Affliction Warlock DPS Mythic+ Tips — The War Within (11.2.5)

Mythic+ has become a large part of the World of Warcraft endgame. Still, the sheer number of different variables has overwhelmed many players. The group composition, weekly affixes, the item level of the group, the keystone level, and the group's experience and comfort level are just several factors that will influence how you approach each dungeon. The purpose of this page is to prepare you for the key differences that set Mythic+ apart from the typical World of Warcraft endgame experience, including talents and rotational anomalies that may not be obvious at first glance.

Affliction Warlocks are a solid ranged DPS spec, offering sustained damage with frequent burn cycles. While the spec lacks immunity, the sound mitigation and self-heal, coupled with the primary spender that works both in single-target and multi-target, make it a versatile choice with a unique toolkit comprised of Healthstones, Soulstones, skip-enabling Demonic Gateway, AoE crowd control abilities such as Shadowfury and Howl of Terror, and uncapped AoE spells.

While both single- and multi-target rotations do not differ substantially from the standard priority outlined in Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities page there are a few points worth noting:

• Due to the nature of pulls, with constantly dying targets, Affliction can use Soul Shard sniping using both Unstable Affliction and Drain Soul when talented at collecting additional Soul Shards and squeezing extra damage throughout a full run.
• Maximise cooldown efficiency, aiming for the highest number of casts while not wasting activation on pulls about to die. In that situation, getting to 5 shards and starting the next pull with max resources is better.
• Haunt when talented, is always worth casting in any situation and is better cast on targets affected by Unstable Affliction.
• Unstable Affliction is also worth casting in any situation. With few targets, the damage is relevant and is generally buffed by Haunt. With increasing targets, it still retains value by generating shards on dying targets, making it useful in any practical situation.
• Agony's shard generation has diminishing return past 4 targets, which means it is crucial to have it on up to 4 targets. Past that value, the damage gain is still worth the global cooldown. However, you should not prioritize it above spending shards or preparing/using cooldowns. You should not prioritize Shadow Embrace stacks past 1-2 targets. The 3rd and 4th targets are optional and should be considered a low-priority optimization whenever you can spend free globals with filler (ideally Drain Soul for easier upkeep).

While damage is the more significant reason to bring an Affliction Warlock, the class itself offers a noticeable amount of crowd control and various supporting abilities:

• Recently reintroduced, the Curses can offer some advantages against specific dangerous enemies: Curse of Tongues can reduce the group's interrupt requirements. At the same time, Curse of Weakness alleviates the incoming damage on the tank from auto attacks. Last but not least, Curse of Exhaustion can slow targets when kiting is required.
• Healthstones have a 1-minute cooldown and heal for 25% of max health, allowing for an emergency heal for each player.
• Soulstones offer a combat resurrection that you can use reactively and preemptively in the case of a death run.
• Demonic Gateway offers the unique ability to skip certain parts of the map, depending on the dungeon in question, avoiding specific pulls.
• Shadowfury helps alleviate pressure on the tank during big pulls as it is a 3-second AoE stun.
• Fear and Banish are both spammable crowd control abilities that can interrupt a cast in a pinch or temporarily remove a target from combat.

Below are the recommended talents for Mythic+. There is a certain degree of flexibility when progressing down the path to accommodate preferences or to meet specific requirements, as discussed further.

• Demonic Circle, Shadowfury, Banish and Amplify Curse should be considered flex slots in order to accommodate individual dungeon or affix mechanics;
• Ichor of Devils can be swapped with Frequent Donor if higher uptime on Dark Pact is desirable;
• Similarly, Dark Accord can be considered instead of Strength of Will
• Howl of Terror is another AoE crowd control that can be considered but is capped at 5 targets thus Mortal Coil is generally more beneficial

• Withering Bolt can be swapped for Sacrolash's Dark Strike if higher Curse uptime is required or for more AoE instead of single target
• In order to talent into Oblivion, remove the 2 points from Malediction and path down to the third gate through Improved Haunt, then replace Death's Embrace with Oblivion.

The following section contains Warlock-specific tips for dealing with the various affixes of Mythic+. For general guides for each of our Dungeons or Mythic+ in general, check out our dedicated page below.

5.

Affix Guide for Affliction Warlock in The War Within

Affix: Ascendant Affix: Voidbound Affix: Pulsar Affix: Devour

4.1.

Ascendant Affix Management for Affliction Warlock

Any crowd-control or interrupt spell will work:

• Shadowfury;
• Howl of Terror (capped to 5);
• Fear;
• Mortal Coil;
• Pet interrupts.

4.2.

Voidbound Affix Management for Affliction Warlock

Target that has to be prioritised so no specific guidance required.

4.3.

Pulsar Affix Management for Affliction Warlock

There no particular suggestion for this mechanic centered around just soaking those orbs, although the movement reduction can be offset by Burning Rush.

4.4.

Devour Affix Management for Affliction Warlock

Healing abilities such as Mortal Coil and Healthstone can help removing the shields if no other means to dispel them are available.

Summon Imp Singe Magic can dispel a single shield.

The Felhunter offers comparable single-target damage and an interrupt or purge, but consider swapping to Imp if you need a dispel.

If you are using Grimoire of Sacrifice, we recommend sacrificing the Felhunter to provide your group with an extra interrupt. Suppose you need an extra cooldown to survive. In that case, you can also sacrifice a Voidwalker before a difficult boss to access the Shadow Bulwark cooldown.

When choosing your trinkets, we recommend simulating yourself on Raidbots using the Patchwerk option for raids and single-target. Patchwerk with 4-5 targets or Hectic Add Cleave for an educated guess on multi-target performance in Dungeons. Usually, trinkets that proc stats are more versatile and better performers than single-target spell damage procs unless overtuned.

You can also get a quick overview of suitable Mythic+ Trinkets on our Gearing page. Specifically the Simulation chart for multi-target scenarios.