Affliction Warlock Patch 9.2 Changes Analysis and Tier Set Thoughts

This page will go over how the changes currently on the Patch 9.2 will affect Affliction Warlocks, specifically how the changes impact the playstyle, best Legendaries, Covenants, etc. If you are simply interested in what the current changes are for Affliction Warlock on the 9.2 PTR, you can instead read our full list of changes to the entire Warlock class on our dedicated page below. For an additional list of content coming in Patch 9.2, you can also check out our Patch 9.2 Overview page.

Summon Succubus has received a new Incubus model option and a rework to her 2 abilities:

• Seduction causes the target to slowly walk towards the demon and has a chance of breaking on damage taken.
• Whiplash puts a debuff on target that increase the damage taken from Succubus by 1%, stacking 10 times.

These Succubus changes have deeper ramifications in the PvE settings: having a 10% damage increase over other baseline pets (albeit with a ramp up of 60 seconds) makes Succubus the default option for boss damage (breaking the previous normalized damage across pets rule), unless a Felhunter interrupt or a Imp dispel is required. Succubus will still be worse than Imp in situations where target swapping is frequent, especially between distant targets, and will also lose in pure AoE situations vs VoidWalker.

In PvP Deathbolt has been changed from doing damage instantly to over a period of 3 seconds which cannot be dispelled.

In PvE there are no direct talent changes at the time of writing.

With the advent of Patch 9.2 every class will have the opportunity to earn new gear sets either through the Great Vault or the Sepulcher of the First Ones raid.

Equipping at least 2 and 4 pieces of the set will unlock new passive effects which are the following for Affliction Warlock:

• Affliction Warlock 2-Piece — Malefic Rapture damage is increased by 25% and each cast extends the duration of Corruption, Agony and Unstable Affliction by 2 seconds.
• Affliction Warlock 4-Piece — while Agony, Corruption, and Unstable Affliction are active, your Shadow Bolt has a 30% chance to make your next Malefic Rapture cost no Soul Shards and be cast instantly.

While thematically the tier set bonuses are quite fitting, they do not seem to have an impact on talent choices and instead offer just an additional layer of power creep. In particular the first talent row will be more dead than ever as a result, mostly due to the fact Drain Soul offers more upsides in any possible situation other than the need of incredible self-sustain every 30 seconds from Inevitable Demise.

Patch 9.2 will feature the ability to equip a Covenant Legendary simultaneously with another non-Covenant-specific one. While sounding great on paper, in reality it will not necessarily influence the Legendary of choice and instead will simply increase the borrowed power.

Affliction, out of all 3 Warlock specs, suffers the most from it due to their spec-specific Legendaries being somewhat mediocre, therefore the once go-to choice of Decaying Soul Satchel can now be paired with Malefic Wrath in the case of single-target, and either Perpetual Agony of Azj'Aqir or Wrath of Consumption.

Night Fae seems to still be the overall better, more flexible choice, although with the addition of a second Covenant Legendary, opting for other Covenants (specifically Necrolord) might not be as detrimental as it used to in terms of pure damage output.