WoW SoD Warlock

The Warlock is a spellcasting class in World of Warcraft that specializes in dark magic and incantations. Warlocks deal damage with shadow spells and fire spells. They can summon demons to help them in battle. Warlocks have abilities to drain life and curse enemies. With Season of Discovery, warlocks can also tank dungeons and raids.

Learn more about the Warlock in Season of Discovery in our WoW SoD Warlock overview.

📂 WoW Classic

📅 Last updated on March 12, 2025.

WoW SoD Warlock Talent Calculator

We created a talent calculator for WoW Classic’s Season of Discovery. This talent calculator is up to date 1.15 and contains all the runes that you can currently select with the  Warlock. You can find our WoW SoD Build Calculator here.

All Runes for Warlocks in WoW SoD

Here you can find all the runes available to the  Warlock in the Season of Discovery:

Rune	Effect	Slot
Fire Specialization Phase 4	Chance to hit with Fire spells increased by 6%. Not cumulative with other ring runes.	Finger
Meditation Specialization Phase 5	Restores 5 mana per 5 sec. This effect is not cumulative with other ring runes.	Finger
Shadow Specialization Phase 4	Chance to hit with Shadow spells increased by 6%. Not cumulative with other ring runes.	Finger
Demonic Tactics Phase 1	Increases the melee and spell critical strike chance of you and your pet by 10%.	Chest
Lake of Fire Phase 1	Your Rain of Fire is no longer channeled, but gains a 8 sec cooldown.	Chest
Master Channeler Phase 1	Your Drain Life is no longer channeled, lasts 15 sec with a 15 sec cooldown, costs 100% more mana, and heals you for 50% more each time it deals damage.	Chest
Chaos Bolt Phase 1	Sends a bolt of chaotic fire at the enemy, dealing 841 to 1,066 Fire damage. Chaos Bolt always hits, cannot be resisted, and its knowledge causes all your Fire spells to pierce through absorption effects. Chaos Bolt gains a high chance to be resisted when used against monsters 4 or more levels above your level.	Hands
Haunt Phase 1	Unleash a ghostly soul on an enemy, dealing 404 to 475 damage, and increasing all Shadow damage over time you deal to that target by 40% for 15 sec. When the Haunt ends or is dispelled, you will be healed for all the damage it dealt to your target.	Hands
Metamorphosis Phase 1	Transform into a Demon, increasing Armor by 500%, reducing the chance you will be critically hit by 6%, increasing your threat by 77%, increasing mana gained from Life Tap by 100%, but reducing all damage you deal by 15%. Metamorphosis transforms the functionality of some abilities and grants new ones: Searing Pain: Now instant. Shadow Bolt: Becomes Shadow Cleave, a Shadow melee attack that hits up to 10 nearby enemies, but has a 6 sec cooldown. Fear: Replaced with Menace. Taunts the target to attack you, but has no effect if the target is already attacking you. Demon Charge Charge an enemy and stun it for 1 sec. Cannot be used in combat. Demonic Howl Forces all nearby enemies to focus attacks on you for 6 sec.	Hands
Shadow Bolt Volley Phase 1	Your Shadow Bolt now strikes up to 5 targets within a chain distance of 10 yards, but for 5% reduced damage.	Hands
Demonic Grace Phase 1	Surge with fel energy, increasing your pet's and your own dodge chance by 20%, and your chance to critically strike with all attacks by 20%. Lasts 6 sec.	Legs
Demonic Pact Phase 1	Your Fire and Shadow spells deal 10% more damage, and your pet's critical strikes apply the Demonic Pact effect to your party or raid members for 45 sec. Demonic Pact increases spell damage and healing by 10% of your spell damage or 30, whichever is higher. Does not work on Subjugated demons.	Legs
Everlasting Affliction Phase 1	Drain Life, Drain Soul, Shadowbolt, Shadow Cleave, Searing Pain, Incinerate, and Haunt refresh the duration of your Corruption on the target back to its maximum duration.	Legs
Grimoire of Synergy Phase 2	Recite from a dark tome, granting damage done by you or your summoned demon a 10% chance to increase the damage done by the other by 10% for 15 sec. Recitation lasts 30 min.	Waist
Invocation Phase 2	Refreshing Corruption, Immolate, Curse of Agony, Unstable Affliction, or Siphon Life when it has less than 6 seconds duration remaining will cause you to deal instant damage to the target equal to the spell's remaining periodic damage.	Waist
Shadow and Flame Phase 2	Your critical strikes with Fire and Shadow spells increase your Fire and Shadow damage done by 10% for 10 sec.	Waist
Dance of the Wicked Phase 2	You and your demon pet gain dodge chance equal to 100% of your spell critical strike chance each time you deal a critical strike to an enemy, and also both regain 2% of maximum mana.	Feet
Decimation Phase 4	Your Soul Fire spell no longer has a cooldown. Additionally, when your Shadow Bolt, Shadow Cleave, Incinerate, or Soul Fire hits a target that is at or below 35% health, the cast time of your Soul Fire spell is reduced by 40% for 10 sec. Soul Fires cast under the effect of Decimation cost no shard.	Feet
