Affliction Warlock DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities (Legion 7.3.2)

Table of Contents

• +Introduction
  • 1. Class Overview
  • 2. Patch 7.3 Changes
  • 3. Patch 7.2.5 Changes
  • 4. Strengths
  • 5. Weaknesses
  • 6. Viability in the Current Patch
  • 7. Contents
  • 8. ChangeLog
• +Easy Mode
  • 1. The Basics
  • 2. Talent Choice
  • 3. Stat Choice
  • 4. Basic Rotation
  • 5. ChangeLog
• +Spell Summary
  • 1. Spell Summary
  • 2. Main Resources
  • 3. Basic Abilities
    • 3.1. Damage Over Time Spells (DoTs)
    • 3.2. Direct Damage Spells
    • 3.3. Demonic Summons
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Builds and Talents
  • 1. Talent Choices
  • 2. Talent Cheat Sheets
    • 2.1. Raid Encounters
      • 2.1.1. Single Target
      • 2.1.2. 2 Targets
      • 2.1.3. 3 Targets
    • 2.2. Mythic+
  • 3. Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents
  • 4. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents
  • 5. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents
  • 6. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents
  • 7. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents
  • 8. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents
  • 9. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents
  • 10. ChangeLog
• +Artifact Traits and Relics
  • 1. Artifact Progression — First 35 Points
    • 1.1. Early Point Investment
    • 1.2. Second Golden Trait
    • 1.3. Third Golden Trait
    • 1.4. Final Point Investment
  • 2. Patch 7.2: 35+ Trait Path
  • 3. Relic Choice
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Netherlight Crucible Relic Paths
  • 1. General Optimization Advice
  • 2. Tier 2 Upgrade Priority
  • 3. Tier 3 Upgrade Priority
  • 4. ChangeLog
• ×Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities
  • 1. Playstyle
    • 1.1. Single Target Rotation
    • 1.2. 2-Target Priority List
      • 1.2.1. 3-Target Priority List
    • 1.3. Mythic+
  • 2. Important Notes
    • 2.1. DoT Usage (7.2.5)
    • 2.2. Reap Usage
    • 2.3. Unstable Affliction Usage
      • 2.3.1. 2-3 Targets
    • 2.4. Soul Shard Sniping
    • 2.5. Pet Choice
    • 2.6. Agony
    • 2.7. "Nightfall" — Shard Generation Explained
    • 2.8. "Pandemic" — Learning to Efficiently Refresh DoTs
    • 2.9. Defensive Utility
    • 2.10. Doomguard and Infernal
  • 3. Core Concepts
    • 3.1. DoT Uptimes & Shard Expenditure
    • 3.2. Movement Management
      • 3.2.1. Quiet Movement
  • 4. Opening Sequence
  • 5. ChangeLog
• +Stat Priority
  • 1. Basics
  • 2. Stat Weights
    • 2.1. Why is Mastery Good?
  • 3. Statistics Explanations
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Gems, Enchants, and Consumables
  • 1. Gems
  • 2. Enchants
  • 3. Consumables
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Macros and Addons
  • 1. Addons
    • 1.1. Generic Addons for Warlocks
    • 1.2. ElvUI
    • 1.3. Weak Auras
    • 1.4. Boss Mods
      • 1.4.1. BigWigs Bossmods
      • 1.4.2. Deadly Boss Mods
    • 1.5. Name Plates
      • 1.5.1. KUI Nameplates
      • 1.5.2. TidyPlates
    • 1.6. Damage Meters
      • 1.6.1. Skada
      • 1.6.2. Details
    • 1.7. Extra AddOns
      • 1.7.1. Mik's Scrolling Battle Text
      • 1.7.2. DeathNote
      • 1.7.3. Doom CooldownPulse
      • 1.7.4. Angry Assignments
  • 2. Macros
    • 2.1. Warlock Macros
      • 2.1.1. Pet Macros
      • 2.1.2. Soulstone Mouseover
      • 2.1.3. Demonic Circle
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Gear, Legendaries, and Best in Slot
  • 1. Tier 21 Set Bonuses
  • 2. Legendary Recommendations for Antorus Gear
  • 3. Tier 20 Set Bonuses
  • 4. Trinket List
  • 5. Best in Slot List
  • 6. Evaluating Upgrades Using Stat Weights
  • 7. Legendaries
    • 7.1. Legendary Quick Reference
  • 8. Loot Competition
  • 9. ChangeLog

General Information

On this page, we list your Affliction Warlock core abilities and how they should be used together (rotation) in World of Warcraft Legion 7.3.2. We also explain when to use your various cooldowns. Then, we go deeper and present all the subtleties that you will need to know if you want to excel at playing an Affliction Warlock.

