handsomedgc
Scum of the earth
Welcome to my free-to-play 8.1.5 affliction warlock guide. Affliction warlocks specialize in slowly ramping up damage in fights with there damage over time abilities while crowd controlling incoming enemies and healers. Affliction warlock is a supporting and damage dealing specialsiation.
The warlock always has been in a weird position in twinking. It is almost never a top tier class, however it is well represented in twink brackets. In the current expansion BfA some people consider warlocks absolute trash while others think they are pretty strong. In my humble opinion affliction warlock has a lot going for it beyond the scope what some people think. I hope this guide will shine some light on the intrigues this specialisation has to offer.
In this guide we will go over the basics of the warlock. We’ll take a look at the spells we have available and how to utilize these to a maximum. This guide is focused for battlegrounds but most of the information will be applicable for arenas, duels and world-pvp. Without further ado, let’s open the tome of fel magic and discover a crazy power trip.
Abbreviations that you’ll be seeing:
· SS – Soul Shards
· DL – Drain Life
· UA – Unstable Affliction
· HS – Health Stone
· DoT – Damage over time
· CC – Crowd Control
The warlock always has been in a weird position in twinking. It is almost never a top tier class, however it is well represented in twink brackets. In the current expansion BfA some people consider warlocks absolute trash while others think they are pretty strong. In my humble opinion affliction warlock has a lot going for it beyond the scope what some people think. I hope this guide will shine some light on the intrigues this specialisation has to offer.
In this guide we will go over the basics of the warlock. We’ll take a look at the spells we have available and how to utilize these to a maximum. This guide is focused for battlegrounds but most of the information will be applicable for arenas, duels and world-pvp. Without further ado, let’s open the tome of fel magic and discover a crazy power trip.
Abbreviations that you’ll be seeing:
· SS – Soul Shards
· DL – Drain Life
· UA – Unstable Affliction
· HS – Health Stone
· DoT – Damage over time
· CC – Crowd Control
The warlock doesn’t have alot of spells. There toolkit offers them seven spells and two demons to summon. We’ll go over the spells first, and then to our little demon servants. The spells are:
https://www.wowhead.com/spell=232670/shadow-bolt
The basic filler spell for when you have applied all your DoT spells. This spell has absolutely nothing going for it. It deals mediocre shadow damage, has a long cast time and doesn’t even launch a cool skull anymore. Shadow Bolt is best unbound at level 20. Why? I’ll tell you later my apprentice.
https://www.wowhead.com/spell=172/corruption
Corruption is a good, basic DoT spell. I recommend to apply corruption to everything and everyone you come across. The DoT last for 14 seconds and allows the warlock to screw alot of stealth classes. It also the warlock to keep people in combat, preventing them from mounting, eating and restealthing.
https://www.wowhead.com/spell=246985/soul-shards
Your resource besides mana. It is generated by by your agony spell. While out of combat you generate up to three SS. Don’t ever cap on SS. If this happens you are wasting damage. I always bank up 4 soul shards max to avoid capping on our precious SS.
https://www.wowhead.com/spell=980/agony
Agony is a 18 second DoT spell with a really cool build-in mechanic. The longer this DoT is on someone the more damage it deals. Every damage tick increases the damage, stacking up to 10 times. Reapplying this DoT will let it keep its stack. So when you put agony up on a target with 10 stakcs, he is in for a world of hurt. This means you want to blanket the entire enemy team with this spell if you can and should have a 100% uptime. This spell also allows you to build SS, making this spell your number one priority.
https://www.wowhead.com/spell=234153/drain-life
Your actual filler spell in this bracket. This spell is absolutely nuts. It allows you to 1 versus 1 almost anybody. The damage this spell does is good, the healing insane. Every tick of the channel heals you for 25/35% procent. Because this spell is a channel it allows you to drain the life force of enemies through walls or when they try to LoS you. The only con is that you need to be standing still, but with good positioning this should not be a problem.
https://www.wowhead.com/spell=30108/unstable-affliction
Your strongest DoT-spell, also your shortest. To cast unstable affliction you will SS, making this your spender ability. You can put a grand total of 5 UAs on a target. You should however not do this, and use this spell on multiple targets in fights. This is because UA buffs all your damage by 10% on a target. This makes corruption and agony pretty nutty and it also increases DL damage and healing.
So don’t make it a habit to dump 5 UAs on a single target, rather use them to deal more spread damage. There are certain situations were you want to dump them all on a single person, but we will get to that later. Patience my apprentice!
https://www.wowhead.com/spell=5782/fear
The best spell in your arsenal of shadowy magics. Does it deal alot damage? No. Does it heal you? Not that I know. Does it allows you to quickly get around the battleground? Eh, no. It however allows you to sent enemies running around like a chicken without a head and control fights decently well. In a pug environment you should be spamming this CC on targets untill it hit DRs, making it function almost like a stun.
