Warlock

The Warlock got the deepest rework of the three caster classes on this site: roughly a third of the class is new text. Banes no longer compete with Curses, DoTs crit, Demonic Sacrifice flipped and became permanent, and drains are a damage engine with a channeled 31-point Affliction talent that changed its name between the BlizzCon demo and the beta. Leveling is the easiest of the three (Voidwalker plus drain tanking). Raiding is where the arguments start, because the guides call Affliction the best PvE spec and the sims call it the worst.

Level Affliction with the Voidwalker out. Bane of Agony, Corruption, wand, Drain Life, Drain Soul the kill. Wand is the filler, not Shadow Bolt.
Banes (Agony, Doom, Havoc) do not use the Curse slot. One Bane plus one utility Curse per target. changed in Forever
Demonic Sacrifice is 2 hours and flipped: Imp gives +15% Shadow, Sayaad +15% Fire. Demonic Pact (31 Demo) keeps the buff when you summon a different demon.
Raid spec is a real dispute: guides say Affliction, MythicSim says Demonology (542) over Destruction (523) over Affliction (495). Three sites publish three different Affliction splits. unverified
Stamina is a DPS stat (Life Tap, Soul Link). Skip haste for Affliction until Blizzard confirms it speeds DoTs.
Fear range dropped to 20 yards (Grim Reach removed). wowforeverbuilds calls it a “likely oversight.” No fix seen.

Why play it in Forever

You want a Warlock in Forever if you liked the 2005 class but hated fighting Curse of Elements for your own Curse of Agony, hated that DoTs could not crit, and hated sacrificing your pet for a 30 minute buff. All three are fixed. The cross-class stat consolidation (one hit stat, one crit stat) means Suppression’s +1% hit per rank and Malevolence’s +1% Shadow crit per rank feed the same numbers your gear does, and periodic damage crits now, which is why the Pandemic talent exists. Undead Cannibalize restores 7% mana per tick on top of health, a free mid-pull drink from a corpse. verified

The utility case for a raid seat has not changed: Healthstones, Soulstone, summons (plus Portal of Summoning at 60), Curse of Elements, Recklessness, Tongues, Banish and Fear. One Warlock covers all of it in a 10 or 20.

Same warning as Mage: base spell damage at the same rank is lower than Classic. Shadow Bolt rank 10 is 253 to 283 (was 482 to 538). Guides read this as “scaling moved onto gear,” which is an inference. verified numbers, unverified interpretation.

What changed from vanilla

Counts differ by source: zockify says 22 new, 28 changed, 20 removed; foreverchanges at build 69977 says 18 new, 32 changed, 16 removed. verified

Four structural changes

Banes vs Curses. Curse of Agony is Bane of Agony (level 8, 24 sec, ramps, can crit). Curse of Doom is Bane of Doom (level 60). Banes do not use the Curse slot: you keep one Bane and one utility Curse (Elements, Recklessness, Weakness, Tongues, Exhaustion) on the same target. Only one Bane per Warlock per target. Bane of Havoc (Destruction talent) is also a Bane.
DoTs crit. Pandemic (Affliction, 3 ranks) raises the crit damage bonus of Corruption, Banes, Drain Soul, Drain Life, Siphon Life and the 31-point drain by 33% per rank.
Demonic Sacrifice flipped and made permanent. Two hours, and the bonuses swapped: Imp grants +15% Shadow, Succubus or Incubus +15% Fire, Voidwalker 2% mana per 4 sec, Felhunter 3% health per 4 sec. Demonic Pact (31-point Demonology) keeps the sacrifice buff when you summon a different demon.
Drains are a damage engine. Improved Drains, Soul Siphon, Soul Harvesting, Nightfall procs from Drain Soul, and a channeled 31-point Affliction drain.

All verified from foreverchanges.pro, classicwow.gg and demo tooltips.

Other new talents (beta)

Malediction (+1% periodic per rank, 5), Soul Harvesting (a Drain Soul kill grants 10 sec of 50% regen while casting and +50% regen), Improved Drains, Malevolence (+1% Shadow crit per rank, 5), Soul Siphon, Demonic Aegis (+15% Demon Skin and Armor), Demonic Energies (heals the pet for a percent of your spell damage; Life Tap mana is shared 50% with the pet), Decimation, Demonic Brand, Improved Felhunter, Demonic Knowledge (up to 33% of your level as spell damage while a demon is out), Demonic Pact, Molten Skin (2% damage reduction per rank, 5), Bane of Havoc, Fire and Brimstone (+8% Conflagrate crit per rank), Shadow and Flame (Conflagrate buffs Shadow 10%, Shadowburn buffs Fire 10%, and at 5/5 Conflagrate never consumes Immolate and Shadowburn always refunds its shard), Incinerate (31-point Destruction, 2.5 sec, +25% vs Immolated targets). verified

