Affliction is the warlock who keeps the boss covered. Curse of the Elements raises the magic damage it takes by 10 %, and Forever lets a bane sit beside that curse, so Bane of Agony or Bane of Doom goes up too, with Corruption and Immolate. Between refreshes you cast Shadow Bolt, and Life Tap turns health into the mana all of it costs. The build that simulates best stops at Shadow Mastery and puts the rest into Destruction for Ruin. Its 754.7 DPS on a one-minute single-boss fight ranks 15th of 25 damage specs.

Strengths and weaknesses

Strengths

• A curse for the whole raid. Curse of the Elements adds 10 % to all magic damage the boss takes, so every caster gains from one global cooldown of yours.
• Mana is yours to make. Each Life Tap converts 424 health plus your Spirit into mana. On a three-minute single-boss fight the simulated warlock taps 12 times and casts to the end.
• Damage that keeps ticking. On a three-minute fight against three bosses Shadow Bolt is only 11.1 % of your damage, and the dots doing the rest keep going while you move. Our fights never make you move.
• Low threat. Suppression cuts your threat by 20 % on top of its 5 % hit. The simulator doesn't score threat, but your tank will notice.

Weaknesses

• Middle of the table. No fight puts it in the top ten: it is 13th on a three-minute single-boss fight and 17th on a one-minute fight against three bosses.
• Your mana is your healers' problem. Life Tap costs the health it returns as mana. Over three minutes that is more than your whole 4,954 health, and nobody heals you in our fights.
• Long casts on one boss. Shadow Bolt takes 2.5 seconds and is 48.6 % of your damage on a three-minute single-boss fight, so every step you take costs you.
• A slow bane. Bane of Doom lands a full minute after the cast, so one-minute fights go without it.

On every fight

Affliction does best against one boss for three minutes, where Bane of Doom lands twice, and worst against three bosses for one minute, where the dots on the second and third boss barely run their course before the fight ends.

Races

For the Alliance, Human is the best warlock on every fight. The pre-raid main hand, Sageblade, is a sword, and Sword Specialization now adds 2 % crit to every spell while you hold one. The Gnome's extra mana and Eureka! do less.

For the Horde, Undead come out ahead on most fights. Touch of the Grave gives each spell cast that lands a 10 % chance to drain 5 % of your maximum health from the boss. Orc's Blood Fury now adds spell power, and Troll's Berserking casting speed.

What a Warlock brings to the raid

Curse of the Elements is what a warlock adds. One copy per boss is all the raid gets, so one warlock covers it, and in our runs the warlock's own copy replaces the raid's. Blood Pact needs the Imp, and this build fights with the Succubus.

Changes

Each row below is this build rerun on this fight after a change to the simulator or the game data, and the Updates page describes each change.