Welcome to theAffliction Warlock Mythic+ guide for the World of Warcraft prepatch 11.0! In this guide, you can find tips and tricks to maximize your damage output and ensure your character is ready to top the damage charts.
Affliction Warlock playstyle revolves around managing your damage over time effects while keeping balance of your primary resource, Soul Shards. Rot your enemies down with a bunch of curses and shadow magic while draining their souls and utilizing it in any way you want.
In current season your Agony also has a chance to empower your Malefic Rapture. That, paired with Malign Omen talent, allows you to have devastating burst windows alongside with sustain rot damage of your DoTs.
Whether you are new to Affliction Warlock or looking to refine your skills, here you can find the information needed to dominate in Mythic+ environments.
Overview
Patch 11.0 - The War Within
Affliction Warlock
Affliction WarlockMythic+
SINGLE-TARGET
Weak
AOE
Average
UTILITY
Average
SURVIVABILITY
Excellent
MOBILITY
Weak
- Affliction Warlocks are known for their exceptional spread cleave damage through their DoTs and high passive survivability because of Soul Leech.
- In Mythic+, Affliction Warlock brings a bunch of different things to the group. You can increase your group's survivability by providing Healthstones, weaken your enemies with curses like Curse of Tongues or Curse of Weakness or disable a pack of mobs with Shadowfury.
- On top of that, Affliction Warlocks are also one of the best at surviving in any encounter on their own. Unending Resolve and Dark Pact paired with Pact of Gluttony and Sweet Souls allow you to live in almost any situation.
- However, like any specialization, Affliction Warlocks have their weaknesses. One drawback is their poor mobility. While they can use Burning Rush to increase their movement speed, it drains their health over time. This can be dangerous in certain situations and lead to death.
Talents
Patch 11.0 - The War Within
Affliction Warlock
General
When to use this Spec
This is a default loadout going into any dungeon as it specializes in balancing ST and AoE damage. You have to adjust the class talent tree based on the utility required for the affix and dungeon combo.
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.
- Vile Taint
- Strong AoE DoT that also applies Agony on up to 8 targets, another tool to spread your DoTs faster.
- Soul Rot
- Strong AoE DoT on up to 5 targets.
- Malign Omen and Dark Harvest allow you to have a short damage burst every minute both on ST and AoE.
- Nightfall
- Makes your Shadow Bolt an instant cast and does more damage when procs that helps with your mobility in downtimes.
- Tormented Crescendo
- Helps you with Soul Shard drought on ST or when there are a low number of targets.
- 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 Shadow Bolt 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 movement 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.
- Shadowfury
- Your only AoE CC that can affect an unlimited amount of targets.
- Mortal Coil
- A Single Target CC that can also be used as a defensive spell if you need to heal on demand.
- Keep in mind that coiled and feared targets generally run away from you, so position yourself properly before casting it if needed.
- 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, especially coming from a tank, and shouldn't be overlapped with your own Healthstone to avoid overhealing in high keys.
- Pact of Gluttony
- Combining Healthstone with Soulburn becomes a strong 1 minute defensive CD on long boss fights.
Rotation
Patch 11.0 - The War Within
Affliction Warlock
Tier Set
- 2-Set: When Agony grants you a Soul Shard, you have a chance to gain Cruel Inspiration, increasing your haste by 12% for 6 seconds.
- 4-Set: Cruel Inspiration also grants 2 charges of Cruel Epiphany, up to 5 charges. Each charge of Cruel Epiphany increases the damage of your next Malefic Rapture or Seed of Corruption by 40%.
Single-target
Opener Rotation
- Your goal of the opener is to spend as many Soul Shards as possible without overcapping on resources while keeping relevant abilities on cooldown:
- Skip prepull Shadow Bolt if the boss is already about to be pulled. Cast it right before Vile Taint instead to apply a second stack of Shadow Embrace.
- Always keep up Unstable Affliction, Agony, Corruption and Shadow Embrace on the target.
- All Soul Shards should be spent while Soul Rot and Vile Taint are active on the target.
Priority List
This is a general priority you want to maintain throughout the fight.
- Keep up Unstable Affliction, Agony and Corruption.
- Cast Haunt on cooldown.
- Cast Summon Darkglare on cooldown whenever Vile Taint 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 capping on Nightfall stacks.
