Midnight Warlock Guide

WoW Midnight Warlock is a popular class for players who like pets, DoT spells, and strong damage. In this Midnight Warlock Guide, we will cover the basics of playing this class. Everything, including rotations, stats, best gear, consumables, and more. You will also learn tips for leveling and improving your Midnight Warlock in pre-patch.

Midnight Warlock Key Takeaways:

• Warlocks are strong ranged DPS with pets and DoTs.
• They have limited mobility but good defensives, self-healing, and utility.
• Each Midnight Warlock spec has a different playstyle despite them filling the same ranged DPS role.
• Knowing rotation, CDs, and positioning is very important for Warlock. This might take a bit of practice.

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Midnight Warlock Overview

Warlocks in Midnight deal strong ranged damage via DoT effects and summoning demons. Unlike many other casters, they have limited mobility and rely heavily on positioning. However, Warlocks make up for this with strong defensive tools, self-healing, and high damage in both single-target and AoE fights. Here’s a quick sheet of Midnight Warlock specs:

The class brings very useful abilities to groups such as Healthstones, Soulstones, and strong CC. This makes Warlocks very desirable in raids and Mythic+, making it easy to find groups. Each Midnight Warlock specialization offers a different playstyle, from DoT-heavy management to demon army gameplay or direct burst casting.

📌 Demonology is the strongest specialization in Midnight pre-patch, so our general advice will revolve around it in this guide. However, we have separate guides for each spec that you can check out for more specialized advice.

Midnight Warlock is perfect for players who enjoy controlling the battlefield, managing resources, and dealing consistent ranged damage. If you want to level up a Warlock in Midnight without spending your time, check out our Powerleveling.

Midnight Warlock Strengths and Weaknesses

Warlock in WoW Midnight is strong during both leveling and endgame. They have DoTs, demons that can tank, and strong defensive CDs. The class is not very mobile, but it makes up for that with survivability and good damage.

Midnight Warlock Best Race

Both Horde and Alliance Midnight Warlocks can be played as almost any race. In retail WoW, racial differences are very small compared to older expansions, so your choice should mostly come down to personal preference, aesthetics, and faction. If you want to optimize purely for performance, here are the best Midnight Warlock races:

Alliance:

• Dwarf: Strong defense with Stoneform, which removes certain debuffs and reduces damage taken.

Horde:

• Orc: Blood Fury is a great ability for Midnight Warlocks as it increases spell power on use.
• Tauren: Increased stamina and War Stomp for CC is great for Warlocks in WoW Midnight.

Overall, the performance gap between races is minimal. Pick the race you enjoy playing the most. The impact on your overall DPS will be small compared to proper rotation and having good gear.

Midnight Warlock Abilities

The Midnight Warlock abilities vary by spec, but some are shared across all specializations. You will always manage Soul Shards, control demons, and use defensive cooldowns to survive heavy damage.

Warlock is not hard to start, but understanding when to use CDs and defensives takes some practice. That said, once you learn your most important abilities, the class feels very strong to play. Here is a simple breakdown of the main Warlock ability categories:

Learning how to use all of these abilities can be daunting, but our PvE Coaching can help with just that.

Midnight Warlock Talents

The Midnight Warlock Talents in the Pre-Patch follow the modern WoW talent system and are split into two main trees:

• The first is the Class Talent Tree, shared by all Warlocks. This tree focuses on core defensive abilities, mobility tools, crowd control, and utility.
• The second is the Specialization Talent Tree, which changes based on whether you play Affliction, Demonology, or Destruction.

Each specialization plays very differently, and talent choices can significantly change your rotation and damage style.

Full talent builds and detailed recommendations for every Warlock spec are covered in our separate guides.

Midnight Warlock Hero Talents

Midnight Warlock Hero Talents are a separate talent tree that adds passive effects and major bonuses to your build. These talents unlock more customization and can change how your spec feels.

Hero Talents are shared between specific specializations:

• Affliction: Soul Harvester / Hellcaller;
• Demonology: Diabolist / Soul Harvester;
• Destruction: Diabolist / Hellcaller.

