Destruction Warlock Leveling Guide from 1 to 70 — The War Within Pre-Patch
On this page, you will find our Level by Level Destruction Warlock leveling guide for The War Within. 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.
Gear Options
When leveling up, you should always choose the piece of loot with the highest item level. If the item levels are equal, you should choose the piece with stats that are most favorable to your specialization. If your current item is an Heirloom, it should not be replaced.
Level by Level Rotation and Talents
Move the slider below to make the guide update to your level!
Talents to Level Up as a Destruction Warlock
Below, you can see the suggested levelling talent build and the order in which to pick the talents while levelling.
Rotation to Level Up as an Destruction Warlock
Starting at Level 1, you only
have one main attack ability: Shadow Bolt.
- Level 2 — the first DoT,
Corruption, becomes available, which should be used to tag and soften up multiple enemies whenever spamming a few
Shadow Bolts will not kill them quicker.
- Level 33 — Use
Summon Infernal as often as possible.
- Level 29 — Use
Shadowburn on targets below 20% health in order to trigger the 50% additional Critical Strike chance and hopefully the shard refund.
- Level 17 — Use
Cataclysm as often as possible.
- Level 19 — Use
Havoc when there is a second target to duplicate every single-target spell.
- Level 10 — Cast
Chaos Bolt whenever you have at least 2 Shards.
- Level 15 — Cast
Rain of Fire when you have 3 shards, and there are at least 3 targets stacked.
- Level 10 — maintain
Immolate on as many targets as possible for high damage and shard generation.
- Level 11 — Cast
Conflagrate when moving and when you do not have more than 4 and a half shards.
- Level 10 —
Incinerate replaces
Shadow Bolt with the ability to generate Soul Shard bits.
Destruction Warlock PvP Talents for Leveling
Bane of Havoc replaces
Havoc with a ground-targeted AoE variant, enabling it to deal massive damage on any target caught in the area.
Fel Fissure is mostly useful for its movement slow while leveling.
Gateway Mastery should always be considered to expedite your whereabouts in closed space where mounts are not usable.
Bonds of Fel can offer further AoE burst when kiting targets around.
Pet Choice for Destruction Warlock Leveling
Summon Imp is your first available demon. This
pet is not particularly useful for leveling, but you have no choice for the
early levels.
If you are leveling alone, Summon Voidwalker
can be a helpful choice while leveling up, as it takes a lot of the pressure
off you. Avoiding casting pushback can also increase leveling speed.
Summon Felhunter can be a good choice if
you are leveling in a group or venturing into dungeons. The extra interrupt
is helpful for dealing with troublesome caster mobs.
Congratulations!
Congratulations on reaching Level 70! Now that you have hit Level 70, we recommend looking at our Easy mode page and Talents section to learn how to play at max level.
Changelog
- 23 Jul. 2024: Updated for The War Within pre-patch.
- 07 May 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.7.
- 22 Apr. 2024: Reviewed for Season 4.
- 19 Mar. 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.6.
- 15 Jan. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.5.
- 06 Nov. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.
- 04 Sep. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.7
- 10 Jul. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.5.
- 01 May 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.
- 20 Mar. 2023: Updated talent tree for Patch 10.0.7.
- 24 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 25 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
More Warlock Guides
Guides from Other Classes
This guide has been written by Motoko, Warlock main since The Burning Crusade, co-admin in the Warlock Discord, and theorycrafter and contributor for LockOneStopShop.
- World First Mythic Garrosh Solo in MoP Remix
- Druid Changes in the War Within Beta Build 55789
- Alysrazor Bugged in the War Within Pre-Patch
- The War Within Pre-Patch Early Mythic+ DPS, Tank and Healer Log Rankings
- The War Within and Season of Discovery Hotfixes, July 25th
- Game Time Incoming for Players on North American Realms
- Demon Hunter Changes in the War Within Beta Build 55789
- Molten Core Trash Mob Immunity Hotfix