Destruction Warlock Talents Guide

Patch 11.0.5 Last Updated: 13th Nov, 2024
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Talent Builds

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This is the standard ST build as of the time of writing this.

Immolate can be maintained without using the global on it with soulfire and cataclysm. Spend shards on shadowburn/chaos bolt while maintaining roaring blaze uptime, try to keep soulfire on cd while not overcapping soul shards.

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This build is basically the same as the Single Target build with the exception of havoc in place of Chaos Incarnate. The playstyle is the same as in single target however you use havoc for extra shard gen or for damage on a 2nd priority target.

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M+ playstyle is once again very similar to the single target playstyle with rain of fire taking the place of your other spenders when there are enough targets.

Class Talents

The warlock class tree is very cookie cutter, (you take X talent point because it gives you a throughput/survivability increase) as in you only have 1-2 flexible points, those are Fiendish Stride and arguably Fel Domination. Soulburn is a unique ability that consumes a shard and empowers your next utility spell, often this is used in combination with either healthstone or demonic circle making your healthstone heal for more or your portal giving a sprint and a freedom effect. Soulburn Gateway can be used if you need to place a gateway in the middle of combat and you have excess shards.

I do not recommend dropping fel domination, whereas, fiendish stride is quite a weak node and therefore can be dropped for something like amp curse or shadowfury if you need that sort of utility in a raid fight or M+.

Spec Talents

Like the Warlock class tree the Destro tree build paths are quite similar for all builds. We take the talents we take because it does the most damage in all settings, however, there are a few variations as covered previously with talents; such as soulfire not taken in M+ and demonfire mastery dropped in a raid setting.

Some variations to the builds that I have not included are talents such as Internal combustion in place of reverse entropy. Despite Internal combustion giving a slightly higher DPS output than reverse entropy does in single target, I have opted to not take the talent in the recommended builds. This is because it leads to a very punishing gameplay loop of withers dropping, and generally internal combustion leads to a much more challenging gameplay loop for a small dps gain in relation to reverse entropy.

Fire and Brimstone is taken in the M+ build, however, the point is quite weak, so if you notice low target count pulls in the dungeons you are in, then I would recommend changing fire and brimstone to explosive potential as it allows you to better maintain roaring blaze on the main target of pulls.

With the big buffs to shadowburn in the most recent beta build, it is now the default spender in single target and cleave scenarios. With this change, it gives Destruction Warlock more instant cast abilities and therefore leads to a higher dps output, especially when it comes to having to move around a lot during a raid fight.

Hero Talents

Hellcaller

Wither replaces immolate and is a very strong hero talent in all settings.

Hellcaller also comes with Malevolence, which can be thought of as a mini dark soul; increasing haste by 8% and empowering your active withers. Due to malevolence empowering your active withers it is advised to apply withers to all relevant targets before activating malevolence.

As of the time of writing this, Malevolence is on the global cooldown, leading to a very awkward global where you press it and nothing much really happens.

Diabolist

Diabolic Ritual cycles through 3 demon summons that change either incinerate or chaos bolt into an infernal bolt and ruination respectively giving you a big ST shard generator or a large AoE cleave with ruination.