Warlock PvP in WoW Forever: Demonology, SL/SL, Affliction and Destruction builds and rotations against every class

A Warlock wins not with one hit, but by preventing the enemy from reaching them or recovering. Apply Corruption, a bane and a curse; Fear removes the target from the fight for 20 seconds, while Death Coil instantly horrifies for 3 seconds and heals you for all damage dealt. While enemies flee, DoTs tick and drains restore your health.

Your demon is the other half of the class. A Felhunter removes enemy shields and blessings, dispels sheep and traps from you, and interrupts with Spell Lock. A Voidwalker supplies a shield; a Succubus controls with Seduction. Sacrifice a demon for a 2-hour bonus, or use Soul Link so it takes 30% of your incoming damage.

Your weaknesses are mobility and armor. You have no Charge or Blink, wear cloth, and Fear has only a base 20-yard range while Mages and Hunters attack from 30-41. Everything you apply except curses is magic, removable by Priests, Paladins or an enemy Felhunter. You use mana, restored by converting health through Life Tap, and Soul Shards needed to summon demons and create stones.

Warlocks have three approaches. Demonology with Soul Link and SL/SL (Soul Link plus Siphon Life) offers the most durable builds for duels, world PvP and battlegrounds. Affliction brings DoTs, Nightfall and Exhaustion, pressuring multiple targets. Destruction delivers Fire and Shadow burst from Seduction. Below, each role has advice for battlegrounds, world PvP and duels.

Since October 15, Grim Reach replaces Malediction and increases Affliction range by 10/20%. Shadow Mastery grants 2/4/6/8/10% damage, while Destructive Reach grants 10/20% Destruction range. Since October 8, your current demon is stunned while you summon another: do not count on its control or interrupt during the summon. Firing a wand requires standing still for 0.5 seconds.

Classic Warlocks had three PvP paths. SM/Ruin 30/0/21 combined DoTs, Nightfall and Exhaustion with Ruin for battlegrounds and world PvP. Soul Link required 31 points, so Demonology 20/31/0 focused on survival and base defense. Destruction 19/0/32 and Drakedog 7/7/37 relied on burst after Seduction. Duel guides recommended deep Destruction, while Icy Veins called SL/Nightfall one of the strongest dueling builds. Famous SL/SL, combining Soul Link and Siphon Life, belonged to TBC: in Classic it required 52 points.

Forever rebuilt the trees. Soul Link moved to the 21st point while retaining 30% damage sharing; Demonic Sacrifice to the 11th; Ruin to the 15th; Conflagrate to the 16th; and Curse of Exhaustion to the 16th with an immediate 30% slow. Fel Domination now requires 16 points but cools down in 5 minutes instead of 15. New capstones are Wrack for Affliction, Demonic Pact for Demonology and Incinerate for Destruction. Destruction gains Molten Skin, reducing all damage taken by 10%, while Master Demonologist offers 10% demon-specific bonuses.

The key hybrid change: almost any two major 11-21-point talents now fit together. SL/SL costs 42 points, Soul Link with Ruin 36, and Soul Link with Conflagrate 37. Demonic Pact lets you retain a sacrifice bonus alongside a living Soul Linked demon for the first time. Wrack with Soul Link, Pact with Siphon Life and Incinerate with Soul Link remain impossible: each pair needs 52 points.

Ratings from before October 15: at the beta's level 30 cap, Mobalytics puts Warlock in S alongside Hunter and calls Soul Link Demonology exceptional. Supatease rates Demonology A and Destruction B; RankedBoost rates Affliction and Destruction A, Demonology B. Beta forums disagree: some call Warlocks PvP monsters, others weak and rare. At 30, they have little spell power and lack Death Coil, Howl of Terror and Spell Lock. These ratings predate the latest patch and are not a current class comparison.

Tree	Classic	Forever
Demonology	Soul Link at the 31st point, Sacrifice at the 21st	Link at the 21st, Sacrifice at the 11th, Demonic Pact at the 31st; 10% Master Demonologist
Affliction	SM/Ruin 30/0/21; Exhaustion at 10% plus a talent	DoT critical strikes, 30% Exhaustion alongside a bane, Wrack at the 31st point
Destruction	Conflagrate at the 31st point; proc-based burst	Conflagrate at the 16th; Molten Skin -10%, Aftermath and Incinerate
Hybrids	SL/SL did not fit: 52 points	SL/SL costs 42 points; Link combines with Ruin or Conflagrate

Five races can be Warlocks in Forever: Human and Gnome for Alliance, Orc, Undead and Troll for Horde. Troll is new; Skyborne cannot be Warlocks. Crowd-control removal matters most in PvP, as does an Orc's ability to clear your curses with one button. This section includes October 15 racial changes.

