How to beat every class in duels as Affliction Warlock [3.3.5 GUIDE]
Affliction is among the best specs in the game for 1v1, it does take a little more practice to "own" with than destruction, which is why most people just stick with destro, but once you get used to it and know what to do, it is both easy and fun. This will teach you all the secrets and tactics there is to know, once you master it, you can easily dominate in every aspect of PvP, and you have the tools to take care of every situation. Very much like DK's, they have many similarities, affli locks being the caster version of unholy DK's, and you are just as strong.
PS: I have updated a lot on the guide since I posted it
Why you should play affliction instead of destruction:
Affliction offers great self healing, this allows you to fight constantly in BGs with good use of life tap, get top damage done with multi doting and stay alive with no pocket healers thanks to Siphon Life. And if you are pro, walk away with full hp after a 1v1. You have UA which can easily hit for 7k when dispelled, unlike destro which has no protection for immolate/fear. Drain soul can hit for over 10k when used below 25%, and the best part is that it continues to tick for 10k every 2-3 sec even if they get healed up, and with full dots on top of that, your dps is unhealable. Speaking of healers, you are unbeatable with drain mana and all your self healing. Curse of exhaustion is very useful especially in BGs with it's 42 yd range, you can control multiple people at once while no one else can reach you - prevent people from running or from catching up on YOU. You also have instant howl of terror which is really useful.
Addons:
Alert (plays sound when you get nightfall proc), Buttontimers (must have to track your dots), Cooldowns 1.3.3, interrupt bar (shows CD of enemy interrupts so you know when to fake cast), Lose control (must have, shows big CC/silence icons in the middle of screen for better trinket/devour management and immunity icons on enemy portraits such as Anti-magic shell, Grounding totem ice block), Plate buffs (shows your dots above health bars for easy multi-doting), Targetpercent (shows the % health next to your target's health bar so you know exactly when to use drain soul, while still being able to see enemy hit points), Weakauras (to track berserker rage and lichborne)
Macros:
Dispel/Shield macro:
/cast [mod:alt] Devour Magic
/cast [target=player] Devour Magic
/cast Sacrifice
Offensive pet macro:
/cast Spell lock
/cast Seduction
/cast Consume Shadows
Fel domination macro:
/castsequence reset=15 Fel Domination, Summon Felhunter, Soul Link
Healing macro:
#showtooltip Fel Healthstone
/use Fel Healthstone
/use Runic Healing potion
/use Battlemaster's Ruination
Easy Spellstone macro:
#showtooltip
/use Grand Spellstone
/use 16
/click StaticPopup1Button1
/cast Create Spellstone
Glyphs:
Quick decay is a must. For the 2 others, use Soul link(good vs anything) / corruption(good when multi-doting) / shadowflame(good vs melee). Curse of Exhaustion is the only required minor glyph.
Stats: Crit is useless. Go spell power and haste. Resilience is important. Get 5% hit. Use anti-stun meta gem. Tuskarr's Vitality on boots gives you the 8% movement speed increase.
Optional talents:
Improved fear: Good vs melee
Improved shadow bolt: Good with glyph of corruption/multi-doting
Suppression: Take this if you need more hit, you need about 5% hit in pvp
Shadow embrace: Worth 5 points for 1v1 (duels), less for bg/arena
Fel domination: Only required for arena. Saves 3 points for bg/duels
Improved life tap: This will allow you to use life tap less often
Improved curse of agony: 10% more damage for a weak dot, not too good
General tips:
Cast Haunt on CD. Use drain life as filler (with full dots), or shadow bolt vs healers only. Life tap on full health (unless in danger) before you selfheal to avoid overhealing. Spam corruption on everything you can (make sure unit nameplates is on). Corruption usually does over 50% of your damage in pvp, it heals you and procs instant shadowbolts and eradication. Corruption is by far the most important spell for affliction. When your shadow spells are disabled, run away and try to los, if you can't, use searing pain. Try to fear people before you cast UA/haunt since it's a lot easier when no one is beating on you. CoE is usually better because you do 13% more healing with it as well as damage. A good affli lock will do a lot of healing. Don't clip UA(cast it when the current UA has about 1 sec remaining so it does it's last tick right before the new one gets applied). Don't waste your death coil as a CC (unless vs healers), use it when you are in trouble and need healing. CoEx is very useful to prevent people from running away, it also allows you to dot & run (kite). Always keep recasting your curses even when they get spam dispelled, your curses have shorter GCD and costs less mana than any dispel. Drain soul execute is preferred when they are likely to be healed before they die.
