Welcome to the Affliction Warlock Raid guide for the World of Warcraft patch 11.0! This guide covers everything you need to know to understand your character! Are you starting out and leveling up from 70? Check out the leveling guide!
Overview
Hero Talents
- Soul Harvester performs better on smaller amount of targets while Hellcaller excels at bigger amount of targets.
- Generating a Soul Shard now has a chance to grant a Succulent Soul.
- Succulent Soul empowers your next Malefic Rapture cast.
- Sataiel's Volition makes Haunt grant you a Nightfall proc.
- Be careful to not overcap on Nightfall stacks as Sataiel's Volition also makes your Corruption tick faster which leads to more frequent procs.
- Necrolyte Teachings increases Shadow Bolt and Drain Soul damage and amplifies Nightfall.
- Shadow of Death makes your Soul Rot grant 3 Soul Shards that each contain a Succulent Soul.
- Your Corruption is turned into Wither.
- You have access to a 1-minute cooldown called Malevolence.
- Wither can stack up and has multiple neat interactions with different talents which can increase its stack count or have other benefits.
- Spending Soul Shards on damaging spells increases the stacks of Wither by 1 and has a chance to gain an additional stack due to Blackened Soul.
- Casting Malevolence increases all active Wither stacks by 6 while each Malefic Rapture adds 1 additional stack during its duration.
- Mark of Peroth'arn gives Wither the chance to add a stack whenever it crits.
- Whenever Blackened Soul deals damage you have a chance to gain Tormented Crescendo stack.
- Wither has a built-in mechanic which consumes its' accumulated stacks one after another for more damage. This mechanic is called Acute.
- The Acute state of Wither is triggered by the following:
- Chance whenever Wither gains a stack.
- If Wither reaches 8 stacks.
- If the target Wither is on reaches 20% hp or is below 20% already.
- When Malevolence is up.
- The Acute state of Wither is triggered by the following:
Talents
Don't be intimidated by the amount of builds, if you care about high-end minmaxing, proper spec is mentioned in the Nerub-ar Palace section for each boss. That said, currently, Soul Harvester overall performs better than Hellcaller in the raid environment.
← Scroll for more Talent Builds →
Gameplay Altering Talents
Discover all talents that significantly alter your gameplay within the Spec and Class Talent trees. This section gives a concise overview of these talents and their applications but for a more detailed look check out the Rotation and Deep Dive sections below.
Spec Tree
- Seed of Corruption
- Allows you to spread your Corruption on a large number of targets quickly. Costs 1 Soul Shard.
- Phantom Singularity
- Strong DoT that also cleaves off the target it was applied onto.
- Infirmity makes your Burn Windows even stronger.
- Soul Rot
- Strong AoE DoT on up to 5 targets.
- Malign Omen allows you to have a short damage burst every minute both on ST and AoE.
- Dark Harvest makes your Burn Windows stronger the more targets Soul Rot hits.
- Nightfall
- Buff that reduces the cast time of your next Drain Soul by half and increases its damage. Stacks up to 2.
- Tormented Crescendo
- Buff that helps you with Soul Shard drought on ST or when there are a low number of targets. Stacks up to 2.
- Haunt
- Flat 10% damage increase debuff on your main target.
- Summon Darkglare
- Main cooldown for burst windows. Extends the duration of all your DoTs on every enemy.
- Malevolent Visionary also grants the ability to do instant AoE burst damage on demand.
- Cunning Cruelty and Volatile Agony
- Boost your filler windows with passive AoE during your Drain Soul spam and refreshing Agony with less than 10 seconds remaining.
Class Tree
- Fel Domination
- Helps you recover quickly in the event of death by allowing you to resummon a pet rapidly without cost.
- Burning Rush
- Your main mobility spell aside from Demonic Circle and Demonic Gateway, however, both of which require preplanning.
- Curses of Enfeeblement
- Gives you access to Curse of Exhaustion and Curse of Tongues.
- Remember that you can only have one curse active per target.
- Curse of Tongues can be very useful in pug groups to make it easier to deal with dangerous enemy casts.
- Soulburn
- Empowers a multitude of utility spells for the cost of 1 Soul Shard.
- Mainly used for Demonic Circle: Teleport, Demonic Gateway and Healthstone.
- Mortal Coil
- A single-target CC that can also be used as a defensive spell if you need to heal on demand.
- Dark Pact
- A defensive spell that grants you a big absorb shield depending on your current health plus a certain amount on top of it.
- Sweet Souls
- Passive heal whenever your teammates use a Healthstone from you.
- Can be considered a fairly big defensive and shouldn't be overlapped with your own Healthstone to avoid overhealing.
- Pact of Gluttony
- Combining Healthstone with Soulburn becomes a strong 1 minute defensive CD on long boss fights.
