PvE Affliction Warlock

PvE Affliction Warlock

Affliction Warlocks in Mists of Pandaria Classic are damage-over-time specialists with some powerful new tools for managing their DoTs. They scale well over the course of the expansion and are expected to dominate the damage meters in the later phases. In this guide, I’ll cover everything you need to build, gear, and play your Affliction Warlock through all of the endgame PvE content in MoP Classic. You can navigate to other sections of the guide using the menu below.

Changes in Mists of Pandaria

Warlocks in Mists of Pandaria are widely regarded as one of the best examples of class design in all of World of Warcraft, and for good reason! The expansion brings each of the class’s specializations back to basics while also filling in gaps in terms of their mechanics. For Affliction, that means the focus is heavily on your DoTs, which are now easier to spread or reapply with the addition of Soul Swap. You also have more freedom to refresh them sooner thanks to your Pandemic passive, which opens the door to further optimizing your DoT damage through snapshotting. (If you don’t know what snapshotting is, it’s covered on the Rotations & Cooldowns page of this guide.)

In many ways, the Aff Lock will still feel familiar if you played it in Cataclysm. The Soul Shard mechanic is still there along with your powerful demon summons and strong group utility.

Your mobility will be stronger than ever with Burning Rush, a new talent that lets you sprint indefinitely – although it drains your health to do so. You also have your Demonic Circle, and you can even spec into Kil’jaeden’s Cunning for the ability to spam your main filler spell on the go.

Keep in mind that we will see class tuning from Patch 5.4.8 right from the get-go in MoP Classic. This will make the early phases play out a little differently than they did in the original Mists of Pandaria. Many old guides and data sets from the original version of the expansion will no longer be accurate for this reason.

affliction warlock specialization window

Strengths & Weaknesses

round check mark symbol with transparent background free png Strengths

  • Strong Damage Potential
    Affliction scales very well with gear, and will dominate the DPS rankings as the expansion progresses and stats increase. Soul Swap reduces some of the spec’s former issues with ramping and target swapping, allowing it to perform well in a variety of situations. You can keep your DoTs ticking on multiple targets, blast with Haunt when the moment is right, and even blow up big groups with Seed of Corruption.
  • Excellent Group Utility
    Warlocks have always been desirable in groups for their unique utility. You have a valuable raid debuff in Curse of the Elements as well as an equally valuable buff in Dark Intent. You have lots of tools for kiting and crowd control and you can battle rez with Soulstone. Your Ritual of Summoning can round up wayward teammates as easy as “123.” The Healthstones from your Create Soulwell can be invaluable for progression. Each of your demon pets also brings some utility of their own, with your primary demon, the observer icon Observer, offering a silence and a spellsteal.

round cross mark symbol with transparent background free png Weaknesses

  • Gear Dependent
    Affliction Warlocks scale extremely well with gear, which is why they are expected to be so strong in later phases of the expansion. Unfortunately, that means that before you have a lot of stats on your gear, the build may feel a bit weak. This will likely hold the spec back in the first raid tier, and it will continue to feel bad for fresh 90s even later on.
  • Micromanagement Heavy
    There’s a lot to keep track of as an Affliction Warlock. You need to know when your DoTs are going to expire, when you have a buff or proc available for snapshotting, and when you may need to interrupt your Haunt window to Life Tap or use a utility spell. You’ll also be keeping an eye on your demon pet and ensuring it’s doing what it’s supposed to and not about to die. Thankfully there are addons that can help, but you still have to be the one to keep track of it all.

Best Races

Wow Alliance Crest Alliance

The best Alliance race for Affliction Warlocks in Mists of Pandaria is achievement character gnome maleachievement character gnome male Gnome due to their Expansive Mind and Shortblade Specialization racial abilities. Since Intellect no longer increases your mana pool, Expansive Mind is one of the few ways you can add to your mana pool in MoP Classic. Shortblade Specialization will help you reach the lofty 15% Hit cap as long as you are using a Dagger or Sword.

Horde

The best Horde race for Affliction Warlocks in Mists of Pandaria is achievement character troll maleachievement character troll male Troll because of their Berserking racial ability, which acts as an extra Haste cooldown. icon - orc maleicon - orc female Orc is not far behind with the extra pet damage from Command.

 

About the Author

Luxrah

I've been playing World of Warcraft on and off since vanilla, usually as a healer or caster and often as a guild leader. I play both retail and classic. I also love RPGs, sandboxes, and sims.
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