Season of Discovery Affliction Warlock DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities
On this page, you will learn how to optimize the rotation of your Affliction Warlock, in WoW Classic - Season of Discovery. We also have advanced sections about cooldowns, procs, and others in order to minmax your damage efficiency.
DPS Rotation
You have a plethora of spells and abilities you can use as a Warlock. Your main
priority is to keep your assigned curse up at all times, keep your damage over time
spells ( Corruption,
Unstable Affliction, your assigned Curse and
Drain Life ONLY if you're using the
Master Channeler Rune) on the target,
keep your DoT's buffed up with
Haunt and then fill with
Shadow Bolt.
Use
Shadowburn as a finisher as the boss is dying or while needing to move.
- Make sure your Felguard is summoned and buffed up, you have a
Create Soulstone on a Healer and you have a
Create Healthstone made.
- Pre pop
Amplify Curse
- Precast
Shadow Bolt so that it lands on the target as the pull timer hits zero.
- Make sure your Succubus/Incubus is attacking.
- Apply
Curse of Recklessness if you're the only Warlock in the Raid. If more than one Warlock and the other Warlock is
Curse of Recklessness, then you can
Curse of Agony. (If you are the only Warlock, disregard the first step of pre popping Amplify Curse, since you won't gain any bonus from it as you're not pressing
Curse of Agony.
- Cast
Haunt and keep it on cooldown.
- Pop any cooldowns you have. This can be trinkets, potions, etc. In the case that you're using
Zila Gular and
The Black Book as you're two trinkets, always use
Zila Gular first.
- Cast
Corruption and keep it on the boss at all times. Let the DoT expire before refreshing it.
- Cast
Shadow Flame and keep it up on the boss at all times. Let the DoT expire before refreshing it.
- Fill with
Shadow Bolt while waiting to refresh any of your DoT's or to reapply
- Cast
Shadowburn to finish the boss off or while needing to move. This ability costs a Soul Shard, so make sure you have one.
- Try to end the fight with allowing your
Drain Soul to tick twice, then finish the boss with a Shadowburn.
AoE Rotation
Affliction AoE is pretty simple. I put up a few Corruptions just to hope for some
Nightfall procs, then
start spamming
Shadow Bolt Volley. If you're engineering, make sure to throw a
Dense Dynamite
and also use a
Goblin Sapper Charge.
- Apply
Corruption to a few enemies with the hopes of getting
Nightfall procs, which will result in instant cast
Shadow Bolt that shoots five projectiles instead of one.
- Cast
Shadow Bolt Volley.
- Throw a
Dense Dynamite and use a
Goblin Sapper Charge if you are Engineering.
Spells
Below is a list of all spells you will find yourself using in Season of Discovery in order of what level you learn them. If you don't see a spell listed, then you won't need to use it.
Shadow Bolt — Your main filler spell. Cast this once your priority DoTs are up.
Corruption — Your main DoT. Keep this up as much as you can. Also can proc
Nightfall.
Shadowflame — This is a spell from a rune that deals damage up front, then the rest as a DoT.
Unstable Affliction — A DoT that you should try to keep on the boss as much as you can, while making sure not to overlap(clip).
Drain Life — A channeled spell that transfers health from the enemy to you. Becomes a DoT if you use the Rune
Master Channeler.
Shadowburn — Used as a finisher or when moving during the boss encounter. Costs a Soul Shard.
Drain Soul — This is a channeled spell that should be used when in execute range, due to the rune
Soul Siphon
Curses
Curse are the main priority for Warlocks. Raids will typically have a few Warlocks and each
will have one of the main debuff curses; Curse of Recklessness,
Curse of the Elements,
Curse of Shadow and
Curse of Agony. Only one Curse can be on the target per Warlock.
However this has completely changed thanks to the new rune introduced in this phase called
Mark of Chaos, all your Curses except
Curse of Shadow and
Curse of the Elements
now apply the
Mark of Chaos, reducing the target's magical resistances by 75 and increasing all
spell damage taken by 11% while they remain cursed. This makes cursing rather easy since now you just
put up
Curse of Recklessness and then the magical debuff is covered. This is of course only
if you take the rune.
Curse of Agony — A DoT that last 24 seconds and ramps up, dealing most damage towards the end. Use this for damage if you don't have to put one of the main debuff curses up.
Curse of Recklessness — Puts a debuff on the target, increases its attack power, but also reducing its armor. Should be maintained on the boss with full uptime, and has top priority in your list of curses.
Curse of Weakness — Puts a debuff on the target that reduces the damage it does.
Curse of the Elements — This makes the target take 8% increased Fire and Frost dmaage, as well as reduces their Fire and Frost resistances by 60.
Curse of Shadow — This makes the target take 8% increased Fire and Frost dmaage, as well as reduces their Fire and Frost resistances by 60
Utility
Below is a list of all utility spells you will find yourself using in Season of Discovery in order of what level you learn them. If you don't see a spell listed, then you won't need to use it.
Fel Armor — Surrounds the caster with fel energy, increasing spell damage and healing by 1 plus additional spell damage and healing equal to 50% of your Spirit. In addition, you regain 2% of your maximum health every 5 sec. Only one type of Armor spell can be active on the Warlock at any time. Lasts 30 min.
Demon Skin — Puts a buff on you that increases your armor and gives you health every 5 seconds. Keep this on you at all times.
Demon Armor — Same thing as Demon Skin, but stronger. Use this once you get it over Demon Skin.
Death Coil — An instant cast spell that will cause your target to be horrified, and also heal you for the damage dealt.
Life Tap — Turns your health into Mana. You will be using this a lot. You cannot kill yourself with this.
Fear — Crowd control. Causes the target to run around in Fear. Used frequently while leveling, in dungeons and PvP.
Drain Soul — Drains the targets soul for very little damage, but if you're draining the target and it dies, you gain a Soul Shard. This is the only way to get Soul Shards.
Create Healthstone — Creates a stone that heals you.
Health Funnel — A channeled spell that takes some of your health and transfers it to your demon
Unending Breath — A buff that allows your friendly target to breathe underwater.
Ritual of Summoning — Allows you, with the help of two others, to summon your party or raid members to your location.
Drain Mana — A channeled spell that drains the targets Mana. Largely used in PvP.
Demons
Warlocks are one of two classes that can use pets. Demons are an integral part of being a Warlock and
have many uses. Most of the time you will use the Imp to supply your party with Blood Pact, but
there are niche times when you will use the other ones. A popular build uses a talent called
Demonic Sacrifice, which sacrifices your pet in return for a powerful buff depending on which
demon you sacrificed.
- Imp — Your main pet. It casts
Firebolt and applies
Blood Pact to your party, giving them Stamina. Also has
Fire Shield and can
Phase Shift so it doesn't die while in combat.
- Felguard — A Tanky Demon that charges and Cleaves. Does great damage, but loses out slightly to your Imp.
- VoidWalker — A tanky demon that will allow you to
Sacrifice for a big absorb shield. Also has a taunt
Torment and an AoE taunt
Suffering.
- Succubus/Incubus — A squishy melee pet that has the ability to charm targets with
Seduction.
- Felhunter — A felhound able to purge enemies and friendlies. Also able to interrupt spell casting.
Changelog
- 15 Dec. 2023: Guide updated.
More Classic Warlock Guides
More Season of Discovery Class Guides
Classic Dungeon Guides
Classic Profession Guides
Classic Reputation Guides
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This guide has been written by Abide, TBC veteran for nearly a decade. Abide is a Warrior tank and multi-class expert currently playing on Faerlina as Horde. You can find him in the the Icy Veins Discord. You can also see him live on Twitch.
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