Affliction Warlock guide

Caster DPS. Affliction stacks Corruption, Bane of Agony, Siphon Life and a Curse, then channels Forever's Wrack, which deals shadow damage and makes your other shadow DoTs tick 100% faster while you channel it. Soul Siphon boosts Wrack and drains per active Affliction effect, and Nightfall procs instant Shadow Bolts.

Affliction Warlock best in slot gear · Talent calculator · Talent builds · PvE guide · PvP guide · DPS sim

Stat priority

1. Hit (to cap)
2. Spell Power
3. Shadow Damage
4. Critical Strike
5. Stamina
6. Intellect
7. Spirit

Opener

1. Curse of the Elements: Or Curse of Recklessness/Weakness if assigned
2. Corruption: Instant with Improved Corruption
3. Bane of Agony: Banes stack with your Curse in Forever
4. Siphon Life: If talented

Single target

1. Corruption: Keep up
2. Bane of Agony: Keep up; Bane of Doom instead on very long fights
3. Siphon Life: Keep up
4. Wrack: Channel filler; makes your other shadow DoTs tick 100% faster and buffed by Soul Siphon
5. Shadow Bolt: Only on Nightfall Shadow Trance procs
6. Drain Soul: Finish targets with it to gather Soul Shards
7. Life Tap: Convert health into mana while moving

Several targets

1. Corruption: Tab-DoT several targets
2. Bane of Agony: Spread on high health mobs
3. Rain of Fire: Big packs
4. Hellfire: Close-range AoE if a healer supports you

Cooldowns

1. Amplify Curse: 50% stronger Bane of Agony
2. Death Coil: Horror plus self heal
3. Howl of Terror: AoE fear

Key talents

• Improved Corruption
• Suppression
• Malevolence
• Improved Drains
• Amplify Curse
• Nightfall
• Siphon Life
• Soul Siphon
• Shadow Mastery
• Pandemic
• Wrack

What Forever changed

Wrack, the tier 7 Affliction talent, is a new DoT that makes your other shadow DoTs tick 100% faster while you channel it, and Soul Siphon, Improved Drains, Nightfall and Fel Concentration all work with it. New talents include Improved Drains (up to 20% more from your drains), Pandemic (twice the crit bonus for your DoTs and drains at 3/3) and Malevolence (up to 5% more Shadow crit chance). Curses and Banes are now separate, so you can run Curse of the Elements and Bane of Agony on the same target.

Tips

• Suppression gives 5% hit and 20% less threat at 5/5, and you'll want both in dungeons and raids.
• Improved Corruption only makes Corruption instant at 5/5; each rank takes 0.4 sec off the cast.
• Soul Siphon scales Wrack and your drains by up to 36%, so get all your DoTs up before channelling.
• Fel Concentration gives Wrack and drains a 70% chance at 3/3 to avoid interruption from damage.

Other Warlock specs: Demonology, Destruction

Data from the WoW Forever client, build 1.60.1.70938, extracted 2026-11-13.