krilz

(Updated at 29/7 2009 for patch 3.1.3)

Ed. note: This thread is still a WIP.

 

Contents

1Introduction 2Spells 3Talents and builds 3.1Builds 3.2Talents 3.2.1Destruction 3.2.2Demonology 3.2.3Affliction 4Itemization 4.1Crit rating 4.2Haste rating 4.3Spell power 4.4Hit rating 4.5Other stats 4.6Tier set boni 4.7Gems 4.8Glyphs 5Rotations

[top]Introduction

Destruction warlock is a more "direct damage"-based build as opposed to the Affliction one which supports more heaving hitting nukes rather than "damage over time"-effects. It has many similarities with Elemental Shamans and Mages and has a wide array of both instants and AoE-spells. In patch 3.0 Destruction received a serious overhaul considering how powerful it was before in TBC but couldn't keep up with Affliction after the launch of WOTLK. In 3.1 however this is is a different story; Destruction is now highly competable against other specs as the theoretical highest DPS available and is now also able to provide raids buff via Replenishment. In short: Destruction has many tricks up it's sleeve such as more instants and more AOE options and might therefor be the choice for the warlock who wanted to play a Mage, but with a twist.

[top]Spells

Spell		Base Co-efficient	Notes
Immolate	Immo	20% DOT tick // 20% DD	The spell that destruction is pretty much built around. It's a DoT with a DD-effect on hit.
Conflagrate	Conflag	None	Has been around for ages but received several buffs in WOTLK and is now part of the standard rotation. It's damage it's based on your Immolate.
Chaos Bolt	CB	71.39%	The new 51-talent in WOTLK. While many may look at this as a PvP-talent, it has higher damage, shorter cast time and lesser mana cost than Incinerate.
Incinerate	Incin	71.39%	Your basic “filler”, used to fill in spaces between the more damaging spells. Receives many buffs from various talents and gets a higher base damage if it hits a target with Immolate on it.
Curse of Doom	CoD	200%	The warlock spell with the highest DPCT and therefor involved in the rotation as well.
Curse of Agony	CoA	120%	Not as powerful as CoD but still used somewhat (se below at rotations for more on this).

[top]Talents and builds

[top]Builds

There are two commonly used builds. The rotation among them is the same but small differences are present.

Build	Notes
3/13/55	Standard destruction that focuses on personal DPS and gives many utility talents such as Shadowfury and Suppression to focus less on hit-gear.
0/13/58	Foregoes most utility talents for Imp. Soul Leech and Replenishment. Has the highest theoretical DPS in a “tank and spank”-situation.

