The Affliction Warlock

 

In World of Warcraft, the affliction warlock has long been the bane of all warlock haters.  It has become the most popular raiding spec in The Burning Crusade expansion.  This post will teach you how to be the best affliction warlock possible in a raid environment.  There are many other guides out there, but most are poorly written and tend to be too broad, open-ended, and lacking in a clear answer.  Here, I will be very specific as to why something is the right choice and why something is the wrong choice for PVE raiding.

 

There are two main reasons why an affliction spec would be your best option:

1. Because your hit rating is not high enough, and you need the benefit of the Suppression talent, and any other spec would be a lower DPS because of the lack of spell hit.

2. Because your raid needs at least 1 warlock with the Shadow Embrace talent.

 

Being an affliction warlock is by far the hardest spec to play well.  If you can master how to play an affliction warlock, then you will easily master any other warlock spec.  This, in addition to the benefit of the Suppression talent, is why I think all starting warlocks should learn to play as an affliction warlock for a very long time before they venture on to higher DPS specs.

 

First, let's go over what I will call the "base" affliction warlock spec http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=IVMrm0ftVtcoZxx0x.  This spec also has 5 points left over for use in talents that would not directly cause an increase in your DPS.  We will discuss these optional talents later.

 

First, let's discuss each Affliction tree talents and explain why they are (or are not) in the base spec.

 

Tier 1

Suppression: This talent acts exactly like + spell hit gear.  For any boss fight, you need +16% spell hit in order to be “hit capped”.  Mathematically, the 16% translates into 201.6 spell hit rating.  Therefore, you should never go above 201 hit rating, otherwise you are wasting that extra hit rating.  If your hit rating is below (say) 175, then you should put points in this area (take the points from Fel Concentration instead of using some of extra points in the above the base spec).  The number of points you should put in Suppression is equal to the following formula:  (201.6 – your spell hit rating) / 25.2.  Take the whole number and drop the remainder.  Another way to look at this is that every point in this talent gives you +25.2 spell hit rating on your affliction spells.  Remember, that this does not affect your Shadow Bolt spell because that is a destruction spell.

 

Improved Corruption:  Taking 5 points in this talent makes your Corruption an instant cast spell, also enabling to be cast while moving.  For any affliction warlock, the full 5 points is a must.

 

Tier 2

Improved Curse of Weakness:  Skip this talent, unless you have 4 warlocks in your raid you will be using CoS, CoE and/or CoR.  Even if you were the fourth warlock, I would recommend CoA or CoD over this curse.  For a more detailed discussion, see the FAQ below.

 

Improved Drain Soul: 2 points here to reduce the threat of your affliction spells.  Some people might consider this unnecessary, and they might be right in certain cases, but what else are you going to spend points in?

 

Improved Life Tap: An obvious choice to get you further down the tree.  Return more mana for the same health cost, and scales with spell damage gear.

 

Soul Siphon:  I highly recommend 2 points here.  Firstly becsaue you will need to spend some points on mediocre talents to get further down the tree.  Secondly, because if you are so low on health that you need to Drain Life to live, you might as well make each tick as large as possible.

 

Tier 3

Improved Curse of Agony: In a raid environment, you will need to be using either CoS, CoE, or CoR.  Believe it or not, you will never use this unless you actually have 4 warlocks in your 25-man riad (pretty rare).  Therefore, don’t spend any points here.

 

Fel Concentration: Only spend enough points here to get you down to the next tree level.  Admittedly, it is nice to have some points here becasue when you do channel Drain Life, you probably need the health and would want the reduction in puch-back chance.

 

Amplify Curse: Again, unless you have 4 warlocks in your raid, you won’t be using CoD, CoA, or CoEx.  Therefore, don’t put any points here.

 

Tier 4

Grim Reach: Nice to have, you could spend some of your extra points here.  Just be sure to spend the same points in this talent as you do in Destructive Reach (destruction talent), so that all of your Shadow Bolts will have the same range as your affliction spells.

 

Nightfall: Gives you an instant cast Shadow Bolt.  This therefore directly effects your DPS, so spend the 2 points here.

 

Empowered Corruption: Increase the damage of your Corruption spell, directly affecting your DPS.  Therefore spend the full 3 points here.