- 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 to spend all Soul Shards whenever Vile Taint and Soul Rot are up.
- Cast Shadow Bolt as your filler spell.
Multi Target
AoE Opener Rotation
- Below, you see an example of your opener using the recommended General talent spec and depending on the number of Soul Conduit procs, among other factors.
- Make sure to cast Malefic Rapture as many times as you can before the pack dies.
- Don't forget to refresh Agony even when the pack is about to die to trigger Volatile Agony for more AoE damage.
AoE 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.
- 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.
- Cast Shadow Bolt as your filler spell.
Deep dive
Patch 11.0 - The War Within
Affliction Warlock
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 and Soul Rot
Although both spells should be used on cooldown, 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.
- Vile Taint being a 30 second cooldown spell allows it one additional use before Soul Rot comes off CD.
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. Take care to cast it only when Vile Taint and Soul Rot are up alongside your other DoTs.
Managing Soul Shards and 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 Vile Taint and Soul Rot 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 will understand how many Soul Shards you want to spend outside of your burns, which varies on the number of targets you fight.
It's also important to keep at least 1-2 Soul Shards while finishing the trash pack so you can cast Vile Taint and Seed of Corruption on a new pull immediately. Also, keep in mind a mob dying with your Unstable Affliction applied grants you 1 Soul Shard.
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.
- Pandemic
- Spell Queue Window
- Stat Diminishing Returns
Dungeons
Patch 11.0 - The War Within
Affliction Warlock
← Scroll for more Dungeons →
Brackenhide Hollow
Uldaman: Legacy of Tyr
The Nokhud Offensive
Algeth'ar Academy
Halls of Infusion
The Azure Vault
Neltharus
Ruby Life Pools
Boss Tips
Hackclaw's War-Band
- Use Curse of Tongues on Tricktotem to slow down his Earth Bolt and Greater Healing Rapids casts.
- Preuse Dark Pact whenever Gash Frenzy by Gashtooth is being cast to get a headstart on its Bleed effect.
- You can help dispel Decayed Senses with Singe Magic.
- Be aware of the timing of Gash Frenzy by Gashtooth so you don't miss your Vile Taint and Soul Rot on it.
Gutshot
- Don't forget to put Agony on hyenas for extra Soul Shards generation but don't waste globals on Corruption for them since they are passively dying in traps anyway.
- Time your Soul Rot to hit hyenas as well as the boss so you can benefit more from Dark Harvest.
Treemouth
- Place your Demonic Circle before the fight starts to counter the drag in easily.
- Shadowfury stuns the slimes that spawn from Decay Spray before they complete their Gushing Ooze cast.
- Make sure to time Soul Rot to hit slimes together with the boss to benefit more from Dark Harvest.
Decatriarch Wratheye
- Make sure to pool Soul Shards for each Rotburst Totem.
- Remember that you can precast Vile Taint before Rotburst Totem spawns to start damaging it faster.
- Make sure to rotate defensives on Withered Eruption depending on available Gear and key level.
Trash Tips
- Curse of Tongues is very valuable in this dungeon due to the high amount of dangerous casters.
- Make sure to stop Vicious Clawmangle from Claw Fighter's with any of your available stops.
Pre Dungeon Start
- Use Fel Domination shortly before starting the dungeon. Starting a dungeon despawns your pet but doesn't remove your Fel Domination buff, and this enables you to rapidly summon your pet without spending a Soul Shard while still having Fel Domination off cooldown in case your pet dies later.
Boss Tips
The Lost Dwarves
- Put Olaf on focus to quickly interrupt his Defensive Bulwark when cast.
Bromach
- Make sure to have Soul Rot and Vile Taint for every Quaking Totem spawn.
- Pool Soul Shards for Quaking Totem spawns.
Talondras
- Use defensives while you're affected by Earthen Shards, especially if Crushing Stomp is coming up.
- You can remove Inexorable with Shadowfury if you want to stop Crushing Stomp early.
Emberon
- You can dispel Burning Heat with your Imp's Singe Magic to help out your healer.
Deios
- Time Sink can be removed by Singe Magic from your Imp and Demonic Circle: Teleport.
- Use Dark Pact on Wing Buffet.
- Since Dark Pact has a 20 second duration you're able to preuse Dark Pact to have it up for more Wing Buffet casts throughout the fight if the spell sequence matches up.