Changed and removed

Changed: Suppression is +1% hit to all spells and attacks and minus 4% threat per rank. Ruin is +20% crit damage (was +100%) and moved up the tree. Conflagrate is a 15-point talent. Shadowburn’s shard window is 8 sec. Soul Link moved from the 31-point row to the 21-point row. Master Summoner minus 4 sec and minus 40% mana on summons. Curse of Exhaustion is a 30% slow. Demonic Embrace lost its Spirit penalty. verified

Removed: Improved Curse of Weakness, Grim Reach (replaced by Destructive Reach, which is why Fear’s range dropped from 24 to 20 yards), Dark Pact, Improved Curse of Exhaustion, Improved Drain Soul, Improved Drain Mana, Improved Healthstone, Fel Stamina (folded into Fel Vitality), Improved Firestone, Improved Spellstone, Improved Subjugate Demon, Improved Immolate, Emberstorm, Devastation, Improved Firebolt, Improved Lash of Pain. verified

Spells and pets

Portal of Summoning (level 60, ritual for two party members). Curse of Shadow and Dark Pact removed. Drain Mana is channeled with 20 yd range. Life Tap scales with Spirit. Curse of Elements gives a Magic damage bonus instead of a large resist cut. Health Funnel threat reduced. verified
Succubus and Incubus are separate summons under the umbrella “Sayaad” (Improved Sayaad talent). Enslave Demon is renamed Subjugate Demon. Felhunter still trains at 30. demo
Leprestore says pets scale with gear and that a “Move To” command replaces Stay. mmoexp says an Explorer Imp (Season of Discovery’s treasure-finding imp) returns. None of these three claims is in a datamine anyone loaded. unverified
There is no Felguard anywhere in the data. verified absence

The three trees

Affliction

Role: ranged DPS, multi-DoT.
Playstyle: Bane of Agony plus a utility Curse plus Corruption plus Siphon Life, channel Drain Hope / Wrack for +10% DoT damage, Nightfall instant Shadow Bolts, Drain Soul below 20%.
Strengths: lowest-downtime leveling (“drain tank”); best multi-DoT; DoTs crit; Suppression gives 5% hit from the tree.
Weaknesses: ramp time; debuff slot pressure on bosses; DoTs update dynamically so there is no snapshotting; short fights waste it.
Verdict: see the caution below. Level with it regardless.

Demonology

Role: ranged DPS with a pet multiplier.
Playstyle: sacrifice the Imp for +15% Shadow, keep it via Demonic Pact, summon a Sayaad for Master Demonologist (+10% Shadow per leprestore, or +2% per rank in the demo), Soul Link, Shadow Bolt filler, Decimation Soul Fire execute below 35%.
Strengths: two-demon multiplier; Soul Link plus Molten Skin survivability; Demonic Knowledge; best PvP spec per several guides.
Weaknesses: pet death loses Soul Link, Master Demonologist and Demonic Knowledge at once; no hit talent in the tree; Decimation at 35% is a short window.
Verdict: MythicSim’s best Warlock spec (542). Expcarry sims it at ~625 but grades it B. “Sim disagreement” is expcarry’s own phrase.

Destruction

Role: ranged DPS, direct damage, cleave.
Playstyle: Immolate, Conflagrate (buffs Shadow), Shadowburn (buffs Fire), Shadow Bolt filler with Improved Shadow Bolt, Incinerate at 31, Bane of Havoc cleave.
Strengths: cleave via Bane of Havoc (15% for 5 minutes); Molten Skin; no ramp.
Weaknesses: no Chaos Bolt (mmoexp calls this “surprising”); Ruin cut to 20%; two-school gearing.
Verdict: expcarry 627, A tier. MythicSim 523. mmoexp: “less impressive.”

Sim numbers: MythicSim, wowsims fork, engine commit a4db4e9, 10,000 iterations, “incomplete talents and unverified racial values.” unverified

Leveling 1 to 60

Consensus: Affliction, Voidwalker out, “drain tank.” wowforeverbuilds ranks Warlock second for leveling with “few complaints” in beta. The one beta issue is Fear’s range at 20 yards. Beta data stops at level 30. Everything past that is theorycraft. verified

Beta-tested level 20 builds

They disagree, which tells you how young this is:

expcarry: Improved Corruption 5/5 (10 to 14), Malediction 5/5 (15 to 19), Pandemic 1/3 (20). Level 30: Pandemic 3/3, Fel Concentration 3/3, Malevolence 4/5, Siphon Life.
leprestore: Improved Corruption 5/5, Suppression 4/5, Improved Life Tap 1/2, Soul Harvesting 1/2.

