Curses split from Banes, drains got an amplifier, and the demon became the tank — the Warlock itself did not. Affliction · Demonology · Destruction.
121 Warlock changes that alter play — new and reworked abilities, mechanics and talents — each shown against its Classic Era 1.15.9 form. Not listed: tooltip-only wording, rank-count changes, and sub-threshold numeric drift.
[Curse of Agony]! and [Curse of Doom]! are Banes now: [Bane of Agony]! (level 58) and [Bane of Doom]! (level 60). Each Warlock can place one [Bane]! and one Curse per target, independently. Curse of Shadows and [Curse of the Elements]! are not in the Forever client.
[Wrack]!, the Affliction capstone at row 9, is a channeled drain that makes the target take +10% from your other Shadow damage over time. [Soul Siphon]! (row 7) is the amplifier that makes the drain build cohere, and [Pandemic]! (row 5) lets DoTs and Banes crit.
Warlock demons scale from the summoner's own stats in Forever — gear your Warlock and the demon grows with you. [Demonic Pact]! (row 9) is the new capstone, and [Demonic Brand]! (row 6) marks a target for pet damage. Blizzard announces no Warlock tank specialization; the pet does the holding.
[Bane of Havoc]! (row 7) makes one target take 15% of everything you deal to everyone else. [Incinerate]!, the row 9 capstone, requires it — and pays +25% against Immolate. [Fire and Brimstone]! shares row 7.
Every remaining change, grouped by kind. Hover a name for its tooltip; hold Shift for the Classic Era side.
New in Forever. Learned at level 60.
Cost and tooltip text changed. Ranks 1 → 4.
| Classic Era | Forever | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | 700 Mana | 500 Mana |
| Ranks | 1 rank | 4 ranks |
| Text | Creates a Firestone which can be equipped in the off hand. When equipped, enchants the… | Creates a Lesser Firestone which can be used to enchant your weapon with Fire, increasing… |
Cost and tooltip text changed. Ranks 1 → 5.
| Classic Era | Forever | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | 475 Mana | 95 Mana |
| Ranks | 1 rank | 5 ranks |
| Text | Creates a Healthstone that can be used to instantly restore 500 health. Conjured items… | Creates a Minor Healthstone that can be used to instantly restore 120 health. Conjured… |
Tooltip text changed. Ranks 1 → 5.
| Classic Era | Forever | |
|---|---|---|
| Ranks | 1 rank | 5 ranks |
| Text | Creates a Soulstone. The Soulstone can be used to store one target's soul. If the… | Creates a Minor Soulstone. The Soulstone can be used to store one target's soul. If the… |
Tooltip text changed. Ranks 1 → 3.
| Classic Era | Forever | |
|---|---|---|
| Ranks | 1 rank | 3 ranks |
| Text | Creates a Spellstone for the caster. When equipped and used, the Spellstone removes all… | Creates a Spellstone which can be used to enchant your weapon with Shadow, increasing… |
Cost and tooltip text changed.
| Classic Era | Forever | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | 565 Mana | 600 Mana |
| Text | …horror for 3 sec and causes 470 Shadow damage. The caster gains 100% of the damage… | …horror for 3 sec and causes 454 Shadow damage. The caster gains 100% of the damage… |
Cost and tooltip text changed. Ranks 1 → 3.
| Classic Era | Forever | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | 90 Mana | 50 Mana |
| Ranks | 1 rank | 3 ranks |
| Text | …the friendly target to detect invisibility for 10 min. | …the friendly target to detect lesser invisibility for 10 min. |
Drain Soul grows a progressive per-tick shard chance — see Mechanics. — see Headline Changes ↑
Cost and tooltip text changed.
| Classic Era | Forever | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | 79 Power -2, 52 Power -2 per sec | 79 Power -2, 61 Power -2 per sec |
| Text | …long as the caster channels. | …long as the caster channels. Generates reduced threat. |
Life Tap now scales with Spirit in Forever.