 

Tier 5

Shadow Embrace: Spending 5 points here causes the mob to do 5% less physical damage to the tank.  This is an very decent damage reduction for the cost of one warlock using 5 points.  If you are going to spec affliction, then do it right and get the full 5 points in this talent, unless you will NEVER be the lone affliction warlock in your raid (in which unrealistic case only 1 person should have this and the rest should spend no points here).

 

Siphon Life: A definite talent choice, 1 point for an instant dot/hot that direct affects your DPS.

 

Curse of Exhaustion:  There is only 1 boss fight in the entire game where this may be beneficial.  That is the SSC Lady Vashj fight to slow the striders.  Hopefully there will be an elemental shaman using frost shock to slow them down enough.  I am not a fan of basing talent choices based on 1 fight without an elemental shaman; therefore skip.

 

Tier 6

Shadow Mastery: Directly increases your DPS with shadow spells. Obvious place to spend the full 5 points.

 

Tier 7

Contagion: Directly increases your Corruption spells damage and therefore your DPS.  Also it’s a required pre-requisite for Unstable Affliction.  Obvious place for the full 6 points.

 

Dark Pact: As an affliction warlock, you will also be using your Imp.  Since the Imp remains phase-shifted, he will regenerate mana based on being out of combat.  Using Dark Pact return more mana than Life Tap will.  For 1 point, it’s an easy decision.

 

Tier 8

Improved Howl of Terror: This produces no additional DPS, and there are no boss fights that require anyone to have an instant area fear.  Therefore, there is no reason to spend points in this talent for raid purposes.

 

Malediction: Again, if you are speccing to be an affliction warlock, then spec correctly by having the full 3 points in this talent.  This will cause the raid’s DPS to increase by 3% for that school of magic.  Unless you have a lack of spell casters, the 3% increase raid damage for those 2 school of magic of CoS or CoE will always be greater than the damage you would have caused if you were using CoA or CoD.

 

Tier 9

Unstable Affliction: UA has become the definition of the affliction warlock.  But in a raid setting, it’s just another DOT directly increasing your DPS.

 

 

The base spec also includes 3 tiers of destruction talents, so let’s cover just those talents quickly:

 

Destruction Tier 1

Improved Shadow Bolt: The full 5 points should be spent here.  This is a mob debuff that effects all shadow users and hence directly increases your DPS.

 

Cataclysm: Warlocks have no need to reduce the mana cost of destruction spells by up to a meager 5%.  Dark Pact or Life Tap instead if you need mana.

 

Destruction Tier 2

Bane: Spending the full 5 points in this talent will make your 3-second cast Shadow Bolt into a 2.5-second cast Shadow Bolt, directly increasing your DPS.  Obvious choice since it directly increases your DPS.

 

Aftermath: No one cares about dazing your target in PVE.

 

Destruction Tier 3

Improved Firebolt:  No need for this because it would put your Imp in Combat, lowering its mana regeneration available for Dark Pact and also likely get it killed.

 

Improved Lash of Pain: You won’t be using your succubus in raids.

 

Devastation:  This directly increases your DPS from Shadow Bolts.  Therefore, the full 5 points should be spent here.

 

Shadowburn: It is not practical to use this a lot in boss fights because you do not have an endless supply of Soul Shards, therefore skip.

 

 

In our base specabove, there were 5 points left over.  They could really be put anywehre you feel appropriate, but here are some recommended places to put them.
1. Up to 2 points can be spent in Improved Healthstone.  You should coordinate with the other raiding warlocks to reduce the number of warlocks with the same size Healthstone.
2. I would recommend 1 point be spent in Grim Reach and 1 point in Destructive Reach.  This will give all your spells the same 10% increased range amount, and also decrease the threat caused by your Shadow Bolts.
3. I would recommend 1 point be spent in Intensity to give you a 35% chance to resist a Shadow Bolt “push-back” from taking damage.  On a fight where this is a real issue (such as the Black Temple Reliquary of Souls fight), hopefully you will have a Paladin in your group that will be using a Concentration Aura which gives an additional 35% (or an additional 50% if they have the Improved Concentration Aura talent).
4. If you took only 1 point in Improved Healthstone, then I would recommend your last extra point in Demonic Embrace just to increase your stamina a bit.
5. If you took 0 points in Improved Healthstone, then I would recommend spending 1 more point in both Grim Reach and Destructive Reach.  This will allow you to have max casting range (40 yards) for all spells.

