Warlock - Affliction

This information is up to date as of Patch 3.3.

Purpose

An Affliction Warlock is a DPS character, which principally does damage via DoT (damage-over-time) spells. These characters are one of the most difficult to play well, but provide extremely high DPS.

Talents

Haunt/Ruin with Felhunter: 56/0/15 ∞

Ability Rotation

Boss/high-HP trash rotation:


Single/Double Trash rotation: (trash dies too quickly to get a full dot rotation on them).

If there are 3+ trash mobs in a pull.. and your tanks generate good AOE threat:

Which Curse?

1. Curse of the Elements (if you're in a group that does not have a Boomkin to provide "Earth and Moon" or an Unholy Deathknights to provide "Ebon Plagebringer")(yes, CotEl does more DPS)
2. Curse of Agony (if the mob will live for greater than 20 seconds and 13% is covered by another class)
3. None (if another class is covering the 13% buff from CotEl then on fast dying mobs it's better to skip the curse)

DPS Pets

Preferred pet:
1. Infernal (get Summon Infernal from quest in Felwood) (requires reagent) - Summon for last ~1 min of the boss fight and replace current pet.
2. Doomguard (get Ritual of Doom from quest in the Blasted Lands) (requires a reagent) - Can be summoned for 15 mins every 30mins. Good DPS.
3. FelHound - Has the best DPS of any of your regular pets
4. Imp - Use this one if you need the health boost.
5. Succubus

Stats (In Order of Importance)

1. Hit Rating. At level 80 you will miss a raid boss (level 83) 17% of the time. 1% hit = 26.23 hit rating. You can get hit from gear, raid buffs (3% from misery from Spriest OR 3% Imp Fairy Fire from druid), talents (Suppresion at 3/3 is 3%), or Draenei Racial (1%).
   • You need 446 hit rating to never miss a raid boss.
   • If you have 3/3 Suppression, and either Misery or Imp Fairy Fire then you need 289 Hit Rating (3% from talent, 3% from Raid) to never miss.
   • If you have 1/3 Suppression, and either Misery or Imp Fairy Fire and a draenei in your group then you need 315 Hit Rating (1% from talent, 3% from Raid, 1% from Draenei) to never miss.
   • For Heroics, you only need to make up 6% spell hit. That's 158 spell hit rating.
2. Spell Power
3. Haste
4. Spirit (with fel armor up and Life Tap glyph, 2 spirit = 1 spell power)
5. Crit
6. Intelligence

Notes:

1. The value of each stats varies a little by gear and spec.
2. At level 80, hit has a hard cap of 17% (446 hit rating) any hit beyond that adds nothing to your DPS. In other words, before hit cap hit is #1, after the hit cap hit it is worthless.
3. Haste has a soft cap, the GCD can not be reduced below 1s. Haste in excess of that point has a reduced effectiveness. Only spells with a cast time will still continue receiving benefits from haste, instant cast spells won't. Generally only attainable with raid buffs such as Bloodlust/Heroism/Wrath of Air Totem etc.

Recommended Glyphs

1. Life Tap
2. Haunt
3. Quick Decay

Recommended Enchants

Head: Arcanum of Burning Mysteries∞, Kirin Tor Revered or Arcanum of Power∞, Sha'tar revered (if you need +hit)
Shoulder: Greater Inscription of the Storm∞, Sons of Hodir Exalted (see also: inscription only shoulder enchant has superior stats)
Back: Greater Speed∞ (see also: tailoring only Lightweave Embroidery∞)(see also: Engineering only back enchant)
Chest: Powerful Stats∞
Wrist: Superior Spellpower∞ (see also: Blacksmiths can add another gem slot to their own gear)
Hands: Exceptional Spellpower∞ (see also: Blacksmiths can add another gem slot to their own gear) or Precision∞ (if you need hit) (see also: Engineering only hand enchant)
Waist: Eternal Belt Buckle∞
Legs: Brilliant Spellthread∞ (see also: tailoring only spellthread has cheaper mats but gives the same benefits)
Feet: Greater Spirit∞ or Icewalker∞(if you need hit) or Tuscarr's Vitality∞ (see also: Engineering only rocket boots)
Rings (Enchanters only): Greater Spellpower∞
Weapon: Mighty Spellpower∞ OR Black Magic∞

Recommended Gems

Match the gem color to the socket color only if the socket bonus is worth getting or if it is necessary to activate your meta gem. Otherwise jam Runed Cardinal Rubies into every available socket.

Red: +23 spellpower Runed Cardinal Ruby∞
Orange: +12 spellpower +10 haste Reckless Ametrine∞ or, if you need hit +12 spellpower +10 hit rating Veiled Ametrine∞
Yellow: +20 hit Rigid King's Amber∞
Blue/Purple: +12 spellpower +10 spirit Purified Dreadstone∞

Meta: +21 Critical Strike Rating and 3% Increased Critical Damage Chaotic Skyflare Diamond∞

Recommended Consumables

At all times, keep your Fel Armor∞ up. This adds a significant amount of spell power.
At -all- times you should have a Spellstone∞ applied to your weapon.
Flasks: Flask of the Frost Wyrm∞
Food:
Tender Shoveltusk Steak∞ or Firecracker Salmon∞ +46 spellpower +40 stamina
Shoveltusk Steak∞ +35 spellpower +30 stamina
Snapper Extreme∞ +40 hit rating +40 stamina
Potions:
If there's a shaman in the raid pop Potion of Wild Magic∞ during the Heroism/bloodlust.
If there isn't a shaman in the raid pop Potion of Speed∞ at the point where you would normally do Heroism/Bloodlust.

Raid Utility

Affliction Warlocks provide the following benefits to a group/raid:

Additional Tips

To increase your dps, increase the uptime on your dots. Every second your dot isn't up on a mob is a second of lost damage. To increase uptime, track your dots using a dot timer addon.

Haunt adds up to 23% damage to your dots. Although the spell itself does very low damage it significantly buffs your other dots.

Try to avoid clipping your dots (refreshing them before their final damage proc) as this will significantly lower your dps.

Sources and Other Resources

Warlock's Den∞
World of Warcraft official forum: Warlocks∞
http://elitistjerks.com/f80/t37900-dots_you_affliction_warlock_thread/∞