Affliction Warlock Gearing Guide

Tier Set

• 2-piece: Soul Rot deals 15% increased damage and lasts an additional 4 seconds
• 4-piece: Soul Rot grants 3 Umbrafire Kindling which increase the damage of your next Malefic Rapture by 50% or your next Seed of Corruption by 60%. Additionally, Umbrafire Kindling causes Malefic Rapture to extend the duration of your damage over time effects and Haunt by 2 seconds

The tier set is pretty decent and it gives you the ability to have a unique 30 second cooldown profile through Soul Eater's Gluttony. Soul Rot and Vile Taint also line up perfectly this way and every 4th combo of the two will be extended by Summon Darkglare around the 2 minute mark making aff a strong Power Infusion. Phantom Singularity can also be picked over Vile Taint with 1 less point required in Soul Eater's Gluttony to sync it with Soul Rot but this would desync from the 2 minute Darkglare and is less dps overall but should be noted should another talent node become valuable.

Affliction Warlock Best in Slot Gear

You should still prioritise the gear you use by running a sim for your character, but the lists below will give you a good idea of what items are considered good for Affliction Warlock, and help you target the right content for each piece of loot.

Overall Best Gear for Affliction Warlock

Bullions

1. Dreambinder, Loom of the Great Cycle
2. Nymue's Unraveling Spindle
3. Voice of the Silent Star
4. Belor'relos, the Suncaller

Similarly to Season 4 in Shadowlands there is a vendor that allows us to purchase weapons, trinkets and rare items from the raids using currency. Naturally a 2-handed weapon would be the biggest overall net dps increase not to mention Dreambinder comes with an on-use damage ability. But should you obtain a strong weapon early in season 4 your next best option would be Nymue's Unraveling Spindle for its synergy with our 2 minute damage profile. Other bis items like Voice of the Silent Star and Belor'relos, the Suncaller can be obtained from this vendor too but are lower prio in terms due to not as much net dps difference when compared to other available options

Embellishments

Recommended Embellishments:

1. 1x Blue Silken Lining + 1x Shadowflame-Tempered Armor Patch, only if Diurna's Chosen or Filial Duty (to proc fire damage)
2. 2x Blue Silken Lining
3. Elemental Lariat

Shadowflame embellishment is only played if you have either Diurna's Chosen or Filial Duty since the shadowflame damage it deals counts as fire to trigger the procs of these rings. Since both BSL and Shadowflame are put on the same pieces it should be easy to swap out one of the two BSL after obtaining either Filial Duty or Diurna's Chosen. Elemental Lariat is a nice option should you find yourself with high ilvl bracers / boots (typically where you put embellishments) and still stuck with old neck.

Recommended Crafted Gear

Crafting Priority in Single Target:

1. Main-Hand Weapon such as Primal Molten Spellblade
2. Vibrant Wildercloth Wristwraps with Shadowflame-Tempered Armor Patch
3. Vibrant Wildercloth Slippers with Blue Silken Lining

Crafting Priority in AoE:

1. Main-Hand Weapon such as Primal Molten Spellblade

Main-hand weapon generally provides the best raw Spark of Awakening to DPS ratio followed by any Vibrant Wildercloth armor piece with Shadowflame-Tempered Armor Patch. Lariat is also a strong option as gearing slows down or you find yourself without a high ilvl neck, while your other slots that you would want to craft Vibrant Wildercloth armor in, already have a very high ilvl piece.

Try to hold off using your Spark of Awakening for as long as possible because if you craft in 1 specific slot you’re locked to that item and could potentially get an upgrade from elsewhere, rendering the Spark and embellishment wasted. Both Shadowflame-Tempered Armor Patch and Blue Silken Lining are flexible embellishments and can go on any cloth crafting piece including cloaks. It is wise to not craft Shadowflame-Tempered Armor Patch embellishment in a tier slot until at least your first Great Vault, looting a piece in the same slot as you have crafted an item in would result in the waste of a spark and valuable crests.

The best way to see which items are the most beneficial to spend your spark craft on would be to sim your character see “How To Sim Your Character” , don’t forget to add any potential embellishment(s).

Recommended Trinkets

Passive Trinkets:

• Umbrelskul's Fractured Heart
• Ominous Chromatic Essence (all buffs)
• Whispering Incarnate Icon (all buffs)
• Pip's Emerald Friendship Badge

On Use Trinkets:

• Nymue's Unraveling Spindle
• Belor'relos, the Suncaller
• Ashes of the Embersoul

Despite both being on use Nymue's Unraveling Spindle and Belor'relos, the Suncaller are the best options in pure ST. Belor’relos is solely a damage based trinket so can be popped whenever off cooldown but it has a small range around 5-10 yards, in situations where this is unfeasible it should be swapped out. Nymue’s should be channeled immediately after Darkglare.

If you dislike having double on-use trinkets Umbrelskul's Fractured Heart is currently the best passive followed by Ominous Chromatic Essence only when all secondary stat combinations are present within the raid then Whispering Incarnate Icon is also a strong option, it too providing secondary stats to it’s user and other members of the raid who have the trinket.