Affliction Warlock DPS Spell Summary — Shadowlands 9.0.5

If you are new to the Affliction Specialization, this is a great place to start reading and begin breaking down the key spells that hold together this specialization. On this page, we will discuss what abilities your specialization uses, how they influence gameplay and resource generation, and the ways they interact with each other and your cooldowns. If you have some experience with Affliction already, it is recommended you skip over this section and move on to the rest of the guide.

In order to utilise abilities more efficiently, check out the Macros section on the Addon page.

Soul Shards are the main resource of Affliction Warlocks. Soul Shards are generated by your main damage over time spell, Agony, and can be spent on powerful new spells.

Mana is a secondary resource for Affliction Warlocks. Your main spells don't cost very much Mana to cast, and won't ever threaten your Mana pool. Utility spells, such as Demonic Gateway, and Crowd Control abilities, such as Fear, cost relatively more Mana than ever before, so be wary about using them too liberally.

This page lists all the different abilities available after reaching max level. If you are still in the process of leveling, check out the Warlock Leveling page, which offers detailed information on when you unlock all of these abilities.

These abilities are available no matter what talents you chose, and form the bread and butter of this specialization.

DoTs deal damage every few seconds, with the tick rate being determined by the player's Haste.

Agony is your main DoT spell, and it is the most important. Agony has a long ramp-up time, gaining damage with every tick, and it has the chance to generate Soul Shards. Maintaining this effect at all times is important, due to the resources it provides and its stacking nature.

Unstable Affliction is a DoT limited to 1 target at time. If the target dies while it is active it generates a Soul Shard.

Corruption is a medium strength DoT. You should keep this applied to your targets at all times.

Malefic Rapture is your main Soul Shard spender spell, both in single target, and to a certain extent during multi target situations. The ability does 33.5% spell power damage for each periodic effect on any target as long as they are in line of sight of the caster.

Shadow Bolt is your main filler spell. Shadow Bolt has a short cast time and deals moderate damage.

Seed of Corruption is an AoE ability that costs 1 Soul Shard, and embeds a seed in your target, which explodes after 12 seconds and spreads Corruption to all targets damaged. The seed is detonated early if the target takes enough damage from you. This ability is used for damage on large AoE packs, as it deals moderate damage and spreads your Corruption to every target without having to invest in additional global cooldowns to apply it.

For more information on how to use these abilities together in your rotation, please read our rotation page.

Siphon Life is yet another damage over time spell with 15 seconds duration which heals for 30% of the damage done

Phantom Singularity is a damage over time effect on the primary target which also pulsate an AoE effect within 15 yards over 16 seconds and heals for 25% of the damage done. It has a 45s cooldown.

Vile Taint is a 20s cooldown targeted ground effect that applies a 10s damage over time effect and reduces the movement speed of enemies within 10 yards by 30%.

Haunt is a single target ability with 15s cooldown that applies a 15s debuff on the target increasing your damage dealt by 10%. Cooldown resets on kill.

Summon Darkglare is our main damage cooldown. When summoned, it extends the duration of our DoT effects on all targets by 8.0 seconds. The Darkglare itself lasts 20 seconds and attacks your main target, and deals 10% increased damage per DoT effect active on the target. Darkglare has a 3 minute cooldown.

For more information, please see our cooldown usage section on the rotation page.

Unending Resolve reduces damage taken by 40% for 8 seconds. Additionally, you are also immune to interrupt and silence effects for the duration. Unending Resolve has a baseline cooldown of 3 minutes.

Soul Leech grants an absorption shield for 8% of all single target damage done, up to a maximum of 10% of maximum player health.

Demonic Gateway creates two points which players can travel between by interacting with. Players may only use the gateway once every 90 seconds.