In this article, we list your Affliction Warlock (WoW 4.3) core abilities and how they should be used together (rotation). We also explain when to use your various cooldowns. Then, we go deeper and present all the subtleties that playing a Affliction Warlock will face you with. The other articles of our Affliction Warlock guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the left.

1. Basic Single Target Rotation↑top

The single target rotation for Affliction Warlocks is based on a priority system. This priority is different if the boss' health is between 100%-25% or under 25%. Below, we provide you with both priorities.

Keep in mind that the priorities are slightly different if you have the 4-Part Tier 13 Set Bonus, in which case we suggest that you read this section.

1.1. 100% to 25% Health

Make sure to apply Curse of the Elements on the target if no one else is providing this debuff (Assassination Rogues, Balance Druids, Unholy Death Knights or other Warlocks).

1. Apply and maintain Corruption on the target
   • automatically refreshed by Haunt, so one application is usually enough.
2. Apply and maintain Unstable Affliction on the target.
3. Apply and maintain Bane of Doom on the target.
4. Cast Haunt on cooldown.
5. Cast Shadowflame (only if you can afford to be in melee range).
6. Cast Shadow Bolt.

1.2. Below 25% Health

When your target is at or below 25% health, Drain Soul deals more damage, replacing Shadow Bolt in your rotation. Also, Shadowflame is no longer worth casting. You should still make sure that Curse of the Elements or an equivalent buff is being provided.

1. Maintain Corruption on the target (with Haunt and Drain Soul).
2. Maintain Unstable Affliction on the target (with Drain Soul).
3. Maintain Bane of Doom on the target.
4. Cast Haunt on cooldown.
5. Cast Drain Soul.

Occasionally, you may have to cast Shadow Bolt to refresh your Shadow and Flame debuff on the target. This is not necessary if the buff is provided by someone else in your raid (Fire Mages or other Warlocks).

2. Basic Multiple Target Rotation↑top

The multiple target rotation depends on how many enemies you are facing and how long these enemies will live. Use the following guidelines, but do not hesitate to adapt your playstyle to your particular situations.

2.1. Persistent Enemies

If your enemies will live for a longer period of time, then make use of the following guidelines:

2.1.1. Against 2 Targets

You should keep your DoTs up on both targets. Because Bane of Doom can only be active on a single target at once, you should use Bane of Agony on the second target.

In order to maintain Corruption and Unstable Affliction on the secondary target, you should make extensive use of Soul Swap (with Glyph of Soul Swap).

After your DoTs are up, you should continue with the rest of your rotation. Note that it is beneficial to use Shadow Bolt and Haunt, alternatively, on both targets. This will keep up the Shadow and Flame debuff as well as the debuff applied by Haunt.

2.1.2. Against 3 or More Targets

• Against 3-5 targets:
  1. Cast Soulburn: Seed of Corruption on one target (and repeat this whenever Soulburn comes off cooldown, provided that the targets will still be alive).
  2. Maintain your DoTs on all of them.
• Against 6 or more targets, spam cast Seed of Corruption on a single target.

You should cast Shadowflame on your targets, if it possible to be in melee range of them.

2.2. Short-lasting Enemies

If the targets you must AoE will live for such a short amount of time that applying your DoTs to them is not worth it (10 seconds or less), then simply spam Seed of Corruption on one of the targets.

3. Minion↑top

For both single target and AoE DPS, your best choice is to use a Felhunter.

4. Armor↑top

You should use Fel Armor, as it increases your spell power, thus increasing your DPS.

5. Dark Intent↑top

Deciding who to cast Dark Intent on should be done with the best interests of the raid in mind. If your raid is in need of more healing, then you should pick a suitable healer class. Otherwise, you should choose a suitable DPS player.

In a subsequent Dark Intent section, we provide you with rankings of different classes and specs that should enable you to make the best decision regarding Dark Intent.

6. Cooldowns↑top

As an Affliction Warlock, you only have 2 DPS cooldowns. You should use them as we describe below.

