Warlock Guide for Midnight - Patch 12.0.1

Warlock Guide for Midnight Quick Summary:

• Warlocks have good survivability, high DPS output, and good utility for raids. They suffer from a lack of damage immunity and long damage ramp-ups.
• Best races for Warlocks are Dwarves, Blood or Void Elves, Taurens & Orcs.
• Warlocks benefit the most from the following stats: Intellect, Haste, Crit Chance, Mastery, and Versatility. Anything after Intellect has approximately the same priority.
• The best Warlock professions are Alchemy, Tailoring, or Enchanting.
• Consumables that you should always carry with you are Flask of the Shattered Sun, Light’s Potential, Royal Roast, and Thalassian Phoenix Oil.

Warlocks require lots of gold to get their BiS gear, and that’s what our WoW Midnight Gold services are for. Get your BiS gear today.

Warlock Changes in WoW Midnight

Warlock is one of many classes that were reworked, and the Destruction Warlock has seen the most changes out of all three specs. Some abilities were removed, some were added, and Warlock plays a little differently now. Below, I’m listing all the added and removed abilities for each of the specializations, as well as some changes to existing talents and abilities. Let’s start the list of Warlock changes in Midnight with Destruction Warlock.

Destruction Warlock

• Alythess’s Ire: New talent that, upon Rain of Fire cast, grants a 20% chance to let you cast the same spell for free next time.
• Chaotic Inferno: Chaos Bolt damage increases by 5% and grants a 25% chance to make the next Incinerate instant.
• Destructive Rapidity: Increases the speed of damage ticks of Rain of Fire by 25% and Infernal’s Immolation by 10%.
• Embers of Nihilam: Three new Apex talents that have absolutely the same name. I’m not gonna list everything they do. Instead, hover your cursor over these spell names and check yourself. Embers of Nihilam, Embers of Nihilam, Embers of Nihilam.
• Improved Havoc: The ability now lasts longer and grants a bonus 10% damage dealt to Havoc victims.
• Lake of Fire: A Cataclysm upgrade. Cataclysm leaves a pool of fire that deals fire damage to enemies within for 10 seconds. Immolate also deals increased damage to enemies inside the pool.
• Practiced Chaos: Mastery increases by 2%
• Xorothian Research: Intellect increases by 2%
• Burn To Ashes, Decimation, Devastation, Dimension Ripper, Eradication, Indiscriminate Flames, Master Ritualist, Power Overwhelming, Pyrogenics, Ritual of Ruin, Rolling Havoc: Removed.

Additionally, Destruction Warlock has their spells and talents redesigned

• Roaring Blaze: Transfers Immolate on up to 3 targets upon Conflagrate cast.
• Shadowburn: You can use it only below 20% HP. No cooldown, and the shards' cost is reduced to 1.
• Blistering Atrophy: Shadowburn now strikes with a 100% crit chance.
• Dimensional Rift: Now a passive. Shadowburn and Chaos Bolt have a chance to summon a dimensional rift.
• Soul Fire: Is now a choice node in Dimensional Rift.
• Avatar of Destruction: Now has a chance to spawn Overfiend instead of the portal, which is now summoned by Dimensional Rift. Also spawns an Overfiend upon Soul Fire cast.
• Conflagration of Chaos: Shadowburn can now be cast regardless of the target’s HP and has a guaranteed crit strike. Scales with Crit chance.

Whew, and that’s about it for changes in Destruction Warlock. Lots of stuff, huh? Other specs have not been redesigned as drastically (yet), so let’s go over them.

