Affliction Warlock DPS Gear and Best in Slot — Shadowlands 9.0.5

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.

When Season 1 of Shadowlands begins, most of your gear will come from either Raiding, Mythic+, PvP, or the weekly chest. However, none of these options are available in the first couple of weeks of Shadowlands. Below, we go over some of the best ways to get geared early on in Shadowlands.

• Covenant Callings: These are daily quests that can give you up to 200 item level gear and Conduits.
• The Maw: Rares and Events in The Maw can drop up to 184 item level gear.
• Battlegrounds: You can exchange Honor Points for u to item level 184 gear.
• Mythic dungeons: Although Mythic+ is not open yet, standard Mythic dungeons are open. These drop 184 item level loot and can be looted once per week.
• Reputation: Getting honored allows you to buy 181 item level gear and getting exalted gives 200 item level gear.

Patch 9.0.5 re-introduced the Valor system, which lets you upgrade your gear from dungeons.

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.

Both Relic of Demonic Synergy (Head) and Perpetual Agony of Azj'Aqir (Chest) are extremely important in both raiding and Mythic+ situations. It is advisable to craft them with Missive of Mastery and Missive of Haste.

Prioritise Relic of Demonic Synergy, as it performs extremely well on all 3 specs and offers the best DPS increase for Affliction until 4 targets, compared to Perpetual Agony of Azj'Aqir.

After crafting and upgrading the above 2 choices, it is advisable to consider crafting other more niche choices, such as:

• Sacrolash's Dark Strike (Legs), to unlock limited slowing potential with Absolute Corruption.
• Malefic Wrath (Shoulder), a very powerful but situational damage increase legendary.

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. Cold Embrace
2. Focused Malignancy

1. Rolling Agony
2. Corrupting Leer
3. Focused Malignancy

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 Castle Nathria, which may be advantageous for players who have little interest in Mythic+ dungeons or PvP.

Slot	Item	Source
Helm	Grim-Veiled Hood	Crafted Legendary with Relic of Demonic Synergy, Missive of Mastery and Missive of Haste
Neck	Noble's Birthstone Pendant	Council of Blood in Castle Nathria
Shoulder	Shawl of the Penitent	Sire Denathrius in Castle Nathria
Cloak	Crest of the Legionnaire General	General Kaal in Castle Nathria
Chest	Robes of the Cursed Commando	General Kaal in Castle Nathria
Wrists	Acolyte's Velvet Bindings	Trash in Castle Nathria (Bind on Equip, can be bought from Auction House / other players)
Gloves	Impossibly Oversized Mitts	Sludgefist in Castle Nathria
Belt	Cinch of Infinite Tightness	Trash in Castle Nathria (Bind on Equip, can be bought from Auction House / other players)
Legs	Courtier's Costume Trousers	Council of Blood in Castle Nathria
Boots	Slippers of the Forgotten Heretic	Shriekwing in Castle Nathria
Ring #1	Most Regal Signet of Sire Denathrius	Sire Denathrius in Castle Nathria
Ring #2	Hyperlight Band	Artificer Xy'Mox in Castle Nathria
Main-hand + Off-hand	Spire of the Long Dark	Trade in Abominable Anima Spherule at your Covenant Weaponsmith, dropped from Sire Denathrius or Sun King's Salvation in Castle Nathria
Trinket 1	Dreadfire Vessel	Sire Denathrius in Castle Nathria
Trinket 2	Glyph of Assimilation	Artificer Xy'Mox in Castle Nathria

Slot	Item	Source
Helm	Cowl of the Devoted General	General Kaal in Sanguine Depths
Neck	Trailspinner Pendant	Mists of Tirna Scithe
Shoulder	Castigator's Mantle	Sanguine Depths
Cloak	Dealer Xy'exa's Cape	De Other Side
Chest	Sinlight Shroud	Halls of Atonement
Wrists	Contaminated Gauze Wristwraps	Theater of Pain
Gloves	Gory Surgeon's Gloves	The Necrotic Wake
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	Inscrutable Quantum Device	De Other Side
Trinket 2	Empyreal Ordnance	Spires of Ascension

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.

From Castle Nathria, Cabalist's Hymnal, Dreadfire Vessel and Glyph of Assimilation are similar in terms of value, and worth acquiring.

From dungeons, Inscrutable Quantum Device is by far the most potent trinket, rivalling raid trinkets of similar item level, but becomes somewhat inconsistent in the latter part of a fight, due to stat increase being on a lower priority than other triggers. Unbound Changeling is the best passive trinket, and Soulletting Ruby is a good option, especially paired with Dark Soul: Misery. Empyreal Ordnance is worth mentioning as the delay in buff application allows you to run it as a second on-use trinket.

From World Quest and the Covenant Mission table, the most desirable trinket is Instructor's Divine Bell, able to compete with much higher item level trinkets due a very favourable on use stat that lines up very well with affliction burst windows.

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.