A Look Back at Affliction Warlock in Dragonflight & War Within Wishlist - Editorial

wowhead.com:

With the sun setting on Dragonflight and The War Within on the horizon, our Affliction Warlock Writer, Kalamazi, offers a retrospective highlighting Affliction's journey in Dragonflight and shares their hopes for the spec's next evolution with a War Within Wishlist.

Dragonflight Retrospectives & War Within Wishlists

Affliction Retrospective & War Within Wishlist

Affliction Warlocks have had an interesting journey over the course of Dragonflight, often being the target of buffs to both to both single target and AOE, while also receiving a handful of minor changes to spells such as Doom Blossom and Dread Touch. While the current version of Malefic Rapture based Affliction is one that can adapt to many different situations, it also has a handful of issues that are hopefully addressed heading into 11.0 and The War Within.

Affliction's Overall Gameplay

The current version of Affliction is one that's based around Malefic Rapture as your main «Spender» or source of damage. The shift away from DOT's being the majority of your damage was actually made in Shadowlands, and Blizzard has continued to iterate upon the Malefic Rapture version into Dragonflight. While there are certainly some strengths to having a Rapture based profile, such as priority target swapping and more shard based burst damage, the playstyle has also left some players wishing for a return to Unstable Affliction based Affliction. There is also the issue of «Button Bloat» with Affliction with spells such as Siphon Life being at the forefront of the argument. As an Affliction Warlock, you are tasked with maintaining Agony, Corruption, Siphon Life, Haunt, Unstable Affliction, Shadow Embrace and Dread Touch all while pooling resources around casting your Soul Rot and Vile Taint every 30 seconds. When