Leveling a warlock So you ' ve rolled a warlock , and now want to know everything about leveling a warlock . And you just need to know the fastest and most efficient method . You have come to the right place , my friend . This article will discuss warlock tactics , abilities , talents , roles , and how best to employ them . Note that this is not a questing guide , we will not discuss specific quests , but rather how to approach any situation as a warlock . Please note that I am biased towards Affliction . Levels 1 - 5 . When you start a warlock , like starting any other class , it ' s always quicker to level with a second person . This is not always possible , but if you can , it makes things go much faster . Be aware that leveling with a partner hits you in the wallet because you split all the gold , but the speed may be worth it if you ' re looking to quickly get to features of the game available only to higher levels . Fortunately , for the warlock , the menagerie of minions you will be able to summon is very much like having a second person level with you . The difference is , they don ' t take half the gold ! When you first start out , all you have is Shadow Bolt and an Imp . So you shoot things . At level 3 , you get Corruption . Level 3 : , which is an instant cast . You almost can ' t go wrong with your spell rotation at this point , but the most efficient attack is : Corruption , then Shadow Bolt , and then bolt until it dies . Your Imp will auto attack the target you cast Corruption on . Due to corruption ' s high damage and low mana cost at level 3 , a good tactic is to space corruption on all low leveled creatures you see . Make sure your run from the creatures ! You will gain fast experience using this method at a low level . Level 5 : You will get the ability to learn profession s . It ' s highly recommended to get started on your professions as early as possible , especially if you choose the prototypical warlock profession , Tailoring . You can skill up Tailoring along with your level and the cloth armor you make will almost always be among the best choices available . But if you let it lag , you will be making clothes for nothing . See Starting a Warlock for more information about how different professions can benefit the warlock . It is also possible to not have any professions . It takes time away from gameplay and nets you very little XP ( when it does ) . Some players choose not to start with a profession until very late , when resource farming becomes easier and doesn ' t depend as much on your ability to kill things to get to the resource . Level 5 is when the first Wand s usually become available . It is highly advisable to seek out wands for the early levels . Later on , wands may not make that much of a difference , but for now they are invaluable . Beginner warlocks can have trouble with pulling too much Aggro . Wands are good at doing damage without pulling very much aggro . If you are going to use the wand instead of Shadow Bolt , a good starter wand is the as it has the highest damage of any wand until the low - to - mid teens . Remember to upgrade your wand regularly if you plan to keep on using this tactic . If a target is nearly dead after using Shadow Bolt or wand ( less than 10 % or so ) , you can just let the DoTs finish it off without much more effort and without pulling more aggro . Levels 6 - 9 . Level 7 : . At these lower levels , Drain Life is much more important . When it crits , you ' ve pretty much ended the fight . This cast heals you a bit , so it ' s a good finishing spell to give you back some of the health you may have lost during the fight . But it ' s a short channel and it doesn ' t give you very much life back . This used to be a much more useful spell . It ' s causing Shadow Damage and restores a portion of your Health every 1 second , for a total of 6 seconds . Level 8 gives you the Voidwalker ( VW ) and . Now you can tank as if you were running around with another player . Let the VW pull aggro , then DoT and wand all over the place . Your goal is to let the VW maintain aggro while you slowly drain the target of health . So apply your DoTs after the VW starts attacking , then finish off the enemy with a couple of damage spells or the wand . And remember to always keep your Demon Armor on . Level 9 : , which you can use like a health potion . You can only have one Healthstone at a time , but it ' s a good idea to keep that one in stock as often as possible . If you ' ve been playing straight through to this point , it should take you about an hour to level to 6 or 8 . Level 9 seems to get much slower , but that may be just because I ' m anticipating all the fun things that happen at level 10 . At level 9 , you should be encountering some kind of final Boss ( or series of bosses ) whose XP will yield enough to push you over to level 10 . If not , just keep killing things until you reach level 10 . Level 10 . As with other classes , level 10 is really where the warlock starts to differentiate