Hero Talents
- Friends In Dark Places
- Your default pick because it increases your overall survivability unlike the other talent choice.
- Shared Fate
- Outperforms Feast of Souls.
- Eternal Servitude
- Your default pick but can be swapped for Gorefiend's Resolve if you are the only CR in the team.
When to use this Spec
Use this spec if you're fighting 2 or 3 enemies for an extended period of the fight.
Talent Adjustments
Listing all the changes within the Class and Spec tree compared to the default build.
Spec Tree
- Added
- Death's Embrace
- Passively increases damage of your DoTs and Malefic Rapture when your target is at or below 35% health.
- Cull the Weak
- Allows you to have funnel options with Malefic Rapture doing more damage the more targets it hits.
- Death's Embrace
- Removed
- Ravenous Afflictions
- Removed for Death's Embrace.
- Contagion
- Removed for Cull the Weak.
- Ravenous Afflictions
When to use this Spec
Use this spec if you're fighting 4 or more stacked enemies for an extended period of the fight.
Talent Adjustments
Listing all the changes within the Class and Spec tree compared to the default build.
Spec Tree
- Added
- Vile Taint
- Strong AoE DoT that also applies Agony on up to 8 targets, another tool to spread your DoTs faster.
- Death's Embrace
- Passively increases damage of your DoTs and Malefic Rapture when your target is at or below 35% health.
- Cull the Weak
- Allows you to have funnel options with Malefic Rapture doing more damage the more targets it hits.
- Malediction
- Passively increases critical strike change of your main DoTs.
- Vile Taint
- Removed
- Phantom Singularity
- Swapped for Vile Taint.
- Infirmity and Improved Haunt
- Removed for Malediction.
- Ravenous Afflictions
- Removed for Death's Embrace.
- Contagion
- Removed for Cull the Weak.
- Phantom Singularity
When to use this Spec
Use this spec if you're fighting a single enemy but need more mobility.
Talent Adjustments
Listing all the changes within the Class and Spec tree compared to the default build.
Spec Tree
- Added
- Improved Shadow Bolt
- Reduces the cast time and increases the damage of Shadow Bolt.
- Sacrolash's Dark Strike
- Increases the damage of Wither and makes your curses last longer.
- Malediction
- Passively increases the critical strike chance of your main DoTs.
- Improved Shadow Bolt
- Removed
- Drain Soul
- Swapped for Improved Shadow Bolt.
- Improved Haunt
- Removed for Sacrolash's Dark Strike.
- Dark Harvest and Ravenous Afflictions
- Removed for Malediction.
- Drain Soul
Hero Talents
Changed Soul Harvester to Hellcaller for more info visit the Hero Talent section above.
- Curse of the Satyr
- Your default pick since both talent choices are very niche and this one has more use cases than the other one.
- Hatefury Rituals
- Outperforms Bleakheart Tactics currently.
- Zevrim's Resilience
- Helps you recover your lost health from using Dark Pact.
When to use this Spec
Use this spec if you're fighting 2 or 3 enemies for an extended period of the fight and need more mobility.
Talent Adjustments
Listing all the changes within the Class and Spec tree compared to the default build.
Spec Tree
- Added
- Improved Shadow Bolt
- Reduces the cast time and increases the damage of Shadow Bolt.
- Death's Embrace
- Passively increases damage of your DoTs and Malefic Rapture when your target is at or below 35% health.
- Malediction
- Passively increases the critical strike chance of your main DoTs.
- Cull the Weak
- Allows you to have funnel options with Malefic Rapture doing more damage the more targets it hits.
- Improved Shadow Bolt
- Removed
- Drain Soul
- Swapped for Improved Shadow Bolt.
- Ravenous Afflictions
- Removed for Death's Embrace.
- Contagion
- Removed for Cull the Weak.
- Improved Haunt and Withering Bolt
- Removed for Malediction.
- Drain Soul
Hero Talents
Changed Soul Harvester to Hellcaller for more info visit the Hero Talent section above.
- Curse of the Satyr
- Your default pick since both talent choices are very niche and this one has more use cases than the other one.
- Hatefury Rituals
- Outperforms Bleakheart Tactics currently.
- Zevrim's Resilience
- Helps you recover your lost health from using Dark Pact.
When to use this Spec
Use this spec if you're fighting 4 or more stacked enemies for an extended period of the fight and need more mobility.
Talent Adjustments
Listing all the changes within the Class and Spec tree compared to the default build.
Spec Tree
- Added
- Vile Taint
- Strong AoE DoT that also applies Agony on up to 8 targets, another tool to spread your DoTs faster.
- Sacrolash's Dark Strike
- Increases the damage of Wither and makes your curses last longer.
- Improved Shadow Bolt
- Reduces the cast time and increases the damage of Shadow Bolt.