Hero Talents depend on your chosen specialization. Some of them focus on buffing demons and improving damage, while others enhance DoTs. Choosing the right Hero Talent path can make your preferred playstyle stronger and better match the content you are doing.

If you want to learn more about this system, check out our Midnight Hero Talents Overview

Midnight Warlock Apex Talents

Midnight Warlock Apex Talents are available to all Warlocks, but their real value changes depending on your spec. Some Apex options are better for heavy AoE builds, and others improve single-target damage or burst windows.

The best Apex choice usually depends on both your spec and the type of content you are doing, such as raids or Mythic+.

We provide a full breakdown of Midnight Warlock Apex Talents, including recommendations for each specialization and situation, in our dedicated WoW Apex Talents Guide.

Midnight Warlock Changes

Midnight Pre-Patch brings big changes to all three Warlock specializations. The overall changes aim at simplification. Some old buffs and mechanics were removed, and certain specs return to more classic gameplay styles.

Midnight Warlock Changes:

• Reduced talent overlap between specializations.
• Cleaner separation between single-target and AoE builds.
• Fewer stacked modifiers affect the same abilities.
• Improved scaling for core spenders across all specs.
• Simplified damage amp in AoE fights.
• More defined ramp windows for specs that rely on setup.
• Overall rotation pacing feels slightly slower but more deliberate.

With all these changes, Warlock in Midnight feels simpler and more fun to play. Even with simplified mechanics, Midnight Warlocks are still strong and reliable for raids and dungeons.

A good Warlock in Midnight shouldn’t have any issues getting Keystone Hero and similar endgame achievements. However, if you don’t want to spend your time doing that yourself, we can also help you out.

How to Play Warlock in Midnight

The Midnight Warlock gameplay is about managing Soul Shards, demons, and DoTs. The class relies on timing of spenders like Chaos Bolt, Unstable Affliction, or Hand of Gul’dan.

To play Warlock well in WoW Midnight, you should focus on getting better at executing your rotation. Learning when to use consumables can also help out a lot. Doing this makes your gameplay better by increasing your damage.

Midnight Warlock Rotation

In WoW Midnight Warlock rotation centers on keeping DoTs on enemies, managing Soul Shards, and using pets. They also need to use CDs and defensives at the right times.

Single Target Rotation:

1. Power Siphon.
2. Call Dreadstalkers.
3. Ruination and Hand of Gul’dan.
4. Summon Demonic Tyrant.
5. Demonbolt and Demonic Core.
6. Infernal Bolt.

AoE Rotation:

1. Implosion with 6+ Wild Imps.
2. Call Dreadstalkers.
3. Ruination / Hand of Gul’dan.
4. Summon Demonic Tyrant.
5. Demonbolt with Demonic Core.
6. Infernal Bolt.

Following this rotation will help you maintain your damage. With practice, it will become easy to manage your abilities and resources without thinking too much about it.

Midnight Warlock Consumables

Consumables are important to do more DPS and avoid incoming damage. Potions, flasks, and food are basically mandatory for all endgame content. Here’s a list of the best Midnight Warlock consumables:

Midnight Warlock Enchants

Another path to improving your character is enchanting your gear. Midnight Warlock enchants are applied to gear to make it stronger by adding extra stats.

Midnight Warlock Macros

Midnight Warlock macros can make your gameplay a bit more convenient. Macros let you combine multiple spells into 1 button, and use cooldowns with fewer clicks.

Summon Demon Macro:

#showtooltip
/cast [nopet] Summon Felhunter

Casts your summon spell only if your pet isn’t active.

Fear Macro:

#showtooltip
/cast [@focus,harm,nodead][@target] Fear

Casts Fear on your focus target if it exists, otherwise on your current target.

Soulstone Macro:

#showtooltip
/cast [@player] Soulstone

Applies Soulstone to yourself quickly without targeting.

Midnight Warlock Leveling

Midnight Warlock leveling works well for solo play. Warlocks can handle most enemies by themselves and rarely stop between fights. Pets, DoTs, and defensives can help you gain XP quickly. Here are some Midnight Warlock leveling tips:

• Bring Heirlooms, bags, and some consumables if you have them.
• Complete story quests and zones for the fastest XP, or run dungeons as an alternative.
• Keep your DoTs active, manage Soul Shards, and use defensive spells when needed.
• Movement and utility abilities like Demonic Circle, Fear, and Unending Resolve can save your life in a rough situation.