 

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Affliction Warlock FAQ

 

Q: Since you are the coolest Warlock EVAH!!! What spec do you raid with?

A: Because I am hit capped from gear, I don’t have any points in Suppression.  I also have 0/2 points in Improved Healthstone.  Therefore, my affliction spec is http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=IVMrmMftVtcoZxx0xR.

 

Q: Looking at your spec, couldn’t I move 2 points in Fel Concentration to Improved Curse of Agony? 

A:  Sure you could if you want, but you will never use CoA over CoS or CoE in a boss fight.  In addition, if you are actually channeling Drain Life in a boss fight, then that means you have already used your Healthstone(s), your potions are on cool down, your bandage is on cool down, and you are about to die if you don’t do something.  That’s not the best time get push-back from any level of damage.

 

Q: How do I know which curse is the right one to cast?

A: The best answer depends on your raid make-up.  Since you have 3 points in Malediction, you would be best suited to use either CoS or CoE, depending on which type of casters you have more DPS from: shadow & arcane users versus fire & frost users.  A non-affliction warlock should be on CoR duty since there is no talent to boost that curse.  If you want to get technical, you should evaluate your typical raid’s WWS report and do the math to determine what is your raids typical DPS benefit for the schools of magic affected by CoS and CoE, and cast the appropriate curse that would give the raid a higher DPS.  If you have 2 affliction warlocks, then the discussion is moot and you each take 1 curse.  If you have a third warlock of any type, then they can take CoR. 

If there are only 2 warlocks, I am not a fan of using CoR because it has a side-effect of increasing the damage done by the boss.  Conversely, if you have a lot of high damaging melee in your raid, then the benefit to their DPS may outweigh the increased damage done.  You’ll just have to play that one by ear (and experience), but always use CoR if the raid leader calls for it.

 

Q: Are there any fights where Curse of Recklessness is a bad idea?

A: Absolutely.  You should never use CoR anytime the mob has some ability that can do a substantial amount of damage to your tank (such as a Mortal Strike ability or after a certain number of Gruul’s grows) or if your tank is wearing magic resist gear instead of normal tank gear.  With experience, you will learn when it is okay to put CoR on an otherwise hard hitting mob.

 

Q: How many points in Improved Healthstone should I get?

A:  You will have to work this out among the other warlocks in your guild.  However, I would recommend requesting you be allowed to have 0 points because you are a properly spec-ed Affliction Warlock.  Your spec requirements do not have a lot of extra points that can be easily moved around.  As opposed to demonology or destruction spec-ed warlocks that need to spend point in the Demonology tree to get to their respective tiersanyway.

 

Q:  Why isn’t Improved Curse of Weakness worth it?  Having 420 attack power reduction on a boss fight sounds really good?

A:  The problem with this curse is that warriors have (and use) a Demoralizing Shout ability which applies a debuff that reduces the attack power of a mob by 300.  This debuff does not stack with Curse of Weakness, so only the more powerful debuff would be active. So using CoW (untalented gives 350 reduction) at all would only give a 17% increase over what a warrior can do by himself.  Putting 2 points in this talent causes only a 40% increased attack power reduction above what a warrior can do by himself (and that is assuming there is no warrior with the Improved Demoralizing Shout).  It is therefore a marginal benefit, and the other 3 raid curses (CoS, CoE, & CoR) have substantially more benefit.

 

Q: Which spell should I be casting and in what order?

A:  At any moment in time, you want to be casting whatever spell will give you the biggest DAMAGE PER SECONDS OF CAST TIME (aka DPSC).  For all affliction warlocks, every one of your DOTs will do more damage (when divided by the cast time or global cool down) than a Shadow Bolt (divided by its cast time).  That means the DPSC of your UA, Corruption, SL, and Immolate spells is greater than your DPSC of your average Shadow Bolt.  In addition the DPSC of your Shadow Bolt will always be greater than the DPSC of any other non-DOT spell such as Incinerate or Drain Life.  That means that your highest DPS will come from keeping every DOT up for its full duration and casting Shadow Bolt at all other times.  The Shadow Bolt would be known as your “filler” spell. 