[top]Talents

[top]Destruction

Tier	Talent	Recommendation	Notes
1	Improved Shadow Bolt	Ignored	Shadow Bolt isn't featured at all in the rotation. This is mostly for Affliction- and deep Demonology-warlocks.
1	Bane	Required	Reduces casting time of your 2nd most strongest nuke and DOT. Essential.
2	Aftermath	Required	Not only increases the damage of Immolate but also Conflagrate indirectly.
2	Molten Skin	Optional	Can reduce stress on healers if there's much raid damage but mostly a PvP-talent.
2	Cataclysm	Recommended	Together with Imp. Soul Leech this can really hold your mana up and reduce the amount of Life Taps, resulting in higher DPS.
3	Demonic Power	Required	Your Imp does good DPS on it's own and this one helps it.
3	Shadowburn	Ignored	PvP-talent and thus not taken.
3	Ruin	Required	Multiplies with CSD to give 109% damage bonus critical strikes.
4	Intensity	Recommended	Reduces pushback on all your spells, very useful for raiding.
4	Destructive Reach	Recommended	Longer range and lesser threat on pretty much all your spells. Note however that this does not apply to CoD.
4	Improved Searing Pain	Ignored	Not really useful unless you're tanking many encounters and PvP:ing a lot.
5	Backlash	Recommended	Gives higher crit % on all your spells and can give instant Incins when struck. The second effect is mostly for PvP but the higher crit % is useful.
5	Improved Immolate	Required	Higher damage on Immo and therefor on Conflag as well. Very important. Also a pre-requisite for Conflag.
5	Devastation	Required	Extremely valuable because of the low point investment.
6	Nether Protection	Not recommended	Just like Molten Skin, can reduce stress on healers but there are better talents available. Mostly for PvP.
6	Emberstorm	Required	Increases the damage on all of your fire spells and reduces the cast time on Incin equivalent to 10% haste.
7	Conflagrate	Required	Your hardest hitting nuke and what the rotation is built around. It's damage is based upon 4 ticks of Immo (with all talents) and procs Backdraft and Pyroclasm on use, further boosting DPS.
7	Soul Leech	Optional	Not so useful on it's own, what you really want if going here is Imp. Soul Leech (see that one for more info).
7	Pyroclasm	Required	Thanks to the buff to Fire and Brimstone this one has an uptime of 50-60% (depending on your crit %), boosting all your damage by 6%.
8	Shadow and Flame	Required	Increases the co-efficient of CB and Incin from 71.39% to 85.67%.
8	Improved Soul Leech	Optional	Gives Replenishment to the raid and can restore 2% of you and your Imps max mana back on spell hit. Thanks to this lesser Life Taps are needed and more time on DPS can be focused on.
9	Backdraft	Required	Has an optimal uptime of 60% giving a serious boost to damage. Note however that instants will use a charge (through Backlash and such).
9	Shadowfury	Optional	Very useful tool in raiding since many encounters has adds that needs to be taken care of. Not essential though.
9	Empowered Imp	Required	Gives a good boost to the Imps DPS and the Empowered Imp buff has an uptime of ~15%. Overall, it gives you a higher crit %.
10	Fire and Brimstone	Required	Good boost to CB and Incin and gives a higher uptime on Pyroclasm. Note that this only applies if the target has your Immo on.
11	Chaos Bolt	Required	AKA “Imp. Incinerate”. For one point you get a better nuke. See above for more info on CB.

[top]Demonology

Most excess points are spend in Demonology to reach Demonic Aegis so that is your main objective in this tree.

Tier	Talent	Recommendation	Notes
1	Improved Healthstone	Optional	Better healthstones which are useful in raids, but if another warlock has it, you don't need it.
1	Improved Imp	Required	Further boosts your Imps damage.
1	Demonic Embrace	Optional	Gives better survivability, not only for PvP.
1	Fel Synergy	Recommended	Your Imp does a good solid damage and gives you various buffs so it's important to keep him alive. This one helps towards that goal.
2	Improved Health Funnel	Ignored	Not very useful, Health Funnel works good the way it is.
2	Demonic Brutality	Ignored	More for the Felguard-using warlocks.
2	Fel Vitality	Recommended	Gives a higher mana pool to both you and your Imp increasing the effect of Imp. Soul Leech.
3	Improved Succubus	Ignored	Succubus is not featured in this build, so therefor not needed.
3	Soul Link	Optional	Does give better survivability to you, but not your pet. Also there are better talents around. Might be worth it though if you're tanking many encounters or doing hard modes.
3	Fel Domination	Not recommended	Your Imp should preferably not die, but if does: This one can seriously reduce that DPS loss of resummoning him.
3	Demonic Aegis	Recommended	Gives a flat 54 extra spell power and 9% extra more from your spirit. On higher gear levels gives a good boost to all of your damage.

[top]Affliction

The only talent worth taking here is Suppression and only if you need the hit. However it's not hard to reach the hit cap and there are better talents to boost your DPS.

Tier	Talent	Recommendation	Notes
1	Curse of Agony	Ignore	Even with this, CoD is still better.
1	Suppression	Optional	Equates to less needed hit on gear.
1	Improved Corruption	Not recommended	Corruption has a lesser DPCT than Incinerate and is therefor not used in your rotation. Can though be used if you're on the move a lot, but for this talent it gives a very low boost per point.

Imp. Soul Leech or not?

The build featuring ISL (0/13/58) has the highest DPS using theoretical tools such as SimCraft, but that's counting with T8-equivalent gear. The simulations all run on the same principle; by gaining enough mana through ISL you will not have to LT so often and therefor will have an easier time keeping DPS up. Note however that's it the ISL-effect itself together with Replenishment that makes this build useful so it's still good to have even though someone else is providing the latter.

