Warlock · Affliction
Affliction maintains Agony and Corruption or Wither, uses Dark Harvest for priority damage, and spends Soul Shards on Unstable Affliction or Seed of Corruption. Its damage peaks when shards, DoTs, trinkets, and Summon Darkglare align.
Built from Blizzard Game Data APIsWarcraft LogsSimulationCraft
Guide contents
How Affliction Warlock wins
Affliction maintains Agony and Corruption or Wither, uses Dark Harvest for priority damage, and spends Soul Shards on Unstable Affliction or Seed of Corruption. Its damage peaks when shards, DoTs, trinkets, and Summon Darkglare align.
- Role
- Ranged DPS
- Stat lead
- Item Level / Intellect then Single target: Critical Strike
- Single target
- Soul Harvester
- Cleave / AoE
- Soul Harvester
Strong when
- Strong sustained, priority-target, and spread-cleave damage
- Self-healing and utility (gateway, healthstones, curses)
- Mobile damage with exceptional defensive and raid utility
Plan around
- Damage falls off when targets die before DoTs can work
- DoT maintenance across target swaps
- Requires deliberate shard and cooldown planning
What changed for this spec
Two talents are gone. Nocturnal Yield is removed because Blizzard says Nightfall is usually best spent on Seed of Corruption regardless of target count, which can have adverse effects on talents that benefit from Shadow Bolt or Drain Soul; that free-Seed feel is merged into a redesigned Shard Instability, where Shadow Bolt or Drain Soul damage has a 20% chance to make the next Unstable Affliction or Seed of Corruption cost no Soul Shards and cast instantly. Patient Zero is removed for warping Seed of Corruption away from its multi-target identity. Two new talents replace them, Impetuous Wrath and Hedonic Gorging. Haunt now increases your damage dealt to the target by 16% for 18 seconds, up from 12%. For Hellcaller, Blackened Soul was redesigned around Wither stacks.
One thing on this page names an ability the patch changed
These are flagged, not corrected. Rewriting a priority list needs a source this page does not have, so what is shown is where the guide and the patch notes disagree.
- Patient Zero (talents) The notes list it under "The following talents have been removed:" with the developer note that "Patient Zero warps the damage profile of Seed of Corruption heavily." It no longer exists in 12.1.
Source: Blizzard, Curse of Ula'tek content update notes (https://worldofwarcraft.blizzard.com/en-us/news/24293281). Transcript: docs/apps/wow-god/research/patch-12.1/12.1.0-CLASSES-section.txt
Not re-verified for Season 2. This ordering was checked for patch 12.0.7. Patch 12.1 raised max-level player health and creature damage by 25% and deliberately moved power out of cooldowns into steady-state damage, either of which can move secondary weights. Open question: no Season 2 sim source has been checked, so the order below is last season's and is shown unchanged rather than guessed at.
Stat priority and consumables
Item level and effect strength still matter. Use this ordering to break close choices, then re-check it after major gear swaps.
- 1.Item Level / Intellect
- 2.Single target: Critical Strike
- 3.Single target: Haste = Mastery
- 4.AoE: Haste = Critical Strike
- 5.Versatility
On sustained single target, use Crit > Haste = Mastery > Versatility. In AoE and Mythic+, Haste rises to Haste = Crit > Mastery > Versatility because it accelerates DoT application, shard generation, and Seed of Corruption casts. There are no fixed caps; diminishing returns and your current gear make sims important for close items.
Flasks, food, potions, weapon oils, and runes for this build.
Priority order is from patch 12.0.7 and has not been re-derived for 12.1. Individual lines naming an ability that 12.1 removed or redesigned are annotated above; lines that 12.1 only retuned are unchanged, because a damage number moving does not by itself reorder a priority list.
Opener and priority
Use these as decision priorities, not a rigid cast sequence. Re-evaluate whenever targets, resources, procs, or mechanics change.
Core principles
- Affliction is a fairly simple generator-to-spender rotation at its core, with a few short cooldowns and a small handful of rules to follow.
- Don't overcap your Soul Shards: shards are capped at 5, overcapping is a damage loss, and they should not be pooled unless you are heading into a damage window.
- React to procs: both Shard Instability and Nightfall proc often - stay aware of them to maximize damage and avoid overcapping the effects.
HellcallerReplaces Corruption with Wither and stacks Malevolence into the Darkglare window - Malevolence returns every minute, pairing back with Darkglare every two.
