Forever Warlock Lab

A reader asked about Improved Corruption 5, Bane 5 and Aftermath 5 with Immolate at the center, so the leveling model now has every Destruction spell and talent. From 10 to 60 that build was 0 to 11% slower than even the page's previous order, and the new order is faster still. The common 17/0/34 Destruction build was 0 to 17% slower. At 50 to 60 the Immolate build kills about 30% faster but rests four times as long: Immolate, Incinerate and Shadow Bolt cost mana that the Drain Life plan heals back. If food and water restored twice as fast as assumed, it would win by about 1 to 7% from level 50. The closest mix is speedrun-style, Destruction to Shadowburn and then Affliction for Soul Harvest: within 2 to 3.5% of the solo spec at 60, but not ahead.

Forever made it +4 to 10% to all magic damage from level 20, in its own slot next to Banes. On a 20-second fight, a global cooldown and 50 to 200 mana at the pull do not pay it back, and it leaves your Voidwalker's damage alone. With this page's orders it won none of 42 level checks. In a raid it is a different story: see the calculator.

The current Wowhead tooltip and the beta client both read (430 + Spirit) at rank 6. The older reading of 840 flat is in no current source, so the calculator now defaults to 430 plus Spirit. With 100 Spirit that is 530 mana a tap. It lowers every raid build by 3 to 7% and leaves the top four in the same order. Test 1 checks it in game.

Fire Destruction cannot be played at all there: no Immolate means no Conflagrate and no Incinerate bonus. The deep Demonology group spec leads, Pact is 0.8% behind, and everything else trails by about 19%. In Classic, several raid bosses were immune to Fire, Onyxia among them, and Onyxia's Lair is one of Forever's first raids. A reader raised this. Tick the Fire box in the calculator.

Casters get their own version (Wowhead Forever spell 1260201, for Priest, Mage and Warlock): each spell or attack has a 10% chance to drain 5% of your max health from the target, at most once per second. Warriors, Paladins and Rogues get a 5% version. A raid Warlock makes a bit under half a damaging cast per second, so at 4,500 health that is about 9 damage per second. That is 1 to 3.4% of raid damage, depending on your build and your health from 3,000 to 8,000. A later reader report, with a video, says a recent beta update stopped DoT applications from triggering it. If so, it is a third to half a point smaller on the top build, level with or just behind a Human's caster sword. The tooltip has not changed, so the page keeps counting DoT casts until more testers confirm it. The model counts every cast, including each DoT you apply, but not the ticks. A reader tested exactly that in the beta: applying a DoT triggers it, ticks don't. The same reader caught that this page first used the 5% version.

Forever's version reads "+2% crit with all spells and attacks while you have a sword equipped", and Warlocks can train swords. With Ruin or Pandemic doubling crit damage, that is 1.5% more raid damage on the top build and up to 2.1% on Pact, one of the two biggest racials for a Warlock next to Undead's Touch of the Grave. It only counts if a caster sword is your best weapon.

Per second, both scale identically with spell power (4.0 over 60 s equals 1.6 over 24 s). Doom has more base damage per second and needs a global cooldown once a minute instead of every 24 seconds. Rule: cast Doom while at least a minute of the fight remains, then Agony. The result rests on the datamined 4.0 scaling. Drag the Bane of Doom slider to see where it flips.

With Bane 5/5 and Immolate up, Incinerate does 31 to 33% more per second of casting than Shadow Bolt before school buffs, which is 5 to 8% across the whole rotation. Forever reversed the sacrifice buffs from Classic: Imp now gives Shadow, Succubus gives Fire. One risk: if Improved Shadow Bolt lasts 60 seconds instead of 12, the gap closes to under 2%, and at 20% crit Shadow Bolt wins by about 2%. Try the toggle.

It adds flat spell damage equal to your level, for you and your demon, while a demon is out: about 2% faster kills per point at 60. Soul Siphon and Improved Life Tap are worth a little more per point. It costs 20 Demonology points of mostly survival talents to reach, so it never pays off before 56, and from 56 it only breaks even with this page's leveling order.

