WoW 10.1.5 Destruction Warlock Guide

Last modified 2 months ago

Tier Sets

2-Piece

(2) Channel Demonfire bolts, Immolate, and Incinerate have a 20% chance to fire an additional Channel Demonfire bolt.

Raiding: B-

Mythic +: C

4-Piece

(4) Demonfire bolts increase your Fire damage by 1% for 13 sec, stacking up to 8 times. Gaining a stack does not refresh the duration. Casting Channel Demonfire resets this effect.

Raiding: B

Mythic +: C

Talent Builds

Destro Single Target

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

Irideus Fragment

3 minute on use trinket that provides a large amount of Intellect, which decays over the trinkets duration. Pairs very well with your Infernal if you are looking for an equip/on-use combination.

Ominous Chromatic Essence

Strong equip based trinket that provides passive Intellect and a secondary shat of your choosing. Also gains shared value from raid members who are using different secondary stats.

Neltharion's Call to Dominance

A "rare" equip based trinket that grants you a large amount of Intellect whenever you cast your main, Demon based CD. Not very strong for Destro with Infernal being a 3 minute cooldown.

Vessel of Searing Shadow

Another strong equip trinket that grants Haste while also dealing damage upon reaching 5 stacks. Comparable to Ominous Chromatic Essence.

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.

Phial- Phial of Elemental Chaos

This is your best, all around option outside of niche settings.

Potion - Elemental Potion of Ultimate Power

This is your best option however each potion costs 1 Primal Chaos.

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 Soulfire (if talented)

2. Summon Infernal (Trinkets, Potions and Racials)

3. Channel Demonfire (if talented)

4. Conflagrate

5. Chaos Bolt

6. Incinerate

7. Chaos Bolt

8. Conflagrate

Resume normal/Madness rotation

*Cast Soulfire/CDF on CD (if talented)

Soulfire applies Immolate and will also have its CD reduced when you are attacking targets below 50% health. Be sure to cast in on CD when in these "execute" settings.

AOE/Mythic +

1. Cataclysm (if not talented, apply Immolates)

2. Channel Demonfire (if talented)

3. Summon Infernal (Trinkets, Potions and Racials)

4. Rain of Fire

5. Havoc

6. Conflagrate

7. 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.

Certain builds will opt for Cataclysm over Inferno and the same can be said for Cry Havoc and Pandemonium. Your shard spending spell will vary in AOE based on the build you have chosen.

Filler Rotation and Madness of the Az'Aqir Windows

Outside of major CD's Destructions rotation is very simple. You want to maintain Immolate while filling with Conflagrate/Incinerate casts to generate Soul Shards and Chaos Bolt to spend them. A few important things to remember are...

If playing a Madness build

1. Be sure to not overcap on shards, which can be challenging at times during your Infernal window.

2. You want to cast Chaos Bolts in mini "dump windows" which could look something along the lines of

Conflagrate

Chaos Bolt

Incinerate

Chaos Bolt

Channel Demonfire

Chaos Bolt

This ensures you get both the CDR from Madness as well as the damage increase it brings. You typically approach said window by building to 3.5+ shards and then dumping based on Soul Conduit refunds and shard generation. You do not want to Madness buff to drop until you are finished casting Chaos Bolts, and begin building shards once more.

3. During periods of excessive shard generation or Soul Conduit refunds it is fine to cast multiple Chaos Bolts back to back, to avoid overcapping on shards.

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.