Cataclysm Classic Affliction Warlock Leveling

Last updated on Sep 17, 2024 at 12:00 by Abide

On this page, you will find our level-by-level Affliction Warlock leveling guide for WoW Cataclysm Classic.

1.

Affliction Warlock Level-by-Level Rotation, Talents, and Trainer Skills

Move the slider below to make the guide update to your level!

Level: 1
2.

Affliction Warlock Leveling Talents in Cataclysm

You don't start getting talent points until you're LV 10.

Improved Corruption Icon Improved Corruption will be the first talent you spec into, increasing the damage of one of your main damage sources (Corruption Icon Corruption) by 12%.

Improved Corruption Icon Improved Corruption and Doom and Gloom Icon Doom and Gloom significantly boost the damage from two of your main DoTs. These are used constantly while leveling.

Improved Corruption Icon Improved Corruption and Doom and Gloom Icon Doom and Gloom significantly boost the damage from two of your main DoTs. These are used constantly while leveling. Improved Life Tap Icon Improved Life Tap is taken to provide a bit of extra Mana gain from your Life Tap Icon Life Tap spell.

Improved Corruption Icon Improved Corruption and Doom and Gloom Icon Doom and Gloom significantly boost the damage from two of your main DoTs. These are used constantly while leveling. Improved Life Tap Icon Improved Life Tap is taken to provide a bit of extra Mana gain from your Life Tap Icon Life Tap spell. While Soul Siphon Icon Soul Siphon isn't the most impactful talent, it's taken for interactions at higher levels once Siphon Life Icon Siphon Life is available.

Improved Corruption Icon Improved Corruption and Doom and Gloom Icon Doom and Gloom significantly boost the damage from two of your main DoTs. These are used constantly while leveling. Soul Siphon Icon Soul Siphon isn't the most impactful talent, however it opens up Siphon Life Icon Siphon Life which ensures you get self-healing from Corruption Icon Corruption, as well as as opening up the next tier of talents.

Improved Corruption Icon Improved Corruption and Doom and Gloom Icon Doom and Gloom significantly boost the damage from two of your main DoTs. These are used constantly while leveling. Soul Siphon Icon Soul Siphon isn't the most impactful talent, however it opens up Siphon Life Icon Siphon Life which ensures you get self-healing from Corruption Icon Corruption, as well as as opening up the next tier of talents. Jinx Icon Jinx will allow you to quickly apply Curse of the Elements Icon Curse of the Elements to all targets around you when needed.

Eradication Icon Eradication is a powerful talent that gives you a 6% chance to give you 20% casting speed for 10 seconds whenever your Corruption Icon Corruption deals damage.

Eradication Icon Eradication is a powerful talent that gives you a 6% chance to give you 20% casting speed for 10 seconds whenever your Corruption Icon Corruption deals damage. Curse of Exhaustion Icon Curse of Exhaustion can be helpful when wanting to slow your enemy to get away or kite them. Also really helpful in PvP situations while leveling.

Eradication Icon Eradication is a powerful talent that gives you a 6% chance to give you 20% casting speed for 10 seconds whenever your Corruption Icon Corruption deals damage. Curse of Exhaustion Icon Curse of Exhaustion can be helpful when wanting to slow your enemy to get away or kite them. Also really helpful in PvP situations while leveling. Soul Swap Icon Soul Swap will be used a lot while leveing so you can copy your DoT's onto the next target, saving you a lot of globals.

Eradication Icon Eradication is a powerful talent that gives you a 6% chance to give you 20% casting speed for 10 seconds whenever your Corruption Icon Corruption deals damage. Curse of Exhaustion Icon Curse of Exhaustion can be helpful when wanting to slow your enemy to get away or kite them. Also really helpful in PvP situations while leveling. Soul Swap Icon Soul Swap will be used a lot while leveing so you can copy your DoT's onto the next target, saving you a lot of globals. Shadow Embrace Icon Shadow Embrace makes it so your Shadow Bolt Icon Shadow Bolt and Haunt Icon Haunt increase all shadow DoT damage that you do to the target by 3% and stacks up to 3 times.

