Affliction Warlock Frequently Asked Questions — The War Within (11.0.5)

In Dungeons and Mythic+, we recommend using/sacrificing the Felhunter, as interrupt is invaluable for such environments. This of particular importance in higher levels of Mythic+, as certain spells can cause wipes for the group.

In Raid environments, we recommend using the Imp, if the encounter requires Singe Magic to be used or there are frequent target swaps.

The Voidwalker is recommended for leveling, or for environments where you plan to use Grimoire of Sacrifice, but do not need the interrupt from Felhunter. Sacrificing a Voidwalker grants the Shadow Bulwark skill to the player, a defensive cooldown that provides increased survivability to the player.

The Succubus generally offers slightly higher damage than Imp or Felhunter, and can be used if you prefer the visuals, or need a permanent 50% slow on a single target.

Yes, and so does Vile Taint.

If the target breaks line of sight or becomes untargeteable in the same global cooldown as Summon Darkglare occurs, the Darkglare will usually fail to extend the effects.

You should always cast Seed of Corruption to apply your Corruption once 3+ targets are present and stacked. There should be at least 8 targets present before you decide to use Seed as your main Soul Shard dump.

Sims indicate the threshold for Seed of Corruption usage when talented into Sow the Seeds is at 3 targets.

The answer to this question in any context will always be to simulate it. This is because what is an upgrade for you may not be an upgrade for someone else. In other words, there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all answer, even when talking about 2 completely identical comparisons from you to another person. Everything in your gear has an effect on everything else.

This applies to gear, trinkets, Azerite Traits, and even talents in certain situations.

The only exception to this rule is when a specific fight dictates a certain set of optimal talents, for example. If you are curious about what kind of setup to go for a specific fight, Warcraft Logs offers empirical rankings and statistics and is one of the best resources to determine what the top players are doing.

We are not being timid when we say that "the stat priority varies with each character". There is no hidden answer or secret stat priority only the "in-club" uses. The truth is that scale factors vary very greatly depending on your character.

Most basic "stat priorities" for guides are determined by simming a character with equal amounts of the secondary stats. This tells you a simple truth; when I have equal amounts of secondary stats, what is the best stat for my character?

The obvious answer is provided in our stats page, and should prove to be a largely universal metric to act by. That said, almost every character will desire differing priorities based on item level, Azerite Traits, and your current distribution of stats.

Long story short; if you want the most accurate answer, use a simulation tool to cater the results to your current gear level.

The different racial traits have a very minor impact on your overall DPS, but if you want to min-max your output levels, you can use our sim charts on the Simulations page to choose your race.