6.1. Demon Soul

Demon Soul ( Demon Soul: Felhunter, since you should always be using a Felhunter) is a DPS cooldown that increases your periodic Shadow damage by 20% for 20 seconds. It has a 2 minute cooldown.

Essentially, you should use this ability on cooldown, making sure that it is used as many times as possible during the encounter. It is best to use Demon Soul at the same time as Heroism/ Bloodlust/ Time Warp, trinket procs and your Volcanic Potion.

It is important to note that the damage buff from Demon Soul only comes into effect after your DoTs have been reapplied, so try to use Demon Soul just as your DoTs are about to expire. This is not needed when the boss is under 25%, as your DoTs that are refreshed by Drain Soul will immediately benefit from Demon Soul's buff.

6.2. Doomguard/Infernal

For most situations, summoning a Doomguard is your best choice. In case you are faced with a large number of enemies that you wish to use extra burst on, you should use Summon Infernal.

Summon Doomguard/ Summon Infernal will summon a Doomguard/Infernal to fight by your side for 45 seconds. The ability has a 10 minute cooldown, meaning that it will realistically only be usable once per fight. Your Doomguard/Infernal benefits from your own Critical Strike Rating and spellpower, at the time of summoning him. He is not affected by your haste, and any change in your stats after your Doomguard/Infernal has been summoned will not affect him.

This makes the ideal time to use your Doomguard/Infernal when you have as many of the following buffs as possible:

• Spellpower or Critical Strike Rating trinket effects;
• Volcanic Potion;
• Enchant Weapon - Power Torrent and Lightweave Embroidery (for Tailors) procs;
• A proc of your 4-Part Tier 13 Set Bonus.

This generally makes the best time to use your Doomguard/Infernal at the start of the fight, unless a burn phase at another time requires that you delay it until then.

7. Optional Read: Mastering Your Affliction Warlock↑top

Overall, playing an Affliction Warlock is not difficult, and following the priorities listed above will yield excellent results. Despite this, there are a few concepts that we feel require a bit of additional explanation for you to fully understand your class.

7.1. Single Target Rotation in Detail

To best understand how to put into practice the priority we give at the start of this page, we will detail a few concepts.

7.1.1. Refreshing Your DoTs

As an Affliction Warlock, a great part of your DPS comes from your 3 DoTs ( Corruption, Unstable Affliction and Bane of Doom). For this reason, you must strive to maintain 100% uptime on all of them.

DoTs benefit from your statistics at the time when the DoT was cast. This means that the DoT will take into account your haste, spellpower, etc. at the time when you cast the DoT, and it will not be affected by any change in your stats while the DoT is running. While this does, in theory, mean that you should try to apply your DoTs when you benefit from various procs, it is a DPS loss to refresh your DoTs simply because you had a trinket proc or you used a Volcanic Potion.

Instead, you should refresh your DoTs right before they expire. This will ensure that you maintain 100% uptime and that no ticks of your DoTs are wasted (as is the case when you refresh a DoT while it still had a long duration, when the existing ticks will be overwritten). The only DoT you should refresh after it has fully expired is Bane of Agony, since it deals the bulk of its damage in its last tick.

7.1.2. Opening Rotation

In general, you should make use of the spell priority we list at the start of the page. However, just as the fight starts, you will wish to cast your spells in a specific order, listed (and briefly explained) below:

1. Cast Shadow Bolt (to apply the 5% increased critical strike chance debuff on the boss, from your Shadow and Flame talent).
2. Cast Haunt (this will give Haunt, which has a travel time, a chance to be applied to the boss before your other DoTs).
3. Apply Unstable Affliction, Corruption and Bane of Doom.
4. Cast Shadow Bolt.

7.1.3. Execution Phase

When the target's health goes below 25%, Drain Soul becomes the preferred filler spell, instead of Shadow Bolt. This is because Drain Soul deals double its normal damage on targets below 25% health and because, when it is cast on a target that is below 25% health, it will automatically refresh the duration of Unstable Affliction on that target (thanks to the Pandemic talent).

Therefore, when the target is below 25% health, your rotation essentially becomes:

• Cast Haunt on cooldown.
• Apply and maintain Bane of Doom on the target.
• Cast Drain Soul.

