Introduction

This guide contains information on which talents to choose, which spell/ability rotation you should use, what heirloom gear you should (could) use and some general tips you should use while leveling your Warlock.

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Table of content:

1. Leveling Spec
2. Talents
3. Rotations
4. Tips
5. Stats
6. Heirloom Gear
7. Class Quests
8. Glyphs
9. Addons

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1. Leveling Spec

The best* leveling spec for a warlock is Affliction. This is because it's both mana efficient, and focuses on greatly improving the damage of your DoTs. It is only suggested to level 50 though, because thanks to the new pet Felguard and spell Metamorphosis, Demonology clearly becomes a better choice leveling wise, because lots of survivability will be needed on the later levels.

*to level 50

It isn't impossible to level as Destruction, but it simply isn't worth it neither.

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2. Talents

UNTIL LEVEL 50

========//======== >RESPEC< ========//========

 1/49/21

Affliction
10 - 14: Improved Corruption - 5/5
15 - 16: Improved Life Tap - 2/2
17 - 18: Soul Siphon - 2/2
19 - 20: Improved Drain Soul - 2/2
21 - 23: Fel Concentration - 3/3
24 - 24: Improved Curse of Agony (Only 1)- 1/2
25 - 27: Suppression - 3/3
28 - 29: Nightfall - 2/2
30 - 30: Siphon Life - 1/1
31 - 31: Improved Curse of Agony - 2/2
32 - 34: Empowered Corruption - 3/3
35 - 39: Shadow Mastery - 5/5
40 - 40: Dark Pact - 1/1
41 - 45: Contagion - 5/5
46 - 47: Improved Howl of Terror - 2/2
48 - 49: Malediction (Only 2) - 2/3
TALENT BUILD UNTIL 49: 40/0/0

AT LEVEL 50, RESPEC:

Demonology
10 - 12: Demonic Embrace - 3/3
13 - 14: Fel Synergy - 2/2
15 - 16: Improved Health Funnel - 2/2
17 - 19: Demonic Brutality - 3/3
20 - 22: Fel Vitality - 3/3
23 - 23: Soul Link - 1/1
24 - 24: Fel Domination - 1/1
25 - 27: Demonic Aegis - 3/3
28 - 32: Unholy Power - 5/5
33 - 34: Master Summoner - 2/2
35 - 39: Master Demonologist - 5/5
40 - 41: Molten Core 2/3 (OR whatever else! Even Affliction/Destruction)
42 - 42: Demonic Empowerment - 1/1
43 - 45: Demonic Resilience - 3/3
46 - 48: Demonic Knowledge - 3/3
49 - 50: Demonic Tactics - 2/5
51 - 51: Summon Felguard - 1/1
TALENT BUILD UNTIL 51: 0/41/0

=//=At this point, your Felguard becomes your new pet to level 80!=//=

Demonology
52 - 53: Improved Healthstone - 2/2
54 - 55: Master Conjuror - 2/2
56 - 58: Demonic Tactics - 5/5

Affliction
59 - 59: Suppression - 1/3


Destruction
60 - 64: Improved Shadow Bolt - 5/5
65 - 69: Bane - 5/5
70 - 72: Cataclysm - 3/3
73 - 77: Ruin - 5/5
78 - 79: Destructive Reach - 2/2
80 - 80: Devastation - 1/1
FINAL TALENT BUILD: 1/49/21

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3. Rotations

Always take the weapon with the best stats

1 - 9:

- Keep Demon Skin up.
- Get your Imp no later than level 4.
- Until you get Immolate and Corruption, spam Shadow Bolt.

Rotation: Immolate, send in Imp while casting Corruption, Shadow Bolt or Wand to death. At level 8, start rotation with Curse of Agony.

10 - 19:

- Keep Demon Skin Up.
- Use your Voidwalker.
- Use Drain Soul when you need Soul Shards.
- Wait 3 seconds after your Voidwalker begins attacking a mob to start the rotation.
- Life Tap when needed.
- Drain Life when needed.

Rotation: Send in Voidwalker. Curse of Agony, Corruption, Immolate, Life Tap (optional), Drain Life (if needed), Drain Soul.