This spell also allows you to stop healers from casting heals by spamming fear on them, allowing your team to secure kills. Fear also won’t heal enemies, unlike polymorph.
When looking for a victim for your fears look for people who use speed increases. If you fear them you can be sending them to africa, buying your team more time and outnumbering the enemy.
https://www.wowhead.com/spell=6201/create-healthstone
A consumable forged by fel magic. When used it heals you for 25% of maximum health. Be sure to hand these out to everyboy, except people who call these ‘Green cookies’.
Apprentice, hand me the summoning ritual blueprints!
https://www.wowhead.com/spell=688/summon-imp
The imp is often overlooked and missused. Imps may look smart, but they work better if you micro manage them well. They don’t deal alot of damage, but are great at harrasing stealth classes. Sometimes you won’t be able DoT a stealth class up. If that is the case, sent your imp after them for as long as possible. It also can annoy people to no end when you cancel mount ups and cancel dinner times.
The imp is your best friend for protecting nodes in Arathi Basin. Position him/her in a sneaky position and together with your DoT spells, DL and fear no one should be able to get it from you. A good warlock should be able to halt at least three enemies at a node untill reinforcements arrive.
https://www.wowhead.com/spell=697/summon-voidwalker
Your big demon. Use this guy if you’re gonna be fighting in mid. He doesn’t die quick, and with his basic attack being https://www.wowhead.com/spell=3716/consuming-shadows he’ll pull out stealthies on accident, causing confusing and tilting enemy rogues and ferals.
I mostly use micro my voidwalker in big packs of enemies in mid. The more people it hits, the better. He will also heals a lot more.
Talents
https://www.wowhead.com/spell=108558/nightfall
Trap talent. It makes your shadowbolt sometimes okay, but offers very little.
https://www.wowhead.com/spell=198590/drain-soul
Transforms your shadowbolt in a channel ability. It is good, buffs your damage by quite a bit, but gets outshined by the next talent
https://www.wowhead.com/spell=264106/deathbolt
This talent is your BiS-talent. It also add alot of choice to your playstyle. You can now decide if you want to dump your UAs on a target and procceed to one-shot them or if spreading damage is more important at the time. Deathbolt is insane in the hands of a good player, and pushes the warlock to play good and make good decisions.
If you are in a 1 versus 1 situation you should be able to kill everyone in a single fear.
https://www.wowhead.com/spell=232670/shadow-bolt
The basic filler spell for when you have applied all your DoT spells. This spell has absolutely nothing going for it. It deals mediocre shadow damage, has a long cast time and doesn’t even launch a cool skull anymore. Shadow Bolt is best unbound at level 20. Why? I’ll tell you later my apprentice.
https://www.wowhead.com/spell=172/corruption
Corruption is a good, basic DoT spell. I recommend to apply corruption to everything and everyone you come across. The DoT last for 14 seconds and allows the warlock to screw alot of stealth classes. It also the warlock to keep people in combat, preventing them from mounting, eating and restealthing.
https://www.wowhead.com/spell=246985/soul-shards
Your resource besides mana. It is generated by by your agony spell. While out of combat you generate up to three SS. Don’t ever cap on SS. If this happens you are wasting damage. I always bank up 4 soul shards max to avoid capping on our precious SS.
https://www.wowhead.com/spell=980/agony
Agony is a 18 second DoT spell with a really cool build-in mechanic. The longer this DoT is on someone the more damage it deals. Every damage tick increases the damage, stacking up to 10 times. Reapplying this DoT will let it keep its stack. So when you put agony up on a target with 10 stakcs, he is in for a world of hurt. This means you want to blanket the entire enemy team with this spell if you can and should have a 100% uptime. This spell also allows you to build SS, making this spell your number one priority.
https://www.wowhead.com/spell=234153/drain-life
Your actual filler spell in this bracket. This spell is absolutely nuts. It allows you to 1 versus 1 almost anybody. The damage this spell does is good, the healing insane. Every tick of the channel heals you for 25/35% procent. Because this spell is a channel it allows you to drain the life force of enemies through walls or when they try to LoS you. The only con is that you need to be standing still, but with good positioning this should not be a problem.
https://www.wowhead.com/spell=30108/unstable-affliction
Your strongest DoT-spell, also your shortest. To cast unstable affliction you will SS, making this your spender ability. You can put a grand total of 5 UAs on a target. You should however not do this, and use this spell on multiple targets in fights. This is because UA buffs all your damage by 10% on a target. This makes corruption and agony pretty nutty and it also increases DL damage and healing.
