Azeroth Survivors Warlock build

How does an Azeroth Survivors Warlock build play in a run?

An Azeroth Survivors Warlock build is damage over time with one aimed shot. Curses keep ticking while you walk, Shadow Bolt and the three Strikes hit whatever is nearest, and Rain Of Fire or Hellfire clears the clump behind you. You win by moving, not by standing still to cast.

The class text in the game's own lore table calls the Warlock a master of curses who rends forbidden shadow-rot power, torments enemies with corruption and calls hellfire down until the ground is scorched. That is the build in one line: damage that keeps going after you stop attacking. Nothing in the pool heals you except Death Coil's drain, and the mode has no mana cost, so every ability fires on its own cooldown and the only resource you spend is position.

Damage over time versus one big hit

A DoT is damage you pay for once and then forget; a Strike is damage you have to land again every 1.8 to 5 seconds. Warlock runs feel bad when the build is all Strikes, because you end up standing inside the wave to land them. Two DoTs plus one or two Strikes is the mix that keeps the class moving, and it is also the mix that keeps a long run alive when the bosses land.

Which abilities are in the Warlock pool, and what are their numbers?

The nine Warlock abilities sit in five engine kinds: two Bolts, two DoTs, three Strikes, one Ground effect and one Aura. The table below is every ability with the numbers the game ships: direct damage, damage per tick, duration, cooldown, range or radius, and how many enemies one cast touches.

Four numbers decide most Warlock runs. Shadowburn is the biggest single hit in the pool at 46, but it comes back only every 5 seconds. Hellfire is the cheapest sustained damage at 6 every second inside a 7 radius around your own hero, which is also why it is the ability that kills careless runs. Shadow Bolt is 15 on the pool's fastest cooldown at 1.4 seconds, and the two curses carry the widest target counts: Corruption ticks on up to 3 enemies, Curse Of Agony on up to 4. Death Coil is the only heal in the pool, returning half of its 26 damage as health, and Rain Of Fire is the only ability that damages a patch of floor instead of a body.

Every row above comes from the survivor ability table that ships with the browser build, and the engine behind it is the open-source benilla client, whose spell record reader is spells/mod.rs in the benilla-formats crate. The mode has no mana cost, so cooldown is the only limit on any of these numbers.

What is the fastest start for an Azeroth Survivors Warlock build?

Take Shadow Bolt's first levels, then Corruption, then one Strike, then Rain Of Fire. Corruption keeps ticking while you dodge, the Strike finishes what the curses leave behind, and Rain Of Fire covers the group that forms once waves thicken. Hold the last slots until the run tells you what it needs.

1. Start the run on Shadow Bolt and buy nothing else first, because it is your only attack until the first card and its 1.4-second cooldown sets the rhythm the rest of the run keeps.
2. Take Corruption with your second pick, because its 10-second duration keeps working while you walk, which is exactly when Shadow Bolt is not firing.
3. Add Immolate or Searing Pain as the third ability, whichever appears first, because both are cheap Strikes and Immolate's 9-second burn keeps paying between casts.
4. Take Rain Of Fire once enemies arrive in groups, because it is the pool's only Ground ability and its 6-second duration covers a whole wave instead of one body.
5. Level Shadow Bolt and Corruption before you open a fourth slot, because an ability levels to 8 and one level-8 ability does far more than four level-1 abilities in the same fight.
6. Leave the last one or two slots empty until a card makes the choice for you, because six abilities is the hard cap and a slot spent on a skill you never level cannot be taken back.
7. Take Death Coil only when a run keeps ending to chip damage, because its 5-second cooldown is slow and its real value is the half-damage drain, not the 26 hit.

Played in that order the run never has a dead moment: the curses tick while you walk, the Strikes clean up what the curses leave, and Rain Of Fire handles the pile that collects behind you. Death Coil and Shadowburn are second-half choices, not opening picks.

Which of the two Warlock skill routes should you run?

Run the curse route for your first Warlock runs, because two DoTs keep working while you move. Run the burn route once dodging is automatic, since it trades duration for heavier hits and a Hellfire that burns a 7 radius every second. Both routes keep Shadow Bolt for the whole run.

The burn route of the Azeroth Survivors Warlock build leans on the three Strikes and the two area abilities. Searing Pain is the fastest Strike at 1.8 seconds, Immolate adds a 9-second burn on top of its 12 direct damage, and Shadowburn closes fights every 5 seconds with the pool's biggest number. Rain Of Fire and Hellfire make up the middle of the route: one covers a spot on the floor for 6 seconds, the other burns a 7 radius around you every second. The cost is target count, because nothing on this route touches more than 2 enemies at a time except the two area abilities.

What the burn route gives up

Two DoTs and six passive slots compete for the same levels, and the burn route spends most of them on abilities that only fire while you can see a target. That is fine against bosses, which arrive on a fixed timer, and rough in the minutes where the wave surrounds you. If a run dies to being boxed in rather than to a boss, the curse route is the correction, not more levels in Shadowburn.

Which passive cards fit an Azeroth Survivors Warlock build?

Passive cards are not class-specific in Azeroth Survivors: every class draws from the same ten-card pool, holds six and levels each card to 5. For the Azeroth Survivors Warlock build the picks are damage, area and haste, because those three scale the curses and the Bolts at the same time.

Because the pool is shared, a Warlock's passive plan is the same plan a Warrior or a Mage follows; only the ability picks differ. Blessing of Might, Amplify Magic and Arcane Intellect are the three that scale the whole kit, since area reaches Hellfire's 7 radius and cast speed shortens the cooldowns above. Detect Lesser Invisibility is the quality-of-life pick that lets you collect experience without walking into the wave, and Power Word: Fortitude is the one to take when runs end to a single mistake rather than to slow damage.

When to take a passive instead of an ability

Take a passive while your damage already handles the current wave and the problem is staying alive, and take a fresh ability while the wave still outlives your cooldowns. Six slots at five levels each means a passive you keep taking beats four passives you took once, and that is the whole passive half of the Azeroth Survivors Warlock build.

Why does an Azeroth Survivors Warlock build feel weak at the start?

It feels weak because one Shadow Bolt at 15 damage is the whole kit for the first minute, and the wave is already wider than one target. Corruption as the second pick is the fastest fix: it ticks on up to 3 enemies for 10 seconds while you reposition, damage the Bolt could never deliver on the move.

• Standing still to cast. Shadow Bolt reaches 24 range, so keep circling and let the curses work while you reposition.
• Taking all three Strikes. Three direct-hit abilities compete for the same seconds, and none of them tick while you dodge.
• Buying a new ability when the card beside it would level an old one. Level 8 in Corruption beats level 1 in Death Coil every time.
• Ignoring area until the screen is full. Rain Of Fire is cheap to add early and expensive to add in a panic.
• Spending passive slots on defence by default. Six slots at five levels each is a lot of damage to give up before you know the run needs it.
• Skipping pickups to fight. Levels are the only way to reach the cards that make the class work.

Every one of those mistakes shows up in the first five levels, which is also where the class is weakest. Fix the opening and the Azeroth Survivors Warlock build takes care of the rest of the run.

Azeroth Survivors Warlock build FAQ