how to play warlock aff in 5v5

Affliction Warlock in 5v5 is usually played as a pressure + control spec: spread damage early, use fears and CC to stop heals, and survive long enough for rot damage to win. The strongest habit is to keep your DoTs rolling on multiple enemies while helping your team secure kill windows with crowd control and cooldowns.

Game plan

• Open by spreading pressure. Keep Agony, Corruption, and Unstable Affliction active on as many enemies as is safe, then force the enemy team to react to you instead of your teammates.

• Play around CC, not raw burst. Affliction wins by making the enemy healer fall behind, so Fear, Mortal Coil, and positional pressure matter more than tunneling one target nonstop.

• Use your burst after setup. The cleanest windows come after you have dots out, then you layer your main damage cooldowns while the enemy is controlled or distracted.

Positioning

• Stand where you can line up casts safely but still swap targets quickly.
• Stay near a pillar or safe angle so you can fake cast, break line, and avoid getting trained.
• Don’t drift too far forward; in 5v5, getting caught without defensives usually loses the fight fast.

Defensives

• Unending Resolve is your panic button for heavy focus or to finish an important cast under pressure.

• Dark Pact is better used early when damage starts ramping, not only when you are already nearly dead.

• Keep movement and positioning strong so you are not forced to burn defensives too soon.

Target priority

• Most of the time, pressure the target your team can actually connect on, then swap when an enemy healer is forced out of position.
• In melee-heavy teams, your job is often to rot the enemy while helping peel with fears and slows.
• In caster-heavy lobbies, use line-of-sight and steady DoT uptime to outlast them rather than overcommitting.

Practical opener

1. Pre-position safely.
2. Apply your DoTs to the kill target and nearby enemies.
3. Start adding Fear or other CC when the enemy healer is forced to respond.
4. Save your big cooldowns for a moment when multiple enemies are committed or controlled.
5. Rebuild pressure immediately after the burst window ends.

Simple rule set

• Keep DoTs up.
• Force healer movement.
• Use Fear to stop peels and resets.
• Use defensives early enough to keep casting.
• Win by attrition , not by a single all-in combo.

If you want, I can also turn this into a 5v5 talent/build + opener + kill- target priority cheat sheet.