Affliction Warlock
Affliction Warlock — DPS
Stacked damage-over-time effects that pay out through Malefic Rapture.
Last updated 8/28/2026 by Guild guides
Log sample
Overview
Affliction is the patient spec. You spend the opening seconds applying rot to everything that will live long enough to be worth it, then convert soul shards into burst through Malefic Rapture, which hits harder for every damage-over-time effect already ticking. It rewards planning and punishes tunnel vision — a dropped Agony costs you more than a missed global.
How this spec operates
- Soul Shards from
Agony fuel 
Malefic Rapture — the more dots out, the harder it hits. - Keep Agony,
Corruption, and 
Unstable Affliction rolling — refresh inside the last 30%. 
Haunt amplifies what's already ticking — press on cooldown on the primary target.- Slow ramp — poor on targets that die before dots mature.
Summon Darkglare extends every active dot — never press before rot is fully spread.
Strengths & weaknesses
Strengths
Weaknesses
- Excellent sustained damage across several targets at once
- Damage keeps ticking while you move, so mechanics cost you very little
- Strong self-healing through drain effects and healthstones
- Slow to ramp — poor on targets that die quickly
- Heavily punished by target swapping before dots pay off
- Needs setup time after every forced movement or add wave
What top logs actually run
Sampled from Warcraft Logs via Archon · updated 2026-08-27T12:00:00Z · 17144 parses
Spec & Hero Popularity
37.5%
Keystone Level
+15
DPS
247.2k