My keybindings
CoA: Curse of Agony, CoE: Curse of the Elements, CoT: Curse of Tongues, CoEx: Curse of Exhaustion, UA: Unstable Affliction, Los: line of sight
Alright here we go:
Arms warrior:
Hard difficulty
Use Voidwalker - succubus doesn't work well with dots. Start off with CoE and corruption, fear (not howl) and immediately haunt - normally he wont be able to spell reflect it that way. Death coil him during Berserker rage and keep fearing after berserker rage. Save your teleport for his bladestorm, stay out of his charge range and kite him with CoEx after. Always switch back to CoE if you can't kite.
Prot warrior:
Medium difficulty
Use fel armor and kite him with CoEx. It is VERY important that you have your
pet on passive. If he blocks/dodges/parries an attack from your pet, he will own you with revenge. Fakecast his shield bash. If you have felhunter out you can use spell lock to take care of his spell reflect and you can actually dispel the shield bash silence. If you use Voidwalker, be aware that he can dispel sacrifice with shield slam, so you need other magical buffs on you as well if you use it. Usually, you take care of his Spell reflect with a quick Drain life which you cancel immediately, or with CoE.
Ret/prot paladin:
Easy difficulty
Use demon armor and felhunter. Place pet away from you on passive before duel starts or it can die from aoe damage. Start with CoE and howl. If he trinkets, fear him. Then dot. Dispel stun and repentance, be ready to trinket if it fails. Interrupt any heals. Fear before you put your dots up. Draintank him. Death coil/fear during wings.
Unholy DK:
Hard difficulty
Video
Now this fight is the most interesting. It takes practice but I have found a way to beat them. Use Demon armor and felhunter. Start off with CoE/corruption and CoA/corruption on his pet. Dispel chains of ice as soon as duel starts. Remember to ALWAYS have corruption on his pets. When he pops anti-magic shell, teleport away from max range and RUN so he cant death grip you. After AMS is over, silence him as you cast haunt/UA to prevent death grip and fear before he gets to you. Death coil him when he pops lichborne (if you have full hp, wait until your hp drops). As soon as he summons the gargoyle, cast corruption and CoT on it. You should have 3 corruptions up now (gargoyle, ghoul and DK), which gives you 3 times more healing with siphon life, and 3 times the chance to proc eradication and nightfall. This is very important in order to win. Silence and fear him at the same time when he is in melee range so he cant mind freeze you. Pop shadow ward on every CD. Dispel strangulate. Dispel mark of blood vs blood DKs.
Hunter:
Medium difficulty
Use voidwalker. Constantly run towards him while using CoA, Corruption. When he does Deterrence is a good time to do Corruption on his pet. Stay as close as you can to him, not only to prevent him from shooting you but also to be able to fear him. Death coil him as you run up to him if he is kiting you. If you have felhunter out you can dispel silencing shot and freezing trap. A it's hard to cast anything other than instants vs skilled hunters, if so you can avoid using UA and try to get a fear and haunt off and then spam drain life.
Elemental shaman:
Easy difficulty
Use felhunter and Fel armor. Always have CoT on him and only interrupt his nature spells. Dispel flame shock as soon as he starts casting lava burst. If he starts to run away or behind pillars, chase him with CoEx. If he tries to kill your pet you'll probably need fel domination and heal it with health funnel. Take care of grounding totem with any curse (faster GCD)
Enhancement shaman:
Hard difficulty
Use felhunter and demon armor. He will do lots of damage so you need that extra armor and healing. Use howl of terror when he pops wolves and always keep corruption on them which gives even more healing. Try to teleport away and kite him(dispel frost shock immediately) at least while he have wolves up. They heal him so much that theres no way you will get him low during that time. Silence him as you cast fear/haunt to prevent his interrupt. Cast instant shadow bolts immediately or else he will dispel it. Destroy tremor totems before you fear, however a skilled enh shaman will spam it, making it very tricky to fear him and thus very hard to beat a skilled enh. Take care of grounding totem with any curse (faster GCD).
