Forever Affliction Warlock Ranged DPS Guide

Affliction is for players who enjoy watching their enemies slowly rot away from multiple damage over time (DoT) spells. You can drain their Health to restore your own, and then sacrifice that Health when you need more mana to keep casting. Learning how to balance those tools lets you move through enemies with very little downtime, making Affliction a top tier leveler.

WoW Forever gives Affliction some very exciting changes. Your DoTs can now critically strike. Bane of Agony no longer competes with your Curse, which means you can keep your big damage rolling while still bringing the debuff your group needs. The opening Level 20 beta gives us the beginning of that toolkit, with more of the drain interactions opening up as the level cap increases.

Beta information: This page covers the opening Level 20 cap using our extensive BlizzCon demo testing, the current talent calculator and information discovered from the Beta. This guide will be updated frequently as the Beta changes and level caps rise.

Start by fighting one enemy at a time. Send your demon in first, apply your DoTs, and get a feel for how much damage they deal before adding extra DoTs. Once you know what you and your demon can comfortably handle, start spreading your DoTs to a second target. Affliction gets much stronger once you learn how to keep several enemies taking damage at the same time without pulling more than you can safely handle. Pulling additional enemies only helps if you can finish the fight without creating extra downtime afterward or having to summon another Demon. So watch it's Health and don't let it die.

Before you have all five points in Improved Corruption, Corruption still has a cast time. Once you get five points into it, Corruption becomes instant cast and you can cast it while moving and it becomes much easier managing multiple targets. Drain Life becomes available at Level 14, so the early levels rely more heavily on your demon, direct damage, and a wand if you can get one.

Affliction is a very comfortable leveling specialization once you get used to managing your Health, Mana, DoTs, and your demon. The following tips will help you avoid common mistakes and make the journey to Level 20 much smoother.

• Keep your spells trained! — Rank upgrades matter a ton, so visit your Warlock trainer regularly every two levels. Check your spellbook and action bars afterward to make sure you are using the newest rank.
• Keep your armor buff active. — Use Demon Skin early on and switch to Demon Armor once you train it at Level 20. These can't be used at the same time.
• Let your DoTs finish the job. — Avoid spending Mana on another spell when your existing DoTs are already going to kill the target. Learning when to stop casting is an important part of efficient Affliction leveling.
• Use a wand. — Attack with a wand is massive at these lower level. It lets you finish weakened enemies without spending additional Mana casting another spell. Lesser Magic Wand and Greater Magic Wand are both very strong in the early game.
• Leave yourself some Health. — Use Life Tap when you have enough Health to do so safely. Starting the next pull nearly dead defeats the purpose of gaining more Mana.
• Always have a few Soul Shards available. — Once you learn Drain Soul, use it to replenish your Soul Shards and keep a few on you at all times so you can summon another demon or make another Create Healthstone.
• Bring food and water. — Your drains and talents reduce downtime by a lot, but there will still be situations where stopping to recover is the safest and fastest option. You can buy food and water from many vendors like the General Goods Vendors located in every town.
• Check your class quests. — These are vital for Warlocks because this is how you unlock your Summon Imp at level 2, Summon Voidwalker at level 10 and Summon Succubus at level 20. They are short quests and are definitely worth making time for.
• Use your demon. — Send your demon in first when possible so it can establish threat before you begin applying DoTs. Your demon is a major part of both your damage and survivability while leveling. Summon Imp is very fragile, whereas Summon Voidwalker is a tank.

Tailoring and Enchanting is a popular starting pair for a Warlock. Tailoring gives you a use for all the cloth you'll find while leveling, including useful armor and bags. Enchanting lets you turn unwanted equipment into materials that you can then use to enchant your gear. Enchanting is also able to craft both Lesser Magic Wand and Greater Magic Wand. Check what the Beta trainers actually offer before spending too much gold to a specific crafting plan.

