Affliction Warlock DPS Easy Mode — Dragonflight 10.2.5

Last updated on Jan 15, 2024 at 15:00 by Motoko 40 comments
General Information

On this page, we explain how to easily play Affliction Warlock in World of Warcraft — Dragonflight 10.2.5, using the simplest rotation, talent tree, stat priority, gear setup, etc., without sacrificing performance.

1.

Foreword

This section is intended for players who are new to the game or class, have no intentions of raiding Mythic difficulty or want a more straightforward way to play their specialization without being overwhelmed by the numerous priorities and active abilities that need to be taken into consideration for optimal play.

2.

The Basics of an Affliction Warlock

Affliction is a specialization that revolves around maintaining damage over time effects on your active targets. While it may not have many buttons, it requires careful attention to cooldowns and uptimes, with the level of complexity increasing with the number of targets. Despite that, it is a good specialization for all levels of players, and you can streamline it to a simple set of priorities.

For newcomers, it is advisable to browse the Spell Summary page first to learn more about the abilities available and to familiarise yourself with them.

3.

Talent Choice for Affliction Warlock

These Talent recommendations are optimized for ease of use. Suppose a talent requires significant optimization to provide DPS gains. In that case, we will instead recommend a competitive talent that requires less knowledge to make use of. See the Talents page for a full and objective evaluation of the Talent tree. These talents aim to present a strong build that has very little punishment for unfamiliarity or mistakes.

To import the build directly ingame, click on the export button in the top-right of the calculator

If you are looking to maximize your output as Affliction Warlock instead of simplicity and ease of use, you can find more in-depth analysis and rationale on our talent page as follows:

4.

Stat Priority for Affliction Warlock

Currently, you will want to prioritize secondary stats as follows:

  1. Mastery ≅ Haste;
  2. Critical Strike;
  3. Versatility.

In general, Intellect is more critical than secondaries, about 2 if not 3 times better, depending on the secondary stat.

While stats priority is a general guideline, there might be situations where the lists differ. If you are interested in a detailed explanation of the stats and their implications, check out the page below.

5.

Single Target Rotation for Affliction Warlock

  1. Maintain the Agony Icon Agony DoT.
  2. Maintain the Unstable Affliction Icon Unstable Affliction DoT.
  3. Maintain the Corruption Icon Corruption DoT.
  4. Cast Malefic Rapture Icon Malefic Rapture if you are at 5 Soul Shards (to avoid wasting Shards).
  5. Cast Soul Rot Icon Soul Rot on cooldown.
  6. Cast Vile Taint Icon Vile Taint when available.
  7. Cast Drain Soul Icon Drain Soul as a filler.
5.1.

Multiple Target Rotation for Affliction Warlock

When at least 3 targets are stacked together, you should always use your Seed of Corruption Icon Seed of Corruption to apply and maintain Corruption Icon Corruption. Keep Agony Icon Agony applied to all targets (up to 5) for Soul Shard generation and damage. Cast Vile Taint Icon Vile Taint on cooldown for damage and apply up to 8 Agony Icon Agony.

Try always to have Unstable Affliction Icon Unstable Affliction on one target, so it benefits from Doom Blossom Icon Doom Blossom. Remember that the more Seed of Corruption Icon Seed of Corruption explosions affect that target, the more value will be extracted from Doom Blossom Icon Doom Blossom.

If targets are dying use Drain Soul Icon Drain Soul to get an easy shard off them.

For a more comprehensive explanation of the priority list, including openers, check out the rotation page.

6.

Changelog

  • 15 Jan. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.5.
  • 06 Nov. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.
  • 04 Sep. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.7
  • 10 Jul. 2023: Updated talents for Patch 10.1.5.
  • 01 May 2023: Reviewed for patch 10.1.
  • 20 Mar. 2023: Updated talents for Patch 10.0.7.
  • 24 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
  • 23 Dec. 2022: Updated talent tree.
  • 11 Dec. 2022: Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
  • 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
  • 25 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
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