Affliction Warlock DPS Mythic+ Tips - Dragonflight 10.2.7 (2024)

Last updated on May 07, 2024 at 11:20by Motoko40 comments

Mythic+ has become a large part of the World of Warcraft endgame. Still, thesheer number of different variables has overwhelmed many players. The groupcomposition, weekly affixes, the item level of the group, the keystone level,and the group's experience and comfort level are just several factors that willinfluence how you approach each dungeon. The purpose of this page is to prepareyou for the key differences that set Mythic+ apart from the typical World ofWarcraft endgame experience, including talents and rotational anomalies that maynot be obvious at first glance.

If you are unfamiliar with Mythic+ and its associated general mechanics, youcan read more about it on our Dragonflight Mythic+ Season 4 page below.

Affliction Warlocks are a solid ranged DPS spec, offering sustaineddamage with frequent burn cycles. While the spec lacks immunity, the soundmitigation and self-heal, coupled with the primary spender that works both insingle-target and multi-target, make it a versatile choice with a uniquetoolkit comprised of Healthstones, Soulstones, skip-enabling Demonic Gateway, AoE crowd control abilities such as Shadowfuryand Howl of Terror, and uncapped AoE spells.

Affliction Warlock might not have the best single target or burst.However, the aoe potential and the ability to funnel priority damage are stillpresent.

While both single- and multi-target rotations do not differ substantiallyfrom the standard priority outlined inRotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities pagethere are a few points worth noting:

• Due to the nature of pulls, with constantly dying targets, Affliction canuse Soul Shard sniping using both Unstable Affliction and Drain Soul when talented at collecting additional Soul Shards andsqueezing extra damage throughout a full run.
• Maximise cooldown efficiency, aiming for the highest number of casts whilenot wasting activation on pulls about to die. In that situation, getting to 5shards and starting the next pull with max resources is better.
• Haunt when talented, is always worth casting in any situation and isbetter cast on targets affected by Unstable Affliction.
• Unstable Affliction is also worth casting in any situation. With fewtargets, the damage is relevant and is generally buffed by Haunt. Withincreasing targets, it still retains value by generating shards on dyingtargets, making it useful in anypractical situation.
• Agony's shard generation has diminishing return past 4 targets,which means it is crucial to have it on up to 4 targets. Past that value, thedamage gain is still worth the global cooldown. However, you should notprioritize it above spending shards or preparing/using cooldowns. You should notprioritize Shadow Embrace stacks past 1-2 targets. The 3rd and 4thtargets are optional and should be considered a low-priority optimizationwhenever you can spend free globals with filler (ideally Drain Soul foreasier upkeep).

1. Pre-cast Seed of Corruption.
2. Cast Vile Taint to apply multiple Agony.
3. Apply Unstable Affliction on the primary target.
4. Cast Siphon Life up to 5 targets.
5. Cast Haunt on the primary target if talented.
6. Cast Soul Rot.
7. Cast Summon Darkglare.
8. Cast 3 Malefic Raptures.
9. Cast as many Seed of Corruption as possible.
10. Cast Malefic Rapture on Tormented Crescendo procs.
11. Proceed to refresh DoTs as they fall off.

1. Pre-cast Seed of Corruption.
2. Cast Vile Taint to apply multiple Agony.
3. Apply Unstable Affliction on the primary target.
4. Cast Siphon Life only on the primary target.
5. Cast Haunt on the primary target if talented.
6. Cast Soul Rot if talented.
7. Cast Summon Darkglare.
8. Cast as many Seed of Corruption as possible.
9. Proceed to refresh DoTs as they fall off.

While damage is the more significant reason to bring an Affliction Warlock,the class itself offers a noticeable amount of crowd control and varioussupporting abilities:

• Recently reintroduced, the Curses can offer some advantages against specificdangerous enemies: Curse of Tongues can reduce the group's interruptrequirements. At the same time, Curse of Weakness alleviates the incomingdamage on the tank from auto attacks. Last but not least, Curse of Exhaustion can slow targets when kiting is required.
• Healthstones have a 1-minute cooldown and heal for 25% of maxhealth, allowing for an emergency heal for each player.
• Soulstones offer a combat resurrection that you can use reactivelyand preemptively in the case of a death run.
• Demonic Gateway offers the unique ability to skip certain parts ofthe map, depending on the dungeon in question, avoiding specific pulls.
• Shadowfury helps alleviate pressure on the tank during big pulls asit is a 3-second AoE stun.
• Fear and Banish are both spammable crowd control abilitiesthat can interrupt a cast in a pinch or temporarily remove a target from combat.

Below are the recommended talents for Mythic+. There is a certain degree offlexibility when progressing down the path to accommodate preferences or to meetspecific requirements, as discussed further.

Generally, all output nodes are hard to give up. Still, fortunately, thereare enough points to offer the choice of whichever utility options to pickinstead.

• Demonic Inspiration;
• Wrathful Minion;
• Socrethar's Guile;
• Sargerei Technique;
• Soul Conduit;
• Grimoire of Synergy;
• Summon Soulkeeper or Inquisitor's Gaze.

Some other utility nodes are also too good to pass up, especially in thecontext of dungeons:

• Fel Domination;
• Mortal Coil;
• Dark Pact especially on 45s cooldown;
• Demonic Gateway to skip areas of the dungeon;
• Shadowfury as one of the few AoE stuns.

Due to a lot of AoE pulls throughout a dungeon run, leaning towards cleave andAoE is generally the safer choice, even in the case of a Tyrannical Week.

• Talents supporting Seed of Corruption such as Sow the Seedsand become very desirable;
• Similarly, Vile Taint allows for multiple Agonies applications in asingle gcd;
• Drain Soul allows to gain easy shards off dying targets;
• Siphon Life offers yet another damage multiplierfor Summon Darkglare, and helps scaling damage multi-target whentalenting Grim Reach;
• Grim Reach offers incredible damage as it currently is a flat 50%damage increase on Summon Darkglare based on the number of damage overtime on the main target, while also affecting the main target;
• Wrath of Consumption offers a passive damage increase with highuptime across a dungeon run.
• Soul Rot is always taken since it is pivotal to the tier-set bonuses.

• Soul Flame points can be swapped for Pandemic Invocation in theneed of more single target damage or on Sacrolash's Dark Strike for a bit more AoE;
• Doom Blossom should be swapped to Dread Touch duringTyrannical weeks.

1. Intellect;
2. Haste to 30%;
3. Critical Strike/Mastery;
4. Versatility.

Worth mentioning that dropping Mastery too low will hamper the single targetoutput in comparison, so generally seeking a balance between the stats offersa more well rounded approach.

Simming item upgrades remains the preferable approach instead of relyingon stats blindly.

The Felhunter offers comparable single-target damage and an interrupt orpurge, but consider swapping to Imp if you need a dispel.

If you are using Grimoire of Sacrifice, we recommend sacrificing theFelhunter to provide your group with an extra interrupt. Suppose you need anextra cooldown to survive. In that case, you can also sacrifice a Voidwalkerbefore a difficult boss to access the Shadow Bulwark cooldown.

When choosing your trinkets, we recommend simulating yourself onRaidbots using the Patchwerk option for raids and single-target.Patchwerk with 4-5 targets or Hectic Add Cleave for an educated guess onmulti-target performance in Dungeons. Usually, trinkets that proc stats are moreversatile and better performers than single-target spell damage procs unlessovertuned.

You can also get a quick overview of suitable Mythic+ Trinkets on our Gearingpage. Specifically the Simulation chart for multi-target scenarios.