- Death's Embrace
- Passively increases damage of your DoTs and Malefic Rapture when your target is at or below 35% health.
- Malediction
- Passively increases the critical strike chance of your main DoTs.
- Cull the Weak
- Allows you to have funnel options with Malefic Rapture doing more damage the more targets it hits.
- Vile Taint
- Removed
- Phantom Singularity
- Swapped for Vile Taint.
- Infirmity
- Removed for Sacrolash's Dark Strike.
- Drain Soul
- Swapped for Improved Shadow Bolt.
- Ravenous Afflictions
- Removed for Death's Embrace.
- Contagion
- Removed for Cull the Weak.
- Improved Haunt and Withering Bolt
- Removed for Malediction.
- Phantom Singularity
Hero Talents
Changed Soul Harvester to Hellcaller for more info visit the Hero Talent section above.
- Curse of the Satyr
- Your default pick since both talent choices are very niche and this one has more use cases than the other one.
- Hatefury Rituals
- Outperforms Bleakheart Tactics currently.
- Zevrim's Resilience
- Helps you recover your lost health from using Dark Pact.
Rotation
Tier Set
- 2-Set: Malefic Rapture damage increased by 5% and its critical strike chance is increased by 10%.
- 4-Set: Malefic Rapture has a chance to increase damage dealt by your Agony, Corruption, and Unstable Affliction by 15% for 8 seconds.
Single-Target
Opener
- Your goal in the opener is to apply and maintain all the DoTs and debuffs while also not overcapping on Soul Shards with Nightfall and Tormented Crescendo procs. Below, you can see an example of how your opener looks when using the recommended Soul Harvester single-target spec.
- Always keep up Unstable Affliction, Agony, Corruption, Haunt and Shadow Embrace on the target.
- Keep in mind that Haunt has travel time so you should precast it roughly ~2 seconds before the pull. Thus, half of your next cast, Unstable Affliction, is also casted before the fight even starts.
- Soul Harvester has a higher number of total Nightfall procs over the fight which leads to a higher amount of Tormented Crescendo procs compared to Hellcaller. Always keep that in mind and never overcap on either of the procs.
Priority List
This is a general priority you aim to maintain throughout the fight.
- Keep up Unstable Affliction, Agony and Corruption.
- Cast Haunt on cooldown but you can delay it for a few seconds if the debuff is not about to expire on the target and you have maximum amount of Nightfall stacks.
- Cast Summon Darkglare on cooldown whenever Phantom Singularity and Soul Rot are up.
- Cast Malefic Rapture if you are otherwise capping on Soul Shards or have Tormented Crescendo stacks.
- Cast Drain Soul to refresh Shadow Embrace stacks or have Nightfall stacks.
- Cast Phantom Singularity whenever you have Soul Rot ready to follow up.
- Cast Soul Rot on cooldown.
- Cast Malefic Rapture whenever you have Soul Shards.
- Cast Drain Soul as your filler spell.
Opener
- Your goal in the opener is to apply and maintain all the DoTs and debuffs while also not overcapping on Soul Shards with Nightfall and Tormented Crescendo procs. Below, you can see an example of how your opener looks when using the recommended Hellcaller single-target spec.
- Always keep up Unstable Affliction, Agony, Wither, Haunt and Shadow Embrace on the target.
- Keep in mind that Haunt has travel time so you should precast it roughly ~2 seconds before the pull. Thus, half of your next cast, Unstable Affliction, is also casted before the fight even starts.
- All Soul Shards should be spent while Soul Rot and Phantom Singularity are active on the target.
Priority List
This is a general priority you aim to maintain throughout the fight.
- Keep up Unstable Affliction, Agony and Wither.
- Cast Haunt on cooldown.
- Cast Summon Darkglare on cooldown whenever Phantom Singularity and Soul Rot are up.
- Cast Malefic Rapture if you are otherwise capping on Soul Shards or have Tormented Crescendo stacks.
- Cast Shadow Bolt to refresh Shadow Embrace stacks or have Nightfall stacks.
- Cast Phantom Singularity whenever you have Soul Rot ready to follow up.
- Cast Malevolence on cooldown. Sync it with Soul Rot every time.
- Cast Soul Rot on cooldown.
- Cast Malefic Rapture to spend all Soul Shards whenever Phantom Singularity and Soul Rot are up.
- Cast Shadow Bolt as your filler spell.
Multi-Target
Opener
Multi-Target rotation is identical to single-target, only difference is the opener you do and amount of procs you get.
- Your goal in the opener is to apply and maintain all the DoTs and debuffs while also not overcapping on Soul Shards with Nightfall and Tormented Crescendo procs. Below, you can see an example of how your opener looks when using the recommended Soul Harvester Multi-Target spec.
- Always keep up Unstable Affliction and Haunt on main target and Agony, Corruption and Shadow Embrace on both targets.
