PVE TBC Affliction Warlock DPS Guide (Short)

Warlock Guide

Patch: 2.4.3

Author: Legacy-WoW

Welcome to our PVE Affliction Warlock guide for WoW TBC. This guide will show you what you need to know to play the Warlock class as Affliction in the burning crusade expansion. If you follow this build you should be at the top of the DPS chart in no time!

Talents

Affliction spec is definitely the best spec to start raiding with as a Warlock. You get Suppression which provides you with a ton of hit rating. Your pre-raid gear isn’t going to have the hit rating required for other specs so this one skill makes Affliction the best option.

Affliction also brings 3 really nice buffs to your groups! Blood Pact is really nice plus Shadow Embrace and Malediction. Your raid group will appreciate your choice to go Affliction starting out.

This is a great starter build. It gives you the hit rating boost of Suppression as well as the 3 buffs mentioned previously. A couple of talents can be swapped out if desired.

You could swap out Improved Healthstone or Improved Imp for Destructive Reach if you have other warlocks in the raid group providing those buffs. You can also swap Improved Curse of Agony for  Grim Reach or Improved Drain Soul if you would like.

Gear

Gems

Gems can change based on your build, equipment and caps. You may need to adjust your gems to account for your gear.

• Meta: Chaotic Skyfire Diamond
• Red: Runed Living Ruby
• Blue: Glowing Nightseye only to activate your meta gem
• Yellow: Veiled Noble Topaz or Great Dawnstone for hit rating

Switch to the epic versions of these gems when available, that will definitely be a big boost!

Enchants

You may need to adjust your enchants based on your gear but these are the standard enchants.

• Head: Glyph of Power
• Shoulder: Greater Inscription of the Orb or Greater Inscription of Discipline
• Back: Enchant Cloak – Subtlety
• Chest: Enchant Chest – Exceptional Health or Enchant Chest – Exceptional Stats
• Bracers: Enchant Bracer – Spellpower
• Gloves: Enchant Gloves – Major Spellpower
• Legs: Runic Spellthread or Mystic Spellthread
• Boots: Enchant Boots – Boar’s Speed
• Weapon: Enchant Weapon – Major Spellpower or Enchant Weapon – Soulfrost

Stat Priority

1. Hit (202 spell hit cap, 76 with Suppression)
2. Spell Power
3. Spell Haste & Spell Critical Strike
4. Stamina
5. Intellect

Keep in mind that Suppression only works for Affliction spells. It does not apply to Immolate or Shadow Bolt.

Rotation

You want to make sure you have both of your defensive buffs on before the fight. Start off by making sure Fel Armor is on. You should be using an Imp for Blood Pact.

Next, we want to make sure a curse is on the target at all times. The three curses are Curse of the Elements, Curse of Doom, or Curse of Recklessness.

You should constantly keep Unstable Affliction, Immolate, Siphon Life and Corruption on the target at all times.

Shadow Bolt should be cast when you aren’t doing anything else. This is your main spam ability. Later on Immolate is dropped completely because Shadow Bolt becomes better DPS as your gear improves.

Life Tap and Dark Pact should be used when needed.

One last thing to note, your ability to allow your dots to get their last tick in before they are re-applied will drastically improve your DPS. Pay attention to this and you will see a huge improvement!

Consumables

Below is a list of consumables which help in any raid.

• Potion: Super Mana Potion, Destruction Potion 
• Elixir: Flask of Pure Death
• Oil: Brilliant Wizard Oil and Superior Wizard Oil 
• Food: Blackened Basilisk or Crunchy Serpent or Poached Bluefish 
• Misc: Mana Emerald, Flame Cap
• Drums: Drums of Battle, Drums of Restoration

Profession

Leatherworking – Drums of Battle and Drums of War give your raid a DPS increase and this is the way to go for later tier raids.

Tailoring – This is the most common profession because you get access to the Shadoweave and Spellstrike sets. Both of these are great T4-T5 level options and for a fresh 70 it is really good!

Jewelcrafting – Mostly gives you access to epic gems. Jewelcrafting is definitely a great money making profession!

Enchanting – The best thing enchanting gives you is the Enchant Ring – Spellpower enchant on both rings. You can also make money with the profession and it pairs well with tailoring!