PvE Affliction Warlock DPS Guide

Affliction Warlock DPS Guide

Stat Priority

Talents & Builds

Gear & Best In Slot (BiS)

Gems, Enchants, & Consumables

Rotation, Cooldowns, & Abilities

Welcome to the Affliction Warlock DPS guide for World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Classic. In this guide you will learn how to play a Destruction Warlock and how to maximize your efficiency in dungeons, heroics and raids. In Phase One, Affliction is the best choice for utility and will give better overall DPS until we upgrade our gear in later phases. This guide includes BiS Gear, gems, enchantments, gameplay and spell rotation tips.

Best Races

For Horde and Alliance, there are a few different race options to select from on each side, some having some notable perks. 

Horde

• Orc: The benefit to playing an Orc Warlock is Command which increases pet damage by 5%. As an Affliction Warlock we will be using our pets for additional damage and stats (mainly imp). Blood Fury increases our attack power, and the attack power of our pet scales up as well. Another benefit to playing an Orc Warlock is Blood Fury, increasing your spell damage for a short time.
• Undead: In PvP, Will of the Forsaken is a strong ability that breaks charm, fear and sleep crowd control abilities which can quickly give you an advantage in arenas. This is useful for Warlocks in general, but does not help in endgame DPS roles. 
• Blood Elf: Arcane Torrent offers players the ability to silence all mobs within 8 yards for 2 seconds on a 2-minute cooldown. This also restores a certain amount of mana based on how many charges of Mana Tap you currently have.

Alliance

• Gnome: Because intellect is one of the top priority stats for Warlocks, Gnomes are a popular choice due to Expansive Mind, which grants an overall 5% increase to intelligence. Escape Artist is a valuable tool especially for a cloth wearing class which breaks immobilization and movement speed reduction effects. 
• Human: One major benefit to choosing a Human for any class is Diplomacy, which increases reputation gains by 10%. Grinding reputation is going to be a big part of The Burning Crusade to complete attunements by obtaining the keys to unlock heroic dungeons, get recipes for your professions, and get other special items like mounts. Some BiS gear comes from reputation, as well. The other benefit would be Human Spirit, increasing your total spirit by 10%.

Best Professions

Tailoring: Tailoring is a great choice for Warlocks in The Burning Crusade because of a handful of strong Bind-on-Pickup (BoP) items that become available throughout different phases of the game. Because Warlocks can only wear cloth armor, anything you make is usable. In early phases of TBC Classic, you can save a decent amount of gold being able to craft your own armor as well. 

A new level 70 Warlock will want to craft the Spellstrike or Shadow’s Embrace sets to boost fire and shadow damage. Tailors are able to craft bags specifically designed to carry your Soul Shards like Felcloth Bag, which is a unique bag only Warlocks can equip. Tailoring is usually paired with enchanting. 

Enchanting: Enchanting can be an expensive profession to level, but it can be just as rewarding in the long run. We now have enchants that are exclusive to high-level enchanters. These enchants are placed on your own rings. Note: Unlike in the original TBC expansion, Enchanters can no longer enchant their rings, unlearn the profession, and continue to benefit from those two enchants unless they level up enchanting again.

Alchemy/Herbalism: As Warlocks, we are going to use a fair amount of consumables. Notably, we want to be using Flask of Pure Death as much as possible to stay competitive on the meters. It is of great benefit to be making your own potions and flasks to be able to save on purchasing them from the Auction House, and to be able to sell them to other players, especially towards the beginning of each phase of new content. 

As a Herbalist, Warlocks do not have as much advantage as Druids and Rogues for accessing nodes, but we do have some tactics. It is great to have the option to fear nearby monsters (or players) to pick a herb, or use our pet to keep a mob busy on the side while we pick it. Alone, Herbalism can still be reasonably profitable. 

Engineering: Back on Azeroth, Engineering ruled in PvE content thanks to sappers and grenades to use in between other abilities or in specialized situations. Engineering can be used to craft certain high-level items that are unique to that profession. Beginning in Phase 2, we’re able to craft Destruction Holo-Gogs.You can also craft items like Dense Dynamite, Adamantine Grenade and if you’re feeling rather festive, you can craft different variations of Blue Firework.

Jewelcrafting: The greatest benefit to being a Jewelcrafter is going to be access to Soulbound gems. These are available in phase one, so start leveling jewelcrafting to have access to these gems early on.

As a Jewelcrafter we have access to crafted trinkets, particularly Figurine – Living Ruby. This is a great option for Warlocks in Phase One, especially if you don’t need the trinket slot to achieve hit cap. 

Leatherworking: Leatherworking provides players the opportunity to craft items like Drums of Battle, which increases each party member’s haste rating significantly. However, unlike in the original TBC, we’re unable to constantly activate these to ensure maximum uptime, thanks to a 2-minute debuff placed on all players affected. For anything beyond damage bonuses, being a leatherworker does not benefit Warlocks. 

Blacksmithing: There is no benefit for Warlocks to become a Blacksmith. 

Mining: Mining is reasonably profitable for any class, especially to sell ore for Jewelcrafters to Prospect.

Skinning: Skinning can be profitable, but is not suggested unless paired with leatherworking.