Affliction Warlock DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — The War Within (11.1.5)

Affliction Warlocks aim to apply a series of damage over time effects to targets, weaving in procs and managing Shards as a resource. Much of the optimization revolves around maintaining your active effects while ensuring you spend Soul Shards correctly.

1. Maintain your Agony, Unstable Affliction and Corruption effects at all times.
2. Maintain your Agony, Unstable Affliction and Wither effects at all times.
3. Maintain 2 stacks of Shadow Embrace.
4. Maintain 4 stacks of Shadow Embrace.
5. Cast Oblivion on cooldown.
6. Apply Malefic Rapture if you are at maximum Soul Shards.
7. Cast Haunt whenever available.
8. Cast Vile Taint whenever available.
9. Cast Phantom Singularity whenever available.
10. Delay Phantom Singularity to cast it with Soul Rot.
11. Cast Malevolence after Phantom Singularity to not shorten its duration.
12. Cast Malevolence after Vile Taint.
13. Make sure to have 2 or less Soul Shards before casting Phantom Singularity.
14. Cast Soul Rot whenever available with either Phantom Singularity or Vile Taint active on target.
15. Cast Malefic Rapture during Phantom Singularity window.
16. Cast Malefic Rapture during Vile Taint window.
17. Cast Malefic Rapture to avoid capping shards.
18. Cast Drain Soul as a filler.
19. Cast Shadow Bolt as a filler.

1. Cast Vile Taint.
2. Maintain Agony and Corruption. If there are 3+ targets stacked together, use Seed of Corruption to apply and maintain Corruption.
3. Maintain Agony and Wither. If there are 3+ targets stacked together, use Seed of Corruption to apply and maintain Wither.
4. Maintain Unstable Affliction on the primary target.
5. Cast Malefic Rapture if already at 5 Soul Shards to avoid capping.
6. Cast Malefic Rapture if above 2 shards before Soul Rot comes off cooldown.
7. Cast Phantom Singularity.
8. Cast Malevolence after Phantom Singularity to not shorten its duration.
9. Cast Malevolence when all targets are affected by Wither.
10. Cast Soul Rot.
11. Cast Malefic Rapture during Phantom Singularity window.
12. Cast Malefic Rapture during Vile Taint window.
13. Cast Drain Soul as a filler.
14. Cast Shadow Bolt as a filler.

1. Pre-cast Haunt.
2. Pre-cast Unstable Affliction.
3. Apply Unstable Affliction.
4. Apply Agony.
5. Apply Corruption.
6. Apply Wither.
7. Get to 4 stacks of Shadow Embrace with Drain Soul.
8. Get to 2 stacks of Shadow Embrace with Shadow Bolt.
9. Cast Malefic Rapture.
10. Cast Phantom Singularity.
11. Cast Malevolence.
12. Cast Vile Taint.
13. Cast Soul Rot.
14. Use your trinkets and racials.
15. Cast Nightfall Drain Soul.
16. Cast Nightfall Shadow Bolt.
17. Cast Summon Darkglare to extend all periodic damage effects.
18. Cast Oblivion.

Summon Darkglare is the spec main cooldown featuring an extension of 8 seconds for every damage over time present on any enemy at the time of the summoning. This element allows to enter a phase where managing DoTs is temporarily paused letting the player focus on spending shards on Malefic Raptures uninterrupted. Because of this extension it is important to cast Summon Darkglare after all debuffs are already present on the targets, otherwise there will not be any extension occurring afterwards.

Malevolent Visionary offers a form of AoE burst as every target affected by at least 1 debuff that can be extended will suffer a burst of damage.

In the current tuning Phantom Singularity offers the best single target output specifically because of Infirmity which act as another damage amplification effect, and because of it, the spell is best used in conjunction with Soul Rot to further enhance the 1 minute burst windows.

Vile Taint being a 30s cooldown naturally align with Affliction burst windows, so needs no delay, unless an opportunity to hit additional targets presents itself.

Soul Rot with its supporting talents form the anchor of Affliction cooldown timings, the reason why Phantom Singularity is currently delayed and to a certain extent also the reason why Oblivion is not picked.

The Drain Life cleave part is largely irrelevant in terms of DPS after the removal of Inevitable Demise, and while the spell itself does reasonable damage, Malign Omen in the current landscape is the main reason to cast the spell.

Dark Harvest offer increased burst potential, especially in multitarget but is most of a filler point in terms of overall contribution.

