WoW Forever Warlock changes: Banes, stackable Firestones and Spellstones, Wrack, Demonic Pact, Bane of Havoc and Incinerate

The first baseline change reorganises the Warlock's debuffs. Curse of Agony and Curse of Doom are no longer Curses; they are Banes, and a Warlock can only have one Bane on a target. Curses keep the utility jobs. Blizzard's own summary at the top of the article describes the aim as separating 'damaging effects from utility Curses.' The article does not spell out whether a Bane and a Curse from the same Warlock can sit on one target together, though that is what the separation implies.

Two Curse changes follow. Curse of the Elements 'now applies to all magic damage'. Curse of Shadows is removed outright. Talents that referenced Curse of Agony are renamed to match: the Affliction talent Improved Curse of Agony becomes Improved Bane of Agony.

The stones change job. 'Firestone and Spellstone now apply Weapon Imbues, that can be stacked with other temporary enchantments like Wizard Oil. Firestone grants increased Fire damage and critical strike chance. Spellstone grants increased Shadow damage and spell haste.' A Destruction Warlock and a Shadow-leaning Warlock now each have their own imbue, and neither costs the Wizard Oil slot. The Demonology talents Improved Firestone and Improved Spellstone are removed in the same pass.

Life Tap 'now scales with Spirit, and the amount of Mana from Spirit is correctly stated in its tooltip.' Drain Soul gets a pity timer for Soul Shards: it 'now has a progressive chance per tick to grant a Soul Shard (chance increases each time it doesn't happen, until guaranteed).' And the change that affects every spec at once: 'Pets now scale from their summoner's stats.' Blizzard does not say which stats or at what rate; the Demonology talents Fel Intellect and Fel Stamina are among the removed talents.

The Undead racial change in the Deep Dive recap also reaches Warlocks: 'Cannibalize now restores Mana as well as Health, increasing its usefulness for mana-using classes such as Mages, Warlocks, Paladins, and Priests.'

Affliction's new 31-point talent is Wrack. It 'Tears the target apart from within, inflicting Shadow damage every second and increasing the damage they take from your other Shadow damage-over- time (DoT) effects by 10% for 6 seconds.' Several older talents are widened to include it: Fel Concentration (now 3 points instead of 5) and Nightfall (now also triggered by Drain Soul and Wrack) both name it, and two new talents, Improved Drains and Soul Siphon, boost Drain Life, Drain Soul and Wrack together.

The second theme is critical strikes on periodic damage. Pandemic, a new row 3 talent, 'Increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Corruption, Bane of Agony, Bane of Doom, Drain Soul, Drain Life, Siphon Life and Wrack spells by up to 100%.' Malevolence adds up to 5% critical effect chance to Shadow spells, and Malediction adds up to 5% to all periodic Warlock damage. Improved Corruption now also adds up to 10% Corruption damage. Suppression is redesigned into a hit-and-threat talent: 'up to 5%' hit and 'up to 20%' less threat. Soul Siphon adds up to 12% per other Affliction spell on the target, 'up to a maximum increase of 36%.'

Curse of Exhaustion moves from row 5 to row 4 and becomes the 16-point milestone with a 30% movement slow. Improved Life Tap moves to row 1, Improved Drain Soul is renamed Soul Harvest, and Shadow Mastery's damage bonus is reduced. Removed: Improved Curse of Weakness, Improved Drain Life, Improved Drain Mana, Improved Curse of Exhaustion, Grim Reach and Dark Pact.

Demonology is where the article spends most of its words, and two redesigned talents carry the spec. Demonic Sacrifice is now the 11-point milestone, and 'Sacrifice effects last 2 hours and effects from each sacrifice have shifted around.' Master Demonologist is redesigned with new bonuses per pet. Soul Link moves from row 7 up to row 5 and becomes the 21-point milestone instead of the 31-point one. Fel Domination becomes the 16-point milestone and now requires Master Summoner, which moves to row 3.

The new 31-point talent, Demonic Pact, joins the two: 'Requires Soul Link. Your Demonic Sacrifice effect is no longer cancelled by summoning a different pet. Resummoning the sacrificed pet will still cancel the effect.' So a Warlock can sacrifice one demon, summon another, and carry both the sacrifice buff and the new pet's Master Demonologist bonus. The table below sets out the pairs Blizzard lists.

Around those, the tree adds pet sustain and caster power. Fel Vitality raises the health and Mana of the Imp, Voidwalker, Succubus, Incubus and Felhunter by up to 15% and the Warlock's own Mana by up to 15%. Demonic Energies heals the pet for up to 15% of your spell damage and passes up to 100% of Life Tap's Mana to the demon. Demonic Knowledge raises your and your pet's spell damage by up to 33% of your level while a demon is out. Demonic Aegis improves Demon Skin and Demon Armor by up to 30%. Improved Health Funnel moves to row 1, can reduce Health Funnel threat by up to 100% and works 'regardless of your demon's health.' Improved Felhunter improves Tainted Blood, Devour Magic and Paranoia by 10% and cuts Spell Lock's cooldown by 2 seconds.