It can proc on every Corruption tick and every Drain Life and Wrack tick. At 60 each point adds about 1.4% damage in a long fight, but one leveling kill builds up less than one proc, so it is worth under 1% per point in kill speed. The page's orders skip it.

The leveling model fights one mob at a time, so a separate, rougher model checked pulls of 2 to 5 same-level mobs. Spreading DoTs over 2 or 3 mobs is 3 to 9% faster only at levels 10 to 20, and pulls of 3 or more get you killed from about level 30, or from 20 when you use area spells. Fear-kiting a second mob never wins. The one real gain is pairs tanked by the Voidwalker while you channel Hellfire, about 3% faster at 30 to 35; a survival-heavy Demonology build could stretch that to about 7%, mainly at 35, but one changed assumption flips it. It all rests on how well the Voidwalker holds several mobs, which nobody has measured. This is test 8.

A reader's pick, sharpened by reader 510Kyle into 5/31/15: Suppression 5, Demonology down to Demonic Pact, plus Improved Shadow Bolt, Bane and Ruin. Suppression's 5% hit covers every spell, so 11% hit from gear caps you. Demonic Brand turns out to be more than a threat talent: after your Searing Pain, your Succubus's next hits on that target deal extra damage that scales with spell power. The tooltip says 3 hits, the client data 6. At the calculator defaults that puts the build about 5% ahead of Pact and 7% ahead of Destruction, and 9% ahead of Pact with 6 hits. If Brand deals nothing, or scales with your demon's spell power instead of yours, it is still about 1% ahead of Pact, so it is a safe pick either way. It needs her on the boss: under about 24 damage per second from her, Fire Destruction pulls ahead. Swapping to the Imp under 35% loses about 6%, so keep the Succubus. One more unknown, raised by a reader: Brand also makes those hits high threat, so she could pull the boss off the tank. The model does not simulate threat, and nobody has tested it. This is test 7.

A 5/31/0 build with the Imp sacrificed through Demonic Pact and the Succubus out stays within 4% of the Affliction route from 45 to 60, sometimes ahead, sometimes behind. The swing is who takes the hits. If the Succubus holds the mob, it becomes 9 to 16% faster, because your resting drops away. Demonic Brand is built for exactly that: Searing Pain brands the target, and your pet's next attacks on it generate high threat. The Voidwalker is 2 to 10% slower in this build and the Felhunter slowest. Suggested by a reader. This is test 6.

Demonic Pact only says a sacrifice is not cancelled by summoning a different demon. Nothing says a second sacrifice removes the first. If they stack, sacrificing the Imp, Felhunter and Voidwalker in turn and keeping the Succubus is about 9 to 11% faster solo. That assumes the damage Soul Link moves onto the Succubus costs nothing. If you heal her back with your own health, the edge shrinks to 1 to 3%. A curiosity, not a plan. This is test 4.

Soul Siphon grows Drain Life by 12% per other Affliction effect on the target, up to three. Curses now sit in their own slot next to Banes. If a curse counts, Corruption, a Bane and Curse of Weakness max it out without Siphon Life. This is test 3.

It costs the most mana per damage of anything you have, so the resting it causes cancels the faster kills. For the page's build it won 0 of 459 level-by-level scans. It wins only inside a 17/0/34 Shadow Bolt build from level 47, and that build is about 10 to 13% slower than the plan.

Berserking is casting speed, and in the beta haste does not speed up DoTs or channels. It adds about 0.1% raid damage. Rapid Regeneration is a 6-second channel that breaks on any action or damage, so in PvE it is between-fights healing. In PvP it shines behind a Fear: the target runs, you channel 50% of your health back.

The wowforeverbuilds Demonology guide already uses this. With Suppression 5 in place of Destructive Reach and Cataclysm, it passes Fire Destruction once the Succubus carries about 7% of your damage. The deep Demonology build adds Demonic Brand on top and leads it by about 4 to 5% at the calculator defaults. The BlizzCon demo credited her with 23 to 25% at level 38, so this is a live contender.