20 - 29:

- Replace Demon Skin with Demon Armor.
- Use Any pet you feel good with.
- Life Tap and Drain Life when needed.

Rotation: Immolate and send in Pet, Corruption, Curse of Agony, Drain Soul.

30 - 39

- Get your free mount!
- Continue using Any pet you like.
- Drain Life, Life Tap when needed.
- If you feel Imp has more DPS, go ahead and use him.

Rotation: Same as above.

40 - 49

- Use either Voidwalker or Felhunter, your own preference.
- Everything else, same as above.
- Use Shadow Bolt if Nightfall procs.
- For Voidwalkers, have them attack right away.
- For Felhunters, send them in after Immolate.

Rotation: Immolate, Corruption, Siphon Life, Curse of Agony, Shadow Bolt (if Nightfall procs), Drain Soul, Dark Pact.

50 - 80

- At 62, switch to using Fel Armor instead.
- From 50+, your rotation will be extremely messy, but you will basically just cast all your dots on your target.
- I use a Felguard through these last 30 levels, due to it's ridiculous survivability and thus being able to tank.

My rotation these last few levels was (definitely not the best): Immolate > Curse of Agony > Corruption > Drain Life > Drain Soul.

You should probably by now understand what DoTs are and that they are your main damage dealing abilities. So any rotation you feel good with is fine.

==//== NOTE - This build is for leveling, not raids/dungeons. Consider respeccing! ==//==

Anyhow, if you choose to go with it, the Affliction DPS rotation for 80 instances is: Haunt, Curse of Agony, Corruption, Unstable Affliction, Siphon Life, Shadow Bolt.

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4. Tips

Instances
- Make sure you start with around 10 Soul Shards.
- Give a Soul Stone to one of the healers.
- I could rant on with a ton of stuff, but I'm just going to say, read this.

Solo
- Carry 5 - 7 Soul Shards with you at all times and be sure to delete excess stones. There are plenty of helpful addons that do this automatically for you.
- Don't waste a bag slot on a Soul Bag: You won't ever have enough SS's to make it worth it.
- Just heal yourself with Drain Life when you need to heal.
- First aid bandages are often underestimated, but highly useful.
- Like previously mentioned in the rotations, keep one of the following up: Demon Skin/ Demon Armor/ Fel Armor
- Use Life Tap when low on mana. Note: watch not to overdo it! You don't want to end up dying just so that you can have a full mana bar.

Professions
- The best options money wise are Skinning/Mining (Herblorism isn't bad neither).
- If you want to make your own gear,Tailoring is the way to go. Usually people get Enchanting to go with Tailoring, as the gear that you create with Tailoring can be disenchanted resulting in Enchanting skill level and materials. They are also both independent, meaning that neither of them need materials from a gathering profession (but can use). However, even they have recipes which require materials gathered or items created by other professions (NOTE: Some items, such as rods, are created by Blacksmiths and are obligatory for all Enchanter).

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5. Stats

In the following order: Spell Hit (Until capped) > Spell Power > Spell Haste > Spell Crit > Stamina > Intellect > Spirit.

There are various opinions on this topic, but most Warlocks/other casters go generally by this.

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6. Heirloom Gear
"Heirlooms bind to the account, as opposed to an individual character. This means they can be mailed (even after been used) to any character that shares the same account and server, including those of opposing faction."


For more information about Heirloom items, go to: http://www.wowwiki.com/Heirloom [STRONGLY suggested]


These same Heirloom items are also suggested for/used by Mages and Priests.

[Tattered Dreadmist Robe] - Chest

[Tattered Dreadmist Mantle] - Shoulders

[Dignified Headmaster's Charge] - Staff

[Discerning Eye of the Beast] x2 - Trinkets

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7. Class Quests

http://www.wowwiki.com/Warlock_quests

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8. Glyphs

Major Glyphs:

Glyph of Siphon Life
Glyph of Immolate
Glyph of Corruption

With Glyph of Corruption, when Shadow Trance procs, cast a Shadow Bolt


Minor Glyphs:

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9. Addons

Necrosis - A MUST HAVE for any Warlock. Some of it's many features:
Shard management (since with improved Drain Soul you'll want to get 14% FREE MANA from EVERY MOB YOU FIGHT, who can really pass that up, and who wants to delete all those stupid shards?). 
    It also offers warnings about unfearable mobs, audible warnings about your soulstone expiring, and nightfall procs. It also makes it a lot easier to keep a healthstone on hand, and as a affliction lock you willl also likely want to keep a spellstone up now that Wrath (of the Lich King) made them halfway decent. 
    Also, Necrosis has a DoTimer-like feature for tracking how long your dots have left. In my eyes it totally mitigates any need for DoTimer as a lock.
DoTimer - A handy mod for managing your DoTs and rotation.

credits: Thanks to the blog www.thewowcrafters.com for this guide!(the blog is not online anymore)

Introduction

We Shamans, much like our "cousins", druids, are hybrids (as are paladins), which means that we can fill pretty much any role (off-tanking, but not tanking), but not as efficiently as an other class could. For example, Priests will still have higher heals and Mages will still leave us behind on dps meters. However, Enhancement Shamans have very good raid buffs, so that makes us very useful (and wanted) in raids.  

"Remember, not only one's dps matters"

Thunderball
(Frostwolf, Molten-WoW)

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Table of content:

1. Leveling Spec
2. Talents
3. Abilities and Rotations.
4. Tips
5. Stats
6. Heirloom Gear
7. Totem Quests
8. Glyphs
9. Addons

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1. Leveling Spec

The by far best (solo) leveling spec for Shaman is Enhancement. This is because it's the most mana efficient tree there is (all class-specs included), while it still maintains a high damage output. In fact, an Enhancement Shaman deals the most damage compared to the mana usage (with duel wield that is). This only counts after level 40 though. So before that, you might want to try Elemental. Elemental is our casting spec. With it, we boost our Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, Shocks and Totems.

Shaman Elemental 1-80 Leveling Talent Build & Guide (3.3.5)

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2. Talents

20/51/0

10 - 14: Ancestral Knowledge - 5/5.
15 - 19: Thundering Strikes - 5/5
20 - 20: Shamanistic Focus - 1/1
21 - 22: Improved Ghost Wolf - 2/2
23 - 24: Elemental Weapons (only 2) - 2/3
25 - 29: Flurry - 5/5
30 - 30: Spirit Weapons - 1/1
31 - 33: Mental Dexterity - 3/3
34 - 34: Elemental Weapons - 3/3.
35 - 37: Unleashed Rage - 3/3
38 - 39: Weapon Mastery (only 2) - 2/3
40 - 40: Stormstrike - 1/1
41 - 41: Dual Wield - 1/1
42 - 44: Dual Wield Specialization - 3/3
45 - 45: Lava Lash - 1/1
46 - 47: Improved Stormstrike - 2/2
48 - 49: Static Shock (only 2) - 2/3
50 - 50: Shamanistic Rage - 1/1
51 - 51: Static Shock - 3/3
52 - 54: Mental Quickness - 3/3
55 - 59: Maelstrom Weapon - 5/5
60 - 60: Feral Spirit - 1/1
TALENT BUILD UNTIL 60: 0/51/0

==> Elemental
61 - 65: Concussion - 5/5
66 - 68: Elemental Devastation - 3/3
69 - 70: Elemental Warding (only 2) - 2/3
71 - 75: Elemental Fury - 5/5
76 - 76: Elemental Focus - 1/1
77 - 80: Reverberation (only 4) - 4/5
FINAL TALENT BUILD: 20/51/0

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3. Abilities and Rotations

Always take weapons with the highest min/max. damage range. These are usually slow weapons.

1 - 9:
- Until you gain Earth Shock, simply spam Lightning Bolt.
- When you get Earth Shock, keep casting Lightning Bolt until your target is in melee range. Then start using Earth Shock and auto attack.
- Aways keep up Lightning Shield (it has 3 stacks).
- Enchant your weapon with Rockbiter.
- Use the best DPS weapon, be it a 1h + shield or 2H (the slow weapon part does not apply here, because we don't have Windfury yet) 

Rotation: Auto attack + Earth Shock. Pull with Lightning Bolt. Always keep up Lightning Shield.


10 - 19:
- Same as above but:
- Use Flametongue instead of Rockbiter.
- You might want to use a fast weapon, so that Flametongue hits more (which does more damage than it would on a slow weapon). 