Trash Tips
- Stunning Refti Custodian's applies a 100% damage increase to them. Make sure to utilize your Shadowfury for that purpose.
- Curse of Tongues is very valuable in this dungeon due to the high amount of dangerous casters.
Pre Dungeon Start
- Use Fel Domination shortly before starting the dungeon. Starting a dungeon despawns your pet but doesn't remove your Fel Domination buff, and this enables you to rapidly summon your pet without spending a Soul Shard while still having Fel Domination off cooldown in case your pet dies later.
Boss Tips
Granyth
- Use Curse of Exhaustion on the Nokhud Saboteur to give your group more time to kill it.
- You can also use Fear and not touch them afterward if you only need to use the affected Dragonkiller Lance once.
- Make use of Dark Pact when Shards of Stone is being cast.
Raging Tempest
- Minmaxing Surge of Power stacks is crucial to have an easy time since it doesn't only buff damage but also healing absorbs. Using Dark Pact with a lot of stacks guarantees that you survive with ease especially if you time it correctly with the bosses Electrical Storm.
- Instantly purge Energy Surge with Devour Magic of your Felhunter or Observer pet.
Teera & Maruuk.
Make sure to use Dark Pact on each Gale Arrow. Use Unending Resolve, Healthstone & Potion of Withering Dreams whenever you get targeted multiple times in a row by Quick Shot.
Balakar Khan
- You can place Demonic Circle before Static Spear goes off and teleport right as the grip happens. This negates the effect and leaves you in a comfortable place to continue to deal damage.
- Dark Pact is best used on Upheaval and Crackling Upheaval, covering both with proper usage. Your Dark Pact uses should look like this:
Trash Tips
- Curse of Tongues is very valuable in this dungeon due to the high amount of dangerous casters.
- You're able to purge Stormshield with Devour Magic of your Felhunter or Observer.
- Make sure to stop Rally the Clan with Shadowfury, Mortal Coil or Fear.
- Cast Banish on the Unstable Squall to prevent the Stormspeaker from summoning more and reduce tank damage. Remove the Banish at the end of the pull by casting it again on the affected target.
Pre Dungeon Start
- Use Fel Domination shortly before starting the dungeon. Starting a dungeon despawns your pet but doesn't remove your Fel Domination buff, and this enables you to rapidly summon your pet without spending a Soul Shard while still having Fel Domination off cooldown in case your pet dies later.
Boss Tips
Overgrown Ancient
- Use Dark Pact on every Burst Forth cast that happens at 100 energy of the boss.
Crawth
Since Deafening Screech is happening every ~23 seconds you should use Dark Pact for every second Deafening Screech. Your defensive usage could look like the following:
Vexamus
- Place your Demonic Circle before the fight starts to quickly teleport out of the void zones from Mana Bomb when needed.
- On this Boss, you should use defensives more reactive than preplanned. In general, you want to use Unending Resolve on the overlap of Mana Bomb and Arcane Fissure.
- If you're only affected by Mana Bomb a late use of Mortal Coil or early use of Dark Pact should be enough.
Echo of Doragosa
- Place your Demonic Circle before the fight starts to counter the pull in from Power Vacuum.
- Burning Rush may save you if you don't see Astral Breath early enough. In general, you should stay a little closer to the boss to make it easier to dodge.
Trash Tips
- You can line of sight the Vicious Ambush cast from the Arcane Ravager. The cast always targets the furthest player and running out of line of sight causes the Arcane Ravager to not charge to you and immediately start its Riftbreath cast instead.
- You can purge the Celestial Shield of Ethereal Restorer's with Devour Magic.
Pre Dungeon Start
- Use Fel Domination shortly before starting the dungeon. Starting a dungeon despawns your pet but doesn't remove your Fel Domination buff, and this enables you to rapidly summon your pet without spending a Soul Shard while still having Fel Domination off cooldown in case your pet dies later.
- In high Mythic+ keys you should get the Red Dragonflight Pledge Pin, in lower keys you can easily get Bronze Dragonflight Pledge Pin.
Boss Tips
Irideus
- Place down a Demonic Gateway and Demonic Circle to get out fast with the Power Overload debuff.
- You can also dispel Power Overload with your Imp's Singe Magic.
- Save up a few Soul Shards for the intermission to kill 3 Nullification Devices quickly.