itself . In the case of the warlock , your minion becomes more important and your DoT spells really start to take off . Other classes have DoT spells , but the warlock is a DoT specialist . Abilities ( 10 - 19 ) . , which lets you point your VW in a direction and cause trouble ; , which is a channeled spell like Drain Life ( but causes much more damage ) ; and , which buffs other spells to make them work better . At this point , Soulburn works best with summoning a minion instantly . Talent Trees . You can specify your talent spec at Level 10 , and your gameplay up until now should give you a hint as to which talent tree to pursue . So , is your gameplay focused on controlling the world around you , staying alive , or dealing damage ? The choice is yours . Unlike previous patches , once you choose a tree , you will be locked into it until you ' re at a very high level . You can change your specialization ( which costs money , more money each time you do it ) , and you can Dual spec ( covered later ) , but you can only be active in one tree at a time . Also unlike in previous patches , and unlike many other classes , the warlock ’ s spec is really focused on style of gameplay rather than role . All warlock spec trees can fill all of the roles that a warlock will be expected to fill . For example , Warriors can specialize in a tanking role , if they want , but a warlock will always be expected to fill those multiple roles described above . Your spec should reflect your own personal style of gaming . So even though a Destruction warlock is capable of doing more immediate damage , Affliction and Demonology warlocks can do just as much damage , if not more , in different ways . Battlegrounds . You may wish to try out your character on PvP battlegrounds . Warsong Gulch and Arathi Basin are available to queue for at this level . WG is much more popular , and queue times will generally be shorter . A warlock will become most useful in a battleground at level 14 , when you learn Fear . You can level somewhat more quickly in battlegrounds than by questing . This point is arguable and is argued often . However it is definitely true that you can level more quickly if you are on the winning side in battlegrounds , especially on battleground weekends , where there are four days of increased honor point and experience point gains . A level 10 warlock on Friday can come out a level 30 on Monday on a Warsong Gulch weekend ( ymmv ) . However , there are many things that will pass you by if you play exclusively in battlegrounds . The most notable might be weapon / armor drops at your level from NPCs . But you will also miss out on cloth drops for your tailoring profession , cash from quests , and reputation gains that give you some nice rewards . If you have oodles of cash , you can be exclusively a PvP player , getting all your gear from the AH , and not worrying about your reputation . It can also be so much fun that you find yourself not wanting to level that quickly and regretting the switchover from the 10 - 14 group to the 15 - 19 group . If you do play battlegrounds , it would behoove you to acquire at least 400 honor points by level 17 - 18 . The more the better , but you want those honor points to take with you to Silverwing Grove / Warsong Outpost to buy some really cool stuff that only becomes available at level 18 . Gearing . You may hear references to being " geared " . This means obtaining the pieces of armor that provide the most and most effective specs that you can get your grubby little hands on . At Level 10 , this starts to become more important . If you ' ve been leveling your Tailoring along with your character , you should be set pretty well . Finding a weapon with some good stat bonuses will help a lot also . You won ' t actually use the weapon , so choose one ( or a set ) that has the best stats . Remember that you can also wield a one - handed sword or dagger along with an off - hand item , so choose wisely among whatever you happen to find . The stats you should be focusing on throughout the game are ( in this order ) : Stamina , Intellect , and then anything to do with spells ( Spell Crit , Spell Power , etc . ) . Then Critical Strike , Attack Power , and Haste . Agility adds a slight amount of crit , but Strength does nothing for you . Spirit affects health / mana regeneration , but generally is not something to seek out . Various resistances are nice , but not worth giving up other more important stats . See ' God of Death Mode ' at the end of this article for more about Spell stats . Soul Shards . The warlock - specific soul shard system starts at level 10 . This is similar to the Paladin ' s Holy Power rune system or the Death Knight ' s rune system , but there is no automatic regeneration or decay . You have three soul shard slots , and you can either use them or keep them for use later . They are for exclusive use with Soulburn . If you have a soul shard available , you can pop Soulburn , and then you have 10 seconds to pop another ability