Affliction Warlock Playstyle and Rotation Guide

General Rotation

Modern WoW classes don’t have a strict rotation but a priority for spells. For Affliction Warlock, they look like this:

1. Never drop your dots, Unstable Affliction, Agony and Corruption / Wither (if not playing AC) (refresh these within their pandemic timers, other than Agony if playing Volatile Agony)
2. Never drop Haunt and Shadow’s Embrace
3. Sync every (other) Vile Taint and every Phantom Singularity with Soulrot
4. Darkglare when Phantom Singularity/Vile Taint and Soul Rot are up
5. Don’t overcap on shards
6. Spam Rapture to 0-1 shards if Phantom Singularity/Vile Taint, Soul Rot are up
7. Spend Tormented Crescendo procs to apply Umbral Lattice
8. Don’t overcap on shards
9. Use Drain Soul or Shadow Bolt as filler

Don’t forget to Rapture when you get a TC proc if Umbral Lattice (4pc bonus) isn’t active, if it is active and you are outside the burst window try to catch it before it drops.

Opener

Unlike the General Rotation opener, here is a strict sequence of spells.

Single Target

1. Pre-cast Haunt 2 seconds before pull
2. Unstable Affliction
3. Agony
4. Corruption / Wither
5. Drain Soul or Shadow Bolt to max Shadow’s Embrace stacks
6. Phantom Singularity
7. Soul Rot
8. Darkglare + On-use trinkets, potions etc
9. Malevolence (if Hellcaller)
10. Spam Malefic Rapture
11. Proceed to normal rotation

Multi Target

1. Pre-cast Seed 2 seconds before pull
2. Unstable Affliction prio target
3. Haunt the prio target
4. Vile Taint
5. Soul Rot
6. Darkglare + On-use trinkets, potions etc
7. Malevolence (if Hellcaller)
8. Spam Malefic Rapture
9. Proceed to normal rotation

On Multiple Targets, you go with largely the same priority of spells as ST but apply them differently in large packs (3+) by using Vile Taint to initially apply Agony and Seed of Corruption to apply corruption (wither) when there are three or more targets stacked. Keep Agony on up to 5-8 targets, this will need to be refreshed manually once in-between Vile Taints if the pack lives long enough remember to refresh when there are 10 or less seconds remaining for Volatile Agony.

Playstyle

General Playstyle

Warlock’s make up for their lack of mobility with strong survivability. Affliction is mobile in the sense of being able to cast some of our DoTs on the move and can dish out damage on the move should we have the procs.

Affliction takes a long time to set up which is previously why it hasn’t seen very much play in mythic+ - having to dot everything up before being able to deal damage. This is an issue for all DoT based specs as the pack may day way before any DoTs are close to running out.

We have 2 similar play styles via our Hero Talents. Hellcaller Affliction deals massive damage through Wither, a permanent DoT so this Hero talent set isn’t punished as much for having to move. Conversely Soul Harvester is way more active, while this is offset by having more instant cast Malefic Raptures, which we can use on the move if Tormented Crescendo is procced. Its reliance on Drain Soul from nightfall procs as well as its mass acquisition and expenditure of soul shards means it is more heavily punished than Hellcaller for having to move.

Warlock also has some of the most unique utility in the game with their ability to summon other raid and party members, once per combat heals for their allies in healthstones, a combat resurrection in Soulstone which can be pre placed on a healer before combat should I wipe occur, allowing them to mass rez everybody and save running back.

The most useful in my opinion is the demonic gateway which places two short-ranged ‘doors’ up to a maximum of 30yds, one where the warlock is standing and one in a place of their choosing. This gateway can only be taken once every 90 seconds and transport the player that clicks it (or uses the item in their back) to the other end. This spell does have a cast time but can be instant cast if Soulburned letting it be used even while on the move to give yourself a pseudo blink.

Cooldown Usage

Regardless of what hero talents you’re choosing, our usage of our 3 main cooldowns: Phantom Singularity, Soul Rot and Darkglare remains the same. We want to pair Phantom Singularity with every Soulrot and then every Darkglare should extend both Phantom Singularity and Soul Rot to look something like this across a 5 minute fight:

• 0:10 - Phantom Singularity + Soul Rot + Darkglare + (Malevolence)
• 1:10 - Phantom Singularity + Soul Rot (Malevolence)
• 2:10 - Phantom Singularity + Soul Rot + Darkglare + (Malevolence)
• 3:10 - Phantom Singularity + Soul Rot (Malevolence)
• 4:10 - Phantom Singularity + Soul Rot + Darkglare + (Malevolence)

If playing Hellcaller then Malevolence which is a 1 minute CD the same as Soulrot, should be pressed after Darkglare.

Defensives

Warlocks as a class have 2 powerful defensive cooldowns:

Unending resolve - which reduces all damage taken by 25% (40% if talented) as well as granting the warlock immunity to interrupt and silence effects for 8 seconds, on a 3 minute cooldown (2:15 CD if talented) - choice node between 40% DR or 2:15 CD.

Dark Pact - a sacrifice of 20% of current to gain an absorb shield for 200% of that health on a 1 minute cooldown (45 secs if talented).

These two defensives, dark pact especially allow the warlock frequent damage reductions with minimal downside. Where’s some classes may drop significantly low when targeted by a boss ability it isn’t uncommon for a warlock to pop dark pact and take 0 damage at all. This is also partly due to our talent Soul Leech which gives as a 10% overhealth absorb based on the damage we deal and Soul Link which redirects 10% of the damage we take to our pets.

Most DR defensives are best utilized if you know incoming damage is about to happen but should you not be aware and find yourself low then warlock’s also have many tools for healing themself back up.

With the addition of Pact of Gluttony talent in TWW we are able to instantly restore 25% (35% if talented) on a 1 minute cooldown. Our healthstones not only heal us when we use them but they also heal us when others use them through the Sweet Souls talent and can be used in tandem with Soulburn (at the cost of 1 soul shard) to heal us up to full.

Each hero talent tree also enhances our defensives with Hellcaller giving us the option of Dark Pact healing us while it is active, helping to restore the 20% sacrificed health faster or having Soul Leech absorb 15% of max health at the cost of 10% of max health. Not to be outdone Soul Harvester gives us the choice of always getting the Soulburn benefit when consuming a healthstone or Dark Pact shielding us for a further 50% of the sacrificed health. The last one is my personal favourite, giving us a massive absorb shield.