- Keep in mind that Haunt has travel time so you should precast it roughly ~2 seconds before the pull. Thus, half of your next cast, Unstable Affliction, is also casted before the fight even starts.
- Soul Harvester has a higher number of total Nightfall procs over the fight which leads to a higher amount of Tormented Crescendo procs compared to Hellcaller. Always keep that in mind and never overcap on either of the procs.
Priority List
This is a general priority you aim to maintain throughout the fight.
- Keep up Unstable Affliction, Agony and Corruption.
- Cast Haunt on cooldown but you can delay it for a few seconds if the debuff is not about to expire on the target and you have maximum amount of Nightfall stacks.
- Cast Summon Darkglare on cooldown whenever Phantom Singularity and Soul Rot are up.
- Cast Malefic Rapture if you are otherwise capping on Soul Shards or have Tormented Crescendo stacks.
- Cast Drain Soul to refresh Shadow Embrace stacks or have Nightfall stacks.
- Cast Phantom Singularity whenever you have Soul Rot ready to follow up.
- Cast Soul Rot on cooldown.
- Cast Malefic Rapture whenever you have Soul Shards.
- Cast Drain Soul as your filler spell.
Opener
Multi-Target rotation is identical to single-target, only difference is the opener you do and amount of procs you get.
- Your goal in the opener is to apply and maintain all the DoTs and debuffs while also not overcapping on Soul Shards with Nightfall and Tormented Crescendo procs. Below, you can see an example of how your opener looks when using the recommended Hellcaller Multi-Target spec.
- Always keep up Unstable Affliction and Haunt on main target and Agony, Corruption and Shadow Embrace on both targets.
- Keep in mind that Haunt has travel time so you should precast it roughly ~2 seconds before the pull. Thus, half of your next cast, Unstable Affliction, is also casted before the fight even starts.
- All Soul Shards should be spent while Soul Rot and Phantom Singularity are active on the target.
Priority List
This is a general priority you aim to maintain throughout the fight.
- Keep up Unstable Affliction, Agony and Wither.
- Cast Haunt on cooldown.
- Cast Summon Darkglare on cooldown whenever Phantom Singularity and Soul Rot are up.
- Cast Malefic Rapture if you are otherwise capping on Soul Shards or have Tormented Crescendo stacks.
- Cast Shadow Bolt to refresh Shadow Embrace stacks or have Nightfall stacks.
- Cast Phantom Singularity whenever you have Soul Rot ready to follow up.
- Cast Malevolence on cooldown. Sync it with Soul Rot every time.
- Cast Soul Rot on cooldown.
- Cast Malefic Rapture to spend all Soul Shards whenever Phantom Singularity and Soul Rot are up.
- Cast Shadow Bolt as your filler spell.
AoE
Opener
- Your goal in the AoE opener is similar to single-target with the only difference of applying DoTs to more targets, mostly through Seed of Corruption and Vile Taint. Below, you can see an example of how your opener looks when using the recommended Soul Harvester AoE spec.
- All Soul Shards should be spent while Soul Rot and Vile Taint are up.
- Apply Corruption and Agony manually on spread targets that didn't get hit by Seed of Corruption and Vile Taint.
Priority List
- Keep up Agony on up to 8 targets.
- Keep up Unstable Affliction on the main target.
- Cast Haunt on cooldown on the main target.
- Cast Summon Darkglare on cooldown when Vile Taint and Soul Rot are up.
- Cast Vile Taint on cooldown. Make sure to have every second cast line up with Soul Rot.
- Cast Soul Rot on cooldown.
- Cast Malefic Rapture if you are about to cap on Soul Shards or have Tormented Crescendo proc.
- Cast Drain Soul if you have Nightfall procs.
- Cast Malefic Rapture whenever you have Soul Shards.
- Cast Drain Soul as your filler spell.
While Haunt, Drain Soul and Unstable Affliction could lower your overall dps, it's still a damage gain on a priority target which is often more important than overall in many boss fights.
Opener
- Your goal in the AoE opener is similar to single-target with the only difference of applying DoTs to more targets, mostly through Seed of Corruption and Vile Taint. Below, you can see an example of how your opener looks when using the recommended Hellcaller AoE spec.
- All Soul Shards should be spent while Soul Rot and Vile Taint are up.
- Apply Wither and Agony manually on spread targets that didn't get hit by Seed of Corruption and Vile Taint.
Priority List
- Keep up Agony on up to 8 targets.
- Keep up Unstable Affliction on the main target.
- Cast Haunt on cooldown on the main target.
- Cast Summon Darkglare on cooldown when Vile Taint and Soul Rot are up.
- Cast Vile Taint on cooldown. Make sure to have every second cast line up with Soul Rot.