[top]Itemization

These stats are calculated through various threads using SimCraft and Ulduar-equivalent gear. However, the trends are the same: Spell power is superior (unless you're not hit capped, then it's hit) and afterwards comes haste rating and then critical rating.

3/13/55 (using the following gearset)

Stat	Weight
Intellect	0.27
Spirit	0.86
Crit rating	0.87
Haste rating	0.90
Spell power	1.34

0/13/58 (using the following gearset)

Stat	Weight
Intellect	0.58
Spirit	0.74
Crit rating	1.04
Haste rating	1.56
Spell power	1.54

Ed. note: The above is posted during a Patchwerk-style fight. I will update this at a later date, until then I encourage you to try out your own gear during the opt_raid_mov setting (see http://elitistjerks.com/f80/t48311-s...ost_3_1_specs/ for more).

[top]Crit rating

Overall effectiveness: Average
Other notes: Crit rating has no other real benefits than improving your damage. While it can help to proc Pyroclasm through Conflagrate, Conflag recieves a 25% crit if your Immo is up on the target reducing the need for crit rating even further.

Crit rating value increases linear with spell power and leads to uptime increase 1:1 with no diminishing returns, i.e. +1% crit -> +1% Pyroclasm uptime -> +0.1% damage increase on top of direct crit gains.

[top]Haste rating

Overall effectiveness: Above average to high
Other notes: The value of haste is relative. It's somewhat easy to reach the GCD cap through high haste rating and Backdraft with Bloodlust/Heroism making excess amounts of haste worthless and making the rotations harder to keep up. Haste is however a better stat than crit because you don't need as much rating per percent compared to crit and crit % can be very high in a raid situation with various buffs.

[top]Spell power

Overall effectiveness: Very high
Other notes: Primary stat as for any DPS caster. All your spells benefits from this stat making it more valuable than any other than hit (if you're below the cap).

[top]Hit rating

TTT Entry for Spell Hit

Faction	Hit cap with talents/debuff	Hit cap with talents and debuff
Alliance	342	263
Horde	368	289

Overall effectiveness: Above very high if below the cap and worthless if over the cap
Other notes: If you can't hit, you can't do damage. That's why hit rating is the most powerful stat out there as long as you're below the cap. With Suppression you need 11% as Horde and 10% as Alliance (because of the Draenei racial aura) and 14% and 13% respectively without it. Missing a CoD will greatly reduce your DPS and if you miss an Immo all of your spells will suffer since they all benefit from it.

[top]Other stats

• Intellect
  166 Int = 1% crit. Intellect is not a real stat to gear for because it gives less DPS compared to the others. Intellect is however better for builds with Imp. Soul Leech since it returns mana based on how much mana you have.
• Spirit
  Much better than it used to be thanks to the new Fel Armor. Without Demonic Aegis you gain 30% of your spirit as spell power and 39% with. The amount of mana rewarded through Life Tap also scales with spirit.
• MP5
  Bad for warlocks with any builds. While technically MP5 can be used somewhat, it's nowhere near as good compared to the other DPS stats. We use Life Tap to gain mana back, not MP5. It's just how the class is designed.

Ed. note: Extensive information on spirit to come since it scales much better than it used to thanks to the new improved Glyph of Life Tap.

Firestone or Spellstone on weapon?

Even though haste is a better DPS stat than crit, the 1% extra damage to DD-spells outweighs the benefits of Spellstone by far.

Ed. note: Could use some more calculations.

[top]Tier set boni

More to come here.

[top]Gems

The only meta-gem that should be used is [Chaotic Skyflare Diamond]. When filling it's requirements the only gem you should use is the [Purified Twilight Opal]. Always try to gem for spell power first and foremost and haste in yellow sockets if the bonus is worth it.
Remember however that hit > everything else if not hit capped yet.

Ed. note: Could use some more extensive info.

[top]Glyphs

Regardless of what Destruction-build you're using, you should at least have Glyph of Conflagrate and Incinerate. In 3.2 Glyph of Life Tap received a substantial buff making it very strong. It might be better though to use Immolate with low level gear/until you reach a higher amount of spirit.
For more info on the subject, turn to Glyph Choice.

