Building a Successful Leveling Warlock

Many people who play the Warlock in the beginning think that the
most successful way to level is to put your DOTS (Damage Over Time Spell) on the target then fear and shadow bolt to death. Not only is this dangerous, but it is also very mana consuming and you will experience more downtime than you would using a common drain-tanking build. That is what we will be focusing on in this guide.

Note about Drain Tanking:
Few realize that Drain-Tanking is
nearly useless before level 30, due to the weakness of the lower
versions of the Drain Life spell. So for the first 19 levels just use the method of placing your DOTS on the target and shadow bolting to death.

Talents:
1-9: Do your lowbie quests. Should take 2-3 hours.

10-14: 5/5 Improved Corruption
15: 1/5 Demonic Embrace
16-18:
3/3 Improved Imp (For the instances you should be running right now)

19: 2/5 Demonic Embrace
20-22: Improved VW
23-25: 5/5
Demonic Embrace
26: 1/1 Fel Domination
27-29: 3/5 Fel Stamina


Level 29 Spec
Using the method during this stage

10-29: Stack all your DoTs on a mob, send in the VW, stack all
your DoTs on a second mob, and then wand the second mob to death.
Repeat until low health, and then bandage/Consume Shadows. Each level should take about an hour, moving towards an hour and a half as you get closer to 30. If they are taking longer, figure out what the problem is (mobs too far apart, mobs have too much life, too much downtime) and move to an area that solves it.


Respec #1 (Level 30)
30: Respec to:
Affliction Tree
5/5
Improved Corruption
5/5 Improved Drain Life
2/2 Improved Life
Tap
5/5 Fel Concentration
2/2 Nightfall
2/2 Grim Reach

31: 1/1 Siphon life
32-34: 3/5 Suppression
35-39: 5/5
Shadow Mastery
40: 1/1 Dark Pact
41-45: 5/5 Demonic Embrace

46-49: 4/5 Fel Intellect

Using the method during this stage

30-49: Drain Tank: Load the mob up on DoTs, send in the Succubus,
cast Drain Life while the mob beats on you, rinse and repeat. At
40-49 keep using this method but instead of Life Tapping, use Dark Pact. A good rule of thumb is, DP only if your pet is over 50% mana, because if they run out it will slow your fighting time down. The easiest way to do this is to turn off all autocast abilities on your Succubus, and remember to DPing during the fight (rather than after) as a good time-saver because your DoTs will help keep up the DPS.


Respec #2 (Level 50)
50: Respec to:
Afliction Tree
5/5 Improved Corruption
2/2 Improved Lifetap
3/5 Improved Drain Life
5/5 Fel Concentration
2/2 Grim Reach
2/2 Nightfall

1/1 Amplify Curse


Demonology Tree
5/5 Demonic Embrace
3/3 Improved Imp
3/3 Improved VW
3/3 Improved Succubus
1/1 Fel Domination
2/2 Master Summoner
3/5 Unholy Power
1/1 Demonic Sacrifice

51: 1/1 Siphon Life
52: 1/1 Curse of Exaustion
53-55: 3/4 Improved Curse of Exaustion
56-60: 5/5 Shadow Mastery

Using the method during this stage

50-59: The Drain Tanking gets even better now. By Demonic
Sacrificing your pet, you are able to regen even more life per fight, keeping up with increasing monster damage, while still 'Tapping up to full mana whenever you want because of the passive regen.

60: You are now specced SM/DS, which is generally accepted to be
best grinding spec. Do whatever killing you need to do, grind
factions etc., and then respec to your high-level build of choice.

How to level:
Grind and quest at the same time. Either look
for multiple quests that involve killing the same mobs, or look for multiple quests in the same areas. The more quests you can get done before running back to turn in, the faster your leveling will go. Also, remember to set your hearth to new places frequently. Every time you plan to level in a new place for more than an hour, set your hearth there, as the time saved by teleporting back to the nearest down instead of running is incredible.

Equipment Choice:
During early levels it is best to focus on
+sta, and at around 35 or so to switch to +shadow or +dmg. If you are specced into affliction and are draintanking, +dmg will be vastly superior to +sta. You kill the mobs much faster for the same mana, and heal yourself that much faster.

Up until about level 40 you should stack +sta and 'of the
Eagle' gear. At 30, start looking for Shadoweave gear, and
around 40 switch into it. Full Shadoweave can be made by tailors, and will give a bonus of +114 shadow damage, along with some Int and Sta, and can be equipped at level 44.

In general, while using Dark Pact we stack as much +damage gear as possible, and while using Demonic Sacrifice, we stack as much +sta gear as possible, while keeping a minimum of +100 dmg.

We also go against using a staff, a good dagger/sword and an
offhand in my opinion is way better than a staff. Think about it,
with a staff you get some nice stats, occasionally an effect. With a dagger/sword and an offhand, you get stats on the weapon and sometimes an effect, AND on the offhand you can get ADDITIONAL stats AND another effect. Far superior.