Last updated on May 17, 2024 at 00:00by Crix
On this page, you will learn how to optimize the rotation of yourAffliction Warlock in both single-target and multi-target PvEsituations in Cataclysm Classic. We also have advanced sections about cooldowns, procs, etc.in order to minmax your DPS.
1.
Affliction Warlock Rotations
This page contains all relevant information needed for Affliction Warlocksbefore the release of Cataclysm Classic. We will be updating this with all thelatest information as soon as more is discovered, so make sure to check back.
Affliction Warlocks bring great single-target and AoE damage to the raid, while having the highestmulti-target damage out of any classes in the game thanks to Soul Swap. Affliction comes With a strong Demon,Felhunter and a plethora of Damage over Time spells to rot all your enemies away. Affliction is based largely aroundit's hard hitting DoT's and it's powerful execute damage with
Drain Soul.
A massive change coming into Cataclysm is how DoT's work. In the past you used to want to let them run theirentire duration to get full value of it. This is no longer an issue in Cataclysm. Now you can clip your lasttick of the DoT and the remainder will carry over into the new refreshed DoT, giving you an extra tick of thatDoT, which can be further improved depending on your Haste rating. Check out the Stats page for more in depthinformation about Haste breakpoints for each DoT. This also ensures that you can have 100% uptime on most encounters.
1.1.
Single-Target Rotation
The job of an Affliction Warlock is pretty straight forward. You want to keep Haunt on the target at alltimes, keep your DoTs,
Corruption,
Unstable Affliction and
Bane of Doom on the target 100%of the time and fill with
Shadow Bolt while waiting to refresh some of your DoTs and once you're in executerange, you replace that
Shadow Bolt and instead use
Drain Soul to take advantage of the massive damageincrease that
Drain Soul has when the target is at or below 25% Health.
It is mentioned earlier that you will haveto refresh some of your DoTs; some DoTs will automatically refresh themselves while going about your rotation.For example, due to the talent Everlasting Affliction, your
Haunt and
Drain Soul refreshyour
Corruption and seeing as you should be keeping the
Haunt debuff on the boss at all times,you should never have to manually apply
Corruption after the initial one. Of course there will be few timesthat you can't keep up
Corruption from your
Haunt, but that won't be often.
Another example isdue to the talent Pandemic, your
Drain Soul refreshes the duration of your
Unstable Afflictionif the target is below 25% health. This means once you enter execute range you won't have to manually reapply both
Corruption due to
Everlasting Affliction or
Unstable Affliction due to
Pandemic.This makes for a much cozier rotation and expecially a much smoother execute phase.
- Make sure your
Summon Felguard is out
- Make sure both
Fel Armor and
Soul Link is on.
- Don't be max ranged due to wanting to run in and
Shadowflame. I prefer 10-15 yards if boss allows.
- Precast
Shadow Bolt so that it lands on the boss right when the pull timer hits zero seconds. Alsosend your Felhunter in to attack.
- Cast
Curse of the Elements if no other member is putting up the debuff. Assassination Rogues, Balance Druidsand Unholy Death Knights also apply this debuff.
- Cast
Haunt — You want this debuff up on the boss at all times. This will buff ALL of yourDoT's.
- Pop your cooldowns like
Blood Fury, Trinkets and whatever else you have.
- Cast
Summon Doomguard — He cannot be lusted, but snaps your spell power, so pop this when you haveas much spell power as possible. Hold this until you have your Spell Power procs up. It will attack whatever has your
Bane of Doom or
Bane of Agony on it.
- Cast
Bane of Doom — Only
Bane of Agony if the boss won't live for 30 seconds.
- Cast
Corruption — Keep this up at all times. This will naturally get refreshed everytime you
Haunt,so after your initial
Corruption.
- Cast
Unstable Affliction — Keep this up at all times. This will naturally get refreshed once in execute rangefrom your
Drain Soul.
- Cast
Shadowflame — If being in melee range allows, you should use this on cooldown. This does great single targetdamage. If you are worried about dying in melee, then do not worry about using
Shadowflame.
- Fill with
Shadow Bolt — You will be using this as often as you can, so long as all of your DoT's are up.
- Cast
Drain Soul once in execute range. Continue your same rotation, but fill with
Drain Soul instead of
Shadow Bolt.
1.2.
AoE Rotation
Corruption a few targets. This is to get
Eradication procs. You can typically put these up while I'm running intomelee range to
Shadowflame.
Shadowflame as soon as you get into melee range. This does a significant amount of damage and should be used on as muchas you can on cooldown.
- Cast
Soulburn and then
Seed of Corruption — This will make it so when that first
Seed of Corruptionblows up, it will apply
Corruption to every target that is hit with it.
- Keep casting
Seed of Corruption.
- Make sure to throw explosives if you're Engineering for extra damage.