Eradication Icon Eradication is a powerful talent that gives you a 6% chance to give you 20% casting speed for 10 seconds whenever your Corruption Icon Corruption deals damage. Curse of Exhaustion Icon Curse of Exhaustion can be helpful when wanting to slow your enemy to get away or kite them. Also really helpful in PvP situations while leveling. Soul Swap Icon Soul Swap will be used a lot while leveing so you can copy your DoT's onto the next target, saving you a lot of globals. Shadow Embrace Icon Shadow Embrace makes it so your Shadow Bolt Icon Shadow Bolt and Haunt Icon Haunt increase all shadow DoT damage that you do to the target by 3% and stacks up to 3 times. Nightfall Icon Nightfall gives you a chance at an instant cast Shadow Bolt Icon Shadow Bolt whenever your Corruption Icon Corruption deals damage.

Eradication Icon Eradication is a powerful talent that gives you a 6% chance to give you 20% casting speed for 10 seconds whenever your Corruption Icon Corruption deals damage. Curse of Exhaustion Icon Curse of Exhaustion can be helpful when wanting to slow your enemy to get away or kite them. Also really helpful in PvP situations while leveling. Soul Swap Icon Soul Swap will be used a lot while leveing so you can copy your DoT's onto the next target, saving you a lot of globals. Shadow Embrace Icon Shadow Embrace makes it so your Shadow Bolt Icon Shadow Bolt and Haunt Icon Haunt increase all shadow DoT damage that you do to the target by 3% and stacks up to 3 times. Nightfall Icon Nightfall gives you a chance at an instant cast Shadow Bolt Icon Shadow Bolt whenever your Corruption Icon Corruption deals damage. Death's Embrace Icon Death's Embrace makes it so you heal more from Drain Life Icon Drain Life when the target is below 25%, but more importantly this talent increases how much damage you do with your shadow spells by 12% when the target is below 25% Health.

Eradication Icon Eradication is a powerful talent that gives you a 6% chance to give you 20% casting speed for 10 seconds whenever your Corruption Icon Corruption deals damage. Curse of Exhaustion Icon Curse of Exhaustion can be helpful when wanting to slow your enemy to get away or kite them. Also really helpful in PvP situations while leveling. Soul Swap Icon Soul Swap will be used a lot while leveing so you can copy your DoT's onto the next target, saving you a lot of globals. Shadow Embrace Icon Shadow Embrace makes it so your Shadow Bolt Icon Shadow Bolt and Haunt Icon Haunt increase all shadow DoT damage that you do to the target by 3% and stacks up to 3 times. Nightfall Icon Nightfall gives you a chance at an instant cast Shadow Bolt Icon Shadow Bolt whenever your Corruption Icon Corruption deals damage. Death's Embrace Icon Death's Embrace makes it so you heal more from Drain Life Icon Drain Life when the target is below 25%, but more importantly this talent increases how much damage you do with your shadow spells by 12% when the target is below 25% Health. Soulburn: Seed of Corruption Icon Soulburn: Seed of Corruption can come in handy if you gather up a ton of mobs and use Seed of Corruption Icon Seed of Corruption to apply Corruption Icon Corruption on all the mobs at once, when your Seed of Corruption Icon Seed of Corruption blows up.

Eradication Icon Eradication is a powerful talent that gives you a 6% chance to give you 20% casting speed for 10 seconds whenever your Corruption Icon Corruption deals damage. Curse of Exhaustion Icon Curse of Exhaustion can be helpful when wanting to slow your enemy to get away or kite them. Also really helpful in PvP situations while leveling. Soul Swap Icon Soul Swap will be used a lot while leveing so you can copy your DoT's onto the next target, saving you a lot of globals. Shadow Embrace Icon Shadow Embrace makes it so your Shadow Bolt Icon Shadow Bolt and Haunt Icon Haunt increase all shadow DoT damage that you do to the target by 3% and stacks up to 3 times. Nightfall Icon Nightfall gives you a chance at an instant cast Shadow Bolt Icon Shadow Bolt whenever your Corruption Icon Corruption deals damage. Death's Embrace Icon Death's Embrace makes it so you heal more from Drain Life Icon Drain Life when the target is below 25%, but more importantly this talent increases how much damage you do with your shadow spells by 12% when the target is below 25% Health. Soulburn: Seed of Corruption Icon Soulburn: Seed of Corruption can come in handy if you gather up a ton of mobs and use Seed of Corruption Icon Seed of Corruption to apply Corruption Icon Corruption on all the mobs at once, when your Seed of Corruption Icon Seed of Corruption blows up. Everlasting Affliction Icon Everlasting Affliction allows your Haunt Icon Haunt, Drain Life Icon Drain Life and Drain Soul Icon Drain Soul to reset the duration of your Corruption Icon Corruption. While mobs are typically dead before you need to refresh, this talent also increases the crit of your Corruption Icon Corruption, Seed of Corruption Icon Seed of Corruption and Unstable Affliction Icon Unstable Affliction by 15%.

