Warlocks, in general, are one of the best specializations in the game for leveling up efficiently and safely. As a warlock, you have access to Summon Voidwalker, a fundamental ability that allows you to call upon a powerful demon that acts as a personal tank, absorbing damage from most common enemies with ease. This creature is tough enough to survive the majority of attacks from lesser foes, allowing you to focus on dealing consistent damage. Leveling up in World of Warcraft: The War Within is now much faster and more dynamic than it was in the original WoW era. With the right specialization, a well-planned route, and an optimal setup of talents and abilities, you can turn a repetitive grind into a smooth progression experience all the way up to level 80 with great efficiency.

Best Specialization

The three Warlock specializations can level without major issues thanks to their varied offensive and defensive abilities, but Affliction clearly stands out from the rest due to its exceptional capability to quickly melt large groups of enemies. This is accomplished through powerful spells that inflict damage over time and highly efficient area-of-effect attacks, allowing you to eliminate multiple targets simultaneously and significantly speed up your progression. For all these reasons, Affliction is easily considered an S-tier specialization for leveling. However, if you're more comfortable leveling as Destruction or Demonology, both specializations remain excellent alternatives, providing a fun and highly effective experience all the way to reaching your goal.

Best Talents

As you level up, you'll unlock talent points that can be allocated both in the Warlock class tree and the specific Affliction specialization tree.

Hero Talents order

This hero talent tree, HellCaller, significantly enhances area pressure and notably increases the uptime of sustained damage, making it an ideal choice for tackling areas densely populated with numerous monsters simultaneously.

1.  Wither
2.  Blackened Soul
3.  Xalan's Cruelty
4.  Xalan's Ferocity
5.  Hatefury Rituals
6.  Aura of Enfeeblement
7.  Zevrim's Resilience
8.  Mark of Xavius
9.  Seeds of Their Demise
10.  Mark of Peroth'arn
11.  Malevolence

Stat Priority

- Haste: Faster cooldowns and smoother rotation

- Mastery: Boosts block chance and mitigation

- Crit: Bonus burst damage, but less reliable

- Mastery: Boosts block chance and mitigation

Rotation

Single Target Rotation

1. Apply Agony

2. Apply Corruption

3. Apply Unstable Affliction

4. Cast Haunt

5. Cast Vile Taint

6. Cast Soul Rot

7. Cast Summon Darkglare

8. Cast Malefic Rapture until you can't anymore

9. Cast Drain Soul.

AoE focused rotation

1. Gather up as many targets as you're comfortable applying Agony to, ensuring efficient multi-target setup.

2. Once Agony is applied to all targets, cast Seed of Corruption to simultaneously apply Corruption to everything in the group.

3. Follow up with Vile Taint, which also refreshes the duration of Agony on all affected enemies, maintaining uptime.

4. Cast as many Malefic Rapture spells as you can to capitalize on your DoTs and deal massive burst damage.

5. Always make sure to cast Drain Soul on dying targets, so you can gain free Soul Shards to cast even more Seed of Corruption for continuous area damage pressure.

The 3 Best Strategies for Leveling as a Warlock

Main Campaign and Side Quests

Start by progressing through the main storyline from levels 10 to 70, then continue with the War Within campaign. Completing War Within unlocks Adventure Mode, greatly benefiting the leveling of alternate characters. This path is mandatory for your first character and provides substantial experience. However, you'll need to supplement it by running dungeons, Delves, and additional side quests to efficiently and smoothly reach level 80.

Dungeons through Group Finder (LFG)

The Protection specialization is ideal for this method since, as a tank, you'll enjoy instant queues and swift, seamless dungeon runs. Currently, this strategy grants excellent XP per hour and consistently rewards you with valuable gear upgrades that will quickly strengthen your character.

Delves

Formerly a highly popular leveling choice, Delves have recently undergone adjustments that significantly reduced their XP efficiency. However, they remain a viable alternative if you prefer solo gameplay, want variety in your leveling experience, or simply wish to temporarily step away from group activities.

Tips

- Team up with a friend, preferably a DPS class, to speed up defeating enemies and minimize downtime.

- Turn Warmode on for an extra 10% XP bonus and PvP talents, particularly advantageous if your faction has dominance in the region.

- Make sure to consistently gather large groups of monsters to maximize your efficiency. Your summoned Voidwalker will easily tank large groups thanks to its robust innate defensive abilities, allowing you to pull more enemies simultaneously than virtually any other class in the game.

- Although you have Health Funnel available to heal your pet after a challenging pull, it's generally more effective to simply cast Fel Domination and summon a new pet at full health, rather than wasting valuable combat time healing the previous one.

- If you have a quest that takes you deep into a cave and you know you'll need to exit quickly afterward, consider placing a Demonic Circle near the entrance beforehand to escape instantly and save time. You can also apply this strategy using a Demonic Gateway to facilitate a quick exit for your group if you're leveling up with other players.