that soulburn enhances , like summoning one of your minions instantly . If you don ' t pop that other ability , you will lose the shard . Enemies . Anyone who locks on to a warlock for attack should try to silence you in some way . Blood elves and Tauren have racial abilities designed to prevent the Alliance warlock from casting . They can take your weapon , strip you naked , and kill your minion , and you can still win a fight . But if they take away your ability to cast spells , you ' re about as useful as a bag of day - old sushi . Alliance races do not have racial stuns , but it ' s the Paladin s and Rogue s that really mess you up on either side . The only way to be sure of defeating you is to apply stuns or otherwise incapacitate you in some way . Fortunately , with a few execptions , most stuns and effects of this sort are either short lasting or else have to be done from close range . Exceptions include the Hunter ' s ( 20 yards ) , a glyphed version of the Paladin ' s stun ( 15 yards ) , and , of course , other Warlocks ' Fear . Levels 11 - 19 . For now , using the VW as your own personal tank is a viable PvE strategy . Start your damage out slow to allow your Voidwalker to generate some aggro , and make sure that the Voidwalker is set to auto - cast , which helps to pull . Starting out with slow - acting spells or wands can decrease your DPS and make leveling slower , so you may choose to opt for outright destruction , with your minion aiding you in the offense . Either way , you should be able make it through these levels mostly unscathed . Often , you simply start a fight with a mob ( at extreme range ) , and your minion will chase and pick up the aggro while the mob is trying to catch up to you . Fear ( level 14 ) . This is arguably the Warlock ' s most important spell , and is the signature Warlock move . It is probably the most complained about ability of any character who is not also a warlock . To which the warlock says : tough noogies . is your friend . Fear keeps you alive . Fear should be your opening move in PvP if you ' re not running for some other reason . Fear causes almost complete incapacitation in an enemy , causing him to run around randomly like a chicken with its head cut off . If you ' re a warlock , it ' s amusing . Fear suffers from Diminishing Returns , which means you can ' t just keep casting Fear on the same player over and over , hoping your DoT spells will do their work eventually . The first time you Fear someone , it ' s usually for about 8 seconds ( unmitigated ) , the second time it can be for 2 - 3 secs , and then hardly any time at all . The second Fear might be worth it depending on the situation , but after that , your casting time probably isn ' t worth the effect . Affliction Warlocks can Improve the Fear spell at higher levels by causing the target to lose some running speed after the Fear effect ends . Dungeons . At level 15 , the Dungeon Finder becomes available . This is probably the fastest way to level up . It is possible to level two or three times in a single 60 - 90 minute dungeon instance , something that can take a few hours of PvE or battleground play . In a dungeon instance , it is extremely important to be aware of what your party members are doing at any given time . Granted , your role is strictly as a damage dealer , but your particular brand of damage is very important to the party ' s health as a whole . Because you are a DoT specialist , it ' s extremely important for you to follow the tank and apply your DoTs almost immediately after the tank has engaged the enemy . Your DoTs will be most effective if applied early in a fight so they can deal as much damage as possible . If you begin while a given enemy is already at half - health , your DoTs will most likely be wasted . Your DoTs will really shine when your party confronts Dungeon boss es . It usually takes a good long while to kill one , so all of your DoTs will have enough time to take their full effect , and those effects will be appreciated . This is the only aspect of the game where Fear is rarely used . In Dungeons , there are often a series of small rooms or closed - in areas where a mob who is running around randomly can inadvertently alert other mobs to attack your party . Sometimes a lot of other mobs . It ' s not your role to alert enemies to your party ' s presence , so conservative use of Fear is warranted . Soulstone ( You Will Die ) . There ' s no getting around it . You minion may pull too many mobs for it to handle . You may generate too much threat at the wrong time and get pounded on . Especially as an Affliction Warlock , you may experience the dreaded add , where a mob regenerates from nowhere right next to you . In any case , you will die at some point . At Level 18 , you learn . This is a wonderful ability that no other class has at this level . It ' s the ability to resurrect yourself ( Shamans get the at level 30 , but it can only be used on themselves ) . If you die out in the middle of nowhere , it