- Cast Malevolence on cooldown. Sync it with Soul Rot every time.
- Cast Soul Rot on cooldown.
- Cast Malefic Rapture if you are about to cap on Soul Shards or have Tormented Crescendo proc.
- Cast Shadow Bolt if you have Nightfall procs.
- Cast Malefic Rapture whenever you have Soul Shards.
- Cast Shadow Bolt as your filler spell.
While Haunt, Shadow Bolt and Unstable Affliction could lower your overall dps, it's still a damage gain on a priority target which is often more important than overall in many boss fights.
Deep Dive
Burn Windows
As an Affliction Warlock, you want to cast as many Malefic Raptures as possible during your Burn Windows.
- Burn Window is whenever you have Soul Rot with Phantom Singularity or Vile Taint up. Thus, your main goal is to save as many Soul Shards as you can for those windows without overcapping them.
- Keep in mind that you can use Vile Taint as a Mini-Burn Window all alone and spend some Shards here as well. Still, your main goal is to save as many Soul Shards as you can for your Main Burn with Soul Rot. Any extra Soul Shards that would have been used to not overcap could all be spent in Mini-Burn instead. The amount of Soul Shards spent in Mini-Burn depends on the number of targets you fight. For example, if you fight 8 targets or more then you can spend every Shard you get during Vile Taint but if it is single or low number of targets then it would only be few casts of Malefic Rapture. It all depends on how many Soul Shards you can generate in a 30 second window in between your Mini and Main Burn.
With experience, you get a better understanding of how many Soul Shards you want to spend outside of your burns, which varies on the number of targets you fight.
Managing Soul Shards as Hellcaller vs Soul Harvester
Main difference is that as a Hellcaller you want to save Soul Shards for your Burn Windows but as a Soul Harvester it is the opposite. You shouldn't save any Soul Shards and spend them whenever you can. Your main goal is to cast as few unbuffed Drain Souls as possible, almost never. That way it will be much easier to manage and not overcap on your procs and Soul Shards.
Once you are more used to the Soul Harvester playstyle you can try saving *1* Soul Shard for your Burn Windows to make them slightly more efficient. It is not recommended to save any more than 1 as it is very likely or guaranteed to overcap with 2 or more.
Although Burn Windows are more important with Hellcaller playstyle rather than Soul Harvester, it is still useful to know for the later one as it may change your priority slightly. For an example, in the end of the Burn Window, if you have a Nightfall proc but not overcapping on it, you may want to cast Malefic Rapture, if you can, instead of Drain Soul.
Nightfall and Tormented Crescendo
With the addition of hero talents, the amount of procs you get over the fight is significantly increased. To the point that managing them and not overcapping is as important as keeping up your DoTs and not failing you Burn Windows.
Hellcaller increases your Tormented Crescendo proc rate with Seeds of Their Demise and Soul Harvester increases amount of Nightfalls you get with Sataiel's Volition.
Difference between Hellcaller and Soul Harvester is quite big to the point that you need to manage your Soul Shards differently depending on the spec. That is due to Nightfall also interacting with how you get Tormented Crescendo. You have a very high chance of getting Tormented Crescendo proc during your Drain Soul channel buffed by Nightfall. Thus, as a Soul Harvester, you end up with an increased amount of both Tormented Crescendo and Nightfall procs.
Drain Soul clipping
Clipping means manually interrupting your cast. It is not necessary to finish your Drain Soul channel cast unless it is buffed by Nightfall. So any time you cast Drain Soul without it, you should clip it whenever any other spell higher in priority comes in.
For example, if you are casting normal unbuffed Drain Soul and you get a Nightfall or Tormented Crescendo proc then you should clip your cast and spend the proc.
Malefic Rapture vs Seed of Corruption
With The War Within coming, there is no more confusion on what spender to cast anymore. Your next cast should always be:
- Seed of Corruption if you need to apply Corruption on the pack of mobs.
- Malefic Rapture in any other situation, it is your main and only spender.
Vile Taint, Phantom Singularity and Soul Rot
Although usage of these spells is pretty straightforward, there are a couple of things you need to keep in mind:
- Soul Rot is a 1 minute cooldown spell and should always be paired with Vile Taint or Phantom Singularity.
- Phantom Singularity should always be held for Soul Rot unless the fight is ending and you are not getting another cast of Soul Rot lined up.
- Vile Taint being a 30 second cooldown spell allows it one additional use before Soul Rot comes off CD.
Minmaxing Volatile Agony
Another small thing to manage in The War Within is a new passive effect of refreshing Agony with less than 10 seconds remaining as it does decent AoE damage if executed properly. Aside from manually refreshing Agony, it is more important to remember that Vile Taint also triggers Volatile Agony. So in AoE scenarios, if trash lives long enough for a second Vile Taint, it's often beneficial to hold it for a few seconds to trigger more Volatile Agonys for more AoE output.
