Warlock Raid Role in WoW: Forever — What Affliction…

Our earlier Warlock guides cover the starter basics, Affliction leveling, Demonology's Soul Link build, Destruction 10–60 and level 60 gearing. This one is about raid night: what every Warlock brings, how curse assignments work now that Banes and Curses are separate, what each spec adds, and what Blizzard's final pre-launch notes changed. Where this disagrees with our older posts, this one is newer.

Key dates (Blizzard): the game launched Nov 4, 2026. Barrow Deeps (10 players), Hyjal Summit (20 players) and Onyxia's Lair (40 players) open on Dec 9.

Read this first: the beta stopped at level 30 and had no raids. Blizzard hasn't revealed boss mechanics for Barrow Deeps or Hyjal Summit; for Onyxia it has said to expect powerful fire attacks and to build fire resistance. Numbers below come from Blizzard's Nov 2 notes and from beta client data shown on community sites (data date Nov 3). The draft builds assume 51 talent points at 60, and Forever's boss hit cap isn't published. Nothing here has been tested at level 60.

What changed on Nov 2 (official)

From Blizzard's "Beta Development Notes – Updated November 2" (posted the evening of Nov 2, Pacific). Endgame Tools reports some of the Warlock changes were already in the Nov 3 client build. Blizzard says that apart from bugs and serious outliers, it doesn't plan big tuning changes before the raids open.

Pets get 2 health per point of your Stamina (was 7.5). Your demon is much more fragile in raid AoE now.

Spellstones only increase Shadow damage now. Fire builds use a Firestone.

Drain Soul gives a Soul Shard much less often when it damages without killing. A killing blow still always gives one.

Affliction: Amplify Curse now affects Curse of Exhaustion and Bane of Agony. Improved Drains no longer boosts Wrack, and Wrack takes twice as much of your spell damage (wowforeverprogress lists 86 Shadow damage per second at 60).

Destruction: Shadow and Flame goes up to 20% (was 10%).

Every class: Salvation is gone, and Bear Form and Defensive Stance make much more threat to make up for it. Leader of the Pack and Moonkin Aura raise every kind of crit again but don't stack with each other.

Warlock races: Orc Savage is removed and Command is back (+5% damage for Warlock and Hunter pets), and Blood Fury is on a 2-minute cooldown. Human Ruthless drops to 1% crit and The Human Spirit rises to 10% Spirit. Troll Berserking lasts 15 seconds. Undead Touch of the Grave has a 15-second internal cooldown.

What every Warlock brings

From the spellbook in the beta client data (wowforeverprogress), so every spec has these:

Curse of the Elements: +10% magic damage taken and 75 lower resistances for 5 minutes. Forever has no Curse of Shadow, so this one curse covers Fire, Frost, Shadow, Arcane, Nature and Holy casters alike. It's the curse your raid will want first.

Curse of Recklessness (505 armor, the target ignores Fear) and Curse of Weakness (less physical damage, boosted by Amplify Curse) for the melee and the tanks. Curse of Tongues slows casts by 60%.

Banes are separate from Curses. Curse of Agony is now Bane of Agony and Curse of Doom is Bane of Doom. Each Warlock can keep one Bane and one Curse on the same target, so whoever is on Curse of the Elements still keeps Agony up.

Healthstones (Major: 1,440 health) and Soulstones (Major: back with 2,200 health and 2,800 mana). Improved Healthstone isn't in the Forever talent trees.

Ritual of Summoning (you plus 2 helpers, a Soul Shard) to get late raiders to the door.

Banish on demons and elementals, Fear and Howl of Terror, and Seduction on humanoids from the Succubus or Incubus.

Felhunter: Spell Lock (counters a cast and locks that school for 8 seconds, 30-second cooldown) and Devour Magic (removes a harmful magic effect from an ally or a buff from an enemy).

Imp: Blood Pact, +54 Stamina to your party.

Different from Classic: Improved Shadow Bolt now only boosts your own Shadow damage, so one Destruction Warlock no longer raises every Warlock's damage.

Curse assignments with several Warlocks

Based on the spell data above (our suggestion, not an official rule). Each Warlock can only have one Curse on a target, but every Warlock's Bane has its own slot.

One Warlock on Curse of the Elements. It helps every caster in the raid, so it's the first job.

One Warlock on Curse of Recklessness if you have enough physical damage, or Curse of Weakness if the tank is taking too much. Use Amplify Curse first if you have it.

