Affliction Warlock DPS Gear and Best in Slot — Shadowlands 9.2
On this page, you will find the best gear and best in slot items for your Affliction Warlock in World of Warcraft Shadowlands 9.2.
If you were looking for WoW Classic content, please refer to our TBC Classic Affliction Warlock gear and best in slot.
Gearing a Affliction Warlock
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.
How To Effectively Compare Upgrades as an Affliction Warlock
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.
Droptimizer
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.
Tier Set for Affliction Warlock
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.
What slots to equip the Tier Set in For Affliction Warlock
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.
Legendaries for Affliction Warlock
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.
Conduits for Affliction Warlock
Best Single-Target Potency Conduits for Affliction Warlock
Best Cleave / AoE Potency Conduits for Affliction Warlock
Rolling Agony
Corrupting Leer
Soul Eater (as Night Fae)
For more info regarding what Conduits to pick for what situation, check our full Covenants, Soulbinds, & Conduits page.
Best in Slot Items for Affliction Warlock
Sepulcher of the First Ones Best in Slot
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.
Dungeons Best in Slot
Slot | Item | Source |
---|---|---|
Helm | ![]() |
Creation Catalyst conversion of another item in this slot |
Neck | ![]() |
Mists of Tirna Scithe |
Shoulder | ![]() |
Creation Catalyst conversion of another item in this slot |
Cloak | ![]() |
De Other Side |
Chest | ![]() |
Creation Catalyst conversion of another item in this slot |
Wrists | ![]() |
Theater of Pain |
Gloves | ![]() |
Creation Catalyst conversion of another item in this slot |
Belt | ![]() |
De Other Side |
Legs | ![]() |
Spires of Ascension |
Boots | ![]() |
Plaguefall |
Ring #1 | ![]() |
De Other Side |
Ring #2 | ![]() |
Plaguefall |
Main-hand + Off-hand | ![]() |
Halls of Atonement |
Trinket 1 | ![]() |
Theater of Pain |
Trinket 2 | ![]() |
Mists of Tirna Scithe |
Trinkets for Affliction Warlock
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.
Trinket Simulations for Affliction Warlock
Single Target
Cleave
Changelog
- 10 Mar. 2022: Updated trinket section.
- 22 Feb. 2022: Added tier section and created BiS list for Patch 9.2.
- 01 Nov. 2021: Reviewed and approved for Patch 9.1.5.
- 08 Sep. 2021: Updated trinket section following Forbidden Necromantic Tome change.
- 26 Aug. 2021: Removed Castle Nathria BiS list, as it is not relevant anymore.
- 30 Jun. 2021: Added Sanctum of Domination bis list, updated trinket section and shard recommendations.
- 28 Jun. 2021: Updated for Patch 9.1.
- 09 Mar. 2021: Added Valor Upgrade section for Patch 9.0.5.
- 01 Feb. 2021: Updated trinket section.
- 28 Dec. 2020: Added Sun King Salvation as another source of drop for the Abominable Anima Spherule weapon token.
- 04 Dec. 2020: Updated Castle Nathria BiS list, added dungeons BiS list, and updated trinket recommendations.
- 24 Nov. 2020: Added disclaimer about Bloodmallet sims.
- 23 Nov. 2020: Page updated for Shadowlands release, added Legendary and Conduits sections, and Castle Nathria BiS list
- 12 Oct. 2020: Page updated for the Shadowlands pre-patch.
More Warlock Guides
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This guide has been written by Motoko, Warlock main since The Burning Crusade, co-admin in the Warlock Discord, and theorycrafter and contributor for LockOneStopShop.
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