The other pages of our Affliction Warlock guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.

About Our Author and Reviewer

This guide has been written by Furty, who has an illustrious history in the World of Warcraft raiding scene and race for World First. He has been a member of guilds such as Serenity, Midwinter, and many more, and is currently raiding in Future. He plays most classes at the highest level. You can follow him on Twitter and watch him play on Twitch.

This guide has been reviewed and approved by Deepshades, a top raider who plays in Method; you can his stream on Twitch and follow him on Twitter.

1. Playstyle

1.1. Single Target Rotation

When using the single target talent build listed in our talents page, the rotation is very simple:

1. Maintain your DoT effects ( Agony and Corruption) on the boss.
2. Cast Phantom Singularity (if talented).
3. Apply Unstable Affliction to the boss.
   • If you have 3+ Soul Shards, apply Unstable Affliction twice to the boss.
   • If your Soul Conduit is repeatedly proccing at 4-5 Soul Shards, it is fine to apply several Unstable Afflictions until you reach 3 Soul Shards, up to the maximum of 5.
   • If you have 1-2 Soul Shards, apply Unstable Affliction once and do not cast Reap Souls.
4. Cast Reap Souls if you applied 2 or more Unstable Afflictions or your Reap stacks are above 4.
5. Drain Soul until Unstable Affliction expires.
6. Life Tap if under 40% Mana.
7. Repeat from Step #1.

Keep in the mind the above is an actual rotation, not a priority list. This results in very high single target DPS and is extraordinarily easy to execute.

For more information on your opening sequence, please refer to our dedicated section.

1.2. 2-Target Priority List

When using the 2-target talent build listed in our talents page you should perform the following priority list:

1. Maintain your DoT effects ( Agony and Corruption) on both targets.
2. Cast Phantom Singularity (if talented).
3. Maintain Unstable Affliction on both targets as much as possible.
4. Cast Reap Souls at 2-4 stacks or when applying Unstable Afflictions.
5. Drain Soul as a filler.

You will not have many free Global Cooldowns to cast Drain Soul using this build.

1.2.1. 3-Target Priority List

When using the 3-target talent build listed in our talents page you should perform the following priority list:

1. Maintain your DoT effects ( Agony and Corruption) on all 3 targets.
2. Cast Phantom Singularity (if talented).
3. Maintain Unstable Affliction on all 3 targets as much as possible.
4. Cast Reap Souls at 2-4 stacks or when several Unstable Afflictions are out.
5. Drain Soul as a filler.

You will not have many free Global Cooldowns to cast Drain Soul using this build.

1.3. Mythic+

When using the Mythic+ talent build listed in our talents page you should perform the following priority list on trash:

1. Maintain Agony to up to 5 targets.
2. Cast Reap Souls at 2-4 stacks.
3. Cast Seed of Corruption.

On bosses, you can follow this rotation:

1. Maintain your DoT effects ( Agony and Corruption).
2. Apply Unstable Affliction twice.
3. Cast Reap Souls.
4. Drain Soul until Unstable Affliction expires.
5. Repeat.

2. Important Notes

2.1. DoT Usage (7.2.5)

In previous tiers many Affliction players would avoid applying DoT effects to short lived adds, instead choosing to focus on wholly single target damage via Malefic Grasp. In 7.2.5, however, we have received a 20% boost to our damage across the board. Malefic Grasp has also received significant nerfs. This encourages us to multi-DoT whenever possible to ensure maximum numerical output.

2.2. Reap Usage

Reap Souls is a powerful cooldown that increases damage and doubles the effect of Ulthalesh, the Deadwind Harvester's traits for 5 seconds per soul consumed. Much of your gameplay and damage is dependent on your ability to correctly make efficient use of Reap Souls. You should track your stacks at all times. Great times to make use of Reap are as follows:

• When you have 4+ Soul Shards;
• You have 2-4 stacks of Reap
• cooldown windows;
• to push damage checks and maximize priority target damage;
• when you have other damage increases active, such as Soul Harvest or high stacks of Wrath of Consumption;
• on multitarget situations where you are quickly generating Compounding Horror stacks;
• with Bloodlust.

