Affliction is all about DoTs (damage over time effects), namely Corruption, Unstable Affliction, Curse of Agony, and the channeled ability Drain Soul. Although the main source of damage fro Affliction comes from Shadow Bolt, most of your talents will be based around increasing the damage of these DoTs as well as the proper management of them. Affliction has no "Cooldowns".
Spells/Talentshttp://talent.mmo-champion.com/?warlock#xHTs07_vxfPCm,bpdqO3,11159This is the spec that I use, which means that it is not necessarily perfect for you. For example, I currently run with ~17% hit on my gear, meaning that I am always hit capped regardless of whether there is a Balance Druid or Shadow Priest in the raid or not. Since our guild almost always has one of the two (thank you, Nari) you should aim to have at least 14% hit if you are to use the spec I provided above. If you are running any lower, you will have to switch points around in order to pick up points in Suppression for the extra hit %.
CorruptionCorruption will be your highest damage DoT and second in your overall damage on almost any single target boss fight. Corruption is the essential DoT and almost all of the talents in the Affliction tree effect it in one way or another. Talents that benefit Corruption include Improved Corruption, Empowered Corruption, Siphon Life, Shadow Embrace, Shadow Mastery, Contagion, Malediction, Pandemic, Death's Embrace, Everlasting Affliction, and Haunt. This ability should never fall off of the target anyway, as Everlasting Affliction provides your Haunt, Drain Life, and Shadow Bolt spells (soon to be Drain Soul as well) with the ability to refresh the duration of Corruption.
Unstable AfflictionUnstable Affliction is not only an amazing ability for PvP (including the PvP boss in ToGC), as it deals a large amount of damage if it is dispelled, but also your number two damage DoT and number three damage ability. If an ability benefits Corruption, it generally benefits Unstable Affliction as well (minus the obvious ones). Don't let this fall off.
CursesWhich curse you use is entirely situation dependent and so all Warlocks should be aware of the priority for which curse to use.
Curse of Elements (CoE): If there is no other Warlock putting this up, Unholy Death Knight, or Balance Druid, use this.
Curse of Agony (CoA): Many talents in the Affliction tree benefit this ability, use this if a CoE effect is up.
Curse of Doom (CoD): Sub-par for Affliction, amazing for Demonology and Destruction.
Cure of Weakness (CoW): No.
Curse of Exhaustion (CoEx): Great for PvP, don't spec for this for PvE unless it is necessary.
HauntHaunt is an amazing 51-point talent; apart from doing good damage itself, it significantly increases the damage of all of your DoTs as well as healing you for a portion of the damage done. As any good raider knows, self-healing is good.
Shadow BoltThis ability is technically not an Affliction ability, but rather a Destruction ability. There are fifteen points in the Destruction tree that an Affliction Warlock should always pick up in order to boost the damage of Shadow Bolt, as it is your top damage ability on any single target Boss fight where you can stand still for more than a few seconds. The talents that benefit Shadow Bolt are Improved Shadow Bolt, Bane, Ruin, Nightfall, Shadow Mastery, Eradication, Malediction, and Death's Embrace.
Seed of CorruptionThe best AoE ability that a Warlock has. This ability creates tremendous amounts of aggro, so use it wisely.
GlyphsMajorGlyph of Rapid Decay: Get it.
Glyph of Haunt: 3% more shadow damage from DoTs? Yes please.
Glyph of Life Tap: Spell Power is always good, but as your gear improves into the >232 category you should notice that most of the spirit that was on caster gear begins to disappear. Over time, your overall Spell Power will increase, but the amount received from this glyph will become lower. Eventually this glyph becomes a waste of space and you should remove it for one of the following.
Glyph of Corruption: Essentially you get Nightfall times two, in stead of 4% to get free Shadow Bolts you now have 8%.
Glyph of Curse of Agony: If you are having troubles with managing all of your DoTs and are not providing the CoE effect for the raid, then get this.
Glyph of Shadow Bolt: This glyph of useless.
MinorGlyph of Kilrogg: Fun.
Glyph of Souls: Mana problems? You are aware that you're a Warlock, right?
Glyph of Drain Soul: Get it.
Glyph of Unending Breath: Only good Warlocks have this.
Glyph of Curse of Exhaustion: PvP
Glyph of Enslave Demon: There are almost never enslavable demons in raids any more
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DemonsWith the recent changes to the Felhunter and the rumored changes to be coming, the Felhunter is once again the pet to use for Affliction. By putting two points into Improved Felhunter you turn his main damage ability into a 2 second cooldown, essentially meaning that you will never have to worry about its mana. As for its health, it used to be that Fel Synergy is required to keep your pet alive in fights that have a lot of AoE damage; however, he is a melee pet, unlike the Imp, and will be receiving all of the AoE heals that the Tank(s) and Melee will be receiving as well as Avoidance now providing a 90% reduction to AoE damage that it may take.
The Doomguard is a great pet and if you prefer to use him for the immense amount of damage (single target and melee), or just to show off, then go right ahead. I'm by no means telling you not to use him, I just prefer to use my puppy.
Some still prefer to use the Succubus and she can be incredibly powerful for her CC in PvP situations, but her overall damage output is generally less than the Felhunter unless you are specced for Demonic Power.
"Rotation"As with almost every class, Blizzard has migrated away from rotations and towards priority systems. Affliction Warlocks are no exception. Affliction used to have a slightly more hectic priority system that could actually be pretty easily translated into a slightly less effective pure rotation. Things are different now. You don't have to put up Siphon Life any more (very many didn't anyway), Corruption refreshes with more spells, Eradication is actually worth while, and there are significantly less Nightfall procs than before.
Generally, you want to lead with Shadow Bolt in order to get one stack of Shadow Embrace as well as the 5% crit from Improved Shadow Bolt. I usually then apply my Haunt to get up the second stack of Shadow Embrace and increase the damage of my Unstable Affliction, Corruption, and Curse of Agony that I will put up next. It is important that you apply your DoTs after you have two stacks of Shadow Embrace otherwise they will not benefit from the bonus because Shadow Embrace is not intelligent.
Spam Shadow Bolt and use up Nightfall procs whenever you can, always refresh Haunt when there is ~1 second left on its duration, and refresh Unstable Affliction whenever it comes off and you should be sailing.
If you are moving around a lot, using any instants you have (such as Death Coil) will help you keep up your DPS as drains also benefit from talents that increase shadow damage.
When the boss is below 25%, it's time to start casting Drain Soul. Drain Soul will only do its optimal damage if the target is <25% health, if they are even 1 health over 25% it will not do the four times extra damage. It's also important that you keep up all of your DoTs, as they increase the damage of your Drain Soul. You should be getting at least one Nightfall proc every thirty seconds anyway, but if you aren't, make sure that you throw out a Shadow Bolt in order to keep up the Improved Shadow Bolt effect.