Full 10 to 60 drain-tank order (wowforeverbuilds, theorycraft past 30)

Levels	Talent
10 to 14	Improved Corruption 5/5
15 to 16	Improved Life Tap 2/2
17 to 19	Improved Drains 3/3
20 to 21	Soul Harvesting 2/2
22 to 24	Fel Concentration 3/3
25 to 26	Suppression 2/5
27	Amplify Curse
28 to 29	Nightfall 2/2
30	Siphon Life
31 to 35	Demonic Embrace 5/5
36 to 38	Improved Voidwalker 3/3
39 to 41	Soul Siphon 3/3
42 to 43	Improved Bane of Agony 2/2
44 to 48	Shadow Mastery 5/5
49	Drain Hope / Wrack
50 to 54	Malediction 5/5
55	Curse of Exhaustion
56 to 58	Suppression 5/5
59 to 60	Fel Vitality 2/3 (ends 41/10/0)

Rotation

Send the Voidwalker first. Bane of Agony. Corruption (instant at 5/5 Improved Corruption). Immolate only on mobs that will live long enough. Wand as filler: “use your wand as normal efficient filler instead of automatically spending Mana on Shadow Bolt.” Drain Life to heal. Drain Soul for the kill so Soul Harvesting fires. Life Tap between pulls, not mid-combat against loose mobs. From 30, swap to the Felhunter in caster-heavy zones. Keep 5 or 6 shards in a Soul Pouch. verified leprestore, expcarry, wowforeverbuilds.

Alternatives

Demonology 1 to 40: Voidwalker, “Demonic Embrace for health, Demonic Knowledge for spell damage, Unholy Power and Soul Link at 40.”
Destruction 30 to 60: Bane, Improved Shadow Bolt, Ruin, Nightfall procs.

Do not sacrifice your demon without Demonic Pact; at level 20 the pet is worth more than the buff. See Leveling for dungeon routes.

Endgame builds

All theorycraft. The beta cap is 30. unverified

Affliction 40/11/0

Talents. Affliction: Suppression 5, Improved Corruption 5, Malediction 5, Improved Drains 3, Improved Bane of Agony 2, Pandemic 3, Malevolence 5, Nightfall 2, Siphon Life, Soul Siphon 3, Shadow Mastery 5, Drain Hope / Wrack. Demonology: Improved Health Funnel 2, Demonic Embrace 5, Fel Vitality 3, Demonic Sacrifice.

Priority. Summon Imp, sacrifice for +15% Shadow (2 hours). Raid Curse and Bane of Agony. Keep Corruption and Siphon Life up. Channel Drain Hope / Wrack when available. Shadow Bolt filler, instant on Nightfall. Below 20% (leprestore) or below 60% (wowforeverbuilds) Drain Soul becomes the filler. Life Tap in low-damage phases.

Stats. Hit (“resisted DoTs lose damage for full duration”), Shadow damage, crit (Pandemic), Stamina (Life Tap), Intellect and Spirit last. Leprestore’s beta warning: haste does not accelerate DoTs or drain channels, so haste is a trap for Affliction. unverified whether that survives to launch.

T1 Demonheart Raiment (datamined; slots and stats unknown): 2pc +1% hit, 3pc Banish 1.5 sec faster, 4pc up to 21 spell damage vs Demons, 5pc 20% more mana from Life Tap at no extra health cost.

Consumables. Elixir of Shadow Power, Greater Arcane Elixir, Brilliant Wizard Oil, Major Healing Potion, Healthstone, Stamina food. vanilla baseline names.

Raid fit. Affliction is the spec most exposed to debuff slot pressure in the 40. The Classic debuff limit was the known problem vanilla baseline; Forever’s limit is not documented anywhere unverified. Fine in the 10 and 20.

Demonology 0/31/20

Talents. Demonology: Demonic Embrace 5, Unholy Power 1, Demonic Aegis 2, Fel Vitality 3, Improved Sayaad 3, Demonic Sacrifice, Master Summoner 2, Decimation 2, Demonic Energies 2, Soul Link, Demonic Knowledge 3, Master Demonologist 5, Demonic Pact. Destruction: Destructive Reach 2, Improved Shadow Bolt 5, Cataclysm 3, Bane 5, Ruin 5.