Regardless of what Tier 2 talent you use, the correct way to go into a usage of Reap Souls is with 4 Soul Shards or more and 2-4 stacks of Reap. You should enter your Reap Souls as follows:

1. Cast Unstable Affliction.
2. Cast Unstable Affliction.
3. Cast Reap Souls.

If you are talented into Contagion, you should now follow the normal priority system while maintaining 100% uptime on Unstable Affliction for the Contagion damage. If you are talented into Absolute Corruption you should immediately dump the rest of your Soul Shards into Unstable Affliction, then follow the normal priority.

2.3. Unstable Affliction Usage

As discussed in the Action Priority List, there are 2 ways to use your Unstable Affliction depending on what talents you have chosen.

• If you are talented into Contagion, your goal should be to maintain 100% uptime on Unstable Affliction. As long as Unstable Affliction is active on your target, you will maintain a permanent 18% increase to damage done to that target.
• If you are talented into Absolute Corruption or Empowered Life Tap it is most efficient to dump all your Soul Shards on consecutive casts of Unstable Affliction while under the influence of beneficial procs. This allows for the highest amount of compounding damage and burst. This is especially effective on short lived targets, and you will regain a Soul Shard if the target dies while Unstable Affliction is still active.

No matter what talents you choose, it is best to focus all your Unstable Affliction casts into a single target rather than trying to multi dot using this spell.

2.3.1. 2-3 Targets

If you are playing with Contagion you should try to maintain Unstable Affliction on all 2-3 targets as much as possible for the damage buff. If you Shard cap trying to maintain all 3 DoT effects you can let your Siphon Life fall off (if you have this talent) while you put out more Unstable Affliction casts. This type of playstyle is very focus intensive; if you are struggling, try Absolute Corruption instead.

2.4. Soul Shard Sniping

Drain Soul generates a Soul Shard if the target dies during the channelled effect. You should take advantage of this whenever possible to generate additional Soul Shards. It is especially helpful in raid encounters featuring trivial adds with short lifespans (e.g. they are not worth applying DoTs to), as they can be used as fodder for additional Unstable Affliction casts. A good example is the Voidlings on Star Augur Etraeus.

2.5. Pet Choice

Use Summon Doomguard as your standard pet if you are talented into Grimoire of Supremacy.

You should sacrifice Summon Felhunter if you are talented into Grimoire of Sacrifice.

2.6. Agony

Agony is by far your most important spell, as it is the sole source of Soul Shard generation in the regular rotation. It also deals very high sustained damage. The trade off, however, is that Agony has a lengthy ramp up period before it reaches full effectiveness. This means that if you let Agony drop on one of your primary targets for any reason you are going to be hemorrhaging DPS. Keeping careful track of your active Agony casts is the single most important priority of this specialization, and also the most punishing failure if you mess this up.

2.7. "Nightfall" — Shard Generation Explained

Every time Agony ticks, a hidden accumulator is incremented. When it exceeds 1, it generates a shard and rolls over the remainder to start the next one. The added value per tick is currently 0.16 on average, with some variance. Each added amount is divided by the square root of the number of Agonies you currently have active. When you have no Agonies out, the accumulator is cleared. When you next cast one, it is reset to a random value from 0 to 0.99.

2.8. "Pandemic" — Learning to Efficiently Refresh DoTs

Pandemic is a hidden mechanic that allows you to refresh certain timed effects early without penalty. You can refresh your DoT effects when they have less than 30% of their maximum duration remaining, and the new DoT's maximum duration will be added with the remaining duration of the current DoT.

For example, if you cast a fresh Agony while your current one has a duration of 3.5s, your new Agony will now have a duration of 21.5 seconds.

All your DoTs benefit from Pandemic with the exception of Unstable Affliction. Instead, reapplications of Unstable Affliction are folded into the existing debuffs, compounding the damage. Think of multiple Unstable Affliction applications as all separate debuffs, even though it shows up as a single debuff. They are all applied and expire independently of each other, but when their durations overlap they deal cumulative damage (this is a somewhat confusing concept — TLDR: if you overwrite your current Unstable Affliction casts you do not lose any damage no matter when you refresh).

The Pandemic values for safe refreshes for your other DoTs are as follows:

• Agony: 5.4 seconds
• Corruption: 4.2 seconds
• Siphon Life: 4.5 seconds

Some AddOns can provide helpful Pandemic tracking so you do not have to remember it on the fly.

