Mists of Pandaria Classic Destruction Warlock Leveling

Leveling as a Destruction Warlock in Mop Classic is some of the most fun in the game. Able to pull every enemy in sight and quickly nuke them all down in a blink of an eye. The new Destruction only spell Fire and Brimstone turns your most powerful single target spells into AoE spells, making your rotation identical to what it'll be at max level.

With MoP Classic came a rework to the Talent system. It's changed drastically and is much simpler, but far less exciting then it once was. Instead of choosing between countless options for talents in your three specs, ever 15 levels you'll be able to choose 1 of 3 talents on that row. These talents are extrememly lacklust until the level 75 and 90 rows. You can choose any of talent you want leading up to there, but for those looking to min max a little, I'll briefly list our suggestions.

• Dark Regeneration — Restores 30% of you and your demon's maximum health and increases all healing received by 25% over 12 seconds. This is amazing for a very good emergency heal.
• Soul Leech — Incinerate, Shadowburn, Chaos Bolt and Fel Flame give you and your demon a shadowy shield that will absorb 20% damage dealt for 15 seconds.

Both of these talents are great for leveling. Dark Regeneration is great some on demand healing when needed and can be life saving. Soul Leech is great if you just want some passive healing.

• Mortal Coil — Causes the target to run in horror for 3 seconds. Also heals you for 15% of your maximum health. Used very often for the health and to get some breathing room from an enemy.
• Shadowfury — An AoE stun to all enemies within 8 yards for 3 seconds. Great for creating space between you and the enemy.

Both of these talents are a great pick and up to you. Mortal Coil is great for a quick heal and to quickly get one enemy off of you. Shadowfury is great to AoE stun everything around you.

• Soul Link — 20% of all damage taken is split with your summoned demon. Additionally, 3% of all damage you deal is converted to healing on you and your summoned demon.
• Sacrificial Pact — Your demon sacrifices 25% of its current health to shield its master for 400% of the sacrificed health. Lasts 20 seconds.
• Dark Bargain — Prevents all damage for 8 sec. When the shield fades, 50% of the damage prevented is dealt over 8 sec. Can be cast while suffering from control impairing effects.

All of these talents are helpful and up to you. Most prefer Soul Link for the passive damage reduction.

• Burning Rush — Drains 4% of your maximum health per second to increase your movement speed by 50%. Your main movement ability. You can not die from this. It will automatically shutoff when you get to 1 Health. Otherwise it lasts until cancelled. The danger from this comes from getting hit by an enemy while Burning Rush has your HP low.
• Blood Horror — Puts an aura on you that causes the next enemy that melees you to run around feared for 4 seconds. Mainly a PvP talent, but can be helpful if you really don't like Burning Rush.

Both of these talents are helpful, however Burning Rush is the fan favorite, giving you a huge boost in movement, helpful in many ways, whereas Blood Horror only fears one target.

• Grimoire of Supremacy — This give you the power to control stronger demons that replace your normal ones. These demons deal 20% additional damage and have more powerful abilities.
• Grimoire of Service — This gives you another poweful Demon that will fight for you for 20 seconds.
• Grimoire of Sacrifice — This allows you to sacrifice your demon to gain one of it's abilites, as well as buffing most of your single target spells by 20%.

All three talents are great. Grimoire of Supremacy comes out slightly ahead on damage as well as utility. Grimoire of Sacrifice is great if you don't want to deal with any pet management.

Congratulations on hitting Level 90! We highly suggest checking out our Destruction Warlock Guide which goes more in detail of how to play Destruction at max level.

Unfortunately, Glyphs are very boring in terms of bring any damage to the table and instead are used mainly for utility. Below are a list of a few you can choose from.

• Glyph of Conflagrate — Simply allows Conflagrate to slow enemies down without needing Immolate on the target.
• Glyph of Siphon Life — Will passively heal you everytime Immolate does damage.
• Glyph of Healthstone — This makes you get 100% more healing from using your Healthstone, but the health is restored over 10 seconds.

Minor glyphs are all cosmetic and won't provide you with any DPS.

• Glyph of Nightmares — Lets you walk on water whenever you're on your mount. Also leaves behind a fire trail. A must have for every Warlock.
• Glyph of Unending Breath — This spell makes all your friends that have your Unending Breath buff swim 20% faster.
• Glyph of Gateway Attunement — This allows you to automatically activate your Demonic Gateway, rather than having to click the Gateway.

For more information on the proper Rotation to maximize your damage, check out our Affliction Warlock Rotations Guide.

The big benefit of leveling as Destruction is the ability to pull and burst down multiple enemies at the same time. Thanks to the massive amount of AoE damage you deal, thanks to Fire and Brimstone making all of your powerful single target spell hit every enemy within 10 yards of your main target. Destruction Warlock also have Rain of Fire, which is not channeled and can be placed in multiple spots, resulting in great damage and an unlimited supply of Burning Embers.

The rotation while leveling is really simple. Pull as many mobs as you can, activate your Fire and Brimstone, dropa Rain of Fire and spam your single target spells like Immolate, Incinerate and Conflagrate. Once you see a target below 20% HP, spam Shadowburn as often as your Burning Embers allow you to. It's very helpful to Havoc a seperate enemy, then do your Shadowburn spamming so three of them hit the Havoc target!

1. Make sure your Demon is out and dealing damage. Imp is suggested, but Felhunter is great for the Spell Lock, at the cost of very little dps difference then the Imp, up to you on that.
2. Make sure to have a Create Healthstone made for emergency reasons if you need some health.
3. If you want, you can make sure to have a Soulstone on you, so you're able to resurrect if you die.
4. Optional – Place a Demonic Circle.
5. Run around casting Fel Flame to pull as many enemies as you feel comfortable. Fel Flame is instant cast, allowing you to run around and pull them without needing to tank damage right away.
6. Use Demonic Circle: Teleport to teleport back to your previously placed Demonic Circle. This has a long 40 yard range, allowing you to teleport far away from mall the mobs you just pulled and in a safe spot to blast away. You can also disregard the teleport and use Burning Rush, just be mindful of your Health.
7. Activate Fire and Brimstone to make your single target spells do AoE instead.
8. Make sure to use whatever cooldowns you have, like Trinkets and Racials such as Blood Fury, Blood Fury.
9. Cast Immolate. This will spread to all targets within 10 yards of the main target thanks to Fire and Brimstone. If you don't have the Burning Embers for Fire and Brimstone, manually apply Immolate to all the targets.
10. Cast Incinerate. This will hit all targets within 10 yards of the main target thanks to Fire and Brimstone
11. Cast Havoc on a high priority target and use this on cooldown.
12. Cast Shadowburn if any target is below 20% Health. Pair this with Havoc if possible.
13. Make sure to throw explosives if you're Engineering for extra damage.

Congratulations on hitting Level 90 in Mists of Pandaria! Now that your leveling process is over, you can learn more about Level-90 Affliction Warlock gameplay by reading our fully detailed guide below.