Affliction Warlock WotLK Guide
Affliction Warlock DPS guide for WotLK 3.3.5a: rotation, cooldowns, the 55/0/16 talent build, glyphs, stat priority and BiS gear for ICC and Ruby Sanctum.
Affliction is the damage-over-time Warlock, and the guides we read call it the spec with the highest single-target and multi-target damage. It keeps a group of damage effects on the target, keeps the Haunt debuff up, and finishes with Drain Soul when the boss is low. It also brings Curse of the Elements, Ritual of Souls for healthstones and the soulstone for the raid.
This guide covers the priority, the cooldowns and how Haunt works, the talents and glyphs we run, the stats to reach and the mistakes that cost the most. It is written for Icecrown Citadel 25 and Ruby Sanctum on 3.3.5a. The short overview is in the class guide.
1.How the Affliction Warlock plays
Your job is to keep your damage over time effects up and to keep the Haunt debuff on the target, and to spend the rest of your global cooldowns on Shadow Bolt. When the boss is under twenty-five percent health, Drain Soul takes the place of Shadow Bolt, because it does much more damage there, and Death's Embrace increases your damage from thirty-five percent.
The important detail is the timing of Haunt. It has an eight-second cooldown and its debuff lasts twelve seconds, so you use it to maintain the debuff and not on cooldown. And with Drain Soul, you interrupt the channel just after a tick, so the damage over time effects you refresh are not wasted.
2.Rotation and priorities
- Life TapBefore the fight, for mana, and during it when you need it.
- CorruptionKeep it up. Refresh it when a damage buff is active.
- Unstable AfflictionKeep it up on the target.
- HauntTo keep the debuff on the target, not on cooldown.
- Curse of AgonyKeep it up if no other curse is needed on the boss.
- Drain SoulWhen the boss is under twenty-five percent health. Start at around 26 to 27 percent, not at 18 or 19.
- Shadow BoltYour filler above twenty-five percent health.
Track your Corruption and the damage buffs you get from potions and procs, and refresh it when a big buff is active. Do not begin Drain Soul too late, and do not interrupt it at the wrong time: only right after a tick.
3.Cooldowns and raid utility
Affliction has few cooldowns, and most of the skill is in the timing of the damage over time effects.
Deals damage and puts a debuff on the target for twelve seconds. It has an eight-second cooldown. Use it to keep the debuff up.
Turns health into mana. Use it to fill your mana bar, and keep in mind the Glyph of Life Tap.
Reduces your threat, on a long cooldown. Use it if you pull aggro.
Lets you place a portal and teleport back to it. On the Lich King it lets a Warlock handle the Val'kyr grabs so the raid can ignore them.
A debuff that increases the spell damage the target takes. Keep it on the boss if no other class does.
Creates healthstones for the raid. Do it before the fight.
4.Talents and glyphs
Our recommended Affliction build is the 55/0/16 in the calculator, built around Haunt, Unstable Affliction, Everlasting Affliction, Pandemic, Contagion and Death's Embrace. The guides we read also point out that the three points in Suppression give you three percent hit, which frees up about 78 hit rating for haste and critical strike.
The mandatory major glyphs are Quick Decay, Life Tap and Haunt. This spec sacrifices some range and pushback resistance for damage.
You send a ghostly soul into the target, dealing 405 to 473 Shadow damage and increasing all damage done by your Shadow damage-over-time effects on the target by 20% for 12 sec. When the Haunt spell ends or is dispelled, the soul returns to you, healing you for 100% of the damage it did to the target.
Shadow energy slowly destroys the target, causing 550 damage over 15 sec. In addition, if the Unstable Affliction is dispelled it will cause 990 damage to the dispeller and silence them for 5 sec. Only one Unstable Affliction or Immolate per Warlock can be active on any one target.
Your Corruption and Unstable Affliction spells gain an additional 5% of your bonus spell damage, and your Drain Life, Drain Soul, Shadow Bolt, and Haunt spells have a 100% chance to reset the duration of your Corruption spell on the target.
Grants the periodic damage from your Corruption and Unstable Affliction spells the ability to critically hit for 100% increased damage, and increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Haunt spell by 100%.
Increases the damage of Curse of Agony, Corruption and Seed of Corruption by 5% and reduces the chance your helpful Affliction spells and damage over time effects will be dispelled by an additional 30%.
Increases the amount drained by your Drain Life by 30% while your health is at or below 20% health, and increases the damage done by your Shadow spells by 12% when your target is at or below 35% health.
Your haste now reduces the time between periodic damage ticks of your Corruption spell.
When you use Life Tap or Dark Pact, you gain 20% of your Spirit as spell power for 40 sec.
The bonus damage granted by your Haunt spell is increased by an additional 3%.
5.Stats, gems and gear
The priority is hit until you reach the cap, then spell power, then haste, and critical strike and spirit far behind. With the raid debuffs the hit cap is about fourteen percent, or about 289 rating with three points in Suppression.
Your pet is the Felhunter in the guides we read. It benefits from a large part of your spell power as attack power and spell power. The best items are in the BiS list below.
- Hit
- Spell Power
- Haste
- Critical Strike
~368 rating typical raid (342 Draenei) · 446 absolute cap
No talent reduces hit the way Mage/DK talents do — the 3% raid debuff is the only reduction.
Blood Fury adds +163 spell power, and Command (+5% pet damage) is a real gain for Demonology. Undead (Will of the Forsaken) and Blood Elf (Arcane Torrent) are the utility picks.
Expansive Mind (+5% maximum mana) for longevity; Human (The Human Spirit) as the minor alternative.
Bloodsurge, Kel'Thuzad's Blade of Agony
Shadow Silk Spindle
Corpse-Impaling Spike
Phylactery of the Nameless Lich
Charred Twilight Scale
Sanctified Dark Coven Hood
Sanctified Dark Coven Robe
6.Common mistakes
• Using Haunt on cooldown, instead of keeping the debuff up.
• Not refreshing Corruption when a damage buff is active.
• Beginning Drain Soul too late.
• Interrupting Drain Soul at the wrong time, and losing ticks.
• Not applying Curse of the Elements when nobody else does.
7.On the bosses
Affliction is strong on long single-target fights and on multi-target fights. A few notes:
On the pull, the raid gives a Hand of Protection to the Warlocks so the adds do not kill them. See the Icecrown guide.
Use Demonic Circle to deal with the Val'kyr grabs, so the raid can ignore them. See the Lich King guide.
Keep your damage over time effects up through the ground phase, and plan your movement for the air phase.
Follow the raid leader's plan for your realm and your target. See the Ruby Sanctum guide.
8.Questions people ask
For damage, the guides we read say yes at the right gear level. Demonology is the raid choice for its buff.
The Felhunter.
At around 26 to 27 percent health, before the boss is under 25 percent.
Quick Decay, Life Tap and Haunt.