curse of Recklessness, Bane of Agony
30–39	Summon Felhunter 30Siphon Life 31 · talentSubjugate Demon 30Hellfire 30Shadow Ward 32Create Spellstone 36 New ranks: Drain Life, Demon Armor, Immolate, Create Soulstone, Curse of Weakness, Fear, Rain of Fire, Create Healthstone, Drain Mana, Searing Pain, Corruption, Life Tap, Create Firestone, Health Funnel, Shadow Bolt, Siphon Life, Bane of Agony, Drain Soul, Detect Invisibility
40–49	Howl of Terror 40Death Coil 42Soul Fire 48 New ranks: Demon Armor, Immolate, Create Soulstone, Curse of Weakness, Curse of Recklessness, Hellfire, Shadow Ward, Searing Pain, Subjugate Demon, Health Funnel, Drain Mana, Shadow Bolt, Corruption, Life Tap, Drain Life, Rain of Fire, Create Firestone, Create Healthstone, Siphon Life, Bane of Agony, Banish, Create Spellstone
50–59	Inferno 50 New ranks: Demon Armor, Immolate, Curse of Tongues, Create Soulstone, Searing Pain, Death Coil, Detect Invisibility, Curse of Weakness, Health Funnel, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Ward, Drain Soul, Drain Life, Hellfire, Drain Mana, Howl of Terror, Corruption, Life Tap, Create Firestone, Curse of Recklessness, Fear, Soul Fire, Subjugate Demon, Rain of Fire, Create Healthstone, Siphon Life, Bane of Agony
60	Bane of Doom 60Portal of Summoning 60Ritual of Doom 60 New ranks: Demon Armor, Immolate, Health Funnel, Shadow Bolt, Shadow Ward, Create Soulstone, Corruption, Create Spellstone

What changes for leveling in WoW Forever

Your demons now scale with your stats.
Bane of Agony is now a Bane: only one Bane can be active per target.

Per Blizzard's class preview, as of the beta. All changes for the Warlock

Leveling tips

Your demon holds the mobs: early on Summon Imp helps, and at level 10 Summon Voidwalker tanks for you.
Basic routine: Corruption, Bane of Agony and Immolate, then Shadow Bolt or your wand. Against multiple mobs, spread your DoTs.
Life Tap converts health into mana, and Drain Life gets the health back. That keeps your downtime very low.
Use Drain Soul on a dying mob to collect soul shards, for example for Create Healthstone. In Classic, summoning also cost shards.
Fear keeps an add away. Careful: it can pull more mobs.
The talent Siphon Life gives you extra healing, and Nightfall can make your next Shadow Bolt instant cast.
Health Funnel heals your demon when it takes heavy damage. That's usually cheaper than resummoning it.
Tailoring and Enchanting are a good fit. In Classic, soul shards ate up a lot of bag space; a soul bag from Tailoring helps.

FAQ

Which talent tree is best for leveling a Warlock?

Most players should go Affliction. Our build puts 31 points into Affliction and 20 into Demonology. Open the full build in the talent calculator to tweak it.

At what level do you get talent points?

You get your first talent point at level 10, then one more every level, for 51 points at level 60.

Which abilities matter most when leveling a Warlock?

Per the game data, the abilities you learn by level 20 include Immolate, Shadow Bolt, Summon Imp, Corruption, Life Tap, Fear, Bane of Agony, Create Healthstone. The full list by level is in the table above.

Can I change my talents later?

Yes. In Classic you could reset your talents at your class trainer for gold, with the cost going up each time. Forever's pricing may differ.

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