Eradication Icon Eradication is a powerful talent that gives you a 6% chance to give you 20% casting speed for 10 seconds whenever your Corruption Icon Corruption deals damage. Curse of Exhaustion Icon Curse of Exhaustion can be helpful when wanting to slow your enemy to get away or kite them. Also really helpful in PvP situations while leveling. Soul Swap Icon Soul Swap will be used a lot while leveing so you can copy your DoT's onto the next target, saving you a lot of globals. Shadow Embrace Icon Shadow Embrace makes it so your Shadow Bolt Icon Shadow Bolt and Haunt Icon Haunt increase all shadow DoT damage that you do to the target by 3% and stacks up to 3 times. Nightfall Icon Nightfall gives you a chance at an instant cast Shadow Bolt Icon Shadow Bolt whenever your Corruption Icon Corruption deals damage. Death's Embrace Icon Death's Embrace makes it so you heal more from Drain Life Icon Drain Life when the target is below 25%, but more importantly this talent increases how much damage you do with your shadow spells by 12% when the target is below 25% Health. Soulburn: Seed of Corruption Icon Soulburn: Seed of Corruption can come in handy if you gather up a ton of mobs and use Seed of Corruption Icon Seed of Corruption to apply Corruption Icon Corruption on all the mobs at once, when your Seed of Corruption Icon Seed of Corruption blows up.Everlasting Affliction Icon Everlasting Affliction allows your Haunt Icon Haunt, Drain Life Icon Drain Life and Drain Soul Icon Drain Soul to reset the duration of your Corruption Icon Corruption. While mobs are typically dead before you need to refresh, this talent also increases the crit of your Corruption Icon Corruption, Seed of Corruption Icon Seed of Corruption and Unstable Affliction Icon Unstable Affliction by 15%. Pandemic Icon Pandemic reduces the global cooldown of your Banes and Curses by a half a second, and also makes your Drain Soul Icon Drain Soul refresh the duration of your Unstable Affliction Icon Unstable Affliction if the target is below 25%.

Eradication Icon Eradication is a powerful talent that gives you a 6% chance to give you 20% casting speed for 10 seconds whenever your Corruption Icon Corruption deals damage. Curse of Exhaustion Icon Curse of Exhaustion can be helpful when wanting to slow your enemy to get away or kite them. Also really helpful in PvP situations while leveling. Soul Swap Icon Soul Swap will be used a lot while leveing so you can copy your DoT's onto the next target, saving you a lot of globals. Shadow Embrace Icon Shadow Embrace makes it so your Shadow Bolt Icon Shadow Bolt and Haunt Icon Haunt increase all shadow DoT damage that you do to the target by 3% and stacks up to 3 times. Nightfall Icon Nightfall gives you a chance at an instant cast Shadow Bolt Icon Shadow Bolt whenever your Corruption Icon Corruption deals damage. Death's Embrace Icon Death's Embrace makes it so you heal more from Drain Life Icon Drain Life when the target is below 25%, but more importantly this talent increases how much damage you do with your shadow spells by 12% when the target is below 25% Health. Soulburn: Seed of Corruption Icon Soulburn: Seed of Corruption can come in handy if you gather up a ton of mobs and use Seed of Corruption Icon Seed of Corruption to apply Corruption Icon Corruption on all the mobs at once, when your Seed of Corruption Icon Seed of Corruption blows up.Everlasting Affliction Icon Everlasting Affliction allows your Haunt Icon Haunt, Drain Life Icon Drain Life and Drain Soul Icon Drain Soul to reset the duration of your Corruption Icon Corruption. While mobs are typically dead before you need to refresh, this talent also increases the crit of your Corruption Icon Corruption, Seed of Corruption Icon Seed of Corruption and Unstable Affliction Icon Unstable Affliction by 15%. Pandemic Icon Pandemic reduces the global cooldown of your Banes and Curses by a half a second, and also makes your Drain Soul Icon Drain Soul refresh the duration of your Unstable Affliction Icon Unstable Affliction if the target is below 25%. Haunt Icon Haunt is the last talent in the Affliction tree and does some slight damage, but most importantly buffs all your Shadow DoT's on the target by 20%, or 23% if you're using Glyph of Haunt Icon Glyph of Haunt.

