Affliction Warlock DPS Guide — The War Within (11.1.5)

Patch 11.1.5 did not bring directly changes to Affliction Warlock, however a live hotfix the 15th of April updated some of the tuning in regards to the relative strength of some spells and how are weighted in their application or intended scenarios:

• Agony damage increased by 10%.
• Soul Rot damage increased by 30%.
• Vile Taint damage increased by 40%.

Warlock baseline received a Drain Life coefficient change, now dealing 4 times the damage, while still healing for 5 times the damage dealt.

As for Affliction Soul Rot has been redesigned slightly to break the impression that a following Drain Life was part of the rotation, the spell will heal for 50% of the damage dealt instead.

As part of the last minute tuning:

• Summon Darkglare direct damage has been buffed by 40% with stronger scaling per damage over time effect from 25% to 45%;
• Focused Malignancy talent has been buffed to 40%;
• Unstable Affliction damage has been increased by 30%;
• Shadow Bolt and Drain Soul damage have been increased by 20%.

Warlocks received a lot of attention entering The War Within, with talent changes spanning from the class tree bottom lift to the mostly reworked specialisation talent tree.

The specialisation has seen a reduction in complexity in single target with the removal of some of the debuffs/dots that created a very daunting experience for newcomers while also promoting a more engaging rotation in multitarget. Nightfall and Cunning Cruelty side, the already present Tormented Crescendo adds a layer of dynamism to the new gameplay.

The Class tree has received a few tweaks in both new talents and point distribution changes, creating constraints that force active decisions in what to bring in a given situation, as opposed to a set-and-forget approach.

Below are the most notable changes in regard to the class tree:

• Demonic Circle is no longer baseline;
• Demonic Tactics is a new output node;
• Soul Link has been consolidated as a 2 points node, removing Profane Bargain;
• Inquisitor's Gaze and Summon Soulkeeper node has been replaced by Soul Conduit at 1 point of effectiveness;
• likewise Grim Feast has been replaced by Pact of Gluttony.

The Affliction side of the tree received a more radical revisit with the whole structure and pathing changing, alongside the introduction of several new talents that focus on augmenting fewer spells but in a more profound fashion. As follows is a list of the most transformative changes:

• Seed of Corruption identity has been moved as a mass Corruption application, with Malefic Rapture being the primary non-cooldown spender in both single target and AoE;
• Sow the Seeds has been removed as a result;
• in the first gate Volatile Agony offers a similar idea to the now deprecated Pandemic Invocation but limited to Agony while dealing strong AoE damage as well;
• Improved Shadow Bolt is a new choice node with Drain Soul offering distinct use cases depending on the situation;
• similarly a new talent Summoner's Embrace is now sharing the choice node with Grimoire of Sacrifice;
• Cunning Cruelty is a new talent that offers Shadowbolt Volley procs;
• Soul Flame, Soul Swap and Inevitable Demise have been removed;
• the old capstones Dread Touch, Doom Blossom, Grand Warlock's Design and Grim Reachhave been removed;
• Oblivion is the new single target/hard swap capstone spender, dealing tremendous damage over a brief duration, every 45s.

One of the highlights of the new expansion is the Hero Talent Tree system, which further enhances specialisation with a unique twist both in visual and, to a lesser degree, in playstyle.

Affliction Warlock gets to choose between Hellcaller and Soul Harvester.