Gulping Goliath
- Make sure to stun the Curious Swoglets with Shadowfury.
- Boss is casting Overpowering Croak every 40 seconds so make sure to have Soul Rot for each spawn of frogs to benefit more from Dark Harvest.
Khajin
- Use Dark Pact, Unending Resolve and Mortal Coil whenever your healer does not have healing CDs rolling. The rot damage stays the same throughout the fight meaning any damage being prevented is good.
Primal Tsunami
- Always use Dark Pact for Tempest's Fury.
- You can use Fear on 1 of the 4 Primalist Infusers to interrupt them without them starting to cast Inundate and also prevent the boss from gaining stacks early on.
Trash Tips
- Helping out your tank by using Shadowfury on packs with stealthed Skulking Zealots prevents them from stunning the tank with Cheap Shot.
- Use Demonic Circle: Teleport to quickly cleanse yourself from Deep Chill while fighting any Proto-Dragon.
- It's also possible to use Soulburn into Demonic Circle: Teleport before Deep Chill is applied to prevent the application entirely.
- You can outrange the Inundate cast of Infuser Sariya by walking over 40 yards away.
- In general, you can help out your tank and healer massively by applying Curse of Tongues to relevant targets.
Pre Dungeon Start
- Use Fel Domination shortly before starting the dungeon. Starting a dungeon despawns your pet but doesn't remove your Fel Domination buff, and this enables you to rapidly summon your pet without spending a Soul Shard while still having Fel Domination off cooldown in case your pet dies later.
Boss Tips
Leymor
- Always use a defensive for Consuming Stomp.
- Depending on your group comp and how long Bubbling Sappling live, you may want to DoT a few of them with Agony.
- Make sure that every cast of your Soul Rot hits the maximum amount of targets to benefit more from Dark Harvest.
Azureblade
- Use Curse of Tongues on the Draconic Images to make interrupting them a lot easier.
Telash Greywing
- Make sure to use Dark Pact when targeted by Icy Devastator, sadly you don't have a way to cancel this cast except if you're a Night Elf and have access to Shadowmeld.
Umbrelskul
- You should always pool resources for each crystal phase. These start at 75%, 50% and 25%.
- You can precast Seed of Corruption to speed up killing crystals.
- Defensives should be used during the Detonating Crystals phases as well as for Unleashed Destruction.
Trash Tips
- Make sure to purge Brilliant Scales off of the Vaul Guards with Devour Magic.
- One of the important interrupts in this dungeon is Icy Bindings from the Rune Seal Keepers since it's usually paired with other adds that spawn void zones under your feet that you obviously can't dodge if you're rooted.
- Using Soulburn together with Demonic Circle: Teleport before Icy Bindings makes you immune to the root effect. Very neat if you don't have access to an interrupt at that time.
Pre Dungeon Start
- Use Fel Domination shortly before starting the dungeon. Starting a dungeon despawns your pet but doesn't remove your Fel Domination buff, and this enables you to rapidly summon your pet without spending a Soul Shard while still having Fel Domination off cooldown in case your pet dies later.
Boss Tips
Magmatusk
- Use Demonic Circle to quickly dodge either Liquid Hot Magma projectiles or Lava Wave.
- Don't use Demonic Gateway to cross over Lava Wave, they still hit you.
- Use defensives for Volatile Mutation and Lava Spray depending on the situation.
Chargath, Bane of Scales
- Start the fight by preplacing Demonic Circle and Demonic Gateway across the room because you can negate a lot of damage by instantly teleporting right after Grounding Spear lands.
- If you're a Dwarf you can remove the bleed from Dragon Strike with Stoneform if necessary.
- You can bait Dragon Strike on the furthest player from the target which means that your tank should probably take most of them anyway.
Forgemaster Gorek
- Might of the Forge happening close to Blazing Aegis is very deadly thus you should use your defensives pre-emptively during Might of the Forge.
Warlord Sargha
- You're able to Crowd Control the Burning Ember with Banish and Fear. You can also delay killing it and use it as a funnel throughout the fight.
- Remember that you can pick up multiple Piles of Gold to stack up more than 1 usable item. It should only be done with a group that has access to a decurse.
Trash Tips
- Keep an eye out for Qalashi Bonesplitter's Dragonbone Axe ability and disrupt it with your available toolkit.
