Welcome to our Destruction Warlock guide for World of Warcraft — Midnight Season 1. Here, you will learn how to play as a Destruction Warlock in both raids and Mythic+ dungeons: from the very beginning to maximizing your DPS.
If you were looking for TBC Classic content, please refer to our TBC Classic Destruction Warlock Introduction.
Destruction Mythic+ Resources
Destruction Warlock is a very flexible specialization that can find ways to excel in a variety of environments. Destruction can deal a lot of bursts to a single target and also efficiently cleave and AoE several targets at once.
Destruction is almost always a viable candidate for progression fights, as
it has the least ramp-up time of any Warlock specialization. It can pressure
priority targets easily and also has strong cleave through 
Havoc.
Like all Warlock specializations, Destruction brings
Demonic Gateway, a powerful raid cooldown that can transport your
entire group 40 yards instantly.
The start of Season 1 open all the end game content available to players, including the more challenging Prey and Delves. Alongside is the return of Mythic+ dungeons, 3 Raids with 10 bosses, PvP and a new Tier Set to acquire. Follow the links below for the respective dedicated guides:
With the launch of Season 1, Destruction Warlock received a handful of changes, and
Blizzard previously stated that there is more tuning to come in the following weeks. The
season launch changes aim to bring balance between the Hero Trees. 
Hellcaller
was very close to 
Diabolist in single target, but had a big edge in multi-target
environments. The nerfs reduce how much of a gap there is in AoE, while giving more reasons
to play Diabolist at lower target counts. The spec itself remains very competitive
in damage output in all content, even with some of these nerfs.
Destruction
The most prominent feature of the expansion are the Apex talents which will be gradually available during leveling. These points exists separate from the tree and have to be invested sequentially in order to unlock the later points.
Embers of Nihilam
Embers of Nihilam
Embers of NihilamThese talents mostly provide background power and do not affect the rotation in itself broadly speaking, as any optimisation is overlapping with existing practices already.
Listed below is a breakdown of the changes separated in sections to facilitate the read.
Diabolist
Touch of Rancora has been toned down to a minor damage
buff
Diabolic Oculi everytime you spend shards
summon up to 3 Oculi which will explode for AoE damage whenever a
Demonic Art is consumed
Looks That Kill while active Diabolic Oculi
will cast Diabolic Gaze at your target every second
Mind's Eye Each Diabolic Oculi exploded will
grant 2% intellect for 10 seconds Hellcaller
Through the Felvine increase the damage of
baseline shard spenders, doubled
during 
Malevolence
Devil Fruit 
Wither has a chance to
grant Malevolence
Alzzin's Iniquity Malevolence grants
additional Haste and casting the ability adds more Wither
stacks
Shadowburn has been changed to be usable only on
targets below 20% Health
Fiendish Cruelty now is a proc on crit that allows for a
free Shadowburn cast, usable on any target regardless of
their health value
Lake of Fire has been added as a support talent
for 
Cataclysm
Roaring Blaze now spread 
Immolate to up to 3
nearby targets rather than being a damage increase debuff
Ritual of Ruin has been removed
Decimation has been removed
Dimension Ripper and 
Unstable Rifts have been
removed
Dimensional Rift is now a choice node
with Soul Fire, with 
Avatar of Destruction being
the associated support talent
Curse of Tongues and 
Curse of Exhaustion are now
separate talents
Foul Mouth has been added, allowing every curse to also
affect enemies around 10 yards of the main target
Howl of Terror is now a choice node
with 
Shadowfury and has a new supporting talent
in 
Oppressive Darkness, reducing its cooldown and affe
ting up to 10 targets
Health Funnel has been removed and its healing has been
added to 
Drain Life with 
Infernal BeneficiaryWe have a dedicated leveling guide to help you get your Destruction Warlock to max level, complete with many tips and suggestions.
While playing with the default UI for the leveling is entirely possible, transitioning to a max level rotation with a substantially different UI layout can feel overwhelming and ultimately disorient or frustrate the player. Instead, we recommend implementing layout changes gradually in order to allow you to acclimate to a more effective and personal UI. The Add-On page below offers some recommended options.
Destruction Warlock is a fairly straightforward spec, leaning towards hard-hitting direct damage spells, strong and long-lasting cooldowns, and a relative amount of pet management. At its core, the gameplay is about generating and spending the Warlock's iconic resource: Soul Shards.
The basics are simple: maintain Immolate on the target(s), spend
your shards on 
Chaos Bolts or 
Rain of Fire, cast
Conflagrate on cooldown, and Incinerate in the downtime.
If you are a newcomer to the spec but would like to learn the basics, start browsing the Spell Summary and head over to the page linked below.
For those more familiar with Warlocks, we invite you to check out the Talents and Rotation pages for more detailed and in-depth information.
Due to the increased number of variables and additional systems, picking gear has become a much less intuitive and immediate process. Nevertheless, you can find guidelines on how to best equip your Destruction Warlock on our dedicated gearing page, including the current Best in Slot equipment for the current tier.
Equipping gear is not enough, as you also need to choose the right consumables and gear augments to maximize your character potential. The pages below can guide you through those choices and help you better understand the implications each stat has on your Warlock.
This guide has been written by Motoko, Warlock main since The Burning Crusade, co-admin in the Warlock Discord, and theorycrafter and contributor for LockOneStopShop.