Major Glyph	Recommendation	Notes
[Glyph of Conflagrate]	Recommended	Saves a GCD from recasting Immolate. Immo needs to be up at all times since all your spells benefit from it and since Conflag is your hardest hitting nuke which you'll want to cast as many times as possible, this is one is a sure given.
[Glyph of Incinerate]	Recommended	Incinerate counts for over 50% of your damage making this very valuable.
[Glyph of Immolate]	Optional	Does not only increase the damage of Immo by 10% but also Conflag by 7%, double win!
[Glyph of Life Tap]	Recommended	Everytime you Life Tap, you gain 20% of your spirit in spell power for 40 sec. With a raidbuffed warlock with for example 500 spirit total this equates to 100 spell power to all your spells.
[Glyph of Chaos Bolt]	Ignored	Provides you with one extra CB every minute instead of an Incinerate. Chaos Bolt is roughly 20% more damaging than Incin i.e. this glyph makes one Incin every minute 20% stronger. Not very useful in other words, seeing what other glyphs are available. Consider this a PvP-glyph.

Ed. note: Needs more information on Imp.

Minor Glyph	Recommendation	Notes
[Glyph of Drain Soul]	Optional	There are not many useful minor glyphs as a warlock but this one makes shard farming a lot easier.

[top]Rotations

"Rotation" is a very common term for damage dealers, but more and more classes now thinks of “priorities” instead since it's easier to keep track of what spells to use and at what time, since haste screws rotations up. This is something that has been used by Shadow Priests for a long time and has been further used by other classes.

Regardless of your build, the priorities stay the same:

1. Curse of Doom – Highest DPCT of all your spells, read below however for extra information.
2. Immolate – Gives an increase to your Incinerate and CB damage through Fire and Brimstone and enables Conflagrate.
3. Conflagrate – To proc both Backdraft and Pyroclasm.
4. CB – Stronger nuke than Incinerate.
5. Incinerate – when DoTs are up and CB and Conflag is on CD, this is your "filler".

Curse of Doom has the highest DPCT and should therefor have a uptime close to 100%. However, if you can manage to proc Pyroclasm before casting it you should wait until the next Conflagrate as it increases your overall DPS. If the target has an estimated time of going down in less than a minute, then you should cast Curse of Agony instead and keep it up until the target dies for max DPS.

Should I use Corruption or not?

Yes and no. Corruption has a lower DPCT than Incinerate but can be used depending on if you have 2pT7 or not, or if you're on the move a lot.

 

Cohren

The question I keep asking myself when I see people post their Destruction builds is why not Demonic Sacrifice? Yeah you have to get talents that increase your pet's effectiveness and all but wouldn't the benefits from sacing the pet be more then using the pet to dps on boss fights? I'm terrible at this math thing but it would be great to see which yields more DPS, a DS'd Succ/Imp or using the pet with all the pet talents in the listed builds. It would also be nice to see what a MD/S and F build looks like and whether or not a fire build with your Imp out is more DPS then DS'ing the Imp.

Also at this early stage of the expansion I don't think an extra 9% damage from spirit warrants a build that has that as the ultimate objective. Its a great talent, if your going further down the tree.

I think its pretty obvious that all raiding locks will end up destruction again like we did in TBC, the question is which build is the best. Without math I think there are better then the 3 you listed. But I would like to be proven wrong.

 

Krazen

No, because the imp itself does 10-15% of your total DPS. On patchwerk my imp did 126k compared to my 770k, and that ignores any sort of feedback via empowered imp, master demonologist, etc.

Having demonic sac for certain fights, though, is another story.

 

Thanahtos

I thought the consensus was that keeping Corruption up to increase Molten Core uptime was a Good Thing? I haven't seen any math against casting Corruption, so why do you claim "since Corruption isn't involved in the rotation" Improved Corruption is bad?

 

lavis

I always use CoA unless I have to CoE in which case is when I would CoE / Corruption. I'm curious if keeping both Corr and CoA up is really worth it?

 

Nicarras

CoA ticks more often, therfore is better at keeping MC up than Corr.

The math I have seen before said that it does improve the uptime. But only by the smallest of amounts, so its better to use that GCD on an Incin or something else and just maintain CoA.

 

Nnayr

You also forgot to mention 0/13/58. It is a more often used than 2/13/56 imo.

