PvP Affliction Warlock Guide

PvP Affliction Warlock

Stat Priority

Talents & Builds

Pre-Bis & Best In Slot (BiS)

Glyphs, Gems, Enchants, & Consumables

Rotation, Cooldowns, & Abilities

Welcome to the Affliction Warlock PVP guide for World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King!

In this guide, you will learn how to properly play an Affliction Warlock in PvP scenarios whether those might be battlegrounds, arenas, or the open world. The Affliction Warlock is a “Damage-over-Time” emphasized type of caster that thrives on inflicting powerful curses and life-draining effects on his enemies, slowly but surely wreaking havoc among the enemy lines.

Mostly characterized by high survivability and an array of offensive and utility spells, those including powerful debuffs and curses such as the Curse of Tongues and Curse of the Elements. They also have the ability to create powerful assistive items such as soulstones and healthstones.

This guide covers the Affliction Warlock regarding the latest patch 3.3.5 which includes:

BiS gear, gems, enchantments, gameplay, and spell rotation tips.

Best Races

Considering the expansion we are reviewing, the Warlock class has several interesting choices when thinking about PvP content. The most notable choices are Human for the Alliance and either Undead or Blood Elf for the Horde.

Horde

• Orc: One of the available races to choose from when creating a Warlock, Orcs provide two interesting effects for PvP content. The first one is Command, which offers your pet a 5% damage increase. This racial can offer a small boost to your overall damage, especially in a “mirror” match where you are fighting another Warlock of another race. The second interesting racial is Hardiness which reduces the duration of stun effects by 15% which can make the difference between a win or a loss in a situation where your trinket is on cooldown. Lastly, Orcs benefit from one additional racial effect, Blood Fury, an effect that acts as a spell power steroid that scales with your level.

• Undead: Undead are one of the favorite races for Warlocks on the Horde, not only due to the fitting aesthetics but also for their powerful PvP racials. Will of the Forsaken acts as a trinket that removes charm, sleep, and fear effects – you can think about it just like a second trinket in your pocket. The second racial that we will talk about is an all-time Undead trademark, Cannibalize, allowing you to feast upon the corpses of your fallen enemies, not only to regenerate your health points but also to instill terror upon those watching the unspeakable act. Shadow Resistance is another beneficial effect; it reduces the chance to be hit by Shadow spells by 2%. If you feel like being a silent predator, Underwater Breathing will allow you to hide in large bodies of water for a very long time waiting for any unsuspecting prey that you have set your eyes upon.

• Blood Elf: Just like the Undead, Blood Elves have two interesting racials with high applicability in PvP content. The first of those is Arcane Torrent, acting as an interrupt and a silence effect, which is especially useful when fighting against other casters. The second racial is Magic Resistance which offers you a 2% chance that spells will miss you. This is a very fine avoidance tool. Other than that, the Blood Elves do not offer any other special racial effects for PvP content but who knows, maybe your love for Silvermoon and their aesthetics will persuade you to pick this race.

Alliance

• Human: One of the two available races on the Alliance that can pick Warlock, Humans have always been a preferred choice for PvP-oriented players due to their extremely powerful racial, Every Man for Himself. This racial acts as a trinket, removing any stun/charm/fear/incapacitating, or sleep effect that may be used on you by another player or even NPCs. This racial allows you to venture forth into PvP scenarios while using two PvE damage-enhancing trinkets. The tradeoff however is that without a trinket you will have reduced resilience at the benefit of increased offensive capabilities. Another interesting racial that can benefit the Warlock class is The Human Spirit which increases your overall spirit stat percentage by 3%, working perfectly in conjunction with Fel Armor. Other than that there is another small yet beneficial racial that can be used in PvP scenarios to escape potential threats or to better react to them, Perception, which increases your stealth detection. You would rather avoid getting backstabbed, wouldn’t you? Perception is a major benefit in PvP – especially in arenas when facing stealth groups.

