Affliction Warlock PvP Rotation and Playstyle — The War Within (11.1.5)

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 avoid damage through clever use of mobility. Most of your damage will come from your DoTs ( Agony, Corruption, Unstable Affliction). You will score kills with Malefic Rapture and burst from Shadow Bolt. What makes this specialization tricky is finding time to deal damage or cast while trying to stay alive. You will survive by using your mobility in the form of Demonic Circle, Demonic Gateway to avoid your enemies. Additionally, Howl of Terror and Mortal Coil are ways to peel for yourself.

Understanding how to generate and spend Soul Shards is crucial to maximizing your damage as an Affliction Warlock. Before going over the rotations, this section will talk about the basics.

Agony damage will sometimes generate 1 Soul Shard. Additionally, due to the Shadow of Death, you gain 3 Soul Shards when Soul Rot is used.

So now that you know how to generate Soul Shards, here is how you will spend them:

• Malefic Rapture costs 1 Soul Shard and deals damage to all enemies that have your DoTs on them. This should be used when you have multiple DoTs on multiple enemies to maximize your spread damage. Ideally, press this when you have Corruption, Agony, and Unstable Affliction up on all targets in the Arena. Remember that Phantom Singularity and Soul Rot also contribute to Malefic Rapture's damage. Keep in mind that this ability has a 100-yard range and will not affect enemies out of the line of sight.
• Soulburn costs 1 Soul Shard and is mainly used to empower Healthstone, Demonic Gateway and Demonic Circle.

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

The opener refers to your team's opening sequence of abilities as soon as you get out of the gates and enter combat. The main goal in the opener as an Affliction Warlock is to maintain max distance while applying your DoT effects.

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 and place it behind a pillar close to your Demonic Gateway.
3. Apply Curse of Tongues to casters and healers if you have Soul Shards.
4. Apply Curse of Exhaustion to melee if you have Soul Shards.
5. Apply and maintain Corruption and Agony on all enemies.
   • Agony is an important source of damage and spread pressure.
   • It is very important to keep it active on all enemies, including pets, at all times because it generates Soul Shards.
6. Cast Unstable Affliction on your primary target.

The best way to generate pressure and create win conditions is to maximize your spread damage output. It is important to note that you should be focusing on single target as this build while trying to maintain Corruption and Agony on other targets. With that said, the following is how you will play out your burst window.

1. Apply Curse of Tongues to casters and healers if you have Soul Shards.
2. Apply Curse of Exhaustion to melee if you have Soul Shards.
3. Apply Corruption to all targets.
4. Apply Agony to all targets.
5. Cast Unstable Affliction to kill target.
6. Cast Haunt on kill target.
7. Cast Soul Rot.
8. Use Phantom Singularity.
9. Use Summon Darkglare.
10. Cast Shadow Bolt if you have a Nightfall proc.
11. Use Malefic Rapture until all Soul Shards have been spent.
12. Cast Shadow Bolt as a filler.

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

1. Apply Curse of Tongues to casters and healers if you have Soul Shards.
2. Apply Curse of Exhaustion to melee if you have Soul Shards.
3. Maintain Agony on all enemies.
   • Never let this fall off any enemies at any point of the Arena match.
   • Additionally, Agony stacks up to 18 and deals less damage at 1 stack if it is reapplied. Maintaining it will keep it at 18 stacks!
4. Maintain Corruption on all enemies.
5. Cast Unstable Affliction on kill target.
6. Cast Haunt on kill target.
7. Use Soul Rot to deal spread damage.
8. Use Phantom Singularity on your primary kill target. This increases your spread damage and will heal you for some of the damage that is dealt. Be mindful, as this can break CC every time it ticks around the target.
9. Cast Shadow Bolt if you have a Nightfall proc.
10. Cast Malefic Rapture when you have Soul Shards and have as many DoTs on as many enemies as you can. This is where the pressure from Affliction Warlocks will come from.
11. Cast Shadow Bolt as a filler.

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.

Healthstone should be used when you are at very low health and your healer does not have defensive cooldowns to keep you alive. This can be empowered by using it together with Soulburn

Demonic Circle should be placed away from the enemy team but close to your healer. Make sure you coordinate when you are 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.

Soul Rip is a new talent and should be used when melee connect on you and have activated their offensive cooldowns. This will reduce their damage while also reducing their healing received, allowing you to counterattack.

Curses allow you to weaken a target based on which curse you use on them. Effectively using a curse on an enemy could prevent a lot of damage that the target will deal. If you take Amplify Curse, remember that their effects are significantly improved. Here are the curses that you have and the best time to use them:

• Curse of Weakness increases the time between the enemy's attacks. This should be used on a melee DPS to prevent incoming Physical damage. However, this is a low-priority spell and should only be used when moving when DoT maintenance is not required. This is the best spell to use against a Warrior's Spell Reflection as it has no adverse effect on you.
• Curse of Tongues increases the cast time of all spells the enemy casts. This should be used on a caster DPS to prevent or slow down incoming spell damage.
• Curse of Exhaustion reduces the target's movement speed. This is a very flexible Curse and can be used to slow down melee DPS or slow down enemy healers to make them easier to crowd control.