Rotation: Lightning Bolt, until the mob is near you, then spam Earth Shock while auto attacking. Again, always keep up Lightning Shield.


20 - 29:
From now on, we will be using a method I like to call ‘Shield Twisting’. All you have to do is keep a balance between Lightning Shield and Water Shield. Water Shield gives mana, but more than what we need. Lightning Shield gives free damage when you are hit 

Rotation: Lightning Bolt, until the mob is near you, then spam Earth Shock while auto attacking.


30 - 39:
- Use the Windfury weapon enchant.
- Always take a 2H weapon with a speed of 3.0 or more.
- Don't forget the Shield Twisting method. 

Rotation: Pull with Lightning Bolt, then Auto attack + Earth Shock.


40 - 49:
Okay, so you've finally made it to level 40. Ready to rock? Because now we get our key abilities: Dual Wield, Stormstrike and Lava Lash. The fun can now begin!

- Keep yourself  from dual wielding before level 44, because otherwise you will simply "miss" too much without the +hit talents.
- Keep Windfury on both weapons (after level 44). 

Rotation: Stormstrike > Earth Shock > Lava Lash > Shield Twist.


Note: Although I call this a rotation; you’ll notice that after a while, you’ll simply be using the first ability that pops up from the cooldown. That's why from now on you'll see "priority list" instead of "rotation".


50 - 75:
As explained above, you’ll now have a priority list rather than a rotation.

- Use Shamanistic Rage when you're out of mana.
- Again, don’t forget the Shield Twisting method. 

Priority list: Stormstrike > Earth Shock > Lava Lash.


Whenever you have 4/5 or 5/5 Mealstrom Weapon, use Lightning Bolt or Chain Lightning, (use Chain Lightning preferrably only on AoE). Try to have the Stormstrike debuff on the target before pulling this one out. You should try to this when there is a gap between your cooldowns.


75 - 80:


- Use Windfury weapon enchant on main hand and Flametongue on your off-hand. You should still take a slow off-hand, because  Stormstrike, Lava Lash and Windfury will still be used.
- Use Shamanistic Rage at 40% mana, or at least close to. Always use it when you’re about to start a fight, since it ‘procs’ from attacks, you’ll want to make the most of it every time you use it.
- Again, don’t forget the Shield Twisting method. 
- Again, do a 5/5 Mealstrom Weapon when their is a gap between your cooldowns.

Priority list: Stormstrike > Earthshock > Lava Lash.

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5. Tips

Instances:
- Use Earthliving if you know you are going to heal in an instance.
- Whenever you are at a boss fight, drop: Strenght of Earth, Flametongue totem, Windfury Totem and Healing/Mana stream totem.


Solo:
- Just heal yourself with Lesser Healing Wave whenever you need to heal. Once you get Maelstrom Weapon, use that to get instant/short Healing Waves (or Lightning Bolt/Chain Lightning)
- If you're multi-pulling, use Stoneclaw Totem to crowd control.
- You can also pop your Spirit Wolves to help with packs, since they can heal you.


Professions:
The best options money wise are Skinning/Mining because they make lots of money on the Auction House. Skinning  also gives critical strike rating and mining gives extra stamina, which scales with buffs like Blessing of Kings. These bonuses are small and don't make almost any difference in end-game, so these professions are completely option.

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6. Stats

In the following order: Stamina > Agility >Intellect > ManaPer5Sec > Strength.

1. Stamina: Increases your maximum amount of health.

2. Agility Increases your amount of Attack Power and adds to your Critical strike chance.

3. Intellect: Increases your maximum amount of mana. It also adds to your spell critical strike chance. - Pretty much needed for everything and even increases your attack power thanks to the talent, Mental Dexterity.

4. Mana Per 5 Seconds: You won't see this a lot until Outland, but Water Shield gives this as well. It basically gives you a certain amount of mana every five seconds. But since patch 3.0 the mana gained from it flows in very smoothly. The the term "MP/5" is still used however.

5. Strength: Increases your Attack Power. - Since Shamans started gaining Attack Power from Agility and Intellect as well, this stat has become more or less useless. Let's just say that this stat is not a bad stat to take, but you should definitively aim for the ones above instead.

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7. Heirloom Gear.