can take precious time away from gameplay as you scamper back from the graveyard . But if you have soulstone cast on yourself , you can resurrect right then and there ( make sure you won ' t get attacked again right away before you rez yourself ) . This ability has a 15 minute cooldown once used , but the instant it becomes available again , you should Soulstone yourself once more . You should always have a Soulstone active on yourself in PvE . In Dungeons , you should cast your Soulstone on the Healer whenever possible . The Healer can ' t resurrect himself ( except as noted above ) , but he can resurrect other players , so granting this ability to him can save your party a ton of time in the event of a wipe . Other Abilities . Available at these levels are : Levels 20 - 29 . Mounts . At level 20 you get the riding skill and a Felsteed . The warlock class , along with the Paladin class ( and the Worgen race ) , does not have to purchase a mount or the Apprentice riding skill at traditional riding trainer areas . The ability to summon this mount is purchased from a Warlock trainer for very little money in comparison to how other classes get their mounts . Do not purchase the Apprentice riding skill from a trainer , it will be wasted money . Whether or not you purchase your racial mount for your own amusement is up to you . You will have to learn higher riding skills , but not this one . Remember that later on , you should always choose the riding trainer whose faction you have the best reputation with . The higher your reputation , the cheaper the cost of the train . If you are a Tailor , it would be adviseable to check the auction house periodically for something called . If you are also not an enchanter , you should also check the price of . These items ( 4 draenite and 4 dusts ) , along with some vendor - supplied thread and are needed in order to produce a when you level to 60 ( 300 Tailoring ) . This can be the only mount ( fast ground & normal flying ) you will ever need at higher levels ( there are faster mounts available later on , but they are extremely expensive and it can take more time to acquire the materials than is saved by flying faster ) , so keep that in mind when you ' re comparing AH prices and mount prices . Purchase these items at any time when the price becomes reasonable and store them away for this later use . Never too early to plan ! Remember that you will also have to save up for up to 3 separate flying abilities in order to fly everywhere ( Outland , Northrend , and Azeroth all require separate riding skills ) , which can cost upwards of 800g total depending on your reputation . But you won ' t have to save up for buying the actual mounts . Warlock / Paladin Tailor / Engineer are the only class / profession combinations which never need to purchase mounts from vendors . Druids can also shapeshift into their own flying mounts without a profession . Golden Draenite is obtained from mining high - level ores , most often from Khorium veins . Maybe the best way to get make it is from Prospecting these ore s : Khorium , Adamantite , Nethercite , or Fel Iron . These are all available only in Outland . So you can either make friends with a miner or a jewelcrafter or else go the AH route . I got lucky once and was able to find 4 golden Draenites for 5 gold each . These can sell for up to 80g per on some servers . For enterprising Warlock Engineers ( & Miners ) , the materials are a bit more complicated for your flying mount . You will need 26 Fel Iron bars , 5 Mote of Fire , and 10 Mote of Earth , along with the vendor - supplied Star Wood . You will need to craft some intermediate items . However , unlike with Tailors , it ' s possible to obtain all of your materials through your chosen professions , so you can choose whether or not to monitor the AH for these ( motes are post - 60 drops available to all players ) . Abilities ( 20 - 29 ) . By now , you should be comfortable with the offensive rotation you have settled into . It could be : bolt , fire , DoT , DoT , fire or it could be whatever . At Level 20 , things start to get a little bit more complicated and situational . You should also pay attention to the classes of spells that you have . A class is a set of spells that are cast exclusively from one antoher . That is , you can only have one spell per class on a target at any one time . You can also only have one spell active on any target at any one time . Example : the Curse class . If you cast Curse of Weakness on a target , you can ' t have any other Curse on that target at the same time . If you cast another Curse on that target , the first Curse is overwritten and disappears . In addition , if you cast that same Curse of Weakness on another target , the original target loses that Curse and is applied only to the new target . Fortunately , you can spread your Curses around on different targets as long as they are different Curses . There are three general classes that you must be aware of : Curses , Banes , and Channeled