Everyone keeps their own Bane of Agony (or Bane of Doom on long fights) on the boss. Destruction can put Bane of Havoc on a second target in cleave fights.

10-player with one Warlock: Curse of the Elements plus your Bane.

Soulstone a healer before the pull and hand out Healthstones before every boss. Shards come slower now, so finish trash with Drain Soul.

One Felhunter for Spell Lock and Devour Magic is worth asking for if your raid is short on interrupts or dispels.

Watch out for a known issue reported by wowforeverprogress: after dropping and re-taking a target, your Bane and Curse tracking can be wrong, so check debuffs by eye.

What each spec adds

The builds below are wowforeverprogress's drafts (Affliction/Demonology/Destruction order). They say themselves there are no level 60 sims or logs yet.

Affliction: DoTs and Wrack. Draft 40/11/0. Sacrifice the Imp with Demonic Sacrifice (+15% Shadow for 2 hours), keep Bane of Agony, Corruption and Siphon Life up, and fill with Wrack, which also makes your other Shadow DoTs hit 10% harder for 6 seconds. Soul Siphon adds up to 36% to Wrack. Shadow Bolt only on a Nightfall proc. Your DoTs keep ticking while you move. A pet build (40/11/0 with Felhunter) gives up the 15% to bring Spell Lock.

Demonology: Demonic Pact. Draft 5/31/15. Sacrifice the Imp, then summon a Succubus or Incubus and keep both bonuses thanks to Demonic Pact. Master Demonologist adds 10% Shadow, Soul Link 3% damage and Decimation makes Soul Fire fast and shard-free under 35%. The catch: with pets down to 2 health per Stamina, a pet taking 30% of your damage through Soul Link dies faster, so keep it out of cleaves. Orc Command (+5% pet damage) matters most here. A Fire build sacrifices the Succubus and keeps the Imp for Blood Pact.

Destruction: two 20% windows. Draft 7/11/33. Keep Immolate up, Conflagrate on cooldown (+20% Shadow for 20 seconds, Immolate stays) and Shadowburn on cooldown (+20% Fire for 20 seconds, refunds its shard), Shadow Bolt as filler with Demonic Sacrifice on the Imp. A Fire variant takes Aftermath and fills with Incinerate. Hellfire and Rain of Fire for AoE trash; Hellfire burns you too, so warn your healer.

See our gearing guide for stats. It was written before the Nov 2 changes, so the pet and Spellstone parts are now out of date.

Threat without Salvation

There's no Salvation any more. Tank stances and Bear Form make more threat now, but tanks still need a few seconds. Suppression (5% hit, 20% less threat) is in all three draft builds. Ruin crits and the 20% Shadow and Flame windows raise your threat as well, and Searing Pain makes high threat. Let the tank get going and watch a threat meter.

Before Dec 9

Get to 60, collect Soul Shards (they come slower now), and keep a few for Soulstones, Healthstones and summons.

Re-check your talents after the Nov 2 changes, and set your weapon stone: Spellstone for Shadow, Firestone for Fire.

Agree on curse jobs with your raid leader: who's on Curse of the Elements, Recklessness or Weakness, and who brings a Felhunter.

Onyxia's Lair: Blizzard says to build fire resistance, and you need the Drakefire Amulet to enter. Destruction's Fire variant will likely fare worse there if Onyxia resists Fire, but that's unconfirmed.

What's still unknown: boss mechanics and creature types (for Banish), which casts can be Spell Locked, the boss hit cap, whether 51 talent points is right, how much pets scale from your gear, and how the three specs compare once real logs exist. We'll update when raids open.

Sources

Blizzard: Beta Development Notes – Updated November 2, raid overview (raid sizes, Onyxia fire resistance, Drakefire Amulet)

Endgame Tools: Nov 2 launch class changes (Warlock, race and every-class changes, and which build carries them)

Beta client data and draft raid builds: wowforeverprogress Warlock overview, Affliction, Demonology and Destruction guides (data from talentsforever.com, CC BY 4.0)

Images: header and raid utility cheat-sheet by Systematic, made for this post using the Systematic wallpaper and brand colours. Spell icons on the card © Blizzard Entertainment via Wowhead (Classic icons used as stand-ins; Forever's may differ). Card numbers from Blizzard's Nov 2 notes and beta client data (wowforeverprogress).