"Heirlooms bind to the account, as opposed to an individual character. This means they can be mailed to any character that shares the same account and server, including those of opposing faction."

For more information about Heirloom items, go to: http://www.wowwiki.com/Heirloom [STRONGLY suggested]

Champion Herod's Shoulder - Shoulder

Champion's Deathdealer Breastplate - Chest

Devout Aurastone Hammer/tp Venerable Mass of McGowan - 1h Mace(s)

Swift Hand of Justice/Discerning Eye of the Beast - Trinkets

Here I will show some gear you can pick up while leveling, although this guide is aimed at solo gameplay, going to an instance or two isn't a bad idea.

Weapons & Shield's
Combinations have the same color, and are under each other.

10 - 20:

Lvl 15 - 2H - Rhahk'Zor's Hammer Lvl 18 - 2H - Taskmaster Axe

20 - 30:

Lvl 20 - 2H - Arced War Axe Lvl 20 - 1H - Butcher's Cleaver  Lvl 20 - Shield - Commander's Crest Lvl 27 - 2H - Corpsemaker Lvl 27 - Shield - Heart of Agamaggan Lvl 30 - 1H - Pronged Reaver

30 - 40:

Lvl 37 - 2H - Ravager Lvl 35 - 1H - Mallet of Zul'Farrak, Note: you can get this weapon at level 35, but this thing is very powerful. It can last 'till Outland. Imo, this weapon is a good choice you won't regret - Thanks to Lycander for letting me know about this weapon.

40 - 50, you can Dual Wield now.

Lvl 43 - 1H - The Hand of Antu'sul Lvl 45 - 1H - Ripsaw 

50 - 60:

Lvl 51 - 1H - Coldforged Hammer Lvl 50 - 1H - Grizzle's Skinner [A]Lvl 60 - 1H - Grand Marshal's Handaxe [H]Lvl 60 - 1H - High Warlord's Bludgeon

For more items, use http://www.wowhead.com/ or https://wotlkdb.com/

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8. Totem Quests

Call of Earth.

The earth totem quest for Orcs/Trolls
The earth totem quest for Taurens
The earth totem quest for Draenei's

Call of Fire

The fire totem quest for Orcs/Trolls
The fire totem quest for Draenei's
The fire totem quest for Tauren's

Call of Water

The water totem quest for Orcs/Trolls
The water totem quest for Taurens
The water totem quest for Draenei's

Call of Air

The air totem quest for Orcs/Trolls
The air totem quest for Taurens
If you by accident accept the quest that teleports you to the top of a mountain, don't be afraid; just jump off the wooden plank and you will get teleported back to the quest giver!
The air totem quest for Draenei's

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9. Glyphs

Major Glyphs: 
Glyph of Lightning Shield
Glyph of Stormstrike
Glyph of Shocking or Glyph of Water Mastery - Your choice.

Minor Glyphs:  
Glyph of Water Shield
Glyph of Water Walking
Glyph of Ghost Wolf or Glyph of Water Breathing - Again, your choice.

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10. Addons

Some shaman specific addons:

• Call of Elements - It's an addon that creates new bars for your totems, tells you when your totems are going to expire and/or are destroyed, and when your weapon enchant expires.
• ShieldsUp  - It's an addon that helps you with refreshing your shields by telling you when your Water/Lightning/Earth Shield fades.
• Windfury Cooldown Timer - This addon shows you the invisible cooldown of Windfury. If you want, you can use Stormstrike or Lava Lash so that it can proc Windfury.

Other AddOns gererally useful while leveling:

• RatingBuster -  The design aim of RatingBuster is to provide detailed, meaningful and customizable information about items and their stats so you can easily decide for yourself which items are better for you.
• Crap Away - Crap Awat adds a button to vendor-windows which, if clicked on, sells all the grey items you have in your inventory.
• XBar - Xbar creates action bars for useful things, such as Track spells (for hunters), Buffs, Companions, and of course, Totems!
• ArkInventory - Arkinventory is a bag addon, which allows you te create seperate windows for different kinds of items (basically, it creates several virtual bags). It also shows the vendor price of items.

https://theworldofguides.blogspot.com/2020/11/introduction-unlike-in-later-expansions.html