Demonology Warlock

• Antoran Armaments: Increases Demonic Tyrant’s armor by 10%. Summoned Tyrant assaults enemies with melee attacks now.
• Blighted Maw: Coats fangs of Dreadstalkers, causing them to deal additional 50% damage dealt by Dreadbite as Plague damage.
• Diabolic Oculi: Passive that summons Diabolic Oculus each time the duration of Diabolic Ritual is reduced by your spell. Up to 3.
• Dominant Hand: Hand of Gul’dan deals 20% more damage to the main target.
• Empowered Felstorm: Felguard’s Felstorm damage is increased by 20% and lasts longer by 4 sec.
• Eternal Hunger: Manifested Avarice lasts 5 seconds longer, and Soul Swipe does 10% more damage.
• Fel Armaments: Felguard’s Felstorm cd is reduced by 10 seconds, and the damage your primary demon receives is reduced by 10%.
• Imp Gang Boss: One of your Wild Imps, summoned by Hand of Gul’dan, is empowered, which increases the damage he deals by 100%.
• Infernal Rapidity: Wild Imps have a 10% chance to cast another Fel Firebolt at 200% effectiveness.
• Looks That Kill: Diabolic Oculi cast Diabolic Gaze at your primary demon’s target every 1 sec when active.
• Manifested Avarice: Grants a stacking chance to unleash the Demonic Soul upon a succulent soul consumed. Demonic Soul attacks your enemies for 9 seconds.
• Mind's Eyes: Each Diabolic Oculi increases your intellect by 2% for 10 seconds.
• Reign of Tyranny: Demonic Tyrant stays up 5 seconds longer, and your Dreadstalkers remain for 15 seconds longer.
• Shared Vessel: Mastery is increased by 2% and by 4% when a demon is helping you in combat.
• Tyrant's Oblation: Your Tyrant empowers you, giving 8% haste boost.
• Bilescourge Bombers, Blood Invocation, Demonic Strength, Fel Invocation, Fel Sunder, Grimoire: Felguard, Immutable Hatred, Pact of the Ered'ruin, Reign of Tyranny, Shadow Invocation, Soul Strike: Removed.

Affliction Warlock

• Cascading Calamity: Renewing the Unstable Affliction on the target grants a 5% Haste increase that lasts for 15 seconds.
• Dark Harvest: DoT damage that lasts 3 seconds and heals you for 50% of damage dealt.
• Eye Contract: Darkglare stays up 5 seconds longer.
• Malefic Grasp: During Darkglare, your Shadow Bolt becomes Malefic Grasp.
• Nether Plating: Darkglare’s armor is increased by 10%. Eye Beam jumps to 4 additional targets and deals 10% more damage.
• Nocturnal Yield: A bunch of cool effects that I’d describe here for too long. Hover over the name of the spell.
• Shadow of Nathreza: Another one of the Apex talents. Three of them, to be precise. I’ll do the same thing as with Destruction Warlock. Shadow of Nathreza, Shadow of Nathreza, Shadow of Nathreza.
• Shared Agony: The damage dealt by Agony is increased by 10%, and it now hits another enemy within 15 yards of the target.
• Shard Instability: Lets you cast Unstable Affliction for free and instantly if you follow certain conditions.
• Sow the Seeds: Seed of Corruption embeds demon seeds into 2 nearby enemies at 50% effectiveness.
• Malefic Rapture, Oblivion, Phantom Singularity, Shadow Embrace, Soul Rot, Vile Taint: Removed.

And that’s everything that changed for all the specs in Warlock. Surprisingly, it took me a long time to list them all. Let’s go to the meat of the article and actually talk about Warlock rather than a raw changes listing.

Warlock Pros & Cons

Warlock is a pretty forgiving class that does huge damage, traditionally leading in DPS Tier lists. It also has a good degree of survivability. It’s not that hard to learn how to play, so you might even take him as your first character.

And with all that said, Warlock is still THE DPS. In the whole history of WoW, he has never been weak or out of meta. This class, especially Demo Lock, is insanely powerful and is always a welcome guest in any PvE content. If you are afraid of being touched by nerfs, you shouldn’t worry. Warlock is the developers’ love child, so they won’t be harassing him for too long. If they even decide to nerf him in the first place.