First aid is another popular option for professions because this is a secondary profession, meaning you can train First Aid and still have your two primary professions. First aid allows you to make very helpful bandages out of cloth to quickly heal up.

Cooking is a great option to add to your secondary professions now that the buff always gives you 5% increased experience while active.

Alliance: Gnome. — Expansive Mind increases your maximum Mana, while Escape Artist helps you escape slows and any other movement impairing effects. Eureka gives you a cooldown that reduces the Mana cost of your next three damaging spells by 50% and increases their damage by 10%. Together, these racials provide a useful mix of damage, resource efficiency, and utility while leveling.

Horde: Undead. — Cannibalize lets you consume nearby Humanoid or Undead corpses to restore Health and Mana, giving you another way to quickly recover between pulls. Will of the Forsaken gets you out of all Charm, Fear, and Sleep effects, with a relatively short cooldown. Touch of the Grave has a 10% chance to drain Health from your targets when you cast spells on them, providing you with a great way to get more healing and damage.

These are our suggested starting choices for ease of leveling. If you prefer another race, then choose it! The races are really close in terms of damage.

This build puts all 11 talent points into the Affliction tree. It focuses on steady questing and resource management while remaining strong in dungeons. It takes five points in Improved Corruption, two points in Improved Life Tap, three points in Suppression, and one point in Soul Harvesting. The final point in Soul Harvesting is optional, so feel free to move it elsewhere if you prefer. We recommend it here to drastically help reduce downtime while leveling.

Improved Corruption makes Corruption instant and increases its damage by 10%. This makes spreading Corruption across multiple enemies much easier while also improving one of your primary DoTs. It is one of Affliction's most important early talents and is useful in nearly every type of content.

The two points in Improved Life Tap increase the Mana gained from Life Tap by 20%. This gives you considerably more Mana for the same amount of Health spent, which is especially valuable because Life Tap will be one of your primary ways to restore Mana while leveling and used all the time.

Three points in Suppression give you additional Hit Chance while also reducing the threat you generate. The extra Hit makes your spells more reliable against enemies around your level, making you miss less which saves you mana. The threat reduction is not helpful while in the open world, but invaluable when running dungeons.

Soul Harvesting rewards you for getting the killing blow while casting Drain Soul. If the target dies while you're draining, you gain your Mana regeneration is buffed by 50%. This significantly speeds up your leveling and your dungeon runs since you won't have to stop and drink nearly as much.

Affliction deals most of its damage by applying effects that continue dealing damage over time. Your basic gameplay starts by sending your demon into the target and it will gain initial threat before applying your DoTs. The more Health the enemy has, the longer it will live, allowing you ramp harder with Bane of Agony or Drain Life depending on what you need.

You do not need to stand still and continuously cast once your DoTs are active. Once you get five points in Improved Corruption talent, Corruption becomes instant, allowing you to apply it while moving and easily spread it across multiple enemies. Learning when your existing DoTs are already enough to kill a target is important. Every unnecessary spell costs Mana that could have been saved for the next enemy.

Life Tap converts some of your Health into Mana, allowing you to keep casting without immediately stopping to drink. Your points in Improved Life Tap increase the Mana gained from each Tap, making this exchange more efficient.

The important part is knowing when it is safe to spend that Health. Drain Life deals damage while restoring your Health, creating a cycle where you spend Health for Mana and then recover that Health with Drain Life. Avoid using Life Tap until you are dangerously low just to keep your Mana bar full. Keeping enough Health available to survive the next pull is more important.

1. Send your demon into the target first.
2. Apply either Curse of Recklessness or Curse of the Elements on bosses in dungeons, depending on group. If there is more casters use Curse of the Elements, if there are more melee use Curse of Recklessness.
3. Cast Immolate.
4. Apply Corruption.
5. Apply Bane of Agony if the enemy will survive the full duration.
6. Use Drain Life when you need Health.
7. Use your wand or Shadow Bolt as filler against enemies that will live long enough.
8. Stop spending Mana and move to the next target when your DoTs will finish the enemy.
9. Finish with Drain Soul when you need Soul Shards or want to trigger Soul Harvesting.