Optimizing Summon Darkglare
The main feature of Summon Darkglare lies in extending your DoTs, rather than just gaining pure damage from it, thus increasing the duration of your Burn Windows. Make sure to only cast it when Vile Taint and Soul Rot are up alongside your other DoTs.
Another important thing to know is that Summon Darkglare is a guardian and how it updates its stats. It happens differently the moment Darkglare is summoned and when it is already up.
Once you cast Summon Darkglare it snapshots your characters stats instantly but when it is already active it may take up to few seconds to update. That is why you should press potion, racial and any on use stat trinket right before Summon Darkglare and not after.
Spymaster's Web
By far the strongest on use trinket this season which also works in a unique way.
You passively generate stacks that grant you Intellect. Later on you can trade accumulated stacks for a 20 second Intellect buff which gets stronger the more stacks you've traded.
The play with this trinket would be to wait for maximum amount of stacks and then use it with your Summon Darkglare.
Understanding Mechanics
Rotational min-maxing is just one aspect of mastering a specialization, but there are numerous other key mechanics that influence your performance. Use the following guides to improve them.
Nerub-ar Palace
The following tips are mainly applicable to Heroic Bosses. Mythic tips are released after our progression concludes.
← Scroll for more Bosses →
Offensive Cooldown Usage
Boss Tips
- You can immune Stalker Netting on Heroic difficulty if you use Soulburn together with Demonic Circle: Teleport or are talented into Soul-Etched Circles.
- Place a Demonic Gateway away from the boss to help your raid quickly escape when they are pulled towards the boss during Carnivorous Contest.
- Additionally, a Demonic Gateway can be used during Ready to Feed to speed up the feeding process of the boss.
- You can also utilize Burning Rush and Demonic Circle to feed the boss additional Chunky Visceras.
Offensive Cooldown Usage
If you're assigned to Group 1:
If you're assigned to Group 2:
- Do note that the length of the fight impacts your cooldown usage heavily. If your fight lasts shorter than 6 minutes you use your Summon Darkglare on pull followed by using it after every Goresplatter.
Defensive Cooldown Usage
If you're assigned to Group 1:
If you're assigned to Group 2:
Boss Tips
- Use Demonic Circle to easily jump over the Spewing Hemorrhage geysers to save globals.
- You can outplay Goresplatter easily by pre-placing a Demonic Circle and Demonic Gateway. Use the Demonic Gateway first to get away from the Boss and use Demonic Circle: Teleport to get back. This way you are not forced to run through the Black Blood and take unnecessary damage.
Offensive Cooldown Usage
Boss Tips
- Dark Pact whenever you are targeted by Decimate or Decimates are about to hit Cosmic Simulacrums.
- Place a Demonic Circle in the middle of the room to reposition after getting targeted by either Decimate or Phase Blades.
Offensive Cooldown Usage
Boss Tips
- Stun Infested Spawn with Shadowfury.
- Move out with Spinneret's Strands and quickly teleport back with Demonic Circle: Teleport.
- Put down a Demonic Gateway to help your raid keep up with the boss when he changes his position.
- The boss flies away at 1:27, 3:07, 4:47 and 6:20 minutes, whenever one of these timers is approaching you should start pre-moving on your instant casts to minimize downtime while running.
Offensive Cooldown Usage
Defensive Cooldown Usage
Boss Tips
- Use Demonic Circle: Teleport to quickly cleanse yourself from Unstable Web.
- Be careful of your Demonic Circle placement since you're going to trigger a Web Eruption at your Demonic Circle's location.
- Use Summon Felhunter on this boss to be able to interrupt Poison Burst with Spell Lock.
Offensive Cooldown Usage
Defensive Cooldown Usage
Boss Tips
- Use Unending Resolve as an emergency button. For example, if you get hit by multiple Twilight Massacres.
- Multiple stacks of Queensbane can be quite dangerous. Consider using a defensive!
- The main thing to keep an eye out for on this boss is the position of each Nether Rift. Their placement dictates how much you get pulled towards them. Try to position yourself in a way that each Nether Rift is at a similar distance to you.
Offensive Cooldown Usage
Defensive Cooldown Usage
Boss Tips
- Use Dark Pact at 8 seconds left on your pull timer to cover the first Venomous Rain while ensuring you have Dark Pact back ready for the second Venomous Rain as well.
- Pre-place a Demonic Circle and teleport back instantly after getting pulled in by Web Vortex to save yourself some movement.
- Alternatively, use Demonic Gateway to negate the pull in effect.
- Try to get some good distance from the adds that spawn from Call of the Swarm since they fixate the closest target.
Stat Priority
Understand your secondary stat priority and the tertiary stats needed for optimal performance during Raid boss fights as an Affliction Warlock. For more detailed information, visit the Stats and Attributes guide.
