Warlock Leveling Guide for Diablo 4 (Season 13)

Due to limited access to modifiers affecting our Dominance resource the Warlock is not the fastest leveling class in the game. However, it picks up the pace the better gear and higher level you get providing a very enjoyable gameplay experience.

Please check back around the launch of Season 13 for the most up to date leveling guides for Warlock!

Check the Season Checklist for some valuable tips and tricks for the current Season of Diablo 4.

General Leveling Tips

World Tier Selection

The recommended World Tier to start in is Hard. This will provide you with the smoothest and fastest leveling experience.

If you prefer the added challenge, it is possible to start in Expert and even obtain early Unique gear, but the extra experience from monsters does not make up for the increased time it takes to kill them. Generally, this results in a much slower and clunkier leveling process, while Elite, Boss and Seasonal enemies will pose an actual threat.

Furthermore, the Seasonal Killstreak mechanic rewards player for chain-kills, and overly challenging enemies would deny you most of its benefits.

Quantity over quality is the road to success in leveling. Move up through World Tiers only when you no longer struggle in Helltides and Seasonal content in the next tier.

Acquiring Mount

Getting a mount is an important step in your leveling journey, since Sanctuary is vast and the Warlock is the slowest of all classes. We generally reccomend saving your world explorations (such as unlocking Waypoints) until after you obtain it. Seasonal characters have immediate access to mounts at level 1, if you have previously completed the main campaign on any character and chose to “Skip Campaign” during character creation. For more details, read our mount guide.

Helltides

Helltides are an outstanding way to level any seasonal character. If you have previously unlocked them, you can level from 1 to 60 in matter of hours, not days. As a cherry on top, you will be able to complete Whisper objectives there and obtain a lot of gold, crafting materials, Boss Summoning materials, Runes and Tempering recipes, Legendary gear and even some Unique gear early on! For more details, read our comprehensive Helltides guide.

Strongholds

In the Vessel of Hatred expansion, Strongholds have been revamped to offer a significant experience boost on your first completion (scaled to your level) – making them an efficient way to level multiple times after 50.

Warlock’s Resources

The Warlock class has 2 primary resources. First and mainly the Wrath (Pink) resource is used for the majority of your spells such as your Core abilities. This is also the resource your Basic skills will generate, there are modifiers on some of your other skills that will increase the Wrath gain or straight up generate Wrath to you.

The other half of your resource bubble is called Dominance (Purple). This is mainly used for your Greater Demon skills. Baseline this resource will slowly regenerate over time with a very limited selection of modifiers allowing you to either decrease the cost of your Dominance abilities or increase the resource generation.

Soulshards

Soulshards is the Warlocks unique class mechanic. It unlocks at Level 15 allowing you to form a pact with 1 demon enhancing a specific source of power abilities and lets you summon that specific demon to your army.

Here are the Demons you get to pick from:

Legion Shard

Grants the Summon Ae’grom skill. This greater demon summons Lesser Demons which are essentially there to be your meatshield front-liners which brings benefits to your build when enough of them have died. The shard also makes it so that when you cast a Greater Demon skill it increases your cast speed and cooldown rate for your Lesser Demon skills. When 200 of your Lesser Demons have died, your next Greater Demon skill cast has no Dominance cost. His on-use-ability spawns even more lesser demons.

1. Spawn Fragment – Ae’grom now passively spawns a Vile Child Lesser Demon every 1 second. Summoning a Greater Demon increases this spawn rate by 50% for 4 seconds, up to 150%. Additional stacks do not refresh this duration. Command Ae’grom no longer spews Vile Children and instead causes all of your Lesser Demons to explode, dealing x% damage.
2. Sacrificial Fragment – You are Unstoppable as long as you have active Lesser Demons. When you would become Crowd Controlled, 1 of your Lesser Demons is sacrificed to prevent it.
3. Evisceration Fragment – While an enemy is Eviscerated, your Summoned Demons prioritize them and gain 50% increased Movement Speed. Demonology Skills gain a 2% chance to Eviscerate enemies that are already Eviscerated.

Vanguard Shard

Grants the Summon Abodian skill. This greater demon is consistently attacking enemies whilst the on-use-ability lets you straight up mount him and every enemy you run through will be chained and dragged behind you. If you use the ability again you will dismount and Abodian will turn and hit the dragged enemies.

While in Demonform, Casting Archfiend Skills additionally Summons the Archfiend Demon:
Rampage summons a brute for 10 seconds that follows you and swipes at enemies, dealing x% damage.
Infernal Breath summons a demonic head for 10 seconds that orbits you and spews flames, dealing x% damage.
Tyrant’s Grasp summons 2 additional demon hands that each deal x% damage.
Profane Sentinel summons an additional eye for 10 seconds that follows you and blasts enemies, dealing x% damage.

