How to Play an Affliction Warlock in World of Warcraft

A warlock in World of Warcraft that focuses on the affliction talent tree will be a formidable foe for mobs and in player-versus-player combat. Playing an affliction warlock in Warcraft is all about patience and efficiency. Here are some talents you should key in on and some strategies that will help you be a successful affliction warlock.

Instructions

1. Pick out your affliction talents. Some are better than others, but your first five talent points should go into improved corruption. This causes your corruption spell to be an instant cast when the talent is maxed. Other good affliction talents are siphon life, dark pact and nightfall, while improved curse of weakness and suppression are not the best places to spend your talent points.

2. Decide where you want to focus your other talents. One popular idea is to focus on destruction talents and ignore the demonology tree all together. Improved shadow bolt, bane, devastation and shadowburn are all good talents from the destruction tree. Demonic embrace is a decent talent from the demonology tree if you want to try that side.

3. Have the right pet active for the situation you're in. When you are leveling in player-versus-environment (PvE) play, the voidwalker is probably your best pet choice. It doesn't inflict lots of damage, but it can take lots of damage and it keeps aggro decently well. The imp is a great choice for group play and player-versus-player (PvP) combat because it can do lots of damage and buffs the group.

4. Cast your damage-over-time (DoT) spells to start combat. Start with a long cast-time DoT spell like immolate to begin combat and then cast your instant DoT spells like curse of agony and corruption. It is a good idea to set up a macro that will cause your pet to attack when you begin casting your first spell.

5. Begin the drain-tanking process. After you have your DoT spells on your target and your pet is holding aggro, cast drain life followed by life tap and repeat until the enemy is dead. What should happen is at the end of the battle you will have almost full health and mana, which causes an affliction warlock to have very little down time thus increasing their efficiency.

6. Use fear and howl of terror to limit the number of enemies you are fighting at one time. Also don't forget your sacrifice skill with the voidwalker which will grant you a temporary shield at the cost of your voidwalker. This can get you out of un-winnable battles and let you escape to summon your voidwalker again. An affliction warlock can get themselves out of lots of tough situations.

7. Utilize shadow bolt, shadowburn and soul fire when you need to inflict some serious damage. This may break your drain-tanking cycle, but it can save you in a lot of situations. Also consider carrying a wand, which can inflict decent damage and it does not cost mana.