Decimation and Demonic Brand tie Demonology to execute-range Soul Fire. Decimation cuts Soul Fire's cooldown by up to 90%, and when Shadow Bolt or Searing Pain hits an enemy below 35% health, Soul Fire for the next 10 seconds casts up to 40% faster and costs no Soul Shards. Demonic Brand makes Searing Pain generate less threat and gives your pet's next 2 attacks Fire or Shadow damage. Smaller changes: Improved Imp no longer affects Blood Pact, Demonic Embrace no longer reduces Spirit, and Unholy Power moves to row 1 with a lower pet damage bonus. Removed: Improved Healthstone, Fel Intellect, Fel Stamina, Improved Subjugate Demon, Improved Firestone and Improved Spellstone.

Destruction's changes open with one that serves every Warlock. Destructive Reach moves from row 4 to row 1 and 'Now applies to all damaging spells, not just Destruction spells. This talent now benefits every Warlock specialization and is in easy reach of them all in the first row.' Ruin moves from row 5 to row 3 and becomes a 5-point talent 'for the same effect', which Blizzard says 'makes it more accessible for Demonology and hybrid builds.'

Conflagrate moves from row 7 to row 4 and becomes the 16-point milestone. The new 21-point talent is Bane of Havoc: it 'Afflicts the target for 5 minutes causing 15% of all damage done by the Warlock to other targets to also be dealt to the cursed target. Limited to 1 target and only one Bane per Warlock can be active on any one target.' Because it is a Bane, it competes with Bane of Agony and Bane of Doom for the one Bane slot on that target. The 31-point talent, Incinerate, requires Bane of Havoc and 'Deals Fire damage to your target and an additional 25% damage if the target is afflicted by Immolate. 2.5 seconds cast, 30-yard range.' The Bane talent now also applies to Incinerate.

Shadow and Flame, a new row 6 talent, is what makes Destruction a two-school spec: 'Hitting an enemy with Conflagrate increases all Shadow damage you deal for 20 seconds and hitting an enemy with Shadowburn increases all Fire damage you deal for 20 seconds. In addition, Conflagrate has up to 100% chance to not consume Immolate and Shadowburn has up to 100% chance to instantly refund a Soul Shard.' Fire and Brimstone (row 5, requires Conflagrate) raises Conflagrate's crit chance. Aftermath is redesigned to raise Immolate's initial damage by up to 50% and give Conflagrate up to a 100% chance to Daze the target, reducing its movement speed by 50% for 5 seconds.

The rest: Improved Shadow Bolt now only applies to your own Shadow damage but no longer has charges; Cataclysm moves to row 2 and now cuts Destruction spell Mana costs by up to 10%; Molten Skin (new, row 2) reduces all damage taken by up to 10%; Agonizing Flames, formerly Improved Searing Pain, is now 3 points and boosts all Destruction spells; Intensity becomes 3 points and gives all Destruction spells resistance to cast-time loss from taking damage; Pyroclasm's wording is clarified. Removed: Improved Firebolt, Improved Lash of Pain, Devastation, Improved Immolate and Emberstorm.

The Warlock half of the article is more complete on milestones than the Rogue half: between the three trees it names nine of the twelve milestone slots. Talents unlock from level 10, are changed (Legacy talents included) at a class trainer in a major city, and Dual Specialization arrives at level 40, all per the same article. The broader rules for the 11/16/21/31 structure are on the WoW Forever talents page.

Affliction's 11- and 21-point talents and Destruction's 11-point talent are not named in this article. Blizzard lists only talents that changed, and does not say whether the unnamed slots are unchanged from Classic, so they are left blank here.

Troll Warlock is one of the six new class-and-race combinations announced in the Deep Dive panel recap: 'Gnome Priest, Human Hunter, Dwarf Shaman, Orc Mage, Troll Warlock, and Undead Paladin, with more planned for future updates.' Blizzard has not published a Troll Warlock storyline or questline the way it did for the Undead Paladin, and the Rogue and Warlock article does not mention races at all. The WoW Forever race and class combinations page tracks which pairings are confirmed.

Warlock is not on the Skyborne list. The What's Next recap gives Skyborne Shaman (Horde), Mage (Alliance), and Warriors, Hunters, Rogues and Druids on both sides. The Undead change noted above, Cannibalize restoring Mana, is the one racial change Blizzard has tied to Warlocks by name.

The closing paragraph keeps the class's old weakness on purpose. It summarises the three specs, Affliction for 'damage-over-time and draining effects, now with full viability from dealing critical strikes and competitive damage', Demonology for 'empowering themselves and their pet in all new ways', Destruction for mixing Shadow and Fire, and then sets the limit quoted below.

The gaps are the usual ones for this series. The article gives percentages for many talents ('up to 5%', 'up to 15%', 'up to 33% of your level') but no base damage, coefficients, Mana costs, cast times other than Incinerate's 2.5 seconds, or cooldowns other than the reductions stated. It does not say how much pets gain from their summoner's stats, how much Spirit Life Tap converts, or how many Drain Soul ticks it takes to guarantee a shard. It names no rotation and no best spec. Blizzard also repeats that 'class abilities and talents may continue to evolve throughout the beta test.' The WoW Forever class changes overview collects the other published classes for comparison, including the Rogue section of this same article.