Pre-pull. Summon Imp, Demonic Sacrifice, summon Sayaad (sacrifice buff held by Demonic Pact), Soul Link.

Priority. Curse, Bane, Corruption, Shadow Bolt filler. In the Decimation window test Soul Fire against Shadow Bolt. Eureka! on the opener. Life Tap in lulls. Leprestore’s pet table: Sayaad for damage, Voidwalker “holds threat much more reliably in Forever,” Imp for utility when melee pets die.

Decimation as datamined: Soul Fire cooldown minus 45%; Shadow Bolt or Searing Pain on a target below 35% health deals +3% and for 10 sec Soul Fire casts 20% faster (demo tooltip; leprestore says 40%) and costs no shard. Old SoD-style values (70% threshold, 20 sec) are wrong.

Stats. Hit first (“no hit talent in tree”), Shadow damage, crit, Stamina. Leprestore: “do not assume every point of Spell Power transfers one-for-one into pet damage.”

Consumables. Same as Affliction. vanilla baseline

Raid fit. The sim’s pick. A pet that dies to a raid mechanic costs three buffs at once, so know the fight.

Destruction 9/11/31

Talents. Affliction: Improved Life Tap 2, Suppression 5, Malediction 2. Demonology: Demonic Embrace 5, Demonic Aegis 2, Fel Vitality 3, Demonic Sacrifice. Destruction: Improved Shadow Bolt 5, Cataclysm 3, Bane 5, Ruin 5, Shadowburn, Shadow and Flame 5, Conflagrate, Bane of Havoc, Agonizing Flames 3, Incinerate, Destructive Reach 1.

Priority. Imp sacrifice (+15% Shadow). Curse and Immolate. Conflagrate (Shadow +10% for 20 sec, does not consume Immolate at 5/5 Shadow and Flame). Shadowburn (Fire +10%, shard refunded). Shadow Bolt filler with Improved Shadow Bolt’s +4% Shadow taken. Keep both buffs rolling. Incinerate is the filler if you gear Fire. Bane of Havoc on the second target for 15% cleave.

Stats. Hit, Shadow damage (“Fire damage only if forced”), crit (Ruin), Stamina, Intellect.

Consumables. Same list. vanilla baseline

Raid fit. The cleave spec for council-style fights. Two-school gearing is the tax.

See Raids overview and Loot rules.

PvP notes

Guides rank Warlock S tier: Fear (20 yd now), Death Coil, Howl of Terror (40), Felhunter Spell Lock and Devour Magic, Curse of Exhaustion at 30%.
Boostroom claims Soul Link plus Molten Skin pushes “effective damage reduction close to fifty percent.” A 30% redirect plus 10% from Molten Skin is not 50%. Treat it as marketing. unverified
Undead Will of the Forsaken is a break with no immunity now, and Orc Shatter Curse strips Curses and Banes on a 3 min CD. Both hurt Warlocks in Horde mirror matches. Mage Remove Lesser Curse strips Banes too. verified
Published PvP builds (theorycraft): Affliction 30/21/0 (Curse of Exhaustion, Nightfall, Siphon Life, Soul Link); Demonology 16/35/0 (Improved Felhunter, Soul Link, Master Demonologist, Curse of Exhaustion); Destruction 0/16/35 (Molten Skin, Aftermath’s Conflagrate daze, Pyroclasm stuns, Shadowburn).
Pet swap per matchup: Felhunter vs casters, Voidwalker vs physical. Demonic Pact keeps the sacrifice buff across the swap.
A Druid with Berserk is immune to Fear for 15 sec once per 3 minutes.

Race choice

Warlock races: Alliance Human, Gnome. Horde Orc, Undead, Troll (new combo). No Skyborne Warlock on either faction. Racial text is from the talentsforever export; numbers may lag the beta. verified

Alliance

Race	Racials (Forever)	Warlock verdict
Gnome	Eureka! (3 spells at half cost and +10% damage, 2 min CD), Expansive Mind +5% mana, Escape Artist 3 sec immunity	Leprestore and wow4evernews’ Alliance pick
Human	Will to Survive stun break (3 min), Perception, Sword Specialization +2% crit while wielding a sword, +5% Spirit	+5% Spirit now feeds Life Tap since Life Tap scales with Spirit. PvP stun break

