Affliction Warlock PvP guide: level 60 Soul Link and Curse of Exhaustion drain build

Overview

Level 60 · Affliction Warlock in battlegrounds and world PvP.

An Affliction Warlock in PvP spreads pressure: damage over time on several players, Fear to break focus, and drains to outlast a duel. The Classic idea of a Soul Link drain tank still works in WoW Forever, and the new Curse and Bane split helps: Curse of Exhaustion and Bane of Agony can sit on the same target, so a slowed enemy is also taking damage. Fel Concentration keeps Drain Life going when melee hits you.

Your role in a fight

In battlegrounds you are a pressure dealer and area denier. Put Corruption, Bane of Agony and Siphon Life on every enemy healer and flag carrier, keep Curse of Exhaustion on whoever is chasing your team, and Fear or Death Coil melee off your healers. In world PvP, a Soul Link drain warlock is hard for one melee to kill.

Darkspear Islands

Blizzard describes the Darkspear Islands as a 15 vs 15 battleground with control points and Arathi Basin-style flag captures and defense. Damage over time on the defenders of a point makes them easier to kill when your team pushes in, and it forces enemy healers to spend their mana dispelling instead of healing. On flag runs, Curse of Exhaustion on the enemy carrier is worth more than any damage spell. The map layout is not known yet.

Honor and ranks: WoW Forever is reported to bring a 14-rank Honor track, earned from battlegrounds and PvP content. Thresholds, weekly caps and decay are not announced; see the PvP and honor hub for what is confirmed.

Strengths

• Pressure on many targets with instant Corruption, Bane of Agony and Siphon Life.
• Sustain: Siphon Life and Drain Life heal you, Soul Link moves 30% of your damage taken onto your demon.
• Control: Curse of Exhaustion, Fear, Death Coil and the Felhunter’s Spell Lock.
• Casts through pressure with Fel Concentration on drains and Nightfall instant Shadow Bolts.

Weak points

• Dispels: priests, paladins and Felhunters can remove your work quickly.
• Burst: a coordinated kill on you can outpace Soul Link and drains.
• Immunity to Fear from Berserker Rage, Will of the Forsaken or trinkets removes your best escape.
• Unknown level 60 PvP: the battleground list, honor track and rewards are not confirmed for WoW Forever.

Level 60 PvP talent build

Affliction 30 / Demonology 21 / Destruction 0, all 51 points. The talent tree above shows the finished build.

Affliction (30)

• Suppression 2/5 — +2% hit and less threat; in PvP the hit is what matters.
• Improved Corruption 5/5 — Instant Corruption you can apply while running.
• Malediction 3/5 — More periodic damage from all your effects at 3/5.
• Improved Bane of Agony 1/2 — One point to reach the Curse of Exhaustion row.
• Fel Concentration 3/3 — Drain Life and Drain Soul are much harder to push back or interrupt with damage.
• Amplify Curse 1/1 — Makes your next Curse of Exhaustion 20% stronger, and opens the path to it.
• Malevolence 4/5 — +4% Shadow crit chance at 4/5 on every effect.
• Nightfall 2/2 — A chance for an instant Shadow Bolt while you drain or dot: surprise burst.
• Curse of Exhaustion 1/1 — A 30% slow for 12 sec that does not share a slot with your Bane.
• Siphon Life 1/1 — Instant self-healing damage over time.
• Soul Siphon 2/3 — Faster drains, so Drain Life wins races against melee damage.
• Shadow Mastery 5/5 — +5% Shadow damage and life drained.

Demonology (21)

• Improved Health Funnel 2/2 — Heal your Soul Link demon without drawing threat and at any pet health.
• Demonic Embrace 5/5 — +15% Stamina for a class that pays for mana with health.
• Demonic Aegis 2/2 — Stronger Demon Armor for more armor and health regeneration.
• Fel Vitality 3/3 — More health and mana for your demon, which takes part of your damage through Soul Link.
• Improved Sayaad 2/3 — Longer Seduction and Lesser Invisibility if you choose the Succubus or Incubus.
• Demonic Sacrifice 1/1 — Required for Soul Link. In PvP you usually keep the Felhunter or Voidwalker instead of sacrificing.
• Master Summoner 2/2 — Faster and cheaper demon summons, needed after a pet dies mid-fight.
• Fel Domination 1/1 — A near-instant summon when your demon dies in combat.
• Demonic Energies 2/2 — Your spell damage heals your demon, and Life Tap mana also reaches it.
• Soul Link 1/1 — 30% of your damage taken goes to your demon, and both deal 3% more damage.

Key abilities

• Corruption, Bane of Agony, Siphon Life: instant pressure on every enemy in range.
• Curse of Exhaustion: keeps a flag carrier or melee slowed without replacing your Bane.
• Fear and Howl of Terror: break a focus target, or clear melee off a healer.
• Death Coil: an instant horror and heal, your answer to a stun lock that just ended.
• Drain Life: with Fel Concentration and Soul Siphon, your main tool to win a long duel.
• Felhunter Spell Lock and Devour Magic: silence a healer and remove crowd control from yourself.

Matchups

• Warriors · Curse of Exhaustion, Fear and Death Coil; stay out of Intercept range and drain while they are feared.
• Rogues · survive the opener with Soul Link, then Fear and dot them so their bandages and Stealth resets fail.
• Mages · dots break Polymorph; Spell Lock their Frostbolt and drain while they are silenced.
• Priests · their dispels remove your effects, so reapply faster than they can dispel and Spell Lock the heals.
• Druids · Curse of Exhaustion and Fear in caster form; Drain Life outlasts their healing over time.
• Other warlocks · whoever keeps their demon alive and dispels better usually wins.

Resources and cooldowns

Life Tap turns health into mana, and Soul Link plus Siphon Life make that safer than it looks. Keep Soul Shards for Death Coil, Soulstones and Healthstones before each battleground. Fel Domination is your emergency pet button; Eureka! is best when you reapply effects to several targets at once.

Gear

This site’s beta datamine lists no warlock PvP set yet, so the honor rewards for warlocks are unknown. For a drain build, Stamina is the stat that wins duels: Demonic Embrace multiplies it, Life Tap spends it and Soul Link protects it. After that, Shadow spell damage and enough spell hit that Fear and Curse of Exhaustion are not resisted. The Tier 1 Demonheart Raiment is a raid set; its 2-piece hit bonus is the only part that also helps in PvP.

Consumables and engineering

• Free Action Potion so a stun or root does not stop your Fear at the wrong moment.
• Major Healing Potion and Healthstones to pay for Life Tap between fights.
• Soul Shards: a full Soul Pouch before each battleground for Death Coil and resummons.
• Engineering: explosives give you a stun to go with Fear.

Tips

• Spread Corruption across the enemy team before a big fight starts, so healers have to spend their time dispelling.

Sources

Rotation, stat and matchup advice adapts these Classic 1.12 guides to the WoW Forever talent trees; talents, set bonuses and new abilities come from this site’s WoW Forever data.

• Icy Veins: Classic Warlock PvP Guide
• Icy Veins: WoW Classic Honor System Overview
• Blizzard: World of Warcraft: Forever What’s Next Panel Recap