Affliction Warlock PvP Guide in Battle for Azeroth (BfA 8.2.5)

Affliction Warlocks are in a difficult spot versus melee teams in terms of 3v3 Arena. However, when they fighting against teams with casters on it, they have the potential to do incredible amounts of spread damage. If left unchecked for even a few seconds, they can easily apply their DoTs and begin melting entire teams. Even if an Affliction Warlock is being focused by enemies, most of their damage is instant and will slowly pressure down teams.

• Great spread damage
• Strong crowd control
• Multiple interrupts

• Lack of mobility
• Struggle to stay alive against melee teams
• Very few defensive cooldowns

The stat priority for Affliction Warlock in PvP is as follows:

1. Intellect;
2. Haste;
3. Mastery;
4. Versatility;
5. Critical Strike.

Intellect is the best stat in all situations. Haste is the strongest secondary stat at all times due to it reducing the Global Cooldown on abilities and increases the tick rate of your DoTs. Your Mastery ( Mastery: Potent Afflictions) significantly increases your overall damage output.

Essences allow players to customize their characters while adding a new ability to use. This section will cover the best overall Azerite Essences for Affliction Warlocks in PvP. For a general guide to all the essences, as well as how to obtain them and increase their ranks, check out our Essence Guide.

Conflict and Strife is a great Major Essence to have. Conflict gives you Endless Affliction as a baseline ability. This ability is great versus teams that will allow you to cast multiple Unstable Afflictions throughout an arena match. The bonus Versatility granted from Strife also increases your survivability.

The Crucible of Flame is another solid Major Essence. This essence grants the Major Power, Concentrated Flame. Affliction Warlocks have multiple abilities that they have to cast. This gives you strong instant damage you can use very often throughout an arena match.

In addition to having a Major Essence, you can choose two Minor Essences to place in your neck at Heart of Azeroth Levels 55 and 65.

Conflict and Strife is the best Minor Essence you can have. As stated above, Strife gives you bonus Versatility and increases your survivability.

The Crucible of Flame grants the minor ability Ancient Flame. This increases your overall damage output.

Azerite traits are unlocked in you helm, shoulders and chest. With each Azerite level in your neck, you get closer to unlocking the center trait in your gear. These traits vary from increasing damage of certain abilities to helping increase your survivability. Depending on what traits you use, it can completely alter your playstyle and what talents you should be using.

Below are the best Outer Ring traits.

1. Sudden Onset
2. Wracking Brilliance
3. Inevitable Demise
4. Cascading Calamity

There is one trait you are going to want in all pieces of your Azerite gear and it should be Inevitable Demise. You need this trait so you can kill an enemy player with full DoTs on them. If you cannot get this trait in all of your Azerite gear, there are still other options. Wracking Brilliance gives you a great stat increase to your Intellect and is helpful with increasing your overall damage output. Sudden Onset and Cascading Calamity both help increase your spread damage. These traits are great if your goal is to rot an entire team.

Below are the best Middle Ring traits.

1. Overwhelming Power
2. Heed My Call
3. Elemental Whirl
4. Earthlink

The Middle and Inner Rings are important for additional damage. Elemental Whirl, Overwhelming Power, and Earthlink give an increase to your stats. These are minor stat boosts, but still increase your damage. Gutripper will help increase both your single target and spread pressure.

Below are the best Inner Ring traits.

1. Resounding Protection
2. Gemhide
3. Impassive Visage

All of these traits give you additional ways of surviving. These are all passive, but are crucial to have.

In general, Affliction Warlocks want to get trinkets that line up well with Dark Soul: Misery. These trinkets can have a passive or on-use effect. The stat you want to be increasing is Intellect. The reason you want to increase Intellect is because it drastically increases your overall damage output.

To be successful in 3v3 arena, you need to have all of your pieces of gear to have the Inevitable Demise trait. You will also want either Gutripper or Heed My Call in the second tier.

Below, we list the items that have these traits.

• Notorious Gladiator's Silk Cover;
• Notorious Gladiator's Silk Cover;
• Cowl of Tideborne Omens;
• Notorious Gladiator's Silk Hood;
• Notorious Gladiator's Silk Hood.

