Destruction Warlock 8.2

 A Destruction Warlock is a true pyromaniac that combines the power of Fire with chaos leaving behind only ashes of their enenies. Demons of the Twisting Nether are of great help here, too.

Introduction

Basic information on the spec:

A Destruction Warlock utilizes 2 key resources — Soul Shards and Mana. There are always 3 Soul Shards when out of combat. You can have the max of 5 of them. They are spent on strong spells and on summoning pet demons. Unlike the other specializations, in this one, the Soul Shards are separated into 10 Soul Shard fragments. Mana is used as a resource for any spells.

Let’s take a closer look at the weakest and the strongest aspects of this specialization:

The weakest aspects:

• Great damage in any combat type;
• Nice switching;
• An ability to provide the raid with emergency mobility through Demonic Gateway;

The strongest aspects:

• Relatively low mobility which has an extremely negative effect on the damaging.

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Glossary

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Main abilities

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Talents

General information. On achieving several new levels you’ll get access to new talent ‘Tiers’. Talents may have different effect on abilities: add new features, replace old ones, modify passively different effects and spells. Talents can be changed in Sanctuaries or any recreational zones. However, if you don’t have any of those places nearby you can use the Codex of the Tranquil Mind which allows you to switch channels within a minute. You can’t change talents in combat. You can’t change a talent if the talent you’ve picked in the last Tier is on Cooldown. You’ll have to wait until it’s restored first.

Tier 1. Lvl 15.

• Flashover. Conflagrate deals 25% more damage and grants an additional charge to Bacldraft.
• Eradication. Chaos Bolt increases the damage you deal to the target by 10% for 7 sec.
• Soul Fire. 1.5 sec cast spell with fire damage. Gives you 4 Soul Shards. It has 20 sec CD, but each Soul Shard you spend reduce Soul Fire‘s CD by 2 sec.

* Flashover is the best choice. Eradication can be good only for a single target.

Tier 2. Lvl 30.

• Reverse Entropy. You spells can give you 15% Haste for 8 sec.
• Internal Combustion. Chaos Bolt consume 5 sec periodic damage of Immolate and instantly deal them to your target.
• Shadowburn. Has 2 charges and the same restoring time. Deals Fire damage, generates 3 Soul Shard fragments, and if the target dies within 5 secs after you’ve used it, you get 5 more Soul Shard fragments.

* Reverse Entropy your best choice by default. You also can use Internal Combustion if you play with Eradication for single target.

Tier 3. Lvl 45.

• Demon Skin. Soul Leech now restores by 0.5% of your Health every second, and the max value of the shield is now 15% of your max HP.
• Burning Rush. Allows you to increase your running speed by 50% but in return, it takes 4% of your max Health every sec. Movement impairing effects can’t push your Haste below 100%. Active until cancelled or until your current HP stock is less than 4%.
• Dark Pact. You can sacrifice 20% of your Demon’s current Health to get an absorbing shield for 250% HP you sacrifice, for the next 20 secs. If you don’t have a Demon while using it, you’ll sacrifice your own Health. The ability can be used while you are stunned.

* Your pick. You need mobility? Pick Burning Rush. You’re not running but rather getting regular damage? Then, Demon Skin. You’re facing surviving burst damage no oftener than once a min? Dark Pact is your choice.

Tier 4. Lvl 60.

• Inferno. Damage from  “Rain of Fire”  has 20% chance to restore A soul fragment.
• Fire and Brimstone. deals 40% damage to all enemies that are close to the target and creates 1 soul fragment for each damaged enemy.
• Cataclysm. An ability with a 2-sec application. Allows you to create a cataclysm in a selected 8-m area dealing major Fire damage and applying Immolate on all the targets. CD 30 sec.

* Cataclysm the best talent for the most cases that is good in a fight up to 3 targets. 

Fire and Brimstone is a good alternative talent that can work in fights with adds gathered near the target. In such situation you will have a quick soul fragments regeneration.

