WoW Forever turns the Warlock's Curse of Agony and Curse of Doom into Banes and gives each tree a new 31-point talent: Wrack, Demonic Pact and Incinerate. Trolls can now be Warlocks, one of the six new race and class combinations, alongside Orcs, Undead, Humans and Gnomes. Blizzard's Deep Dive detailed only the Paladin, so this guide reads the beta client (build 1.60.1.70205) and Blizzard's September 24 and October 1 beta notes.
Banes, and what every Warlock gets
- Bane of Agony (level 8) is Curse of Agony renamed, same spells: 72 Shadow damage over 24 sec at rank 1, 552 at rank 6 (level 58). Going by the tooltips, the one-Bane and one-Curse limits are separate, so a Bane and a Curse can share a target.
- Bane of Doom (level 60) replaces Curse of Doom the same way: 1,742 Shadow damage after 1 min, a 1-minute cooldown and a chance of a Doomguard if the target dies; not on players.
- Portal of Summoning (level 60) is new: a channeled ritual, done with 2 group members, whose portal summons a targeted party or raid member; 2-minute cooldown.
- Life Tap converts Health into as much Mana. Blizzard's September 24 notes fixed its tooltip, which now shows the right amount and says only that it scales with Spirit.
- Sacrifice, the Voidwalker's shield, now scales correctly with 10% of your spell healing, the notes add.
- The October 1 notes let Hellfire land critical hits, make Drain Soul stop when you start casting another spell, and bring back the pets' Aggressive mode, under the pet tab of the spellbook.
A known issue in this build: Banes and Curses don't track properly after you drop and re-acquire a target.
Affliction: Wrack and stronger drains
- Malediction (5 points in the tree, 5 ranks): 5% more periodic damage from your Warlock spells.
- Soul Harvest (5 points in the tree, 2 ranks): Killing a non-trivial target afflicted by your Drain Soul increases your Mana regeneration by 100% for 10 sec and allows 100% of normal Mana regeneration to continue while casting. It was called Soul Harvesting until the level 30 build, whose notes say it now correctly grants its 50/100% increase to Mana regeneration.
- Improved Drains (5 points in the tree, 3 ranks): Drain Life, Drain Soul and Wrack deal or drain 20% more.
- Pandemic (10 points in the tree, 3 ranks): Corruption, Bane of Agony, Bane of Doom, Drain Soul, Drain Life, Siphon Life and Wrack get a 100% larger critical strike bonus.
- Malevolence (15 points in the tree, 5 ranks): 5% more critical effect chance for your Shadow spells.
- Soul Siphon (20 points in the tree, 3 ranks): Drain Life, Drain Soul and Wrack deal or drain 12% more per other Affliction effect on the target, up to 36%. Improved Drain Life, renamed (same spell).
- Wrack (30 points in the tree, 1 rank): 36 Shadow damage every 1 sec for 6 sec, and 10% more damage taken from your other Shadow damage over time effects. Requires Siphon Life; the drain talents, Nightfall and Fel Concentration apply to it.
Curse of Exhaustion is the 16-point talent (20 points in Classic Era). Improved Curse of Agony becomes Improved Bane of Agony (same spell, 2 ranks instead of 3).
Demonology: Demonic Pact and pets that hold threat
- Demonic Aegis (5 points in the tree, 2 ranks): Demon Skin and Demon Armor are 30% more effective.
- Fel Vitality (5 points in the tree, 3 ranks): 15% more maximum health and Mana for your demons, and 15% more maximum Mana for you. Fel Intellect, renamed (same spell), 3 ranks instead of 5.
- Demonic Energies (5 points in the tree, 2 ranks): You heal your pet for 15% of your spell damage, and it gets 100% of the Mana your Life Tap gives you.
- Decimation (15 points in the tree, 2 ranks): Soul Fire's cooldown is 90% shorter. Shadow Bolt and Searing Pain deal 6% more below 35% health and, for 10 sec, cut Soul Fire's cast time by 40% and its Soul Shard cost to zero.
- Demonic Brand (15 points in the tree, 3 ranks): Searing Pain generates 50% less threat and brands the target for 10 sec; your pet's next 6 attacks on it generate high threat and deal extra Fire or Shadow damage that grows with your level and spell damage. Read in the client's tables: our planner doesn't show it yet.
- Improved Felhunter (20 points in the tree, 3 ranks): Tainted Blood, Devour Magic and Paranoia are 30% stronger, and Spell Lock's cooldown is 6 sec shorter.
- Demonic Knowledge (20 points in the tree, 3 ranks): While a demon is out, you and it gain spell damage equal to up to 100% of your level.
- Demonic Pact (30 points in the tree, 1 rank): Summoning a different demon no longer cancels your 2-hour Demonic Sacrifice effect; resummoning the sacrificed one still does.
Fel Domination is the 16-point talent (10 points in Classic Era). Demonic Sacrifice and Master Summoner move up to 10 points, and Soul Link from the 31-point row to 20.
Destruction: Conflagrate at 16 points, Incinerate at 31
- Molten Skin (5 points in the tree, 5 ranks): Reduces all damage taken by 10%.
- Agonizing Flames (15 points in the tree, 3 ranks): Searing Pain gains 10% critical strike chance and Destruction spells 10% damage. Improved Searing Pain, renamed (same spell), 3 ranks instead of 5.
- Bane of Havoc (20 points in the tree, 1 rank): For 5 min, the target also takes 15% of the damage you deal to other targets; one target at a time, and it takes your Bane slot.
- Fire and Brimstone (20 points in the tree, 3 ranks): 25% more critical strike chance for Conflagrate, which it requires.
- Shadow and Flame (25 points in the tree, 5 ranks): Conflagrate hits raise your Shadow damage and Shadowburn hits your Fire damage by 10% for 20 sec; Conflagrate also never consumes Immolate, and Shadowburn always refunds a Soul Shard.
- Incinerate (30 points in the tree, 1 rank): 90 to 104 Fire damage, 25% more on a target afflicted by Immolate; requires Bane of Havoc.
Conflagrate, the old 31-point talent, is now the 16-point one, with five more trainer ranks up to level 60 (251 to 313 Fire damage, 10-second cooldown). Ruin moves from 20 to 10 points with 5 ranks, and Shadowburn stays at 10. Bane, the top-row talent, is not a Bane: it shortens casts.
What leaves the trees
- Affliction: Dark Pact, the old 31-point talent, plus Improved Drain Soul, Improved Drain Mana, Improved Curse of Weakness, Improved Curse of Exhaustion and Grim Reach.
- Demonology: Improved Healthstone, Improved Firestone, Improved Spellstone, Improved Subjugate Demon and Fel Stamina; the stones themselves stay in the spell list.
- Destruction: Devastation, Improved Immolate, Emberstorm, Improved Firebolt and Improved Lash of Pain.
Build yours in our Warlock talent planner, check every rank in our Warlock spell list and read our talent guide on the 16-point milestone. Troll Warlocks are in our race and class combinations guide, and our racials guide covers Cannibalize, which Blizzard says now restores Mana for Undead Warlocks too.