For early gearing your main goal is to avoid Vers, every other stat is good for Affliction Warlocks.
Higher Item level items are better in most scenarios. For an accurate representation of what item to equip you should use Simcraft! A static "Stat Priority" is just a starting point and can easily shift depending on your individual gear.
All secondary stats are affected by diminishing returns. Click here to learn more!
Tertiary
- Avoidance - Great stat to reduce the damage intake of "Area of Effect" abilities.
- Leech - Provides additional healing through damage dealing. The damage of your pets does not heal you thus Leech is a great tertiary for you since most of your damage is coming from your own spells.
- Speed - Niche tertiary that can be very useful and has been proven useful in the past. Makes playing certain mechanics a lot easier.
Gear
| Slot | Item | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Head | Hexflame Coven's All-Seeing Eye | Tier / Catalyst |
| Neck | Sureki Zealot's Insignia | Sikran |
| Shoulder | Hexflame Coven's Altar | Tier / Catalyst |
| Cloak | Royal Emblem of Nerub-ar | Ulgrax the Devourer |
| Chest | Hexflame Coven's Ritual Harness | Tier / Catalyst |
| Wrist | Consecrated Cuffs | Crafting |
| Gloves | Subduer's Terrorgrips | City of Threads |
| Belt | Burrower's Cinch | Ara-Kara, City of Echoes |
| Legs | Hexflame Coven's Leggings | Tier / Catalyst |
| Boots | Assimilated Eggshell Slippers | Broodtwister Ovi'nax |
| Ring 1 | Seal of the Poisoned Pact | The Silken Court |
| Ring 2 | Band of the Roving Scalawag | Siege of Boralus |
| Trinket 1 | Spymaster's Web | Silken Court |
| Trinket 2 | Ara-Kara Sacbrood | Ara-Kara, City of Echoes |
| Weapon | Sovereign's Disdain | Queen Ansurek |
| Off-hand | Vagabond's Torch | Crafting |
Below you are presented with a good list of farmable alternatives that are obtainable outside of WoW’s weekly lockout system. While replaced in time as you progress, these offer immediate character power.
| Slot | Item | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Head | Intertwiner's Shadowcowl | City of Threads |
| Neck | "Emergency Stop" Keychain | The Stonevault |
| Shoulder | Reanimator's Mantle | The Necrotic Wake |
| Cloak | Anvilhide Cape | The Stonevault |
| Chest | Arachnofrost Vest | City of Threads |
| Wrist | Crimsonborne Bracers | Grim Batol |
| Gloves | Subduer's Terrorgrips | City of Threads |
| Belt | Dorlita's Safety Belt | The Stonevault |
| Legs | Archaic Venomancer's Footwraps | Ara-Kara, City of Echoes |
| Boots | Membranous Slippers | The Dawnbreaker |
| Ring 1 | Seal of the City Watch | Siege of Boralus |
| Ring 2 | Umbriss Band | Grim Batol |
| Trinket 1 | Gale of Shadows | Grim Batol |
| Trinket 2 | Ara-Kara Sacbrood | Ara-Kara, City of Echoes |
| Weapon | Melodious Iron Songspire | The Stonevault |
Trinkets
Below you can find active and passive alternatives to our recommended trinkets. Do note that some trinkets are better than others depending on the raid boss.
Every active trinket but Spymaster's Web this season is very weak compared to passive alternatives. So if you were unlucky with dropping Spymaster's Web in the raid then it's highly recommended to farm one of the passive alternatives from Mythic+, preferably Ara-Kara Sacbrood and Gale of Shadows.
Active Trinket alternatives
- Treacherous Transmitter
- Decent on-use trinket that buffs your primary stat but requires you to do "tasks" that may become a slight hindrance at times.
- Mereldar's Toll
- Decent on-use trinket that deals a little bit of damage and buffs you and your teammates with a Vers buff.
- High Speaker's Accretion
- Decent on-use trinket that deals damage and buffs your Intellect.
- Mad Queen's Mandate
- Deals good upfront single target damage but has a cast time and loses value heavily with any kind of cleave.
Passive Trinket alternatives
- Gale of Shadows
- Very strong stat stick that ramps up over time.
- Empowering Crystal of Anub'ikkaj
- Good passive trinket that buffs a random secondary stat.
- Unbound Changeling
- Good passive trinket that buffs all secondary stats.
- Ovi'nax's Mercurial Egg
- Decent passive stat stick.
- Harvester's Edict
- Decent passive trinket that either deals some damage or buffs your Mastery.
- Hadal's Nautilus
- Decent passive damage trinket.
- Satchel of Misbegotten Minions
- Decent passive damage trinket.
