Leveling as Affliction

[Koehler]

Hello fellow Warlocks. I am a new player to the Warlock class and even newer to Vanilla. My research pointed out that Affliction is the best leveling spec in this version, thus I would like to ask for a couple of directions. I have a build that I currently use, but I'd like to listen what more experienced players have to say, in regards to what talents I should spend my points on!

-Aversity

[deadd0g]

I'm leveling a lock, currently 24. My knowledge is rusty, but off the top of my head, here are some sample talent trees:

31/20/0 - Dark Pact/Unholy Power
http://db.vanillagaming.org/?talent#IV0iAkboVo0xG0xx
Good sustain with imp lifetap/siphon life/dark pact and some boosts to your Voidwalker. I'd reccomend this or a variation.

20/31/0
Night Fall/Soul Link
http://db.vanillagaming.org/?talent#IV0iVobZbxuzgxot
Highest survivability, lower damage, faceroll PvP if it boils down to it - though only if you go 31 in demonology first for Soul Link. Probably the next best. Have a lot of choice in the Demonology tree to swap stuff out if you want to improve your succubus etc.

30/0/21 - Shadow Mastery/Ruin
http://db.vanillagaming.org/?talent#IV0iAkboVZZgx0tM0z
Actually pretty close to a classic raid spec. By far the least recommended, as you can't really abuse the power of the destruction tree with low spell crit while leveling.

There are other variations that would probably work fine - but I believe these to be the main 3 you'd level with.

[Juflex]

for leveling i prefer 31/20/0 - Dark Pact/Unholy Power with a Void

[Koehler]

I am aiming for Dark Pact/Void as well, unfortunately the spec needs a bit of change as right now, Improved Drain Life does not work.

[Numi]

Just got to 56 on my warlock, leveling as affi since 10, hope my input has any kind of value.

Here's what I've found to be the best leveling build by far at the moment.

http://www.wowprovider.com/?talent=1121 ... 503501005w

Why?

Void aggro is shit, especially 40+, solved by going demo after completing the affi tree, but you'll still have some problems


Dark Pact:
The limiter on how fast you can kill and how often is 99% of the time the voidwalkers mana, so by not taking dark pact and instead picking up the max mana it'll drastically reduce the amount of downtime you have while killing stuff.

Improved Drain Soul:
Imp Drain Soul is ~400 mana gain for me at 56 right now, so that's absolutely a must have talent, just keep deleting them shards! (And it is not bugged)

And as you've already noted, afflicition is by far the best specc for leveling right now, as you deal the most damage by using the least amount of mana in this specc, which helps your uptime.

[Koehler]

Just got to 56 on my warlock, leveling as affi since 10, hope my input has any kind of value.

Here's what I've found to be the best leveling build by far at the moment.

http://www.wowprovider.com/?talent=1121 ... 503501005w

Why?

Void aggro is shit, especially 40+, solved by going demo after completing the affi tree, but you'll still have some problems


Dark Pact:
The limiter on how fast you can kill and how often is 99% of the time the voidwalkers mana, so by not taking dark pact and instead picking up the max mana it'll drastically reduce the amount of downtime you have while killing stuff.

Improved Drain Soul:
Imp Drain Soul is ~400 mana gain for me at 56 right now, so that's absolutely a must have talent, just keep deleting them shards! (And it is not bugged)

And as you've already noted, afflicition is by far the best specc for leveling right now, as you deal the most damage by using the least amount of mana in this specc, which helps your uptime.

Thanks for your input. I was thinking of a similar spec for my warlock, but unfortunately IDL is bugged.

[Numi]

Just got to 56 on my warlock, leveling as affi since 10, hope my input has any kind of value.

Here's what I've found to be the best leveling build by far at the moment.

http://www.wowprovider.com/?talent=1121 ... 503501005w

Why?

Void aggro is shit, especially 40+, solved by going demo after completing the affi tree, but you'll still have some problems


Dark Pact:
The limiter on how fast you can kill and how often is 99% of the time the voidwalkers mana, so by not taking dark pact and instead picking up the max mana it'll drastically reduce the amount of downtime you have while killing stuff.

Improved Drain Soul:
Imp Drain Soul is ~400 mana gain for me at 56 right now, so that's absolutely a must have talent, just keep deleting them shards! (And it is not bugged)

And as you've already noted, afflicition is by far the best specc for leveling right now, as you deal the most damage by using the least amount of mana in this specc, which helps your uptime.

Thanks for your input. I was thinking of a similar spec for my warlock, but unfortunately IDL is bugged.

No it is not, working as I'm typing this.

[Koehler]

No it is not, working as I'm typing this.

Then I guess it was fixed meanwhile. Thanks for the info!

[Sunsi]

If IDL was ever broken, it was before mid march.



Some dumbass probably had 1 point in it, used a low level drain, and complained it was broken when it didn't buff the damage.

[eljumbo]

Thank you for your contribution Numi... by chance, can you, or someone else, post your rotation while levelling ?

I usually do :

CoA - Corruption - Immolate - Fear then dps with wand and cast SB with NF procs...

I found that quite efficient but a little bit manavore...

What about you ? what do you suggest ?

eljumbo