Destruction Warlock DPS Guide — Dragonflight 10.0.7

Destruction Warlock is a very flexible specialization that can find ways to excel in a variety of environments. Destruction can deal a lot of burst 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.

Destruction Warlock received a flat 3% aura buff and a minor of spec tree update in the form of Burn to Ashes now stacking up to 6 times.

The more relevant buffs perhaps are tied to the addition of new output nodes in the class tree, which impact Destruction to a greater effect.

Last but not least both Summon Soulkeeper and Inquisitor's Gaze received a much needed buff.

For a full list of all Warlock changes in Dragonflight Patch 10.0.7, see our Patch 10.0.0 Warlock Changes page.

Some of the important changes for the class and the spec includes:

• the ability to talent into utility choices that were previously mutually exclusive, such as Mortal Coil and Shadowfury, or Burning Rush and Dark Pact.
• Soul Link being available for every Warlock spec
• the possibility to disregard AoE talents and choices to specialize further for a specific scenario, or vice-versa the option to lean heavily into AoE, with additional tools that used to be mutually exclusive in the previous system.

For a full list of all Warlock changes in Patch 10.0 and Dragonflight see our Patch 10.0.0 Warlock Changes page.

We 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. We recommend instead to implement Layout changes gradually in order to allow yourself to acclimate to a more effective and personal UI. The Addon 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 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 the page linked below.

For those more familiar with Warlocks we invite you to check out the Talents and Rotation pages to have access to more detailed and in depth information.

Due the increased number of variables and additional systems, picking gear has become a much less intuitive and immediate process. Nevertheless you can find guidelines in how to best equip your Destruction Warlock in 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 maximise 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.

With the release of the pre Dragonflight Patch 10.0 all classes will have access to a fundamentally different talent system compared to the most recent iterations. For an overview of the best builds we strongly suggest you to check the talent page in the link below:

Being geared and well-equipped is only half of the journey, as the end game activities require each a different approach to the spec. In order to find out more information regarding how to better tackle these challenges check out the pages below.

Understanding your errors and refining your performance is a constant exercise, which can be frustrating or confounding at times. Below are listed some pages that offer tools and can point and help correcting those mistakes.

Destruction Warlock in Patch 10.0.7 received some indirect buffs as a result of class tree update, on top of a flat 3% buff to the spec.

While perhaps said buff was as a result of Vault of the Incarnates poor spec performance (generally related to encounter design being somewhat unfavourable), it is surprising to see the already dominant warlock spec receiving yet another global buff that solidify its performance as top single target, 2 targets and AoE. Until the player is required to move.