Affliction has changed a lot since the new talents have been brought to light, however, that doesn’t mean that this spec is dead in the water. In fact, I feel that it has actually been created to better fit what it was supposed to achieve (minus the whole Shadow Bolt part, which was important, but I’ll explain why this spec is better off below).
Click here to see the spec on WoWHead!
Shadow of a Doubt’s main purpose was, “the dismal chance of hope that you(r) opponent(s) will have to defeat you” which this new version excels with. Instead of just casting Corruption or Soulburn > Seed of Corruption, there is a spell combo to play around with. Soulburn > Soul Swap now places Unstable Affliction, Corruption, and Agony on your target at the same time. Yes, this does require a Soul Stone (which you generally will start with 4 of) to complete, but that is 4 targets that you automatically have beginning with 3 of your 4 available afflictions. You may be wondering what the 4th one is right now…it’s Seed of Corruption! This AoE ability is now able to be cast on a target that has Corruption on them, w/o removing it from them. Also, you aren’t restricted from having only 1 Seed of Corruption at a time. This means, that if you have 4 targets at any given moment, you can have Unstable Affliction, Corruption, Agony, and Seed of Corruption on all of them at all times (which would sadly require a good amount of time and targeting to do, but it can be done).
So, instead of the old “Haunt > Shadowbolt > Unstable Affliction > Corruption > Bane of Agony” the new rotation becomes:
Haunt> Soulburn> Soul Swap > Malefic Grasp> (if enemy has >20% hp) Malefic Grasp)/(if enemy has <20% hp) Drain Soul
The reason for that, is because while an enemy has less than 20% of their total hit points, Drain Soul deals itself and your other afflictions deal 100% more damage, whereas Malefic Grasp always only deals its damage and your afflictions deal an extra 50% more (at the time of when Malefic Grasp deals its damage not just the affliction’s own proc)
So, now that we have mentioned how Affliction’s new spells function, lets go over the spec and its abilities!
The main thing to remember is the difference for taking on a single enemy, or multiples. For a single, you want to use the new rotation mentioned above. As for taking down several enemies, you will want to make sure that they all have been a victim of your Soulburn/Soul Swap combo. After this, choose the 1st enemy that you targeted, and begin your Malefic Grasp spell on that target. When the enemy gets low enough, you can use Drain Soul. When that enemy dies, your Glyph of Soul Consumption will restore 20% of your life, and replenish ALL of your Soul Stones. With that 1st enemy down, you can now re-apply (if need be) all of your dots on enemies 2-4 or, you can go find 4 more enemies to begin dots on them, followed by Drain Soul on enemies 2-4 to again, regain lost life and Soul Stones.
Of course, knowing me, there has to be some elements of survivability. These of course are Soul Leech, to give the warlock a protective shield after casting certain spells. Soul Link will make your pet share the damage (and life gaining to keep your pet at full health w/o having to use Health Funnel). Also, Siphon Life will make your Corruption spell ticks keep a constant flow of health come to the warlock. However, if you start biting more than you can chew, or if you have too many adds, there are a few abilities that will help you to survive. Howl of Terror should be your main go to spell for removing excess enemies. Not only will it keep the damage on your foes, but the more you get hit afterward, the more quickly you can use it a second time, plus it’s an instant cast making it very useful. Burning Rush and Kil’jaeden’s Cunning will allow the Warlock to move around during casting at a a more suitable speed. Burning Rush has been handy for me to get out of a large area of effect attack while sustaining less damage than I would have if I had stayed and taken the hit.
Glyph of Unstable Affliction is only there for 1 reason, which is because there is a chance that during a Soulburn/Soul Swap combo 1 or more of the afflictions may not be applied, being counted as a miss, even if Soul Swap actually hit. So, for this, Agony and Corruption are instant casts which is no problem, but Unstable Affliction takes some time to cast, so any reduction is a good thing. I am not sure if there is a chance for 1 of the afflictions to miss if hit chance is 100% (I would hope not) so if that is the case, at 100% chance to hit, I would recommend Glyph of Health Stone instead. The extra health will be very handy even if it is over 10 seconds. This part is ok since Healthstone has a 2 minute cool down anyway, may as well gain more from it over a few seconds of time.
