World of Warcraft: Forever Destruction Warlock Guide

Destruction Warlock is for players who want to hit enemies with powerful hard hitting damage spells rather than waiting for a bunch of DoTs to slowly finish the job. You still have access to the Warlock's Demons, Curses, drains, and damage over time (DoT) spells, but Destruction puts much more emphasis on hard casting spells such as Shadow Bolt and Immolate before finishing enemies with the powerful and infamous Shadowburn.

Level 30 is where Destruction really starts getting some of the talents that make the spec feel different. Ruin makes your Critical Strikes hit significantly harder, Agonizing Flames buffs all of your Destruction damage, Conflagrate gives you another powerful instant cast, and Bane of Havoc gives you a brand new way to deal damage to two enemies at once. We're still missing deeper talents like Shadow and Flame and Incinerate, but Level 30 gives us a much better look at what Forever Destruction is trying to be.

Disclaimer: This page covers the Level 30 Beta cap using our extensive Beta testing, the current talent calculator, current Beta data, and information discovered throughout the Beta. This guide will be updated frequently as the Beta changes and more Level 30 content is tested.

Overall Performance Leveling Dungeon Utility Mobility

Destruction Finally Starts Getting Its Bigger Damage Talents

Destruction gets a massive upgrade between Level 20 and 30. Ruin increases the Critical Strike damage bonus of your Destruction spells by 100%, Agonizing Flames increases all of your Destruction damage by 10%, and Conflagrate gives you another hard hitting instant cast. At Level 30 you also gain Bane of Havoc, allowing 15% of the damage you deal to other enemies to also hit your Havoc target. You still bring all of the normal Warlock utility on top of some very strong direct damage.

Big Direct Damage With Powerful Instant Finishers

Destruction levels by using your Demon to occupy enemies while you hit them with fast Shadow Bolt and Immolate casts from range. Destructive Reach gives you more room to cast, while Cataclysm keeps your Mana costs down. Conflagrate and Shadowburn now give you two powerful instant casts for finishing enemies before they can do much damage to you. You still have less passive sustain than Affliction and less Demon support than Demonology, so managing your Health and Mana remains important.

Strong Direct Damage, AoE, and Two Target Cleave

Destruction works extremely well when dungeon enemies are dying too quickly for a bunch of DoTs to ramp. Shadow Bolt, Immolate, Conflagrate, and Searing Pain can all immediately contribute damage. Bane of Havoc gives you extra damage whenever two important targets are alive at the same time, while Rain of Fire and Hellfire give you two AoE options. Just remember that Searing Pain and Hellfire can cause a ton of threat.

Even More Warlock Utility by Level 30

Warlocks already bring an insane amount of utility, and by Level 30 you have even more. You still provide Create Healthstone, Create Soulstone, Ritual of Summoning, Curse of Recklessness, Curse of the Elements, and Fear. You also gain Curse of Tongues, Detect Invisibility, Banish, Create Firestone, and Subjugate Demon. Summon Felhunter also becomes available at Level 30 and brings Spell Lock and Devour Magic.

Still a Hard Caster, But With More Instant Damage

Destruction still relies heavily on hard casting and doesn't have a dedicated movement ability at Level 30. The good news is you now have both Shadowburn and Conflagrate for instant damage while moving. Bane of Havoc is also instant. Your Demon and existing DoTs continue dealing damage while you reposition, but a large portion of your damage still requires you to plant your feet and cast.

Starter Information

Beginner Guides

New to the game? Get started with our Leveling guide!

Leveling

At Level 30, our normal Destruction build uses all 21 talent points in the Destruction tree. We take five points in Bane, two points in Destructive Reach, three points in Cataclysm, five points in Ruin, one point in Shadowburn, three points in Agonizing Flames, one point in Conflagrate, and one point in Bane of Havoc. This build gives us faster casts, cheaper spells, significantly harder Crits, two powerful instant casts, and our brand new two target cleave with Bane of Havoc.

Five points in Bane reduce the cast time of Shadow Bolt, Immolate, and eventually Incinerate by 0.5 seconds. It also reduces the cast time of Soul Fire by 2 seconds. Faster casts are one of the biggest reasons Destruction feels so much smoother than Affliction and Demonology.