Now that you have all the talent points you need from the Affliction tree, you can put the rest of the points into the Demonology tree. Dark Arts Icon Dark Arts is a huge talent that significantly buffs the damage of your Felhunter, which is one of your highest damaging ability.

Now that you have all the talent points you need from the Affliction tree, you can put the rest of the points into the Demonology tree. Dark Arts Icon Dark Arts is a huge talent that significantly buffs the damage of your Felhunter, which is one of your highest damaging ability. Fel Synergy Icon Fel Synergy ensures that your Felhunter will be healed, making you have to Health Funnel Icon Health Funnel as often.

Now that you have all the talent points you need from the Affliction tree, you can put the rest of the points into the Demonology tree. Dark Arts Icon Dark Arts is a huge talent that significantly buffs the damage of your Felhunter, which is one of your highest damaging ability. Fel Synergy Icon Fel Synergy ensures that your Felhunter will be healed, making you have to Health Funnel Icon Health Funnel as often. Demonic Embrace Icon Demonic Embrace will give you some more Stamina, which is health and allows you to take some more hits.

Now that you have all the talent points you need from the Affliction tree, you can put the rest of the points into the Demonology tree. Dark Arts Icon Dark Arts is a huge talent that significantly buffs the damage of your Felhunter, which is one of your highest damaging ability. Fel Synergy Icon Fel Synergy ensures that your Felhunter will be healed, making you have to Health Funnel Icon Health Funnel as often. Demonic Embrace Icon Demonic Embrace will give you some more Stamina, which is health and allows you to take some more hits. Demonic Aegis Icon Demonic Aegis increases the amount of Health generated by your Demon and Fel Armor Icon Fel Armor.

Now that you have all the talent points you need from the Affliction tree, you can put the rest of the points into the Demonology tree. Dark Arts Icon Dark Arts is a huge talent that significantly buffs the damage of your Felhunter, which is one of your highest damaging ability. Fel Synergy Icon Fel Synergy ensures that your Felhunter will be healed, making you have to Health Funnel Icon Health Funnel as often. Demonic Embrace Icon Demonic Embrace will give you some more Stamina, which is health and allows you to take some more hits. Demonic Aegis Icon Demonic Aegis increases the amount of Health generated by your Demon and Fel Armor Icon Fel Armor. Mana Feed Icon Mana Feed will ensure that your Felhunter gets mana back whenever you Life Tap Icon Life Tap.

3.

Affliction Warlock Leveling Glyphs in Cataclysm

3.1.

Prime Glyphs

  1. Glyph of Corruption Icon Glyph of Corruption — This gives your Corruption Icon Corruption a 4% chance to cause you to enter a Shadow Trance. This, much like Nightfall Icon Nightfall will make your next Shadow Bolt Icon Shadow Bolt instant cast.
  2. Glyph of Haunt Icon Glyph of Haunt — This adds 3% more to your Haunt Icon Haunt spell, making Haunt now buff your Shadow DoTs by 23% instead of 20%.
  3. Glyph of Unstable Affliction Icon Glyph of Unstable Affliction — This will decrease the casting time of your Unstable Affliction Icon Unstable Affliction by 0.2 seconds, making one of your main DoTs have a quicker cast.
3.2.

Major Glyphs

  1. Glyph of Life Tap Icon Glyph of Life Tap — This will reduce the global cooldown of your Life Tap Icon Life Tap by half a second and imporant since you will be Life Taping frequently.
  2. Glyph of Soul Link Icon Glyph of Soul Link — This increases how much damage is shared from you to your demon from Soul Link Icon Soul Link by 5%, making you take less damage.
  3. Glyph of Soul Swap Icon Glyph of Soul Swap — This leaves your DoTs' on the Soul Swap Icon Soul Swap target when the spell is used. Without this your DoT's are removed from the Soul Swap Icon Soul Swap target. This also gives Soul Swap Icon Soul Swap a 30 seconds cooldown.
3.3.

