Demonology Warlock Leveling Guide from 1 to 80 — The War Within (Season 1)
On this page, you will find our Level by Level Demonology Warlock leveling guide for The War Within. 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.
Demonology Warlock Leveling Guide for The War Within
Demonology Warlock Leveling Playstyle
Demonology Warlock relies on Felguard to do the heavy lifting during leveling, being equally durable and powerful on its own. While it does not have many ways of tagging mobs, primarily using pets or Demonic Core Demonbolts, its strength lies in very high aoe burst potential and a low threat generating player spells in comparison to other specialisations.
Curses, crowd controls, and pet off-tanking can substantially reduce the amount of incoming damage, promoting aggressive play, while all the personal defensive cooldowns offer a degree of safety even when overpulling.
For bigger enemies, such as Elites or Rares, Demonology's damage profile is centered around several separate demons and guardians that allow us to use all cooldowns with the safety of a Felguard able to maintain aggro, although some Health Funnel may be required for the harder hitting enemies.
Gear Options
When leveling up, you should always choose the piece of loot with the highest item level. If the item levels are equal, you should choose the piece with stats that are most favorable to your specialization. If your current item is an Heirloom, it should not be replaced.
Level by Level Rotation and Talents
Move the slider below to make the guide update to your level!
Talents to Level Up as a Demonology Warlock
Below, you can see the suggested levelling talent build and the order in which to pick the talents while levelling.
Rotation to Level Up as an Demonology Warlock
Starting at Level 1, you only have one main attack ability: Shadow Bolt.
- Level 2 — Cast Corruption to tag and soften up multiple enemies whenever spamming a few shadowbolts will not kill them quicker.
- Level 45 — Cast Summon Demonic Tyrant with at least Call Dreadstalkers and 2 sets of Wild Imps to get the most out of its extension.
- Level 55 — Cast Summon Vilefiend on cooldown, making sure to extend every other cast with Tyrant.
- Level 31 — Use Power Siphon on cooldown when having at least 2 Wild Imps.
- Level 27 — Use Demonic Strength on cooldown.
- Level 13 — cast Call Dreadstalkers on cooldown, regardless of the number of targets.
- Level 1 — Hand of Gul'dan is the first shard spender, and the only one without cooldown. Cast it whenever you have no other spenders and you have 5 shards.
- Level 11 — Demonbolt is unlocked, use it whenever a Demonic Core proc happens.
- Level 21 — Implosion should be used whenever there are 3 or more targets stacked.
Demonology Warlock PvP Talents for Leveling
- Call Fel Lord can be useful mostly when engaging with other players in PvP, as it offers a moment of respite from melee that is focusing you.
- Call Felhunter offers an interrupt every 24 seconds, provided your active pet is not the Felhunter.
- Call Observer summons a demon that will zap any enemy casting harmful spells within 20 yards for 5% of their maximum health.
- Master Summoner is passable at best, considering we take Demonic Calling.
- Gateway Mastery should always be considered to expedite your whereabouts in a closed space where mounts are not usable.
- Bonds of Fel can offer further AoE burst when kiting targets around.
Pet Choice for Demonology Warlock Leveling
Summon Imp is your first available demon. This pet is not particularly useful for leveling, but you have no choice for the early levels.
If you are leveling alone, Summon Voidwalker can be a helpful choice while leveling up, as it takes a lot of the pressure off you. Avoiding casting pushback can also increase leveling speed.
Summon Felguard is the default choice for the vast majority of content, leveling included, as demonology, due to a combination of hard Crowd Control, Damage, Cleave, and tanking potential.
Summon Felhunter can be a good choice if you are leveling in a group or venturing into dungeons. The extra interrupt is helpful for dealing with troublesome caster mobs.
Congratulations!
Congratulations on reaching Level 80! Now that you have hit Level 80, we recommend looking at our Easy mode page and Talents section to learn how to play at max level.
Changelog
- 15 Dec. 2024: Updated for Patch 11.0.7.
- 21 Oct. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 11.0.5.
- 09 Sep. 2024: Reviewed for The War Within Season 1.
- 21 Aug. 2024: Added a leveling playstyle section.
- 23 Jul. 2024: Updated for The War Within pre-patch.
- 07 May 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.7.
- 22 Apr. 2024: Reviewed for Season 4.
- 19 Mar. 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.6.
- 15 Jan. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.5.
- 13 Nov. 2023: Updated talent tree.
- 06 Nov. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.
- 04 Sep. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.7
- 10 Jul. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.5.
- 01 May 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.
- 20 Mar. 2023: Updated talent tree for Patch 10.0.7.
- 24 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 25 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
More Warlock Guides
Guides from Other Classes
Raid Guides
This guide has been written by Motoko, Warlock main since The Burning Crusade, co-admin in the Warlock Discord, and theorycrafter and contributor for LockOneStopShop.
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