2.9. Defensive Utility

Take full advantage of your defensive spells. The Tier 5 talents, in particular, offer an array of movement and defensive cooldowns. In many situations, the mobility advantage from Demonic Circle or Burning Rush gives you more survivability than Dark Pact. Unending Resolve is a solid damage reduction that can be used any time you feel threatened.

2.10. Doomguard and Infernal

You should use Summon Doomguard as your primary DPS cooldown for single target. Whenever 2+ targets will be present for the majority of the duration, you should instead use Summon Infernal.

3. Core Concepts

Affliction is an extremely predictable specialization, with a focus on planning and forethought. Great spatial awareness is required to simultaneously juggle multiple debuff clusters of varying duration on several targets. While this specialization is quite simple to perform on a single target, the concentration required goes up exponentially as more targets are added to the mix. Focus on perfecting these 2 core concepts to achieve the best possible results from this specialization:

• DoT uptimes & Soul Shard expenditure;
• movement management.

Managing movement is a fundamental skill shared by all the caster classes in World of Warcraft, however, it still pays dividends to have a proper understanding of how to perfectly execute movement. This is particularly true in Legion, as many of the raid encounters involve high movement.

3.1. DoT Uptimes & Shard Expenditure

This largely comes down to combining all the knowledge from the earlier parts of the guide and applying it in a practical environment. Maintaining all your DoTs and properly handling Unstable Affliction when talented into Contagion are important parts of this specialization.

3.2. Movement Management

While it is difficult to describe the best ways to position and move during a dungeon or raid encounter, it is essential to your success as an Affliction Warlock. Since all of your DoTs (with the exception of Unstable Affliction) are instant casts, it is very efficient to plan your refreshes during movement. If you have recently refreshed your DoTs, you can also cast Life Tap on the move to regenerate Mana. Demonic Gateway can be highly effective on many encounters, and is under appreciated by many players and raid groups. Think of Demonic Gateway as a raid cooldown that can instantly teleport your entire raid group 40 yards, and the potential this ability holds quickly becomes clear. Ask your group if they want Demonic Gateway anywhere specific; if not used for your strategy, use it instead as a personal cooldown. Finally, always try to position yourself in a location central to fight movement. For example, if the boss is being moved in a circle, try to stay on the inside of the kite path to ensure minimal movement.

3.2.1. Quiet Movement

Many players will unconsciously move during fights, despite it being unnecessary. For example, sometimes the boss or adds will be moved by the tank a couple yards, and though you are still in range to cast, you subconsciously mirror that movement, costing you global cooldowns. Consciously work to "quiet" your movement, and reduce unnecessary movement to a minimum. The best way to see this in action is to take a video of your raid, then watch yourself play. Most players will be surprised by the amount of wasted movement they commit. When you are forced to move, do not forget to use your instant casts, and make your path as direct and decisive as possible.

4. Opening Sequence

1. Use Potion of Prolonged Power.
2. Apply Agony.
3. Apply Corruption.
4. Apply Siphon Life (if talented).
5. Cast Phantom Singularity (if talented).
6. Cast Unstable Affliction twice.
7. Activate Reap Souls.
8. Channel Drain Soul.

5. ChangeLog

+ show all entries - show only 10 entries

• 29 Aug. 2017: Trimmed down some mentions of Siphon Life.
• 28 Aug. 2017: Added additional context to Phantom Singularity usage.
• 13 Jun. 2017: Updated to reflect talent changes. Removed all mentions of Soul Effigy. Opening sequence updated.
• 27 Mar. 2017: No changes needed for Patch 7.2.
• 07 Mar. 2017: Updated single target rotation and opener to be in line with new recommended talent build.
• 13 Jan. 2017: Expanded on the single target rotation.
• 09 Jan. 2017: Fully updated for 7.1.5 - new rotation section, opening sequence, updates to various sections, and added a "Shard Sniping" section as Drain Soul is now baseline.
• 12 Dec. 2016: Major update to Reap Souls usage and Opening Sequence.
• 25 Oct. 2016: Updated Action Priority List to more clearly illustrate how to effectively deal Area-of-Effect damage (while taking into account Patch 7.1 changes).
• 14 Oct. 2016: Updated Shard calculation for Soul Effigy.
• 05 Sep. 2016: Simplified rotation by adding checkboxes to hide or reveal specific lines (cooldown, talents, AoE, etc.).
• 29 Aug. 2016: Updated for Legion's launch.
• 18 Jul. 2016: Updated for the Legion pre-patch.