WoW Classic Affliction Warlock Leveling Talent Build from 1 to 60

Unlike some classes, Warlock has several viable leveling builds that will give you different strengths while leveling. Affliction will be a consistent spec that deals exceptional damage over time while also giving you strong health and mana regeneration through Improved Life Tap, Improved Drain Soul, and Siphon Life. Affliction lacks the burst and durability that the other specs provide, but is still quite strong in world PvP early on. This is a great beginner spec if you have not played Warlock before.

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Your first talent unlocks at Level 10.

1. Levels 10 to 14 — 5 points in Improved Corruption
2. Levels 15 & 16 — 2 points in Improved Life Tap
3. Levels 17 & 18 — 2 points in Suppression
4. Level 19 — 1 point in Improved Healthstone

Improved Corruption is perhaps the only talent that is considered to be critical for every single Warlock build. While 2 points is enough to make the Corruption cast below the GCD, the full 5 points makes it instant, allowing you to Corruption while moving. This is incredibly important both for ease of use and kiting/spacing while leveling. You will be using Life Tap as your primary method of Mana generation, making Improved Life Tap a requirement, and then 2 points in Suppression to ensure that enemies your own level will not resist your Affliction spells. These are all critical talents to get as soon as possible, but once you get these you will want to move to the Demonology tree to work towards Improved Voidwalker, so you should start with 1 point into Improved Healthstone.

1. Level 20 — 1 point in Improved Healthstone
2. Levels 21 to 23 — 3 points in Demonic Embrace
3. Levels 24 to 26 — 3 points in Improved Voidwalker
4. Levels 27 & 28 — 2 points in Improved Drain Soul
5. Level 29 — 1 point in Amplify Curse

Improved Voidwalker is a critical talent if you are using the Voidwalker for leveling, and is worth taking after your initial important Affliction talents. Spend the points to take it, then immediately move back into the Affliction tree. Amplify Curse provides a nice damage cooldown when paired with Curse of Agony for harder enemies, and Improved Drain Soul gives a nice boost to your passive Mana regeneration when using Drain Soul that should cut back on your number of Life Tap uses.

1. Levels 30 to 32 — 3 points in Suppression
2. Levels 33 & 34 — 2 points in Grim Reach
3. Levels 35 & 36 — 2 points in Nightfall
4. Level 37 — 1 point in Improved Curse of Agony
5. Level 38 — 1 point in Siphon Life
6. Level 39 — 1 point in Curse of Exhaustion

Start by finishing Suppression for a lower resistance chance, which will help against higher level enemies. Grim Reach is nice for the increased range and Nightfall can be a nice damage increase for whenever it procs an instant Shadow Bolt cast. Then you will want to take 1 point in Curse of Agony, followed by Siphon Life and Curse of Exhaustion. Siphon Life is an amazing DoT to have against enemies that live for most of it, and is also excellent in world PvP. Curse of Exhaustion is also a great tool to have for whenever you need to kite, and is worth the 1 point investment. Some Warlocks choose to opt for earlier points into Improved Curse of Agony instead for the extra damage, but it is up to you whether you want to prioritize damage or better recovery, since these points would need to be taken out of Improved Drain Soul.

1. Levels 40 & 41 — Improved Curse of Agony
2. Level 42 — Improved Curse of Exhaustion
3. Levels 43 to 47 — Shadow Mastery
4. Levels 48 & 49 — Fel Intellect

At this point you will want to finish off Affliction by taking Improved Curse of Agony, 1 point in whatever you want, and then finally getting Shadow Mastery. Shadow Mastery is the final talent you are going for in Affliction, and after taking it you should immediately switch back to Demonology to work towards Fel Domination. If you want to spend the point, Dark Pact is useful for a burst of Mana in an emergency, but should not be necessary if you are playing efficiently.

1. Level 50 — 1 point in Fel Domination
2. Levels 51 to 54 — 4 points in Fel Stamina
3. Levels 55 & 56 — 2 points in Master Summoner
4. Levels 57 to 60 — 4 points in Unholy Power

Fel Domination is perhaps your most important cooldown since it allows you to quickly summon a new Voidwalker if yours dies or if you need to use Sacrifice. Sacrifice is a powerful defensive cooldown that sacrifices your Voidwalker to put a large shield on you. Normally it is a long cast time to summon another Voidwalker and is unreasonable to do in combat (unless you can Fear the enemy), but with Fel Domination it becomes easy to get another Voidwalker out. After that you are free to go with what you want, but opting for Fel Stamina and Unholy Power is a good choice for health and damage. You should pick up Master Summoner as soon as possible though for the same reason as Fel Domination.

Your goal should be to get your Imp and Immolate immediately, which will give you the highest damage output in the game prior to level 10. At level 10 you pick up your Voidwalker from your class quest, and continue with the basic practice of using your DoTs on the target then finishing them off with your wand. Use Life Tap and Drain Soul as needed for Mana regeneration to try and limit downtime. You should immediately start using your wand as a filler in place of Shadow Bolt once you get one, which will most likely be anywhere from levels 10 to 14.

1. Command your pet to attack the target;
2. Immolate;
3. Immolate if you have enough Mana;
4. Curse of Agony;
5. Corruption;
6. Siphon Life;
7. Shadow Bolt.
8. Shoot with your wand;
9. Drain Soul to kill the enemy if you need the Mana from Improved Drain Soul or if you need the Soul Shard.

Warlocks have one of the strongest starts in the game. Immolate is available for purchase for 10 copper from level 1, meaning you should sell your water and food to get it as soon as possible. From there you can do the Warlock quest from your trainer to get your Imp, which you can easily get by level 2 or 3. With your Imp and Immolate, you should have no trouble wreaking havoc on anything in your path for a few levels.

Do your class quest to get your Voidwalker. At level 10 and beyond your Voidwalker will act as a tank for you, making leveling much safer and more sustainable. You also will have access to its Sacrifice ability, which is incredibly strong in world PvP.

Siphon Life is a powerful DoT that will also give you some sustain. You need to be careful since the combination of the damage and healing is lots of threat, but this is also an excellent spell in world PvP.

All Warlock specs benefit from upgrading the same skills, so our list of skills to buy from trainers is the same, regardless of the spec. For this reason, you will find that list in our general Warlock leveling page.

To guide you in your weapon upgrades and the class-specific quests you can do while leveling up, we have two guides that you might find useful.

Well done on hitting maximum level in WoW Classic! Now that leveling is over, you can learn more about level 60 gameplay by reading our DPS Warlock Guide, which covers every facet of gameplay at 60 in detail.

The best individual pages to read through are as follows.

• The DPS Warlock Talent builds guide has the best builds for Level 60 covered. We propose builds for all specializations, with a focus on hybrid Destruction/Demo and Destruction/Affliction builds for PvE.
• Our PvP Warlock guide is where you can find PvP builds for all 3 specializations, as well as various tricks and tips for PvP combat.
• Goldmaking Guide for warlocks is a page with details on where / how to farm gold quickly as a Warlock when you are Level 60.
• The DPS Warlock Rotation guide is where you can read on how to optimize your PvE damage and how to prioritize your abilities.
• DPS Warlock Stats guide contains detailed information on all Warlock stats, including a list of their priority for damage dealing.
• Our Gear guide for DPS Warlocks lists all the optimal pieces of gear that you will want to farm at Level 60, in order to optimize your damage.