Affliction Warlock DPS Gear and Best in Slot — Shadowlands 9.1

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.

In the current patch, there are multiple ways to further enhance the equipped gear beside enchants.

• The Archivist's Codex sells Alloy-Warping Facetor at Rank 6 reputation for 5000 Catalogued Research, allowing to add a socket to helms, necks, bracers, belts, or rings that do not already have sockets.
• Patch 9.0.5 re-introduced the Valor system, which lets you upgrade your gear from dungeons.

In Patch 9.1, specific pieces of gear from the Sanctum of Domination raid will have a new type of socket that can contain gems called Shards of Domination, which also drop from raid bosses in the same instance.

For Cloth users, the following gear slots can contain Shards of Domination.

• Head
• Shoulder
• Chest
• Wrists
• Waist

With a maximum of 5 slots available and the inability to equip more than 1 of the same Shard, the choice is limited to a full 3-piece set bonus and 2 other DPS shards.

At the time of writing, activating the Unholy set bonus ( Chaos Bane) appears the best overall option, regardless of target count.

If you would like to know more about the remaining Domination Shards' effects, their set bonuses, or how to upgrade their effects into even more potent forms, please see our official guide detailing everything about this new system of Patch 9.1:

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 Malefic Wrath (Hands) 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 competitive DPS increase for Affliction in any situation, compared to Malefic Wrath which is exclusive for single target.

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

• Decaying Soul Satchel (Hands) if Night Fae for multitarget.
• Malefic Wrath (Hands), 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. 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 Sanctum of Domination, which may be advantageous for players who have little interest in Mythic+ dungeons or PvP.

Slot	Item	Source
Helm	Veil of the Banshee Queen	Sylvanas Windrunner in Sanctum of Domination
Neck	Interplanar Keystone	Kel'Thuzad in Sanctum of Domination
Shoulder	Frame of the False Margrave	Kel'Thuzad in Sanctum of Domination
Cloak	Cloak of Scarred Honor	Soulrender Dormazain in Sanctum of Domination
Chest	Sacrificer's Sacramental Cassock	Painsmith Raznal in Sanctum of Domination
Wrists	Desecrator's Keening Wristwraps	Sylvanas Windrunner in Sanctum of Domination
Gloves	Grim-Veiled Mittens	Crafted Legendary with Malefic Wrath, Missive of Mastery and Missive of Haste
Belt	Sash of Duplicitous Magics	Kel'Thuzad in Sanctum of Domination
Legs	Leggings of the Screaming Flames	Painsmith Raznal in Sanctum of Domination
Boots	Sandals of Sacred Symmetry	Guardian of the First Ones in Sanctum of Domination
Ring #1	Tarnished Insignia of Quel'Thalas	Sylvanas Windrunner in Sanctum of Domination
Ring #2	Sworn Oath of the Nine	The Nine in Sanctum of Domination
Main-hand + Off-hand	Maledict Opus	Kel'Thuzad in Sanctum of Domination
Trinket 1	Tome of Monstrous Constructions	The Tarragrue in Sanctum of Domination
Trinket 2	Shadowed Orb of Torment	Remnant of Ner'zhul in Sanctum of Domination

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	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 Sanctum of Domination there are a handful of desirable and very competitive trinkets; Tome of Monstrous Constructions is arguably the best single-target passive trinket choice. Titanic Ocular Gland is another top choice, albeit limited in its usability due the heavy constraint in both uptime and downside when going below 50% health. Shadowed Orb of Torment is a very solid on-use option.

From dungeons, Soulletting Ruby is by far the best option, especially paired with Dark Soul: Misery. Unbound Changeling is the best passive 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.