What do Rogues and newbies have in common? They both pick ‘locks. Honestly, I hate that joke, but if you’ve been playing WOW for any period of time, it’s almost certain that you’ve heard it before. While some may think that being a warlock is more of a “newbie” thing to do, that’s far from the truth. Warlocks have the highest survivability rate amongst the rest of the caster classes. Not to mention that your pet (demon) will aggro the enemy for you. And to top it off, the numerous amounts of spells and casts that’s available to a lock. So if you aren’t afraid of looking “newbish” for choosing a warlock, keep reading to learn how to level one up!
The first step into creating an epic warlock is choosing your race. Here are the available races plus their racial abilities:
Alliance:
Gnomes – Expansive Mind increases your intellect by 5% and Escape Artist allows you to escape any immobilization or speed reducing effect.
Humans – The Human Spirit increases Spirit by 3 and Every Man for Himself removes all movement impairing effects.
Horde:
Blood Elves – Arcane Torrent silences all enemies within an 8 yard radius for 2 seconds while restoring 6% of your Mana.
Orcs – Command increases your pet‘s damage by 5% and Blood Fury increases spell power by 3 plus your level x 2.
Undead – Will of the Forsaken removes any Charm, Fear or Sleep effect and Cannibalize will regenerate health every 2 seconds for 10 second. Remember that it only works on Humanoids or Undead corpses.
Now that you know all of the races that are available, let’s begin leveling!
As always start at your beginning zone. This will take you to level 5 or 6. After you’ve reached that level proceed to your adjacent leveling zone (i.e. from Northshire to Goldshire). This will take to you to level 10 and give you your first talent point!
When it comes to talent speccing, a lock has 3 choices: Affliction, Demonology and Destruction. Affliction is for those that want to increase the damage to their Damage Over Time (DoT) spells; Demonology is for anyone that wants to improve their pet’s damage and abilities, plus it also gives the caster nice buffs as well. And finally Destruction is for anyone that wants to use lots of big hits and big crits. I wouldn’t actually recommend Destruction for soloing, in my opinon its better to be used in a group.
Here’s where you can place your first set of talent points (levels 10-20):
Affliction: Improved Curse of Agony, Suppression and Improved Corruption
Demonology: Improved Healthstone, Improved Imp, Demonic Embrace and Improved Health Funnel.
Destruction: Improved Shadow Bolt and Bane.
Be sure that before you reach level 20 that you do the dungeon the Deadmines and Wailing Caverns. Both dungeons have some great gear for any caster class.
After you reach level 20, here are some places that you can quest for levels 20-30:
If you’re playing as part of the Alliance, you can begin questing in Redridge Mountains, Duskwood or the Wetlands. If you’re playing as part of the Horde, you can begin questing in the Barrens, Stonetalon Mountains and Ashenvale. You can also start questing in Thousand Needles at level 25, but it will take you all the way to level 35.
Dungeons that you can run at these levels are Shadowfang Keep, Blackfathom Deeps, Gnomeregan and Razorfen Kraul.
Here’s where you can place your talent points for levels 20-30:
Affliction: Improved Curse of Weakness, Improved Drain Soul, Improved Life Tap,Soul Siphon and Improved Fear
Demonology: Demonic Brutality, Fel Vitality, Improved Succubus and Soul Link.
Destruction: Aftermath, Cataclysm and Ruin.
Now that you’re at level 30, all of the zones from here on out are contested. That means that you’ll run into both factions. Here are some places you can quest for levels 30-40 depending on which continent you prefer.
If you want to quest in the Eastern Kingdoms, head over to Alterac Mountains, Arathi Highlands and Stranglethorn Vale (STV). Keep in mind that STV will take you to level 45, so you might want to quest here last. You can also start questing in the Badlands and Swamp of Sorrows once you reach level 35. However, Swamp of Sorrows isn’t recommended for the Alliance due to the lack of quests there.
If you want to quest in Kalimdor, you can finish questing in Thousand Needles (if you began questing there) and/or you can start questing in Desolace and move on to Dustwallow Marsh once you hit level 35. Dustwallow Marsh will take you all the way to level 45.
The dungeons for these levels (30-40) include Razorfen Fowns and Scarlet Monastery. While you can run Uldaman at level 39, I wouldn’t recommend it if you’re in a pickup group. And though the list of dungeons might seem short, Scarlet Monastery is a 4 part dungeon that can only be accessed once you reach certain levels.