| Classic Era | Forever | |
|---|---|---|
| Text | Converts 420 health into 420 mana | Converts [dynamic] Health into [dynamic] Mana for you. Spirit increases the amount… |
Cost and cooldown changed.
| Classic Era | Forever | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | 12% of base mana | 100% of base mana |
| Cooldown | 2 min cooldown | 60 min cooldown |
Duration changed.
| Classic Era | Forever | |
|---|---|---|
| Duration | — | 15 sec |
Curse of the Elements is covered as a headline — see Headline Changes ↑
Not in the Forever client.
Not in the Forever client.
Not in the Forever client.
Not in the Forever client.
Not in the Forever client.
Not in the Forever client.
Thirteen separate stone-creation spells — one per tier (Minor, Lesser, Greater, Major) — are gone. Forever's Create Firestone, Create Healthstone, Create Soulstone and Create Spellstone carry ranks instead (see Changed Abilities): Create Firestone (Greater), Create Firestone (Lesser), Create Firestone (Major), Create Healthstone (Greater), Create Healthstone (Lesser), Create Healthstone (Major), Create Healthstone (Minor), Create Soulstone (Greater), Create Soulstone (Lesser), Create Soulstone (Major), Create Soulstone (Minor), Create Spellstone (Greater), Create Spellstone (Major).
Firestone and Spellstone are now weapon imbues that stack with other temporary enchantments.
Drain Soul has a progressive per-tick chance to grant a Soul Shard, rising until guaranteed.
New talent. Destruction, row 6, 3 ranks.
Era talent; no Forever counterpart.
Era talent; no Forever counterpart.
Fire and Brimstone is covered as a headline — see Headline Changes ↑
Era talent; no Forever counterpart.
Era talent; no Forever counterpart.
Era talent; no Forever counterpart.
Era talent; no Forever counterpart.
New talent. Destruction, row 3, 5 ranks.
New talent. Destruction, row 8, 5 ranks.
New talent. Demonology, row 6, 2 ranks.
New talent. Demonology, row 3, 2 ranks.
New talent. Demonology, row 3, 2 ranks.
New talent. Demonology, row 7, 3 ranks.
Era talent; no Forever counterpart.
Era talent; no Forever counterpart.
New talent. Demonology, row 3, 3 ranks.
New talent. Demonology, row 7, 3 ranks.
Era talent; no Forever counterpart.
Era talent; no Forever counterpart.
Era talent; no Forever counterpart.
Era talent; no Forever counterpart.
Era talent; no Forever counterpart.
New talent. Affliction, row 5, 2 ranks.
Era talent; no Forever counterpart.
Era talent; no Forever counterpart.
Era talent; no Forever counterpart.
Era talent; no Forever counterpart.
Era talent; no Forever counterpart.
Era talent; no Forever counterpart.
New talent. Affliction, row 3, 3 ranks.
New talent. Affliction, row 6, 5 ranks.
New talent. Affliction, row 3, 2 ranks.
Row 2 → 3.
Row 3 → 4.
Changed.
Row 1 → 3 · Max ranks 5 → 3.
Row 7 → 6.
Row 5 → 6.
Row 1 → 2.
Changed.
Row 4 → 2.
Row 3 → 5 · Max ranks 5 → 3.
Row 3 → 6.
Row 4 → 3.
Row 1 → 2.
Changed.
Row 1 → 2.
Row 2 → 1.
Row 3 → 5.
Row 1 → 2.
Row 2 → 3.
Row 4 → 6 · Max ranks 2 → 3.
Row 6 → 8.
Row 4 → 5.
Row 4 → 6.
Row 5 → 7.
Max ranks 1 → 5.
Row 6 → 8.
Row 3 → 5.
Row 5 → 7.
Changed.
Row 1 → 2.
Row 4 → 2.