Affliction doesn't need a dedicated AoE spell to do damage to a big group of enemies. You can spread Corruption and Bane of Agony across multiple targets and allow all of them to take damage at the same time. This is especially effective against stronger enemies that will survive long enough for your DoTs to deal most of their damage.

Rain of Fire becomes available at Level 20 and gives you a dedicated AoE option for groups of enemies. This becomes particularly useful in dungeons when enemies are dying too quickly for individually applying DoTs to every target to be worthwhile. If the enemies last long enough you can spread your DoT's around and then Rain of Fire for maximum damage.

A DoT deals its damage over time. Applying it again before it finishes can waste Mana and remaining damage, otherwise known as 'clipping your DoTs', so watch the duration on your target. There is also no reason to refresh a DoT on an enemy that your demon will kill as well.

Corruption is your straightforward Shadow DoT. Bane of Agony ramps up over its 24 second duration, dealing very low damage at the start, but towards the end it does a massive amount damage. Immolate deals damage twice. A small amount when it initially hit the target and then the rest is dealt over time.

Curse of the Elements and Curse of Recklessness are group support options. Curse of the Elements buffs magic damage, Curse of Recklessness buffs phyical damage.

Your demon is a major part of your toolkit, and by Level 20 you can choose between Summon Imp, Summon Voidwalker, and Summon Succubus. Each demon fills a different role, so the best choice depends on what you are doing. Summon Succubus is the strongest, but unlocked at level 20. The choice between Summon Imp or Summon Voidwalker, is up to you. The Imp is a fragile caster, and the Voidwalker is beefy tank.

Summon Imp provides ranged support and Stamina from it's spell Firebolt, but it was considerably more fragile and has to spend mana to cast it. You get a quest very early in the game for this and will be using it until level 10, when you get the option to unlock your Summon Voidwalker.

Summon Voidwalker is a very tanky pet with a couple ways to taunt. This is the safest choice while leveling as it will hold agro pretty well. Send it into the enemy first and start putting your DoTs up. Voidwalkers can't hold threat forever depending on how much damage you do, but by the time the enemy gets to you it will be close to dead.

Summon Succubus is your strongest demon and obtained at LV 20. The Succubus deals insnanely high damage and significantly more damage than the other available demons, thus it is our preferred choice when additional survivability was not needed. Demon balance can still change during the Beta, so these recommendations will be updated as we test them further.

Warlocks also have Summon Felhunter but he is unlocked at level 30.

• Bind Pet Attack and Pet Follow. You should be able to send your demon in or call it back without hunting through the pet bar. Mouse scroll wheel up and down are easy options.
• Watch autocast abilities. Turn off unwanted threat abilities in a dungeon so your demon does not fight the tank for enemies.
• Use Move To for positioning. WoW Forever added this command, letting you place your demon where you want it. It is useful for keeping a pet clear of nearby packs and AoE.
• Watch the route your pet takes. Calling it through uncleared enemies or leaving it behind when the group moves can pull additional.
• Use Health Funnel when needed. It transfers your Health to your demon. This is faster than spending 10 seconds to summon a new Demon.

Soul Shards are a Warlock resource used for several important spells and pieces of utility like summoning a demon or making a Create Healthstone, Create Soulstone or Ritual of Summoning. Drain Soul becomes available at Level 10 and allows you to get a Soul Shards by finishing enemies while channeling it. Try to keep a few Soul Shards available so you are not forced to farm them immediately before you need to summon a demon, create a Healthstone, or use other Warlock utility.

This build also takes one point in Soul Harvesting. When an enemy dies while you are channeling Drain Soul, your Mana regeneration is increased by 50%. This makes Drain Soul useful for more than simply generating Soul Shards, since properly finishing enemies with it can reduce the amount of time you spend recovering between pulls.