Horde

Race	Racials (Forever)	Warlock verdict
Orc	Blood Fury +10% Spell Power for 15 sec, 2 min CD, no healing penalty. Shatter Curse. Hardiness stun duration minus 20%	Leprestore’s Horde PvE pick
Undead	Will of the Forsaken (break only), Cannibalize with 7% mana per tick, Touch of the Grave 5% drain proc	wow4evernews’ “provisional” Horde pick for all three specs
Troll (new)	Berserking +10% cast speed 10 sec, 3 min CD, no health gate; Regeneration; Beast Slaying +5%	Nobody has published a Troll Warlock argument yet. On paper it is the throughput racial

Professions for this class

Tailoring + Enchanting: consensus caster pairing (wowforeverbuilds, expcarry). See Tailoring and Enchanting.
Tailoring + Engineering: leprestore’s “highest suspected damage ceiling” (cloth embroidery plus gadgets). “Suspected” is their word.
Engineering + Mining for PvP. Herbalism + Alchemy for leveling sustain. See Alchemy.
Leprestore claims “Any + Mining: +5% total Health” as a profession perk that synergizes with Life Tap. No datamine shows a Mining health perk. unverified
First Aid for potions is not optional for a class that Life Taps. verified

Pre-raid gear philosophy

No Forever pre-raid list exists. Principles from the guides:

Hit to cap first. Suppression 5/5 gives 5% for Affliction; Demonology and Destruction have no hit talent, so gear carries it.
General spell damage over school-specific until you have committed to a build, because Destruction wants Shadow and Fire and Demonology’s sacrifice choice flips the school.
Stamina is a real DPS stat (Life Tap, Soul Link). All three PvE guides agree.
Soul Pouch and a wand upgrade every few levels (Greater Magic Wand at 13).
Haste: skip for Affliction until Blizzard confirms DoTs and channels scale with it. unverified beta observation.

Common mistakes and pro tips

Do not over-DoT short-lived mobs. Match spells to mob durability.
Do not sacrifice your demon without Demonic Pact. At level 20 the pet is worth more than the buff.
Resummoning the sacrificed demon cancels the buff even with Demonic Pact. Summoning a different one does not. verified
Life Tap with Demonic Energies fills both mana bars. Life Tap without it, mid-fight, against loose mobs, gets you killed.
Pet death costs Soul Link, Master Demonologist and Demonic Knowledge at once. Position the pet. Leprestore says “Move To” replaced Stay unverified.
DoTs update dynamically, so refreshing a healthy DoT when a temporary buff appears is a wasted global.
Bane of Havoc lasts 5 minutes. Put it on the mob that will die second. demo tooltip
Fear is 20 yards. Do not open at Classic range.
Wand macro so a second press does not toggle it off:

#showtooltip Shoot
/cast !Shoot

Addons and macros under the Forever API

Forever uses Midnight’s retail API. Secret health values, no WeakAuras, built-in damage meter and cooldown manager. See Addons that work. verified

Pet macros use retail syntax: /petattack, /petfollow, and pet-conditional casts:

#showtooltip
/cast [pet:Felhunter] Spell Lock; [pet:Voidwalker] Sacrifice

DoT timers: the default UI shows your own debuff durations on the target frame and nameplates. Dedicated DoT-timer addons are not Forever-flagged. Test any candidate on the beta before trusting it, since aura APIs were not covered in the published breakage report.
Execute logic is dead in addons. Secret health values kill “Decimation below 35%” and “Drain Soul below 20%” automation. Blizzard’s own frames still show percentages, so you watch the bar.
Healthstone and Soulstone macros (/use Major Healthstone) work. Leatrix Plus for automation.
Boss mods: DBM and BigWigs carry Forever flavors. Damage meter is built in.

Unknown as of 2026-09-24

Drain Hope vs Wrack: which name and which numbers ship (52/sec for 6 sec vs 36/sec).
The 16-point milestone in each tree. Amplify Curse or Curse of Exhaustion (Affliction), Demonic Sacrifice or Fel Domination (Demonology) sit on different rows in the two calculators. Conflagrate at 15 Destruction points is the one confident read.
Which Affliction split is right at 60 (40/11/0, 46/0/5, 36/0/15), and whether Affliction is the best or worst Warlock raid spec.
Debuff limit on bosses. Affliction’s value in the 40 depends on it.
Whether haste affects DoT and drain speed. Bug or design?
Demonic Energies 8% or 15%. Soul Siphon and Improved Drains: three formulas across sources. Decimation 20% or 40% cast speed.
Pet scaling with gear, the “Move To” command, and the Explorer Imp.
Fear at 20 yards: oversight or design.
Whether the Mining health perk exists.
Which battlegrounds ship and how honor works. Raid open dates. See Launch timeline.