Tier 5. Lvl 75.

• Darkfury. Reduces the cooldown of «Shadowfury» by 15 sec.
• Mortal Coil. You can make your enemy run away for 3 secs thus restoring 20% of your max Health. Action radius — 20m. CD 45 secs.
• Demonic Circle. For 15 min, you create a portal under you. The second cast relocates you to the portal and cancels any movement-impainring effects. Action radius — 40m. CD for teleportation — 30 secs.

* All the talents in this Tier interact differently with the control mechanics. Demonic Circle is your default choice as it provides extra mobility and can cancel any movement impairing. Mortal Coil can be considered for rather steady combats with little fuss. This way you could use it as an additional healer. Darkfury if you need stun.

Tier 6. Lvl 90.

• Roaring Blaze. «Conflagrate«deals additional fire damage  for 6 sec.
• Grimoire of Supremacy. Every spent Soul fragment deals  8% more damage from Chaos Bolt» while infernal is active.
• Grimoire of Sacrifice. Sacrifice a Demon so that your Command Demon uses the special ability of the Demon you’ve eaten. As a DPS bonus, your spells will sometimes deal additional damage to the target and all the enemies within the 8-m range. Active for 1 hour or until you summon a Demon.

* Grimoire of Supremacy — a strong talent if you need additional bursting damage for a single target but Roaring Blaze  is better for mytick keys or bosses with adds because it grants stable high damage.

Tier 7. Lvl 100.

• Soul Conduit. Gives you a 15% chance restores each spent soul fragment.
• Channel Demonfire. A channel spell letting out 15 charges of fire into random enemies hit with your Immolate within a 40-m range, and deals Fire damage to them. It also provides some minor fire splash-damage around the Immolate-hit targets.
• Dark Soul: Instability. Infuses your soul with  power that increases critical strike chance by 30% for 20 sec, 2 min cd.

* Dark Soul: Instability would be the best talent to dps a boss and also is good to combine with Grimoire of Supremacy if you need to increase burst during some certain moments.

Channel Demonfire is an alternative choice that grants good cleave damage. It is especially good in mythic+ because has a synergy with Cataclysm.

So, we can boil it all down to the following build:

1. Flashover / Eradication
2. Reverse Entropy / Internal Combustion
3. Burning Rush  by standard.
4. Cataclysm
5. Demonic Circle by standard
6. Grimoire of Supremacy
7. Dark Soul: Instability or Channel Demonfire for more effective cleave.

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Azerite traits

In BFA typical sets were removed and Azerite armor took their place. Now every chest/helmet/shoulders have a few rings traits. You will need to collect the best traits. First of all you need  those that grant maximum profit as 1 in the armor. When you stack up traits only the first one grants an effect, the rest increase your damage. These traits would be the best for you:

• Crashing Chaos. Grants a good burst damage on a single target but not that great for cleave fights. Basically it is used for a single target.
• Flashpoint. A great talent for fights with targets that have more than 80%  hp for long time or just for fights with adds.
• Chaotic Inferno — buffs your Chaos bolt and sometimes allows you to cast Incinerate instantly.
• Rolling Havoc is good as Flashpoint at multidot encounters.
• Loyal to the End is a very powerful tool at new raid, which gives you lots of Mastery. It is very good trait, so we recomend you to stack this one.

The next traits are not that great but still could be used:

• Chaos Shards
• Bursting Flare

You can use chart on  herodamage.com,  or sim the difference on raidbots.com.

