TBC Classic Warlock Macro Guide (Affliction, Demonology & Destruction) — Burning Crusade Anniversary 2026

Warlock is one of the macro-heaviest classes in TBC Classic. Between juggling multiple pets, managing Soul Shards, applying stacking DoTs, landing precise fears, and keeping your Felhunter alive in arena, the difference between a sloppy Warlock and a clean one is almost entirely in their macro setup. This guide covers all the essential TBC Classic Warlock macros — organized by category so you can build your bars efficiently, whatever spec you’re running in the Burning Crusade Anniversary.

Table of Contents

Why Warlocks Need Macros in TBC Classic

Unlike a lot of DPS specs, Warlock doesn’t just benefit from macros — it more or less requires them for competitive play. Here’s what you’re solving:

Pet management — sending, recalling, and using pet abilities without losing your main target
Fear timing — stopcasting your current spell to land an emergency Fear without delay
Burst alignment — stacking trinkets, Destruction Potion, and Blood Fury (Orc racial) into a single keypress
Utility speed — summoning raid members, placing Soulwells, and distributing Healthstones without hunting through menus

Get these right and your gameplay will feel significantly cleaner across both PvE and PvP.

How to Create Macros in TBC Classic

Press Escape → Macros, or type /macro in chat
Click New, name your macro, pick an icon
Paste your macro code into the text box
Drag to your action bar and keybind

⚡ You get 36 general macros and 18 character-specific macros. Warlocks will want most of those slots — plan your layout before you start.

Universal Warlock Macros (All Specs)

Stopcasting Fear

#showtooltip Fear
/stopcasting
/cast Fear

🎯 The single most important Warlock macro in PvP. Drops your current cast and lands Fear immediately. Without /stopcasting, your fear gets delayed by whatever spell is mid-cast — often long enough to lose the window. Bind this and use it constantly.

Stopcasting Shadow Bolt

#showtooltip Shadow Bolt
/stopcasting
/cast Shadow Bolt

Cancels any active channel (like Drain Life) and starts casting Shadow Bolt immediately. Useful when you need to switch from a drain into a hardcast without wasting time.

Pet Attack / Follow Toggle

#showtooltip
/petattack [target=pettarget,noexists]
/petfollow [target=pettarget,exists]

First press sends your pet to attack. Second press calls it back. Keeps your demon actively managed without ever touching the pet action bar mid-fight.

Universal Pet Ability (All Demons)

#showtooltip [pet:imp] Fire Shield; [pet:voidwalker] Sacrifice; [pet:felhunter] Spell Lock; [pet:succubus] Seduction
/use [pet:imp] Fire Shield; [pet:voidwalker] Sacrifice; [pet:felhunter] Spell Lock; [pet:succubus] Seduction

🔥 One button that fires the right pet ability depending on which demon you have active. Fire Shield for Imp, Sacrifice for Voidwalker, Spell Lock for Felhunter, Seduction for Succubus. Saves action bar space and removes any guesswork when you swap pets.

Summon All Demons — One Button

#showtooltip
/cast [nomod] Summon Imp
/cast [mod:shift] Summon Voidwalker
/cast [mod:ctrl] Summon Succubus
/cast [mod:alt] Summon Felhunter

All four summons in one button using modifier keys. No modifier calls your Imp, Shift calls Voidwalker, Ctrl calls Succubus, Alt calls Felhunter. Huge quality-of-life improvement for swapping pets between pulls.

Instant Summon via Fel Domination

#showtooltip
/cast Fel Domination
/cast Summon Felhunter

Uses Fel Domination to make the next demon summon instant and free. Replace “Summon Felhunter” with whichever demon you need. Critically useful in PvP when your Felhunter gets killed and you need it back immediately.

✅ You can also use this before your pet dies to re-summon it at full health without losing any active buffs on yourself.

Soulwell + Healthstone Rank Announce

#Showtooltip
/cast Ritual of Souls
/s 2/2 Healthstones — come get yours!

Casts your Ritual of Souls Soulwell and announces in party/raid chat simultaneously. Edit the rank text to match your Improved Healthstone talent investment. Small quality of life touch that saves a lot of back-and-forth in raid.

Ritual of Summoning Announce

#showtooltip Ritual of Summoning
/cast Ritual of Summoning
/s Summoning %t — click please!

Starts Ritual of Summoning and automatically announces the target’s name in chat. Prevents two Warlocks from accidentally summoning the same person, which wastes both your Soul Shards.

