Warlock

Race choice after the 26 October changes

Blizzard's 26 October notes remove Savage and restore Command: 5% more Hunter/Warlock pet damage. This is not 5% more total character damage. It strengthens the case for Orc in pet-heavy builds; it does not by itself prove Orc beats Troll in every encounter. Wowhead's updated overview makes the same pet-versus-cast-time distinction. Troll casting speed is more relevant to repeated direct casts than to DoT ticks, and Beast Slaying is target-specific. Compare the intended build and target before choosing a numerical winner. Older race tables also miss Human Spirit at 10% and Ruthless at 1%; the official notes take precedence.

How Forever changed the Warlock

From Blizzard's Rogue and Warlock deep dive and the beta client:

• Banes and Curses. Bane of Agony and Bane of Doom are no longer Curses. Each Warlock can keep one Bane and one Curse on a target, so your damage over time no longer competes with the raid's Curse of the Elements, which now covers every magic school. Curse of Shadows is gone.
• Stones. Firestone (Fire damage and crit) and Spellstone (Shadow damage and spell haste) become weapon imbues that stack with Wizard Oil.
• Life Tap and Drain Soul. Life Tap scales with Spirit. Drain Soul has a rising chance to give a Soul Shard on each tick and always gives one when a mob dies during the channel.
• Pets. Demons scale from your stats. Stay is replaced by "Move To", which sends your demon to a spot up to 100 yards away (Icy Veins, Wowhead). Wowhead says demons take 50% less damage from boss AoE.
• Crits. Damage over time spells can now crit (Wowhead, Icy Veins), and talents such as Pandemic and Malevolence build on it.
• Spell power. Shadow Bolt rank 1 takes 0.486 of your spell power in the client, up from 0.14 in Classic, and Corruption and Immolate gained similarly (ForeverDB).
• Talent tree. Soul Link drops to the 21-point slot, Conflagrate to the 16-point slot, and Ruin becomes a 5-point row 3 talent that Blizzard says is meant to be easier for Demonology and hybrid builds to reach. Late changes on 16 October renamed Malediction to Grim Reach, now a range talent (ForeverDB).

Soul Shards

Icy Veins says Soul Shards now count as reagents, with a dedicated reagent bag slot for your shard bag. They still don't stack. Its guides list them for summoning demons (the Imp costs only mana), Healthstones, Soulstones, Ritual of Summoning and Shadowburn. Shadowburn refunds its shard if the target dies within 8 seconds, up from 5 in Classic. Decimation lets Soul Fire skip the shard for 10 seconds on low-health targets.

ForeverDB adds a caution: the client's tooltips don't list reagents, so which spells consume shards isn't confirmed from the files. It suggests keeping a few spare by finishing mobs with Drain Soul now and then. The WoWSims presets assume 32 shards, a full Felcloth Bag.

Demons

Demon abilities come from Grimoires sold by the Demon Trainer, which Icy Veins says makes Warlocks spend more gold than most classes. Summons take 10 seconds in the client, so summon between fights (ForeverDB). Demonic Sacrifice now lasts 2 hours: Imp gives 15% Shadow damage, Voidwalker restores 2% mana every 4 seconds, Succubus or Incubus gives 15% Fire damage and Felhunter restores 3% health every 4 seconds. Demonic Pact keeps that buff while a different demon is out.

Choosing a spec

Shared levelling advice: keep the Voidwalker out from 10 for solo play and bring the Imp to dungeons (ForeverDB). Life Tap for mana, Drain Life for health, and expect to eat more than you drink. Use Curse of Weakness solo against melee mobs and Curse of the Elements in groups. Tailoring and Enchanting are the usual professions, with First Aid for bandages after a Life Tap (Icy Veins, ForeverDB).

What the simulators assume at 60

WoWSims Forever ships five Warlock builds at 60: two Affliction (Shadow Bolt with Ruin, or Wrack), two Demonology (Fire or Shadow) and one Destruction. All of them mix trees, and all default to Curse of the Elements (presets). Read them as projections: the beta stopped at 30.

Where the guides disagree

• Spirit: Icy Veins calls it important now that Life Tap scales with it; Wowhead's Affliction overview says it does little beyond a slightly bigger Life Tap.
• Felsteed: Wowhead lists it as a trainer spell at 40; Icy Veins calls it a class quest at 40.
• Racials: Icy Veins' Warlock pages say Eureka! cuts mana costs by 50%, while Wowhead and ForeverDB say 10%. Icy Veins gives Touch of the Grave a 10% chance; Wowhead gives 30% with a 25 second cooldown. Shatter Curse's magic damage reduction is 15% in Icy Veins and 5% in Wowhead's tooltip.
• Pet scaling: Blizzard and Icy Veins say demons scale with your stats; ForeverDB notes the client doesn't show how much of your gear carries over, and the character sheet shows demon stats wrongly for now.

