World of Warcraft Guide to Leveling an Affliction Warlock

People leveling World of Warcraft warlocks have always had to choose between Affliction and Demonology to level from 1-80. To pull off Affliction speed killing you need an area ripe with mobs, a DPS or mana pet (Succubus or Imp respectively), and some guts. You do not need as many mobs as an AoE grinding Paladin or Mage, and a little distance between pulls is a plus. Optimally you will want to control four to six mobs at a time. Many players will choose to level with Demonology as it is the safest path to leveling a warlock to level 80, but Affliction is the fastest path. Single target fighting is the weakest aspect of an Affliction Warlock. Where they shine is fighting multiple mobs, due to the nature of the DoTs.  Keep your distance for a bit, your next three spells are instant casts. Cast these spells in any order - Siphon Life, Corruption, Curse of Agony. Either keep running away, or stop and cast Drain Life until the mob dies. Generally you will not have to reapply any DoTs as the mob will die quickly.

With it being a longer casting time, you will not fight pushback casting it to lead.Affliction relies mainly on the warlock, and the damage over time spells (DoTs) while Demonology relies on your pets taking damage and keeping you safe.  At higher levels you will replace Unstable Affliction with Haunt for the heal effect. If you are  etting hit hard, fear your target and continue to cast Drain Life. Upon closer inspection you will see that Affliction allows you to rapidly cast a number of your DoTs on your target, while still maintaining some longer casting time spells. This can be used to your advantage in many situations.