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Guide · Classes

Warlock in World of Warcraft: Forever

Cloth, curses, damage over time, a demon at your side and a free mount at 40. How the Warlock plays in Classic's design, who can play one in Forever, what Blizzard has said, and what we will check in the beta.

Confirmed Updated How we tag claims

The short answer

The Warlock is Classic’s other cloth damage class, built on time rather than bursts: curses and damage over time on the target, a demon between the Warlock and the enemy, and health spent as mana. It is the friend every group wants, for the summons and the soulstones. Everything below describes the class as Classic shipped it, which Forever builds on; Blizzard has promised “talents and abilities you notice” Confirmed Blizzard and has published no Warlock-specific detail. The beta opens September 17, and this page changes as we play.

Roles
Damage
Style
Ranged, Pet
Races
5 · 1 new in Forever

Who can play it

Every pairing per Blizzard — race and class chart, checked 2026-10-15. Pairings marked new are the ones Forever adds to Classic's. See every race and class combination, or filter all nine classes in the class picker.

How it plays

  • A demon for every job. The Imp from level 1, the Voidwalker from a level 10 quest to tank, the Succubus at 20, the Felhunter at 30, and the Infernal and Doomguard at the top. Each comes from a quest and each is a different way to play.
  • Curses and damage over time. Corruption, Immolate, Curse of Agony and Shadow Bolt on top; one curse per target, chosen for the group: Elements for the Mages, Shadow for the Priests and Warlocks, Recklessness for the tank.
  • Life Tap. Health becomes mana, so the Warlock never runs dry while there is a healer or a Drain Life to lean on.
  • Soul Shards. Drain Soul on a dying enemy fills a shard; shards pay for summons, soulstones, healthstones and the better demons, and fill the bags.
  • The utility. Soulstone brings a healer back after a wipe, Healthstone is a potion for everyone, and Ritual of Summoning pulls a late party member across the world.

Leveling

Among the easiest in Classic: the Voidwalker holds the enemy, the Warlock dots and drains, and Life Tap and Drain Life replace the drinking. The Felsteed at 40 is the free mount that lets a Warlock skip the game’s biggest gold sink, and the Dreadsteed chain at 60 is one of Classic’s best quest lines.

What Forever changes

  • Troll Warlocks are one of the six new race and class combinations. Spellcaster weapons now grant spell damage, and Undead Cannibalize restores Mana as well as Health, which Blizzard names as useful for Warlocks.

    Confirmed Blizzard — Deep Dive panel recap

  • Curse of Agony and Curse of Doom become Banes, which sit apart from Curses: each Warlock can keep only one Bane on a target, and Curse of Shadows is gone. Firestone and Spellstone become weapon imbues that can share a weapon with a temporary enchantment such as Wizard Oil, and demons now draw on the Warlock’s own stats.

    Confirmed Blizzard — Class Deep Dives: Rogue and Warlock

  • Since the October 1 beta build, Affliction’s Soul Harvesting is called Soul Harvest and gives its 50 or 100% mana regeneration, Hellfire can crit, and pets have Aggressive mode back.

    Confirmed Blizzard — WoW Forever Beta Development Notes, October 1

  • Since the October 8 beta build, the low ranks of Shadow Bolt (1 to 4) grow more evenly, so each new rank is an upgrade, and a Warlock’s current pet is stunned while a new one is summoned.

    Confirmed Blizzard — WoW Forever Beta Development Notes, October 8

  • Since the October 15 beta build, Grim Reach (replacing Malediction) and Destructive Reach add 10 or 20% range to Affliction and Destruction spells, and Shadow Mastery gives 2 to 10% more Shadow damage.

    Confirmed Blizzard — WoW Forever Beta Development Notes, October 15

  • Blizzard’s Deep Dive recap names six new race and class combinations: Gnome Priest, Human Hunter, Dwarf Shaman, Orc Mage, Troll Warlock and Undead Paladin, “with more planned for future updates.”

    Confirmed Blizzard — Deep Dive panel recap

  • Blizzard’s race and class chart (22 September) lists every pairing Forever offers, one chart per faction: Classic’s pairings, the six new ones, and the Skyborne on both sides, as Windshaper Shaman for the Horde or High Order Mages for the Alliance.