 

warlocu

Hello,at the moment i'm using 00/21/40 which i find really nice and easy to use :P.
I don't have very good gear,some valor and malygos items and im doing on bosses 3k->4kdps.
My rotation is simple Immo>Coa>Spam Inci until last tick of Imo>Conflag(So i get backdraft)>Immo(for 2x Incin Bonus)>CoA(if u dont got glyph)>Spam inci again !
I'm looking foward to see some WWS from FG/Ember spec and test it myself.

Btw,long time reader,first time poster :p,sorry for typo' and for my english .

 

krilz

Thanks for the inputs. I don't claim to be the god of Destruction but I decided to start the thread when I saw there wasn't any around and I've always ended up with the spec, since every other warlock in my guild wants to play other things

I'll try to keep this updated daily but it will most likely be every 2-3 days. Keep the posts coming. And I love to be proven wrong.

 

a3n1ma

Considering for example, that a lot of Heroic dungeon mobs are taken down fairly quickly, would it be safe to say that destro can output the most quick damage for one of these fights?

I've been a destro lock for a while now, and I really like that I'm able to burn things down quicker. If I was affliction for example, would I be able to output the same amount of damage as a destro lock?

 

Nightcore

I'm running with this spec atm, having Shadowfury since it's nice in some situations on Naxx trash and heroics etc. Where the sacrifice is only 1 point from Unholy Power.
Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft

About bane, I wouldn't use Soulfire during backdrafts, 3 incinerates, then reapply immolate?
I prefer 19 in Demo, but yea, some fights are just NOT Imp friendly. I do use corruption though, to trigger Molten Core, and since I have the Corruption Glyph ^^

From my recount data, I do get quite much mana from Imp Soul Leech, equal to Replennishment in 1 fight.

About Cataclysm, I'dd still cap myself thought, since I have Corruption and CoA in my cycle.

My point of view ^^


PS: Giev Fel Synergy in T2 Demo ;/

 

Krazen

I think you have too many small variations in specs. For readability, I'd condense 3 of the specs to 0/13/58 + 2.

In any case, there are a couple more specs I would categorize as destro:

0/30/40 + 1: Master Demo and SNF, bypasses conflag talents.
0/40/30 + 1: Uses an imp, takes 10% crit and demonic knowledge for higher spellpower, but loses SNF.
0/41/30: Felguard/Emberstorm

 

Splot

I've picked up the felguard/emberstorm build in the demo thread. I definately see 0/30/40+1 as belonging to destruction. Would it be better to do a base chaos bolt build, a base conflag build and then look at the destro hybrids?

Is there any point in picking up imp CoA and imp Corr and have 7/3/51+ 10 as a chaos bolt destro? Glyphs would most likely be imp, CoA and Immo.

 

Jarflock

I am a bit confused, most of the destro specs I see linked on this page include Conflagrate and Backdraft, but my understanding was that the haste gain from Backdraft was more than offset by the clipped Immolate and mana cost of Conflagrate. Most specs also seem to throw a few filler points in Soul Leech, but it seems absolutely clear to me that the 2 points in Improved Soul Leech are the valuable ones, with the 3 base points being simply expensive filler. I could understand taking either of these sets of talents as filler, but not both.

In other words rather than put points into Conflag and Backdraft that you will not use, and filling with a few in Soul Leech, why not drop Conflag entirely, take all 5 in Soul Leech since the last 2 are where the utility is found, or even ditch all or most of these points and go for Imp Life Tap. Something like

Build 1

or

Build 2

Am I misunderstanding the deal with Conflag? Is it in fact worthwhile?

 

krilz

It is possible to do the same dps with affliction but then you have to DoT multiple targets. I pick a primary target which gets the four strongest DoTs (all expect SL) and Haunt and then I apply just the 4 DoTs to all other targets. There probably won't be much SB-spamming but you'll dish out just as much dps. I was able to keep a steady 2000 dps in Violet Hold Heroic just last night doing this. It does require some AE-tanking though.
I've been testing a lot of this and during an Instructor Razuvious in 10-man and did Soul Fire x3 at 2 times during Bloodlust/Heroism and those 6 Soul Fires actually accounted for 15% of my total damage. Sure they did crit half of them but still...
In any case, if you're not going for the Soul Fire route you should ALWAYS apply Immolate before doing Incinerates, even during Backdraft.
This spec is not possible.

