Warlocks are a versatile class, capable of playing many different roles within a raid or Mythic+ dungeon. Each spec has its own strengths and weaknesses.
Warlocks have three primary talent trees to choose from: Affliction, Demonology and Destruction. Whichever path you take should be the one that best fits your playstyle.
Affliction
Affliction is a Warlock talent build that provides important buffs and debuffs to your raid, as well as the power to deal massive DoT damage.
Affliction, like Demonology and Destruction, is a ranged-combat specialization that requires careful management of mana resources. It’s ideal for PvE endgame dungeons but may struggle in Mythic Dungeons and Mythic Raiding.
Affliction’s three main components are Haste, Versatility and Mastery. Haste reduces casting time and global Cooldowns while Versatility boosts damage output as well as increasing the tick rate of Damage over Time spells.
Affliction is one of the strongest and most versatile Warlock specs available in the game. It provides a solid foundation for many talents, which can be tailored to fit different circumstances or PvE end-game activities. Affliction has special power in single target DPS scenarios as well as AoE fights where its DoT effects have significant impacts on all sides involved.
Demonology
Demonology is an enjoyable and versatile Warlock talent build that offers plenty of options for improving minions, Stones, Stats and survivability while adding a high damage ceiling to the game.
Solo training on Demonology can be a rewarding tree, especially due to talents like Soul Link that add significant tanking capacity for your Warlock. Furthermore, Demonology also offers high spell damage and Master Demonologist which increases your Warlock’s overall damage output.
Demonology offers several talents suitable for stacking AOE or sustained damage, such as Implosion which increases DPS at two or more targets. Night Fae’s class-focused ability, Soul Rot, is another useful source of DoT spell damage that adds another DPS source every 60 seconds.
Destruction
Destruction is one of the best Warlock talent builds to have in Dragonflight, boasting its powerful single-target damage and AoE damage. Plus, it comes equipped with a variety of utility talents that will help you survive and conquer raid encounters with ease.
You must acquire the following mandatory talents: Curse of Enfeeblement, Howl of Terror, Mortal Coil and Immolate Glyph (this is a new glyph). Furthermore, grab Conflagrate and Rain of Fire as core spells.
Finally, you should take the Pyrogenics and Backdraft talents as they make your other core spells more synergistic. Mayhem can also be beneficial as it provides a 35% (45% with Pandemonium) chance to cast havoc after casting one target spell.
Destruction is a highly mobile spec, so you should utilize movement abilities like Burning Rush or Demonic Gateway to your advantage. Additionally, keep an eye out for incoming adds during your Infernal window so you can immolate them and generate soul shards.
Utility
Warlocks are renowned for their impressive raid damage and utility, making them a top pick among guilds. They possess several unique abilities like summoning demons that deal extra damage in battle and controlling minions.
The Warlock talent tree offers many talents that can be used to hone your Warlock’s direct damage spells, critical strike chance and the damage done when critical effects are applied. They also possess talents which increase their health or reduce enemy spell damage taken.
This build is a high-damage pvp Warlock that utilizes both destruction and affliction talents. Your destruction spells, Shadow Bolt and bane spells are amplified while the affliction talents increase AoE damage as well as increasing your chance to land critical strikes on enemies.
Pvp talents are used to supplement affliction talents with some extra abilities that make your attacks faster and your pet a little bit tougher. While these pvp talents may not be ideal for solo leveling, they can come in handy when grouping up for dungeons or quests that require multiple players.