Warlock
Warlock — The Warlock preview uses Mana, demons, damage-over-time effects, and several abilities involving Soul Shards. Affliction, Demonology, and Destruction organize different interactions between those systems.[1]
Browse all 52 Warlock talents with icons, ranks, prerequisites, and individual source notes.
Choose a reading path
The following is an editorial route through the preview, not a recommended point allocation.[1]
| Talent tree | What to compare | Start with |
|---|---|---|
| Affliction | Persistent effects, drains, and effects that depend on what is already on the target. Distinguish the number of qualifying effects from raw spell damage. | Improved Drains, Pandemic, Soul Siphon, Drain Hope |
| Demonology | Demon-specific bonuses, summoning, and sacrifice interactions. Check which demon must be active or sacrificed for a particular effect. | Improved Sayaad, Demonic Sacrifice, Soul Link, Demonic Pact |
| Destruction | Direct Fire and Shadow spells and interactions involving Immolate or resources. Read the trigger and the resulting school bonus separately. | Conflagrate, Bane of Havoc, Shadow and Flame, Incinerate |
Abilities and changes worth checking
These are summarized from the pinned community demo transcription. Baseline spells and talents are identified separately where the source supports that distinction.[1]
- Banes and Curses. The preview export separates the two categories and records simultaneous use of one of each. It identifies Bane of Agony as the renamed former Curse of Agony.
- Subjugate Demon. The export records this as the renamed Enslave Demon. A renamed ability should not automatically be counted as an additional spell.
- Incubus. Recorded as a separately named summon alongside the Succubus; the Demonology references include the shared Sayaad terminology.
Plan a first beta session
These are suggested checks for learning the class and collecting useful evidence; they are not claims about the strongest build.
- For Affliction, count only the effects named by Improved Drains when comparing targets with different debuffs.
- For Demonology, record the sacrificed demon and the newly summoned demon separately before testing Demonic Pact.
- For Destruction, track whether Conflagrate consumes Immolate and whether Shadowburn returns a Soul Shard at the tested talent rank.
Race choice
Use the Warlock race list to separate officially announced additions from the broader preview roster. Follow the linked race guides for recorded racials; a racial tooltip does not establish a universal best choice.
What remains unresolved
Demon rankings, final shard acquisition and storage behavior, leveling efficiency, and a final damage-over-time priority list need separate tests. The existence of Soul Link does not by itself establish a supported tank role.
For corrections, record the game build, character level, spell or talent rank, and the observed interaction. Follow Project:Data policy and compare against Warlock talents before replacing preview information.
Sources
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Chris Baldwin, Talents Forever, CC BY 4.0 data export, snapshot 16 September 2026. Community transcription of BlizzCon demo footage and slides; checked 16 September 2026. Adapted and summarized for this guide. See Project:Talent data for evidence labels and attribution.