    Confirmed Blizzard — race and class chart

  • Talent trees keep Classic’s structure: the same number of rows, milestone talents at 11, 21 and 31 points, and a new 16-point milestone. Some talents are unchanged from patch 1.12, some adjusted, and key class buffs (Divine Spirit, Blessing of Kings, Improved Mark of the Wild) are now baseline. Each race gets two active and two passive racial abilities, reworked to be stronger and more distinct.

    Confirmed Blizzard — Deep Dive panel recap

  • Combat keeps Classic’s pace: an ordinary creature takes a solo player “roughly 10–15 seconds to defeat,” crowd control still matters in dungeons, and damage dealers still respect threat. Spell, melee and ranged hit chance are combined into one stat, as are the three crit chances. Paladins are the first class detailed; “more class and race details are planned through future videos and articles.”

    Confirmed Blizzard — Deep Dive panel recap

  • Blizzard: class identity “remains central,” with “new abilities, new race and class combinations, and updates designed to preserve the feel of the original game.” The updates “focus on talents and abilities you notice, meaningful trade-offs, and reasons to value what each class brings.”

    Confirmed Blizzard — What’s Next panel recap

  • The Battle.net Shop describes “updated class design” and “an expanded list of race and class options, including Dwarf Shaman and Forsaken Paladin.”

    Confirmed Battle.net Shop — product page

  • Every class is being revisited from the original game, Blizzard says: the foundation players remember stays, and the updates aim to give more choice, a stronger identity and room to experiment.

    Confirmed Blizzard — Class Deep Dives: Hunter and Druid

  • Changing talents, Legacy talents included, takes a visit to a class trainer in a major city, and Dual Specialization opens at level 40.

    Confirmed Blizzard — Class Deep Dives: Hunter and Druid Blizzard — Class Deep Dives: Priest and Warrior Blizzard — Class Deep Dives: Mage and Shaman Blizzard — Class Deep Dives: Rogue and Warlock

  • Blizzard intends to review whether party buffs, Shaman totems among them, should remain party-wide, Wowhead reported on 5 October from Blizzard’s latest podcast.

    Confirmed Wowhead — What’s best for WoW: Forever, party buffs or raid buffs?

  • Blizzard says it isn’t modernizing Forever’s classes. It errs toward simpler classes with engaging depth: some Classic classes that were too simple have gained a few mechanics, and it wants to keep the original’s pacing and combat speed, Blizzard told TechRadar.

    Confirmed TechRadar — interview with Blizzard: classes, respecs and encounters

  • Keeping each class feeling distinct, rather than letting them blur together, matters most, Blizzard’s Clay Stone told Inven Global: every spec should have a reason to exist, even if it is not the best pick for every fight.

    Confirmed Inven Global — interview with Holly Longdale and Clay Stone

What we will check in the beta

  • The demon quests at 10, 20 and 30, and whether the Infernal and Doomguard still need a ritual.
  • The Felsteed and Dreadsteed quests.
  • Any new abilities or talent changes in Affliction, Demonology and Destruction, against the Classic baseline.
  • The leaked new specialization: real or not.
  • Whether a Skyborne Warlock exists at all: nothing says so today.

Frequently asked

Can a Skyborne be a Warlock in Forever?
Nothing says so. Blizzard's recap lists the Skyborne classes as Warrior, Hunter, Rogue and Druid for all, plus Mage for the Alliance-aligned and Shaman for the Horde-aligned. Warlock is not on the list.
Does the Warlock have a new specialization in Forever?
A pre-announcement leak said so. Blizzard has confirmed updated class design in general and nothing about new specializations, so this stays a Community-tagged claim until the beta shows it or does not.
Do Warlocks still get a free mount?
In Classic the Felsteed comes from a level 40 quest for almost nothing, and the Dreadsteed from a long level 60 chain. Both are on our beta checklist.

Sources

  1. Blizzard — What's Next panel recap https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/article/24303862/world-of-warcraft-forever-whats-next-panel-recap
  2. Battle.net Shop — product page https://us.shop.battle.net/en-us/product/world-of-warcraft-forever
  3. MMO-Champion leak thread https://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/2669761-World-of-Warcraft-Forever
  4. Wowhead — Classic Warlock https://www.wowhead.com/classic/class=9/warlock
  5. Warcraft Wiki — Warlock https://warcraft.wiki.gg/wiki/Warlock