Pre Dungeon Start
- Use Fel Domination shortly before starting the dungeon. Starting a dungeon despawns your pet but doesn't remove your Fel Domination buff, and this enables you to rapidly summon your pet without spending a Soul Shard while still having Fel Domination off cooldown in case your pet dies later.
Boss Tips
Melidrussa Chillworn
- You can utilize Demonic Circle and Demonic Gateway to quickly get out of the Chillstorm that you drop when debuffed.
- At 75% and 45%, Melidrussa spawns numerous Infused Whelps that can be used for funnel damage onto the boss.
- Defensives should generally be used for Chillstorm.
Kokia Blazehoof
- Use defensives like Dark Pact and Unending Resolve for Inferno.
Erkhart Stormvein / Kyrakka
- Make sure to keep DoTs on both the boss and dragon.
- Winds of Change rotates counter clockwise from its starting point. Consider placing Demonic Circle in a favorable position to get out of trouble quickly if you're getting boxed in.
- Personals are generally not needed in Phase 1. In Phase 2 consider a personal every time you get hit by Flamespit.
Trash Tips
- Ice Shield is purgeable by your Devour Magic of your Felhunter or Observer.
- Make sure to stop Tectonic Slam with abilities like Shadowfury.
- You can help out your healer while fighting Thunderhead by playing an Imp and dispelling Rolling Thunder if your healer wants to focus on other things. DON'T DISPEL IF YOUR HEALER IS ALREADY DISPELLING!
- When the Primalist Flamedancers die you can purge their Blaze of Glory cast and kill them off that way.
Pre Dungeon Start
- Use Fel Domination shortly before starting the dungeon. Starting a dungeon despawns your pet but doesn't remove your Fel Domination buff, and this enables you to rapidly summon your pet without spending a Soul Shard while still having Fel Domination off cooldown in case your pet dies later.
Affixes
Learn how to effectively handle various Mythic+ Affixes as an Affliction Warlock. Depending on the level of the Mythic+ Dungeon you face up to two additional Affixes alongside Fortified and Tyrannical.
- Storming
- Demonic Circle can be preplaced and used right after soaking a Storm.
- Entangling
- Preplace Demonic Circle and use Demonic Circle: Teleport when entangling is up to cleanse it. You can also pre-cast Demonic Circle: Teleport with the Soulburn version of the spell a couple of seconds prior to entangling spawning.
- Incorporeal
- Utilize Banish.
- It's a faster cast than Fear, and good to spec into while doing pug keys. This way you can handle the whole affix on your own.
- Fear works great as well.
- Interrupt them with Spell Lock.
- Utilize Banish.
- Bolstering
- Using Banish on an eligible target can prevent the target from getting bolstering stacks. Very useful if your group has unavoidable AoE damage and fights a pack of enemies with a lot of low health targets and one high health target.
- Spiteful
- Use Banish to crowd control specific Spiteful enemies.
- Utilize Shadowfury to crowd control multiple Spiteful Shades simultaneously to keep them stunned for a few seconds.
- Cast Curse of Exhaustion and Mortal Coil to help out yourself or your teammates.
- Sanguine
- Use Mortal Coil, Fear or Howl of Terror to force enemies out of Sanguine Ichor. This doesn't always work but saves a lot of time if you fight enemy casters that don't move otherwise.
- Bursting
- If you have an Imp out you can use Singe Magic on a player. Note that this only removes 1 stack of Burst.
Stat Priority
Patch 11.0 - The War Within
Affliction Warlock
Understand your secondary stat priority and the tertiary stats needed for optimal performance during Mythic+ Dungeons as an Affliction Warlock. For more detailed information, visit the Stats and Attributes guide.
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 - Reduces damage taken from area of effect attacks. Currently, the most overpowered tertiarystat you can get as a dps. It can sometimes be the difference in making certain high keys possible at all.
- Leech - Provides additional healing through damage dealing. Can be a good tertiary for you although mostly only on AoE.
- Speed - Niche tertiary that increases your movement speed and can become very useful in certain situations.
