Affliction Warlock DPS Spec, Builds, and Talents — The War Within Pre-Patch

With the introduction of the new talent system and the ability to freely change points and share/import builds free of consumables costs. At the same time, out of combat, it is highly advised to adapt the build based on the type of situation at hand.

3.

Talent Explanations for Affliction Warlocks

3.1.

Tier 1 (Rows 1-4) Class Talents For Affliction Warlock

3.1.1.

Talents for all situations

Talent	Reason for taking
Demon Skin	Passive damage mitigation
Fel Armor	Passive damage mitigation
Burning Rush	Greatly increases Warlock mobility
Fel Domination	Offers instant pet swapping or resummon in case of an untimely death.
Mortal Coil	A percentage-based heal on a very short cooldown, which makes potions trivial in comparison.
Curses of Enfeeblement	Gives access to Strong utility curses while opening the path for Demonic Embrace.
Demonic Inspiration	DPS increase
Wrathful Minion	DPS increase

3.1.2.

Optional / flexible talents

Talent	Reason for taking
Fiendish Stride	Substantially reduces Burning Rush health cost while also increasing the max speed.
Amplify Curse	Enable to empower Curses (which works with Vile Taint).
Banish	Useful to control Demons or Aberrations if the situation arises.
Demonic Embrace	Max HP increase, which works well with percentage-based mitigations such as Soul Leech and Dark Pact.

3.2.

Tier 2 (Rows 5-7) Class Talents For Affliction Warlock

3.2.1.

Talents for all situations

Talent	Reason for taking
Sweet Souls	Further increase the healing from Healthstones.
Demonic Gateway	The unique party/raid-wide movement tool exclusive to Warlocks can be used to quickly relocate, move between locations at different heights, and skip otherwise mandatory pathways.
Dark Pact	Powerful defensive cooldown that increases the Warlock's effective health pool.
Strength of Will	Increases the value of Unending Resolve to a more relevant 35%.
Socrethar's Guile	DPS increase.
Sargerei Technique	DPS increase.

3.2.2.

Optional / flexible talents

Talent	Reason for taking
Frequent Donor	Further reduces the cooldown of Dark Pact to match Mortal Coil.
Shadowfury	AoE stun for when the situation requires it
Dark Fury	Increases the frequency of use of Shadowfury.
Dark Accord instead of Strength of Will	In cases where the silence/interrupt immunity is valuable.
Lifeblood	When additional sustain is needed.

3.3.

Tier 3 (Rows 8-10) Class Talents For Affliction Warlock

In this section, there are DPS increase talents worth prioritizing

3.3.1.

Talents for all situations

Talent	Reason for taking
Demonic Tactics	Passive Critical Strike chance.
Soul Conduit	DPS increase
Soul Link	Extremely strong passive damage mitigation tool.
Soulburn	A powerful utility that can massively boost either the survivability or the mobility of the Warlock, depending on what spell is used.

3.3.2.

Optional / flexible talents

Talent	Reason for taking
Swift Artifice	Mostly used for pathing purposes.
Teachings of the Black Harvest	Niche use for when the bonus effects on pet abilities might be relevant.
Fel Synergy	Helps mitigate the health loss from Soul Link, especially on pets.
Resolute Barrier	Cooldown reduction for Unending Resolve.
Pact of Gluttony	Allows Healthstones to be used as a personal heal with multiple uses at 1 minute cooldown.

4.

Affliction Warlock Talents

The following section will go through Affliction Warlock Talents with a focus on PvE scenarios.

4.1.

Tier 1 (Rows 1-4) Affliction Warlock Talents

The first section is where you choose the general direction of the build, whether AoE is needed, and to what extent.

4.1.1.

Talents for all situations

Talent	Reason for taking
Unstable Affliction	Strongest single target DoT, which also retains value in multitarget situations thanks to the shard generation on target death and further synergies down the tree.
Writhe in Agony	A passive damage increase on the second strongest DoT, which is relevant in any conceivable scenario.
Seed of Corruption	Pathing purposes and the only way to apply Corruption on multiple targets.
Absolute Corruption	Currently overperforming its alternative, despite also having a clear advantage in spread cleave and aoe scenarios.
Kindled Malice	Damage increase on Malefic Rapture and Corruption.
Nightfall	Single target damage increase with bonus mobility.
Volatile Agony	Substantial damage increase especially in AoE.

4.1.2.

Optional / flexible talents

Talent	Reason for taking
Dark Virtuosity	Single target DPS increase.
Siphon Life	Higher Corruption damage bonus and minor heal.

4.2.

Tier 2 (Rows 5-7) Affliction Warlock Talents

A continuation of the previous section where to decide between AoE or single target options.

4.2.1.