 

smoo86

Which are the gylphs you would recommend for 0/31/40 (with improved immolate and no conflag)?

1. Improved Imp
2. CoA
3. CoR (instant sb seem to be nice)

or:

1. Improved Imp
2. CoA
3. Imolate (-10% initial damage but +30% initial from talents. Still usefull?)

And regarding the posts to keep only CoA up for Molten Core:
Why dont keep Corr and CoA up all the time? Even with CoA ticking faster/more often - its still two dots, that kan proc Molten Core?

 

Nightcore

Well, since you won't get a lowered Global CD during your backdraft, wouldn't it result in a dps loss?

 

kaib

If there is no other warlock keeping up immolate, you should do immol/incin/incin with your backdraft charges. If another lock has immolate running, do incin/incin/incin. If there is no other immol up, even without backdraft affecting GCD, it's still worth doing a 'shitty' immol first as it's just more damage overall.
Generally I do not think it's worth having a backdraft spec if there is no other warlock for immolate around. I'd rather go hybrid demono/destro then.

As for 30/40 +x, I'd put that one point into mana feed now. I am a huge friend of shadow fury, but imp just goes oom in some fights.

 

Belific

Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft
That's the spec I fell in love with 0/30/40 +1 That one Can be put into shadowfury (which works great in Malygos Fight vs the orbs and in other fighting situations).
Or Demonic empowerment which I have tried and it does give my imp some extra DPS in long fights but only if he is not in danger.

My dps rotation is Corr..Immo then Coa SPAM INCIN... This rotation Keeps MC up alot, the added DPS through MC and other chance on hit like t7 2pc and a Trinket (Badge or w\e) Give huge DPS spikes ie. 11k, 10k crits which are always nice.

I am however hit capped, which is the only reason I'm even fire destro-I also use Master Conjuror which is a nice dps boost-The lost talent on pyroclasm was just a fill in.

Try this spec out and let me know what you guys think--I am always top dps right under DK's and Hunters

 

krilz

Are you sure of this? With my current gear during Backdraft, Immolate has a cast time of 1 sec (and GCD cap is 1 sec) which I find optimal, thus no problem of casting it beforehand.

 

• dragon12

I definitely noticed that if I used Immolate during Backdraft I couldn't cast the following spell straight away after the cast finished. I'm pretty sure Backdraft doesn't reduce the GCD.

Stop thinking with your nuts and start thinking with the black and bitter ball of hatred buried in your chest

 

Nightcore

Same here.

 

Gorthan

0.95 immolate during backdraft. Does not reduces GCD.

 

Flying V

The GCD is reduced by your haste rating, Backdraft only reduces the cast time of destruction spells.

 

Shabaz

I'd love some thoughts on this slight variant 30/40+1 build. Something about this feels right...I'd love to play with Chaos bolt but all the % increases on this one makes me feel it will scale better.

Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft

First...the last talant point options:

A) Mana Feed - My thinking for this was 1 point in Mana feed means I can get my imp back some mana. Healers often through some hots on me when they can, and since my imp will otherwise dry up, this seemed like a way to keep trickle feeding him some power when I was tapping.

B) Improved COA - Should be part of my rotation and will be an easy 5% boost.

C) Demonic Knowledge - 1 pt should equate to around 40ish spellpower...which isn't a bad full time boost.

D) Demonic Empowerment - 1 pt = 20% imp crit bonus.

E) Shadowfury - Nice AOE...and with all the AOE tanks now this one could be nice

F) Empowered Imp - This one stumps me a little...Demonic gives a 20% crit bonus theoretically 30 seconds out of every minute. 1 pt in EI gives the imp a full time 5% crit increase, with 1 in 3 of his crits increasing personal crit by 20%

Each seem to have nice advantages. I think I'm tempted to go Shadowfury, as I know that can be helpful, but I can't help feeling EI, DEmp, or DK will yield more DPS and yet Mana Feed may provide the best balance keeping my Imp from sitting useless.

Lastly...rotation...I'm thinking it should be COA, Corrupt, Immo, Incin repeat. Fairly simple.

Thoughts? Anyone else thinking this will scale better single target then 2/13/56 or 0/20/51?