Single-target priority
- 1.Haunt
- 2.Agony
- 3.Wither
- 4.Dark Harvest
- 5.Summon Darkglare
- 6.Malevolence
- 7.Unstable Affliction - cast as many as possible
- 8.Malefic Grasp
AoE priority
- 1.Seed of Corruption
- 2.Haunt - on your priority target
- 3.Agony - on a handful of targets
- 4.Summon Darkglare
- 5.Malevolence
- 6.Dark Harvest
- 7.Seed of Corruption - as many times as possible
- 8.Malefic Grasp
Opener
- 1.Precast Haunt so it lands as the pull happens, with your racial and on-use trinket.
- 2.Cast Agony on pull, then Wither.
- 3.Cast Dark Harvest, then Summon Darkglare, then Malevolence.
- 4.Cast as many Unstable Affliction as possible, then Malefic Grasp.
- 5.Proceed onto the normal priority list.
Soul HarvesterThe shard engine: Shadow of Death grants 3 Soul Shards on every Dark Harvest cast, feeding chained Unstable Afflictions through the Darkglare window.
Single-target priority
AoE priority
- 1.Seed of Corruption
- 2.Haunt - on your priority target
- 3.Agony - on a handful of targets
- 4.Summon Darkglare
- 5.Dark Harvest
- 6.Seed of Corruption - as many times as possible
- 7.Malefic Grasp
Opener
- 1.Precast Haunt so it lands as the pull happens, with your racial and on-use trinket.
- 2.Cast Agony on pull, then Corruption.
- 3.Cast Summon Darkglare, then 2-3 Unstable Affliction.
- 4.Cast Dark Harvest, then as many Unstable Affliction as possible, then Malefic Grasp.
- 5.Proceed onto the normal priority list.
Pre-combat checks
- Get your food buff and weapon oil applied.
- Summon your pet.
- Drop Healthstones - cast Create Soulwell so every party or raid member gets one.
- Place your portals: Summon Demonic Circle for yourself and Demonic Gateway for the group, in appropriate locations.
- Double check your talents for the boss before the pull.
Major cooldowns
Summon Darkglare
- Your major cooldown on a two-minute timer: it increases the damage of your active DoT effects by 20% while active.
- Cast Darkglare BEFORE you begin chain-casting Unstable Affliction so the damage amp covers the entire duration of your Unstable Affliction effects.
Dark Harvest
- A spec-tree talent that functions differently per hero tree, with cooldown reduction from Cull the Weak making it roughly a 40-second cooldown.
- Hellcaller: simply press it when it is off cooldown for its damage value.
- Soul Harvester: it is the capstone of the tree via Shadow of Death, granting 3 Soul Shards per cast - which vastly increases shard generation and also yields slightly more Cull the Weak cooldown reduction than Hellcaller gets.
Malevolence
- The Hellcaller capstone on a one-minute cooldown - with Through the Felvine, pair it with every Darkglare cast: Malevolence every minute, lining back up with Darkglare every two minutes.
- The effect grants a small Haste buff, increases the stack count of EACH active Wither by 6, and causes targets affected by Wither to take damage.
Advanced tips
Gameplay and pandemic
- Cast Dark Harvest essentially on cooldown as long as you will not overcap Soul Shards - remember it only generates shards as Soul Harvester, not Hellcaller.
- Maintain Unstable Affliction while passively pooling shards for your Summon Darkglare window, and sync Dark Harvest into the Darkglare window to regenerate shards once your pre-pooled ones are spent.
- Refreshing DoTs slightly before the pandemic window is only a small loss, but it is still worth min-maxing. Pandemic ranges: Agony 4.5 seconds, Corruption 4.2 seconds, Unstable Affliction 6.3 seconds.
- Refreshing DoTs on the move is a DPS gain over casting nothing - mobility is one of Affliction's main perks.
Import strings were built for patch 12.0.7 and have NOT been re-verified for 12.1. Nobody authoritative publishes import strings, so none was rewritten here rather than invented. Patch 12.1 moved or removed talents in several trees, so a string may import a build that no longer exists. Check the listed key talents against the 12.1 changes above before importing.
Talents and hero trees
Use Soul Harvester for the single-target profile below and Soul Harvester when cleave or adds make its toolkit more valuable.
Recommended starting profiles
Single-target: Soul Harvester
Soul Harvester is the current default for single target and small-target cleave, amplifying Unstable Affliction builds.
- Soul Harvester hero tree
- Stat priority: Item Level / Intellect > Critical Strike
- Interrupt: Spell Lock
Multi-target: Soul Harvester
Soul Harvester is also the current default Mythic+ build. Hellcaller is a strong alternative only for sustained spread cleave where Wither can keep working.