Embellishments
- 1x Darkmoon Sigil: Ascension
- Only crafted on your main hand or off-hand weapon. Craft it on your main hand for more power early on or on your off-hand for long-term BiS.
- 1x Writhing Armor Banding
- The optimal slots to craft on are Wrists, Boots or Waist depending on your available gear.
or
- 1-2x Elemental Focusing Lens
- Deals a decent amount of damage in Single-Target.
- The optimal slots to craft on are Wrists, Boots or Waist depending on your available gear.
or
- 1-2x Dawnthread Lining
- The optimal slots to craft on are Wrists, Boots or Waist depending on your available gear.
Simcraft
To find the best combination of gear available to you or identify the best possible upgrades, visit our Simcraft guide to learn how to utilize Simcraft easily and effectively.
Consumables
- Phials
- Flask of Alchemical Chaos -- maximum DPS.
- Flask of Tempered Versatility -- less DPS but more survivability.
- Food
- Feast of the Midnight Masquerade -- default
- Combat Potion
- Tempered Potion
- Health Potion
- Algari Healing Potion -- a big burst of healing
- Weapon Oil
- Algari Mana Oil -- default
- Oil of Deep Toxins
- Augment Rune
- Crystallized Augment Rune
- Sockets
- Masterful Ruby
- Culminating Blasphemite -- Unique, use one of each gem color to enhance your Culminating Blasphemite.
- Masterful Sapphire
- Masterful Emerald
- Deadly Onyx
Enchantments
| Head | Nerubian Gemweaver |
| Neck | Magnificent Jeweler's Setting 2x |
| Cloak | Enchant Cloak - Chant of Winged Grace |
| Chest | Enchant Chest - Crystalline Radiance |
| Wrist | Enchant Bracer - Chant of Armored Avoidance Nerubian Gemweaver |
| Waist | Nerubian Gemweaver |
| Legs | Sunset Spellthread |
| Boots | Enchant Boots - Scout's March |
| Ring 1 | Enchant Ring - Radiant Critical Strike Magnificent Jeweler's Setting 2x |
| Ring 2 | Enchant Ring - Radiant Critical Strike Magnificent Jeweler's Setting 2x |
| Weapon | Enchant Weapon - Authority of Radiant Power |
You buy Nerubian Gemweaver from the Great Vault Vendor to add sockets to your Helm, Wrists & Waist.
Races
For min-maxing an Affliction Warlock in raiding, different racial traits can provide a tremendous benefit to your character. If this is not your top goal, picking a race that fits your style works just as well.
- Stoneform -- Dwarf
- Dispels Magic and Bleed debuffs. Has been useful in the past on some bosses with Bleeds.
- Rocket Jump -- Goblin
- Do a small jump in the direction your character is facing.
- While you're in the Rocket Jump animation you are placed on a global cooldown until your character lands.
- Berserking -- Troll
- Strong DPS racial but lines up poorly with Summon Darkglare.
- Reduce the duration of movement-impairing effects by 20%. This was only useful once in the recent history of progression raiding but is still worth noting.
- Blood Fury -- Orc
- Strong racial for damage because of both Command and Blood Fury which lines up with Summon Darkglare.
- 20% reduced stun duration on you which can be useful in some situations.
- Spatial Rift -- Void Elf
- Spawn a shadow traveling into your facing direction, and activate it again to teleport to it.
- Maximum range of 100 yards.
Recommendation
In general, it's safe to say that if you care about min-maxing your DPS, you should go with the highest DPS racial. That being said, the story is a bit different if it's about progression raiding. Some help out massively to speed up the progression on certain bosses. Notably, Dwarf with their Stoneform helped out on Tindral Sageswift and Fyrakk the Blazing in the latest Race to World First by having easy access to dispelling yourself at crucial points of the fights mentioned.
Macros
Discover recommended macros for Affliction Warlocks during Raid encounters and watch a quick video guide on creating simple macros for your character.
Cursor Macros
Phantom Singularity and Vile Taint -- Casts Phantom Singularity on your target or Vile Taint on your cursor without confirmation, depending on what spell is picked in your talent tree.
#showtooltip
/cast [known:Phantom Singularity,harm,nodead]Phantom Singularity; [known:Vile Taint,@cursor] Vile TaintShadowfury -- Casts Shadowfury on your cursor without confirmation.
#showtooltip
/cast [@cursor] ShadowfuryMouseover Macros
Pet Macros
Utility Macros
Addons
Below, you see a screenshot of the author's User Interface for their Affliction Warlock, outlining which addons are used and how they are utilized in Raids to make your life easier.
Addons
WeakAuras
Changes this Patch
Patch 11.0.2
Patch 11.0
FAQ
Q: Why my Malefic Rapture does so little damage?
Q: What pet should I use?
Credits
Written By: Wexi
Reviewed By: Wolfdisco