Affliction Warlock DPS Mythic+ Tips — Shadowlands 9.2
In this guide, you will find tips and advice to tackle Mythic+ dungeons with your Affliction Warlock in World of Warcraft — Shadowlands 9.2.
Mythic+ Introduction for Affliction Warlock
Mythic+ has become a large part of the World of Warcraft endgame, but the sheer amount of different variables has left many players feeling overwhelmed. The group composition, weekly affixes, the item level of the group, the keystone level, and the experience and comfort level of the group are just several of the 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 currently a solid ranged DPS spec, offering
sustained damage with frequent burn cycles. While the spec lacks immunity, the
good mitigation and self-heal, coupled with the main 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.
Affliction Warlock Mythic+ Rotation
While both single- and multi-target rotations do not differ substantially from the standard priority outlined in Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities page there are few points worth noting:
- Due to the nature of pulls, with constantly dying targets, Affliction can
make great use of Soul Shard sniping using both
Unstable Affliction and
Drain Soul when talented in order to collect additional Soul Shards and squeeze extra damage over the course of the full run.
- Maximise cooldown efficiency, aiming for the highest number of casts while not wasting activation on pulls that are about to die, in that situation is better to get to 5 shards and start the next pull with max resources.
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, and with more and more targets, it still retains value with the ability to generate 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 extremely important to have it on up to 4 targets. Past that value the damage gain is still worth the global cooldown, however it should not be prioritised above spending shards or preparing/using cooldowns.
Shadow Embrace stacks should not be prioritised past 1-2 targets. The 3rd and 4th targets are optional and should be considered a low priority optimisation whenever there are free globals to be spent with filler (ideally
Drain Soul for an easier upkeep).
Opening Sequence with Phantom Singularity or Vile Taint talented
- Pre-cast
Seed of Corruption.
- Apply
Agony on up to 4 targets initially.
- Apply
Unstable Affliction on the target with
Seed of Corruption.
- Cast
Haunt on the target with
Seed of Corruption.
- Cast
Phantom Singularity if talented on the target with
Haunt.
- Cast
Dark Soul: Misery if talented.
- Cast
Vile Taint in a position to hit as many targets as possible.
- Cast your Covenant ability.
- Cast
Summon Darkglare and use trinkets/racials.
- Cast as many
Malefic Rapture as possible during this window.
- Proceed to refresh DoTs as they fall off, and slowly start building up
Shadow Embrace stacks.
Opening Sequence with Sow the Seeds talented
- Pre-cast
Seed of Corruption.
- Apply
Agony on up to 4 targets initially.
- Apply
Unstable Affliction on the primary target.
- Cast
Haunt on the primary target.
- Cast
Dark Soul: Misery if talented.
- Cast your Covenant ability.
- Cast
Summon Darkglare and use trinkets/racials.
- Cast as many
Seed of Corruption as possible.
- Proceed to refresh DoTs as they fall off, and slowly start building up
Shadow Embrace stacks.
Affliction Warlock Utility
While damage is the bigger reason to bring an Affliction Warlock, the class itself offer a noticeable amount of crowd control and various supporting abilities:
- Recently reintroduced, the Curses can offer some advantage against
specific dangerous enemies:
Curse of Tongues can reduce the amount of interrupt required by the group, while
Curse of Weakness alleviates the incoming damage on tank from auto attacks. Last but not least,
Curse of Exhaustion can be used to slow targets in situations where kiting is required. While these effects can be noticeable, it is better to use curses on a few key targets, as the time spent to apply these effects is time not spent doing damage.
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 can be used both 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 alleviating 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 be used to interrupt a cast in a pinch or to remove temporarily a target from combat.
Mythic+ Talents for Affliction Warlock
Level | Choices | ||
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15 |
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25 |
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30 |
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35 |
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40 |
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45 |
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50 |
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Talent Explanations
Most of our explanations are geared towards keystones that challenge the current item level of your group. If you are doing keystones that are well below the current power level of the group, you should default to our build recommended above, as you will likely be able to do pulls much larger than intended, which skews the talent choices towards AoE and burst focused choices rather than builds that support sustained damage.
Tier 1/Level 15
Drain Soul is the default choice, offering good damage on itself but
above all the ability to snipe Soul Shards on dying targets which happens very often
during dungeons, allowing for more resources and in return more
Malefic Raptures.
Inevitable Demise can be an interesting choice on harder content,
because it allows to gain additional sustain and DPS when doing smaller pulls
without being too intrusive in a otherwise much busier rotation when the target
count rises.
Tier 2/Level 25
Absolute Corruption is the neutral/passive choice for Mythic+ as it
increases your AoE without compromising your single-target situations, its main benefit is freeing
some globals dedicated to Corruption uptime.
Writhe in Agony should be taken on high Mythic+ keys as it greatly
increases our multitarget damage. Its downside is that you need to cast more
Seed of Corruption to maintain
Corruption uptime without
Absolute Corruption.
Siphon Life can be considered on
Tyrannical weeks to
increase damage on bosses, and is the superior choice for strict single/two target
scenarios.
Tier 3/Level 30
Dark Pact is a great choice for challenging keystones, as the
cooldown is often necessary to survive lethal boss abilities or the more
difficult trash pulls.
Burning Rush is the best choice for any situation where you
feel
Dark Pact is unnecessary.