Minor Glyphs

  1. Glyph of Drain Soul Icon Glyph of Drain Soul — Whenever you kill an enemy that yields experience or honor you gain 10% of your mana back.
  2. Glyph of Unending Breath Icon Glyph of Unending Breath — — This increases the swim speed of targets affected by your Unending Breath Icon Unending Breath by 20%. Helpful for any quests in the water.
  3. Glyph of Curse of Exhaustion Icon Glyph of Curse of Exhaustion — This increases the range of your Curse of Exhaustion Icon Curse of Exhaustion by 5 yards. Can be helpful if you ever want to slow down your enemy or in PvP situations.
4.

Leveling Rotation

The big benefit of leveling as Affliction is the ability to kill multiple enemies at the same time. Thanks to your damage over time spells, the self healing from Siphon Life Icon Siphon Life and the extremely high damage of your Felhunter, you will have no problems rotting away any enemies. Simply apply Unstable Affliction Icon Unstable Affliction, Corruption Icon Corruption and Bane of Agony Icon Bane of Agony to as many mobs around you as you feel comfortable and use Haunt Icon Haunt, Shadow Bolt Icon Shadow Bolt, Shadowflame Icon Shadowflame and Drain Soul Icon Drain Soul to deal some extra damage.

  1. Have Demon Armor Icon Demon Armor on you all the time. This increases your armor and the amount of health generated from your spells. Once you hit level 62 you unlock Fel Armor, then use that instead as this supplies a ton of spell damage and causes you to heal for 3% of all single target damage done.
  2. Make sure your Felhunter is out and dealing damage. It does significantly more damage than any other Demon. Make sure Shadow Bite Icon Shadow Bite is on your bars and turned on as that is the bulk of the Felhunters damage. It can be helpful to have a Weakaura to track if your Felhunter is attacking.
  3. Make sure to have a Create Healthstone Icon Create Healthstone made for emergency reasons if you need some health.
  4. If you want, you can make sure to have a Soulstone on you, so you're able to resurrect if you die.
  5. Make sure to use whatever cooldowns you have, like Trinkets and racials such as Blood Fury Icon Blood Fury
  6. Cast Haunt Icon Haunt and Unstable Affliction Icon Unstable Affliction to one target. These two spells are strong, however must be casted, thereforth I don't use these spells on every target or when chain pulling. Instead I just use it occassionally when fighting one mob or at the start of combat before running around to gather more targets.
  7. Apply Corruption Icon Corruption to as many targets as you feel comfortable. Typically 2-3 targets is the safest.
  8. Apply Curse of Agony Icon Curse of Agony to those same targets.
  9. Use Soul Swap Icon Soul Swap to copy your DoT's from one target to the next one to quickly apply all your DoT's to the second target.
  10. Continue running around and DoT'ing up more mobs, while making sure not to die.
  11. Use Death Coil Icon Death Coil to get some healing back from it.
  12. Use Life Tap Icon Life Tap whenever you need mana.
  13. Pay attention to your Nightfall Icon Nightfall procs to use your instant cast Shadow Bolt Icon Shadow Bolts
  14. You can use Drain Soul Icon Drain Soul right when a target is about to die and if it dies while you're draining, you will recieve some mana back.
  15. Use Soulburn Icon Soulburn with Soul Fire Icon Soul Fire to gain an instant cast Soul Fire Icon Soul Fire
5.

List of Trainer Skills to skip while leveling

Warlocks have a ton of spells and demon Grimoires to buy. It can become daunting to think about which ones are worth getting. To keep it simple, you want to buy all ranks of spells that you find yourself using out in the open world. You can skip a bunch of spells if you want to save gold and make it less confusing. Some spells that you can skip training until level 85 are listed below in order of which they become available on your trainer.

  • CurseofWeakness
  • CurseoftheElements
  • EyeofKilrogg
  • SubjugateDemon
  • Soulshatter
6.

Warlock Addons and Macros

Addons and Macros can greatly improve your quality of life while playing. Listed below are some of our recommendations on Addons and Macros to help get the most out of your time playing the game.

7.

How to Continue to Improve Your Affliction Warlock at Level 85

Once you achieve Level 85, we suggest checking out our Affliction Warlock Guide which goes more in detail of how to play Affliction at max level.

8.

Changelog

  • 17 Sep. 2024: Reviewed for Phase 3.
  • 06 May 2024: Page added.
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