šŸ˜ˆ Warlock Leveling: Destruction?

In the demo tree? Nah. Make a bee-line for Shadow Mastery unless youā€™re doing the VW strat. Then pick up improved VW and the drain life talents before going to SM.

Pulling 2 mobs allows you to avoid drinking and eating.

You can potentially pull up to 4 or even 5, but youā€™re going to be OOM at the end.

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Didnā€™t read the other posts in here but I didnā€™t like destruction much. When youā€™re levelling definitely get 5/5 in Suppression in the Affliction tree. Also get 3/3 in Improved Voidwalker cause the sacrifice gets buffed (good for times when you get ganked) and the taunt gets buffed too. Iā€™ve heard mixed things about drain life, I never got it.

Voidwalker, wait a little and let him taunt or just dot up right away

But really though suppression is sooooo good it let me kill skull players when I was levelling

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Agree about the blueb generally, but if you need it sac is teh awesome

Google Dives drain tanking guide. Donā€™t level specced as destro. You will burn through mana, and will be SOL if you pull more than one mob.

Destro is only viable for PvP at 60 with decent gear.

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Destro is also good for fights where thereā€™s not a lot of fire resist. It really shines in ZG, AQ, and Naxx. Just have to be careful about the high-threat attacks.

Destruction is viable but isnā€™t as good in the open world as the other two trees. The best way to level as destro is to run instances.

Set up your build for spell cleave groups and AoE your way through the dungeons. Iā€™d recommend Cataclysm and Aftermath first before putting anything in Suppression.

Destro is viable and faster than most of the other classes.

Your just going to have a bit of downtime compared to a dot/wand/VW lock or a drain tank lock.

Put 2 points into imp corruption and start grabbing shadow bolt stuff in destro. Use corruption, Throw out 1-2 sBolts and then wand. Still fairly fast and efficient, just not as much as the other builds.

If itā€™s what your into, I say go for it.

Thanks, everybody! So many options now. Some have said Destruction for PvP leveling, which sounds pretty interesting in its own right.

Thanks. Iā€™m going to avoid using the voidwalker while leveling. He doesnā€™t seem to be any good until the much later levels, sadly.

In the end, I donā€™t think Iā€™m going to bother going full Destruction, just deep enough for Ruin and then focus on improving shadow damage for Shadowbolt. Iā€™ll leave the fire casting to my mage. :slight_smile:

Saw the first bit mentioned already, which is tempting. Iā€™m aware that dungeon grinding is a thing, but Iā€™m unsure if I want to dedicate myself to something like a cleave group. Besides, it sounds fun to mess around with people in PvP while leveling, which warlocks are disgustingly great at. :smiling_imp:

Donā€™t bother with the VW. You have to wait till the 2nd taunt to start dps to have any chance of not pulling off it, and you most likely still will. Drain tanking is the most efficient. Dark pact is pretty good for leveling with the succ as other have mentioned, and itā€™s not because she has the most Mana, its because she has the highest auto attack damage. For WPvP it might be worthwhile to keep your felhunter out though instead. Full desto does alot of damage but youā€™ll be drinking after every mob.

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In the immortal words of our Savior Arnold Schwarzenegger: ā€œDonā€™t do it!ā€

Drain tanking guide my friend, google it.

Point of fact: SM/Ruin and DS/Ruin both do exactly that.

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Iā€™d go the other way, first go into Affliction and then go Destruction. Get Nightfall ASAP, then some Destruction, then Shadow Mastery, then Ruin. Something like this:

https://www.bobo-talents.com/?c=warlock&t=BSBTBUBVBWCGCHBNBOCyCzByBzBPBQCfCgBRCNCABABIBJBKBLBMBtBuBvBwBxB3CrCsCtCuCvCJCKBBBCCOCPCQCRCSB4B5BDBECc

Those Nightfall procs will be a huge boost to your DPS. The rotation will be Shadowbolt, Curse of Shadow while the Shadowbolt is in flight, Siphon Life, Corruption, Drain Life and refresh DOTs. Shadowbolt as Nightfall procs.

You can easily take on several targets like this. Succubus on one with Corruption, dot another up and fear it, drain tank another. Lifetap between pulls if you can to mana up and create a bit of room in your health for your Drain Life.

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Check the warlock discord for Dive tanking guide. Itā€™s awesome!

I really suggest and prefer the discord for class help over official forums. The documents produced and guides are useful.

discord.gg/p6Rgrft

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Thats how priests level and it isnt slow.

Cast corruption and wand. Later cast curse of shadow, corruption and wand. Your voidwalker is disposable, recast when its mana/hp is depleted.

Affliction is worthless in dungeons, nothing lives long enough. Affliction isnt usable in raids due to debuff slots. You can level with destruction if thats what you want to do.

As mentioned already, check out Drain Tanking guides.

Going affliction with DP and succubus is the fastest and most optimal way to level.

You can do other specs, or use VW out of personal preference, but youā€™re ultimately gimping your leveling speed.

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for leveling in the open world, or even in dungeons, you canā€™t really go wrong picking any combination of points to spend in aff and demo

do not spend points in destro until youā€™re 55-60, itā€™s incredibly bad

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I found the Voidwalker to be faster, which is probably down to my own play styleā€¦ but thereā€™s no way itā€™s significantly ā€œgimpedā€ compared to the succubus strat.

Either way is fine. You just donā€™t want to be relying on shadowbolt. It eats your mana like crazy.

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yeah the difference in speed between VW and succubus/imp really is small enough to be negligible, but shadowbolt is so incredibly bad compared to wanding until late 40s that spending any points at all in destro is a waste of ten talent points before you get to anything worthwhile.

For leveling lock I place more value in keeping first-aid maxed out (alchemy a great choice too) than spec. Any spec you can kill stuff fast, fear juggle multiple mobs, and tank some damage.

Being able to heal up a bunch of life taps after you got a couple fears off @10% health, then finish those mobs @90% health/Mana is what makes a lock not see a lot of down time.

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