Warlock Affliction Rotation for leveling

[nnoitra]

Not sure if this was the correct place to post it, but I have a lock that is lv 63 right now and I was wondering what should be my rotation for Affliction since I have been leveling as Demo and wanted to give affliction a try.

Thank you

[sonalita]

my advice is to stay demo, its by far the best and fastest build for levelling. Once you get the felguard you can start filling in some points in afflic to improved CoA/Corruption and eventually, syphon life. Dot up a few mobs, have felguard attack a few. Ownage. Its totally awesome for collection quests, you can have the felguard attack any mobs in the area whilest you go loot the things on the ground that you need.

I levelled my lock with that build and my son is currently levlelling with a similar build. He's levelling way faster than other guildies who started at the same time as him.

[jmc1989]

well...

Its been a while since I levelled as affliction but hey I can try help you out a bit

(edit: I disagree with the post above. I think affliction and demo are VERY similar in their viability for levelling builds. I levelled my lock, my first 80, using affliction and did it in just under 11 days of play time without using any guides etc and no boosts.)

You generally have two options,

1) Voidwalker as a tank --- Idealk for soloing elites.

Lately this hasnt been so effective due to voidwalkers threat abilities being completely abolished. Even so,

Send VW in give him time to get threat (heal him when needed but be careful not to aggro - omen is good to show you when healing too much)

Then, depending on your talent points etc I'd say

Haunt>>Corrupition>>Unstable affliction>>Curse of Agony

This would be an ideal time to heal your Voidwalker again. If you are low on the threat list then I would say throwing a shadowbolt or two to destroy the mob quicker would be good.



2) Drain tanking.

This option was much easier befor they removed the seperate spell of siphon life.

Basically you use a demon solely for DPS, the succubus is ideal.

Start by sending you pet in to aggro the mob.

Cast haunt and Unstable affliction. You will have aggroed now, so try to maintain distance where possible and put corruption and curse of agony on the target. Then, at about 25% health just use drain life to keep yourself topped up.

If you have a nice open space its possible to just put haunt on 1 target and just run around using instant casts on everything else allowing you to kill multiple targets with ease.

Do not try this method on elites though....They can hit hard on cloth

[Fabiantk]

No offense, but you've clearly got no idea at all.

The best do as affliction is the following:

Unstable Affliction -> Corruption -> Curse of Agony -> Haunt -> Tab target next mob -> Repeat(if Haunt is still on cooldown, skip it and continue) -> Drain Life only when you need health, or when there are no other nearby mobs to pull.

Assuming your gear is anywhere near decent, you should be able to do this 100% of the time, without taking any breaks.

And yes this is ALOT faster than the above poster suggested.

[MrCyphyr]

Another Opinion

Hmmm.. interesting previous posts.. I gues what you are comfortable with, and have shown that it works - then it works.

My View..

1. I am leveling my 3rd 'lock
2. I am heavy affliction, no Demo, and residual in Destruction (56/0/15)
3. Rotation {smiles}.. since leveling is as much about mana conservation as well as killing mobs .... VW>Haunt>Corruption>UnStable>Drain>Drain>Drain ...

I send in my Void walker ...
Immediately I start my rotation
Haunt (I want that heath etc. "feed back" soon)
Corruption
Unstable affliction
Drain Soul (I have an add-on that deletes excess soul shards)
or.. Drain Health, then Drain Soul

At MoB's death, I convert Health to Mana .. and find me next target.


A few comments ...
If I am in a raid, or dealing with a tough MoB-Elite, I will add Curse of Agony as my second spell - its a long duration damage spell that unfortunately deal most its damage at the end of its cycle - thus if bad guy dies before the spell ends, its was a waste of mana, kool down, etc. So, I bypass it for normal leveling mobs.

I have seen some published afflication rotations that start with Drain Life .. I am not that happy with it... I like to get me DoT on the bad guy soon as possible.

I stay away from fear as much as possible - especially in a crowded area - have caused more multiple agg'ing they I want to deal with.

I love this rotation & spec - though my guildies are more of the demon for leveling - the afflications doesn't rock the dps charts - but it is very mana frugle, drops the bad guys, reduces targets attacking me (threat over stepping VW), and just plain lazy/easy!!!


Anyway, just another 'locks view point.

[jmc1989]

No offense, but you've clearly got no idea at all.

The best do as affliction is the following:

Unstable Affliction -> Corruption -> Curse of Agony -> Haunt -> Tab target next mob -> Repeat(if Haunt is still on cooldown, skip it and continue) -> Drain Life only when you need health, or when there are no other nearby mobs to pull.

Assuming your gear is anywhere near decent, you should be able to do this 100% of the time, without taking any breaks.

And yes this is ALOT faster than the above poster suggested.

I think it is unfair to say that someone does not have a clue as they do thinfgs a different way to you. I levelled my Warlock quite a while ago and this was EXTREMELY effective for me, It is the same way I have been recommending for countless guildies.

I am sorry that you disagree, and I can see where your strat is coming from and I dont doubt that it would work. The OP merely asked for ideas not for someone to present one and for someone to immediately flame it.

What fabian said however is true. Continually dotting up and moving between targets can cause huge amounts of damage with 100% uptime. BUT you must be comfortable with it,

Theres no point going quickly through 10 targets, making a mistake and ending up running from the spirit healer (soulstones ftw) Instead take it slowly (hence i didnt say to run in for everything on my post and instead just take it steady)