What other classes are like Aff Locks and not cooldown-based?

I’ve been able to use Weak Auras to help me prioritize most of my abilities as a Protection Paladin but I still find myself staring at my bars to see if Judgement, Avenger’s Shield, or Blessed Hammer is coming off cooldown. It doesn’t really feel good to not be able to react to the battlefield because I’m focused on something else.

In Shadowlands, I picked up Affliction Warlock as an alt and really enjoyed it as my core abilities really didn’t have a cooldown but success with the spec required me to use the right ability at the right time and maintain various debuffs on the enemy. I was able to build a really nice WeakAura setup that allowed me to focus on everything going on around me rather than on my bars.

Currently in Dragonflight, it appears Affliction is undertuned. I’m wondering if there are other classes and specs that has a playstyle closer to Affliction Locks and further from Protection Paladins, and preferably DPS classes. Classes that use abilities that don’t have cooldowns/costs would probably be best, so the energy systems behind Rogues and Hunters might not work.

Have you tried Shadow Priest?

No, what is the rotation like?

Well, unfortunately it’s one of the more complex of all the classes. On the bright side, while there are cooldowns, they’re short (even PI and Mindbender are short by long cooldown standards) and you will never be out of something to cast. Mind Blast has a two-charge system, and you can fill with either Mind Flay or Mind Spike, depending on build. You spend insanity on Devouring Plague and/or Mind Sear.

The reason I ask; it’s a caster that has strong DoTs and absolutely no lulls in things to do.

I don’t mind the lulls, the opposite is kind of what’s turning me away from Prot Paladin which requires an ability to be cast every GCD. Affliction was fun because it involved the maintenance of various debuffs, all of which showed up on the enemy’s nameplates and kept my vision focused on the battle.