Destruction Warlock DPS Gear and Best in Slot — The War Within (Season 1)

Last updated on Sep 09, 2024 at 18:00 by Motoko 60 comments
General Information

On this page, you will find the best gear and best in slot items for your Destruction Warlock in World of Warcraft The War Within (Season 1).

If you were looking for WotLK Classic content, please refer to our WotLK Classic Destruction Warlock gear and best in slot.

1.

Gearing a Destruction Warlock

Welcome to our Gearing Page for Destruction Warlock; this section will cover everything you need to know about equipping your character correctly.

If you have a new piece of gear for which you need gems and enchant advice, you can find everything on our dedicated page below.

2.

Best in Slot Gear

3.

BiS Gear for Destruction Warlock

Overall BiS list Raid BiS List Mythic+ BiS List
4.

The War Within Season 1 Overall BiS List for Destruction Warlock

The following list contains the Best in Slot Gear for Destruction Warlock in The War Within Season 1 from all sources, including Raiding, Mythic+, Delves, The Great Vault, and Crafted.

Note that there is no such thing as a singular, all-encompassing "BiS". The best items vary per character and situation, and many items are essentially equivalent in terms of DPS, namely when we are just shuffling secondary stats around. I will list one "BiS" item per slot, but ultimately, BiS lists are not very practically useful and you should be simming your character to find out what gear to equip next. Nonetheless, there is a huge demand for this list, and thus, you can use the list below as a guideline as to what an endgame set of gear looks like.

Slot Item Source/Note
Helm Devotee's Discarded Headdress Icon Devotee's Discarded Headdress (639) Rasha'nan
Neck Sureki Zealot's Insignia Icon Sureki Zealot's Insignia (639) Sikran in Nerub-ar Palace
Shoulder Hexflame Coven's Altar Icon Hexflame Coven's Altar (639) Rasha'nan/Matrix Catalyst/Great Vault
Cloak Wings of Shattered Sorrow Icon Wings of Shattered Sorrow (639) Rasha'nan
Chest Hexflame Coven's Ritual Harness Icon Hexflame Coven's Ritual Harness (639) Broodtwister Ovi'nax/Matrix Catalyst/Great Vault
Bracers Consecrated Cuffs Icon Consecrated Cuffs (636) with Writhing Armor Banding Icon Writhing Armor Banding and Critical Strike + Versatility Crafted — Tailoring
Gloves Hexflame Coven's Sleeves Icon Hexflame Coven's Sleeves (639) Sikran/Matrix Catalyst/Great Vault
Belt Burrower's Cinch Icon Burrower's Cinch (639) Ara-Kara, City of Echoes, or Great Vault
Legs Hexflame Coven's Leggings Icon Hexflame Coven's Leggings (639) Nexus Princess Ky'veza/Matrix Catalyst/Great Vault
Boots Hexflame Coven's Treads Icon Hexflame Coven's Treads (639) Matrix Catalyst
Ring #1 Seal of the Poisoned Pact Icon Seal of the Poisoned Pact (639) Queen Ansurek in Nerub-ar Palace
Ring #2 Band of the Ancient Dredger Icon Band of the Ancient Dredger (639) Siege of Boralus
Trinket #1 Mad Queen's Mandate Icon Mad Queen's Mandate (639) Queen Ansurek in Nerub-ar Palace
Trinket #2 Spymaster's Web Icon Spymaster's Web (639) Silken Court in Nerub-ar Palace
Weapon Sovereign's Disdain Icon Sovereign's Disdain (639) Queen Ansurek in Nerub-ar Palace
Off-Hand Vagabond's Torch Icon Vagabond's Torch (636) with Darkmoon Sigil: Ascension Icon Darkmoon Sigil: Ascension and Critical Strike + Versatility Crafted — Inscription
4.

The War Within Season 1 Raid BiS List for Destruction Warlock

The following list contains the Best in Slot Gear for Destruction Warlock in The War Within Season 1 from Raiding, The Great Vault, and Crafted, and thus aimed at those who do not want to engage with Mythic+.

Note that there is no such thing as a singular, all-encompassing "BiS". The best items vary per character and situation, and many items are essentially equivalent in terms of DPS, namely when we are just shuffling secondary stats around. I will list one "BiS" item per slot, but ultimately, BiS lists are not very practically useful and you should be simming your character to find out what gear to equip next. Nonetheless, there is a huge demand for this list, and thus, you can use the list below as a guideline as to what an endgame set of gear looks like.

