Affliction Warlock Leveling Guide from 1 to 80 — The War Within (11.2.5)

Affliction Warlock being a DoT specialisation offers a very efficient leveling experience consisting of tagging multiple mobs with either Agony or Corruption while moving towards the next target or area. The damage over time, coupled with the pet, is generally strong enough to leave the targets severely weakened, if not outright dead, by the time they can be finished off with AoE spells.

Curses, crowd controls, and pet off-tank can substantially reduce the amount of incoming damage, promoting aggressive play, while all the personal defensive cooldowns offer a degree of safety even when overpulling.

For bigger enemies such as Elites or Rares, sustaining Voidwalker is usually the priority while slowly whittling them down, as the threat generated by the pet cannot match heavy spender bursts.

When leveling up, you should always choose the piece of loot with the highest item level. If the item levels are equal, you should choose the piece with stats that are most favorable to your specialization. If your current item is an Heirloom, it should not be replaced.

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Below, you can see the suggested levelling talent build and the order in which to pick the talents while levelling.

Starting at Level 1, you only have one main attack ability: Shadow Bolt.

1. Level 10 — maintain Agony on the target. Prioritise it over Corruption when tagging mobs.
2. Level 11 — keep Unstable Affliction rolling on the target. Consider recasting it on dying enemies to gain 1 Shard in the process.
3. Level 53 — cast Soul Rot after having all the DoTs applied, in order to have stronger Malefic Raptures. The Drain Life component should be considered as a tool to sustain as the damage is otherwise low.
4. Level 29 — Use Vile Taint as often as possible, prioritizing multi-target situations.
5. Level 2 — the first DoT becomes available Corruption, which should be used to tag and soften up multiple enemies whenever spamming a few shadow bolts will not kill them quicker.
6. Level 35 — Cast Summon Darkglare after having applied as many Damage over Time effects as possible.
7. Level 10 — Malefic Rapture is the main Soul Shard spender both in single target and multi-target. To maximize its impact, cast it when you have the highest amount of periodic damage on targets.
8. Level 13 — Seed of Corruption is unlocked, and is mostly used to spread Corruption on stacked targets to enable Malefic Rapture burst windows quicker.

1. Essence Drain stacks a damage reduction effect on enemies that are damaged by your Drain Life. You can reduce their damage by up to 25%, which is a large increase in your ability to survive and sustain.
2. Bane of Shadows causes damage over time effects to strike an additional time for 20% of their original damage while active. This offers a little bit of extra burst damage on a short cooldown.
3. Rampant Afflictions is great in multitarget as Unstable Affliction is now our hardest hitting damage over time.
4. Gateway Mastery should always be considered to expedite your whereabouts in closed spaces where mounts are not usable.
5. > Bonds of Fel can offer further AoE burst when kiting targets around.

Summon Imp is your first available demon but is best suited to Raid Environments. This pet is not particularly useful for leveling, but you have no choice for the early levels.

If you are leveling alone, Summon Voidwalker can be a helpful choice while leveling up, as it takes a lot of the pressure off you. Avoiding casting pushback can also increase leveling speed.

Summon Felhunter can be a good choice if you are leveling in a group or venturing into dungeons. The extra interrupt is helpful for dealing with troublesome caster mobs.