Affliction Warlock Leveling Guide from 1 to 80 — The War Within (Season 1)

Last updated on Oct 29, 2024 at 20:56 by Motoko 46 comments

On this page, you will find our Level by Level Affliction Warlock leveling guide for The War Within. Make sure to use the slider to make the guide adapt to your level. For more general leveling information, please refer to our Warlock leveling guide.

1.

Affliction Warlock Leveling Guide for The War Within

1.1.

Affliction Warlock Leveling Playstyle

Affliction Warlock being a DoT specialisation offers a very efficient leveling experience consisting of tagging multiple mobs with either Agony Icon Agony or Corruption Icon Corruption while moving towards the next target or area. The damage over time, coupled with the pet, is generally strong enough to leave the targets severely weakened, if not outright dead, by the time they can be finished off with AoE spells.

Curses, crowd controls, and pet off-tank can substantially reduce the amount of incoming damage, promoting aggressive play, while all the personal defensive cooldowns offer a degree of safety even when overpulling.

For bigger enemies such as Elites or Rares, sustaining Voidwalker is usually the priority while slowly whittling them down, as the threat generated by the pet cannot match heavy spender bursts.

2.

Gear Options

When leveling up, you should always choose the piece of loot with the highest item level. If the item levels are equal, you should choose the piece with stats that are most favorable to your specialization. If your current item is an Heirloom, it should not be replaced.

3.

Level by Level Rotation and Talents

Move the slider below to make the guide update to your level!

Level: 70
3.1.

Talents to Level Up as an Affliction Warlock

Below, you can see the suggested levelling talent build and the order in which to pick the talents while levelling.

3.2.

Rotation to Level Up as an Affliction Warlock

Starting at Level 1, you only have one main attack ability: Shadow Bolt Icon Shadow Bolt.

  1. Level 10 — maintain Agony Icon Agony on the target. Prioritise it over Corruption Icon Corruption when tagging mobs.
  2. Level 11 — keep Unstable Affliction Icon Unstable Affliction rolling on the target. Consider recasting it on dying enemies to gain 1 Shard in the process.
  3. Level 53 — castSoul Rot Icon Soul Rot after having all the DoTs applied, in order to have stronger Malefic Rapture Icon Malefic Raptures. The Drain Life Icon Drain Life component should be considered as a tool to sustain as the damage is otherwise low.
  4. Level 29 — Use Vile Taint Icon Vile Taint as often as possible, prioritizing multi-target situations.
  5. Level 2 — the first DoT becomes available Corruption Icon Corruption, which should be used to tag and soften up multiple enemies whenever spamming a few shadow bolts will not kill them quicker.
  6. Level 35 — Cast Summon Darkglare Icon Summon Darkglare after having applied as many Damage over Time effects as possible.
  7. Level 10 — Malefic Rapture Icon Malefic Rapture is the main Soul Shard spender both in single target and multi-target. To maximize its impact, cast it when you have the highest amount of periodic damage on targets.
  8. Level 13 — Seed of Corruption Icon Seed of Corruption is unlocked, and is mostly used to spread Corruption Icon Corruption on stacked targets to enable Malefic Rapture Icon Malefic Rapture burst windows quicker.
3.3.

Affliction Warlock PvP Talents for Leveling

  1. Essence Drain Icon Essence Drain stacks a damage reduction effect on enemies that are damaged by your Drain Life Icon Drain Life. You can reduce their damage by up to 25%, which is a large increase in your ability to survive and sustain.
  2. Bane of Shadows Icon Bane of Shadows causes damage over time effects to strike an additional time for 20% of their original damage while active. This offers a little bit of extra burst damage on a short cooldown.
  3. Rampant Afflictions Icon Rampant Afflictions is great in multitarget as Unstable Affliction Icon Unstable Affliction is now our hardest hitting damage over time.
  4. Gateway Mastery Icon Gateway Mastery should always be considered to expedite your whereabouts in closed spaces where mounts are not usable.
  5. >Bonds of Fel Icon Bonds of Fel can offer further AoE burst when kiting targets around.
4.

Pet Choice for Affliction Warlock Leveling

Summon Imp Icon Summon Imp is your first available demon but is best suited to Raid Environments. This pet is not particularly useful for leveling, but you have no choice for the early levels.

If you are leveling alone, Summon Voidwalker Icon Summon Voidwalker can be a helpful choice while leveling up, as it takes a lot of the pressure off you. Avoiding casting pushback can also increase leveling speed.

Summon Felhunter Icon Summon Felhunter can be a good choice if you are leveling in a group or venturing into dungeons. The extra interrupt is helpful for dealing with troublesome caster mobs.

5.

Congratulations!

Congratulations on reaching Level 80! Now that you have hit Level 80, we recommend looking at our Easy mode page and Talents section to learn how to play at max level.

6.

Changelog

  • 21 Oct. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 11.0.5.
  • 09 Sep. 2024: Reviewed for The War Within Season 1.
  • 21 Aug. 2024: Added a leveling playstyle section.
  • 23 Jul. 2024: Updated for The War Within pre-patch.
  • 07 May 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.7.
  • 22 Apr. 2024: Reviewed for Season 4.
  • 19 Mar. 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.6.
  • 15 Jan. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.5.
  • 24 Nov. 2023: Removed outdated lines.
  • 06 Nov. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.
  • 04 Sep. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.7
  • 10 Jul. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.5.
  • 01 May 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.
  • 20 Mar. 2023: Updated talent tree for Patch 10.0.7.
  • 24 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
  • 11 Dec. 2022: Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
  • 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
  • 25 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
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