Affliction Warlock DPS Spec, Builds, and Talents — Dragonflight 10.2

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
Soul Conduit	DPS increase
Grimoire of Synergy	DPS increase
Summon Soulkeeper or Inquisitor's Gaze	Both a DPS increase, the former is better suited for AoE situations and can add a bit more burst. At the same time, the latter is the safe single target choice.
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
Grim Feast	Mostly used in tandem with Inevitable Demise to offer a marginal dps increase.
Profane Bargain	Increases the potency of Soul Link at critical health.
Fel Synergy	Helps mitigate the health loss from Soul Link, especially on pets.
Resolute Barrier	Cooldown reduction for Unending Resolve.

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
Malefic Rapture	Main Shard spender
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.
Kindled Malice	Damage increase on spenders, regardless of the situation.

4.1.2.

Optional / flexible talents

Talent	Reason for taking
Nightfall	Single target damage increase.
Shadow Embrace	Single target (and technically up to 3 targets with proper management) damage increase.
Seed of Corruption	AoE specific shard spender, and a quick way to spread Corruption on multiple targets in a single cast.
Sow the Seeds	Increase the strength of Seed of Corruption making it the better choice for AoE over Malefic Rapture.
Dark Virtuosity	Single target DPS increase.
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.

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
Drain Soul	Direct upgrade over Shadow Bolt, relevant both in single target due to the damage increase, in cleave through better application of Shadow Embrace and with multiple targets thanks to the shard generation.
Absolute Corruption or Siphon Life	Infinite duration on Corruption goes a long way to continue damaging targets that are out of range or focus on something else. Siphon Life instead is another single target (up to 3 targets) damage increase.
Vile Taint	High damage cooldown-based abilities with a little point cost with the upside of easier Agony application.
Soul Swap	Should be considered for the strategic position in the tree coupled with the low point investment or for opening pulls when saving 1 global cooldown is better than spending an extra shard.
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.

4.2.2.

Optional / flexible talents

Talent	Reason for taking
Pandemic Invocation	Damage increase as long as there are DoTs to refresh manually.
Inevitable Demise	Turn Drain Life in a noticeable damage increase.
Soul Flame	Great passive cleave with the only requirement of tagging an enemy that is about to die.
Focused Malignancy	Single target damage increase.
Withering Bolt	Offers a damage increase on anything that is not heavy AoE spam.
Sacrolash's Dark Strike	Mediocre damage increase coupled with the utility of extending the Curses.

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.
Xavius' Gambit	A very powerful damage modifier for the already strongest DoT.
Dread Touch	Another very strong single target rotation-defining DPS increase.
Tormented Crescendo	Helps alleviate the heavy shard cost of Dread Touch
Soul Rot	Required for the set bonus interaction; also pairs well with Inevitable Demise.
Soul-Eater's Gluttony	Increases the frequency of Soul Rot and thus tier set bonuses activations.

4.3.2.

Optional / flexible talents

Talent	Reason for taking
Doom Blossom	For a more cleave-oriented option over Dread Touch.
Haunt	Debuff on target that increases all damage from the Warlock. Useful in any situation until AoE spam.
Seized Vitality	Mainly used to reach the following node.
Haunted Soul	Powerful damage multiplier on periodic effect spells.
Summon Darkglare	A fairly decent cooldown for a minimal investment cost.
Malevolent Visionary	An alternative to Haunted Soul with slightly higher damage with a more rigid cooldown management.
Grim Reach	Turns Summon Darkglare into a potent AoE cooldown.
Wrath of Consumption	Noticeable damage increase, which triggers targets dying, mostly useful in cleave situation when there is no Seed of Corruption spam.
Dark Harvest	Decent damage increase, which is mainly relevant in AoE scenarios where Soul Rot can cleave.

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. Bane of Fragility reduces the target's maximum health by up to 10% by 15 seconds, which is desirable when setting up bursts.
4. Casting Circle is a 1-minute cooldown ability that creates an area where you are immune to silence and interrupts for 8 seconds. Removes silence/interrupt immunity from Unending Resolve.
5. 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.
6. Nether Ward summons a shield lasting 3 seconds and reflecting all harmful spells targeted at you.
7. Call Observer is only relevant when dealing with a lot of casting mobs.
8. Precognition and Shadow Rift are mostly irrelevant in the context of leveling.

1. Rampant Afflictions increase the target limit for Unstable Affliction to 3.
2. Rapid Contagion is a decent cooldown, primarily useful for Unstable Affliction.
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.
4. Bane of Shadows causes damage over time effects to strike an additional time for 20% of their actual damage while active. This offers a little bit of extra burst damage on a short cooldown.
5. Oblivion is a 45 seconds cooldown burst ability that deals Shadow Damage over 3 seconds to a target increased by 10% for each damage over time effect applied, up to 30%.