Demonic Knowledge Phase 2	Increases your spell damage and healing by a value equal to 3% of your Demon pet's total Stamina plus Intellect.	Feet
Shadowflame Phase 2	Burns the enemy for 279 Shadowflame damage and then an additional 515 Shadowflame damage over 15 sec. Shadowflame triggers and benefits from all effects that modify or interact with Immolate, or with Affliction, Destruction, Fire, or Shadow spells, but only one of Immolate or Shadowflame per Warlock can be active on any target. In addition, Shadowflame can trigger your Improved Shadow Bolt talent and causes it to have 26 additional charges.	Feet
Backdraft Phase 3	Your Conflagrate ability also grants 30% spellcasting haste for 15 sec and no longer consumes Immolate.	Head
Pandemic Phase 3	Periodic damage from your Corruption, Unstable Affliction, Curse of Agony, Immolate, Curse of Doom, and Siphon Life abilities can now be critical strikes.	Head
Vengeance Phase 3	When activated, this ability temporarily grants you a 30% increase to your maximum health for 20 sec. After the effect expires, the health is lost. Additionally, while in Metamorphosis, Vengeance causes your wings to slow your falling speed.	Head
Immolation Aura Phase 3	Burns nearby enemies for 32 damage every time an enemy makes a melee attack against you (no more than once per sec), reduces all magic damage taken by 10%, and increases Fire damage done by 10%. Lasts until cancelled.	Wrist
Incinerate Phase 1	Burn your enemy for 358 to 416 damage and increase all Fire damage you deal by 40% for the next 15 sec.	Wrist
Summon Felguard Phase 3	Summons a Felguard under the command of the Warlock. The Felguard benefits from all talents and effects that trigger from or benefit any of your other Demon minions.	Wrist
Unstable Affliction Phase 3	Shadow energy slowly destroys the target, causing 2,339 damage over 18 sec. In addition, if the Unstable Affliction is dispelled it will cause 885 damage to the dispeller and silence them for 5 sec. Only one Unstable Affliction or Immolate per Warlock can be active on any one target.	Wrist
Infernal Armor Phase 4	Your spirit becomes infused with demonic energy, reducing all Magic damage you take by a percentage equal to your Physical damage reduction from armor. Lasts 10 sec.	Back
Mark of Chaos Phase 4	All your Curses except Curse of Shadow and Curse of the Elements now apply the Mark of Chaos, reducing the target's Arcane, Fire, Frost, Nature, and Shadow resistances by ((56 + 19 75) 27) and increasing all spell damage taken from those schools by (((56 - 8) * 0.125 + 4 10) 4)% while they remain cursed.	Back
Soul Siphon Phase 1	Causes your Drain Soul to to deal damage 3 times faster and increases the amount drained by your Drain Life and Drain Soul spells by an additional 6% for each of your Warlock Shadow effects afflicting the target, up to a maximum of 18% additional effect. When Drain Soul is cast on a target below 20% health, it instead gains 50% per effect, up to a maximum of 150%. In addition, your Drain Soul can now trigger your Nightfall talent.	Back
Dagger Specialization Phase 4	Skill with Daggers increased by 5. This effect is not cumulative with racial bonuses or other ring runes.	Finger
Defense Specialization Phase 4	Defense skill increased by 25. Not cumulative with other ring runes.	Finger
Pole Weapon Specialization Phase 4	Skill with Staves and Polearms increased by 5. This effect is not cumulative with racial bonuses or other ring runes.	Finger
Sword Specialization Phase 4	Skill with Swords and Two-Handed Swords increased by 5. This effect is not cumulative with racial bonuses or other ring runes.	Finger

You can find more details about the runes and locations in our WoW SoD Warlock Runes Guide.

Best Race for Warlocks in WoW Classic

The best race for a  Warlock depends on whether you are playing on the Alliance or horde side:

Warlock Builds in WoW SoD

In the Season of Discovery, the runes and new game content will change the meta and its builds in WoW Classic. Below are  Warlock builds designed for the current phase of Season of Discovery.

Warlock Macros in WoW Classic

You can write very useful macros for a  Warlock in WoW Classic to improve your gameplay. Find the most important macros in our guide “WoW Classic Warlock Macros“. You’ll learn how to write macros yourself by reading through the examples, too.

Warlocks in Fresh & Era

To learn more about  Warlocks for Blizzard’s Anniversary servers from 2024 or Era servers from 2019, use our WoW Classic Warlock guide.

All WoW SoD Class Guides

You can find all class guides for Season of Discovery here:

WoW SoD Druid Overview

WoW SoD Hunter Overview

WoW SoD Mage Overview

WoW SoD Paladin Overview

WoW SoD Priest Overview

WoW SoD Rogue Overview

WoW SoD Shaman Overview

WoW SoD Warlock Overview

WoW SoD Warrior Overview