Two points in Destructive Reach increase the range of your Destruction spells by 20%. This gives you more time to blast an enemy before it reaches you while also making positioning much easier in dungeons.

Three points in Cataclysm reduce the Mana cost of your Destruction spells. Destruction is constantly casting, so anything that lets us spend less Mana means fewer Life Tap casts and less downtime.

Five points in Ruin increase the Critical Strike damage bonus of your Destruction spells by 100%. This is one of the biggest upgrades we get at Level 30 and makes Crit significantly more valuable for Destruction.

Shadowburn gives us a powerful instant Shadow damage spell with a 15 second cooldown. It costs one Soul Shard, but if a non trivial enemy dies within 8 seconds of being hit by Shadowburn, you get the Soul Shard back. Use this to finish enemies whenever possible so you're constantly recycling the Shard you spent.

Three points in Agonizing Flames increase the Crit Chance of Searing Pain by 10% and increase the damage of all your Destruction spells by 10%. This is just a massive damage increase to practically everything we're casting.

Conflagrate gives us another powerful instant cast against a target affected by Immolate. At Level 30 it still consumes Immolate, so try to use it near the end of Immolate's duration or when you need the enemy dead immediately.

Bane of Havoc is one of the coolest new Destruction talents in Forever. Put it on one enemy and 15% of all damage you deal to other enemies will also hit your Havoc target. This gives Destruction a brand new two target cleave tool and is extremely strong whenever two tougher enemies are alive at the same time.

If you have Rank 5 Talented in your Legacy Tree, the five additional talent points let us start going even deeper into Destruction. Put your first three points into Fire and Brimstone and the last two points are up to you. Suppression is a great choice since it gives you 2% Hit and a little bit of threat reduction. If you don't care about the Hit, then you can put those two into Intensity, Improved Shadow Bolt or even Improved Corruption for a much quicker cast on Corruption.

At Level 30 Destruction deals most of its damage through hard hitting direct spells, your Demon, and a smaller amount of DoT damage. Send your Demon into the target first, then start blasting from range. Ruin and Agonizing Flames make your direct damage significantly stronger, while Conflagrate and Shadowburn give you two instant casts to finish enemies off. At Level 30, the basic rotation looks like this:

• Demon: Send it into the target first.
• Curse: Apply Curse of Recklessness or Curse of the Elements on dungeon bosses or elites, depending on your group. nCurse of the Elements will buff your group's magic damage and Curse of Recklessness will buff your group's Physical damage.
• Pre-cast one Shadow Bolt; because Shadow Bolt is a projectile with a travel time, you are often able to precast one time on a target, following up with an Immolate. When timed properly, this will cause both spells to land on the target at a similar time, essentially giving you a free Shadow Bolt cast.
• Cast Immolate This is your only DoT to manage.
• Cast Shadow Bolt or Wand as your primary direct damage filler.
• Use Searing Pain when you need a faster direct damage cast. With Agonizing Flames it also has an extra 10% Crit Chance, but remember that it causes a ton of threat.
• Use Conflagrate near the end of your Immolate or when the enemy is about to die.
• Use your wand when the target is already low enough that spending Mana on another spell isn't necessary.
• Use Shadowburn when the enemy is close to dying so you can finish it and recover the Soul Shard. If you are capped on Soul Shards you can use this on cooldown.
• Use Drain Soul instead of Shadowburn when you need additional Soul Shards.
• Stop spending Mana when your Demon and existing damage will finish the enemy.
• Use Life Tap when you need Mana and have enough Health to safely spend.

Immolate is one of your most important Destruction spells. It deals Fire damage when the spell lands and then continues dealing Fire damage over time. Bane reduces its cast time, while Agonizing Flames increases its damage. Conflagrate also requires Immolate to already be on the target, so Immolate becomes even more important at Level 30.

Remember that Conflagrate currently consumes your Immolate. You don't want to immediately cast Immolate and then delete the entire DoT unless the burst damage is actually worth it. Let Immolate deal most of its damage first, then use Conflagrate near the end or when you need something dead immediately.