Slot Item Source/Note
Helm Devotee's Discarded Headdress Icon Devotee's Discarded Headdress (639) Rasha'nan in Nerub-ar Palace
Neck Sureki Zealot's Insignia Icon Sureki Zealot's Insignia (639) Sikran in Nerub-ar Palace
Shoulder Hexflame Coven's Altar Icon Hexflame Coven's Altar (639) Rasha'nan/Matrix Catalyst/Great Vault
Cloak Wings of Shattered Sorrow Icon Wings of Shattered Sorrow (639) Rasha'nan in Nerub-ar Palace
Chest Hexflame Coven's Ritual Harness Icon Hexflame Coven's Ritual Harness (639) Broodtwister Ovi'nax/Matrix Catalyst/Great Vault
Bracers Consecrated Cuffs Icon Consecrated Cuffs (636) with Writhing Armor Banding Icon Writhing Armor Banding and Critical Strike + Versatility Crafted — Tailoring
Gloves Hexflame Coven's Sleeves Icon Hexflame Coven's Sleeves (639) Sikran/Matrix Catalyst/Great Vault
Belt Shattered Eye Cincture Icon Shattered Eye Cincture (639) The Bloodbound Horror in Nerub-ar Palace
Legs Hexflame Coven's Leggings Icon Hexflame Coven's Leggings (639) Nexus Princess Ky'veza/Matrix Catalyst/Great Vault
Boots Hexflame Coven's Treads Icon Hexflame Coven's Treads (639) Matrix Catalyst
Ring #1 Seal of the Poisoned Pact Icon Seal of the Poisoned Pact (639) Queen Ansurek in Nerub-ar Palace
Ring #2 Key to the Unseeming Icon Key to the Unseeming (639) The Bloodbound Horror in Nerub-ar Palace
Trinket #1 Mad Queen's Mandate Icon Mad Queen's Mandate (639) Queen Ansurek in Nerub-ar Palace
Trinket #2 Spymaster's Web Icon Spymaster's Web (639) Silken Court in Nerub-ar Palace
Weapon Sovereign's Disdain Icon Sovereign's Disdain (639) Queen Ansurek in Nerub-ar Palace
Off-Hand Vagabond's Torch Icon Vagabond's Torch (636) with Darkmoon Sigil: Ascension Icon Darkmoon Sigil: Ascension and Critical Strike + Versatility Crafted — Inscription
4.

The War Within Season 1 Mythic+ BiS List for Destruction Warlock

The following list contains the Best in Slot Gear for Destruction Warlock in The War Within Season 1 from Mythic+, The Great Vault, Crafted and is aimed towards those who do not have access to Raid drops.

Note that there is no such thing as a singular, all-encompassing "BiS". The best items vary per character and situation, and many items are essentially equivalent in terms of DPS, namely when we are just shuffling secondary stats around. I will list one "BiS" item per slot, but ultimately, BiS lists are not very practically useful and you should be simming your character to find out what gear to equip next. Nonetheless, there is a huge demand for this list, and thus, you can use the list below as a guideline as to what an endgame set of gear looks like.

Slot Item Source/Note
Helm Devotee's Discarded Headdress Icon Devotee's Discarded Headdress (639) Rasha'nan
Neck 'Emergency Stop' Keychain Icon 'Emergency Stop' Keychain (639) The Stonevault, or Great Vault
Shoulder Hexflame Coven's Altar Icon Hexflame Coven's Altar (639) Matrix Catalyst
Cloak Shroud of Dark Memories Icon Shroud of Dark Memories (639) Grim Batol, or Great Vault
Chest Hexflame Coven's Ritual Harness Icon Hexflame Coven's Ritual Harness (639) Matrix Catalyst
Bracers Consecrated Cuffs Icon Consecrated Cuffs (636) with Writhing Armor Banding Icon Writhing Armor Banding and Critical Strike + Versatility Crafted — Tailoring
Gloves Hexflame Coven's Sleeves Icon Hexflame Coven's Sleeves (639) Matrix Catalyst
Belt Burrower's Cinch Icon Burrower's Cinch (639) Ara-Kara, City of Echoes, or Great Vault
Legs Hexflame Coven's Leggings Icon Hexflame Coven's Leggings (639) Matrix Catalyst
Boots Hexflame Coven's Treads Icon Hexflame Coven's Treads (639) Matrix Catalyst
Ring #1 Devout Zealot's Ring Icon Devout Zealot's Ring (639) The Dawnbreaker, or Great Vault
Ring #2 Band of the Ancient Dredger Icon Band of the Ancient Dredger (639) Siege of Boralus, or Great Vault
Trinket #1 Ara-Kara Sacbrood Icon Ara-Kara Sacbrood (639) Ara-Kara, City of Echoes, or Great Vault
Trinket #2 Unbound Changeling Icon Unbound Changeling (639) Mists of Tirna Scithe
Weapon Amarth's Spellblade Icon Amarth's Spellblade (639) The Necrotic Wake, or Great Vault
Off-Hand Vagabond's Torch Icon Vagabond's Torch (636) with Darkmoon Sigil: Ascension Icon Darkmoon Sigil: Ascension and Critical Strike + Versatility Crafted — Inscription
4.

