NeverFF

Affliction Warlock guide

Ranged DPSWarlock · WoW Forever

Beta guide, level 30. The WoW Forever beta stops at level 30, so this guide and its build cover levels 1 to 30. We update it for level 60 after launch on November 4.

Affliction kills with damage over time and drains, and almost never needs to rest: Life Tap turns health into mana and Drain Life heals it back. Forever adds Improved Drains, Soul Siphon (drains hit harder for each of your effects on the target), Malevolence for shadow crit, and Wrack at the bottom of the tree. Forever changes: Banes (like Bane of Agony) are now separate from Curses, so you can run one of each; damage over time can crit; Life Tap scales with Spirit; and Ritual of Summoning is the only way to summon players now.

Strengths

  • Almost no downtime: Life Tap plus Drain Life
  • Damage on the move with instant Corruption and Bane of Agony
  • Soulstones, Healthstones and summons for the group

Weaknesses

  • Slow to ramp up: short fights favor Destruction
  • Moving cancels Drain Life
  • Life Tap costs health, so be careful before a pull

Talent build (level 30) 21/0/0

Affliction 21 points

  • Improved Life Tap2/2
  • Suppression1/5
  • Improved Corruption5/5
  • Improved Drains3/3
  • Fel Concentration3/3
  • Amplify Curse1/1
  • Malevolence3/5
  • Nightfall2/2
  • Soul Siphon1/3

21 points in Affliction, built for drain-tanking: instant Corruption, Improved Drains and Fel Concentration for Drain Life, Improved Life Tap, Nightfall procs, Malevolence and Soul Siphon. Shadow Mastery, Siphon Life and Wrack come after launch.

Open this build in the talent calculator

Key talents

Improved Corruption
Instant Corruption and +10% damage.
Improved Drains
New in Forever: +20% to Drain Life, Drain Soul and Wrack.
Soul Siphon
Drains hit 12% harder for each of your other Affliction effects on the target.
Nightfall
Your drains and Corruption can make your next Shadow Bolt instant.
Malevolence
New in Forever: +5% crit on your Shadow spells.

New in Forever: Affliction talents

  • Soul HarvestKilling a non-trivial target afflicted by your Drain Soul increases your Mana regeneration by 100% for 10 sec and allows 100% of normal Mana regeneration to continue while casting.
  • Improved DrainsIncreases health drained or damage done by your Drain Life, Drain Soul, and Wrack spells by 20%.
  • PandemicIncreases the critical strike damage bonus of your Corruption, Bane of Agony, Bane of Doom, Drain Soul, Drain Life, Siphon Life, and Wrack spells by 100%.
  • MalevolenceIncreases the critical effect chance of your Shadow spells by 5%.
  • WrackTears the target apart from within, inflicting 36 Shadow damage every 1 sec and increasing the damage they take from your other Shadow damage over time effects by 10% for 6 sec.

Rotation

  1. Send your demon in.
  2. Bane of Agony to pull, then Corruption.
  3. Add a Curse as your third effect (it feeds Soul Siphon).
  4. Drain Life until the target dies, or finish with your wand.
  5. Life Tap whenever your health is higher than your mana.
  6. Instant Shadow Bolt when Nightfall procs.

Several enemies

  • Two enemies: DoT the first and Fear it, kill the second with your demon and Drain Life, then come back.
  • In dungeons, DoT anything that lives longer than about 12 seconds.

Cooldowns

Fear
Takes an add out of the fight while your DoTs tick.
Amplify Curse
+50% on your next Bane of Agony or Curse of Weakness.
Healthstone
Your own emergency heal.

Stats

Spell power first (shadow damage for your DoTs), then Stamina and Spirit (Life Tap scales with Spirit now), then Intellect. Haste does little for DoTs and channels.

Best races

Alliance

Human
The Human Spirit (+10% Spirit, and Life Tap scales with Spirit now) and Ruthless (+1% crit).
Gnome
Expansive Mind (+5% mana) and Eureka! for cheaper, stronger direct spells like Shadow Bolt. It does nothing for damage over time, so it suits Destruction more than Affliction.

Horde

Undead
Touch of the Grave drains health on 30% of your spells, Cannibalize restores mana, Will of the Forsaken breaks fear.
Orc
Blood Fury: +10% Spell Power for 15 sec, and Command: +5% demon damage.
Troll
Berserking for faster casts and Rapid Regeneration to recover.

Professions

Tailoring for cloth with shadow and fire damage (new in Forever), with Enchanting. First Aid matters more now: it also makes cures for poisons, diseases and bleeds.

Leveling

One of the best leveling specs in the beta. Pull with Bane of Agony, Corruption, Curse, then Drain Life and let your Succubus or Voidwalker hold the enemy.