Cataclysm Classic Affliction Warlock Rotation and Cooldowns (2024)

Last updated on May 17, 2024 at 00:00by Crix

On this page, you will learn how to optimize the rotation of yourAffliction Warlock in both single-target and multi-target PvEsituations in Cataclysm Classic. We also have advanced sections about cooldowns, procs, etc.in order to minmax your DPS.

This page contains all relevant information needed for Affliction Warlocksbefore the release of Cataclysm Classic. We will be updating this with all thelatest information as soon as more is discovered, so make sure to check back.

Affliction Warlocks bring great single-target and AoE damage to the raid, while having the highestmulti-target damage out of any classes in the game thanks to Soul Swap. Affliction comes With a strong Demon,Felhunter and a plethora of Damage over Time spells to rot all your enemies away. Affliction is based largely aroundit's hard hitting DoT's and it's powerful execute damage with Drain Soul.

A massive change coming into Cataclysm is how DoT's work. In the past you used to want to let them run theirentire duration to get full value of it. This is no longer an issue in Cataclysm. Now you can clip your lasttick of the DoT and the remainder will carry over into the new refreshed DoT, giving you an extra tick of thatDoT, which can be further improved depending on your Haste rating. Check out the Stats page for more in depthinformation about Haste breakpoints for each DoT. This also ensures that you can have 100% uptime on most encounters.

The job of an Affliction Warlock is pretty straight forward. You want to keep Haunt on the target at alltimes, keep your DoTs, Corruption, Unstable Affliction and Bane of Doom on the target 100%of the time and fill with Shadow Bolt while waiting to refresh some of your DoTs and once you're in executerange, you replace that Shadow Bolt and instead use Drain Soul to take advantage of the massive damageincrease that Drain Soul has when the target is at or below 25% Health.

It is mentioned earlier that you will haveto refresh some of your DoTs; some DoTs will automatically refresh themselves while going about your rotation.For example, due to the talent Everlasting Affliction, your Haunt and Drain Soul refreshyour Corruption and seeing as you should be keeping the Haunt debuff on the boss at all times,you should never have to manually apply Corruption after the initial one. Of course there will be few timesthat you can't keep up Corruption from your Haunt, but that won't be often.

Another example isdue to the talent Pandemic, your Drain Soul refreshes the duration of your Unstable Afflictionif the target is below 25% health. This means once you enter execute range you won't have to manually reapply both Corruption due to Everlasting Affliction or Unstable Affliction due to Pandemic.This makes for a much cozier rotation and expecially a much smoother execute phase.

1. (Prepull) Make sure your Summon Felguard is out
2. (Prepull) Make sure both Fel Armor and Soul Link is on.
3. (Prepull) Don't be max ranged due to wanting to run in and Shadowflame. I prefer 10-15 yards if boss allows.
4. Use Demon Soul and pop a Volcanic Potion
5. (Prepull) Precast Shadow Bolt if you can, so that it lands on the boss right when the pull timer hits zero seconds. Alsosend your Felhunter in to attack.
6. Cast Curse of the Elements if no other member is putting up the debuff. Assassination Rogues, Balance Druidsand Unholy Death Knights also apply this debuff.
7. Cast Haunt — You want this debuff up on the boss at all times. This will buff ALL of yourDoT's.
8. Pop your cooldowns like Blood Fury, Trinkets and whatever else you have.
9. Cast Bane of Doom — Only Bane of Agony if the boss won't live for 30 seconds.
10. Cast Summon Doomguard — He cannot be lusted, but snaps your spell power, so pop this when you haveas much spell power as possible. Hold this until you have your Spell Power procs up if you need to. Note that it will attackwhatever has your Bane of Doom or Bane of Agony on it.
11. Cast Corruption — Keep this up at all times. This will naturally get refreshed everytime you Haunt,so after your initial Corruption.
12. Cast Unstable Affliction — Keep this up at all times. This will naturally get refreshed once in execute rangefrom your Drain Soul.
13. Cast Shadowflame — If being in melee range allows, you should use this on cooldown. This does great single targetdamage. If you are worried about dying in melee, then do not worry about using Shadowflame.
14. Fill with Shadow Bolt — You will be using this as often as you can, so long as all of your DoT's are up.
15. Cast Drain Soul once in execute range. Continue your same rotation, but fill with Drain Soul instead of Shadow Bolt.

1. Corruption a few targets. This is to get Eradication procs. You can typically put these up while I'm running intomelee range to Shadowflame.
2. Shadowflame as soon as you get into melee range. This does a significant amount of damage and should be used on as muchas you can on cooldown.
3. Cast Soulburn and then Seed of Corruption — This will make it so when that first Seed of Corruptionblows up, it will apply Corruption to every target that is hit with it.
4. Keep casting Seed of Corruption.
5. Make sure to throw explosives if you're Engineering for extra damage.