Spells . Fortunately , there are other spells that are not of a class . You may be noticing by now that many of your DoT spell effects are left unfinished by the time your target dies . There is some waste in this in that you consume a certain amount of mana to active them , but they don ' t do all of the damage that you expect them to . Corruption is mana - cheap compared to Bane of Agony , for example , and because Agony does most of its damage on the back end of the spell , you often don ' t gain all of the damage that mana is entitled to . It ' s like having buy a train ticket for all the way to New York when you only wanted to end up in Chicago . It ' s at this stage of the game when managing mana becomes a real issue . Those shadow bolts are expensive . The Affliction Warlock may choose at this stage to abandon using Shadow Bolts altogether in favor of using casts and then Drain Soul as a finishing move . But Drain Soul is more expensive than Shadow Bolt , you may say . Ah , true . But how many Shadow Bolts do you need to finish your target off ? Two ? Three ? Drain Soul is a quicker and more efficient kill move . Destruction warlocks get various talents that improve the time for casting , which helps , but they are still expensive . Remember that you can use Life Tap while in combat . Brilliant . Levels 30 - 39 . At these levels , you really start to notice the differences in the Warlock trees . You should have 12 talents spent by level 31 , giving you at least enough to choose the first spec specialization active talent . ( You can theoretically choose these a little earlier , but most don ' t because of the bonuses offered from earlier talents . ) In my opinion , Curse of Exhaustion is by far the most useful of these . Dual Spec . At level 30 , you can Dual Spec , which means you can have any given tree active at any one time . If you ' re Affliction , you can suddenly become Demonology with the click of a button ( and some casting time ) . Where to Go . You will start to have many different choices as to which zone to continue on to in order to keep leveling . My advice is to choose the zone where you have the best chance of leveling up your chosen gathering profession . For example , if your profession is tailoring ( almost assumed if you are a warlock ) , go to a zone where you will encounter the most humanoids that will drop cloth . Similarly , you will find the best herb gathering in swamps , fields , & marshes , and the best ore gathering in mountains , caves , and foothills . If you don ’ t have a profession , then stop complaining about all the choices you may have and just go somewhere . Levels 40 - 49 . These levels are highlighted by Death Coil , an awesome damage / health spell at 42 that you can do anywhere anytime . But around this level , the warlock seems slightly underpowered to me in comparison to the similar - level mobs and definitely in PvP . Other classes are starting to get and use their anti - warlock abilities more effectively and freely . There is perhaps no other class in the game that other classes must have specific mitigations against than the warlock . Although Priests don ' t get Fear Ward until the 50s , other classes have by now maxed out their talents against " effects which cause loss of control " . Because of the various healing abilities available particularly to Affliction Warlocks , there is no real reason that your Warlock character should ever die in PvE from here on out . Obviously , you ' re going to get smoked sometimes in PvP , but if you ' re aware of your situation at all times in PvE , you should be able to stay alive with little problem . This doesn ' t mean that you should stop using Soulstones , but it does mean that you shouldn ' t expect to be wasting time trying to run back from a graveyard . At around this level , graveyards become maddingly far away from the most difficult areas in a zone . Felwood is a particularly nasty run back from a graveyard , especially if you get killed in the underground tunnels there . Abilities ( 40 - 49 ) . Felwood has always been a great place to farm Mageweave cloth from Furbolgs , one of the scarcest types of cloth . Levels 50 - 59 . At this level , you should be finishing up all of your earthly quests and getting ready to go to Outland . You ' re going to need some serious gold to learn to ride flying mounts . If you ' re a tailor , you should be getting ready to make that Flying Carpet so you can use it throughout your post - 50s game . Unfortunately , you ' re going to need materials that are only available from drops in Outland , including the Netherweave cloth . It ' s always faster to use the AH , but Netherweave drops are pretty abundant , especially in the first few quests from Honor Hold . You ' re going to need 30 of these for 6 bolts , so the choice is yours as to how to get it . Abilities ( 50 - 59 ) . A devastating combination is to cast the instant Soul Fire , then Death Coil . The disorient effect from Death Coil will give you some