Midnight Warlock Leveling Talents

Here is an optimized talent leveling route for Warlock in the Midnight Pre-Patch. Keep in mind that in Midnight, characters also have a new Apex Talent tree available. It is included in this progression guide.

Additionally, we offer you to use this level 80 Midnight Warlock leveling build for XP gains:

Midnight Warlock Leveling Rotation

Midnight Warlocks leveling rotation is fairly simple in pre-patch. Just like at max level, they want to keep DoTs active and using Soul Shards efficiently. Pets play a bigger role during leveling, though, as they can both tank and do damage.

Single Target Rotation:

• Keep DoTs active on the target.
• Use your main spender ability whenever you have enough Soul Shards.
• Use filler spells to generate Soul Shards if needed.
• Make sure your pet is attacking and using its abilities.

Midnight Warlock Best in Slot

Warlock BiS gear in the Midnight Pre-Patch sets the maximum potential for the class in the endgame. However, there isn’t a single fixed set for every player. Your best gear depends on your spec and current stats. Here we have prepared a general Midnight Warlock BiS list that should cover most of your needs.

Want to get your hands on all this gear without stress? We can help you with Gearing at any time!

Midnight Warlock Stats

Midnight Warlock values all stats fairly closely in Midnight. In most situations, item level is your best stat, since a higher item level means more Intellect and overall stats. However, there is a slight preference toward Haste and Critical Strike.

General Stat Priority

• Intellect: Is your primary stat and increases all your spell damage.
• Haste: Improves cast speed and helps you generate resources faster, making your rotation feel smoother.
• Critical Strike: Increases your chance to deal double damage and works well with Demonology’s burst windows.
• Mastery: Increases your demon damage, providing consistent scaling.
• Versatility: Increases damage and reduces damage taken, but is usually slightly behind the other secondaries.

Best Warlock Cartel Chip Items

In WoW Midnight, Cartel Chips are a currency you can use to buy raid and Mythic+ gear. They let you get the items you want without waiting for drops. Here are the best WoW Midnight Warlock Cartel Chip Items:

1. Voidglass Sovereign’s Blade or Voidglass Kris;
2. Astral Antenna;
3. Araz’s Ritual Forge or Azhiccaran Parapodia;
4. Interloper’s Silken Striders;
5. Logic Gate: Alpha.

Midnight Warlock Best Profession

Compared to older expansions, professions in retail WoW offer very small direct combat bonuses. Because of that, your profession choice as a Midnight Warlock will not significantly impact your DPS. You can choose based on gold-making potential, convenience, or personal preference.

That said, some professions can provide small benefits to Midnight Warlocks:

• Tailoring: You can craft your own armor pieces, and some crafted items can be very close to Best in Slot early in a tier. It also gives you more control over gearing progression.
• Alchemy: Great for long-term value. You can craft your own flasks and potions, saving gold over time. This is especially useful if you raid or push Mythic+ frequently.
• Enchanting: Lets you enchant your own gear without relying on the Auction House. It also provides a steady source of income through disenchanting unwanted items.

In Midnight, professions are mostly about convenience and economy rather than just power. Choose the one that fits your playstyle and goals best. Your performance will depend far more on your rotation, talents, and encounter knowledge than on your profession choice. Professions can also take a long time to level due to the Profession Knowledge mechanic. However, we can save you a lot of time with it as well.

Midnight Warlock PvP

Midnight Warlocks are good in PvP. They have great CC and DoTs. Pets can also help with PvP fights and distract enemies. They also have defenses like Unending Resolve and Dark Pact that will help them to stay alive during arena and battleground matches. Staying in good positions to avoid strong attacks also helps in PvP.

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Warlocks in Midnight are strong and fun to play. They can deal great damage in both single-target and AoE, and have impeccable group utility. While they are not very mobile, careful positioning and timing make them effective in any content. With practice, Warlocks are reliable for solo play, dungeons, raids, and PvP.