1. Hellguard Fragment – Abodian gains 35% increased Cast Speed and Movement Speed and cleaves on its attacks. Abodian erupts Brimstone during Command Abodian, launching them periodically while moving and 6 more when dismounting. Each Brimstone deals x% damage.
2. Warden Fragment – While in Demonform, lose 1 Dominance per second per Close Summoned Greater Demon to extend their durations. Demonform also increases the damage of Hellfire Demonology Skills by x30%
3. Inferno Fragment – While you are Volatile in Demonform, Hellfire Skill damage causes you to emanate fire for 2 seconds, dealing x% of that damage to Close enemies periodically over 2 seconds.

Mastermind Shard

Grants the Summon Laalish skill. This greater demon will be attacking your enemies but more importantly when you use his on-use-ability a big AoE shadow damage is applied on the battle-field.

Recast Skills no longer break Shadowform Stealth at the cost of 2 stacks of Shadowform per cast. While you have Shadowform, Abyss Skills deal x% increased damage, and you gain x% increased Movement Speed per stack.

1. Unfathomable Fragment – Laalish also Weakens enemies. Laalish deals x% increased damage and Executes enemies. When an enemy is Executed, the Cooldown fo Command Laalish is reduced by 0.2 seconds.
2. Blasphemous Fragment – Recast Skills hex enemies on hit and increase the damage they take from your Abyss Demonlogy Skills by x%.
3. Subjugation Fragment – Summoning a non-Soul Shard, Abyss Greater Demon consumes all Dominance, increasing its damage by x% per Dominance consumed. Losing 2 stacks of Shadowform grants 1 Dominance.

Ritualist Shard

Grants the Summon Vollach skill. This greater demon is mainly a utility choice as his on-use-ability greatly increases your Wrath generation.

Occult Skills deal x% increased damage per 1 stack of Overpower and gain x% increased Size per 2 stacks of Overpower. With at least 4 stacks of Overpower, Occult Abyss Skills apply 1 additional hex to enemies on hit, and Occult Hellfire Skills have a x% chance to grant Volatility for 4 seconds when cast.

1. Abyssal Fragment – Hex stacks up to a maximum of 4. When a target gains 4 stacks, 100% of the damage dealt to the target echoes after 4 seconds and removes all stacks of Hex. Command Vollach also causes Occult Abyss Skills to apply 1 additional stack of Hex to enemies while you’ve siphoned it’s power.
2. Scorching Fragment – Occult Hellfire Skills are always empowered and consume 4% of your Maximum Life. Volatility can now stack up to 3 times, increasing the damage of empowered Skills by x% and the Life they consume by 1% per stack. Command Vollach also siphons its life to Fortify you for 8% of your Maximum Life and causes Vollach to pay 100% of life Costs instead while you’ve siphoned its power.
3. Twisted Fragment – Occult Hellfire Skills consume 1 stack of Hex on targets hit to increase its damage against the target by x%. Occult Abyss Skills can be empowered by Volatility and cause explosions, dealing 50% damage, when hitting an enemy for the first time. Every 50 Wrath spent grants 1 Overpower.

Weapons and Restrictions

Warlock shares the new unique weapon type Flails with the Paladin class, but outside of this they can rock 2 handed Swords, Maces and Axes. Whilst the 1 handed options are Daggers, maces, axes, and swords combined with a Focus off-hand.

The general recommendation for what weapon type to use heavily depends on the end-game build you’re following!

Attributes

The four core attributes benefit each of the five classes in slightly different ways. Willpower, being the Warlocks primary attribute, scales all of the Warlocks damage.

Skills and Passive Skills

For a detailed list of Warlock skills, refer to our Warlock Skills guide.

In-Game Activities

Finish the storyline to unlock the various endgame activities in Diablo 4. Follow the yellow-marked quests, and you should have no trouble finding your way.

Keep in mind that after you complete the main storyline, the game becomes quite open-ended, leaving you free to choose which activities to tackle and in what order, depending on your goals (leveling Paragon as quickly as possible, pushing The Tower or The Pit, farming Mythic Uniques, etc.). That said, in the sections that follow we have prepared a quick list of the most noteworthy activities you can engage in.

Tree of Whispers

The Tree of Whispers, located in Hawezar, rewards you for completing bounties scattered across the Sanctuary. These profitable activities grant significant amount of experience, gold and items, and because they appear in so many zones, they pair perfectly with other events and endgame pursuits.