Levelling hybrids

• Affliction with a Demonology dip (40/11/0). Icy Veins spends levels 31–41 in Demonology to reach Demonic Sacrifice and recommends sacrificing a Felhunter for 3% health every 4 seconds, which it says almost removes eating. It then returns to Affliction for Wrack at 51.
• Demonology into Affliction (20/31/0). Icy Veins and Wowhead both take Demonic Pact at 40, then spend the last 20 points in Affliction for Suppression, instant Corruption, Improved Life Tap and stronger drains (Wowhead).
• Destruction with a little of both (6/11/34). Icy Veins reaches Incinerate at 40, adds Suppression at 41–44 and Demonic Sacrifice at 55, sacrificing a Succubus for Fire damage in dungeons or a Felhunter for healing solo.
• Borrowed pet talents. Wowhead's Affliction levelling build takes Unholy Power and Demonic Energies from Demonology before 20 (Wowhead). Its solo Destruction build spends 16 points in Destruction, then picks up Demonology's pet talents and Affliction's drain talents for sustain.
• Single-section builds to 30. ForeverDB's published levelling builds stay in one section. It points out that Improved Corruption only makes Corruption instant at 5/5, so only its Affliction build takes it (ForeverDB).

Level 60 hybrids (projections)

The beta stopped at 30, so these are theory. Splits read Affliction / Demonology / Destruction.

Wowhead explains the logic on its Affliction builds page: Shadow Bolt beats Wrack and Drain Life as a filler, so many of Affliction's best points are in Destruction. WoWSims' builds are in its builds folder.

PvP hybrids

From Wowhead's talent builds pages, which assume you are near the 4% PvP hit cap:

• SM/SL (Affliction): Shadow Mastery with Soul Link, Demonic Embrace and Fel Vitality to survive focus without much pet management.
• Demonic Pact with Affliction: deep Demonology plus drain talents for duels and world PvP, picking the demon that counters each class.
• SL/Conflagrate (Destruction): the old Soul Link and Conflagrate pairing, down Demonology to Soul Link and Destruction to Fire and Brimstone.
• Wowhead's overviews also name SL/SL (Siphon Life with Soul Link) as a strong pick for Affliction and Demonology.

The hybrid tax

Blizzard's developers said on the WoW: Forever Podcast that they aim for hybrid damage specs to deal about 5% less damage than the pure classes, and named Hunters, Mages, Rogues and Warlocks as pure (ForeverDB). It is a design target, not a number in the client. It is about classes with more than one role, so Warlocks set the bar rather than pay it. None of the sources mention a penalty for spreading a Warlock's points across sections.

Your demon

Send your demon in with its opener: Torment, Lash of Pain or Firebolt (ForeverDB):

#showtooltip
/petattack
/cast [pet:Voidwalker] Torment; [pet:Succubus/Incubus] Lash of Pain; [pet:Imp] Firebolt

Attack your mouseover or target; Shift calls the demon back and sets it to passive, Ctrl sets it to defensive (ForeverDB):

/petattack [nomod,@mouseover,harm,nodead][nomod]
/petfollow [mod:shift]
/petpassive [mod:shift]
/petdefensive [mod:ctrl]

Summon any demon by modifier, with Fel Domination first if you are in combat (ForeverDB):

#showtooltip
/cast [combat] Fel Domination
/cast [mod:shift] Summon Voidwalker; [mod:ctrl] Summon Succubus; [mod:alt] Summon Felhunter; Summon Imp

Consume Shadows out of combat with the Voidwalker out, otherwise Health Funnel (ForeverDB):

#showtooltip
/cast [nocombat,pet:Voidwalker] Consume Shadows; Health Funnel

Sacrifice the Voidwalker for a shield, then start Drain Life (ForeverDB):

#showtooltip Sacrifice
/cast [pet:Voidwalker] Sacrifice
/cast Drain Life

Demonic Sacrifice your demon, or summon the Imp (Voidwalker with Shift) if none is out (ForeverDB):

#showtooltip
/cast [pet] Demonic Sacrifice; [mod:shift] Summon Voidwalker; Summon Imp

Seduction on your focus, mouseover or target, from level 26 (ForeverDB):