For those who use  AzeritePowerWeights addon, there is a command with approximate stats of traits:

( AzeritePowerWeights:2:"herodamage.com - Stacks_1T_T24":9:267: 444=10, 575=8.19, 526=7.81, 562=7.77, 522=7.75, 193=7.70, 82=7.63, 432=7.32, 196=6.85, 232=6.74, 501=6.60, 505=6.26, 460=6.25, 192=6.16, 480=5.84, 521=5.76, 30=5.68, 481=5.66, 479=5.57, 504=5.53, 486=5.30, 492=5.30, 483=5.15, 157=5.15, 195=4.97, 478=4.93, 495=4.92, 489=4.92, 485=4.65, 488=4.62, 494=4.62, 131=4.41, 523=4.26, 482=4.21, 194=4.19, 576=4.15, 561=4.13, 487=3.40, 493=3.40, 498=3.31, 560=3.05, 156=2.99, 500=2.91, 21=2.87, 459=2.73, 31=2.46, 22=2.32, 18=2.31, 499=1.93, 490=1.83, 496=1.83, 461=1.80, 497=1.72, 491=1.72, 541=1.66, 462=1.59, 431=0.09: )

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Essences

Rotation:

For general conception, take a look at the overall priority list:

On 1 -2 targets:

1. Keep up  Immolate  on the target 100% of the time.This debuff can be put with  Cataclysm if you have this talent. .
2. Chaos Bolt to avoid soul fragments overcap.
3. Cataclysm every cooldown (if you have this talent)  
4. Channel Demonfire every cooldown (if you have this talent)  
5. ON 2 TARGETS:  Use Havoc on the second targets as often as you can. Saving up 2-3 soul fragments in advance and at least  1 stack of Conflagrate in the moment of usage. While Havoc  is active you need to cast not less than 3 Chaos Bolt and 2 Conflagrate.
6. Soul Fire every cooldown (if you have it)
7. Chaos Bolt
8. Conflagrate, can be used while moving but never let 2 charges be up
9. Incinerate to generate Soul fragments.

Cooldowns management:

Summon Infernal —  a pretty simple burst, in most of the cases you should use it every cd. When playing with  Dark Soul: Instability, you should use this ability every cooldown,  but before using it make sure that your Immolate  was cast recently  and also you should have 4+ souls fragments. Try to use Chaos Bolt  while bursting as often as you can. It is important to generate soul fragments attentively.

When playing with  Grimoire of Supremacy and  Dark Soul: Instability, it is optimal to combine these 2 cooldowns when it is possible. The important factor in this situation is the fight duration.:

• If combat lasts less than 190 seconds , use  Dark Soul: Instability  every cooldown.
• If combat lasts  190-250 seconds hold  Dark Soul: Instability for the second Summon Infernal.
• If the fight lasts  250-380 seconds, hold  Summon Infernal for the third Dark Soul: Instability.

A few rules for AOE :

1. Rain of Fire  is a bigger priority than  Chaos Bolt on 3+ targets considering that mobs will leave the range of an ability.
2. Rain of Fire  is a bigger priority than Chaos Bolt for Havoc on 5+ targets.
3. Immolate should be kept on up to 8 targets if they would live not more than 6 seconds..
4. Although  Immolate has less priority than Rain of Fire or Chaos Bolt.
5. Havoc is good to use on a pack of not less than 4 targets.
6. If Grimoire of Supremacy is taken and you Summon Infernal  on AOE and not on a single target then you should hold Havoc until the last 10 seconds of Summon Infernal. Cast Rain of Fire in the first 10 seconds to spend a lot of Soul fragments and in the last 10 seconds spam Chaos Bolt  while Havoc is active.
7. On 5 or more targets Havoc can be used for a fast soul fragments generation for Rain of Fire.

A few more  tips:

1. Abilities duplicated by Havoc, also generale soul fragments. It means that  Conflagrate  will also grant you one soul fragment. Havoc  can be cast on the targets under partial immune or minus damage effect for soul fragments generation.
2. Using  Cataclysm together with  Channel Demonfire  in m+ is very effective. Pay attention on your bursting cooldowns and try to to synchronize them.