• Brood Cleanser's Amice;
• Notorious Gladiator's Silk Mantle;
• Notorious Gladiator's Silk Mantle;
• Honorbound Artificer's Amice;
• Mantle of the Skyterror.

• Vestments of the Afterlife;
• Notorious Gladiator's Silk Vestments;
• Notorious Gladiator's Silk Vestments;
• Notorious Gladiator's Silk Robe;
• Notorious Gladiator's Silk Robe.

Notorious Gladiator's Maledict is absolutely the best trinket you can have. The on-use damage and healing absorption is capable of forcing defensives by itself. This can be used by itself or while you are using your burst rotation to force multiple cooldowns out of enemy teams.

Notorious Gladiator's Safeguard is a mandatory trinket if you think the enemy team can swap to you and kill you. This provides an additional defensive for when you drop to low health. If you do not think a team will swap to you and kill you, you can use replace this one with any of the trinkets below.

Notorious Gladiator's Badge is strong for the Versatility and the on-use Intellect effect. The 2-minute cooldown lines up well with Dark Soul: Misery, and should be used every time you want to use your burst rotation.

Notorious Gladiator's Insignia has a good amount of Versatility on it and has a passive effect. This effect increases your Intellect. This increases your sustained damage.

Enchant Weapon - Quick Navigation is the best weapon enchants. This enchant provides a proc that gives you more Haste. This reduces the cast time of your important spells and results in an increase to your overall damage. It also increases the rate that your DoTs deal damage.

Level	Choices
15	✘ Nightfall	✘ Drain Soul	✔ Deathbolt
30	✔ Writhe in Agony	✔ Absolute Corruption	✘ Siphon Life
45	✔ Demon Skin	✘ Burning Rush	✘ Dark Pact
60	✘ Sow the Seeds	✔ Phantom Singularity	✘ Vile Taint
75	✘ Darkfury	✘ Mortal Coil	✔ Demonic Circle
90	✘ Shadow Embrace	✘ Haunt	✔ Grimoire of Sacrifice
100	✘ Soul Conduit	✘ Creeping Death	✔ Dark Soul: Misery

While the above table provides a generally accurate overview of the viability of talents, some finer points are discussed in the sections that follow, and we recommend you read those for a deeper understanding.

Deathbolt is the best choice in this tier. This gives you a strong, instant spell that is an overall increase to your sustained damage.

Writhe in Agony is the best choice in this tier. This talent will help increase your sustained and spread damage. This also pairs well with the Sudden Onset Azerite Trait.

If you are playing against a team that can dispell curses, Absolute Corruption is the best choice in this tier. This makes your Corruption significantly stronger and is an increase to your spread pressure.

Demon Skin is the best choice in this tier. This defensive talent allows you to passively heal throughout an arena match. This is crucial for your survivability against most teams.

Phantom Singularity is the best choice in this tier. This talent is the best choice because it deals a good amount of damage, as well as healing you for 25% of the damage done.

Demonic Circle is the best choice in this tier. This is a strong talent to have to help you get away from incoming damage, or to reposition with your team.

If you are playing against a team and will not have to kite damage often, Mortal Coil is a better choice. This allows you to crowd control an enemy and also heal for a large amount.

Grimoire of Sacrifice is the best choice in this tier. The abilities that this talent gives your pets makes it the best talent in this tier.

A quick note on pets: Against a team that has multiple magic crowd control for your healer ( Hammer of Justice, Polymorph, Fear), you should sacrifice your Imp for Singe Magic. Against any other composition, you should sacrifice your Felhunter for Spell Lock.

Dark Soul: Misery is the best choice in this tier. This is a very strong offensive burst cooldown.

The first PvP talent tier will give you a choice between Gladiator's Medallion, Relentless, and Adaptation. Gladiator's Medallion is the best choice in this tier. It is great for removing crowd control on you that your healer cannot dispel. You will normally save your trinket for a stun, followed by Demonic Circle: Teleport.