So don’t make it a habit to dump 5 UAs on a single target, rather use them to deal more spread damage. There are certain situations were you want to dump them all on a single person, but we will get to that later. Patience my apprentice!
https://www.wowhead.com/spell=5782/fear
The best spell in your arsenal of shadowy magics. Does it deal alot damage? No. Does it heal you? Not that I know. Does it allows you to quickly get around the battleground? Eh, no. It however allows you to sent enemies running around like a chicken without a head and control fights decently well. In a pug environment you should be spamming this CC on targets untill it hit DRs, making it function almost like a stun.
This spell also allows you to stop healers from casting heals by spamming fear on them, allowing your team to secure kills. Fear also won’t heal enemies, unlike polymorph.
When looking for a victim for your fears look for people who use speed increases. If you fear them you can be sending them to africa, buying your team more time and outnumbering the enemy.
https://www.wowhead.com/spell=6201/create-healthstone
A consumable forged by fel magic. When used it heals you for 25% of maximum health. Be sure to hand these out to everyboy, except people who call these ‘Green cookies’.
Apprentice, hand me the summoning ritual blueprints!
https://www.wowhead.com/spell=688/summon-imp
The imp is often overlooked and missused. Imps may look smart, but they work better if you micro manage them well. They don’t deal alot of damage, but are great at harrasing stealth classes. Sometimes you won’t be able DoT a stealth class up. If that is the case, sent your imp after them for as long as possible. It also can annoy people to no end when you cancel mount ups and cancel dinner times.
The imp is your best friend for protecting nodes in Arathi Basin. Position him/her in a sneaky position and together with your DoT spells, DL and fear no one should be able to get it from you. A good warlock should be able to halt at least three enemies at a node untill reinforcements arrive.
https://www.wowhead.com/spell=697/summon-voidwalker
Your big demon. Use this guy if you’re gonna be fighting in mid. He doesn’t die quick, and with his basic attack being https://www.wowhead.com/spell=3716/consuming-shadows he’ll pull out stealthies on accident, causing confusing and tilting enemy rogues and ferals.
I mostly use micro my voidwalker in big packs of enemies in mid. The more people it hits, the better. He will also heals a lot more.
Talents
https://www.wowhead.com/spell=108558/nightfall
Trap talent. It makes your shadowbolt sometimes okay, but offers very little.
https://www.wowhead.com/spell=198590/drain-soul
Transforms your shadowbolt in a channel ability. It is good, buffs your damage by quite a bit, but gets outshined by the next talent
https://www.wowhead.com/spell=264106/deathbolt
This talent is your BiS-talent. It also add alot of choice to your playstyle. You can now decide if you want to dump your UAs on a target and procceed to one-shot them or if spreading damage is more important at the time. Deathbolt is insane in the hands of a good player, and pushes the warlock to play good and make good decisions.
If you are in a 1 versus 1 situation you should be able to kill everyone in a single fear.
First off, play a race that you like to look-at. You won’t be the first one that gets a burn-out looking at a fat dwarf warlock!
I will be only shouting out one race per faction. Most races are fine warlocks, but these races stand out for me.
Alliance
Gnome – Increased haste, 5% more mana (which is huge), a super good escape tool and arcane resistance. Arcane resistance is great to have with alls the druids and arcane mages running around. 1% Might not seem like alot, but it will add up over the course of a battleground.
Horde
Goblin – A very strong choice. Like gnomes they get a 1% extra haste and 2 great racials. Rocket jump can be used to get out of a sticky situation or chase a target to finish him/her with a deathbolt. Rocket barrage is also good to use on targets with with a UA on them because it will deal a extra 10% damage.
I will be only shouting out one race per faction. Most races are fine warlocks, but these races stand out for me.
Alliance
Gnome – Increased haste, 5% more mana (which is huge), a super good escape tool and arcane resistance. Arcane resistance is great to have with alls the druids and arcane mages running around. 1% Might not seem like alot, but it will add up over the course of a battleground.
Horde
Goblin – A very strong choice. Like gnomes they get a 1% extra haste and 2 great racials. Rocket jump can be used to get out of a sticky situation or chase a target to finish him/her with a deathbolt. Rocket barrage is also good to use on targets with with a UA on them because it will deal a extra 10% damage.
Upon entering a fight your priority should always be blanketing the enemies with agony and corrupition. After this is done reapply agony on everyone and keep up the stacks. Put UAs on targets that needs to be killed. Use DL on target with UA on them.
While you are doing this look for a target to kill with deathbolt. I always look for fury warriors and rogues. If you spot a healer, arcane mage or balance druid out of position go try and kill them.
