I’ve been leveling an Affliction Warlock, currently 45, and been enjoying the open world, but struggling in dungeons. It feels like it takes forever to get my AoE going and I’m not performing well on trash. I perform very respectably on single target, even coming first on some fights.
Does this get better? I’m worried that this theme will carry over to max level if I decide to maim this character in Shadowlands.
That’s usually how affliction goes. Phenomenal Single Target DPS. Itty bitty AoE
since the nerf in legion to seed of corruption, affliction isn’t good for aoe. it shines in single target though.
Big AoE damage but some ramp up time.
your AoE is going to be near useless because how of quick mobs die in leveling dungeons.
Totally read this in Robin Williams Genie voice.
Anything that relies on dots is going to be garbage in leveling dungeons.
That was the point 
Well now you made me sad…
You guys are KINDA wrong actually, the new ability Malefic Rapture allows the Warlock to do considerable aoe dmg to every target that has dots on it, and if you run Drain Soul which deals more dmg to lower HP target on top of granting soul shards on kills, you can seriously do some work.
The rework they got in pre-patch greatly helped them
Affliction get better the more health their targets have. So you will struggle in leveling dungeons where trash gets one shot, but will do much better in mythics where trash actually takes a few seconds to die.
This is not the case for leveling dungeons, or even max level normal/heroic/low M+ keys. Things simply die too quickly. A lot of other specs have front loaded burst that greatly reduces affliction’s effectiveness. By the time you manage to get your dots up on all targets, they will already be close to dead. The only real way to keep up is through seed of corruption and sow the seeds talent.
Also malefic rapture, as good as it is, does not make up 100% of your dps. You still need your dots to tick, and they can’t do that when there’s a hunter deleting 50% HP in one opening combo.
Haven’t touched mine since the update.
But what you’re describing is (or at least, was) perfectly normal.
It was more of a raid spec, specialising in STD and cleave.
Dungeons, generally speaking doesn’t do aff justice. You get ready to destroy, just as everything dies.
So if I prefer dungeons to raiding, I’m getting the sense that I shouldn’t main affliction. Or is the single target and cleave potential still worth it? The meters on trash just make me sad and I worry about getting kicked from dungeons before I can even show my worth on the first boss.
Not really. You’ll probably want to go Destro for the burst and AoE.
It’s not really an Affliction specific issue.
Warlocks in general are meh at the lower levels of content, simply because stuff dies too fast for all three specs to properly ramp up,
Affliction right now is positioned to be the best Warlock M+ spec, but we’re always going to be outshined at the lowest levels of content due to our ramp up. Once you get to levels where trash doesn’t die in a GCD or two, Affliction really starts to shine.
I wouldnt worry too much, besides if you run good talents for aoe, you can do quite the work, in like i mentione earlier, Soul Drain can be powerful to get rid of targets that are near dead and get more Soul Shards
yeah, it’s the same reason i run demo for dungeons and raid as affliction. just better suited for each’s style… not saying you can’t run afl in dungeons; i just find demo more fun in them.
Another thing to take in mind is the curses that made a return, those can seriously help dealing with stronger enemies by reducing the dmg they make
It depends on what level content you’re doing. Affliction is still very viable in M+. When you can spread your dots and get those big raptures in, which you will be able to in higher keys, then your damage will be competitive. On top of that affliction has top tier single target which makes them excellent against bosses on tyrannical.