Affliction Guide

*edit: this is now obsolete with patch 5.0.4*

So, I thought i'd post up a guide to playing affliction warlock in World of Warcraft! It's my favoured build out of the three available!

Affliction currently reigns highest in DPS over bothe Demonology (by around 2%) and Destruction (by around 5-7%) Which is why I am aiming my first guide at this spec. After all it is my favoured spec. There are several popular builds however the one I feel most effective is a 32/3/6 build however the most popular build is a 31/7/3 build.

The Builds:

32/3/6: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/tool/talent-calculator#Vc00!hkhajVkVT!Y!P!bXThjn

This is my favoured build, it swaps out the support for Drain Life in favour of beefing up Shadow Bolt as the filler. Drain Life is no longer as viable as a filler as Shadow Bolt. Glyphs as shown, there are however no DPS increases for minor Glyphs so feel free to choose as you wish.

31/7/3: http://http//www.wowhead.com/talent#IrGroGsMcdhrZc

This build omits the AOE spell Seed of Corruption's soulburn empowerment. This I feel is to great a DPS loss when taking into account that all enemies recieve the Corruption DoT and suffer the explosion of Seed of Corruption, then as if that's not enough, your Soulshard is refunded upon successful detonation. Glyphs are however given the same priority as in my prefered spec.


The Affliction Stat Priority:

Stat priorities are as follows:

Intellect ; Hit ; Haste ; Crit ; Mastery.

Intellect is by far the most important stat for Warlocks as it also doubles as Spellpower. Hit should be stacked until you have it capped (17% hit 1742 hit rating). Haste is the next priority which allows more ticks based on several thresholds (ex. Corruption benefits at these thresholds 1 extra tick at 8.3% 21 Haste Rating / 2 extra ticks at 25% 1993 haste rating). Crit allows your spells to hit for critical strikes, and so is better than mastery. Mastery is one of those stats that although is useful, there isn't enough of it on gear to fully take advantage yet. However perhaps soon mastery will come into its own and the increase to damage will outweigh other stats, for now it is at the bottom end of the table.

The Rotation:

Priority of Spells:

Curse of Elements
Corruption
Bane Of Doom
Haunt
Unstable Affliction
Soul Fire
Demonsoul
Shadow bolt

Opening Salvo should consist of Shadow Bolt ; Haunt ; Unstable Affliction ; Corruption ; Bane of Doom ; Soulburn + Soul Fire ; Shadow Bolt. Then follow the above priority.

AoE:

Select a main target to Soulburn ; Seed of Corruption as this afflicts all nearby targets with corruption. Then continue to dot your main target, select a secondary target in which to soulswap from main target and exhale onto your new target afflicting both with the dots (assuming you took my advice to glyph Soul Swap)

Cooldowns:

Single target use Doomguard.
Multi target use Infernal.

Remember that they only target enemies with active banes on them, so pop this cooldown after popping your bane.

Gems:

Meta Slot: Burning Shadowspirit Diamond
Red Slot : Brilliant Inferno Ruby (Item)
Blue Slot: Veiled Demonseye
Yellow Slot: Reckless Ember Topaz
Prismatic: Brilliant Inferno Ruby (Item)

Consumable Buffs:

Flask: [Flask of the Draconic Mind] or a [Cauldron of Battle]
Food: [Severed Sagefish Head] or [Seafood Magnifique Feast]

I've decided to omit enchants for this guide as there is a wealth of information around the web for enchanting equipment.

Feedback:

Feedback is welcome. Discussion is welcome. Trolling is not. If you dispute with my findings feel free to comment and offer an explaination.