Blood Pact: Warlock questing talents in Legion

Legion Warlock talents haven’t changed much recently and are mostly the same since Legion alpha, but we’ll recap here what might be good questing and leveling talents as we prepare to look towards 110.

Keeping the new talent change restriction in mind, I’ve tried to also pick talents that might work better in 5-man Normal dungeons, but what’s below is what I’ve been using on my excellent adventure throughout the Broken Isles. That said, what I pick now definitely could change later, especially as Simulation Craft continues to develop Warlock profiles when adapting to beta and post-launch changes.

Affliction

Affliction has changed quite a bit from being the single-target-only spec we know it to be from Warlords’ Hellfire Citadel, though it keeps the strength of sustained multitarget. This makes Affliciton pretty nifty at questing, especially with old spells we used to know that became Legion talents.

Level 15: I don’t like Drain Soul for questing because I miss Drain Life when fighting tough rares and elites. Writhe in Agony works well for sustained fights like boss fights in dungeons. My pick is Haunt, which is perfect as an execute for little adds, which describes the majority of questing.

Level 30: Absolute Corruption is my pick because I like being able to put a DoT up on a mob during questing and not worry about it, but I’ve picked Contagion in the past for amplified damage pressure. Either way, even if Mana Tap turns out to be the raiding talent, I don’t particularly like playing with it near rares and elites because I feel like I’m Life Tapping more than usual.

Level 45: Demon Skin is the default PvE talent here, as it effectively increases your health bar to 120% instead of just 100%. Howl of Terror is still an unreliable CC in group PvE content, and Mortal Coil is still very touchy about which mobs the Horror effect will actually apply to.

Level 60: Siphon Life is my pick because I’ve missed it as a DoT since its prime in Wrath of the Lich King, but it’s also not a bad survivability talent. The other two talents aren’t that bad in group content, because Soul Harvest is essentially like Dark Soul and Sow the Seeds makes Seed of Corruption a little better at being an AoE spell for Affliction.

Level 75: I go with Burning Rush. I sometimes spend a Tome to swap to Demonic Circle in the world because a psuedo-save point when jumping up or down cliffs is important, and Dark Pact (the renamed Sacrificial Pact) might see some endgame used. However, nothing in general beats the always-useful movement speed boost that is Burning Rush.

Level 90: Our Grimoire pet spells moved a tier up and down. Supremacy is the old Demonic Servitude, and you’ll probably pick Doomguard for single target or Infernal for AoE and tanking again. Sacrifice has changed: it doesn’t give you a pet ability anymore and instead of a health boost, it deals small-range AoE damage sometimes, which translates to being a decent damage ability with many mobs and not amazing but not terrible with single-target. I prefer to use Grimoire of Service, because it lets me keep the tanking voidwalker option while not killing my ability to use a damage cooldown (Grimoire: Felhunter).

Level 100: Soul Effigy is probably your standard raiding talent, but I find it annoying to constantly reset while questing. I use Soul Conduit for the most part, which also works well on dungeon trash. I have barely touched Phantom Singularity, because when you are in situations that have that many mobs, there’s usually a full-time healer involved.

Demonology

Demonology got redesigned: it’s now all about the summoning of demons, so we have a ridiculously awesome zoo of demon designs to look at while leveling. While we’re still trying to figure out what’s best for this essentially completely new spec, Demonology is really good with a single target, but rather bad at its old strength of AoE, due to pets not swapping targets quickly.

Level 15: I missed Shadowflame as a spell, so I pick that, though in Legion it’s just a pure DoT and no longer a conal AoE. Shadowy Inspiration is my next choice if I don’t want to multidot, though Demonic Calling makes Shadow Bolt more interesting than a plain filler.

Level 30: Implosion has only recently gotten better, so I’m not completely sold on it yet. I prefer to summon imps riding dreadstalkers with Improved Dreadstalkers, but you can have imps spawned by Doom with Impending Doom if you want some of that old Demonology Doom flavor.

