For Warlock, compare an Affliction damage-over-time plan with a Demonology summon plan. Corruption and Curse of Agony are the recorded Affliction pairing; the summon direction depends on earned talents. The official menu research recorded 165 HP and default Shadow Bolt.
Evidence checked 2026-10-28: Shadow Bolt and 165 HP are from the official menu record, a single source. Holdherhand’s public Affliction and Demonology examples identify two different routes; their upload dates do not establish the game version or a tested comparison.
Affliction plan: build around the damage-over-time package
The Warlock class guide and the earlier build research pair Corruption with Curse of Agony for Affliction. Start from Shadow Bolt on a fresh character and take the intended damage-over-time options when offered. Exact tick rates, uptime and a complete point order are not established by this guide.
- Improve the available opening rather than waiting for a draft that may not arrive. When Corruption or Curse of Agony appears, compare it with upgrades to the route already in use.
- Choose damage-over-time support only when the current tooltip applies to the effects you actually have. A generic percentage is not a reason to abandon prerequisites for the intended talent.
- If survival fails before the effects can do their job, take recovery or defense ahead of another damage pick. The low menu HP is a reason to plan space and survival, not proof that the class is weak.
Demonology alternative
Affliction, Demonology, and Destruction are the recorded tree names. The research describes Demonology/Felguard and Pit Lord directions, while public patch records also describe summon changes. Inspect the current summon talent and its prerequisites before choosing: do not add every demon named in an older guide to one supposedly compatible setup.
Affliction example — Holdherhand, 27 October 2026 is the video embedded below. Demonology example — Holdherhand, 21 October 2026 is a separate public recording listed in the research. Neither recording’s game version is established here; their titles do not prove current summon coefficients.
Talent, gear, and race decisions
Each class can earn at most 51 talent points. Use the actual prerequisite chain for the chosen Affliction or Demonology objective, and use the version record when adapting an older summon guide. Shadow Bolt is the default menu opening, not a claim that a capstone cannot change it.
Compare gear properties with the active route and prioritize survival if runs end early. Human’s progression lines and the defensive or cooldown lines in the racial reference are conditional options, subject to race availability. They are official single-source text, not a proven best-in-slot pairing. An older wiki’s S tier based on rebuild spell math does not validate current official damage.
Sources, version, and using this plan
The route names and spell pairings above are attributed to the public Warlock class guide and the class material collected on 28 October 2026. They are published planning examples, not an official ranking or a tested damage comparison.
Watch the public Warlock example — uploaded 2026-10-27; the game version is not established by the research record. A video upload date is not a patch number. The menu facts come from Aethus’s original game, a single official source; see the dated version record before applying an older talent route.
Questions
Should I start with Affliction or Demonology?
Affliction offers a recorded Corruption/Curse of Agony direction to compare as cards appear. Demonology is an alternative when its summon prerequisites are available. The evidence here does not rank their current clear speed.
Is Warlock the best class?
No universal best-class result is established here. The 165 HP/default Shadow Bolt menu record and public route examples describe different facts; an older third-party S tier is an opinion about its own source and version.
Sources and verification limits
Checked 2026-10-28. Two independent publishers are needed to call a claim confirmed. A menu, screenshot and script from Aethus count as one publisher. Exact menu HP, racial values and dated build identifiers are single-source observations. A video or a general game report does not independently verify every number. Missing values remain unreported; disagreements stay attributed.
- Aethus — original game page
Official browser entry and Windows link. Version and menu numbers are a single-publisher snapshot dated 28 October 2026, not independently confirmed current values.
- 17173 — independent game report, 26 October 2026
Free game, nine classes, eight races, Windows download and permanent progression. Rounded download size is not a file identity check.
- Community class build reference
Published class route, distinct from the single-source official HP and starter-spell snapshot.
- Holdherhand — Affliction Warlock
Independent public footage for the gameplay shown, not verification of every numerical claim on this page.