Affliction Warlock PvP Talents and Builds — The War Within (11.0.5)
Choosing the right PvP and PvE talents is a prerequisite to proper performance in PvP. This guide goes through the various talent choices available to you as an Affliction Warlock and gives you the best combinations you can take.
This page is part of our Affliction Warlock PvP Guide.
Talent Choices for Affliction Warlocks
Talent Build for Affliction Warlocks in PvP
This is the standard build for Affliction Warlocks in PvP, which can be used as a general setup.
- This build takes several talents which increase the damage dealt by Shadow Bolt.
- The Warlock talent tree has plenty of defensive talents, such as Dark Pact, which helps make Warlocks tankier than they have been in the past.
- Additionally, Tormented Crescendo allows for instant Malefic Rapture casts to have great sustained damage from your DoT effects as well as good single-target damage.
- Haunt, in addition to the Shadow Bolt damage increases from talents, gives Affliction some very strong instant burst damage.
PvP Talents for Affliction Warlocks
You can choose 3 of the following PvP talents. The two mandatory choices are the most essential, with the third being switched out depending on the matchup.
Mandatory PvP Talents
Rot and Decay causes your Shadow Bolt, Drain Life and Drain Soul abilities to extend the duration of your DoTs on the target. This talent helps to reduce the globals required to maintain your DoT effects.
Jinx causes your curse abilities to cost a Soul Shard, but also applies Corruption and Agony. This talent is mandatory to help lower the amount of globals you need to maintain your DoT effects.
Situational PvP Talents
Impish Instincts reduces the cooldown of your Demonic Circle: Teleport by 3 seconds when you take Physical damage with an internal cooldown of 5 seconds. This in synergy with Abyss Walker makes this PvP talent a very good pick against melee teams who target you.
Nether Ward allows you to reflect all magical spells for the next 3 seconds. This is a good option vs double caster teams where you might not need Impish Instincts.
Rampant Afflictions is another useful PvP talent. This makes it so Unstable Affliction can be used on up to 3 targets. However, it reduces the damage dealt by Unstable Affliction by 60%.
Changelog
- 21 Oct. 2024: Updated for TWW 11.0.5.
- 11 Sep. 2024: Reviewed for The War Within Season 1.
- 09 Sep. 2024: Reviewed for The War Within Season 1.
- 21 Aug. 2024: Updated for The War Within Season 1.
- 27 Jul. 2024: Updated for 11.0.
- 23 Jul. 2024: Updated for The War Within Prepatch.
- 07 May 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.7.
- 22 Apr. 2024: Updated for Dragonflight Season 4.
- 19 Mar. 2024: Updated for Dragonflight Patch 10.2.6.
- 15 Jan. 2024: Updated for Dragonflight Patch 10.2.5.
- 06 Nov. 2023: Updated for Dragonflight Patch 10.2.
- 04 Sep. 2023: Updated for Dragonflight Patch 10.1.7.
- 10 Jul. 2023: Updated for Dragonflgiht Patch 10.1.5.
- 09 May 2023: Updated for Dragonflight Patch 10.1.
- 21 Mar. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.0.7.
- 16 Mar. 2023: Updated for Dragonflight Patch 10.0.7.
- 30 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 22 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 30 Jul. 2022: Updated for Shadowlands Season 4.
- 31 May 2022: Reviewed for Patch 9.2.5.
- 02 Mar. 2022: Updated for Shadowlands 9.2.
- 17 Nov. 2021: Updated for Shadowlands 9.1.5.
- 06 Jul. 2021: Updated for Shadowlands 9.1.
- 30 Mar. 2021: Updated for Shadowlands 9.0.5.
- 08 Jan. 2021: Updated for Shadowlands Season 1.
- 14 Oct. 2020: Updated for Shadowlands pre-patch.
Other PvP Guides
This guide is written and maintained by Chanimal, BlizzCon Champion Warlock with Rank 1 titles since 2011, competing in AWC. He streams Warlock PvP daily on Twitch, with highlights on YouTube.
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