WoW 10.2 Destruction Warlock Guide
Last modified 4 months ago
Tier Sets
2-Piece
(2) Bolts from Dimensional Rifts now deal 25 percent damage dealt to nearby enemies. Immolate periodic damage has a chance to grant a charge of Dimensional Rift.
4-Piece
(4) Dimensional Rift can now summon a powerful Flame Rift which blasts 20 Searing Bolts that deal (37 percent of Spell Power) Fire damage and an additional (15 percent of Spell Power) Fire damage over 10 seconds.
Talent Builds
NOTE: If GWD does not grant you an extra Infernal over the course of an encounter, shifting that talent point to Burn To Ashes is optimal.
Trinkets
Belor'relos, the Suncaller
Best in Slot Trinket. Does a large amount of damage when used and is worthwhile on both Single Target and AOE.
Nymue's Unraveling Spindle
Other Best in Slot Trinket. Hybrid Stat and Damage based effect which should be paired with your cooldown, whenever possible.
Balefire Branch
A strong, stat based on-use trinket that drops from Waycrest Manor. While not as good as Nymue's, it is a decent alternative.
Mirror of Fractured Tomorrows
Another strong, stat based on-use trinket that drops from Dawn of the Infinite. While not as good as Nymue's, it is a decent alternative.
Stat Weights
Intellect>Haste>Mastery>=Critical Strike>Versatility
It is VERY important to note that this is a rough outline of desired secondary stats. Your stat weights will be different than others due to varying gear sets and other external factors. The best way to tell what your own stat weights are is a raidbots.com Top Gear sim with Gems and Enchants taken into account. If you don't want to do that then you can just follow this.
Gear, Consumables and Enchants
Consumables
Personal - Timely Demise
Raid - Grand Banquet of the Kalu'ak
While Feasts are better in every sense they are also very expensive to craft and typically not used outside of raiding.
Weapon - Howling Rune
Howling Runes grant you Haste when consumed, similar to Weapons Oils from Shadowlands.ath.
Enchants and Gems
Weapon - Sophic Devotion
Cloak - Graceful Avoidance
Chest - Waking Stats
Bracers - Devotion of Avoidance
Legs - Frozen Spellthread
Boots - Plainsrunner's Breeze
Rings - Devotion of Haste
Quick Ysemerald - Pure Haste
Keen Ysemerald - Major Haste/Minor Mastery
Fierce Illimited Diamond - Primary Stat and Haste (1)
Rotation
The openers and rotations listed below are what you want to follow in a normal opener and setting. At times these may change due to fight mechanics or needing to hold CDs.
Single Target
1. Precast Incinerate
2. Precast Immolate
2. Summon Infernal (Trinkets, Potions and Racials)
3. Conflagrate
4. Chaos Bolt
5. Incinerate
6. Conflagrate
7. Chaos Bolt
8. Conflagrate
9. Resume normal rotation
Madness has been removed in Patch 10.2, so you do not need to watch any kind of "Madness Window" like we did in 10.1.
Outside of that, your normal rotation revolved around building shards via Incinerate and casting Conflagrate on CD, while casting Chaos Bolt to spend Soul Shards. Be sure to also maintain Immolate on your target.
AOE/Mythic +
1. Cataclysm (if talented, apply Immolates)
2. Summon Infernal (Trinkets, Potions and Racials)
3. Rain of Fire
4. Havoc
5. Conflagrate
6. Chaos Bolt/Rain of Fire Spam
Rain of Fire is a DPS gain at 3 or more targets outside of Havoc. It is a DPS gain at 5 or more targets inside a Havoc window. This will determine whether your Havoc is used to build shards via Conflagrate and Incinerate, or to cast Chaos Bolts.
Havoc Usage
There are a couple different ways to use your Havoc window which depends on the setting you are in. At times it will be used for shard generation to fuel more Rain of Fire casts. If you are looking to use Havoc in a setting where there are two targets, there are a few general guidelines you can follow.
1. Try to enter the Havoc window with 2.5-3.5 Soul Shards.
2. Apply Immolate to both targets as long as they are going to live for 6+ seconds.
3. Be sure to apply Roaring Blaze (if talented) by Casting Conflagrate ASAP.
4. Be sure to not shard cap and be mindful of shard generation with Conflagrate/Incinerate casts.