Affliction Warlock

Ranged DPS (damage over time)Race: UndeadBuild 1.60.1.70753

Affliction is curses and dots. Improved Corruption, Shadow Mastery and Pandemic make the dots hit harder, Siphon Life and Soul Siphon heal you back, Nightfall gives instant Shadow Bolts, and Wrack is the capstone. Destruction points add Improved Shadow Bolt, Bane and Cataclysm.

Starter build and talent order Talent calculator Pre-raid BiS Leveling route Spellbook Enchants & consumables

Rotation

Opener: Curse of Agony (or Curse of the Elements for a mage-heavy raid), Corruption, Siphon Life, Shadow Bolt.

Priority: Keep Corruption, Curse of Agony and Siphon Life ticking, Shadow Bolt as the filler, Drain Life to refill; Life Tap when the healers are comfortable. Dark Pact if the build has it.

Cooldowns: Amplify Curse before Curse of Agony; Death Coil as an emergency heal and interrupt; Howl of Terror to peel.

Forever notes: Affliction with a Voidwalker or Felhunter is the easiest leveling spec in the game and holds up in Forever's dungeons; Nightfall makes Shadow Bolt free.

Stats

Spell Hit to 16% (Suppression covers 5%), Shadow spell power (every dot scales), Spell Crit (Pandemic), Intellect, then Stamina for Life Tap room.

Stamina is a mana stat for Warlocks through Life Tap; do not gear like a Mage.

Numbers for every spec and a gear comparer: stat weights.

Where it ranks

See the tier lists for PvE and PvP placement, and Classic vs Forever changes for what Blizzard altered in this class.

Wowhead and Icy Veins keep spec guides of their own: Icy Veins Affliction Warlock, Wowhead class guides. Our rotation notes are editorial, written for the Nov 2 tuning.

Editorial, 2026-11-04; sources linked in the text. Wowhead and Icy Veins guides are referenced, not copied. Data from talentsforever.com (CC BY 4.0), read from the WoW Forever beta client, build 1.60.1.70753. Updated 2026-11-04. World of Warcraft is a trademark of Blizzard Entertainment; this is a fan site.