Affliction Warlock
Hellcaller
With the Single-Button Assistant and its cooldowns, Affliction Warlock (Hellcaller) deals 79% of perfect manual play in M+ dungeons (rank 33 of 51) and 91% of perfect manual play on a raid boss (rank 2 of 51). In M+, the best build we found for the button deals 3.5% more than SimulationCraft's.
At a glance
4-piece set · SimulationCraft's talents · share of manual DPS kept
| Fight | Manual DPS | SBA + cooldown | SBA alone | Assisted Highlight | Rank (SBA + cooldown) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| M+ dungeon | 253,327 | 79.5%−20.54% | 62.8%−37.17% | 84.5%−15.54% | 33 of 51 |
| Raid boss | 252,025 | 91.3%−8.71% | 68.9%−31.12% | 96.4%−3.62% | 2 of 51 |
Against real +15 players
Too few real Hellcaller runs on the standard routes to compare (23). See the specs that have enough
What the assistant costs
M+ dungeon · 4-piece set · Best talents for the button · data as of 2026-11-11 08:07 UTC
- Manual266.3Kreference
- SBA + cooldown208.3K78% of manual
- SBA alone159.2K60% of manual
- Assisted Highlight219.7K82% of manual
Best Mythic+ talents for the button
For one-button play in M+, import this build: +3.5% damage with SBA + cooldown over SimulationCraft's build.
Best of 13 builds tested with the button (SimulationCraft's and the top 10 Mythic+ players' on murlok.io, plus a talent search), 2026-10-30: a talent search for the button, one talent swap at a time from the build of the #9 M+ player on murlok.io.
One-button damage (SBA + cooldown DPS), M+ dungeon, 4-piece
- Best M+ build for the buttonRecommended208,342+3.5%
- SimulationCraft's build201,281
CkQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAsNzYmZmmNGbmZMLDAAYmZWmlZmZZMAgFYgZxoxMgMLglBAAgZAAgZGYmxYMMMzYmZMYmZGAgZgBCkQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAwMzMzoZhhZmZmlBAAYmZZWmZml5BGAwCMwsY0YGQmNwyAAAwMAAwMDYmZMYGmZMzMGMzMzAAmBGIn game, open the talent window, choose Import and paste it. The best build we found for the button. Every figure on this page uses it.
Best raid talents for the button
For one-button play on a raid boss, import this build: +0.7% damage with SBA + cooldown over SimulationCraft's raid build.
Talent search for the button on the raid boss, 4-piece set (2026-11-10): it starts from SimulationCraft's raid build, tries every legal single talent swap, keeps the ones that add damage and repeats, never touching a defensive talent; a build wins only when it beats SimulationCraft's raid build by more than 0.2 %. Perfect manual play keeps SimulationCraft's raid build, so the Ranking compares the button on its best talents with the best manual build.
Talents changed: it drops Dark Harvest and takes Withering Bolt (1 point). Defensive talents stay: no build that drops one is offered. The search only counts damage, so check you can do without what it drops (a utility spell, for example).
CkQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAwMzMzoZhhZmZmlBAAYmZZWmZmlZGAwCMwsY0YGQmNwyAAAwMAAwMDYmZMYGmZYmxgZmZGAwMwACkQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAwMzMzoZhhZmZmlBAAYmZZWmZml5BGAwCMwsY0YGQmNwyAAAwMAAwMDYmZMYGmZMzMGMzMzAAmBGIn game, open the talent window, choose Import and paste it.
Where the damage comes from
M+ dungeon · 4-piece set · Best talents for the button · data as of 2026-11-11 08:07 UTC
Damage per second and casts per ability, averaged over the simulated fights. Pets and summons show their own name in brackets.
