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For Affliction Warlock, we'll here talk about how to drive your newly specced toon to the nearest mob then watch them die horribly.
Affliction Warlocks do a large portion of their damage using DoT spells. So we'll talk about how DoT spells work, cover a particular group of spells called Curses and a typical rotation for Affliction and try to talk about when to cast what.
How DoT spells work? When a DoT is applied, a time counter starts. The spell deals damage in time increments, called ticks. The duration of the time between ticks depends on the spell, but it is usually 1, 2, or 3 seconds. The duration between the ticks is also affected by the Haste on your gear. The more haste you have, the faster your DoT spell tick and the more DPS you do.
There is a limit to how fast you can cast even with Haste and instant cast DoT spells but there is a Global cool-down that nothing can take you below. For Warlocks, it is generally 1.5 seconds but the curse Global cool-down can be lowered to 1 second with Amplify Curse. Haste can lower your Global cool-down as well to a minimum of 1 cast per second. In other words, you can only cast once per second regardless of how much Haste you stack.
It is rarely a good idea to recast a DoT before it completely runs out due to the way DoT spells work. Let's take Corruption as example, it ticks every 3 seconds, meaning that 3 seconds after you cast, the DoT ticks dealing its first damage. It will totally tick 6 times if not cast again.
If you had cast something else and left it alone, you would have gotten the damage from the extra spell. Additionally, you lose 1 second Global cool-down casting something you didn't really need to cast yet. Even worse, if you recast Corruption one second after the 5th tick, you will cause there to be 5 seconds between ticks, you will miss casting something else, and initiate the Global cool-down before your next cast. You get the idea. It's better to have the DoT fall off while your getting in an extra Shadow Bolt than to clip the DoT by recasting before it runs out.
To some extent, channeled spells like Drain Life and Drain Soul work similar to a DoT, only unlike a DoT you have to interrupt the channeled spell to cast anything else, losing its damage until you begin to channel again. However, Drain Life and Drain Soul still tick while being cast, causing damage every 1 or 3 seconds respectively before considering Haste.
