WoW Classic Demonology 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. 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.

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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 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.

1. Levels 20 & 21 — 2 points in Suppression
2. Levels 22 & 23 — 2 points in Improved Healthstone
3. Levels 24 to 28 — 5 points in Fel Intellect
4. 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.

1. Levels 30 to 32 — 3 points in Improved Succubus
2. Level 33 — 1 point in Demonic Embrace
3. Levels 34 & 35 — 2 points in Master Summoner
4. Levels 36 to 38 — 3 points in Unholy Power
5. 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.

1. Levels 40 & 41 — 2 points in Unholy Power
2. Levels 42 & 43 — 2 points in Demonic Embrace
3. Levels 44 to 48 — 5 points in Master Demonologist
4. 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.

1. Levels 50 & 51 — 2 points in Improved Drain Soul
2. Level 52 — 1 point in Amplify Curse
3. Levels 53 to 55 — 3 points in Improved Curse of Agony
4. Levels 56 & 57 — 2 points in Nightfall
5. Levels 58 & 59 — 2 points in Grim Reach
6. 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.

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.

1. Command your pet to attack the target;
2. Immolate;
3. Immolate if you have enough Mana;
4. Curse of Agony;
5. Corruption;
6. Shadow Bolt until you get your wand.
7. Shoot with your wand;
8. 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.

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/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.