TBC Classic Affliction Warlock Spell Summary

Warlocks have many spells, more than any other Class actually. And as you can imagine, with that comes much confusion on which spells we even use. Many of them we do use, but quite a few we never use in PvE content. With the debuff cap raised to 40 in TBC, you will find yourself able to use more of your toolkit as well. This page will showcase each spell in the Warlock arsenal, what they do, when you use them and why you should.

• Shadow Bolt is your main spell that will be spammed frequently. Use this as your filler after your DoTs are up.
• Drain Life is used frequently to keep yourself alive. Do not depend on Healers to keep you alive. If you are low on Health, drain for a little bit.
• Corruption should be kept up with 100% uptime.
• Searing Pain is used mainly if you are Warlock Tanking, since this generates High threat. This is also an excellent spell for low HP targets.
• Immolate does some damage up front and then the rest is a DoT. Cast this only if you have Improved Scorch from a Fire Mage.
• Hellfire should be used to stack your Darkmoon Trinket Darkmoon Card: Crusade pre-pull. Keep your Darkmoon stacks at 10 mid-fight when you cannot reach the boss or to fish for procs right before pull.
• Unstable Affliction is a DoT and also an Affliction-only spell. You want 100% uptime throughout all encounters.
• Incinerate is never used as Affliction, unless you are locked out of the Shadow school.
• Seed of Corruption is your primary AoE ability. It puts out massive damage. Ensure that your Tank has a lot of aggro and wait even longer if it is NOT a Protection Paladin. This spell procs off of damage done or death to the target after you apply Seed of Corruption.
• Soul Fire is a slow casting spell, costs a Soul Shard and also has the lowest damage per cast time of all the other available Fire Spells. It is never used as Affliction.
• Siphon Life is a DoT and an Affliction-only spell. This also heals you over time. Keep 100% uptime if you have it, assuming it will live for the duration.

• Dark Pact is an Affliction-only talent. You use it when you would otherwise Life Tap and when Summon Imp is not being cast.
• Soulshatter cuts your threat in half against all mobs within 50 yards. This is one of the reasons Warlocks are so strong in TBC.
• Life Tap — Gives you Mana in exchange for your health. Use when you need Mana, but make sure you do not get too low and die.
• Create Healthstone are used like health potions and when healing is focused on other people.
• Fear will be used frequently in raids as CC. Curse of Recklessness overrides Fear, so if one starts to run into another pack, you can quickly put Curse of Recklessness on the enemy and it will stop the enemy from running away.
• Ritual of Souls allows your raid members to click on this for a Create Healthstone. This has 10 Healthstones total and a 5-minute cooldown. This also requires two others to help finish the cast.
• Ritual of Summoning will summon your party members to you. This requires two others to help summon.
• Howl of Terror is an AoE Fear that will fear around you, rather than one enemy at a time. This is not used too often in raids, except occasionally on trash packs, however it is really helpful in dungeons. Just be careful not to pull extra packs with it.
• Death Coil is an instant cast, 3-second Horrify that heals you for the damage Dealt. Use this when you need Health and have to move. This can also be used as a form of CC/interrupt on trash packs.
• Demon Armor is no longer used, as it is replaced by Fel Armor at Level 62.
• Fel Domination reduces the summoning time for your next demon by 5.5s and the Mana cost by 50%.
• Fel Armor increases healing taken by 20% and your Spell Power by 100. This will be the only armor you will use in Raid. You can spec into Demonic Aegis to make it even stronger.
• Amplify Curse is an Affliction-only spell. It will increase the base damage of Curse of Agony or Curse of Doom by 50%, or the slow of Exhaustion by 20%.
• Health Funnel heals your pet at the cost of your own health. Used as Afflicton to keep demons alive if they are not getting heals.
• Enslave Demon does not have too many uses in a raiding environment, however there are a few niche times where you can enslave an enemy demon to do your bidding, especially in dungeons.
• Detect Invisibility allows targets to see invisible mobs in PvE. Not that useful, but gets some action in a couple dungeons.
• Shadow Ward absorbs Shadow damage. It is great while farming mobs that do Shadow damage or in raids and dungeons.
• Drain Soul is only used for Soul Shards. Only use rank 1, since you only need it to get Shards, not do damage.
• Eye of Kilrogg will summon an eye you control. Useful for safely pulling certain packs or building AoE threat for a paladin.
• Banish is the other primary CCs you use in raids. It banishes a demon or elemental. Make sure to slot rank 1 and rank 2 Banish, as you switch between the two frequently.
• Create Firestone will conjure a +30 Fire damage wand.

Warlocks have a multitude of Curses that we use situationally. It can be daunting to some as to which we use in each scenario, so we have put together advice on when to use them.

Curse of Doom is a very unique spell. This is technically a DoT, however it acts differently. Instead of doing damage consistently over time, after 60 seconds it will blow up for a ton of damage. It is the highest DPS curse we have. Use this on cooldown and only if the target will live for the duration. Doom is considered a DoT, therefore it cannot crit and does not consume an Improved Shadow Bolt charge.

Curse of Agony is a slow ramping DoT. You use this when Doom is on cooldown, such as when cursing multiple targets, or when the target will live for less than 1 minute.

Curse of the Elements is Curse of the Elements and Curse of Shadows, from WoW Classic, combined. Simply put, this buffs all Warlocks', Mages', and Shadow Priests' damage by 10% (13% if Specced into Malediction). This is the bread and butter curse that should always be up on the target. Affliction prioritises Curse of the Elements because of Malediction.

Curse of Recklessness is the twin to Elements. Always keep this up unless there is a specific reason not to, such as if you need to fear a mob or there are damage concerns for the Tank.

Curse of Exhaustion is Affliction-only, but has no real PvE-usages.

Curse of Tongues has niche uses, but it does get used in raids on some trash packs and a few bosses.

Curse of Weakness has limited use in a raiding scenario due to Warrior and Druids having Demoralizing Shout and Demoralizing Roar. This can be used more in dungeons, since you will more than likely find yourself with a Protection Paladin tanking.