Bane of Havoc completely changes how Destruction handles two targets. Put it on the enemy you aren't actively attacking, then continue your normal rotation on the other enemy. 15% of every point of damage you deal to other targets will also be dealt to your Havoc target.

Remember that Havoc is a Bane. You can't have Bane of Agony and Bane of Havoc on the same target at the same time. Put Havoc on one enemy, then you can still use Agony on as many enemies as possible and it will funnel damage into that Baned target.

For larger packs, Rain of Fire remains your ranged AoE option. At Level 30 you also gain Hellfire, which deals massive Fire damage every second to enemies around you but also damages you. Hellfire causes a ton of threat, so let your tank get control of the pack before running in and blasting everything around you. We highly suggest getting use to putting Havoc on a high health target on every pack if possible. 15% of all this AoE damage from Hellfire will be funneled to your Baned target.

Your Demon is still a major part of both your damage and survivability even though Destruction doesn't have the pet bonuses available to Demonology. By Level 30, you can choose between Summon Imp, Summon Voidwalker, Summon Succubus and Summon Felhunter. Succubus does the most damage, Imp does the least, Voidwalker is the tankiest, and Felhunter brings you more Utility.

• Imp: Unlocked through an early class quest at Level 2. The Imp deals ranged damage with Firebolt and provides Stamina through Blood Pact. It's a fragile caster and can run out of Mana quickly, but Demonic Energies helps significantly by restoring its Mana whenever you Life Tap.
• Voidwalker: Unlocked at Level 10 through a class quest. This is your tanky option and the safest Demon to use when you need something to hold enemies for you. Fel Vitality gives it even more Health and Mana, while Demonic Energies helps heal it while you deal damage. Send it in first and then start applying your DoTs.
• Succubus: Unlocked at Level 20 through a class quest. The Succubus deals insanely high damage compared to the other available Demons, making it our preferred damage choice when the Voidwalker's extra survivability isn't needed. Unholy Power increases its damage even further, while three points in Improved Sayaad increase Lash of Pain by 30%.
• Felhunter: Unlocked at Level 30 through the Warlock class quest. The Felhunter brings extremely useful caster utility through Spell Lock and Devour Magic. Its damage during our Beta testing sat between the Imp and Succubus, so use it when the interrupt and dispel are worth giving up some of the Succubus damage.

Bind Pet Attack and Pet Follow so you can send your Demon in or call it back without hunting through the pet bar. Mouse wheel up and down are easy options. The new Move To command also lets you put your Demon wherever you want it, which helps keep it away from nearby packs and AoE. Watch the route it takes when following you, and turn off unwanted threat abilities in dungeons so it doesn't fight the tank for enemies. Since Destruction relies so heavily on hard casting, having your Demon properly positioned and attacking before you begin casting will make everything much smoother.

Warlocks bring a ton of useful tools by Level 30. Keep a few Soul Shards ready before heading out so you can summon another Demon, make your stones, summon a party member, or use Shadowburn when needed. Drain Soul becomes available at Level 10 and lets you collect Shards by finishing enemies while channeling it.

