Affliction Warlock PvP Guide for Mists of Pandaria Classic

While rewarding, Affliction Warlock is one of the most difficult PvP specs to play in the game. Dealing extremely high spread pressure while maintaining control on the enemy and being incredibly durable, an Affliction Warlock is one of the most feared specs in PvP.

Strengths

• High spread pressure against multiple enemies.
• Great disruption and crowd control.
• Ability to protect important debuffs and CC from being dispelled.

Weaknesses

• Heavily dependent on having a pet alive for durability.
• Prone to being interrupted due to one school for casting.
• Pressure based and needs time to ramp up.

This is the standard talent build for an Affliction Warlock in PvP. Most of the talents should not be adjusted, however there are situations where they can be optimised.

1. Shadowfury can be swapped for Mortal Coil when playing with a class with stuns, such as a Rogue or Windwalker Monk.
2. Grimoire of Supremacy can be swapped out for Grimoire of Sacrifice against caster teams that can kill your pet easily, such as other Affliction Warlock teams.
3. Unbound Will is a good alternative against caster teams, or melee/caster teams like Rogue Mage.

1. Glyph of Unstable Affliction. — Reduces your Unstable Affliction cast time by 25%.
2. Glyph of Eternal Resolve — Causes your Unending Resolve to grant 10% passive damage reduction, but renders the ability unusable.
3. Glyph of Siphon Life. — Causes your Corruption spell to heal you for 0.5% of your health when it deals damage.

1. Glyph of Health Funnel — Causes your Health Funnel spell to heal your pet for 15% of its health, but now has a 10 second cooldown.

As an Affliction Warlock, it is important to prioritise the correct stats in order to perform in Mists of Pandaria PvP. Below, we go over relevant stats that you should aim for.

Resilience is the single most important stat for an Affliction Warlock in PvP. This stat grants a flat damage reduction from any player or pet and applies to your pet as well.

In order for your spells (and your pet's spells) to land without missing, you need to reach Hit Rating thresholds. Against level 90 players, this cap is 6% (roughly 2400 hit rating).

Haste is the best secondary stat in PvP after Resilience and Hit Rating. While Haste is not the best stat for increasing raw DPS output, it allows you to dish out damage and maintain all your DoT effects and curses. Additionally, it reduces your Global Cooldown time and reduces your cast time.

Spell Power and Intellect increase the damage dealt by all of your abilities. In terms of raw damage output, this is the best stat to prioritise.

Mastery is the second best secondary stat for raw output, however should be prioritised under Haste. Mastery increases the damage of all your shadow periodic damage over time effects.

Critical Strike is the worst secondary stat for Affliction Warlocks in PvP, and should be avoided and reforged from as much as possible.

If you are looking to optimise your Affliction Warlock in Mists of Pandaria PvP, these are the recommended professions:

1. Herbalism — Lifeblood grants you 2,880 Haste for 20 sec on a 2 minute cooldown.
2. Tailoring — Lightweave Embroidery grants you a 2,000 Intellect proc for 15 seconds.

Affliction Warlocks do not have a set rotation, but raher a priority system. The playstyle should emphasise maintaining DoTs on as many targets as possible while disruption and control are the primary goal. An Affliction Warlock should try to always keep someone in a Fear while covered by Unstable Affliction to protect it from dispels.

• Apply all 3 DotS with Soulburn into Soul Swap.
• When trinket and tailoring procs happen from Lightweave Embroidery and Malevolent Gladiator's Insignia of Dominance, use Dark Soul: Misery.
• Reapply all 3 DotS with Soulburn into Soul Swap to extend duration and snapshot.
• Cast Soul Swap on the target with buffed DoTs and spread to every player in the arena
• Cast Curse of the Elements on all targets.
• When Dark Soul: Misery is about to expire, repply all 3 DotS with Soulburn into Soul Swap.
• Cast Soul Swap on the target with buffed DoTs and spread to every player in the arena

The list linked below includes the best possible gear setup for an Affliction Warlock in PvP.

When it comes to evaluating Affliction Warlock's place within the Arena, we have created a number of guides devoted to listing a variety of popular team compositions which you can find below.