The Tree of Whispers also serves as your first source of Nightmare Sigils – the items required to activate Nightmare Dungeons, one of the core endgame activities.Both versions are now grammatically correct, clear, and professional. The first stays closest to your original wording.

For more information, refer to our Tree of Whispers guide.

Nightmare Dungeons

Nightmare dungeons are the original endgame activity in Diablo 4 and still hold great relevance. They are a reliable source of gold, experience, Boss Summoning materials, Obducite for masterworking, and even Mythic Uniques – if you’re lucky enough to obtain a Mythic Prankster Key.

Once you receive your first Sigil (likely from the Tree of Whispers), you can start running Nightmare Dungeons, which will drop more Sigils – meaning you should never really run out. Nightmare dungeons can only be performed in Nightmare World Tier or higher.

For more information, refer to our Nightmare Dungeons guide.

Helltides

Helltides appear on the map for players in any World Tier, taking over large swathes of land for one hour. During this time, monsters killed in the affected area drop a special temporary currency – Abberant Cinders, that can be used to unlock chests found in the Helltide area.

While Helltides are available on lowest World Tiers for extremely efficient leveling, they are most effective for endgame progression once you reach Torment+ World Tiers.

Helltides are the only place where you can reliably obtain large quantities of Forgotten Souls, a crafting material required to Enchant Sacred and Ancestral gear at the Occultist.

For more information, refer to our Helltides guide.

Legion Events and World Bosses

Legion events and World Bosses are marked on the map, and these are good activities to engage in in World Tiers 3 or 4, since they reward potentially good items, as well as good experience, in the case of Legion events. Simply go to the marked area on the map and join the other players in killing the enemies.

The Pit

The Pit is another type of endgame content, similar to Diablo 3’s Greater Rifts, which can be entered through a portal that is opened by a pillar located in Cerrigar. It is also the way to level up the Glyphs that are inserted into your Paragon board, which is crucial for increasing character power.

After reaching Torment 1, you will receive a priority quest to unlock The Pit. Upon completion, you will unlock the possibility for Runeshards to drop from endgame content such as Whisper Caches, Helltides, and Nightmare Dungeons. Opening a pit portal requires one Runeshard.

The Pit has hundreds of tiers of difficulty, and the current highest tier you can unlock is Level 150.

For more information, refer to our Pit of the Artificers guide.

Infernal Hordes

The Infernal Hordes is a wave-based endgame activity, first introduced in Season 5. To face the Infernal Hordes and enter the Realm of Hatred, you need an Infernal Compass, which can be acquired through various endgame activities such as defeating endgame bosses, Helltides, Whispers, Nightmare Dungeons, and so on. Infernal Compasses will scale with your World Tier.

For more information, refer to our Infernal Hordes guide.

Kurast Undercity

Kurast Undercity, introduced in the Vessel of Hatred expansion, is a time attack dungeon scenario where Tributes are offered and Bargains struck to target specific rewards like runes, xp or specific types of gearing. To unlock Undercity, reach Level 20, have the Vessel of Hatred expansion, and summon the Spirit Flame in the Nahantu region.

For more information, refer to our Kurast Undercity guide.

The Tower

The Tower is a multi-stage timed dungeon inspired by Diablo 3 Greater Rifts. Unlike The Pit, it lacks elements of randomness or rewards, asides from cosmetics, your position on the Leaderboard and bragging rights. Your placement on the Leaderboard is determined by the highest Tower Tier you complete and your final completion time.

For more information, refer to our Tower guide.

Baleful Chests in Fields of Hatred

One of the sneaky ways to get some easy gear is to open Baleful Chests in the Fields of Hatred. This method is especially effective right after ascending into Torment tiers to get first Ancestral Legendary weapon, which makes a world difference. Results may vary, depending on PvP activity and other players farming the chests too, but rewards usually worth the time spent. If other players activity bothers you, its always worth to try change server layer by relogging or adjusting cross-play settings.

To open Baleful Chests, you must be Bloodmarked (PvP enabled) via the Emote Wheel (default bind ‘E’ for PC or ‘D-Pad Up’ for controller). Locations of Baleful Chests can be found on third-party interactive maps, and routes can be planned accordingly – something like this:

War Plans

This is your main end-game mechanic to engage with where you can pick and chose from essentially a skill-tree how you evolve your end-game experiences. Some choices will vastly change how certain activities are played out whilst other options just provides increased value in doing them.

For a more detailed walkthrough of this mechanic be sure to check out this guide: War Plans Overview.

Seasonal Activites

Seasons come with various events with supplemental power systems, secondary reputation tracks, and world events. Check our updated Seasonal Hub for general season theme information every season.

Changelog

• April 24th, 2026: Guide added.