Tooltip text changed.
| Classic Era | Forever | |
|---|---|---|
| Text | …target in a shield of fire. Every strike against the target causes 13 Fire damage to the… | …target in a shield of fire. Every strike against the target causes 13 Fire damage to the… |
Tooltip text changed.
| Classic Era | Forever | |
|---|---|---|
| Text | Deals 93 damage to a target. | Deals 44 Fire damage to a target. |
The Classic Era Demonic Pact spell record is not in the Forever client; a new Demonology talent carries the name (see Talents).
Not listed: 23 of 144 entries, excluded by category (tooltip-text-only: 22 · other-named: 1).
Each of your other Affliction effects on the target makes Drain Life, Drain Soul, Wrack hit and drain harder — damage AND healing, per the client tooltip of [Soul Siphon]!.
3 effects × 12% = +36%, capped at +36%. Three effects saturate the talent; more effects add nothing here.
It appears in no official source: not the Warlock deep dive, not any beta notes batch, not the client data. The high-thirties number that does exist is this panel’s +36% — an offensive amplification of drains, not a defensive stat.
The class’s actual defensive pieces are separate and smaller: [Molten Skin]! is the only flat damage-reduction talent the deep dive names (up to 10%), and [Soul Link]! moves a share of incoming damage onto your demon — a transfer with a demon’s health bar behind it, not a reduction. The deep dive publishes no percentage for Soul Link at all.
Forever’s Demonology can keep a dungeon’s attention on the pet — as a pet mechanic, not a tank specialization (DD-RW announces none). The pillars, all official: pets scale from the Warlock’s own stats; [Demonic Brand]! marks a target so the pet’s next attacks deal bonus damage — high threat only when that damage is Shadow (BN-1008); [Improved Health Funnel]! heals the pet while generating up to 100% less threat; and the Voidwalker’s Sacrifice scales with 10% of the Warlock’s spell healing (BN-0924).
The demonless alternative runs through [Demonic Sacrifice]! (11-point, redesigned: two-hour effects, re-mapped per demon) and [Demonic Pact]!, which lets a sacrifice persist through summoning a different pet — Sacrifice and Master Demonologist can stack for the first time.
Seven demon families answer a Warlock in Forever. All of them scale from the summoner's stats — the Demonology headline above — and each family's record below lists its signature ability.
[Blood Pact]!
[Suffering]!
[Lash of Pain]!
No unique ability published yet.
[Paranoia]!
No unique ability published yet.
No unique ability published yet.
Three trees, 51 points at level 60. Rows unlock every 5 points spent across the build; milestones at 11, 16, 21 and 31 points; capstones at 30. Click a node to spend — hover for its tooltip, with the next rank shown while it is unmaxed.
Click to spend · Shift-click or right-click to remove. A tier unlocks at 5 points per tier spent across the build; ◆ marks the 11/16/21/31-point milestones. Arrows show only the prerequisites present in the client TraitEdge data (8 of 52 talents here) — a prerequisite must be at max rank.
Talent-granted spells only. Trainer-taught baseline spells are not listed.
Voidwalker Sacrifice correctly scales with 10% of the Warlock’s spell healing; the Life Tap tooltip is corrected to state its Spirit scaling.
Hellfire can now crit; Drain Soul is properly interrupted by casting another spell.
Curses split from Banes, pets scale from the Warlock, Demonic Sacrifice is redesigned into the 11-point slot, Soul Link drops to 21, Demonic Pact is…
Demonic Brand’s bonus pet damage generates high threat only when it deals Shadow damage; the current pet is stunned while a new pet is summoned.
Malediction is replaced by Grim Reach; Shadow Mastery rises to 2/4/6/8/10% — reversing the deep dive’s reduction; Destructive Reach becomes +10/20%…
Orc Command is re-added: +5% pet damage for Warlocks (and Hunters), replacing the Oct 15 Savage crit racial.
Every batch, every reversion, every value — set against Classic Era 1.15.9.
