Destruction Warlock Talents Guide

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Class Talents Discussion

Unfortunately there’s not a lot of options in the Warlock class tree. From the ST build the only real points we can move is shifting Resolute Barrier into Fel Synergy and then having the point from Swift Artifice as a floater, being able to put it into Amplify Curse, Shadowfury or Fiendish Stride depending on what you need. If you have to drop even more talents, in case you need for example Teachings of the Satyr or two of the ones previously mentioned at the same time, you would have to drop either Fel Domination or Burning Rush.

Notable Class Talents

Soulburn

Soulburn is a very unique ability and versatile utility tool that consumes a Soul Shard to empower your next cast of certain spells. Here’s how it enhances each ability:Demonic Circle: Teleport - Soulburning before teleporting gives you a small speed boost and makes you immune to snares (slows) and roots for 6 seconds. Important: if you only want to remove a slow, you can teleport AFTER the slow is applied without using Soulburn. However, to remove a root (e.g., on Queen Ansurek) you need to Soulburn and teleport BEFORE the root is applied, pre-immuning the effect.

Demonic Gateway - Soulburn makes the cast instant, allowing you to place a gateway quickly during combat. The Soul Shard cost is often outweighed by the value of avoiding a hard-cast. A quick Soulburn > Gateway > Gateway Control Shard combo is a great tool for just getting around quickly yourself as a Warlock, either if it’s getting to a soak mechanic in time or just moving around the world.

Drain Life - Soulburning before pressing Drain Life gives you a small absorb in addition to the healing. This should only be used if you are in danger and have no other defensive options available.

Health Funnel - Soulburning before pressing Health Funnel heals your pet a lot more and reduces the damage he takes by 30% for 10 seconds. While rarely used in raid or Mythic+, it can be helpful in solo or open-world content.

Healthstone - You should always Soulburn before using a Healthstone. This increases its healing by 30% and boosts your maximum health by 20% for 12 seconds. Combined with Pact of Gluttony, this becomes one of the strongest defensive tools we have as a Warlock. Also note that Dark Pact scales with current health, so using Soulburn + Healthstone before Dark Pact enhances the shield even more.

Mortal Coil

When its crowd control component isn’t needed, Mortal Coil effectively functions as a mini Healthstone, healing you for 20% of your maximum health on a 45 second cooldown. Keep in mind that it has a 25-yard range, so you might have to move in closer to your target to use it.

Amplify Curse

This is most commonly paired with Curse of Tongues in order to make the mob cast even slower. Remember that Curse of Tongues ONLY works on interruptible casts. If the cast can’t be interrupted by for example Spell Lock, it also won’t be slowed by Tongues. Additionally, the curse must be applied before the cast begins to have an effect.

Strength of Will vs. Dark Accord

I generally prefer Dark Accord over Strength of Will, as Warlocks are already naturally tanky, and the extra 15% damage reduction often isn’t necessary to survive something. The reduced cooldown is more valuable, especially when paired with Resolute Barrier, which can bring Unending Resolve down to a very short cooldown. That said, make sure you’re actually using Unending Resolve often - if not, the extra 15% mitigation might be a better pick for that specific encounter.

Swift Artifice

This talent may seem minor, but it’s actually quite impactful. Thanks to Pact of Gluttony, Warlocks can use Healthstone multiple times during an encounter. I highly recommend keybinding Create Healthstone so you can recast it mid-fight, maximizing the amount of times we can use one of the strongest self-heals in the game. Swift Artifice makes this smoother by reducing the cast time. It also benefits Soulstone, which has a surprisingly long cast, letting you combat ress faster and more reliably in raid and mythic+ environments.

Spec Talents Discussion

Much like the Warlock class tree, the Destruction specialization tree follows a fairly consistent path across all builds. This is generally a positive thing as it allows you to maintain a strong single target profile even when you’re specced into cleave of AoE-focused builds.

Notable Spec Talents

Havoc vs. Mayhem

One of these should be selected any time an additional target is present for a significant duration. Mayhem is generally the preferred option due to it being passive and having a higher uptime, but Havoc can be taken instead when you need focused burst in a specific window or when the targets are too far apart for Mayhem to proc, Cauldron of Carnage being a good example.

Shadowburn

With recent buffs in The War Within, Shadowburn has become our most valuable spender in both single target and cleave scenarios. You should aim to always keep the first charge on cooldown, while the second charge can be saved for when you need to move. In execute range, below 30%, Shadowburn’s cooldown will be reduced every time you cast it, so be ready to spam it.

Soulfire

Soulfire should be pre-cast 4 seconds before the pull, and then used any time it resets via Decimation. This alone is often enough to maintain Immolate (or Wither) on a target. Even without a Decimation proc, it’s still a minor DPS gain to cast Soulfire, as long as it is buffed by Backdraft.

FlashpointFlashpoint is a solid talent whenever enemies remain above 80% health for an extended period. While somewhat niche, fights like Mythic Mug’Zee are perfect scenarios to take advantage of it.

Cataclysm + Channel Demonfire + Raging Demonfire

As mentioned in the talents section, this trio is excellent for maintaining Withers on multiple targets. After applying Withers via Cataclysm, one or two casts of Channel Demonfire should be enough to extend them until the next Cataclysm comes off cooldown, removing the need to reapply them manually.

Hero Talents Discussion

Hellcaller

Hellcaller replaces Immolate with Wither, a powerful DoT that currently accounts for a large portion of Destruction’s overall damage. As it stands, Hellcaller is the preferred Hero Talent choice in all scenarios.

Malevolence - Timing and Optimization

Malevolence is Hellcaller’s 1-minute cooldown, granting 8% haste and empowering all active Withers. Because of this interaction, it’s important to apply Wither to all relevant targets before activating Malevolence.

When using Cataclysm to apply Wither, there’s a slight delay before those Withers can be empowered. To counter this, make sure to always cast another spell in between Cataclysm and Malevolence, for example Channel Demonfire.

Blackened Soul - Maximizing Value

Blackened Soul is currently a very big part of Destructions damage profile. To fully capitalize on this, you should aim to spend Soul Shards as many times as possible during Malevolence. It’s important to note that Malevolence increases Wither stacks per Soul Shard spender cast, not per shard. This makes Shadowburn especially valuable because of its low cost.

Diabolist

Diabolist grants access to Diabolic Ritual which makes it so when you cast Chaos Bolt, Rain of Fire or Shadowburn a 20 second timer starts. If that timer was already present it’s duration is instead reduced by 2 seconds.

When a Diabolic Ritual ends you gain Demonic Art, which empowers your next cast of Chaos Bolt, Rain of Fire or Shadowburn to summon a powerful demon in a fixed cycle:

1. Overlord - Cleaves enemies and applies a 5% increased damage taken debuff to those hit for 15 seconds.
2. Mother of Chaos - Cleaves and empowers your next Incinerate to become Infernal Bolt, which generates 2 full Soul Shards.
3. Pit Lord - Cleaves and empowers your next Chaos Bolt to become Ruination, which is free to cast and deals massive AoE damage.

Touch of Rancora - Optimizing Demonic Art

Touch of Rancora amplifies your Demonic Art casts by increasing their damage by 100% and reducing their cast time by 50%. Because of this, it’s highly recommended to spend Demonic Art procs on Chaos Bolt rather than Shadowburn.