- Soul Harvester hero tree
- Prioritize AoE and add-swap talents
- Interrupt: Spell Lock
Talent builds and import strings
Start with the profile matching your content. Boss and dungeon tabs in the gear section show the exact loadout used for each ranked result.
Soul Harvester - Single Target
The current default single-target build. It uses Xavius' Gambit, Cascading Calamity, and Fatal Echoes to amplify Unstable Affliction.
CkQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAwMzMzoZjhZmZmlBAAYmZZ2mZmFzAAjttBGwAmhlADbDAAAzAAAYmZMjZGDDzYmZGDmZmBAYGYASoul Harvester - Mythic+
The recommended key build. Seeds of Destruction, Patient Zero, and Sow the Seeds turn Seed of Corruption into a reliable stacked-pack spender.
CkQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAwMjZGNbmxmZGzyAAAmZmlZzMz2YAgx22ADYCmhtADbDAAAGAAAzMjZMzsNzYGMzMzYYmZmBAMDMAHellcaller - Spread Cleave
Use this alternative when multiple targets live long enough for Wither and Malevolence to do real work. It is not the default stacked Mythic+ build.
CkQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAwMzMzoZjBzMmlBAAYmZZWmZmlxAAWgBmFjGzAysAWGAAAMAAwMDmZGzMMGmZmZmZGMzMzAAmBGComplete talent referenceshow
Every class, specialization, and hero-tree talent from Blizzard game data. Active and choice talents stay open; passive nodes remain searchable and expand on demand.
Complete talent referenceshow
Every class, specialization, and hero-tree talent from Blizzard game data. Active and choice talents stay open; passive nodes remain searchable and expand on demand.
Warlock class tree
Shared class talents, including throughput, control, defensives, and movement.
Active and choice talents
Passive talents
Affliction specialization tree
Every Affliction talent currently exposed by Blizzard game data.
Active and choice talents
Passive talents
Soul Harvester
Soul Harvester hero talents, including every active, choice, and passive node exposed by Blizzard.
Active and choice talents
Passive talents
Hellcaller
Hellcaller hero talents, including every active, choice, and passive node exposed by Blizzard.
Active and choice talents
Passive talents
Diabolist
Diabolist hero talents, including every active, choice, and passive node exposed by Blizzard.
Active and choice talents
Passive talents
Boss and dungeon loadouts
Switch between raid and Mythic+ to inspect the top player for every available encounter: exact talents, source link, item level, enchant and socket counts, and the player's gear.
Season 2 class set
datamined. Read out of the game's spell data and republished by Wowhead. Blizzard does not publish set bonus text, so there is no first-party version to compare it against.- 2-piece
- [Wither / Corruption] damage increased by 25%. Agony damage increased by 15%.
- 4-piece
- Each active Unstable Affliction increases your damage dealt by your spells and abilities by 2%, up to 6%. Seed of Corruption applies Unstable Affliction at 20% effectiveness to your target.
Source: Wowhead spell pages, retrieved 2026-09-05. spell 1296568, spell 1296569. Third party, not Blizzard. If one of these is wrong, check the overview page and tell us.
Pulling the top Warcraft Logs result, exact talents, and equipment for each boss.
Editorial acquisition targets
Use these slot targets when planning drops and crafted pieces. The encounter explorer above remains the source for the exact gear worn by each ranked player.
Season 1 acquisition targets, not re-verified for Season 2. The rows below name Season 1 items at their Season 1 item levels and are accurate as that; they are not Season 2 recommendations. Season 2's raid is The Venomous Abyss (8 bosses, Nek'zali the Soulcoiler through Ula'tek). Confirmed Season 2 raid item levels run 279 (Raid Finder, first boss) to 344 (Mythic, last two bosses and Very Rare drops), with Normal 292-302, Heroic 305-315 and the Great Vault paying 292/305/318/334 by difficulty. Open question: per-slot best-in-slot for Season 2 needs a sim source, and none was reachable.
Season 1 acquisition targets, not re-verified for Season 2. The dungeons named below are the Season 1 pool and are not in Season 2 rotation. Season 2 runs Altar of Fangs (new in 12.1), Murder Row, Den of Nalorakk, The Blinding Vale, Voidscar Arena, Temple of Sethraliss, Kings' Rest and Ruby Life Pools. Confirmed Season 2 keystone item levels: +2 through +3 pay 295 end-of-run and 305 in the vault, rising to 311 end-of-run and 318 in the vault at +10 and above. Open question: per-slot best-in-slot for Season 2 needs a sim source, and none was reachable.
Enchants
Choose enhancements after your equipment is settled. Secondary-stat enchant choices move with your current stat mix and the content you are preparing for.
