Affliction

• Affliction is based on DoT (damage-over-time) spells. The key to good affliction DPS is DoT timing. For your best DPS:
  
  Stat Priority (in order): hit to cap, spellpower, haste, crit, spirit
  
  Glyphs: haunt, quick decay, life tap
  
  Pet: felhunter (or doomguard for single-target boss fights)
  
  Self-Buffs: fel armor, spellstone, frostwyrm flask, spellpower food (fish feast, glacial salmon, or shoveltusk steak), wild magic potion
  
  Casting Priority: curse of doom (unless raid lead requests elements; replace doom with agony when target time-to-die under one minute), life tap (to maintain buff), haunt, corruption, unstable affliction, shadow bolt (replace with drain soul when target under 25% health)
  
  

Destruction

• The destruction warlock is similar to the fire mage in putting out intense burst damage. As the spec is based on massive critical damage, destruction warlocks should watch threat to avoid pulling mobs off the tank.
  
  Stat Priority (in order): hit to cap, spellpower, crit, haste, spirit
  
  Glyphs: conflagrate, incinerate, immolate
  
  Pet: imp
  
  Self-Buffs: fel armor, firestone, frostwyrm flask, spellpower food (fish feast, glacial salmon, or shoveltusk steak), wild magic potion
  
  Casting Priority: curse of doom (unless raid lead requests elements; let doom drop off if target time-to-die is under one minute), immolate, conflagrate, chaos bolt, incinerate
  
  

Demonology

• Demonology has the most complicated rotation of the three warlock specs. Although it is the easiest spec for solo questing, it is the most dependent on player skill in raids, calling for careful situational judgment and paying close attention to procs.
  
  Stat Priority: hit to cap, spellpower, haste, spirit, crit
  
  Glyphs: life tap, felguard, quick decay or metamorphosis
  
  Pet: felguard
  
  Self-Buffs: fel armor, soul link, spellstone, frostwyrm flask, spellpower food (fish feast, glacial salmon, or shoveltusk steak), wild magic potion
  
  Casting Priority:
  
  All situations: Life tap to maintain buff and macro demonic empowerment to use when available.
  
  Metamorphosis on cooldown: Cast curse of doom (let drop off if target time-to-die under one minute), immolate, corruption, and shadow bolt (or three incinerates during molten core procs).
  
  Outside of melee range: Use metamorphosis on cooldown like a trinket.
  
  In melee range of target: When metamorphosis becomes available, cast life tap, then metamorphosis, immolation aura, then regular rotation. If metamorphosis is glyphed, you will be able to cast immolation aura a second time.
  
  Execute phase (target under 35% health): Cast one incinerate to proc decimate, metamorphosis and immolation aura if available, then use all trinkets and potion and spam soul fire.
  
  

Other Mechanics

• Computer and internet speed matter, especially for 25-player raiding. A frame rate of under 30 fps or a latency over 250 ms. will reduce your DPS. Track DOTs carefully, neither letting them fall off nor "clipping" (refreshing before the last tick). Use trinkets, potions, and special attacks during heroism/bloodlust, and cast spells just as they come off global cool-down.
  
  To improve DPS, use addons to control targeting, track cooldowns and DOTs, and compensate for casting latency. Bind spells to keys you can find quickly and use macros to manage complex rotations. Get a good gaming mouse to access abilities quickly.