Talents for all situations

Talent	Reason for taking
Summoner's Embrace	Passive DPS increase.
Vile Taint	High damage cooldown-based abilities with a little point cost with the upside of easier Agony application.
Haunt	One of the best single point investments until high target count.
Shadow Embrace	Damage increase in single target mostly but is relevant up to 3 targets as long as either Shadow Bolt or Drain Soul are frequently used in the rotation.
Summon Darkglare	A fairly decent cooldown for a minimal investment cost.
Malediction	Free Critical Strike chance.
Malevolent Visionary	Add a damage burst to Summon Darkglare activation.
Contagion	Free Critical Strike damage
Cull the Weak	Damage increase for Malefic Rapture.

4.2.2.

Optional / flexible talents

Talent	Reason for taking
Improved Shadow Bolt	Better single target damage than its alternative. Currently outperforming Drain Soul.
Drain Soul	Better suited for situation where sniping adds result in Soul Shard gains.
Grimoire of Sacrifice	Single target damage increase does not scale with additional targets but rather, the single target proc will affect different targets. Picked to path down more easily.
Phantom Singularity	Alternative for single target scenarios.
Sacrolash's Dark Strike	Damage increase coupled with the utility of extending the Curses.
Cunning Cruelty	Additional Cleave, scaling with Shadow Bolt talents.
Infirmity	Faster AoE ramp or damage amplification depending on talent selection.

4.3.

Tier 3 (Rows 8-10) Affliction Warlock Talents

4.3.1.

Talents for all situations

Talent	Reason for taking
Creeping Death	Damage increase for DoTs, mostly taken to progress down the path.
Soul Rot	Affliction second small cooldown, with the supporting talents.
Tormented Crescendo	Free Malefic Raptures.
Malign Omen	Enhances Malefic Rapture 1 minute burn windows.
Withering Bolt	Offers a damage increase on anything that is not heavy AoE spam.
Improved Malefic Rapture	DPS increase but mostly to path down.
Malefic Touch	Substantially increases the damage of Malefic Rapture.

4.3.2.

Optional / flexible talents

Talent	Reason for taking
Xavius' Gambit	Single target damage increase.
Focused Malignancy	Single target damage increase.
Perpetual Unstability	Single target damage increase.
Relinquished	Slightly increases shard generation.
Oblivion	Single target ability with cooldown and very high damage, good for both sustained and hard swap situations.
Death's Embrace	Gives Affliction execute damage.
Ravenous Afflictions	Generates a marginal amount of additional Nightfall procs.

Do note that the builds suggested above do not account for specific fights in the current raid tier; that said, we have a dedicated page that covers boss-by-boss talent recommendations, which you can find linked below.

For specific Mythic+ advice, which typically involves having a set-up that can perform both in single target *and* AoE, this set-up can also be influenced by affixes and other things like party composition and pull layout. Check out our dedicated M+ page below.

Since several talent choices affect your gameplay, we recommend reading our rotation page linked below to find out how to adapt your playstyle and priority based on your selected talents.

Other than a handful of DPS increase nodes, the path progression is generally flexible and allows one to opt in or out of specific utilities that may not be relevant in a specific situation. The following sections will highlight the key talents while suggesting what to pick to progress down the tree.

For detailed information about each talent, follow the link to the spell Summary page:

Under our Talents section, there is the option to enter "War Mode." Enabling War Mode provides the following benefits:

• PvP talents enabled in the outdoor world;
• 10% increase in World Quest rewards at maximum level;
• 10% more experience gained while leveling;
• Earn Conquest Points, which can reward gear every week.

With the benefits of enabling War Mode for leveling and PvE content, you should enable the feature. In most situations, this will allow maximum returns despite the risks. You will make yourself available for open-world PvP, and the possibility to be "ganked" while leveling or doing World Quests exists.

In this section, we will rank the PvP talents best for leveling and doing solo / small group PvE content. Below is a ranking of both General PvP Talents and Affliction Warlock-specific PvP talents.

1. Essence Drain stacks a damage reduction effect on enemies that are damaged by your Drain Life. You can reduce their damage by up to 25%, which greatly increases your ability to survive and sustain.
2. Bonds of Fel allows to burst targets by dragging them away from the marked location.
3. Gateway Mastery increase your gateway's range by 20 yards and reduces the duration of the debuff placed on players using it by 15 seconds, making it a good choice when increased mobility is needed.
4. Nether Ward summons a shield lasting 3 seconds and reflecting all harmful spells targeted at you.
5. Call Observer is only relevant when dealing with a lot of casting mobs.

1. Rampant Afflictions increase the target limit for Unstable Affliction to 3.
2. Call Observer guards a location for 20 seconds; any enemies that cast spells in the radius will take up to 5% of maximum Health as damage. This has a lot more limited use but can have absurd value in specific situations.
3. Rot and Decay can be handy in situations with high sustained damage intake. Combining this with Essence Drain dramatically increases your survivability and sustainability and opens many doors for soloing difficult content.