• Life Tap converts some of your Health into Mana, allowing you to keep casting without immediately stopping to drink. Destruction can spend Mana quickly because so much of your damage comes from repeated direct casts.
• Drain Life deals damage while restoring your Health. It helps recover the Health you spend on Life Tap and keeps you going between pulls.
• Shadowburn instantly deals Shadow damage at the cost of one Soul Shard. If a non trivial target dies within 8 seconds of being hit by it, you gain a Soul Shard. Try to use it as a finishing spell so you can recover the resource you spent.
• Conflagrate becomes available through your talent build and gives you another instant Fire damage spell. It requires Immolate on the target and currently consumes it.
• Bane of Havoc lets 15% of the damage you deal to other enemies also hit the Havoc target, giving you a powerful two target damage option.
• Create Healthstone creates a Healthstone for emergency healing. Keep one available while questing and before dungeon runs. Bonus points if you give one to your party members.
• Create Soulstone creates a Soulstone that you can apply to yourself or an ally to allow resurrection after death. Apply it before the target dies. A well placed Soulstone can save the group a run back after a wipe.
• Ritual of Summoning lets you and two other party members summon another member of your group to your location. You need a Soul Shard for each summon.
• Health Funnel transfers some of your Health to your Demon. Destruction doesn't have Demonology's passive pet healing, so use it when your Demon is taking heavy damage and needs to be kept alive.
• Fear gives you another form of crowd control when you need to get an enemy off you. Be careful using it around nearby packs.
• Unending Breath allows the target to breathe underwater. It's situational, but extremely useful when you need it.
• Eye of Kilrogg becomes available at Level 22 and gives you a controllable eye that can scout ahead without putting your Warlock directly in danger.
• Sense Demons becomes available at Level 24 and allows nearby Demons to appear on your minimap.
• Curse of Tongues becomes available at Level 26 and increases the casting time of enemy spells, making dangerous casters much easier to deal with.
• Detect Invisibility becomes available at Level 26 and allows a friendly target to detect invisible enemies.
• Banish becomes available at Level 28 and lets you temporarily remove a Demon or Elemental from the fight while making it immune to damage.
• Create Firestone becomes available at Level 28 and creates a weapon enhancement that gives you 1% Spell Crit Chance and increases the damage of your Fire spells by up to 10.
• Hellfire becomes available at Level 30 and deals Fire damage every second to enemies around you while also damaging you. It does massive AoE damage but can cause a ton of threat, so keep an eye on both your Health and the tank.
• Subjugate Demon becomes available at Level 30 and allows you to temporarily control certain enemy Demons.
• Demon Skin and Demon Armor are your personal armor buffs. Keep Demon Skin active early on and replace it with Demon Armor at Level 20. Once you have Demon Armor there isn't a reason to go back to Demon Skin.
• Searing Pain is a fast direct Fire damage spell. Agonizing Flames gives it another 10% Crit Chance while also increasing all of your Destruction damage by 10%. Just remember that Searing Pain generates a ton of threat.

The important part of managing your Health and Mana is knowing when it's safe to Life Tap. Destruction can burn through Mana quickly because so much of its damage comes from repeated direct casts. Cataclysm helps by reducing the Mana cost of your Destruction spells, while Drain Life helps recover the Health you spend on Life Tap. Don't keep using Life Tap until you're nearly dead just to fill your Mana bar. Leave yourself enough Health to survive the next pull. There's nothing wrong with stopping for food and water when that's the safest option.

Tailoring and Enchanting are a popular starting pair for a Warlock. Tailoring gives you a use for all the cloth you'll find while leveling, including crafting extremely useful armor and bags. Almost all of the Best in Slot for Warlocks right now come from Tailoring, making it highly suggested.

Enchanting lets you turn unwanted equipment into materials that you can then use to enchant your gear. Enchanting is also able to craft both Lesser Magic Wand and Greater Magic Wand. When I was leveling, I had enough money to keep one profession leveled up and had to farm some Silver to keep another profession leveled up. Warlocks typically spend more money than most classes due to having to buy Grimoires for our Demons.

First Aid is another popular option for professions because this is a secondary profession, meaning you can train First Aid and still have your two primary professions. First Aid allows you to make very helpful bandages out of cloth to quickly heal up. With Forever, it also means you can make health potions, making First Aid ever more valuable. The main bandages you should be using are:

• Heavy Silk Bandage
• Mageweave Bandage
• Heavy Mageweave Bandage

Cooking is a phenomenal option to add as another secondary professions now that food buffs can provide bonus 5% experience while leveling, as well as extremely helpful stat buffs. It is highly suggested to at least have cooking learned, even if you leave it at Level 1 due to the big power spike and experience gains

Skinning is a great option specifically early on for great passive Gold income, especially in the early game. A lot of people don't skin, so you're able to just run around skinning other players' dead enemies, which ends up being a massive amount of extra money that can be used to buy bags, skills, Grimoires, gear and consumables.

Horde: Troll comes with Berserking, increasing your spell casting speed by 10% for 10 seconds, making it particularly useful for a specialization built around hard casting Shadow Bolt and Immolate. Rapid Regeneration also gives you a way to restore a large amount of Health after using Life Tap, as long as you can safely complete the channel.