Since Drain Soul is a channeled spell, you will, sometimes, have to stop a channel in order to cast Haunt or refresh Bane of Doom. The ideal time to do this is right after a Drain Soul tick has occurred.

Additionally, if no one else is providing the Shadow and Flame critical chance debuff on the boss, you will have to cast a Shadow Bolt at least once every 30 seconds in order to refresh the buff.

7.1.4. Shadowflame

Shadowflame has a higher priority than Shadow Bolt, provided that you are in melee range of the target.

In most encounters, it should be relatively easy to stay in melee range, so you should aim at doing this whenever possible. If, however, the fight mechanics require you to be elsewhere, it is not worth moving to melee range just to use Shadowflame.

7.1.5. Rotation with 4-Part Tier 13 Set Bonus

If you have the 4-Part Tier 13 Set Bonus, then it is imperative to use Soulburn on cooldown. This ability becomes your first priority.

In most situations, you should use Soulburn with Soul Fire (making Soul Fire instant cast).

If you find Soul Burn coming off cooldown when a different use is more appropriate (such as using it with Seed of Corruption for AoE), then do so, but be sure not to use up all 3 of your Soul Shards (see below).

7.1.6. Soul Shards

Soul Shards are a type of secondary resource system. You have a maximum of 3 Soul Shards. Outside combat, they are easily regenerated by casting Soul Harvest. In combat, however, you cannot regenerate your Soul Shards through any reliable means (only by getting killing blows).

As an Affliction Warlock, there is only one ability that requires Soul Shards to cast: Soulburn. This means that you are limited to three Soulburn uses per fight.

The only exception to this rule is when you have the 4-Part Tier 13 Set Bonus. In this case, any time you cast Soulburn with Soul Fire, the cost of Soul burn (1 Soul Shard) will be refunded to you. This makes it possible to cast Soulburn on cooldown.

7.2. Dark Intent

Dark Intent is a unique spell, similar in a way to Arcane Mages' Focus Magic. Dark Intent is a buff that you can apply on a party or raid member. This effectively links the two of you together, granting you certain benefits. Namely:

• Both you and the recipient of Dark Intent gain 3% haste.
• When either you or the player you are linked with scores a damage over time or healing over time critical effect, the other one will gain a buff:
  • If you score a critical effect, the other player's periodic damage and periodic healing will be increased by 1% for 7 seconds, stacking up to 3 times.
  • If the other player scores a critical effect, your periodic damage and periodic healing will be increased by 3% for 7 seconds, stacking up to 3 times.

Note that, if two Warlocks exchange Dark Intent, the effect will not stack (i.e., each Warlock will get a gain of 3% haste, instead of 6%).

Dark Intent, therefore, is most beneficial when cast on a player who:

• performs many periodic damage or period healing spells.
• has a high chance to score critical effects with these spells.
• is performing a role (DPS/healer) that is crucial to the encounter.

If your raid is progressing on an encounter where you are wiping to overwhelming damage, then you should cast Dark Intent on a healer. If your raid is progressing on an encounter where you are wiping due to insufficient DPS, then you should cast Dark Intent on a DPS player. Refer to the table below to see what are the best classes to cast Dark Intent on.

Healers	DPS
Restoration Druid Holy Priest Restoration Shaman Discipline Priest Holy Paladin	Shadow Priest Fire Mage Balance Druid Elemental Shaman Frost Mage

7.3. Curses

As an Affliction Warlock, you have the possibility of applying one of several curses on the target. You are limited to only having one curse on each target active at any one time. Your choice is between:

• Curse of the Elements, which increases spell damage taken by the target by 8%.
• Curse of Tongues, which reduces the casting speed of the target by 30%.
• Curse of Weakness, which reduces the physical damage done by the target by 10%.

None of these curses offers a DPS boost to you. You should only apply a curse if no one else in the raid is able to provide that debuff on the target.

Exceptionally, you can make it a habit to always apply Curse of the Elements on the target at the start of the fight. This curse lasts 5 minutes (meaning you will not have to refresh it often, if at all) and it is not provided by very many classes.