• Gnome: The second race on the Alliance that players can choose when wanting to play a Warlock, Gnomes offer Expansive Mind which can benefit your overall damage. They also offer a somewhat weaker trinket effect that removes any immobilizing or slow effects on you called Escape Artist and Arcane Resistance which, just like the Blood Elf racial, although weaker, reduces the chance to be hit by Arcane spells by 2%. One perk of the Gnome race is their small model which might be hard to find in the chaos of battle. This will allow them somewhat of a tactical advantage, being hard to distinguish. However, other than that their passives are weaker than the other races for PvP content. Did we mention that their armor looks rather weird on them?

Best Professions

• Alchemy offers a variety of useful potions and flasks, although not being able to use potions in arenas, you can still use one specific flask dedicated to alchemists,  Flask of the North, which offers either spell power, attack power, or raw strength and is the only usable flask in an arena. Alchemy offers potions like Free Action Potion which can be used as an improvised trinket in dire situations.
• Blacksmithing is a profession that allows you to craft gear pieces from ingots, leathers, and other items found throughout the world. This profession allows you to add two extra sockets to your gear, one placed in the gloves and one placed in the bracers. Apart from this bonus and the ability to craft profitable gear, Blacksmithing does not offer you other worthwhile bonuses for PvP.
• Enchanting offers you the ability to enchant you and your ally’s equipment with various magical effects that bring an edge. This profession also allows you to disenchant equipment in order to break it down into rare magical essences required for the practitioners of this craft and other professions such as Tailoring, Blacksmithing, and Jewelcrafting. Picking up Enchanting will allow you a special enchantment that can be placed onto your rings. For example, for casters, it can provide 23 additional spell power on each ring. This profession is very useful when paired with Tailoring due to the disenchanting ability, effectively allowing you to craft equipment that can be broken down into magical essences.
• Engineering: One of the most versatile professions and the most beloved profession when it comes to player-versus-player content, Engineering offers the player a range of powerful gadgets and bombs that give him an edge over his opponents. Nitro Boosts offers a powerful chase or escape ability if you are looking to catch up to one opponent or gain a range difference, allowing you to place yourself out of harm’s way. It works especially well with Demonic Circle: Summon, allowing you to confuse your enemies. You can benefit from bombs such as Saronite Bomb or Frag Belt,  rockets such as Hand-Mounted Pyro Rocket, or nifty gadgets such as the Mind Amplification Dish which attempts to take control of the enemy’s character, and the Flexweave Underlay which turns your cloak into a parachute.
• Inscription is a profession that allows you to create various glyphs, trinkets, and special parchments which are usable by Enchanters. This profession allows you to utilize a special enchantment for your shoulders, which can offer different effects such as increased spell power, Master’s Inscription of the Storm.
• Jewelcrafting is one of the professions which can lend you plenty of gold while also contributing to the min-maxing aspect of the game. A Jewelcrafter can create special gems like the Mystic Dragon’s Eye which boost your resilience by a considerable value.
• Leatherworking is a profession that allows you to craft gear pieces from leather gathered from animals all around the world. Leatherworkers have the Fur Lining ability, this allows them to place a special enchantment on the bracers. This enchantment has different bonuses, one of the most beneficent ones being the Fur Lining – Spell Power, increasing our spell power by 76.
• Tailoring provides the user with the ability to create gear for themselves early in the expansion that allow for a very strong advantage but as time progresses the true advantage of this profession comes from the Lightweave Embroidery enchantment. Tailoring is best paired up with Engineering when you are close to high-end gear.
• Herbalism will generate you a very good source of income, especially when paired with Alchemy, it also offers one potentially good life-saving ability for PvP scenarios, Lifeblood, which offers a heal-over-time effect that can save you in clutch situations.
• Mining will generate you a good source of income while also generating enough raw materials to level up professions such as Engineering or Jewelcrafting. Most people underestimate the profitability of mining but rest assured that it will make you go a long way. Not only will it provide you with a sustainable source of gold but it will also provide you with a special passive that will enhance your PvP potency, Toughness, which will increase your stamina by 60 at max rank.
• Skinning is mainly used as a gathering profession that can be very profitable. Skinning grants you the ability to remove the pelts of the animals that you kill across your journeys. It also offers you a nice boost to your critical strike rating in the form of Master of Anatomy.