The hot deformation behavior of as-cast 30Cr2Ni4MoV steel was characterized using processing maps in the temperature range 850 to 1200 °C and strain rate range 0.01 to 10 s⁻¹. Based on the obtained flow curves, the power dissipation maps at different strains were developed and the effect of the strain on the efficiency of power dissipation was discussed in detail. The processing maps at different strains were obtained by superimposing the instability maps on the power dissipation maps. According to the processing map and the metallographic observation, the optimum domain of hot deformation was in the temperature range of 950–1200 °C and strain rate range of 0.03–0.5 s⁻¹, with a peak efficiency of 0.41 at 1100 °C and 0.25 s⁻¹ which were the optimum hot working parameters.