You can choose 3 of the following PvP talents. Each of them has their uses, but some are better for certain strategies than others. The top three choices are the most useful, but can be replaced with other PvP talents, depending on your team's goal.

Demon Armor increases your health and armor by a significant amount. This is a crucial PvP talent because you will likely be the main target for most teams.

Gateway Mastery increases the range of your Demonic Gateway by 20 yards, and reduces the cast time by 30%. It also reduces the time between how often players can take your Demonic Gateway by 15 sec. This is a crucial talent no matter what team you are playing against. This allows your team to avoid incoming damage or reposition more often.

Nether Ward surrounds the caster with a shield that lasts 3 sec, reflecting all harmful spells cast on you. This is a strong talent against classes with magical spells. It is also important to note that this can also reflect interrupts from some melee classes (Demon Hunter, Death Knights or Enhancement Shaman).

Curse of Weakness reduces the target's Physical damage dealt by 25% for 10 sec. This is a talent that should be chosen when playing against melee DPS. If there is only 1 melee DPS on the team, you can replace Rot and Decay for this talent. If there are two, you can replace Nether Ward instead.

Endless Affliction increases the duration of your Unstable Affliction, but the damage remains the same. This talent is helpful versus teams with multiple interrupts, as it gives you more time to use Unstable Affliction. You can replace Nether Ward with this talent. Note: With the Conflict and Strife Azerite Essence, you get this as a baseline ability.

Racial bonuses can provide interesting PvP benefits. Here are the best races to choose for each faction. The races are sorted from highest impact in arena to lowest. However, all races below have their own unique ways of making an impact in a PvP match.

The Orc racial bonus ( Hardiness) is great for reducing the duration of stuns on you. This is absolutely the best Horde racial to have if you are primarily focusing on PvP. In addition to Hardiness, Orcs also have the Blood Fury racial. This is off the global cooldown and should be used when you are using your burst rotation.

The Undead racial bonus ( Will of the Forsaken) removes any Charm, Fear or Sleep effect from you. This is a great racial versus specializations, like Destruction Warlocks, that are able to fear you constantly throughout an arena match. It is important to note that this does share a 30-second cooldown with Gladiator's Medallion, so it is advised to only use it when you do not want to waste Gladiators Medallion.

The Troll racial bonus ( Berserking) grants you a large amount of Haste. You should activate this ability right before you are using important cooldowns or to cast crowd control faster. Another racial to note is Da Voodoo Shuffle. This significantly reduces the duration of slows on you and will help when kiting enemy players that are focusing you.

The Human racial bonus ( Every Man for Himself) is a great way to get out of stuns. If you think you will be the focus target versus teams with multiple stuns, this race allows you to play Relentless. This will help increase your overall survivability. It is also important to note that Humans also have The Human Spirit. This increases your secondary stats (Haste, Critical Strike, Mastery, Versatility). This is another beneficial reason to play Human.

The most important part of being a Void Elf is the Preternatural Calm racial. This causes your spell casts to no longer be delayed when taking damage. This is great, because even when you are the primary target, you will still be able to deal maximum damage and cast crowd control. Spatial Rift can also be mentioned, because the teleport it provides gives you additional mobility and will help your survivability.

The Dwarf racial bonus ( Stoneform) removes Poison, Disease, Magic, and bleed effects. In addition to this, it reduces all Physical damage taken by 10%. This racial can make a large impact versus teams that have multiple Bleed or Magical damage over time abilities. It is also important to note that this racial lines up with the cooldown from Maledict trinkets and can be used to remove the absorption that is placed on you from Maledict. Another example is removing bleeds versus Assassination Rogues or Feral Druids that are focusing you. This will significantly slow down the damage being dealt to you.

The Gnome racial bonus ( Escape Artist) removes any movement speed reduction effects on you. With only a 1-minute cooldown, this can be used both defensively or offensively. You can use this to help kite incoming damage or use it to remove slows on you while chasing down an enemy. Another racial that Gnome provides is Expansive Mind. This will increase your maximum Mana, which helps with not running out of resources.