Gear
Patch 11.0 - The War Within
Affliction Warlock
Overall BiS
Farmable Alternatives
Slot | Item | Location |
Head | Grimhorns of the Sinister Savant | Tier / Catalyst |
Neck | Tuskarr Bone Necklace | Brackenhide Hollow |
Shoulder | Amice of the Sinister Savant | Tier / Catalyst |
Cloak | Shawl of the Sinister Savant | Catalyst of Sarkareth |
Chest | Cursed Robes of the Sinister Savant | Tier / Catalyst |
Wrist | Vibrant Wildercloth Wristwraps | Crafting |
Gloves | Grips of the Sinister Savant | Tier / Catalyst |
Belt | Sash of Abandoned Hope | Kazzara |
Legs | Leggings of the Sinister Savant | Tier / Catalyst |
Boots | Vibrant Wildercloth Slippers | Crafting |
Ring 1 | Seal of Filial Duty | Broodkeeper |
Ring 2 | Seal of Diurna's Chosen | Eranog |
Trinket 1 | Nymue's Unraveling Spindle | Nymue |
Trinket 2 | Ominous Chromatic Essence | The Forgotten Experiments |
Weapon | Dreambinder, Loom of the Great Cycle | Nymue |
Below you are presented with good farmable alternatives that are not locked behind WoW's weekly system. While you replace them in time, this list is for you if you want to power up immediately!
Slot | Item | Location |
---|---|---|
Head | Organized Pontificator's Mask | Algeth'ar Academy |
Neck | Tuskarr Bone Necklace | Brackenhide Hollow |
Shoulder | Molten Magma Mantle | Neltharus |
Cloak | Mammoth-Trainer's Drape | Neltharus |
Chest | Bronze Challenger's Robe | Algeth'ar Academy |
Wrist | Animated Shackles | Uldaman |
Gloves | Azureblade's Work Gloves | Azure Vault |
Belt | Flare-Singed Strap | Neltharus |
Legs | Crazed Traveler's Legwraps | Uldaman |
Boots | Ancient Crosswrapped Sandals | Uldaman |
Ring 1 | Scalebane Signet | Neltharus |
Ring 2 | Thunderous Downburst Ring | The Nokhud Offensive |
Trinket 1 | Spoils of Neltharus | Neltharus |
Trinket 2 | Tome of Unstable Power | Azure Vault |
Two-Hand Weapon | Final Grade | Algeth'ar Academy |
One-Hand Weapon | Koroleth's Crackling Dagger | The Nokhud Offensive |
Offhand | Rod of Perfect Order | Halls of Infusion |
Trinkets
Below you can find active and passive alternatives to the recommended trinkets. Do note that some trinkets are better than others depending on the scenario.
Active Trinket alternatives
- Spoils of Neltharus
- Alternates between the secondary stats. It can be delayed a little bit until the preferred secondary is available.
- Nymue's Unraveling Spindle
- Very strong on use trinket although you have to channel it for 3 seconds which leads to a bit of downtime.
- Ashes of the Embersoul
- Strong 2 minute on use with a minute haste penalty after.
- Belor'relos, the Suncaller
- Strong upfront on-use damage.
Passive Trinket alternatives
- Whispering Incarnate Icon
- Is better or worse depending on how many people in your group are using it.
- Umbrelskul's Fractured Heart
- Very strong single-target damage while still doing respectable AoE damage.
- Tome of Unstable Power
- Best passive alternative from dungeons. Deals very high AoE damage.
- Ominous Chromatic Essence
- Strong passive trinket if at least 3 other people in the group are also using it.
- In the gearset above all stats are used but you can switch it to any other stat, keep in mind that you would need to adjust your gear accordingly.
- Vessel of Searing Shadow
- Solid single-target trinket, loses significant value on AoE.
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.
Embellishments
Patch 11.0 - The War Within
Affliction Warlock
- 2x Blue Silken Lining
- Only good if you have +90% health for most of the time and during your cooldowns.
- On Wrists, Boots, Waist or Cloak depending on your available gear.
Remaining Sparks
- Make sure to apply Alchemical Flavor Pocket if you have an additional crafted item equipped to keep your food buff even if you die.
Enchantments
Patch 11.0 - The War Within
Affliction Warlock
Head | Incandescent Essence |
Neck | Tiered Medallion Setting 3x |
Cloak | Enchant Cloak - Graceful Avoidance |
Chest | Enchant Chest - Waking Stats |
Wrist | Enchant Bracer - Devotion of Avoidance |
Belt | Shadowed Belt Clasp |
Legs | Frozen Spellthread |
Boots | Enchant Boots - Plainsrunner's Breeze |
Ring 1 | Enchant Ring - Devotion of Mastery |
Ring 2 | Enchant Ring - Devotion of Mastery |
Weapon | Enchant Weapon - Sophic Devotion |
Consumables
Patch 11.0 - The War Within
Affliction Warlock
To further improve the performance of your Affliction Warlock during Mythic+ Dungeons you need to have the proper Consumables in use.
