Warcraft Leveling Guides

Introduction

With 3 strong trees to choose from leveling a warlock fast can be easy. Once at level 70 the choice of talent points however gets a little more complicated and your choice in what tree you choose will depend on a) what you want to do with your lock, PvP, raid or 5 man dungeon b) your play style, stand and shoot or dot and run c) your groups needs, bigger health stones, more imp buff etc. To level a warlock fast I prefer the affliction tree with the following talent distribution.

Talent Points

Lvl10-14 Improved Corruption 5/5
Lvl15-16 Improved Life Tap 2/2
Lvl17-18 Soul Siphon 2/2
Lvl19 Suppression 1/5
Lvl20-24 Fel Concentration 5/5
Lvl25-26 Nightfall 2/2
Lvl27-28 Grim Reach 2/2
Lvl29 Suppression 2/5
Lvl30-31 Improved Curse of Agony 2/2
Lvl32-34 Empowered Corruption 2/3
Lvl35-39Shadow Mastery 5/5
Lvl40 Dark Pact 1/1
Lvl41 Empowered Corruption 3/3
Lvl42-44 Contagion 3/5
Lvl45-46 Improved Howl Terror 2/2
Lvl47-48 Contagion 5/5
Lvl49 Suppression 3/5
Lvl50 Unstable Affliction 1/1
Lvl51-55 Improved Shadow Bolt 5/5
Lvl56-60 Bane 5/5
Lvl61-65 Devastation 5/5
Lvl66-67 Destructive Reach 2/2
Lvl68 Shadowburn1/1
Lvl69 -70 Aftermath 2/5

Fighting Strategies

A few notes on the talents above. Some claim that Unstable Affliction is not really any good until you have a certain amount of spell damage on your gear. It is possible to miss this talent and put your extra pint in Ruin on the destruction tree. Suppression is a very good talent if you don’t have spell hit gear but I find it not really worth worrying about until higher levels. When you reach level 70 and go for your respec (Affliction) make sure you max this out until you have the spell hit on your gear.

Unlike most other classes warlocks rely heavily on their pets and as such the first quest you should do should be to get your Imp. As you level up you will train in different spells and curses so finding the spell rotation that suits you may take a while and just as you think you have it you will gain a new spell or stronger curse. What I suggest here is just that ‘a suggestion’, play with the different spells and curses and find what curse to use in what situation.

Start the attack with your longest cast spell such as Immolate or Corruption then shadow bolt till dead. To add some confusion (and fun) here park your Imp and move away from it then get it to open with a fireball that lands just before your Immolate, the mob will then head for your Imp but as you hit with a shadow bolt it will come for you. Timed right the mob will never reach either of you.

Once you reach level10 and have completed the Voidwalker quest leveling becomes easy and faster now. Start by sending in ‘big blue’ to get aggro, cast your spell rotation and end with shadow bolts till dead. If there is more than one mob then blue should be able to hold them all while you dot them. After they are all dotted up tab back through them picking them off with your shadow bolt.

From level 40 onwards you will now have 2 different tactics to choose from and what you do will be based on your play style. You can continue allowing your Voidwalker get aggro and dot the mob or you could drain tank then and use your Imp for mana regeneration with Dark Pact.

Drain tank method starts with casting your longest cast dot, either Immolate or Unstable Affliction, then throw out your instant cast. The mob should be beating on you by know so fear them off and Drain Life while they run about, re-apply dots if they time out. Use Dark Pact should your mana get low – rinse and repeat.

Of all classes I have leveled the warlock was by far the best and most fun. My advice is that when leveling a warlock take your time, understand all the curses and your pets full abilities. Ohh, and dont forget to get your mount at level 60 it is by far the cloolest thing in the game.