Affliction Warlock DPS Gear and Best in Slot — Shadowlands 9.2

Welcome to our Gearing Page for Affliction Warlock, this section will cover everything you need to know about equipping your character correctly.

If you have a new piece of gear that you need gems and enchants advice for, you can find everything you need on our dedicated page below.

Due to the simplicity of determining upgrades with a simulation in the current era of the game, we recommend using the popular Raidbots tool to determine which pieces of gear offer the most potential for your character. The main reason why this is a huge advantage is due to the huge number of variables that differ from character to character, such as Stat Quotients, and Scale Factors.

The Top Gear function can be especially useful, as it allows you to compare multiple items and item types to find the best combination of upgrades.

Learning to use the tools available will allow you to reach the most accurate conclusions with the least effort. It is highly recommended you avail yourself of these tools, and they will serve you well when evaluating items.

The Droptimizer feature from Raidbots lets you identify which dungeons and Raid Bosses you should spend your Bonus Rolls on. It simulates all of the potential upgrades in a raid or a dungeon, and lists the bosses/dungeons by rank order of how much DPS you can expect to gain from bonus rolling on it. We have a guide for it that you can access using the link below.

Patch 9.2 reintroduces Tier Sets in the game providing unique bonuses tailored for each specialisation. For Affliction these bonuses are the following:

• Affliction Warlock 2-Piece — Malefic Rapture damage is increased by 15% and each cast extends the duration of Corruption, Agony and Unstable Affliction by 2 seconds.
• Affliction Warlock 4-Piece — while Agony, Corruption, and Unstable Affliction are active, your Shadow Bolt has a 20% chance to make your next Malefic Rapture cost no Soul Shards and be cast instantly.

Wearing 4 pieces of the set will be a noticeable damage increase for single targets and situations where Malefic Rapture is being used. In Dungeons and PvP however, the set does not provide full benefits as there are few times where Drain Soul is used and in the latter Malefic Rapture is not used as shard payoff.

There are different methods of acquisition for Tier Pieces: the usual Sepulcher of the First Ones bosses alongside the Great Vault weekly reward. A new option is the Creation Catalyst which allows to change a non tier piece into the correspective tier item in the appropriate slot.

Of the 5 different slots the Tier set pieces will be available in, only 4 are needed to activate the last set bonus, meaning there is some flexibility in how to optimise the gear and what piece to replace with possibly better statted or higher item level options.

Affliction Warlocks in raid will run Malefic Wrath on Hands slot which result in no tier set piece in that specific slot.

Crafting Malefic Wrath (Hands) will cover any single target requirement, while picking Wrath of Consumption (Feet) or Perpetual Agony of Azj'Aqir (Ring) will handle any multitarget and Mythic+ situations. It is advisable to craft them with Missive of Mastery and Missive of Haste.

Additionally, after 5 weeks of 9.2, you can get Unity to get your Covenant specific Legendary alongside the Legendary above.

If you are looking for an in-depth explanation on what Legendary to pick for what situation and how to obtain them, read our Legendary page below.

1. Withering Bolt
2. Focused Malignancy

1. Rolling Agony
2. Corrupting Leer
3. Soul Eater (as Night Fae)

For more info regarding what Conduits to pick for what situation, check our full Covenants, Soulbinds, & Conduits page.

Here we have provided a list of the best available items from Sepulcher of the First Ones, which may be advantageous for players who have little interest in Mythic+ dungeons or PvP.

Slot	Item	Source
Helm	Horns of the Demon Star	Anduin Wrynn in Sepulcher of the First Ones
Neck	Worldkiller Iris	The Jailer in Sepulcher of the First Ones
Shoulder	Mantle of the Demon Star	Lords of Dread in Sepulcher of the First Ones
Cloak	Shroud of the Sire's Chosen	Lords of Dread in Sepulcher of the First Ones
Chest	Robes of the Demon Star	Rygelon in Sepulcher of the First Ones
Wrists	Cuffs of the Covert Commander	Lords of Dread in Sepulcher of the First Ones
Gloves	Grim-Veiled Mittens	Crafted Legendary with Malefic Wrath, Missive of Mastery and Missive of Haste
Belt	Grim-Veiled Belt	Crafted Legendary with Unity, Missive of Mastery and Missive of Haste
Legs	Leggings of the Demon Star	Halondrus the Reclaimer in Sepulcher of the First Ones
Boots	Boots of Ceaseless Conflict	Prototype Pantheon in Sepulcher of the First Ones
Ring #1	Rygelon's Heraldric Ring	Rygelon in Sepulcher of the First Ones
Ring #2	Modified Defense Grid	Vigilant Guardian in Sepulcher of the First Ones
Main-hand + Off-hand	Antumbra, Shadow of the Cosmos + Forbidden Truth	Rygelon + The Jailer in Sepulcher of the First Ones
Trinket 1	Soulletting Ruby	The Great Vault or upgrading via Valor. (original source: Kul'tharok in Theater of Pain)
Trinket 2	Unbound Changeling	The Great Vault or upgrading via Valor. (original source: Ingra Maloch in Mists of Tirna Scithe)

Slot	Item	Source
Helm	Horns of the Demon Star	Creation Catalyst conversion of another item in this slot
Neck	Trailspinner Pendant	Mists of Tirna Scithe
Shoulder	Mantle of the Demon Star	Creation Catalyst conversion of another item in this slot
Cloak	Dealer Xy'exa's Cape	De Other Side
Chest	Robes of the Demon Star	Creation Catalyst conversion of another item in this slot
Wrists	Contaminated Gauze Wristwraps	Theater of Pain
Gloves	Grasps of the Demon Star	Creation Catalyst conversion of another item in this slot
Belt	Sash of Exquisite Acquisitions	De Other Side
Legs	Purge Protocol Legwraps	Spires of Ascension
Boots	Stradama's Misplaced Slippers	Plaguefall
Ring #1	Death God's Signet	De Other Side
Ring #2	Arachnid Cipher Ring	Plaguefall
Main-hand + Off-hand	Nathrian Ferula	Halls of Atonement
Trinket 1	Soulletting Ruby	Theater of Pain
Trinket 2	Unbound Changeling	Mists of Tirna Scithe

Due to the prevalence of high item level trinkets via Mythic+, raiding, and PvP, there are a variety of suitable options when it comes to trinkets. It is always best to use Raidbots Top Gear to determine what your optimal trinkets are.

In Sepulcher of the First Ones there is only one few stand-out option: The First Sigil offers a tremendous burst potential and can be considered in situations where a stronger burst phase is needed. Otherwise Scars of Fraternal Strife has a decent effect with the downside of continuous activations required every 30 seconds.

From dungeons, Soulletting Ruby is by far the best option, especially paired with Dark Soul: Misery. Unbound Changeling is the best passive trinket, followed by So'leah's Secret Technique.

Last but not least, Sinful Gladiator's Badge of Ferocity is a solid on use option relatively easier to obtain compared to the rest of the mentioned trinkets.