• Create Healthstone: — Creates a Healthstone that can be used to restore Health. Keep one available while questing and before dungeons runs. Bonus points if you give one to your party members.
• Create Soulstone: — Creates a Soulstone that can put on yoursel for an ally a way to resurrect after death. This is very valuable in dungeons, where a well placed Soulstone can prevent the entire group from having to run back after a wipe. You must apply this BEFORE the target dies.
• Ritual of Summoning: — Allows you and two other party members to summon another member of your group to your location. This is one of the Warlock's most useful group tools and can save a considerable amount of travel time when forming a dungeon group. You need a Soul Shard per summon.
• Health Funnel: — Transfers some of your Health to your demon. Use this when your demon has taken significant damage and you want to keep it alive without waiting for it to recover naturally
• Unending Breath: — Allows the target to breathe underwater. It is very situational, but extremely useful the few times you do use it.
• Demon Skin and Demon Armor: — These are your only personal armor buffs. Keep Demon Skin active while leveling until Demon Armor becomes available at Level 20, then it will forever replace Demon Skin
• Searing Pain: — A faster direct damage spell that becomes available before Level 20. It gives you another option when you need immediate damage rather than waiting for a longer cast or for your DoTs to tick an enemy.

Gear recommendations are pending beta testing. WoW Forever has reworked itemization, so old Classic item lists cannot establish your best Level 20 equipment. We will add specific quest, crafting, and dungeon pieces after checking their current stats, effects, requirements, and availability.

For now, compare the actual item tooltips. Look for useful spell damage, Intellect to give you enough Mana to fight comfortably, and enough Stamina for Health to survive and use Life Tap safely.

• Spell Power: — Your strongest general offensive stat. Spell Power increases the damage of the spells that scale with it, helping your DoTs, direct damage, and Drain spells kill enemies faster. Pay attention to whether an item provides general Spell Power or damage for a specific spell school. Shadow damage, for example, will not increase the damage of your Fire spells.
• Hit: — Reduces the chance for your spells to miss. Missing an DoT costs both Mana and time, making Hit especially valuable while fighting enemies. This build already gains 3% Hit from Suppression, so the value of additional Hit depends on the level of the enemies you are fighting and how much Hit you already have.
• Haste: — Haste reduced normal spell cast times but did not make DoTs or Drain channels tick faster. It can still improve spells such as Shadow Bolt and Searing Pain, but its exact Level 20 value needs further Beta testing.
• Critical Strike: — Damage over time effects can critically strike in WoW Forever, giving Critical Strike value for more of Affliction's toolkit than it had in original Classic. We still need Beta testing before placing it firmly within the Level 20 priority.
• Intellect: — Increases your maximum Mana, allowing you to cast more spells before needing to recover or use Life Tap. A larger Mana pool is useful while leveling, but Intellect should not be treated as a direct replacement for Spell Power.
• Stamina: — Increases your maximum Health, giving you more room to survive harder pulls and safely use Life Tap. More maximum Health does not directly increase the amount of Mana gained from each Life Tap.
• Spirit: — Improves your natural Health and Mana regeneration. This can reduce downtime between pulls, although this stat is the lowest in priority because Affliction already has several other ways to recover resources through its Drain spells, Life Tap, and Soul Harvesting.

Carry a Healthstone, food, water, and some usable healing potions. A healing potion gives you another recovery option when a pull goes wrong.

Named consumables are pending confirmation. We still need to verify which potions, elixirs and scrolls are obtainable and usable at Level 20, along with their effects and buffs. We will add the exact items and sources after checking them in the beta.

Do not plan around the Warlock weapon oils at this cap. The trainer places Create Firestone at Level 28 and Create Spellstone at Level 36. Other oils and temporary weapon effects will be added here if suitable Level 20 options are confirmed.

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