Introduction
Welcome to the Affliction Warlock DPS guide written by Timo (Fraser), one of Honolulu’s main raiders.
Heading into patch 11.1.7 of The War Within. Affliction’s strengths lie in single target and sustained spread cleave scenarios while also having high mobility alongside high self-heals and survivability. Our AoE relies on targets living a sizable duration but when they do we can output some strong DPS.
What has changed
Patch 11.1.7
- New Ability: Recuperate - Take a breather, prepare some food and have a meal. Restores 50% of your maximum health over 10 seconds.
This new ability has been granted to all classes. For warlocks specifically it serves as a way for us to restore health between packs or after a wipe.
There is also the addition of the new D.I.S.C belt. To learn more about unlocking the DISC belt, you can read Method's DISC Belt Guide. For Affliction Warlock specific recommendations you can head to the gearing section in this guide.
Patch 11.1.5
- No changes for the spec this patch but 11.1.5 brings with it the return of corruption as well as a comeback for Dinars.
Patch 11.1 Changes
- Soul Rot has been redesigned to “Devour the life force of your current target and up to 4 additional targets nearby, causing your primary target and secondary targets to suffer Shadow damage over 8 seconds. Damage dealt by Soul Rot also heals you for 50% of damage done
- Summon Darkglare has been buffed - Darkglare damage increased by 40% and each damage over time effect you have active on their current target increases their damage dealt by 45% (was 25%)
- Focused Malignancy has been buffed - Malefic Rapture deals 40% increased damage (was 25%) to targets suffering from Unstable Affliction
- Unstable Affliction damage increased by 30%
- Shadow Bolt damage increased by 20%
- Drain Soul damage increased by 20%
- Drain Life damage increased by 300% (all specs)
The Soul Rot redesign acts as a buff to our survivability by healing us for the duration of the DoT to compensate for the previously removed utility of being able to drain life from all targets effected by soul rot. This “draining life x soul rot” was almost never used so this is a nice buff to our survivability. The buff to drain life is to help compensate and can be used in a pinch when exhausted all our resources to heal oneself.
The other buffs are to talents and spells that are vital even in our current damage rotation and are fitting to bring up more up to speed with the rest of the pack.