Mists of Pandaria Classic Destruction Warlock Talent Builds

Destruction Warlock doesn't have many options for talent choices in Mists of Pandaria, instead relying on proper rotation and gameplay. Talents can be changed freely to fit the needs of you and your raid. Below is breakdown on the talents, which ones you should use and which once you can forget about.

In this section we'll go over each talent and give you the best choices for Destruction Warlock. The first talent listed in each row is the suggested choice. Half of the talent choices are personal defensive choices that you can choose based upon your needs. However, the last two rows of talents are game changers. You can and should swap your talents around as needed. Some bosses require more healing, allowing you to take a more defensive talent to save your life.

Please note that we are still very early in the MoP life span and Blizzard has been making changes constantly. This guide will be updated as soon as we find out any new information, updates or changes.

• Soul Leech — Incinerate, Fel Flame, Shadowburn and Chaos Bolt give you and your demon a shadowy shield that will absorb 10% damage dealth for 15 seconds.
• Dark Regeneration — Restores 30% of you and your demon's maximum health and increases all healing received by 25% over 12 seconds.
• Harvest Life — Increases the damage of your Drain Life by 50% and the healing of it spell by 150%.

Soul Leech is the fan favorite. This is passive defensive, so no worries about trying to get value out of it. Dark Regeneration can be life saving and great if used correctly.

• Mortal Coil — Causes the target to run in horror for 3 sec. Also heals you for 15% of your maximum health.
• Shadowfury — An AoE stun to all enemies within 8 yards for 3 seconds.
• Demonic Breath — Frontal cone of dark energy that reduces the movement speed by 50% of all enemy targets within 10 yards for 6 sec.

This pick is up to you, but the go to for many is Mortal Coil. This can provide you with some healing. It might seem small, but it's saved my life many times. Shadowfury is a great pick if your raid needs some major AoE crowd control.

• 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 sec.
• 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.

Soul Link is a great pick if you're not using Grimoire of Sacrifice. If you are, then you can use either of the other two, but Sacrificial Pact can be a little bit safer than Dark Bargain.

• Burning Rush — Drains 4% of your maximum health per second to increase your movement speed by 50%. During Burning Rush, movement-impairing effects may not reduce you below 100% of normal movement speed. You cannot die from this. It will automatically shutoff when you get to 1 Health. Otherwise it lasts until cancelled.
• Unbound Will — Purge all Magic effects, movement impairing effects and all effects which cause loss of control of your character or demon.
• Blood Horror — While active, any time an enemy melee attack deals damage to the Warlock, the enemy will run in horror for up to 4 sec. One charge. Blood Horror lasts 1 minute.

Burning Rush is eternally helpful on many fights. Not only just to quickly move to and from, but also resulting in less time running, meaning more time casting, meaning more damage! Unbound Will can be very helpful to removed debuffs that can kill you or to get dispel movement impairing effects on you that would otherwise kill you. Blood Horror is bad, do not use it.

• 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 Sacrifice — Sacrifice your demon to increase the power of some of your single target spells but 15%. Also increases your maximum health by 20% and you regenerate 2% of your maximum health every 5 seconds as well as gain one of your sacrificed demons abilites.
• Grimoire of Service — Instantly summon a second demon, who fights for 20 sec. This demon will instantly use one of their special abilities when summoned.

Each of these are really close to each other and can boil down to preference. Grimoire of Sacrifice currently slightly beats out the other options, with the added bonus of not having to deal with pet management. The cooldown for this lines up perfectly with you Dark Soul: Instability.

• Archimonde's Darkness — Your Dark Soul spells have two charges.
• Kil'jaeden's Cunning — You can cast Malefic Grasp, Incinerate and Shadow Bolt while moving.
• Mannoroth's Fury — Increases the area of your area of effect by 500% and damage by 100% of your Seed of Corruption, Hellfire, Immolation Aura and Rain of Fire for 10 sec.

Both Archimonde's Darkness and Kil'jaeden's Cunning are great choices. Archimonde's Darkness wins out on any boss fights where you don't need to move too often. Whereas Kil'jaeden's Cunning is excellent for any fights that cause you to move. Mannoroth's Fury unfortunately isn't that strong for Destruction since it only effects Rain of Fire and not Fire and Brimstone.

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 Healthstone — You receive 100% more healing from using a healthstone, but the health is now restored over 10 seconds.
• Glyph of Soulstone — This makes any players resurrected by your Soulstone to return to life with 100% Health.

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 Destruction Warlock Rotations Guide.