Healthstone Smart Usage

#Showtooltip
/use item:22105:0:0:0:0:0:0:0
/use item:22104:0:0:0:0:0:0:0
/use item:22103:0:0:0:0:0:0:0

Uses your highest-ranked Healthstone first, then works down through lower ranks automatically. No more manually tracking which rank you have in your bag.

Mouseover Soulstone

#showtooltip Create Soulstone
/cast [@mouseover, help, nodead] Create Soulstone

Casts Create Soulstone on whoever your cursor is hovering over, without losing your current target. Essential for applying Soulstones to healers pre-pull in a raid without tab-targeting around.

Destruction Warlock Macros

Full Burst — Trinkets + Destruction Potion

#Showtooltip
/use 13
/use 14
/use Destruction Potion
/cast Shadow Bolt
/cqs

⚔️ Pops both trinket slots and a Destruction Potion simultaneously, then immediately begins casting Shadow Bolt. If you’re an Orc, add /cast Blood Fury as a separate line before the Shadow Bolt cast.

🎯 Consider keeping a second version of this macro without the Destruction Potion for trash pulls and 5-mans where you don’t want to consume a potion.

Curse of the Elements + Pet Attack

#showtooltip Curse of the Elements
/petattack
/cast Curse of the Elements

Sends your pet to attack at the same moment you apply Curse of the Elements. Your demon starts dealing damage immediately on pull rather than waiting for a separate pet command.

Imp Firebolt + Shadow Bolt Sync

#showtooltip Shadow Bolt
/cast [target=pettarget,exists] Firebolt
/cast Shadow Bolt

Commands your Imp to fire Firebolt at its current target when you cast Shadow Bolt. The Imp’s AI can be sluggish — this nudges it to actually attack rather than stand idle. For Fire/Destro builds, swap Shadow Bolt for Incinerate.

Mana Potion + Shadow Bolt

#showtooltip
/use Super Mana Potion
/cast Shadow Bolt
/cqs

Uses a Super Mana Potion and immediately fires Shadow Bolt with no GCD wasted between the two. /cqs keeps it spammable.

Affliction Warlock Macros

Stopcasting Fear (Affliction PvP)

Affliction Warlocks are built around sustained pressure and fear rotations in arena. The stopcasting Fear macro listed in the Universal section is your most-used button — keep it on a prime keybind.

Focus Spell Lock (Felhunter Interrupt)

#showtooltip Spell Lock
/stopcasting
/cast [@focus] Spell Lock

Commands your Felhunter to interrupt your focus target’s cast without you switching off your damage target. Spell Lock is a 6-second silence on a 24-second cooldown — one of the best interrupts in the game. Don’t let it go to waste by losing your target.

Drain Life — No Channel Interrupt

#showtooltip Drain Life
/cast Drain Life

Simple as it looks — but use /stopcasting on a separate keybind rather than combining it here. This lets you channel Drain Life cleanly without accidentally canceling the channel when you press the button again.

Unstable Affliction + Corruption Opener

For Affliction, your opener isn’t one-button burst — it’s sequencing multiple DoTs cleanly. Use individual keybinds for each DoT, but make sure every one of them has /stopcasting above the cast so you can interrupt and reapply without wasted casts:

#showtooltip Unstable Affliction
/stopcasting
/cast Unstable Affliction

#showtooltip Corruption
/stopcasting
/cast Corruption

Apply Unstable Affliction first — its dispel punishment (1575 Shadow damage + 5-second silence) is what keeps enemy healers honest.

Demonology Warlock Macros

Demonic Empowerment + Shadow Bolt

#showtooltip Shadow Bolt
/cast Demonic Empowerment
/cast Shadow Bolt
/cqs

Weaves Demonic Empowerment into your rotation automatically on every Shadow Bolt cast. Keeps your pet buffed without requiring a separate keybind.

Fel Domination + Emergency Re-Summon

#showtooltip Summon Felhunter
/cast Fel Domination
/cast Summon Felhunter

🔥 Your panic button when your pet dies. Fel Domination makes the next summon instant — so instead of standing still for 5+ seconds re-summoning, your demon is back in the fight in one GCD. Swap “Summon Felhunter” for whatever demon you’re using.

PvP Warlock Macros

Arena 1 / 2 / 3 Fear

#showtooltip Fear
/stopcasting
/cast [@arena1] Fear

Duplicate for [@arena2] and [@arena3]. Lets you fear specific arena targets by number without switching your main target. Essential for landing cross-CC on a healer while your DoTs run on the kill target.