Because the duration of all your DOTs and debuffs vary, there is no single correct cast order.  However, there are some guidelines that will help you decide what order to cast:

1. Always start with your curse of choice: CoS, CoE, or CoR because it causes very little threat and allows the tank more time to gain initial threat.

2. Always use Corruption immediately after Unstable Affliction.  Try to get used to casting these two DOTs as a pair because there durations are exactly 1.5 seconds apart due to UA having a cast time and Corruption not.

3. Never cast Immolate directly after your UA/Corruption combo because the Immolate will  basically be ending at the same as UA does, which leads to what is known as lowered “DOT uptime”.

4. Start to recast UA when there is 1.5 seconds left on your current UA DOT.  Same for Immolate.  This will help to maximize your DOT uptime.  Never reapply a DOT if your previous DOT will not have its full duration of damage.  Use that time to cast another Shadow Bolt or Life Tap/Dark Pact if needed.

The order I prefer to start out with is: CoS, UA, Cor, Siphone Life, Immolate, then multiple Shadow Bolts.  After that I just try must best to maximize my DOT uptime.

 

Q: What should I do with my Imp?

A: You will likely be placed in the main tank’s group in order to raise his stamina.  You need to keep in mind the main purpose is to raise the tank’s stamina, not yours.  So before the fight starts, position the Imp so that it is always in range or the tank, and you if possible.  Since you have the Dark Pact talent, be sure your Imp gets the full raids buffs by taking him out of phase shift before buffs start.  To do this, right click on his phase shift ability button to take it off of auto-cast.  Then, left click his phase shift ability button to deactivate his phase shift.  Only then can it receive raid buffs.  The most important raid buffs are Arcane Brilliance and Blessing of Wisdom in order to increase its mana pool and mana regeneration, respectively.  The more mana and mana regeneration the Imp has, the more often you can Dark Pact for its full value.  When he is fully buffed, right click on his phase-shift ability button again to turn on auto-cast; he should then automatically phase shift and you are ready for the fight.

 

Q:  I’m being told I should have 3 points in Improved Imp.  What do I do?

A:  The base amount of stamina increase from Blood Pact is 70.  Having 3 points in this talent increases the stamina gained by 30%.  In my opinion, the cost-to-benefit ratio is too low to justify spending 3 talent points.  Again, a good affliction spec honestly does not have a lot of wiggle room, especially to take 3 points in a completely different tree.  Resist this as much as possible by explaining that 3 points in this talent only gives an additional 21 stamina (and therefore around 250 health after buffs).

 

Q: Why do a lot of affliction warlocks put only 1 point in Shadow Embrace?

A: Some people put 1 point in Shadow Embrace because in doing so, it adds an affliction debuff to the mob for the purposes of raising their Drain Life values because of their Soul Siphon talent.  I am completely against this idea because you are just wasting a debuff slot on the boss which could be put to better use.  A mob can have a maximum of 40 debuffs on it; this limit is reachable in any boss fight, especially if you have multiple affliction warlocks.  Either put 5 points in it like you should, or have 0 points in it if you always have another warlock with you that has it.

 

Q. Warlock X raids with an affliction/demonology spec instead of an affliction/destruction spec, why is that?

A. Because Warlock X is an idiot.  He is relying on Drain Life as his “filler spell” and only casting Shadow Bolt when he procs Nightfall.  There is no amount of bonus from the Soul Siphon talent that would make Drain Life have a higher DPSC than his average Shadow Bolt.  The people that try to argue that Drain Life is better than spending 10 points on Improved Shadow Bolt and Bane are all inbred relatives of Warlock X.

 

Q. Assuming you were hit capped from gear, would moving 1 point from Unstable Affliction to Ruin be more DPS (aka the 40-0-21 spec)?

A: Short answer is no. never.  The long answer is that it is theoretically possible only if your spell crit rating was incredibly high, higher than is even practical in any gear combination.  If you really are spell hit capped and have crazy high spell crit rating, then you should probably be a destruction spec instead of affliction anyway.

 

If you have an Affliction question, feel free to leave it in a comment and I'll give you might l33t ubar expert opinion on the matter.