WoW Classic Destruction Warlock Leveling Talent Build from 1 to 60
On this page, you will find our Level by Level Affliction leveling guide for WoW Classic. Make sure to use the slider to make the guide adapt to your level. For more general leveling information, please refer to our Warlock leveling guide. We also have an Demonology Warlock leveling guide and a Affliction Warlock leveling guide.
If you were looking for TBC Classic advice, please refer to our TBC Classic Warlock leveling guide.
Foreword
Unlike some classes, Warlock has several viable leveling builds that will give you different strengths while leveling. This Destruction build is all about one thing: Dungeons. If you are planning to level using a spell cleave group that AoE's its way through dungeons, this is the build that you will want to run. As a warning, while it is possible to solo level and quest with this build, it will be far worse than Demonology or Affliction.
Level by Level Rotation, Talents, and Trainer Skills
Move the slider below to make the guide update to your level!
Talent Tree
Your first talent unlocks at Level 10.
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As stated above, this build is primarily for
if you plan to level through AoEing dungeons down. Thus, the primary goal of this
build is to buff your Hellfire as much as possible since it will be the
vast majority of damage in dungeons.
Cataclysm reduces your Destruction
Mana costs while
Aftermath causes your damaged targets to sometimes get
dazed. Controlling the enemies that you are AoEing is one of the most important
things in dungeons groups, which makes talents like
Aftermath quite valuable
in a group setting.
- Level 20 — 1 point in
Shadowburn
- Levels 21 to 24 — 4 points in
Devastation
- Levels 25 & 26 — 2 points in
Intensity
- Level 27 — 1 point in
Devastation
- Levels 28 & 29 — 2 points in
Destructive Reach
Shadowburn is a great spell for finishing
off low enemies and is worth taking as soon as possible.
Devastation is
a solid damage increase, but
Intensity is perhaps the most important talent
in this whole build since it will potentially gain you many ticks of
Hellfire
that you would otherwise lose to push back.
Destructive Reach is just a nice
quality of life talent that extends your range. Some people like to take
Improved Firebolt
for your Imp instead, but your Imp is limited by Mana, not by cast time, making this
only a minor damage increase for your Imp, which will not help you much in dungeons.
- Level 30 — 1 point in
Ruin
- Levels 31 & 32 — 2 points in
Pyroclasm
- Levels 33 & 34 — 2 points in
Improved Immolate
- Levels 35 to 39 — 5 points in
Emberstorm
Ruin is one of the best damage talents
that you will get, especially for only a single point.
Pyroclasm is an
amazing control talent, and will end up stunning the majority of targets that you
hit with your
Hellfire, which will help your spell cleaves ability to control
groups quite a bit. The next 2 points should go into
Improved Immolate
to work towards
Conflagrate, and will help to unlock
Emberstorm
which is a straight damage increase.
- Levels 40 to 42 — 3 points in
Improved Immolate
- Level 43 — 1 points in
Conflagrate
- Levels 44 to 48 — 5 points in
Improved Corruption
- Level 49 — 1 point in
Improved Life Tap
This is the point where the remainder of your
talents can really go wherever you would like. Generally Conflagrate is
worth taking for the burst and PvP potential, so finishing of the Destruction
tree is recommended. After that you should go to Affliction and start taking the
standard talents here that are good for every spec, starting with
Improved Corruption
and
Improved Life Tap.
- Level 50 — 1 point in
Improved Life Tap
- Levels 51 & 52 — 2 points in
Improved Drain Soul
- Levels 53 & 54 — 2 points in
Suppression
- Level 55 — 1 point in
Amplify Curse
- Levels 56 to 58 — 3 points in
Improved Curse of Agony
- Levels 59 & 60 — 2 points in
Nightfall
These remaining points can be used to fill out the
generic setup that most builds will take using the beginning Affliction talents.