Level 45: Demon Skin is the default PvE talent here, as it effectively increases your health bar to 120% instead of just 100%. Although Shadowfury might see some use later — like in Black Rook Hold against the lancer trash in the end — the game has largely moved away from the need for chain-stunning, and Mortal Coil is still very touchy about which mobs the Horror effect will actually apply to.

Level 60: I pick Power Trip so Demonic Empowerment doesn’t feel so awkward to cast so frequently, though Hand of Doom is your definite pick for anything that involves lots of mobs grouped up for AoE. Old Dark Soul turned Soul Harvest doesn’t see a lot of action from me since Hand of Doom covers most multitarget situations where a longer Soul Harvest can happen.

Level 75: I go with Burning Rush. I sometimes spend a Tome to swap to Demonic Circle in the world because a psuedo-save point when jumping up or down cliffs is important, and Dark Pact (the renamed Sacrificial Pact) might see some endgame used. However, nothing in general beats the always-useful movement speed boost that is Burning Rush.

Level 90: Our Grimoire pet spells moved a tier up and down. Supremacy is the old Demonic Servitude, and you’ll probably pick Doomguard for single target or Infernal for AoE and tanking again. Grimoire of Service lets me keep the tanking voidwalker option while not killing my ability to use a damage cooldown (Grimoire: Felguard). I still prefer to use Grimoire of Synergy as Demonology, because harder-hitting Felguard Felstorm is never not fun.

Level 100: For questing and leveling, I almost don’t care if Demonbolt or Soul Conduit pull ahead later in damage simulations — I go with Summon Darkglare because the minion just looks so freaking cool.

Destruction

Destruction is looking strongest for Warlock specs on beta right now, particularly since it appears to be the most versatile Warlock spec at different damage situations even with the same talent setup.

Level 15: Roaring Blaze is the current talent favorite for PvE, and it works nicely for questing as well, as it lends us to often multidotting with Immolate. Shadowburn is also a nice questing talent, as its generates two shards off mob death. Backdraft isn’t bad either, but I prefer the other two when questing.

Level 30: Reverse Entropy is my default since I’ve gotten used to Mists/Warlords Destruction, and  also because I find Mana Tap particularly awkward in Destruction along with not liking Mana Tap anyway as a questing spell. Cataclysm is great as an AoE or dungeon trash spell.

Level 45: Demon Skin is the default PvE talent here, as it effectively increases your health bar to 120% instead of just 100%. Although Shadowfury might see some use later — like in Black Rook Hold against the lancer trash in the end — the game has largely moved away from the need for chain-stunning, and Mortal Coil is still very touchy about which mobs the Horror effect will actually apply to.

Level 60: Eradication is probably going to be your best single-target talent choice. Fire and Brimstone is the default AoE choice, though I keep Eradication and swap to Level 45’s Cataclysm for my current World Quests/Dungeons hybrid spec. The old Dark Soul renamed to Soul Harvest isn’t terrible, but I feel like the other two outplay it for Destruction.

Level 75: I go with Burning Rush. I sometimes spend a Tome to swap to Demonic Circle in the world because a psuedo-save point when jumping up or down cliffs is important, and Dark Pact (the renamed Sacrificial Pact) might see some endgame used. However, nothing in general beats the always-useful movement speed boost that is Burning Rush.

Level 90: Our Grimoire pet spells moved a tier up and down. Supremacy is the old Demonic Servitude, and you’ll probably pick Doomguard for single target or Infernal for AoE and tanking again. Sacrifice has changed: it doesn’t give you a pet ability anymore and instead of a health boost, it deals small-range AoE damage sometimes, which translates to being a decent damage ability with many mobs and not amazing but not terrible with single-target. I prefer to use Grimoire of Service, because it lets me keep the tanking voidwalker option while not killing my ability to use a damage cooldown (Grimoire: Imp).

Level 100: Soul Conduit is my choice because it’s strong on single target as well as on multiple targets. Wreak Havoc is best when there’s always a second target up to cleave into. Channel Demonfire doesn’t feel like it hits as a hard despite having a good-looking animation.