Phials
- Iced Phial of Corrupting Rage -- For maximum DPS.
- Phial of Tepid Versatility -- For less DPS but more survivability.
Food
- Grand Banquet of the Kalu'ak
- Deviously Deviled Eggs
Combat Potion
- Elemental Potion of Ultimate Power
- Residual Neural Channeling Agent -- Can be used while being dead if your potion is ready.
Health Potion
- Potion of Withering Dreams -- For a big burst of healing
- Dreamwalker's Healing Potion -- For less healing upfront but an additional small heal over time.
Weapon Rune
- Hissing Rune -- Default
- Howling Rune -- If you've reached 2nd Mastery DR.
Augment Rune
- Dreambound Augment Rune -- Requires Reputation
- Draconic Augment Rune
Sockets
- Skillful Illimited Diamond -- Default. Unique, made by work order
- Fierce Illimited Diamond -- If you've reached 2nd Mastery DR. Unique, made by work order
- Keen Neltharite -- Default.
- Keen Ysemerald -- If you've reached 2nd Mastery DR.
Races
Patch 11.0 - The War Within
Affliction Warlock
For min-maxing an Affliction Warlock in Mythic+, different racial traits can provide a tremendous benefit to your characters. If this is not your top goal, picking a race that fits your style works just as well.
- Stoneform -- Dwarf
- One of the most potent racials in Mythic+ currently and historically.
- Use-cases:
- Bursting stacks.
- Splinterbark on Overgrown Ancient (Algeth'ar Academy).
- Deep Chill from Glacial Proto-Dragons (Halls of Infusion).
- Withering from Fetid Rotsingers and Brackenhide Shapers (Brackenhide Hollow).
- Earthen Shards from Sentinel Talondras (Uldaman: Legacy of Tyr).
- Stolen Time from Infinite Timereavers (Uldaman: Legacy of Tyr).
- Dragon Strike from Chargath (Neltharus).
- Bold Ambush from Qalashi Hunters (Neltharus).
- Shadowmeld -- Night Elf
- Also one of the most potent racials in Mythic+ historically.
- Use-cases:
- Cast Shadowmeld when Forgemaster Gorek (Neltharus) targets you with Blazing Aegis, this completely negate the mechanic for you and the rest of the group.
- Run past basically any mob and then cast Shadowmeld to make them reset. Even works on mobs that have stealth detection if you get enough distance before you Shadowmeld.
- Blood Fury -- Orc
- Strong racial for damage because of Blood Fury lining up with Summon Darkglare.
- 20% reduced Stun duration on you which can be useful in some Mythic+ dungeons.
- Escape Artist -- Gnome
- Free yourself from roots.
- Rocket Jump -- Goblin
- Do a small jump in the direction your character is facing.
- While in the Rocket Jump animation you are placed on a global cooldown until your character lands.
- Berserking -- Troll
- Strong DPS racial although it doesn't always line up with Summon Darkglare.
- Reduce the duration of movement impairing effects by 20%.
Recommendation
Dwarf and Night Elf are your best races since both of their abilities have such a big impact on your Mythic+ experience. You need to use either of them if you're serious about pushing keys with your Affliction Warlock.
Macros
Patch 11.0 - The War Within
Affliction Warlock
Discover recommended macros for Affliction Warlocks during Mythic+ Dungeons and watch a quick video guide on creating simple macros for your character.
Macro Import Guide Video
Cursor Macros
Mouseover Macros
Pet Macros
Utility Macros
Addons
Patch 11.0 - The War Within
Affliction Warlock
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 Mythic+ Dungeons to make your life easier.
Addons
WeakAuras
Changes this Patch
Patch 11.0 - The War Within
Affliction Warlock
Patch 11.0
FAQ
Patch 11.0 - The War Within
Affliction Warlock
Q: Why does my Malefic Rapture do so little damage?
Credits
Written By: Wexi
Reviewed By: Xerwo