Horde: Orc has access to Blood Fury, a big buff that you can use on a two minute cooldown, increasing your Spell Power by 10%. This isn't as large of a buff in the early game since we don't have too much Spell Power, but gets more valuable as your gear improves. Shatter Curse allows you to remove Curses and Banes from yourself, while also making you immune to them and reducing all magical damage taken by 15% for 8 seconds.

Alliance: Gnome comes with Expansive Mind, increasing your maximum Mana by 5%, while Escape Artist helps you escape slows and other movement impairing effects. Eureka! gives youa cooldown that reduces the Mana cost of your next three damaging spells by 50% and increases their damage by 10%. Destruction benefits directly from both the additional Mana and a cooldown built around empowering damaging casts.

Alliance: Human has The Human Spirit, increasing your Spirit by 5%. Life Tap has changed and now scales off of your Spirit, making you gain more Mana whenever you Life Tap. Sword Specialization has also changed drastically and now gives you 2% Crit Chance when you have a Sword equipped. Crit works especially well with Destruction, especially once you have Ruin at Level 30. Humans also have Will to Survive, allowing you to break out of any stuns on a two minute cooldown.

These are the suggested choice to make your leveling cozy. Choose one based on your preference and the kind of content you plan to do. If you prefer another race, then choose it! The races are really close in terms of damage.

WoW Forever has reworked itemization, so old Classic BiS lists cannot establish your best Level 30 equipment. The Level 30 portion of the Beta is not yet available for hands on testing, so we are not going to pretend that a datamined item is Best in Slot before we can actually obtain and test it. This section will be updated once we do more testing and can get a better picture of the actual strongest Level 30 gear.

Below is a list of some of the most important pieces of gear to keep an eye out for. These items are extraordinarily powerful and you will be wearing these for awhile.

• Shadow Circlet — This Head piece is only obtainable through Tailoring.
• Scorn's Icy Choker — This powerful necklace drops off of Scorn inside of Scarlet Monastery Graveyard
• Fairywing Mantle — These insane shoulders are a Gnomeregan Quest Reward that starts in Booty Bay. Both Alliance and Horde can do this quest.
• Necrology Robes & Tree Bark Jacket — Both of these Robes Bind on Equip and can be purchased off the auction house. You can also hunt them down in Shadowfang Keep if you're feeling lucky on the trash drops.
• Belt of Arugal — This infamous belt drops off of Archmage Arugal inside of Shadowfang Keep.
• Gaze Dreamer Pants — These overpowered Pants drop off of Twilight Lord Kelris inside Blackfathom Depths.
• Dark Horde Band — This ring has a massive amount of Spell Power. It drops off of Targorr the Dread inside The Stockades.
• Hydrocane — This staff drops off of Viscous Fallout inside Gnomeregan.
• Staff of Soran'ruk — Just as good as the last staff, but this one is a reward from the Level 20 Warlock Quest.

Gear has changed a lot in Forever. Spell Power is now on low level gear, giving us access to a decent amount of Spell Power already. Use the order below as a starting point while comparing items and remember that this is subject to change once we actually get our hands on Level 30 gear.

Below, we've covered stats to look out for in order of priority, and how each stat interacts with your toolkit. Stats that aren't available on gear currently due to its low level aren't covered, but will be included as more items are released.

