WoW Classic Demonology Warlock Leveling Talent Build from 1 to 60
On this page, you will find our Level by Level Affliction leveling guide for WoW Classic. Make sure to use the slider to make the guide adapt to your level. For more general leveling information, please refer to our Warlock leveling guide. We also have an Affliction Warlock leveling guide and a Destruction Warlock leveling guide.
If you were looking for TBC Classic advice, please refer to our TBC Classic Demonology Warlock leveling guide.
Foreword
Unlike some classes, Warlock has several viable leveling builds that will give
you different strengths while leveling. Demonology will offer a more defensive
option while leveling, where you will utilize your demon for more damage while
taking advantage of great defensive talents such as Soul Link. You also
will be using more offensive pets for damage, specifically an Imp and eventually a Succubus.
Level by Level Rotation, Talents, and Trainer Skills
Move the slider below to make the guide update to your level!
Leveling Talent Tree & Build
Your first talent unlocks at Level 10.





- Levels 10 to 14 — 5 points in
Improved Corruption
- Levels 15 & 16 — 2 points in
Improved Life Tap
- Levels 17 to 19 — 3 points in
Improved Imp
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 for sustainability. After these initial points in Affliction, you will
want to start working your way down the Demonology tree, starting with 3 points
in
Improved Imp.
- Levels 20 & 21 — 2 points in
Suppression
- Levels 22 & 23 — 2 points in
Improved Healthstone
- Levels 24 to 28 — 5 points in
Fel Intellect
- Level 29 — 1 point in
Fel Domination
Your goal going down the tree is to increase
your damage and your Imp/Succubus's damage as much as possible. After getting
Improved Imp, it is worth going back to Affliction for a quick 2 points
into
Suppression just to make sure your Affliction spells are not resisted
against targets that are your level. The 2 points in the first row of Demonology
are yours to place where you want, but 5 points in
Fel Intellect allows
your demon to do more damage before needing to regenerate mana.
Fel Domination
is an amazing talent for when you need to summon a new demon quickly, and should be
taken as soon as it is available.
- Levels 30 to 32 — 3 points in
Improved Succubus
- Level 33 — 1 point in
Demonic Embrace
- Levels 34 & 35 — 2 points in
Master Summoner
- Levels 36 to 38 — 3 points in
Unholy Power
- Level 39 — 1 point in
Demonic Sacrifice
Improved Succubus will be a solid damage
increase since your Succubus is your highest damaging pet. The next point is filler,
but the row after allows you to unlock
Master Summoner for better summoning
and
Unholy Power for more damage. Both are great talents and should be
taken.
Demonic Sacrifice is unlocked at this point, and while you will not
be normally using the spell, you can choose to take it here since you will eventually
need it to unlock
Soul Link anyways. You can also choose to delay it, opting
for another point into
Unholy Power for now, but both are valid options.
- Levels 40 & 41 — 2 points in
Unholy Power
- Levels 42 & 43 — 2 points in
Demonic Embrace
- Levels 44 to 48 — 5 points in
Master Demonologist
- Level 49 — 1 point in
Soul Link
Finish off Unholy Power for the damage
increase, followed by 2 free points. You unlock
Master Demonologist at
this point which is worth the 5 points for the 10% increased shadow damage that
you will deal with your Succubus out. Finally, you can take
Soul Link,
which is one of the strongest defensive talents in the game.
- Levels 50 & 51 — 2 points in
Improved Drain Soul
- Level 52 — 1 point in
Amplify Curse
- Levels 53 to 55 — 3 points in
Improved Curse of Agony
- Levels 56 & 57 — 2 points in
Nightfall
- Levels 58 & 59 — 2 points in
Grim Reach
- Level 60 — 1 point in
Suppression
With the remaining points, you will want to go back
to the Affliction tree. Start with 2 points into Improved Drain Soul for
more mana regeneration, followed by
Amplify Curse and
Improved Curse of Agony
for more damage.
Nightfall is also an excellent damage option, while
Grim Reach will be a solid range increase that will be a nice quality of
life improvement. You can spend the last point wherever you want, but
Suppression
is a good option since you are more likely to be fighting higher level enemies
when you are 60.
Leveling Rotation
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. Eventually
you will pick up your Succubus, but with both the Imp and Succubus you should continue with
the basic practice of using your DoTs on the target then finishing them off
with your wand. Use
Life Tap 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 5 to 14 depending on if you can invest
in a
Lesser Magic Wand from the Auction House.
- Command your pet to attack the target;
Immolate;
Immolate if you have enough Mana;
Curse of Agony;
Corruption;
Shadow Bolt until you get your wand.
Shoot with your wand;
Drain Soul to kill the enemy if you need the Mana from
Improved Drain Soul (once you get the talent) 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. You will
not be using your Voidwalker for normal leveling in this build, but it is a relatively
easy quest and you might as well get it for later. Voidwalkers are also great in
PvP due to Sacrifice, which makes it worth having just in case.
You should do your class quest to get the Succubus
at some point around this level. The quest itself is available at 20, but you should
keep using your Imp until you get points in Improved Succubus starting around
level 30 if you are following the build.
This is the point where you get Demonic Sacrifice,
but you should almost never use this in place of your demon. Your demon will deal
more damage than this provides. The only exception would be that if you are in a spell
cleave dungeon group and are mainly AoEing, you could sacrifice your Imp for the
extra fire damage for
Hellfire.
List of Trainer Skills to Buy
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.
Weapons and Quests for Leveling Warlocks in WoW Classic
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.
How to advance as a Warlock at Level 60
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/Demonology 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.
Changelog
- 29 Sep. 2019: Guide added.
Classic Dungeon Guides
Classic Profession Guides
Classic Race Guides
Classic Class Overviews
This guide has been written by Impakt, an Officer in BDGG, the #2 North American guild on retail. In addition to live WoW, he has also been a classic theorycrafter and enthusiast for many years. You can watch him stream on Twitch, or follow him on Twitter.
- Wrath Classic Phase 2 Launching on January 17th
- Naxxramas Achievement Rewards to Remain Available Throughout Wrath Classic
- Patch 3.4.1 PTR Development Notes: January 6th
- Summon Gargoyle Changes on the Wrath Classic PTR
- Ahead of the Curve and Cutting Edge Achievements Coming to Wrath Classic
- No Changes Planned for Ulduar Tier Sets Beyond 6 Item Level Bump
- Wrath Classic Season 1 Ends January 9th
- End-of-Year Blizzard Update