Affliction Warlock Gearing Guide

Patch 10.2 Last Updated: 11th Nov, 2023
Fraser Affliction Warlock Author
Fraser

Gear

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.

Embellishments

Recommended Embellishments:

  1. Allied Wristguards of Time Dilation
  2. 2x Shadowflame-Tempered Armor Patch for most raid situations
  3. Elemental Lariat in AoE with 6+ sockets

Allied Wristguards sims slightly lower than Shadowflame which is the strongest option in single target. However, the bonus to nearby allies from Wristguards is an overall net gain for your raid.

Recommended Crafted Gear

Crafting Priority in Single Target:

  1. Main-Hand Weapon such as Primal Molten Spellblade
  2. Allied Wristguards of Time Dilation
  3. Vibrant Wildercloth Wristwraps with Shadowflame-Tempered Armor Patch
  4. Any other Vibrant Wildercloth armor piece with Shadowflame-Tempered Armor Patch such as Vibrant Wildercloth Shawl

Crafting Priority in AoE:

  1. Main-Hand Weapon such as Primal Molten Spellblade
  2. Allied Wristguards of Time Dilation
  3. Vibrant Wildercloth Wristwraps with Shadowflame-Tempered Armor Patch

Main-hand weapon generally provides the best raw Spark of Dreams to DPS ratio followed by Allied Wristguards of Time Dilation. Though the dps from giving out versatility with the bracers won’t be reflected on your metres it is still better for overall group dps than Vibrant Wildercloth Wristwraps with Shadowflame-Tempered Armor Patch in that slot.  Lariat is also a strong option as gearing slows down or if you got incredibly lucky with socket slots. It isn’t as good as either shadowflame or Time Dilation in pure ST but the stat proc is good when there are more than 1 target.

Try to hold off using your Spark of Dreams 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. Shadowflame-Tempered Armor Patch is a flexible embellishment 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 you have your 4 piece, looting a tier piece in the same slot as you have crafted at 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:

On Use Trinkets:

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 Pip's Emerald Friendship Badge is currently the best passive followed by Vessel of Skittering Shadows - raw intellect trinket with a damage based proc and Sea Star and Genesaur Blood two stat proc trinkets with raw intellect. The stat proc trinkets are stronger than Vessel in scenarios with more than 1 target