The Affliction Warlock has two roles when in an Arena: keep applying spread pressure and survive. Affliction Warlocks are powerful because they have strong AoE damage and the ability to crowd control enemy teams. Most of your damage will come from your instant-cast DoTs ( Agony and Corruption) and you will score kills with Unstable Affliction. What makes this specialization tricky is determining when to use your Unstable Afflictions. It is important to note that healers can dispel this and you should try to use this spell when they do not have a dispel at the ready. If you are in a situation where you have 5 Soul Shards and the enemy healer is able to dispel, use Unstable Affliction on multiple enemies and not just one. You will survive by using Fears on enemies. You can also use your Demonic Gateway to create distance between you and foes.

Have a plan for who you will be mainly using your crowd control on. Affliction Warlocks are able to use their main crowd control, Fear or Mortal Coil.

You should also use Create Soulwell to create Healthstones for you and your teammates.

The opener refers to your team's opening crowd control chain and damage done as soon as you get out of the gates. The main goal in the opener is to force your enemies to use their cooldowns.

If the enemy healer uses their trinket in the opener, they are in trouble. In the opener, Affliction Warlocks should focus on applying their DoTs to every enemy on the other team.

This is the rotation you should use on your target at the beginning of the game.

1. Cast Demonic Gateway from your pillar to another part of the map.
2. Use Demonic Circle (if talented into it) and place it behind a pillar.
3. Apply and maintain Agony on all enemies.
   • Agony is your biggest source of damage and spread pressure.
   • It is very important to keep it active on all enemies, including pets, at all times.
   • This helps you generate Soul Shards much quicker.
4. Use Concentrated Flame if you are using the Major Essence.
5. Apply and maintain Corruption on all enemies.
6. Once you have Agony and Corruption on all enemies, start using Drain Life to extend the durations of them.
7. Once you have at least 3-4 Soul Shards and the enemy healer in crowd control, you will be able to use your burst rotation.

The best talent setup for Affliction Warlocks is the "spread pressure" build for strong spread damage. It is important to note that you should be focusing on spread pressure rather than single target. With that said, the following is how you will burst if you have crowd control on the enemy healer and are trying to secure a kill.

1. Use Dark Soul: Misery.
2. Refresh Agony.
3. Refresh Corruption.
4. Use Concentrated Flame if you are using the Major Essence.
5. If the enemy healer cannot dispel, do the following on your kill target:
   1. Use Phantom Singularity.
   2. Cast Unstable Affliction.
   3. Cast Unstable Affliction.
   4. Use Summon Darkglare.
   5. Use Deathbolt.
   6. Channel Drain Life if you have 50 stacks of Inevitable Demise.
6. Do the following if the enemy healer can dispel:
   1. Use Unstable Affliction on multiple enemies.
   2. When the enemy healer dispels, cast Unstable Affliction on your kill target.
   3. Cast Unstable Affliction on your kill target.
   4. Use Deathbolt.
   5. Use Summon Darkglare.
   6. Channel Drain Life if you have 50 stacks of Inevitable Demise.

Sustained damage is damage you do when your burst cooldowns are not available.

1. Maintain Agony on all enemies.
   • Never let this fall off any enemies at any point of the Arena match.
2. Maintain Corruption on all enemies.
3. Channel Drain Life.
4. Cast Unstable Affliction on a single enemy if the enemy healer cannot dispel, or on multiple enemies if they can.
5. Cast Shadow Bolt as a filler.
6. Use Concentrated Flame if you are using the Major Essence.
7. Channel Drain Life if you have 50 stacks of Inevitable Demise.

Unending Resolve is your primary defensive ability and should be used if your healer has no defensive cooldowns and you are at high health. You will not be interrupted while this is active, so you can use this time to cast Fear to stay alive or Unstable Affliction for damage.

Dark Pact is a great defensive, but it comes with a price. You have to make sure that you use this ability at high health or classes like Warrior will take advantage of their Execute. Besides that drawback, this will help you survive against teams with high sustained and burst damage.

Healthstone should be used when you are at very low health and your healer does not have defensive cooldowns to keep you alive.