While you are doing the above don’t forget to spam fears were you can, you won’t believe how much chaos this can create for enemies. Also, as a warlock you should always be casting at max range so you can’t be hit my enemy casters.
While warlocks are good at mid, they are one of the best node defenders. You should always be guarding them! Don’t be afraid to tell your team to fuck-off when guarding a node, you should be able to keep enemies at bay long enough for them to return.
While you are doing this look for a target to kill with deathbolt. I always look for fury warriors and rogues. If you spot a healer, arcane mage or balance druid out of position go try and kill them.
While you are doing the above don’t forget to spam fears were you can, you won’t believe how much chaos this can create for enemies. Also, as a warlock you should always be casting at max range so you can’t be hit my enemy casters.
While warlocks are good at mid, they are one of the best node defenders. You should always be guarding them! Don’t be afraid to tell your team to fuck-off when guarding a node, you should be able to keep enemies at bay long enough for them to return.
With all the recent changes to gearing it’s hard to say: Get this piece, this piece and this piece. However I’ve linked some armories you can follow. My advice is on stat priority is: intellect > Stamina > Haste = Versatility > Crit.
Head
A https://www.wowhead.com/item=57462/goldrinn-acolytes-cowl&bonus=3645
H https://www.wowhead.com/item=57513/kromgar-generals-linen-cowl
Neck
https://www.wowhead.com/item=151437/hook-charm-necklace&bonus=3998
Shoulder
https://www.wowhead.com/item=3748/feline-mantle?bonus=4049
Back
https://www.wowhead.com/item=5193/cape-of-the-brotherhood&bonus=4005
Chest
https://www.wowhead.com/item=6465/robe-of-the-moccasin?bonus=4068
Wrist
https://www.wowhead.com/item=82881/cuffs-of-black-elements&bonus=4032
Hands
https://www.wowhead.com/item=5195/gold-flecked-gloves&bonus=4005
Waist
https://www.wowhead.com/item=6908/ghamoo-ras-bind?bonus=3998
Legs
https://www.wowhead.com/item=6910/leech-pants&bonus=3998
Feet
https://www.wowhead.com/item=2168/corpse-rompers&bonus=4059
Ring 1
https://www.wowhead.com/item=6321/silverlaines-family-seal&bonus=4049
Ring 2
A https://www.wowhead.com/item=20431/lorekeepers-ring
H https://www.wowhead.com/item=20426/advisors-ring
Trinket 1
https://www.wowhead.com/item=42992/discerning-eye-of-the-beast
Trinket 2
https://www.wowhead.com/item=21566/rune-of-perfection
Weapon
https://www.wowhead.com/item=82888/heartboiler-staff?bonus=4032
If you have the time and patience try your luck at murlocs, they might give you a epic foamspittle staff.
Head
A https://www.wowhead.com/item=57462/goldrinn-acolytes-cowl&bonus=3645
H https://www.wowhead.com/item=57513/kromgar-generals-linen-cowl
Neck
https://www.wowhead.com/item=151437/hook-charm-necklace&bonus=3998
Shoulder
https://www.wowhead.com/item=3748/feline-mantle?bonus=4049
Back
https://www.wowhead.com/item=5193/cape-of-the-brotherhood&bonus=4005
Chest
https://www.wowhead.com/item=6465/robe-of-the-moccasin?bonus=4068
Wrist
https://www.wowhead.com/item=82881/cuffs-of-black-elements&bonus=4032
Hands
https://www.wowhead.com/item=5195/gold-flecked-gloves&bonus=4005
Waist
https://www.wowhead.com/item=6908/ghamoo-ras-bind?bonus=3998
Legs
https://www.wowhead.com/item=6910/leech-pants&bonus=3998
Feet
https://www.wowhead.com/item=2168/corpse-rompers&bonus=4059
Ring 1
https://www.wowhead.com/item=6321/silverlaines-family-seal&bonus=4049
Ring 2
A https://www.wowhead.com/item=20431/lorekeepers-ring
H https://www.wowhead.com/item=20426/advisors-ring
Trinket 1
https://www.wowhead.com/item=42992/discerning-eye-of-the-beast
Trinket 2
https://www.wowhead.com/item=21566/rune-of-perfection
Weapon
https://www.wowhead.com/item=82888/heartboiler-staff?bonus=4032
If you have the time and patience try your luck at murlocs, they might give you a epic foamspittle staff.
There might be some weird typos in this guide. I use word to write the guides but because I use a bootleg version it sometimes switches words around. My excuse. Also if anyone wants to use my this lay-out for a guide feel free to do so!