Rogue:
Medium difficulty
Use demon armor vs subtlety rogues since they do high physical damage. Succubus is better than voidwalker especially against subtlety since they do almost all damage in stunlock while you have no dots on him, so seduction doesn't break. You might consider getting improved succubus talent. Trinket kidney shot and immediately corruption (in case he does vanish), then howl him and start casting fear in case he trinkets howl, but cancel it if he doesn't, and dot him. Death coil and fear him after the second stunlock. Use as much resilience as you can vs rogues.
Feral druid:
Easy difficulty
Video
Demon armor is a absolute must here, and use voidwalker. Trinket his first stun, use CoE and howl, then Dot. If he trinkets howl, cast fear. When he pops berserk, death coil him as soon as your health drops. Now just spam drain life and keep haunt/UA up. Use VW shield when he stuns you during berserk. Fear when berserk is over. Glyph of soul link makes it a lot easier to draintank him which is the key to winning here, you can't kite him because he will just shapeshift out of shadowflame snare if you use that glyph.
Balance druid:
Easy difficulty
Use felhunter and fel armor. Start with CoE, fear then dot. Save Howl of terror for treants. Fear/death coil him when he pops starfall (CC disables starfall). Interrupt his nature spells. Now a skilled moonkin will try to run away from you with travel form and heal. It's important that you do not allow him to get away, so chase him and spam CoEx when he tries to remove it with travel form. Have pet on passive so it doesn't take extra damage from starfall in melee range, but send your pet after him when he runs so you can interrupt his heal. Keep in mind that your pet often dies from starfall. Dispel his roots/dots.
Destro warlock:
Hard difficulty
Use felhunter and fel armor. Have pet on passive and away from you so he can't shadowfury/howl of terror it along with you. Then dispel shadowfury/fear/immolate. Run up to him as you cast CoE/corruption (on his pet too if you have the time) and howl of terror him with his pet. Dot him up and then banish the pet while it's feared so it can't interrupt you. He will do a lot of damage so interrupt his fire spells only. If you can Los him with dots on him and his pet you can easily kill his pet (twice) while being healed by siphon life.
Frost mage:
Medium difficulty
Use felhunter and fel armor. Have pet on passive. Start with CoE (takes care of his extra spell resistances) and corruption while running up to him and use howl. If you cast searing pain right after howl, sometimes they will trinket it and counterspell you. Attempt to dispel his silence. Now you can cast shadow spells freely. Else you must facecast fear (every time his counterspell is ready). If he tries to polymorph you and kill pet, dispel poly immediately and health funnel it to full hp always. If he have other debuffs on you already, interrupt his polymorph since you probably wont be able to dispel poly then. Corruption and CoA on his water elemental. Dispel his frost novas. Interrupt his frostbolt when you are frozen or if you are in poly and he tries to kill your pet. Interrupt his evocation immediately or CC him if it's on CD.
Fire mage:
Easy difficulty
Pet on aggressive. Devour magic yourself whenever you can. Don't let him get close, teleport away (dragons breath/blast weave). Interrupt his fire spells (mainly scorch) Else same as frost.
Shadow priest:
Easy difficulty
Use felhunter and fel armor. Place pet away from you so it can dispel his fear (if not trinket it) and interrupt him. Start with CoE and Fear him (2 times if he has fear ward) then dot him. Dispel his silence. Teleport away when he gets close to avoid his fear. Best spells to interrupt is vampiric touch and his heals. If he tries to run away, chase him with CoEx. When he does dispersion, mana drain him and fear him if he gets close as we will likely fear you when dispersion ends. Pop shadow ward whenever it's available. Drain soul immediately when he gets below 25% hp. Use as much haste as you can.
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