Race	What it offers a PvP Warlock	Who it suits
Orc	Hardiness shortens stuns by 20%. Savage gives +1% critical strike chance regardless of weapon. Blood Fury is available every 3 minutes. Shatter Curse removes curses and banes and reduces magic damage taken by 5% for 8 seconds, without granting immunity.	Burst and mirrors against Alliance Warlocks
Undead	Will of the Forsaken removes fear, sleep and charm. Touch of the Grave has a 30% proc chance and a 25-second internal cooldown. The racial cannot remove Scatter Shot.	Fear escape against Warlocks and Priests
Troll	Berserking gives +10% casting speed for 10 seconds off the global cooldown. Rapid Regeneration restores 50% health over 6 seconds if you are not taking hits. Passive regeneration is increased by 20%.	New in Forever; burst
Human	Will to Survive removes stuns; Perception helps detect stealth. Ruthless gives +2% critical strike chance with any weapon.	Against Rogues and Warriors
Gnome	Escape Artist instantly removes roots and slows and grants 3 seconds of immunity. Eureka! lasts 8 seconds without charges and also works with Power Word: Shield.	Against kiting and roots

Forever demons scale with your stats. Since October 8, your current demon is stunned while you summon a replacement, so it cannot act during the summon. Fel Domination has a 5-minute cooldown and speeds up your next summon by 6 seconds; with Master Summoner it becomes almost instant, giving a second demon in each serious fight.

Demonic Sacrifice is reversed in Forever: Imp gives +15% Shadow damage, Succubus +15% Fire damage, Voidwalker restores 2% mana every 4 seconds, and Felhunter restores 3% health every 4 seconds. The bonus lasts 2 hours and cannot be dispelled, but disappears if you summon any demon. Demonology's capstone Demonic Pact preserves it if you summon a different demon from the one sacrificed.

Master Demonologist provides 10% while your demon lives: Imp +10% Fire damage, Voidwalker -10% physical damage taken, Succubus +10% Shadow damage, Felhunter -10% magic damage taken. Soul Link redirects 30% of incoming damage to your demon and increases both your damage by 3%. Link is magic and apparently is dispelled from the demon rather than you, though this is not yet tested in game.

Demon	Main PvP value	Against whom
Felhunter	Spell Lock: 3-second silence and 8-second school lockout, 30-second cooldown or 24 talented. Devour Magic removes an enemy buff or control from you every 8 seconds	Casters, healers, battlegrounds
Voidwalker	Sacrifice: a 1943-damage shield for 30 seconds; while it holds, damage cannot push back your casts	Rogues and Warriors
Succubus	Seduction: 15 seconds, or 19.5 talented. Any damage breaks it; humanoids only	Destruction burst, single targets
Imp	Free to summon; Blood Pact for the party. Its main role is a +15% Shadow sacrifice	DS/Ruin and Demonic Pact

• Forever gives each Warlock two debuff slots per target: a bane and a curse. Bane of Agony can coexist with Exhaustion, Tongues, Weakness or Elements. One Warlock cannot maintain two curses on the same target.
• Curse of Exhaustion is the 16th Affliction point: an immediate 30% movement slow for 12 seconds, without a separate improvement talent. Off-global Amplify Curse makes your next Exhaustion stronger.
• Curse of Tongues increases enemy cast times by 60% for 30 seconds. It is your main curse against casters and healers: Priests, Paladins and Shamans cannot remove curses at all.
• In Forever, Curse of Recklessness no longer increases attack power; it only reduces armor, but also makes the target immune to fear. Do not use it on someone you plan to fear.
• Mages, Druids, Orcs using Shatter Curse and Restorative Potion remove curses and banes. Bane of Doom does not work on players.
• Soul Shards pay for demons except the Imp, stones, Shadowburn and Soul Fire. Shadowburn refunds a shard if the target dies within 8 seconds, including honorable kills. After a battleground death, demon summons cost shards again, so carry reserves.
• Spellstone and Firestone are weapon enchants in Forever: +2% haste or critical strike chance and some spell power. Spellstone no longer provides Classic's 900-damage shield and magic dispel.