Pandemic is a hidden mechanic that allows you to refresh certain timed effects early without penalty. You can refresh your DoT effects when they have less than 30% of their maximum duration. This will add the new DoT's maximum duration with the remaining duration of the current DoT.

For example, if you cast a fresh Agony while your current one has a duration of 3.5s, your new Agony will now have 21.5 seconds.

The Pandemic values for safe refreshes for your other DoTs are as follows:

• Agony: 5.4 seconds
• Corruption: 4.2 seconds
• Unstable Affliction: 6.3 seconds

When Creeping Death is talented the values change as follows:

• Agony: 4.5 seconds
• Corruption: 3.5 seconds
• Unstable Affliction: 5.4 seconds

Shadow Embrace is a fairly important mechanic by being another source of unconditional damage amplification, alongside Haunt, but where it differs from the latter is the ability to be applied and maintained on multiple targets.

While it is technically possible to maintain max stacks of Shadow Embrace on up to 3-4 targets, the introduction of Hero Talents, specifically Soul Harvester created a gameplay that suffer from gcd competition with a much higher frequency of Malefic Rapture casts, resulting in a dps loss when trying to maintain Shadow Embrace on more than 1-2 targets.

All Warlocks use Soul Shards as their primary resource. Properly managing your Shards is crucial to success, as overcapping results in potential loss of damage.

Malefic Rapture at surface level is a pretty straightforward spell. Still, it has several implications that may not be that immediate at first glance.

Due to its linear scaling with each additional periodic effect on each target, to maximize the output, it is better to cast it with the highest amount of damage over time spells. This, in turn, means that it is tied to talent cooldowns such as Vile Taint, Phantom Singularity windows, and, to an extent, Summon Darkglare and Soul Rot.

To maximize the damage output, it is advisable to pool resources and cast as many Malefic Raptures inside these windows, essentially creating a 1-minute cooldown loops, with few Malefic Raptures cast outside to avoid capping shards.

Agony is by far your most important spell, as it is the sole source of Soul Shard generation in the regular rotation. It also deals severe sustained damage. The trade-off, however, is that Agony has a lengthy ramp-up period before it reaches full effectiveness. This means that if you let Agony drop on one of your primary targets for any reason, you will hemorrhage DPS. Keeping careful track of your active Agony casts is this specialization's single most important priority and the most punishing failure if you mess this up.

After 9.2 changes, Sayaad (Succubus or Incubus) has a clear advantage in terms of single target damage, assuming no frequent distant target swap. However, pet choice is often dictated by the unique utility provided by each one: for defensive dispel, and if there are regular swaps between distant targets, Imp will provide the highest uptime. Use Felhunter whenever an interrupt or a purge effect is required. Voidwalker can offer some additional AoE due to its torment ability, but its most significant utility comes from a taunt. Succubus offers further crowd control and permanent slow on a single target, which may be helpful under certain situations.

While it is difficult to describe the best ways to position and move during a dungeon or raid encounter, it is essential to your success as an Affliction Warlock. Demonic Gateway can be highly effective in many encounters and is under-appreciated by many players and raid groups. Think of Demonic Gateway as a raid cooldown that can teleport your entire raid group 40 yards. The potential this ability holds quickly becomes clear. Ask your group if they want Demonic Gateway anywhere specific; if not used for your strategy, use it instead as a personal cooldown.

Agony and Corruption can be refreshed when you need cover movement. Nightfall has some potential on higher movement fights, particularly with cleave, as the instant Shadow Bolt procs offer another global cooldown where you can move without losing DPS.

You can mitigate the need to move by positioning in locations central to fight movement. For instance, if a boss is being kited in a circle, you should stay inside the kite path to ensure minimal movement. You should also determine how your Demonic Circle can make a fight easier for you. You can trivialize many boss mechanics with a clever portal, which can free you up to deal much more damage.

Soulburn used in conjunction with Demonic Gateway offers a quick way to cover large distances and can be used in a rush when the need to reposition is immediate.

Many players will unconsciously move during fights, despite it being unnecessary. For example, sometimes the boss or adds will be moved by the tank a couple of yards. Though you are still in range to cast, you subconsciously mirror that movement, costing you global cooldowns. Consciously work to "quiet" your movement and reduce unnecessary movement to a minimum. The best way to see this in action is to take a video of your raid, then watch yourself play. Most players will be surprised by the amount of wasted movement they commit. When you are forced to move, make your path as direct and decisive as possible.