Best Trinkets for Destruction Warlock in The War Within Season 1

Raiding Trinket Tier List Mythic+ Trinket Tier List
5.

Raiding Trinket Tier List for Destruction Warlock

This Trinket Tier List is biased towards single-target, as this tends to be the more relevant aspect of Raiding. In the case of Trinkets performing similarly in single-target, the option with AoE/Multitarget scaling will be ranked higher.

A "Tier" as defined by this list is around 0.5% DPS, meaning that S-Tier Trinkets are around 0.5% better than A-Tier Trinkets, and so on.

Any trinket not shown on this list is generally considered worse than all other trinkets available on this list.

4.1.

S-Tier

  • Spymaster's Web Icon Spymaster's Web — undisputed best Trinket for all situations. Has the upside of scaling very well in non-linear encounter that requires pooling resources for specific phases.
  • Mad Queen's Mandate Icon Mad Queen's Mandate — strongest on use spell effect trinket, which benefits from damage amplification effects such as Eradication Icon Eradication
4.1.

A-Tier

  • Ara-Kara Sacbrood Icon Ara-Kara Sacbrood — Very strong passive trinket.
4.1.

B-Tier

  • Unbound Changeling Icon Unbound Changeling — A strong passive trinket, although slightly worse than Ara-Kara Sacbrood Icon Ara-Kara Sacbrood.
  • Empowering Crystal of Anub'ikkaj Icon Empowering Crystal of Anub'ikkaj
  • Gale of Shadows Icon Gale of Shadows — Passive stacking Intelligence trinket.
  • Quickwick Candlestick Icon Quickwick Candlestick.
  • Aberrant Spellforge Icon Aberrant Spellforge
  • Satchel of Misbegotten Minions Icon Satchel of Misbegotten Minions
  • Ovi'nax's Mercurial Egg Icon Ovi'nax's Mercurial Egg.
4.1.

C-Tier

  • High Speaker's Accretion Icon High Speaker's Accretion — Best used 6 seconds before Summon Infernal Icon Summon Infernal.
  • Hadal's Nautilus Icon Hadal's Nautilus
5.

Mythic+ Trinket Tier List for Destruction Warlock

This Trinket Tier List is focused more on AoE damage, as a large portion of Mythic+ is AoE damage.

A "Tier" as defined by this list is around 0.5% DPS, meaning that S-Tier Trinkets are around 0.5% better than A-Tier Trinkets, and so on.

Any trinket not shown on this list is generally considered worse than all other trinkets available on this list.

4.1.

S-Tier

  • Spymaster's Web Icon Spymaster's Web — undisputed best Trinket for all situations. Has the upside of scaling very well in non-linear encounter that requires pooling resources for specific phases.
4.1.

A-Tier

  • Ara-Kara Sacbrood Icon Ara-Kara Sacbrood — Very strong passive trinket.
  • Unbound Changeling Icon Unbound Changeling — A strong passive trinket, although slightly worse than Ara-Kara Sacbrood Icon Ara-Kara Sacbrood.
  • Gale of Shadows Icon Gale of Shadows — Passive stacking Intelligence trinket.
  • Empowering Crystal of Anub'ikkaj Icon Empowering Crystal of Anub'ikkaj
  • Mad Queen's Mandate Icon Mad Queen's Mandate — strongest on use spell effect trinket, which benefits from damage amplification effects such as Eradication Icon Eradication
4.1.

B-Tier

  • Quickwick Candlestick Icon Quickwick Candlestick.
  • Satchel of Misbegotten Minions Icon Satchel of Misbegotten Minions
  • Ovi'nax's Mercurial Egg Icon Ovi'nax's Mercurial Egg.
4.1.

