Warlock

The warlock is a caster who bargains with demons: it binds them as servants, curses its enemies, drains their life and burns them with shadow and fire. In Classic (patch 1.12) warlocks were strong damage dealers in raids, frightening opponents in PvP, and the people every group needed to summon its missing members to a dungeon door. They also earn two famous demonic horses through class quests.

Role and identity

A warlock fights from range with damage over time and direct spells. Corruption and Curse of Agony wear an enemy down, Immolate burns it, and Shadow Bolt is its main nuke. The warlock trades health for mana with Life Tap and steals health back with Drain Life, so it rarely needs to stop and drink.

The other half of the class is its demons. A warlock keeps one demon at a time: the Imp, which throws fireballs, the Voidwalker, which tanks, the Succubus, which seduces enemies, and the Felhunter, which eats magic and silences casters. Several warlock spells use soul shards, which the warlock collects by finishing enemies with Drain Soul. With them it makes healthstones for its group, soulstones that let a player return to life, and summons its stronger demons.

Races

Warlocks in Classic could be humans or gnomes on the Alliance, and orcs or undead on the Horde. Orcs' Command racial raised their demons' damage, gnomes' Expansive Mind raised intellect, and the undead's Will of the Forsaken broke fear, which mattered in warlock-against-warlock fights.

Talent trees

Warlocks earn 51 talent points by level 60. They can be planned with our talent calculator.

• Affliction improves curses, drains and damage over time. It has Siphon Life, Amplify Curse, Curse of Exhaustion and Dark Pact.
• Demonology improves demons and the warlock's own armor and health. It has Fel Domination, Demonic Sacrifice, which sacrifices the demon for a strong buff, and its 31-point talent is Soul Link, which shares damage taken with the demon.
• Destruction improves Shadow Bolt and fire spells. It has Shadowburn and the Ruin talent, which doubles critical strike damage, and its 31-point talent is Conflagrate.

The Soul Link and Siphon Life build, known as "SL/SL", made warlocks extremely hard to kill in PvP.

Leveling

Warlocks level smoothly. Most use Affliction, putting Corruption, Curse of Agony and Immolate on an enemy while the Voidwalker holds it, and finishing with a wand. Life Tap and Drain Life cut downtime to almost nothing, and with Fear and the Voidwalker they can take on two or three monsters at once. Soul shards take up bag space, so most warlocks carry a soul bag such as the Small Soul Pouch from their level 20 quest.

Key spells by level

Class quests

Warlocks have more class quests than any other class, because each demon is earned through one.

• Demons. The Imp comes from a quest at level 1 or 4, such as Beginnings. The Voidwalker comes at level 10 from quests ending in The Binding, the Succubus at 20 from The Binding and similar chains, and the Felhunter at 30 from the Tome of the Cabal chain ending in The Binding.
• The Felsteed (level 40). Summon Felsteed teaches Summon Felsteed, the warlock's own riding mount.
• The Infernal (level 50). Kroshius, a demon in Felwood, must be summoned and defeated in Kroshius' Infernal Core, which teaches Inferno.
• The Doomguard (level 60). Suppression teaches Ritual of Doom, which calls a Doomguard at the risk of a ritual member's life.
• The Dreadsteed (level 60). The warlock's epic mount begins with Mor'zul Bloodbringer and his imp servant Gorzeeki Wildeyes in the Burning Steppes, who send the warlock after arcanite, stardust and three ritual items, a bell, a wheel and a candle, each from a different dungeon. The warlock then performs a ritual in Dire Maul, holding off waves of demons while the circle is maintained, and defeats Lord Hel'nurath and his Xorothian Dreadsteed to earn Summon Dreadsteed in Dreadsteed of Xoroth.

In raids

Warlocks were reliable damage dealers in Classic raids, mostly casting Shadow Bolt with the Destruction talents and putting curses on bosses. A raid assigned each warlock a curse: Curse of the Elements for mages, Curse of Shadow for other warlocks, Curse of Recklessness to stop a boss from fleeing in fear. They banished the elemental helpers of bosses such as Garr in Molten Core, soulstoned the healers before each fight, and handed out healthstones.

Their most practical job came before the raid started. Ritual of Summoning, with two other players to help, brings a raid member to the warlock from anywhere in the world. Raids gathered at dungeon entrances by summoning, and a warlock often spent the first half hour of every raid night pulling people across the map.

In PvP

Warlocks were among the strongest PvP classes in Classic. Fear and Howl of Terror take enemies out of the fight, Death Coil breaks a melee attack, and damage over time keeps hurting enemies while they run. The Felhunter's Spell Lock silences healers and its Devour Magic removes buffs, while the Succubus seduces a second enemy. In battlegrounds such as Alterac Valley and Warsong Gulch a well-geared SL/SL warlock could hold off several players at once.

Tier sets

See Tier Sets for how each set drops.

• Tier 0: Dreadmist Raiment, such as [Dreadmist Mask].
• Tier 1: Felheart Raiment from Molten Core, such as [Felheart Gloves].
• Tier 2: Nemesis Raiment from Blackwing Lair, such as [Nemesis Robes].
• Tier 3: Plagueheart Raiment from Naxxramas, such as [[forever:item:22504]].

Trivia

• In Naxxramas, warlocks could also assemble the legendary Atiesh through [[forever:quest:9271]].
• Gul'dan, who founded the first orcish warlocks for the Burning Legion, is the most notorious warlock of the lore.
• Every soul shard takes a full bag slot of its own, so warlocks carried soul bags that hold nothing but shards, and a warlock's bags were often half full of them.
• The Felsteed's flaming hooves made it one of the most recognizable mounts in Classic, years before most players had epic mounts.

Sources

• Warlock (Classic) on Warcraft Wiki
• Summon Dreadsteed on Warcraft Wiki