Here’s where you can place your talent points for levels 30-40:
Affliction: Fel Concentration, Amplify Curse, Grim Reach and Nightfall.
Demonology: Fel Domination, Demonic Aegis and Unholy Power.
Destruction: Shadowburn, Demonic Power, Intensity, Destructive Reach and Improved Searing Pain.
Congrats on making it to level 40! Now that you’ve received you first epic mount and you’re halfway to having a level 80 lock, let’s keep going!
If you’ve been questing in the Eastern Kingdoms, finish questing in STV. If you started to quest in the Badlands/ Swamp of Sorrows finish questing there as well. You can also begin questing in the Hinterlands and the Searing Gorge for levels 40-50. You can start questing in the Blasted Lands at level 45 and it will take you to level 55.
If you’ve been questing in Kalimdor, you can finish up the quests in Dustwallow Marsh. Afterwards you can move on to Feralas, Tanaris and Azshara. One thing to note however is that Azshara will take you to level 55.
Instances (Dungeons) that you can run at these levels are Uldaman, Zul’Farrak, Maraudon and Sunken Temple.
Here are some suggestions for where to place your talent points (40-50):
Affliction: Empowered Corruption, Shadow Embrace, Siphon Life and Curse of Exhaustion.
Demonology: Master Summoner, Mana Feed, Master Conjuror and Master Demonologist.
Destruction: Backlash, Improved Immolate, Devastation and Nether Protection.
Only 10 more levels to go until you reach Outland! Keep going!
Here are some places to quest for level s 50-60:
If you want to keep questing in the Eastern Kingdoms and started questing in the Blasted Lands, finish the quests there and then proceed to the Burning Steppes, Western Plaguelands and the Eastern Plaguelands (in that order).
Dungeons of note at this level are Blackrock Depths, Blackrock Spire, Dire Maul, Scholomance and Stratholme (also known as Strat).
Here’s where you can place your talent points for levels 50-60 as well:
Afflicition: Shadow Mastery and Contagion.
Demonology: Demonic Resilience, Demonic Empowerment, Demonic Knowledge and Decimation.
Destruction: Emberstorm, Conflagrate and Soul Leech.
Congrations on now have a level 60 warlock! Now it’s time to head to Outland! Although Outland may seem confusing at first, here is the most popular order for quest zones to visit when you start to level in Outland. Start at Hellfire Peninsula and then work your way to Zangarmarsh, Terokkar Forest, Nagrand, Blade’s Edge Mountains, Netherstorm and Shadowmoon Valley.
The list of dungeons begins to get quite large starting at level 60. Here’s a list of just some of the dungeons you can do from levels 60-70: Hellfire Citadel, Caverns of Time: Old Hillsbrad Foothills and Coilfang Reservoir.
You can also place your talent points here:
Affliction: Dark Pact, Improved Howl of Terror, Malediction, Death’s Embrace and Unstable Afflicition.
Demonology: Demonic Tactics, Improved Demonic Tactics and Summon Felguard
Destruction: Pyroclasm, Improved Soul Leech (1 out of 2), Empowered Imp and Backdraft.
10 more levels to go and you’ll have a level 80 Warlock, and I bet you that you won’t hear any “newbie and Rogue” jokes! Now that you have finished questing n Outland, you can start the trek to Northrend. Here’s the most popular questing order: The Borean Tundra, Howling Fjord, Dragonblight, Grizzly Hills, Zul’Drak, Sholazar Basin, Crystalsong Forest, Storm Peaks, Icecrown and Wintergrasp.
The number of dungeons (not include the raids) for levels 70-80 are too many to list here. But here is a short list to get you started: Nexus, Gundrak, Icecrown Citadel and Ulduar.
Here are some suggested places to put the rest of your talent points:
Affliction: Pandemic, Everlasting Affliction, Haunt, Improved Healthstone, Demonic Embrace and Fel Vitality (1 out of 3; located in the Demonology talent tree).
Demonology: Nemesis, Demonic Pact, Metamorphosis and Improved Shadow Bolt.
Destruction: Shadowfury, Fire and Brimstone, Chaos Bolt, Improved Healthstone and Demonic Embrace (Improved Healtstone and Demonic Embrace are located in the Demonology talent tree).
