How to level in Mists of Pandaria as an Affliction Warlock

In this article I'll show you the new Affliction spells that will be available for Warlocks in Mists of Pandaria.

I will post more articles to cover the other new specs for Warlocks in Mists of Pandaria. I will discuss all three specs: Affliction, Demonology and Destruction.
As a beta player I will continue to post articles about my experiences of leveling in Mists of Pandaria.

Click here to visit "How to level in Mists of Pandaria as a Destruction Warlock"

The immediate advantage of this spec is that your base spells are curses. What this means is that you won't spend a lot of time casting anything, but instead dotting a lot. This gives you a lot of freedom; you can keep moving and walking towards items you need to loot or a place you need to reach.

When we take a look at the new spells Mists of Pandaria brings to us for the affliction spec, we have some interesting options. Since I'm talking about leveling up from 85-90 I will only discuss those relevant talents and spells for leveling.

Malefic Grasp [2% of base mana, channeled]: Binds the target in twilight, causing 2634Shadow damage over 3 sec. In addition, all of your periodic spells tick 100% fasterwhile afflicted by Malefic Grasp.

The first part of this spell isn't very interesting, but the second part sure makes a huge difference in improving the dps on your target. What's important to bear in my with this spell is that you should put all of your important dots on your target before using this spell, profiting the most from the 100% faster ticks.

Unending Resolve [10% of base mana, instant]: the Warlock hardens his skin, reducingall damage taken by 50% and preventing his spells from being interrupted for 12seconds.

This second new spell will be available for all three specs, but I want to discuss it here because of the options it gives a warlock. Obviously the last part of the spell won't be very interesting for affliction specced warlocks, since affliction is mostly based on dots which require no cast. But the first part can be very interesting for pulling a lot of mobs while continue to move around the map. What you do before using this spell (when not in immediate danger i.e. below 20-30% health) is: dot up a couple of mobs (say 3-4), pop Unending Resolve and continue to dot some more. This way you barely lose health and you regain health because of the dots on your targets.

In the picture above you can see the new Soul Shard system. The new Soul Shard resource system means that you have four base Soul Shards as an Affliction Warlock. In Mists of Pandaria you can spend your Soul Shards on either Soulburn in combination with Summon Demon, Drain Life and Soul Fire (like you can right now in Cataclysm) or on Haunt. Haunt is revamped in Mists of Pandaria dealing a bit more damage than before making it more powerful. The picture above also shows the new glyph, Glyph of Verdant Spheres: when you have a Burning Ember/Soul Shard, it appears around your character as a Verdant Sphere. This glyph doesn't add more dps or anything, it is just for looks.

These spells are important while leveling as Affliction in Mists of Pandaria:

• Haunt
• Unstable Affliction
• Corruption
• Bane of Agony
• Malefic Grasp
• Drain Soul (use when you're low on Soul Shards to regain shards)
• Drain Life (use when low on health, for emergencies: use in combination with Soulburn to regain more life)

The talents, and the combinations between the talents, will be discussed in a later article I will post. So follow me and stay updated!