Demonic Circle, if talented, should be placed away from the enemy team, but close to your healer. Make sure you coordinate when you will be using this, so your team can position themselves accordingly. You will want to use this when the enemy team is using their offensive cooldowns and you need to create distance between you and them. Use the same concept when you need to take Demonic Gateway.

Curse of Weakness should be used on a melee DPS to prevent incoming Physical damage.

Curse of Tongues should be used on a caster DPS to prevent or slow down incoming spell damage.

Now that you have the correct talents and understand your damage rotation, it is time to step into the arena with your team. Affliction Warlocks do not have much burst damage, but if they get a chance to cast, they have the ability to rot entire teams.

In 2v2 Arena, there are not many options. Your primary goal is to get a full Fear on the enemy healer and use multiple Unstable Afflictions on the enemy DPS. If you cannot fear the enemy healer, try to make them use their dispel. This will allow you to cast and apply DoTs, without having to worry about them being dispelled. It is very important that you maintain all of your DoTs on as many targets as you can. Agony should not expire. Make sure to cast Unstable Afflictions on multiple targets so the enemy healer cannot dispel them all at once.

Here is a list of the best team compositions for 2v2:

• Affliction Warlock + Holy Paladin;
• Affliction Warlock + Restoration Shaman;
• Affliction Warlock + Restoration Druid;
• Affliction Warlock + Discipline Priest.

Your role in 3v3 is similar to 2v2 Arena. Make sure to maintain your DoTs on all enemies, including pets. It is best to be playing with another caster, so you are not the only person being interrupted. Try to use your burst rotation when the enemy team does not have any interrupts. Use Fear on the enemy healer and have one of your teammates stun your kill target. It is important to note that Fear should also be used to help your teammates. If you or a teammate is struggling to stay alive, use Fear on an enemy DPS without a trinket. If they both have trinkets, use it on whichever enemy you want. Make sure to cast Unstable Afflictions on multiple targets so the enemy healer cannot dispel them all at once.

Here is a list of the best team compositions for 3v3:

• WLS (Affliction Warlock + Arms Warrior + Holy Paladin/Restoration Shaman);
• FLS (Affliction Warlock + Feral Druid + Restoration Shaman);
• Affliction Warlock + Elemental Shaman + Restoration Druid/ Holy Paladin;
• Shadowplay (Affliction Warlock + Shadow Priest + Holy Paladin/Restoration Druid).

Macros are crucial to be successful in PvP. They allow players to use abilities on enemies without having to target them. This helps increase overall damage/healing and general awareness in the arena. Here are a few macros that all Affliction Warlocks can benefit from.

• #showtooltip Fear
• /cast [target=arena1] Fear

Using this macro will cast Fear on arena enemy 1. This makes it easier to crowd control an enemy while staying focused on your target. If you want macros for the second and third enemies, simply change the arena1 to arena2 or arena3.

• #showtooltip Fear
• /cast [target=focus] Fear

If you find that you do not have much room on your action bars, you can use a focus macro. This is much simpler to use than the arena123 macro. Put an enemy on focus and this macro will cast Fear on that player while you are still focused on your target.

• #showtooltip
• /cast [target=focus] Spell Lock

This macro will use Spell Lock on whichever enemy you have on focus. Because you will be primarily using Spell Lock on the enemy healer, you should only need this focus macro.

• #showtooltip Banish
• /cast [@mouseover] Banish

This makes it so you can use Banish on another Warlock's demon or an elemental pet, while still damaging your main target.

• #showtooltip Corruption
• /cast [@mouseover,harm] Corruption; [harm] Corruption

This makes it so you can use Corruption on any enemy without having to target them. Mouseover macros are not required, but they make it much more efficient than clicking your targets.

• #showtooltip Agony
• /cast [@mouseover,harm] Agony; [harm] Agony

This makes it so you can use Agony on any enemy without having to target them. Mouseover macros are not required, but they make it much more efficient than clicking your targets.

• #showtooltip Unstable Affliction
• /cast [@mouseover,harm] Unstable Affliction; [harm] Unstable Affliction

This makes it so you can use Unstable Affliction on any enemy without having to target them. Mouseover macros are not required, but they make it much more efficient than clicking your targets.