time you to cast something else , like Immolate or Searing Pain something else you may prefer , and then you can Fear and DoT and you ' re done . Levels 60 - 69 . Make your Flying Carpet and obtain your Outland flying mount skill as soon as you ' re able . It will vastly improve your questing efficiency and speed throughout these zones . Even though your Azeroth flying skill is available now , you don ' t necessarily need it if you ' re going to spend all your time in Outland , so you can save your cash for something else for now . In truth , because the Azeroth flying skill can only be acquired at a level where there are no more worthwhile leveling quests available ( all are below 60 ) , this is kind of a vanity skill . It can be fun and it has its limited uses because you won ' t have to run around the maze of your capital city ( assuming you go there ) , but it ' s not strictly necessary . Cold Weather Flying for Northrend , on the other hand , should be considered necessary , so save up for that instead . The Azeroth flying skill can be useful if you ’ ve put off leveling your gathering profession ( s ) and you now need to travel to various zones to level up your skills . Level 69 also is when your end - game specialization ability becomes available . You know , the whole reason you specced your warlock the way you did . Endgame Talents . At level 69 , you ' ve spent 30 talents , so the final talent tree ability becomes available for use . It is advisable to choose it when you get this opportunity rather than spend those talent points elsewhere at this level . Levels 70 - 79 . Starting maybe at level 68 you should be able to successfully start questing in Northrend ( although there are areas in Outland that are still suitable for low - 70s play ) . To maintain my scheme , though , I ' ll just call it 70 . At level 70 , you will be eligible to purchase some semi - epic gear from the underground PvP merchants in Dalaran , assuming you have enough honor points from your various PvP encounters . Your flying carpet can take you there nicely in a few minutes . Because they cost honor points and not gold , it ' s a cheap way to get geared fast . There are some nice Warlock - friendly garments available . There are also sets for level 80 , and other vendors here sell BoA gear . BoA gear is nice , but is most useful if you have other characters on that same server who would benefit . Because you can mail BoA gear to any of your characters and have it be useful at their level , it really jump - starts lower - level progress . Update : BoA gear and other specialty gear is now available in capital cities Stormwind / Orgrimmar . However , the Dalaran PvP stuff is still worth the trip because it ' s a bit better for specialty PvP gear . Notes . " God of Death Mode " . Some affliction warlocks choose to spend their time while leveling collecting + Spell Crit and + Spell Dmg over other stats . The goal is to maximize spell damage as early in the game as possible ( See external links below for suitable armor ) . The advantage of doing so in favor of Stamina and Intellect is that it boosts the damage and healing of drain life which offsets the loss of health and mana . A skilled warlock should be able to balance out his life - tapping and life draining to keep himself over 50 % in both health and mana at all times , thus rendering large amounts of either unnecessary due to having no downtime anyways . If enough damage is accumulated , then a phenomenon the original writer of this section called " God of Death Mode " appears . In GoDM the combined damage of Corruption , Curse of Agony , and the occasional Haunt is enough to kill an enemy , as a result a warlock can cast 2 instant casts while moving between targets to rapidly kill enemies . This allows the warlock to take on 4 - 12 enemies ( depending on level and gear ) , while sometimes draining life on one enemy to maintain his health , ( although it is not always necessary thanks to siphoned health , and later , Haunt ) . This is a much faster method of grinding and questing since there is no time wasted stopping to cast or on spell push back . Dark pact greatly facilitates this due to no longer having to worry about using health for mana . This form of grinding is similar to AoE Grinding of Tankadin s and Frost mage s , but requires more changes of focus . The cons of this style of grinding , especially at higher levels , is that it requires complete focus on several mobs and one ’ s own life total , and especially important in Outland and Northrend , leaves the Warlock more open to ganking than usual . Update for Cataclysm : Curse of Agony is now , and is only available to be cast on one target at a time , so this strategy now has to be very accurately timed with other casts in order to work adequately . Useful Macro Examples . See main article : Useful macros for warlocks Early Imp attack Attack with CoA ( Affliction warlocks may want to cast Corruption before CoA ) For Drain Tanking with VW , add a 2nd macro