Gems
Socket into the current stat priority, then re-check after major equipment swaps rather than treating a gem choice as permanent.
Embellishments
Crafted effects are capped at two equipped embellishments. Lock these in only after deciding which crafted slots survive your next raid or Mythic+ upgrades.
Utility, defensives, and movement
Your Warlock toolkit is part of the rotation whenever it prevents lost uptime, lethal damage, or an enemy cast.
Raid-wide Healthstones and a combat-rez Soulstone are unique Warlock utility.
Interrupt: Spell Lock - grab a focus-interrupt macro on the Affliction macros page.
Interface and macros
Use interface changes only when they expose a decision sooner: resources, procs, defensives, dispels, interrupts, and encounter assignments.
Mouseover Agony
#showtooltip Agony
/cast [@mouseover,harm,nodead][] AgonyMouseover Corruption
#showtooltip Corruption
/cast [@mouseover,harm,nodead][] CorruptionFocus Spell Lock
#showtooltip Spell Lock
/cast [@focus,harm,nodead][] Spell LockCursor Demonic Gateway
#showtooltip Demonic Gateway
/cast [@cursor] Demonic GatewaySoulburn Healthstone
#showtooltip Demonic Healthstone
/cast Soulburn
/use Demonic HealthstoneWritten for patch 12.0.7. Patch 12.1 increased max-level player health and creature damage by 25% and made crowd-control diminishing returns reset after 20 seconds instead of 16, so defensive timing and crowd-control advice on this page is the most likely to have moved. Source: Curse of Ula'tek content update notes, https://worldofwarcraft.blizzard.com/en-us/news/24293281.
What improves results
- Maintain Agony and Corruption or Wither on targets that will live long enough
- Build shards before Darkglare, then spend aggressively during the window
- Use Seed of Corruption for stacked multi-target; use Unstable Affliction for single target
- Save a few shards before Malevolence, then spend to keep Wither's burn phase active
Common mistakes
- Using Malefic Rapture or Soul Rot - they are not part of the current Midnight core loop
- Casting Darkglare without DoTs or shards prepared
- Capping Soul Shards while waiting too long for a perfect cooldown window
- Trying to full-DoT targets that will die before the investment pays off
FAQ
3 quick answersWhich hero tree should I play?
Soul Harvester is the current default for both single target and Mythic+. Choose Hellcaller only when sustained spread cleave lets Wither and Malevolence gain real value.
Which race is best?
Racial damage differences are small. Mag'har Orc and Mechagnome are the highest-simming choices in their factions, while Dwarf and Dark Iron Dwarf bring Stoneform for difficult debuffs. Choose a race for utility unless you are optimizing the final fraction of a percent.
Which Midnight raid fights favor Affliction?
Vaelgor & Ezzorak is the standout: two permanent bosses mean full DoT uptime on both targets. Vorasius and Lightblinded Vanguard also reward the spec, provided Seed of Corruption goes into adds that need to die - on Vorasius that means Blistercreeps at the walls, not in open floor.
Guide Updates
- Aug 2, 2026Corrected the filler: Midnight merged Shadow Bolt and Drain Soul into Malefic Grasp, so Affliction has one filler button and no shared slot.
- Aug 2, 2026Added the structured rotation section - Hellcaller and Soul Harvester priorities, openers, pre-combat checks, Darkglare, Dark Harvest, and Malevolence usage, and pandemic guidance - transcribed from the current Wowhead Midnight rotation guide.
- Jul 31, 2026Editorial completion: added Midnight Season 1 encounter decisions for Vorasius, Vaelgor & Ezzorak, Lightblinded Vanguard, Belo'ren, Crown of the Cosmos, Chimaerus, and Midnight Falls.
- Jul 31, 2026Source trail: ability references revalidated against the Midnight active-talent data, the spec playbook, and the corrected warlock keybinds - Demonic Circle is bound as Summon Demonic Circle plus Demonic Circle: Teleport alongside the warlock macro set.
- Jul 31, 2026Patch review: reconfirmed the 12.0.7 stat priority, the Soul Harvester default for single target and Mythic+, and Spell Lock as the interrupt assignment.
Talents by enemy class
Pick an opponent to see the pressure your PvP build must answer. The baseline comes from this spec's current arena build when one is published.
Grip setups, anti-caster pressure, and sustained melee uptime.
Mobility, anti-slow, and physical or magic mitigation.
Keep an answer for grip-based isolation and do not spend movement before the Death Knight commits their control chain.
Comments
Comments load when you reach this section.
Loading comments...