How to Play Warlock in Midnight

With Warlock, it is quintessential to track your Soul Shards. It’s the number one rule you need to remember if you want to deal good DPS. Always track your Soul Shards and spend them. They cap at 5 shards, and overcapping them results in lost damage. Each and every specialization follows this rule. Overall, Warlocks don’t have any complex routes and combos to follow in order to deal decent damage. Even though Affliction Lock requires tedious DoT maintenance that feels like you’re working in Excel, the core gameplay is still easy to follow. Let me give a couple of pieces of advice for each spec. Here’s how to play Warlock in Midnight:

• Demonology Warlock: Demonmaxxing is the ultimate way to maintain high damage and survivability. Always have your Tyrant, Imps, Dreadstalkers, and whatnot on the battlefield for serious damage and reap the benefits of all the buffs your demons give you.
• Affliction Warlock: Playing Affliction is a balancing act. You always need to time your Soul Shards to Summon Darkglare and maintain Unstable Affliction. Shard Instability should help you with that, as it allows you to cast Unstable Affliction for free.
• Destruction Warlock: This spec’s Soul Shards work differently than with the two previous specs. Your Shards are split into 10 shard fragments. It’s as important to manage your cooldowns, but you have better control over them thanks to this feature. Your positioning is also a key to dealing high DPS.

These specs are ranked on their ability to do big damage, so Demo is the strongest and Destruction is the weakest in Midnight. Demo Warlock has almost no downsides thanks to his summons, while Destruction is really weak when dealing with single targets. Destruction is best utilized as an add clearer, as he does great AoE damage and basically specializes in that. Affliction is a middle ground between the two, but requires good resource management, which can be boring or annoying for a lot of players. If you’re a first-time player, you should try Demonology Warlock.

Best Warlock Races in WoW Midnight

Contrary to other classes, there are no benefits in playing any particular race as a Warlock. All races, whether they’re Horde or Alliance, work equally well and don’t provide any benefits that work better for Warlock, as Warlock already has lots of utility that can substitute most racials.

• If you are playing as an Alliance, I’d recommend picking Dwarf, as their Stoneform racial is always nice to have, due to Warlock not having any damage immunities.
• If you are a Horde player, consider Orc or Tauren. Orcs have access to Blood Fury, which raises your Intellect stat for 15 seconds, and Taurens have access to Brawn, which increases your crit damage and healing by 2%.

Otherwise, any race you pick will work fine. Other inclusions I’d highlight are Blood Elves for their Consume Magic, or Void Elves for Entropic Embrace. Honestly, not having a single race that really improves your gameplay is good, because you can play whoever you like instead of min-maxing every little thing.

Warlock Stat Priority WoW

All Warlocks want to prioritize the same five stats, but to a different degree. The stats are Intellect, crit, haste, mastery, and versatility. What’s more important is that the stat priority doesn’t change even with Hero Talent choice, which makes the gear picking very straightforward, without the need to consider what you will chase much later into the game. Now, let’s go over the Warlock stat priority. 

Starting with Demonology Warlock:

1. Intellect
2. Haste/Crit Strike
3. Mastery
4. Versatility

Despite ranking stats in this order, I’d say that Demo Lock favors all stats pretty equally. Haste or Crit strike have a bit higher importance, but overall, you should always consider item level as the most important stat, if you can call it that. Intellect is your primary stat, which increases spell power, damage, and healing. Haste and crit strike work pretty interchangeably. Max Mastery if you feel that your demons don’t do enough damage for your liking, and Versatility if you feel that you take too much damage.

Moving on to Affliction Warlock:

1. Intellect
2. Mastery/Crit Strike
3. Haste
4. Versatility

Affliction Warlock favors Mastery and Crit over other secondary stats, unlike Demo. Generally, I’d recommend simming your characters before identifying what stat to increase, as your stat priority may look completely different from the one presented here. While other stats work the same here, Mastery improves your DoT damage and other Affliction effects in percentages.

Finally, Destruction Warlock:

1. Intellect
2. Haste
3. Mastery/Crit
4. Versatility

The stats here are used in the same way as in the two previous specs. The Mastery secondary stat handles the additional spell damage, which is a set percentage. Haste is a little more important for Destruction Warlock as his cooldowns are faster and require more precise timings, and Haste makes them more forgiving.