Start of  combat:

Single target:

1. Prepot + Incinerate 3 seconds before the combat.
2. Cataclysm for Immolate if you have the talent otherwise cast Immolate manually.
3. Conflagrate.
4. Summon Infernal.
5. Generate soul fragments without overcapping them. If their amount is close to 5 spend them on Chaos Bolt.
6. 20 seconds before Summon Infernal ends  cast Dark Soul: Instability and use trinket if you have it.
7. Cast  Chaos Bolt as often as possible in these 20 seconds generating soul fragments with Incinerate and Conflagrate, spending stacks of  Backdraft on Chaos Bolt.

2 targets:

1. Prepot + Incinerate 3 seconds before the combat.
2. Cataclysm for Immolate if you have the talent otherwise cast Immolate manually.
3. Conflagrate.
4. Summon Infernal, Dark Soul: Instability  use trinket if you have it.
5. Generate soul fragments without overcapping them. If their amount is close to 5 spend them on Chaos Bolt.
6. 20 seconds before Summon Infernal ends  cast Dark Soul: Instability and use trinket if you have it.
7. Use  Havoc on an additional target.
8. Cast Chaos Bolt, until you run out of soul fragments.
9. Cast Conflagrate
10. Try to cast  Chaos Bolt as often as possible while Havoc is on.
11. Cast  Chaos Bolt as often as possible in these 20 seconds generating soul fragments with Incinerate and Conflagrate, spending stacks of  Backdraft on Chaos Bolt.

Pets management:

• The pet choice does not affect damage, you need to chose the pet according to the situation.
• You should  play with  Summon Imp in raid usually because it can dispel. Besides imp spends a bit more time to change the target.
• In mythic keys you should use  Summon Felhunter that can interrupt casts.

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Stats:

The basic priority rating for the characteristics is as follows:

Mastery ~ Haste > Crit > Intellect > versatility

* If you’re using Loyal to the End traits, Haste becomes your goal.

You can check the stats on  raidbots.com  in Stat Weights tab. Also you can use Pawn  addon to import the information about  into the game.

Following the information above we can make a list  of food, gems and pots for raids.

1. Gems.
   Leviathan’s Eye of Intellect
   Masterful Sea Currant 60 mastery
   Quick Sand Spinel 60 haste
2. Enchantments

• Rings: Accord of Haste / Accord of Mastery
• Weapon: Machinist’s Brilliance
• Food: Raid feast or Abyssal-Fried Rissole for Mastery / Baked Port Tato for Haste

1. Flasks and pots:
   Greater Flask of Endless Fathoms 360 intellect
   Potion of Unbridled Fury single target
   Superior Battle Potion of Intellect AoE

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Macros

Often in Mythic+ you have to call your pet off in order not to pool more than you need (when you’re on mount, your pet pools nothing).

/petdismiss

Soulstone at cursor’s position:

#showtooltip
/stopcasting
/cast [target=mouseover] Soulstone

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What’s next?

1. Leveling. If your character has been inactive since the previous expansions, the best  option to level up it is by Timewalking dungeons. You will gain a lot of experience, but there is one big disadvantage of leveling this way. Timewalks are available only for one week during a month, but Overgear is always here.
2. Equipment. At high level, the most important thing for you will become your gear. WoW is a multiplayer game, that’s why we recommend for you to play it with your friends, or to find a new friends for mythic+ runs. If you have any trouble with it — Overgear may help you to find not just friends for a run, but a complete well geared and experienced group that also will be glad to trade all the loot you need.
3. Raids. Raids are the top-tier PvE content in the game. That’s why the equipment’s base ilvl is higher than anywhere else. These dungeons require knowing all the tactics and have a good gear to kill the bosses. The possibilities of Overgear might let you skip those criteria.

Azerite. It is also not the best idea to forget about the Heart of Azeroth and not to feed it with more Azerite. Ignoring this won’t make your character stronger. The easiest way to do it — just complete all the world quests with Azerite rewards everyday. You can get extra azerite from Island Expeditions. Companions can be found at Overgear.