Playstyle Overview

Warlock is a complex class with a huge amount of optimization potential. The general strategy is to level as Affliction with Succubus to level 50 then respec to Demonology with Felguard.

Use Rank 1 Drain Soul to save Mana and use Rank 1 Fear to Juggle Mobs More Effectively.

Soul Shard Management

At level 16 you get access to the improved drain soul talent, this talent received a massive buff in TBC and gives you a decent chunk of mana every time you kill a mob while using drain soul.

This following macro will help you with inventory management, destroying all the soul shards in your bags and leaving you with 5 shards:

/run i="Soul Shard"d=GetItemCount(i)-5 for x=0,4 do for y=1,GetContainerNumSlots(x) do if (d>0) then l=GetContainerItemLink(x,y) if l and GetItemInfo(l)==i then PickupContainerItem(x,y) DeleteCursorItem() d=d-1 end end end end

Rotation Breakdown

Levels 1-4

Shadowbolt (Projectile) -> Immolate -> Shadowbolt

Once you obtain your Imp it feels most efficient to Firebolt twice per mob. It’s okay to leave his Firebolt on auto-cast if you don’t feel like micro managing him.

Levels 4-8

Shadowbolt (Projectile) -> Corruption -> Immolate

Try to move towards the next objective once you get your DoTs on and let your auto attacks / Imp finish mobs.

Levels 8-10

Corruption -> Curse of Agony -> Immolate

At level 8 you get access to Fear and Curse of Agony. Try to kill 2 mobs at a time keeping one feared and dotted. Avoid using Shadow Bolt if you can, since Shadow Bolt is your least mana efficient spell at this point.

Levels 10-24

Send Pet -> Cure of Agony -> Corruption -> Immolate -> Wand

As soon as you get to a capital city, you can either buy a wand from the auction house or level enchanting to craft a wand yourself.

From levels 10-14 if you manage to find a good melee weapon, you can melee your target instead, this early into the game, a good staff will do very decent damage.

At level 14 you get access to a vendor wand from wand vendors inside capital cities. At that point you should 100% have a wand.

Levels 24-30

Send Pet -> Cure of Agony -> Corruption -> Drain Life

At level 24 you get access to Drain Life rank 2 and 5/5 Fel Concentration. At this point you can start drain tanking. Your succubus does the most damage of all your pets, use your succubus and have your Voidwalker out only to tackle difficult pulls

Levels 30-40

Send Pet -> Cure of Agony -> Corruption -> Siphon Life -> Drain Life

At level 30 you get access to Siphon Life, at this point you should be more aggressive with multi-dotting, remember that Fear rank 1 only lasts 10 seconds, since it doesn’t last that long, mobs won’t run far away from you and it’s a perfect tool for juggling mobs.

Levels 40-50

Send Pet -> Cure of Agony -> Corruption -> Siphon Life ->Drain Life -> Dark Pact

Turn off auto-cast on all your pet spells. Dark pact allows you to use your pet’s mana pool as a resource. The goal is to not use any pet spells and allow your pet to be constantly regenerating mana.

50-70 (Demonology)

Pet Attack -> Curse of Agony -> Corruption -> Immolate -> Drain Life

Put all Felguard abilities on auto cast except for taunt. Use taunt situationally to pull mobs off you when needed.

Itemization

Spell Damage -> Stamina -> Intellect -> Spirit

Spec

1-50 (Affliction)

Link

50-70 (Demonology)

Link