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Blood Pact: Destruction 101, page 2

dominic hobbs
Updated ·5 min read


Typical PvE talent setup

Above is an image of the raid build I would recommend but there are many optional points spent there. Here's a link to it and below is a breakdown of each talent.

Example destruction raid build.


Talent overview

Affliction talents:

  • Suppression - can be taken to prop up hit until gear provides enough.

  • Improved Corruption - If you want to include Corruption in your rotation then you'll be wanting this.


Demonology talents:

  • Improved Healthstone - As this doesn't give any direct or inferred DPS gain it is often left out but can be handy as a filler. Take it as an optional.

  • Improved Imp - Firebolt is going to be around 10% of your damage. So this is a straight 1% DPS gain per point, nice.

  • Demonic Embrace - You'll not be tapping a lot so the value here is less than for other specs but it's still a decent place to put filler points -- dead locks have low DPS.

  • Fel Synergy - You probably want at least a point in here, maybe two. Don't let that little guy slack by getting all dead on you.

  • Fel Vitality - More power to the small one and to you as well. Worth the points.

  • Demonic Aegis - This is why you have filler points in demonology, this talent rocks socks.


Destruction talents:

  • Improved Shadow Bolt - Shadow Bolt is for those other specs, you wanna be throwing fire about so no gain in putting points here.

  • Bane - With ISB having no use this is a must-have, but it's also pretty sweet, so all good.

  • Aftermath - Each point offers a 3% bump to about 5% of your damage, so 0.15%. Not a big deal but the daze is pretty sweet and the alternatives give you no DPS at all.

  • Molten Skin - Viable alternative to Aftermath if you die a lot but not a DPS gain.

  • Cataclysm - Mana efficiency is your thing, this is a part of it.

  • Demonic Power - Buffs to the imp, we like that.

  • Shadowburn - I like this as a leveling spell but no good for raiding.

  • Ruin - Make your Crits do 200% damage rather than 150%, that's nice.

  • Intensity - Pushback resistance is nice to grab along the way, so snap it up.

  • Destructive Reach - Good for both range and threat management but if you don't have issues in either area then feel free to only have the one point here.

  • Improved Searing Pain - Don't need it. Pass.

  • Backlash - 3% extra crit is great for raiding and the insta-Incinerates are great for grinding.

  • Improved Immolate - solid buff to Immolate but also essential to getting your mitts on Conflagrate.

  • Devastation - 5% crit chance on almost every spell you cast for a single talent point. Lovely.

  • Nether Protection - has had some specialist, situational uses, but not worth including in your build.

  • Emberstorm - More damage to almost everything and more casts of your filler. Whoop!

  • Conflagrate - There is nothing not to love about this spell, except the complexity of just how it works.

  • Soul Leech - On a fight like BQL (with constant damage) you can expect to get about 10% of your healing from this spell alone. Handy and required for ISL.

  • Pyroclasm - You can expect this to be up for somewhere around 75% of the time, so it's a nice buff.

  • Shadow and Flame - Straight-up damage buff, always good.

  • Improved Soul Leech - Applies Replenishment to the group and fills up the blue bar for you.

  • Backdraft - Part of the reason Conflagrate is so awesome.

  • Shadowfury - Hugely fun spell but not much use in a raid environment. Get it for non-raids and lols.

  • Empowered Imp - Synergy with the snot-ball -- better than it sounds.

  • Fire and Brimstone - All-around damage gains, gotta have this.

  • Chaos Bolt - Great spell, nice damage and it's green.


Gems

For a meta use the Chaotic Skyflare Diamond. Unfortunately this needs two blue gems so make sure you have a couple of Purified Dreadstones at all times. With that in mind and if the socket bonus is a load of spell power (head and chest items for example) then feel free to gem for the bonus, matching colors as below. Otherwise, just put pure spell power gems all the way.

  • Blue - Spell power and spirit

  • Red - Pure spell power

  • Yellow - Spell power and haste


Glyphs

A lot of warlock glyph information can be found in a previous Blood Pact: Warlock glyphs to use, ignore or to dream for. Typical setup for endgame destruction would be:


Enchants for the endgame


Don't forget to add extra gem sockets where you can (waist for all, wrist and hands for blacksmiths).



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Blood Pact is a weekly column detailing DoTs, demons, and all the dastardly deeds done by Warlocks. If you're curious about what's new with Locks since the last patch, check out WoW.com's guide to patch 3.3 or find out what's upcoming in Cataclysm from the BlizzCon 2009: Class Discussion Panel.