Best Warlock Builds for Midnight

As always, our guides focus mainly on Raid content, and the builds I’ll provide will be centered around Raids as well. As Warlocks are always a staple DPS in Raids, you should focus on reaching endgame ASAP to reach the peak of your character. Playing and building Warlock is one of the most satisfying processes in the game, especially if you have a monkey brain like me and like seeing big numbers go up.

Best Soul Harvester Demonology Warlock Build

Alright, so your rotation will look like this. You build your Soul Shards with Shadow Bolt and Soul Strike, then you spend them on Hand of Gul’Dan when you have ~3-5 shards to start stacking Imps. You should keep your Call Dreadstalkers on cd. When your main burst comes up, summon demons with Grimoire: Felguard. Generally, summon as many demons as you can before dropping Demonic Tyrant to amplify your army and extend their existence. Use Demonic Strength inside the Tyrant window. Repeat the Soul Shard generation cycle from scratch. Pretty simple, ain’t it?

Best Soul Harvester Affliction Warlock Build

Hell yeah, the accountant sim spec. I imagine Affliction Locks as bank workers who come home from work and decide that calculating at work to reach maximum efficiency wasn’t enough. In order to play this spec well, you need to keep your DoTs active at all times. Spells that do this are Agony, Corruption, and Unstable Affliction. Then you use Malefic Rapture, as it’s your main spender and triggers burst damage thanks to the several active DoTs. Use Shadow Bolt or Malefic Grasp to generate Shards. Use Phantom Singularity or Vile Taint on cooldown to create more AoE pressure. Activate Soul Rot when you’re bursting with Rapture to increase the multi-target damage. The main difficulty is maintaining Dark Harvest and Soul Harvester effects with time windows where multiple dots are fully applied to let your Rapture hit at full power. As I mentioned before, the rotation isn’t hard. The timings are.

Best Diabolist Destruction Warlock Build

Destruction Warlock isn’t in the best place in Midnight, but it’s still a decent DPS. During your rotation, keep Immolate always active for Shard generation. Build with Incinerate and Conflagrate, and then spend shards on Chaos Bolt for single target or Rain of Fire for a heavy cleave. Destruction Lock’s single-target damage is subpar, so you will spend most of your time casting Rain of Fire. You want to refresh your Immolate only when it’s close to expiring to maximize your damage.

Warlock Best in Slot Gear in WoW Midnight

This section is under construction. As soon as I find out the BiS gear for Warlock, I’ll update this article. For now, please continue.

Best Warlock Professions

Professions aren’t what they were before, and now grant minimal use towards the spec’s performance. Nonetheless, you can consider Tailoring for crafting alternatives to BiS gear, Enchanting for gear enchanting to raise your stats, or Alchemy to craft useful raid consumables. WoW progresses more and more towards a “play as you like” approach, rather than “play what meta tells you”. This can be clearly seen in professions, where before they were really important and allowed to have the best gear and trade for a hefty coin. Now it’s just a useful thingy to have.

Best Consumables for Warlock

There are four consumables that work the best for Warlock. They mainly serve as stat increase, and though some of them provide healing, it’s more of a secondary benefit.

• Flask of the Shattered Sun: Increases your crit chance for 1 hour depending on the item’s level.
• Light’s Potential: Increases the primary stat for 30 seconds. Basically, pop before your damage window to maximize the DPS.
• Royal Roast: Spending 10 seconds while eating grants a Well Fed buff that increases your primary stat for 1 hour.
• Thalassian Phoenix Oil: Coats your weapon for 2 hours and grants increased Crit and Haste. Alternatively, try Algari Mana Oil, as it does the same thing.

Consumables are basically long-lasting buffs (for the most part), and they can be quite expensive on the Auction. Consider learning Alchemy to not go broke from using them.

Read our other Midnight guides:

• Gold Farming Guide
• Best Addons
• Haranir Allied Race Guide
• WoW Roadmap

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