Below are level 60 Warlock abilities grouped by purpose. The level indicates when a trainer teaches the ability or the earliest talent point at which it is available. A quick-reference table follows.

• Affliction. Off-global Amplify and Bane of Agony → instant Corruption → Siphon Life → Exhaustion or Tongues → Fear → Shadow Bolt only with Nightfall's Shadow Trance proc.
• Kiting melee. Exhaustion, DoTs and Fear. If they reach you, Death Coil followed by full-duration Fear: Coil has no diminishing returns. With two enemies close, use Howl of Terror.
• Against casters. Felhunter, Spell Lock on healing, sheep or Fear, and Tongues throughout the fight.
• SL/SL under burst. Sacrifice → Domination → new Voidwalker → Link and a second Sacrifice.
• Destruction. Seduction → Curse of the Elements → Soul Fire → Immolate → Conflagrate → Shadowburn. Damage ends Seduction, so begin Soul Fire while it is active.
• Control chain. Coil for 3 seconds → full Fear → half-duration Seduction → Spell Lock, which has no diminishing returns.
• Finishing. Coil and Shadowburn are both instant and often remove the final third of a health bar together.

Repeated control of the same type on one target lasts less time: in Classic, 100%, then 50%, 25% and immunity, resetting after roughly 15-20 seconds. Forever's categories come from client 1.60.1 data. The key point: Fear, Howl of Terror and Seduction share a category, while Death Coil and Spell Lock's silence have no diminishing returns.

Effect	Diminishing returns	Shared with
Fear, Howl of Terror, Seduction	Fear	Psychic Scream, Intimidating Shout, Scare Beast
Banish	Incapacitate	Polymorph, Sap, Freezing Trap, Repentance
Pyroclasm's Fire Shift	Random stuns	Impact, Blackout, Improved Concussive Shot
Death Coil, Spell Lock silence, Curse of Exhaustion, Aftermath	None	-

Below are six level 60 builds: Demonic Pact, SL/SL, Affliction with Wrack, two Destruction variants and a Demonology tank. Each includes an in-game-style talent tree, explanations for every talent and a leveling order. The number in an icon's upper-left corner is the level at which you take its first point.

There is currently one published level 60 Forever Warlock PvP build: RankedBoost's Destruction 0/13/38. The others are our conclusions from talent trees, Classic equivalents and beta testing. Talents unlock at 10 and reset at your class trainer; dual specialization arrives at 40. We will update builds if talents change before the November 4 release.

Three numbers such as 20/0/31 show talent points in the three trees, from left to right: Affliction, Demonology, Destruction. They are not character levels.

Before a duel, prepare Demon Armor, Soul Link with the appropriate demon, a Voidwalker against melee or Felhunter against casters, a Healthstone and an available Fel Domination. Against Shadow damage, maintain Shadow Ward and use it on cooldown.

Start with the appropriate curse, Tongues on casters or Exhaustion on melee, then bane, instant Corruption and Siphon Life if talented. Fear after the enemy's anti-fear is removed or spent. Follow with Drain Life and Shadow Bolt on Shadow Trance. At half health, Sacrifice; use Healthstone after the shield ends. When your demon dies, Domination, resummon and Link. Save Death Coil as a finisher or emergency heal.

Most Warlock cooldowns return quickly between duels: Coil in 2 minutes, Domination in 5, Howl in 40 seconds. Shards run out instead; Forever Open even allowed Warlocks to leave the dueling area once to replenish them.

In battlegrounds, Warlocks usually pressure and control rather than carry flags. Put Tongues and Spell Lock on enemy healers; spread a bane and Corruption to nearby targets. DoTs prevent Rogue stealth and force healers to spend mana. Howl when enemies are close, and Fear anyone running toward your healer.

Destruction works through control: Seduction or an ally's control, Soul Fire during it, then Immolate, Conflagrate and Shadowburn. If an interrupt locks Shadow, use Fire; if Fire is locked, use Shadow. Give Healthstones to your team: Forever's Major stone heals for 1440. Soulstone the healer rather than yourself.