Improved Life Tap and
Improved Drain Soul offer excellent Mana regeneration, while
Suppression,
Amplify Curse,
Improved Curse of Agony, and
Nightfall
offer excellent damage options.
Leveling Rotation
Your goal should be to get your Imp and Immolate immediately,
which will give you the highest damage output in the game prior to level 10. Eventually
you will pick up your Succubus, but with both the Imp and Succubus you should continue with
the basic practice of using your DoTs on the target then finishing them off
with your wand. Use
Life Tap as needed for
Mana regeneration to try and limit downtime. You should immediately start using
your wand as a filler in place of
Shadow Bolt once you get one, which
will most likely be anywhere from levels 5 to 14 depending on if you can invest
in a
Lesser Magic Wand from the Auction House.
- Command your pet to attack the target;
Immolate;
Curse of Agony;
Corruption;
Shadow Bolt until you get your wand.
Shoot with your wand;
Conflagrate at the end of your
Immolate;
Shadowburn when the enemy is going to die within a few seconds;
Drain Soul to kill the enemy if you need the Mana from
Improved Drain Soul (once you get the talent) or if you need the
Soul Shard.
Warlocks have one of the strongest starts in the game.
Immolate is available for purchase for 10 copper from level 1, meaning
you should sell your water and food to get it as soon as possible. From there you
can do the Warlock quest from your trainer to get your Imp, which you can easily
get by level 2 or 3. With your Imp and Immolate, you should have no trouble wreaking
havoc on anything in your path for a few levels.
Do your class quest to get your Voidwalker. You will
not be using your Voidwalker for normal leveling in this build, but it is a relatively
easy quest and you might as well get it for later. Voidwalkers are also great in
PvP due to Sacrifice, which makes it worth having just in case.
Dungeon Rotation
As stated above, this build is primarily for dungeon leveling. You should focus
on putting up Immolate,
Corruption, and
Curse of Agony
on multiple targets, but your main damage is going to come once you get
Rain of Fire
and
Hellfire. Hellfire does more damage, but Rain of Fire is much safer
to use. During heavy AoE pulls you will exclusively use these abilities for high
damage output, preferably using Hellfire whenever possible.
List of Trainer Skills to Buy
All Warlock specs benefit from upgrading the same skills, so our list of skills to buy from trainers is the same, regardless of the spec. For this reason, you will find that list in our general Warlock leveling page.
Leveling Quests for Warlock
To guide you in the class-specific quests you can do while leveling up, please follow the guide linked below.
How to Advance as a Warlock at Level 60
Well done on hitting maximum level in WoW Classic! Now that leveling is over, you can learn more about level 60 gameplay by reading our DPS Warlock Guide, which covers every facet of gameplay at 60 in detail.
The best individual pages to read through are as follows.
- The DPS Warlock Talent builds guide has the best builds for Level 60 covered. We propose builds for all specializations, with a focus on hybrid Destruction/Demo and Destruction/Destruction builds for PvE.
- Our PvP Warlock guide is where you can find PvP builds for all 3 specializations, as well as various tricks and tips for PvP combat.
- Goldmaking Guide for warlocks is a page with details on where / how to farm gold quickly as a Warlock when you are Level 60.
- The DPS Warlock Rotation guide is where you can read on how to optimize your PvE damage and how to prioritize your abilities.
- DPS Warlock Stats guide contains detailed information on all Warlock stats, including a list of their priority for damage dealing.
- Our Gear guide for DPS Warlocks lists all the optimal pieces of gear that you will want to farm at Level 60, in order to optimize your damage.
Changelog
- 18 Nov. 2024: Page updated for Classic Anniversary.
- 29 Sep. 2019: Guide added.
Classic Dungeon Guides
Classic Profession Guides
Classic Race Guides
Classic Class Overviews
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This guide has been written by Abide, TBC veteran for nearly a decade. Abide is a Warrior tank and multi-class expert currently playing on Faerlina as Horde. You can find him in the the Icy Veins Discord. You can also see him live on Twitch.
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