| Ability | Manual | SBA + cooldown | SBA + cooldown vs manual |
|---|---|---|---|
 Unstable Affliction | 45.4K17.1% · 86.6 casts | 47.3K22.7% · 99.4 casts | +1,866 |
 Agony | 45.9K17.3% · 41.8 casts | 28.2K13.5% · 25.1 casts | −17.7K |
 Wither | 25.5K9.6% | 15.9K7.7% | −9,587 |
| Wrath Of Nathreza (Desperate Soul) | 23.7K8.9% · 18.5 casts | 22.5K10.8% · 17.1 casts | −1,276 |
| Eye Beam (Darkglare) | 20.5K7.7% · 65.4 casts | 16.3K7.8% · 62 casts | −4,257 |
 Font of Venomous Rage | 16.2K6.1% · 2 casts | 15.5K7.4% · 2 casts | −734 |
 Blackened Soul | 14.1K5.3% | 12.1K5.8% | −2,003 |
 Shadow of Nathreza | 12.0K4.5% | 7,9973.8% | −4,041 |
 Seed of Corruption (AoE) | 11.3K4.3% | 1,4040.7% | −9,930 |
 Dark Harvest (Tick) | 9,9723.8% | 5,6452.7% | −4,327 |
 Haunt | 9,7613.7% · 25.2 casts | 8,9664.3% · 22.6 casts | −795 |
 Shadow Bolt | 6,6012.5% · 76.4 casts | 6,6863.2% · 77.3 casts | +85 |
| Unstable Affliction (Malefic Grasp) | 4,6031.7% | 2,4871.2% | −2,116 |
| Shadowbolt Volley | 4,0311.5% | 3,7161.8% | −315 |
| Melee (Summon Sayaad) | 3,7701.4% · 166.3 casts | 3,7101.8% · 164.7 casts | −60 |
 Malefic Grasp | 3,7111.4% · 13.7 casts | 2,4081.2% · 10.7 casts | −1,303 |
 Malevolence (Proc) | 2,2820.9% | 1,8000.9% | −482 |
| Lash Of Pain (Summon Sayaad) | 2,2770.9% · 61.9 casts | 2,2571.1% · 61.9 casts | −20 |
 Rune of Unleashed Fire | 1,1010.4% · 53.8 casts | 1,1110.5% · 54 casts | +10 |
| Venom Splatter | 1,0770.4% | 1,0130.5% | −64 |
| Agony (Malefic Grasp) | 8500.3% | 5490.3% | −301 |
| Wither (Malefic Grasp) | 5750.2% | 3690.2% | −206 |
 Rune of Lingering | 3170.1% · 53.8 casts | 3000.1% · 54 casts | −17 |
| Wither (Direct) | 900.0% · 6.4 casts | 940.0% · 6.3 casts | +4 |
| Total | 265.8K | 208.2K | −57.6K |
A dash means the ability was never used in that mode. Damage is attributed the way SimulationCraft reports it, so a pet's damage appears under the pet.
Questions about Affliction Warlock (Hellcaller)
What are the best Mythic+ talents for Affliction Warlock (Hellcaller) with the one-button rotation?
The best build we found for the Single-Button Assistant in Mythic+ deals 3.5% more damage with the button than SimulationCraft's build. It was the best of 13 builds tested (SimulationCraft's and the top 10 Mythic+ players' on murlok.io), plus a talent search for the button. Its talent string is on this page, ready to import. The raid build is searched separately.
What are the best raid talents for Affliction Warlock (Hellcaller) with the one-button rotation?
The best build we found for the Single-Button Assistant on a raid boss deals 0.7% more damage with the button than the raid build we used before. It comes from a talent search for the button on the raid boss, 4-piece set. Its talent string is on this page, ready to import.
How much DPS does Affliction Warlock (Hellcaller) lose with the Single-Button Assistant?
With the Single-Button Assistant and its cooldowns, Affliction Warlock (Hellcaller) deals 79% of perfect manual play in M+ dungeons (rank 33 of 51) and 91% of perfect manual play on a raid boss (rank 2 of 51). In M+, the best build we found for the button deals 3.5% more than SimulationCraft's.
Related builds
Other hero talents of Affliction Warlock
DPS lost with SBA + cooldown, 4-piece set, SimulationCraft's talents (a top player's build for the hero talents SimulationCraft has no profile for). All specs · Ranking
How it's measured, and its limits
- SBA + cooldown is a best case: the simulator never misplays. It is always better to sim your own character.
- Manual play is SimulationCraft's own rotation executed perfectly, so it is an upper bound for what a person can do, not a typical player.
- Assisted Highlight assumes every suggestion is seen and pressed at once, which is generous for a player reading the highlight.
- The M+ dungeon is SimulationCraft's own DungeonSlice fight style, its approximation of Mythic+ pulls, not a specific dungeon route.
- Best talents for the button: of SimulationCraft's build, the top 10 Mythic+ players' builds on murlok.io and a talent search for the button, the one that deals the most with SBA + cooldown in the M+ dungeon. Gear and rotation are unchanged.
- SimulationCraft ships no profile for some hero talents (9 here). Those use SimulationCraft's gear with a top player's build: a top Mythic+ player's build on murlok.io in M+, and on the raid boss the most played build in top raid kills on Warcraft Logs when there are any, otherwise SimulationCraft's raid talents with that Mythic+ build's hero talents (or the Mythic+ build itself where it deals more). No talent search for the button has been run for them yet.
- SimulationCraft ships no profile at all for Devastation Evoker and Balance Druid. Those use the median gear of real +15 players, raised to the item level of SimulationCraft's profiles, with the build most real players use (or a top player's build where too few play that hero talent), and a talent search for the button.
Full method, reliability rule and patches: Sources · Simulated with SimulationCraft 1210-01 (WoW 12.1.5.70575) 710c240 +16 patches, 10,000 iterations per figure.