The beta has one battleground, Darkspear Islands: 15 versus 15 from level 30, with four bases and a central flag delivered to any controlled base. A tester called fear the map's strongest spell because enemies flee into shark-filled water. Position with land behind you and enemies toward the water before Fear or Howl; avoid standing at the shore yourself, since you can be feared too.

Warlocks make poor flag carriers: Classic players joked that a Warlock carries only when nobody else can. You are good at protecting a carrier or catching the enemy's: Fear pursuers, Howl around your carrier, Exhaustion and Coil the enemy carrier, and use Felhunter to remove shields and Freedom.

At bases, Howl fears up to five attackers; Rain of Fire and Hellfire can stun with Pyroclasm. Felhunter Paranoia and rank 1 Rain of Fire help reveal Rogues and Cats. When attacking, Seduce or Fear a lone defender, then capture.

Below is a level 60 plan against every class. Ratings are conclusions from Classic guides, Forever data and beta tier lists, not level 60 play experience. The main perspective is Demonology and SL/SL in duels and world PvP, with separate notes for battlegrounds and Destruction.

Class	Demonology and SL/SL	Battlegrounds	Destruction	Key point
Warlock	even	even	even	Bait Spell Lock; use Shadow Ward on cooldown
Warrior	easy	easy or even	even	Fear after Berserker Rage; Coil on Intercept
Paladin	easy or even	even	even	Spell Lock Holy, but not during Voice of Truth
Hunter	even	even or difficult	even	Stay in the dead zone; Felhunter removes traps
Rogue	even or difficult	even	difficult	Survive the opener; keep at least one DoT active
Mage	easy or even	even	even	Felhunter eats Fingers and Barrier; bait Counterspell
Shaman	even or difficult	even	even or difficult	Destroy Tremor before Fear; Enhancement is dangerous
Priest	even or difficult	even	even or difficult	Felhunter removes Fear Ward; Priests cannot remove Tongues
Druid	even	even	even	Shifting removes Exhaustion; Berserk breaks Fear

• Soulstone yourself. Before entering a gank-heavy zone, apply a Major Soulstone: resurrect with 2200 health and 2800 mana.
• Against stealth. Felhunter Paranoia, rank 1 Rain of Fire where a Rogue is approaching, and Voidwalker Torment.
• Escaping. Fear a pursuer and mount up; Coil a second enemy; Howl a group; use Exhaustion and Aftermath. You have no Charge or Blink, and cloth makes you easy to catch.
• Where Warlocks shine. Chokepoints such as Blackrock Mountain and Tarren Mill suit Howl and Rain of Fire into groups. Hunters and Mages kite you on open plains, so avoid initiating there alone.
• SL/SL returns. TBC's nearly unkillable Warlock meme did not exist in Classic. Beta forums predict SL/SL 2.0 will be very strong.
• Summons and cookies. Forever meeting stones do not summon players, so Warlocks are again asked to summon the group. Players still call Healthstones cookies.
• Reversed sacrifice. Forums debate the lore behind the new Demonic Sacrifice: why does an Imp grant Shadow while a Succubus grants Fire?
• Eye of Kilrogg scouting. Before a raid on Tarren Mill or Southshore, send the eye to count heads, and in Warsong Gulch use it to peek into the enemy flag room. The eye is fast but fragile, and there is a catch: creatures it pulls come straight for you once it dies.
• Inferno into a crowd. From level 50, Inferno drops a meteor that stuns every enemy in the area for 2 seconds, and the Infernal then fights for you for 5 minutes. When time runs out, you must bind it again with Subjugate Demon, or it breaks free and attacks everyone nearby, you included. It needs an Infernal Stone and has a 1-hour cooldown, so the joke cuts both ways.
• Fear them into mobs, not overboard. A feared enemy runs wherever and often lands in a camp of creatures, so fights near mob camps favour you. Fearing someone off a boat the way a Priest uses Mind Control is unreliable: Classic veterans say Fear kept players on deck, and on the beta a feared player simply got stuck on the Booty Bay boat.

Potions share a 2-minute cooldown; Healthstones and runes share a separate one. You make Healthstones yourself, and Forever's Major stone heals 1440. Limited Invulnerability Potion protects against physical attacks for 6 seconds, earning its Classic reputation as a Warlock favorite against Rogues and Warriors.

Before combat: Flask of Supreme Power for +150 spell damage for 2 hours, Greater Arcane Elixir or Elixir of Shadow Power, and Brilliant Wizard Oil on your weapon if not using a Spellstone. In mirrors, beware Ultra-Flash Shadow Reflector, which Engineers use to reflect Shadow spells.