#showtooltip Seduction
/cast [@focus,harm,nodead][@mouseover,harm,nodead][] Seduction

Felhunter Spell Lock on your mouseover or target, keeping the Felhunter passive and bringing it back afterwards; Spell Lock arrives at 36 (Kami Labs):

#showtooltip Spell Lock
/petpassive
/cast [@mouseover,exists,harm][harm,nodead][] Spell Lock
/petfollow

Devour Magic on a friend or enemy under your mouse, or your target (ForeverDB):

#showtooltip Devour Magic
/cast [@mouseover,help,nodead][@mouseover,harm,nodead][] Devour Magic

Fear, Banish and curses

Fear your focus, mouseover or target (ForeverDB):

#showtooltip Fear
/cast [@focus,harm,nodead][@mouseover,harm,nodead][] Fear

Banish your focus, mouseover or target, from level 28 (ForeverDB):

#showtooltip Banish
/cast [@focus,harm,nodead][@mouseover,harm,nodead][] Banish

Curse of Weakness, with Curse of Recklessness on Shift and Curse of the Elements on Ctrl, on your mouseover or target (ForeverDB):

#showtooltip
/cast [mod:shift,@mouseover,harm,nodead][mod:shift] Curse of Recklessness; [mod:ctrl,@mouseover,harm,nodead][mod:ctrl] Curse of the Elements; [@mouseover,harm,nodead][] Curse of Weakness

Bane of Agony, with Amplify Curse first when you hold Shift (ForeverDB):

#showtooltip Bane of Agony
/cast [mod:shift] Amplify Curse
/cast Bane of Agony

Bane of Agony, then Immolate on the next press; it resets on a new target or out of combat (ForeverDB):

#showtooltip
/castsequence reset=target/combat Bane of Agony, Immolate

Damage and Soul Shards

Send your demon in and cast Shadow Bolt in one press (Kami Labs):

#showtooltip Shadow Bolt
/petattack [harm,nodead]
/cast Shadow Bolt

Corruption on the enemy under your mouse without changing target (Kami Labs):

#showtooltip Corruption
/cast [@mouseover,exists,harm][] Corruption

Drop your current cast and Shadowburn at once (ForeverDB):

#showtooltip Shadowburn
/stopcasting
/cast Shadowburn

Rain of Fire where your mouse points (ForeverDB):

#showtooltip Rain of Fire
/cast [@cursor] Rain of Fire

Rank 1 Drain Soul, a cheap way to collect shards (ForeverDB):

#showtooltip Drain Soul
/cast Drain Soul(Rank 1)

Stones

Create a Healthstone, with Soulstone on Shift, Spellstone on Ctrl and Firestone on Alt (Kami Labs):

#showtooltip Create Healthstone
/cast [mod:shift] Create Soulstone; [mod:ctrl] Create Spellstone; [mod:alt] Create Firestone; Create Healthstone

Use your best Healthstone, or Drain Life with Shift (adapted from Kami Labs). The Healthstone lines are explicitly disabled while Shift is held, so the modifier does not also consume the stone:

#showtooltip
/use [nomod:shift] Major Healthstone
/use [nomod:shift] Greater Healthstone
/use [nomod:shift] Healthstone
/use [nomod:shift] Lesser Healthstone
/use [nomod:shift] Minor Healthstone
/cast [mod:shift] Drain Life

Put your best Soulstone on the friend under your mouse, or your target (Kami Labs):

#showtooltip
/use [@mouseover,help][] Major Soulstone
/use [@mouseover,help][] Greater Soulstone
/use [@mouseover,help][] Soulstone
/use [@mouseover,help][] Lesser Soulstone
/use [@mouseover,help][] Minor Soulstone

ForeverDB notes that in the client Healthstones share a 2 minute cooldown with Mage mana gems, and Soulstones share a 30 minute cooldown.

Where the sources differ

• Corruption in cast sequences: Kami Labs offers a levelling sequence of Immolate, Bane of Agony, Corruption and wand. ForeverDB deliberately leaves Corruption out of its sequence, because the client also has a sword named Corruption and /castsequence may try to use the item instead and get stuck. Test before relying on any sequence that names Corruption.
• Shard costs: Neither macro source confirms which spells consume Soul Shards in Forever; ForeverDB says the client's tooltips don't list reagents.
• Rank spelling: ForeverDB writes Drain Soul(Rank 1) with no space, as the spellbook pastes it; Wowhead's guide shows a space. Shift-click the spell into the macro window rather than typing it.