Focus Fear

#showtooltip Fear
/stopcasting
/cast [@focus] Fear

Fears your focus target directly. Set your focus on the enemy healer so you can fear them at any time without breaking your target lock on the kill target.

Arena Target Spell Lock

#showtooltip Spell Lock
/stopcasting
/cast [@arena1] Spell Lock

Duplicate for arena2 and arena3. Your Felhunter interrupts a specific arena target’s cast on command. In 2v2 and 3v3 this is how you shut down a healer’s cast without your pet wandering off target.

Felhunter — Devour Magic on Ally

#showtooltip Devour Magic
/cast [@mouseover, help, nodead] Devour Magic

Commands your Felhunter to Devour Magic on a friendly target hovered over, removing a magic debuff from them. On enemy targets, it purges a magic buff instead. One macro, two uses depending on who you hover over.

Pet Attack Totem Cleaner (vs Shaman)

/petattack Searing Totem
/petattack Tremor Totem
/petattack Grounding Totem

Sends your demon to destroy Shaman totems in sequence. Grounding Totem is the most important — it will absorb your Fear, Shadow Bolt, or any other targeted spell if it’s up. Kill it before you cast.

PvP Macro Quick Reference

Macro	Purpose	When to Use
Stopcasting Fear	Emergency CC without cast delay	Any PvP — your most-used button
Arena 1/2/3 Fear	Fear specific arena target by number	2v2 / 3v3 arena
Focus Fear	Fear healer while DoTing kill target	Arena healer lockdown
Focus Spell Lock	Interrupt focus target’s cast	Felhunter interrupt on healer
Arena Devour Magic	Dispel magic buff from enemy	Strip healer buffs
Totem Cleaner	Kill Shaman totems via pet	Any fight vs Shaman
Fel Domination Re-Summon	Instant re-summon on pet death	PvP — Felhunter killed

PvE Macro Quick Reference

Macro	Purpose
Full Burst (Trinkets + Potion)	Destruction opener on boss pull
Universal Pet Ability	Right pet skill, one button, any demon
Soulwell + Announce	Raid Healthstone distribution
Ritual of Summoning Announce	Prevent double-summons in raid
Healthstone Smart Use	Consume highest rank first
Mouseover Soulstone	Pre-pull Soulstone on healers
Mana Potion + Shadow Bolt	No-loss mana recovery mid-fight

FAQ

What’s the most important Warlock macro in TBC Classic?

The stopcasting Fear macro. In PvP it’s your most-used button by a wide margin — landing Fear instantly without waiting for a cast to finish is the difference between winning and losing most arena matches. Even in PvE, having instant access to Fear for crowd control in 5-mans without losing a GCD on your current spell matters more than people expect.

Which pet should I use for arena as a Warlock in TBC Classic Anniversary?

Felhunter is the default for almost all arena compositions. Spell Lock is one of the best interrupts in the game, and Devour Magic lets you strip buffs from enemies or debuffs from allies. You lose survivability if your Felhunter dies, so keeping it alive and managing it through macros is a priority. Succubus sees some use in specific compositions that lean heavily into Seduction CC chains.

Do I need a separate burst macro without Destruction Potion?

Yes — it’s a good habit. You only get one combat potion per encounter, so you don’t want to accidentally pop it on a trash pack. Keep one macro that includes the Destruction Potion for boss pulls, and a second version that uses only trinkets for everything else.

Can I use these macros on TBC Classic Anniversary servers in 2026?

Yes. All macros in this guide are written for TBC Classic Anniversary (2026). The macro API in Anniversary uses the same system as the original TBC Classic release — nothing has changed in how macros function between the two versions.

What does /cqs do and why is it on so many Warlock macros?

/cqs stands for “clear queued spell.” It prevents the macro from queuing the previous spell command when spammed, which can cause unintended casts. You’ll want it on any burst macro that you might press multiple times in a short window — like your trinket + Shadow Bolt opener.

How do I use the Focus Spell Lock macro effectively?

First, set your focus target — either manually by targeting someone and typing /focus, or through a macro that sets it automatically. In arena, set your focus on the enemy healer at the start of every match. Your Focus Spell Lock macro will then interrupt that healer’s cast at any time, even while you’re DoTing a different target. This is the core Felhunter mechanic for Warlock arena play.