Item	Effect	Note
Major Healthstone	1440 health	Make it yourself and distribute to the party
Major Soulstone	Resurrection with 2200 health and 2800 mana	On yourself in world PvP, on the healer in battlegrounds
Major Mana Potion	1350-2250 mana	A staple for long fights
Major Rejuvenation Potion	1440-1760 health and mana	Flag carrying and prolonged fights
Limited Invulnerability Potion	6 seconds of immunity to physical attacks	Against Rogues and Warriors
Free Action Potion	30 seconds of immunity to stuns and movement impairing effects	Use before contact against melee
Living Action Potion	Removes stuns and movement impairing effects and grants 5 seconds of immunity	Escape Kidney Shot
Restorative Potion	For 30 seconds, removes magic, curse, poison or disease effects	Sheep, Priest fear, enemy Tongues
Greater Shadow Protection Potion	Absorbs 1950-3250 Shadow damage	Against Warlocks and Shadow Priests
Greater Fire Protection Potion	Absorbs 1950-3250 Fire damage	Against Fire Mages and Destruction
Dark Rune	900-1500 mana at a cost of 600-1000 health	Shares its cooldown with Healthstones
Heavy Runecloth Bandage	2000 health over 8 seconds	While the enemy is feared without your DoTs active
Greater Insignia of the Horde, Greater Insignia of the Alliance	Removes movement impairing and loss-of-control effects; a 5-minute cooldown	Now also removes Rogue stuns

Warlock macros let you fear and interrupt focus targets without switching, control your demon with one button and use a Healthstone of any rank. Below are common Warlock PvP macros from Classic and Forever guides.

Commands and bracketed conditions use English; spell and item names must match your client's language exactly. These examples use the English client. Shift-click a spell from your spellbook into the macro window to insert its exact name. Alt defaults to self-cast, so these macros use only Shift and Ctrl.

Focus is a separately saved target: select an enemy and type /focus before using a focus macro. An @focus macro acts on that saved enemy without changing your current target.

Mouseover means the unit under your cursor, including its unit frame. Hover over the intended target before pressing an @mouseover macro.

• A bane and curse can coexist on one target; Curse of Shadow is absent.
• Soul Link is the 21st point, allowing SL/SL within 51 points. Demonology's capstone Demonic Pact preserves a sacrifice bonus alongside a living demon.
• Demonic Sacrifice is reversed: Imp grants Shadow, Succubus Fire; the bonus lasts 2 hours.
• Master Demonologist gives 10% bonuses: Felhunter reduces incoming magic damage, Voidwalker physical damage.
• Fel Domination has a 5-minute cooldown; your old demon is stunned while you summon a new one.
• DoTs can crit, Pandemic doubles their critical damage bonus, and Wrack is Affliction's new capstone.
• Molten Skin reduces all damage taken by 10%; Conflagrate is the 16th point; Aftermath always slows; Pyroclasm can also stun from Soul Fire.
• Shadowburn reaches 30 yards; base spell damage is roughly half of Classic Era's.
• Spellstone is now a weapon enchant without a shield; Major Healthstone heals 1440.
• Fear has a base 20-yard range, or 24 with 2/2 Grim Reach after October 15; Seduction shares its diminishing returns.
• Trolls can be Warlocks. PvP critical strikes are no longer reduced (October 8), and Greater Insignia removes all loss-of-control effects.

• Using Curse of Recklessness on a target you plan to fear: it grants fear immunity.
• Applying DoTs to a seduced target or sending your demon after a feared one: damage breaks control.
• Seduction immediately after your Fear or another Priest's Psychic Scream: the shared category halves its duration.
• Banishing a Druid in form or using Bane of Doom on a player: neither works.
• Draining beyond your spell's range: channels break. Base Drain Life range is 20 yards; Grim Reach extends it if talented.
• Treating Spellstone as a shield: in Forever it is a weapon enchant.
• Expecting Destructive Reach to extend Fear and curses: it affects Destruction, while Grim Reach extends Affliction.
• Saving Fel Domination as cautiously as in Classic: it has a 5-minute cooldown now.
• Tapping almost to zero health when a Rogue could be nearby.
• Treating Howl of Terror as instant: it casts in 2 seconds.