DPS Rotation & Cooldowns

A general priority guide for Affliction Warlock abilities and cooldowns. Helpful for understanding the spec's fundamentals and getting comfortable with core synergies. Updated for the latest patch in World of Warcraft: Midnight (12.0.1).

Single Target

Ensure your pet is summoned and Create Soulwell is used for healthstones before combat.

• HauntView detailsUse on cooldown.
• AgonyView detailsMaintain on the target.
• WitherView detailsApply and maintain.
• Dark HarvestView detailsUse on cooldown.
• Summon DarkglareView detailsUse to amplify DoT damage.
• MalevolenceView detailsUse on cooldown.
• Unstable AfflictionView detailsCast as many as possible.
• Malefic GraspView detailsUse as a filler.

Maintain Agony and Wither on the target while using Haunt and Dark Harvest on cooldown. Amplify your DoTs with Summon Darkglare and Malevolence, and spend excess resources on Unstable Affliction.

AoE

• Seed Of CorruptionView detailsCast as many as possible.
• HauntView detailsUse on your priority target.
• AgonyView detailsMaintain on multiple targets.
• Summon DarkglareView detailsUse to amplify DoT damage.
• MalevolenceView detailsUse on cooldown.
• Dark HarvestView detailsUse on cooldown.
• Malefic GraspView detailsUse as a filler.

Focus on spreading Seed Of Corruption and maintaining Agony on multiple targets. Use Haunt on your priority target and amplify damage with Summon Darkglare and Malevolence.

Cooldowns

• Summon DarkglareView detailsUse to amplify DoT damage; pair with Unstable Affliction.
• Dark HarvestView detailsUse on cooldown; generates Soul Shards with Soul Harvester.
• MalevolenceView detailsUse every minute; pair with Summon Darkglare every two minutes.

Use Summon Darkglare to boost DoT damage, Dark Harvest for shard generation, and Malevolence for additional damage and synergy with Summon Darkglare.

New to Class? Try Assisted Rotation

Patch 11.1.7 introduced new features that make it eaiser to pick and play new characters. These new settings can be enabled from settings » gameplay enhancements:

• Single-Button Assistant
• Assisted Highlight
• Cooldown Manager

If you are new to World of Warcraft or a certain class, enabling Assisted Highlight and Cooldown Manager can help you learn which abilities to prioritize and use.

While the Single-Button Assistant can be a much easier and more accessible way to play the game, it does come with a slight performance hit due to a small GCD penalty, as you will have to wait 25% longer in between spells and abilities.

To see which specs are best with the Single-Button Assistant feature, you can check out our DPS Rankings which uses SimC to sim every class using this feature.