Affliction Warlock PvP Talents and Builds — Midnight Pre-Patch (12.0)

This is the standard build for Affliction Warlocks in PvP, which can be used as a general setup.

• This build takes several talents which increase the damage dealt by Shadow Bolt.
• The Warlock talent tree has plenty of defensive talents, such as Dark Pact, which helps make Warlocks tankier than they have been in the past.
• Additionally, Shard Instability allows for instant Unstable Affliction casts for some good single-target damage.
• Haunt, in addition to the Shadow Bolt damage increases from talents, gives Affliction some very strong instant burst damage.

You can choose 3 of the following PvP talents. The two mandatory choices are the most essential, with the third being switched out depending on the matchup.

Jinx causes your curse abilities to cost a Soul Shard, but also applies Corruption and Agony. This talent is mandatory to help lower the amount of globals you need to maintain your DoT effects.

Bloodstones

Healthstone

Bloodstone

Rot and Decay causes your Shadow Bolt, Drain Life and Drain Soul abilities to extend the duration of your DoTs on the target. This talent helps to reduce the globals required to maintain your DoT effects.

Impish Instincts reduces the cooldown of your Demonic Circle: Teleport by 3 seconds when you take Physical damage with an internal cooldown of 5 seconds. This in synergy with Abyss Walker makes this PvP talent a very good pick against melee teams who target you.

Nether Ward allows you to reflect all magical spells for the next 3 seconds. This is a good option vs double caster teams where you might not need Impish Instincts.