1. Spell Power
   • Your strongest general offensive stat. Spell Power increases the damage of spells that scale with it, helping Shadow Bolt, Immolate, Searing Pain, Shadowburn, Conflagrate, and your other damaging spells. Pay attention to whether an item provides general Spell Power or damage for a specific spell school. Fire damage won't increase Shadow Bolt or Shadowburn, while Shadow damage won't increase your Fire spells.
2. Hit
   • Reduces the chance for your spells to miss. Destruction doesn't take Suppression in this build, so you don't receive any Hit from your talents. Missing a big cast wastes both time and Mana, making Hit extremely useful against tougher enemies.
3. Haste
   • Reduces normal spell cast times. Destruction relies heavily on hard casts, so Haste directly benefits spells such as Shadow Bolt and Immolate. During our Beta testing, Haste didn't make DoTs or Drain channels tick faster, so most of its value for Destruction comes from making your actual casts faster.
4. Critical Strike
   • Crit gets significantly better at Level 30 because five points in Ruin increase the Critical Strike damage bonus of your Destruction spells by 100%. Your DoTs can also Crit in WoW Forever. We still need more Level 30 gear testing before moving Crit above Haste, but Ruin makes it a much more important stat than it was at Level 20.
5. Spirit
   • Spirit is important because Life Tap now scales with Spirit, giving you more Mana whenever you Tap. It also improves your natural Health and Mana regeneration, helping reduce some of the downtime caused by how much Mana Destruction can burn through.
6. Intellect
   • Increases your maximum Mana, allowing you to cast more spells before needing to recover or use Life Tap. Destruction spends a ton of time actively casting, so a comfortable Mana pool remains useful even with Cataclysm reducing spell costs.
7. Stamina
   • Increases your maximum Health, giving you more room to survive difficult pulls and safely use Life Tap. More maximum Health doesn't directly increase the amount of Mana gained from each Life Tap.

WoW Forever's profession revamp allows Alchemy to make new extremely powerful potions and elixirs that will significantly boost your Spell Power, Defenses, Sats and much more. None of them require you to be an Alchemist, so you can buy all these all on the Auction House.

• Lesser Arcane Elixir — This gives you 15 Spell Power for 30 minutes.
• Elixir of Lesser Spirit — This gives you 6 Spirit for 30 minutes.
• Lesser Mageblood Elixir — This lets you regenerate 6 Mana every 5 seconds for 30 minutes.
• Lesser Troll's Blood Elixir — This lets you regenerate 6 Health every 5 seconds for 60 minutes.
• Lesser Spellblasting Potion — This increases your Spell Power by 11 for 30 Seconds.

Carry a Create Healthstone, food, water, and some healing potions you can use in emergencies, such as Greater Healing Potion and Healing Potion. Swim Speed Potion are more niche, but very helpful for all those quests and traveling through water and there's a plethora of resistance potions to keep you safe in PvP or any other elemental dangers like Nature Protection Potion, Fire Protection Potion, Shadow Protection Potion and Minor Magic Resistance Potion.

At Level 28 you can train Create Firestone. In WoW Forever, the Firestone is used to enchant your weapon instead of taking up the old equipment slot. The first rank increases your Spell Critical Strike Chance by 1% and also increases the damage of your Fire spells. The Critical Strike Chance is useful to Destruction because your DoTs can critically strike.

Campfires are a massive part of WoW Forevers new Camping System. This gives you access to a ton of useful buffs and huge profession bonuses while leveling.

Campfires are worth stopping at while you are out leveling. A basic campfire made with Cooking has room for three profession features, with each player contributing one. Spend a minute sitting or crafting nearby to pick up the benefits. Equivalent camp and class buffs do not stack, so check what you already have before looking for another camp.

• Camp Chair comes from Skinning and gives 2% Critical Strike for spells and attacks. Since Destruction is based around our Crits and our DoTs can now critically strike, this is very useful; it is exclusive with Moonkin Aura.
• Faction Banner comes from Tailoring and increases Spirit, buffing your Life Tap. It is exclusive with Divine Spirit.
• Incense Candle comes from Herbalism and increases Intellect, giving you a larger Mana pool. It is exclusive with Arcane Intellect.
• Mana Well comes from Alchemy and restores Mana every 5 seconds. It gives you another way to recover Mana alongside your drains and Life Tap. It is exclusive with Blessing of Wisdom.
• Fish Bowl comes from Fishing and increases your stats by 8%. The extra Intellect and Stamina are both useful while leveling. It is exclusive with Blessing of Kings.
• Camp Tent comes from Leatherworking and brings your rested experience up to 5% of a level. It has no effect if you already have more than that amount stored.

You will not always find the exact buffs you want, but it is worth taking a minute to grab useful ones when you pass a camp. These campfire buffs share a one hour placement cooldown, so players can only give one buff per camp.

Abide

Guide Author

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This guide has been written by Abide, TBC veteran for nearly a decade. Abide is a Warrior tank and multi-class expert currently playing on Faerlina as Horde. You can find him in the Icy Veins Discord. You can also see him live on Twitch.

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