Destruction Warlock DPS Gear and Best in Slot — Shadowlands 9.2.5

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 that you need gems and enchants advice for, you can find everything you need on our dedicated page below.

Due to the simplicity of determining upgrades with a simulation in the current era of the game, we recommend using the popular Raidbots tool to determine which pieces of gear offer the most potential for your character. The main reason why this is a huge advantage is due to the huge number of variables that differ from character to character, such as Stat Quotients, and Scale Factors.

The Top Gear function can be especially useful, as it allows you to compare multiple items and item types to find the best combination of upgrades.

Learning to use the tools available will allow you to reach the most accurate conclusions with the least effort. It is highly recommended you avail yourself of these tools, and they will serve you well when evaluating items.

The Droptimizer feature from Raidbots lets you identify which dungeons and Raid Bosses you should spend your Bonus Rolls on. It simulates all of the potential upgrades in a raid or a dungeon, and lists the bosses/dungeons by rank order of how much DPS you can expect to gain from bonus rolling on it. We have a guide for it that you can access using the link below.

Patch 9.2 reintroduces Tier Sets in the game providing unique bonuses tailored for each specialisation. For Destruction these bonuses are the following:

• Destruction Warlock 2-Piece — Every 10 Soul Shards spent makes your next Chaos Bolt or Rain of Fire free to cast.
• Destruction Warlock 4-Piece — When Rain of Fire or Chaos Bolt is freely cast, you summon a Blasphemy for 8 sec.

After obtaining Destruction Warlock 4-Piece Destruction massively gains in damage output both in single target and even more in AoE scenarios. Because how the tier set accelerates the shard generation/expenditure, talents and legendaries choices are affected, producing a shift from a rather flat and monotonous gameplay to an explosive damage profile curve with frequent burst windows.

There are different methods of acquisition for Tier Pieces: the usual Sepulcher of the First Ones bosses alongside the Great Vault weekly reward. A new option is the Creation Catalyst which allows to change a non tier piece into the correspective tier item in the appropriate slot.

Of the 5 different slots the Tier set pieces will be available in, only 4 are needed to activate the last set bonus, meaning there is some flexibility in how to optimise the gear and what piece to replace with possibly better statted or higher item level options.

Destruction Warlocks in raid will use the Head slot with either Madness of the Azj'Aqir and Unity on belt, or with Embers of the Diabolic Raiment on back and Unity on Head.

Madness of the Azj'Aqir(Head) and Embers of the Diabolic Raiment (Back) to a lesser extent are paramount to craft once acquired 4 pieces of the tier set. Because of the shift in stats priority it is advisable to craft them with Missive of Critical Strike and Missive of Haste.

For multitarget situations Wilfred's Sigil of Superior Summoning (Finger) is the best choice and can be crafted anew with Missive of Critical Strike and Missive of Haste. However if you do possess one already with Missive of Mastery and Missive of Haste there is no need to craft a new one, since Mastery has much higher value in multi target situations.

If you are looking for in-depth explanation on what Legendary to pick for what situation and how to obtain them, read our Legendary page below.

1. Ashen Remains
2. Fatal Decimation as Necrolord
3. Infernal Brand
4. Combusting Engine

1. Duplicitous Havoc

For more info regarding which Conduits to pick for which situations, check our full Covenants, Soulbinds & Conduits page.

Here we have provided a list of the best available items from Sanctum of Domination, which may be advantageous for players who have little interest in Mythic+ dungeons or PvP.

Slot	Item	Source
Helm	Grim-Veiled Hood	Crafted Legendary with Madness of the Azj'Aqir, Missive of Critical Strike and Missive of Haste
Neck	Worldkiller Iris	The Jailer in Sepulcher of the First Ones
Shoulder	Mantle of the Demon Star	Lords of Dread in Sepulcher of the First Ones
Cloak	Shroud of the Sire's Chosen	Lords of Dread in Sepulcher of the First Ones
Chest	Robes of the Demon Star	Rygelon in Sepulcher of the First Ones
Wrists	Cuffs of the Covert Commander	Lords of Dread in Sepulcher of the First Ones
Gloves	Grasps of the Demon Star	Lihuvim, Principal Architect in Sepulcher of the First Ones
Belt	Grim-Veiled Belt	Crafted Legendary with Unity, Missive of Haste and Missive of Critical Strike
Legs	Leggings of the Demon Star	Halondrus the Reclaimer in Sepulcher of the First Ones
Boots	Slippers of Leavened Station	The Great Vault or upgrading via Valor. (original source: Lord Chamberlain in Halls of Atonement)
Ring #1	Rygelon's Heraldric Ring	Rygelon in Sepulcher of the First Ones
Ring #2	Bloodoath Signet	The Great Vault or upgrading via Valor. (original source: Dessia the Decapitator in Theater of Pain)
Main-hand + Off-hand	Antumbra, Shadow of the Cosmos + Forbidden Truth	Rygelon + The Jailer in Sepulcher of the First Ones
Trinket 1	The First Sigil	Prototype Pantheon in Sepulcher of the First Ones
Trinket 2	Unbound Changeling	The Great Vault or upgrading via Valor. (original source: Ingra Maloch in Mists of Tirna Scithe)

Slot	Item	Source
Helm	Depraved Physician's Mask	Plaguefall
Neck	Sin Stained Pendant	Halls of Atonement
Shoulder	Mantle of the Demon Star	Creation Catalyst conversion of another item in this slot
Cloak	Drape of Twisted Loyalties	Spires of Ascension
Chest	Robes of the Demon Star	Creation Catalyst conversion of another item in this slot
Wrists	Contaminated Gauze Wristwraps	Theater of Pain
Gloves	Grasps of the Demon Star	Creation Catalyst conversion of another item in this slot
Belt	Kin-Tara's Baleful Cord	Spires of Ascension
Legs	Leggings of the Demon Star	Creation Catalyst conversion of another item in this slot
Boots	Dark Stride Footwraps	Spires of Ascension
Ring #1	Death God's Signet	De Other Side
Ring #2	Arachnid Cipher Ring	Plaguefall
Main-hand + Off-hand	Nathrian Ferula	Halls of Atonement
Trinket 1	Soulletting Ruby	Theater of Pain
Trinket 2	Unbound Changeling	Mists of Tirna Scithe

Due to the prevalence of high item level trinkets via Mythic+, raiding, and PvP, there are a variety of suitable options when it comes to trinkets. It is always best to use Raidbots Top Gear to determine what your optimal trinkets are.

In Sepulcher of the First Ones there is only one stand-out option: The First Sigil offers a tremendous burst potential and can be considered in situations where a stronger burst phase is needed.

From dungeons, Inscrutable Quantum Device is by far the most potent trinket for non- Wilfred's Sigil of Superior Summoning builds, but becomes somewhat inconsistent in the latter part of a fight due to its stat increase effect being on a lower priority than other triggers. So'leah's Secret Technique and Unbound Changeling are the 2 best passive trinkets. Soulletting Ruby works well when paired with Wilfred's Sigil of Superior Summoning and Rain of Chaos.