Cataclysm Classic Destruction Warlock Leveling

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

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

1.

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

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

Level: 1
2.

Destruction Warlock Leveling Talents in Cataclysm

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

Prime Glyphs

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Major Glyphs

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Minor Glyphs

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Select PrimeMajorMinor Glyph

        3.

        Destruction Warlock Leveling Glyphs in Cataclysm

        3.1.

        Prime Glyphs

        1. Glyph of Imp Icon Glyph of Imp — This will make your Imp do 20% more damage.
        2. Glyph of Immolate Icon Glyph of Immolate — This increases the DoT portion of your Immolate Icon Immolate by an additional 10%, making your hardest hitting DoT do even more damage.
        3. Glyph of Incinerate Icon Glyph of Incinerate — This makes your Incinerate Icon Incinerate do 5% more damage.
        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 Tap Icon 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 Soulstone Icon Glyph of Soulstone — This allows you to resurrect with an additional 40% Health whenever you die and your Soulstone resurrects you.
        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

        Destruction focuses on hard hitting single target damage and is one of the best levelers in the game. Until LV 82, most enemies died before they even got the chance to reach you. With a relatively easy rotation of keeping up your Immolate Icon Immolate and Improved Soul Fire Icon Improved Soul Fire buff for your 8% damage buff. Keep Conflagrate Icon Conflagrate on cooldown as much as you can so you gain your 30% haste buff and use Incinerate Icon Incinerate as your filler while making sure you you pay attention and use your instant cast Soul Fire Icon Soul Fire procs that you're gaining from Improved Soul Fire Icon Improved Soul Fire.Make sure to use Shadowburn Icon Shadowburn when the target is less than 20% health as this does very good damage. Always make sure your Imp is attacking and that you have you're personal buffs up as well.

        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 Imp is out and attacking. It can be helpful to have a Weakaura to track if your Demon 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 Soul Fire Icon Soul Fire or use your Soulburn Icon Soulburn with Soul Fire Icon Soul Fire to gain an instant cast Soul Fire Icon Soul Fire. This is to get your 8% damage buff from Improved Soul Fire Icon Improved Soul Fire
        7. Cast Immolate Icon Immolate and keep it up on the boss at all times.
        8. Cast Conflagrate Icon Conflagrate and keep it on cooldown as much as you can
        9. Cast Corruption Icon Corruption if the target will live for the duration.
        10. Cast Incinerate Icon Incinerate until target is below 20%
        11. Use Shadowburn Icon Shadowburn to finish the target off.
        12. Use Death Coil Icon Death Coil to get some healing back from it.
        13. Use Life Tap Icon Life Tap whenever you need mana.
        14. Pay attention to your Glyph of Corruption Icon Glyph of Corruption procs to use your instant cast Shadow Bolt Icon Shadow Bolts
        15. 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.
        16. 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.

        • Curse of Weakness Icon Curse of Weakness
        • Curse of the Elements Icon Curse of the Elements
        • Eye of Kilrogg Icon Eye of Kilrogg
        • Subjugate Demon Icon Subjugate Demon
        • Soulshatter Icon 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 Destruction Warlock at Level 85

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

        8.

        Changelog

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