C-Tier

  • Aberrant Spellforge Icon Aberrant Spellforge
  • Forged Gladiator's Badge of Ferocity Icon Forged Gladiator's Badge of Ferocity
  • High Speaker's Accretion Icon High Speaker's Accretion — Best used 6 seconds before Summon Infernal Icon Summon Infernal.
4.1.

Crafted Gear & Embellishments

Spark of Omens Icon Spark of Omens will remain the main limiting factor when crafting high-end gear, as it can be acquired once every two weeks by combining two Fractured Spark of Omens Icon Fractured Spark of Omens and 250 Valorstones Icon Valorstones.

At the start of a tier, it will be possible to craft two pieces (the first from the initial quest and the second from the initial bi-weekly reward).

It is essential to understand that your crafting strategy depends heavily on the kind of progress and therefore drops available, the speed at which you progress through the content and whatever drop you can obtain early. As a result, there will not be a single best path, instead listed below will be some guidelines:

Darkmoon Sigil: Ascension Icon Darkmoon Sigil: Ascension on the offhand weapon and Writhing Armor Banding Icon Writhing Armor Banding is the overall best combination as it does scale into multitarget as opposed as Elemental Focusing Lens Icon Elemental Focusing Lens.

The long term solution is to directly craft both using sparks at the highest item level possible, but that does imply dropping a Mythic level Main hand through Mythic plus before entering in Mythic Raid the second week.

An alternative is to craft both main hand and offhand combo using sparks and leave wrists at 590 item level, which would offer a higher spike in power at the expense of requiring an additional spark on the long term, with the understanding that crafted main hand weapons will need to be replaced by Mythic drops counterpart due item level difference.

4.2.

The War Within Season 1 Tier Set for Destruction Warlock

Wearing 2 and 4 pieces from the Rites of the Hexflame Coven set gives you the following bonuses:

  • Warlock Destruction Season 1 2pc Icon Warlock Destruction Season 1 2pc: Incinerate Icon Incinerate critical strike chance increased by 20%. Conflagrate Icon Conflagrate critical strike chance increased by 25%.
  • Warlock Destruction Season 1 4pc Icon Warlock Destruction Season 1 4pc: When Conflagrate Icon Conflagrate critically strikes, your Fire damage is increased by 5% for 6 sec.

Both bonuses offer a passive damage increase and as such there is no alteration in terms of talent choices or playstyle.

It is important to note that achieving the Warlock Destruction Season 1 4pc Icon Warlock Destruction Season 1 4pc is a higher gain than having the set on the sub-optimal slots.

That said, the ideal setup has the Head as the offset piece due a suboptimal stat distribution.

5.

Evaluating Upgrades

The easiest and more sensible way to compare multiple items is to use Raidbots' Top Gear. Here, you can input an export from the Simcraft AddOn, select the items to compare, and it will find out which of the items are best. See below for a guide on how to sim yourself.

5.1.

Trinket Simulations for Destruction Warlock

DISCLAIMER: sims are currently being developed; therefore, take the following charts with a grain of salt.

5.1.1.

Single Target

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For the complete simulation results, check out Bloodmallet.com
5.1.2.

Cleave

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For the complete simulation results, check out Bloodmallet.com
6.

Changelog

  • 09 Sep. 2024: Added BiS lists for Season 1, updated trinket section.
  • 21 Aug. 2024: Added Pre-Season BiS list section.
  • 23 Jul. 2024: Reviewed for The War Within pre-patch.
  • 07 May 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.7.
  • 22 Apr. 2024: Updated for Season 4 launch.
  • 19 Mar. 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.6.
  • 15 Jan. 2024: Updated trinket section for Patch 10.2.5.
  • 07 Nov. 2023: Embellishment recommendations updated after Undulating Sporecloak has been annihilated.
  • 06 Nov. 2023: Updated Gear recommendations for Patch 10.2 and Season 3.
  • 04 Sep. 2023: Reformat of the page with BiS tables and section updates.
  • 10 Jul. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.1.5.
  • 01 May 2023: Updated for Patch 10.1.
  • 24 Mar. 2023: Updated Onyx Annulet section to account for live hotfixes.
  • 20 Mar. 2023: Added Patch 10.0.7 new ring section. .
  • 24 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
  • 13 Dec. 2022: Updated Embellishment recommendations.
  • 11 Dec. 2022: Updated for Season 1 launch.
  • 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
  • 25 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
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