Warlock Guide

Warlocks are the dark arts casters of World of Warcraft, embodying the desire to reach new highs, through the use of demonic powers and summoning demonic minions to aid in their quest for dominance.

Perhaps one of the most iconic specialisation in the game, Affliction is the facet focused around whittling down foes with debuffs and damage over time effects, while still sharing the Warlock design tenet of building resources (Soul Shards) in order to spend them with powerful spells.

The current evolution of the spec design makes use of DoT (Damage over Time) as both a mean to deal damage and a buffer for an all purpose spender. As such the playstyle is centered around maintaining several damage over time effects and debuffs such as Corruption, Unstable Affliction and Agony in order to deal damage and buff each cast of Malefic Rapture.

Currently Affliction is somewhat of a mediocre pick in terms of raid, due its undertuned single target damage, which is very prevalent in the boss design of this tier. The issue is further exacerbated by movements requirements which can be disruptive at time for the Warlock class as a whole, being one of the few remaining bastions of caster whose performance lives or die by their pilot ability to manage movements. Tuning aside, the spec has one of the most complete toolset for raid, offering exceptional funneling capabilities with two defined weaknesses: AoE burst and continuous movement.

In Mythic+ Affliction has the tools to deal exceptional AoE damage, especially at higher target count, and retain a somewhat flexible damage profile, able to handle both bosses and trash in a versatile setup. What generally holds Warlocks back is their utility, which is mostly comprised of Curses and Healthstones or the occasional Demonic Gateway skip.

Warlocks are the dark arts casters of World of Warcraft, embodying the desire to reach new highs, through the use of demonic powers and summoning demonic minions to aid in their quest for dominance.

Demonology fully embraces the summoning aspect, offering the fantasy of a commander who chooses to command a Demonic Army to do their bidding.

Demonology has a fast paced and deterministic gameplay built around cycles of demonic summons in order to damage their foes. Shadow Bolt and Demonbolt are used to generate Soul Shards to then spend and summon a vast array of demons, comprised of Wild Imps, Dreadstalkers, Vilefiends, Felguards and Demonic Tyrants.

Demonology, like all Warlock specisalisation at the moment is hampered by an undertuned single target damage, and mobility tools that require pre-planning. What offers that set it apart from the other Warlock specialisations however is an extremely powerful AoE burst, and short cooldowns which is sadly only somewhat relevant in 1 encounter in the current tier. Historically (at least in the recent expansions) Demonology has performed extremely well, offering decent mobility, good single target and best-in-class AoE burst.

In Mythic+ Demonology offers better AoE burst and the ability to prepare said burst during the previous pull, but otherwise have a similar damage profile of the other two spec minus the ability to funnel that level of damage on priority targets. What generally holds Warlocks back is their utility, which is mostly comprised of Curses and Healthstones or the occasional Demonic Gateway skip.

Warlocks are the dark arts casters of World of Warcraft, embodying the desire to reach new highs, through the use of demonic powers and summoning demonic minions to aid in their quest for dominance.

Destruction embraces the chaotic side of Warlocks, raining down Fel Fire to burn and annihilate enemies. Demonic (Fel) Fire is the theme around the specialisation which features an arsenal of direct damage spells, such as Chaos Bolt and Incinerate to use in conjunction with Immolate.

Destruction as a Warlock specialisation retain the design philosophy of generating resources (Soul Shards) in order to spend them on powerful spells such as Chaos Bolt and Rain of Fire, and plays in a rather straightforward but satisfying fashion. In its current iteration it is an easy to pick up spec with enough nuances to be hard to master.

Destruction, like all Warlock specisalisation at the moment is held back by an undertuned single target damage. The spec is the most mobile of the Warlocks in single target scenarios and situations where Shadowburn can be leveraged. It retains one of the strongest funnel potential, alongside Affliction. The toolkit is one of a fantastic spec for raiding, but the tuning just is not there.

In Mythic+ Destruction has carved over the years a place for very high sustained AoE performance, which is still somewhat true but not to the level of the previous Inferno design. The spec has a highly adaptable damage profile and is an extremely compelling choice for caster DPS in terms of output. What generally holds Warlocks back is their utility, which is mostly comprised of Curses and Healthstones or the occasional Demonic Gateway skip.