The Warlock talent tree in WoW Forever combines Affliction, Demonology, and Destruction into a single 52-node tree, and Trolls can now train as Warlocks for the first time. This guide reads the beta tree as of build 1.60.1.69893 and covers reasonable builds for leveling, group content, PvP, rotation, and race choice.
What changed for the class in Forever
The Warlock now trains from a single 52-node tree instead of three separate Affliction, Demonology, and Destruction trees, confirmed directly by the beta data. Blizzard's panel recap frames the class pass around new race and class combinations, and Troll Warlock is the concrete result here — a combination that did not exist before Forever. As of beta build 1.60.1.69893, Forever also lets periodic damage crit and unifies hit rating and critical strike rating from gear, which is a significant change for this class specifically: Affliction's entire kit is built around damage-over-time effects like talent #105924 (Improved Corruption) and talent #105923 (Malediction), which previously could not benefit from critical strike chance at all in Classic Era play. Blizzard has not published exact numbers for the change, so treat it as directional.
Talent tree overview
As of beta build 1.60.1.69893, the tree has 52 nodes across seven rows. The left column is Affliction, running through talent #105917 (Pandemic, 3 ranks) and talent #105912 (Siphon Life, 1 rank) up to the capstone talent #105909 (Wrack, 1 rank, requires Siphon Life). The middle column is Demonology, running through talent #105900 (Demonic Sacrifice, 1 rank) and talent #105892 (Soul Link, 1 rank) up to the capstone talent #105890 (Demonic Pact, 1 rank, requires Soul Link). The right column is Destruction, running through talent #105883 (Ruin, 5 ranks) and talent #105880 (Conflagrate, 1 rank) up to the capstone talent #105874 (Incinerate, 1 rank, requires Bane of Havoc).
| Column | Identity | Row-6 gate | Capstone (row 7) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Left | Affliction | Siphon Life | Wrack |
| Middle | Demonology | Soul Link | Demonic Pact |
| Right | Destruction | Bane of Havoc | Incinerate |
Leveling build
A reasonable leveling build as of beta build 1.60.1.69893 leans Affliction with a Demonology pet for survivability, since damage-over-time effects plus a tanky pet let a solo Warlock pull safely and multi-dot when needed. Improved Corruption (Improved Corruption, 5 ranks) speeds up your main damage-over-time application, Improved Imp (Improved Imp, 3 ranks) or Improved Voidwalker (Improved Voidwalker, 3 ranks) strengthens whichever pet you're leveling with, and Improved Life Tap (Improved Life Tap, 2 ranks) makes your self-Mana spell return more, which keeps you casting without needing to rest as often.
Dungeon and raid builds
An Affliction damage build for raids takes talent #105917 (Pandemic, 3 ranks) for bigger critical damage-over-time ticks, talent #105914 (Nightfall, 2 ranks) for a chance at an instant, free Shadow Bolt while your DoTs are active, and talent #105911 (Soul Siphon, 3 ranks) for damage scaling with how many of your own effects are already on the target, capped by talent #105909 (Wrack) for a strong finishing DoT that also amplifies your other Shadow effects on the same target.
A Destruction build for dungeons instead runs talent #105887 (Cataclysm, 3 ranks) and talent #105883 (Ruin, 5 ranks) for cheaper, harder-hitting direct spells, finishing at talent #105874 (Incinerate) for a Fire nuke that hits harder against an Immolate-afflicted target. The beta data does not indicate which build parses higher in current raid content, so this is a build choice rather than a proven ranking.
PvP build
Fel Concentration (Fel Concentration, 3 ranks) resists interrupts while channeling Drain Life or Drain Soul, which matters more against a player actively trying to stop your cast than against a boss. Soul Link (Soul Link, 1 rank) shares incoming damage with your demon pet, a strong defensive tool in a duel or open-world fight where you can't just re-summon safely. Amplify Curse (Amplify Curse, 1 rank) boosts your next Curse of Exhaustion for extra slow, useful for peeling a melee attacker off you, and Shadowburn (Shadowburn, 1 rank) provides burst finishing damage plus a Soul Shard refund if it secures a kill.
Rotation and priorities
Classic Warlock rotations, carried over from Classic Era, are built around keeping damage-over-time effects active while managing a pet: Affliction applies Corruption and its curse of choice, then fills with Shadow Bolt while waiting on cooldowns and DoT refreshes; Destruction opens with Immolate and follows with Conflagrate and Incinerate or Chaos Bolt-style nukes; Demonology leans on pet damage and buffs like Demonic Sacrifice or Soul Link depending on whether the pet stays summoned.
What Forever changes: with periodic damage now able to crit, Improved Corruption (Improved Corruption) and Wrack (Wrack) both benefit from critical strike gear in a way Classic Era Affliction never did, since a Classic Warlock had no reason to value spell crit on a DoT-heavy build. This pushes Affliction's stat priority meaningfully closer to Destruction's, which already valued crit through Ruin (Ruin) — a real shift from the Classic-era baseline where the two specs wanted different stats entirely.
Best races for the class
Troll Warlock is one of the six new race and class combinations Blizzard announced for Forever, and it is the headline change for this class: Trolls had no Warlock option before Forever. On the existing roster, Human and Gnome remain the class's original Alliance options, and Orc and Undead remain the original Horde options.
| Race | Faction | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Troll | Horde | New in Forever; first time Trolls can be Warlocks |
| Orc | Horde | Original Warlock race, carried over from Classic Era; Blood Fury adds a burst cooldown |
| Undead | Horde | Original Warlock race, carried over from Classic Era; Will of the Forsaken resists Fear, notable since Warlocks both cast and can be targeted by it |
| Human | Alliance | Original Warlock race, carried over from Classic Era |
Blizzard has not yet detailed Troll-specific racial adjustments for Warlock, so as of beta build 1.60.1.69893 the faction and class-identity change itself is the reason to consider it, not a proven racial edge.