Tier 4/Level 35
Phantom Singularity provides strong AoE damage and is slightly
ahead in single-target. It is the default choice for whenever more damage is
required on 1 to 3 targets on weeks like Tyrannical.
Sow the Seeds is a potential option for groups doing very large
pulls, as the damage per Soul Shard of
Seed of Corruption outvalues
Malefic Rapture in stacked AoE with this talent enabled. With the tier
set bonuses it loses lot of value, making
Vile Taint an overall
better choice.
Vile Taint is a middle ground option offering both decent single
and multi target capabilities but introducing additional setup time in order
to get the most out of
Malefic Rapture windows. Unlike
Phantom Singularity, it makes
Malefic Rapture damage scale on
multiple targets. Another benefit is being able to set up burst windows every
20s compared to 45.
Tier 5/Level 40
Darkfury can be used to provide more frequent access to AoE stuns.
Mortal Coil is the default choice, offering both burst heal on demand
and another form of Crowd Control.
Howl of Terror offers an AoE fear, which can be useful to handle
difficult pulls and is best paired with some form of slow.
Tier 6/Level 45
Haunt is typically our best choice for damage, regardless of the
affixes.
Grimoire of Sacrifice is a small damage increase especially multitarget
and can provide some utility and quality of life, as it grants the player
the ability to interrupt casts from ranged or sacrifice
Summon Voidwalker
for an additional defensive cooldown.
Shadow Embrace can be an alternative in very high keys where
targets last long, but in general due to reset on death mechanic and no ramp
up requirements
Haunt is better suited for dungeons.
Tier 7/Level 50
With the new spender taking a large part of our overall damage, being able to
generate additional Soul Shards make Soul Conduit a compelling choice.
Creeping Death is the passive choice, not requiring any cooldown planning
but being numerically worse than the alternatives.
Dark Soul: Misery is the preferred choice as it offers both stronger sustained
and incredible burst potential over the course of 30 seconds.
If you expect hard packs and bosses this is the best choice.
Stat Priority for Affliction Warlock
- Intellect;
- Mastery;
- Haste;
- Critical Strike >= Versatility.
Pet Choice for Affliction Warlock
The Felhunter is the best choice offering 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. If you need an extra
cooldown to survive, you can also sacrifice a Voidwalker before a difficult
boss to gain access to the
Shadow Bulwark cooldown.
Trinket Considerations for Affliction Warlock in Mythic+
When choosing your trinkets, we recommend simulating yourself on Raidbots using the Patchwerk option for raids and single-target, and 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 performer than than single-target spell damage procs, unless overtuned.
You can also get a quick overview of good Mythic+ Trinkets on our Gearing page, specifically the Simulation chart for multi-target scenarios.
Legendary Powers for Mythic+
Depending on your role within the group, party composition, affixes, and
key level one Legendary Power might be more appealing than another. That said
the best option overall remains Perpetual Agony of Azj'Aqir as it
increases shard generation from Agony, allowing for more
Malefic Rapture or
Seed of Corruption casts. While not offering
the same amount of damage increase
Sacrolash's Dark Strike can also be
considered for its utility, especially during Necrotic week.
For more details about Legendary Powers, please visit our dedicated Legendary Powers guide.
Covenants and Soulbinds for Mythic+
All four covenants and their varied Soulbinds all have different advantages for Mythic+ and it is very hard to recommend a "best" one, as it depends yet again on party composition, affixes, and level of the key.
A quick breakdown on each covenant ability strength:
- Kyrian
Scouring Tithe can offer additional shards every 40 seconds by sniping a dying target. However, since
Unstable Affliction and
Drain Soul cover the same role, the gain is often not that impactful.
- Necrolord
Decimating Bolt offer increased single-target potential, often helpful when handling high health targets, especially when coupled with Emeni soulbind.
Fleshcraft is a decent shield option.
- Night Fae
Soul Rot give better cleave damage and burst on-demand with the added bonus of additional sustain through AoE
Drain Life, if the situation demands it.
- Venthyr
Impending Catastrophe allows for AoE smart curse application in 1 GCD and some mediocre damage over time. Nadja soulbind offers mass confusion on
Door of Shadows arrival, for additional crowd control potential.
For more in-depth recommendations on Covenants and Soulbinds, please visit our dedicated guide.
Shadowlands Season 3 Affix: Encrypted
Encrypted is the third seasonal affix Shadowlands, active in
all +10 or higher Mythic+ dungeons. While managing the target sequence is
something that is usually done as a party effort, the additional targets
offer more opportunities to generate resources
with
Drain Soul,
Agony and
Unstable Affliction as
long as the right target is being focused down.
For a detailed explanation of the affix bonuses follow the link:
Changelog
- 10 Mar. 2022: Updated talent recommendations.
- 22 Feb. 2022: Updated Season 3 affix.
- 01 Nov. 2021: Updated for Patch 9.1.5.
- 08 Sep. 2021: Updated Anima Power recommendations.
- 30 Jul. 2021: Updated talent row 45 recommendations.
- 11 Jul. 2021: Added Anima Power recommendations for the Tormented seasonal affix.
- 28 Jun. 2021: Reviewed and approved for Patch 9.1.
- 09 Mar. 2021: Reviewed for Patch 9.0.5.
- 31 Jan. 2021: Added openers for multi-target situations and few key differences from the default.
- 31 Dec. 2020: Updated Tier 4 talents description.
- 07 Dec. 2020: Page updated for Shadowlands season 1.
- 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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