Destruction Warlock DPS Mythic+ Tips — Dragonflight 10.2.5

Last updated on Jan 15, 2024 at 15:00 by Motoko 55 comments
General Information

In this guide, you will find tips and advice to tackle Mythic+ dungeons with your Destruction Warlock in World of Warcraft — Dragonflight 10.2.5.

1.

Mythic+ Introduction for Destruction Warlock

Mythic+ has become a large part of the World of Warcraft endgame, but the sheer amount of different variables has left many players feeling overwhelmed. The group composition, weekly affixes, the item level of the group, the keystone level, and the experience and comfort level of the group are just several of the factors that will influence how you approach each dungeon. The purpose of this page is to prepare you for the key differences that set Mythic+, apart from the typical World of Warcraft endgame experience, including talents and rotational anomalies that may not be obvious at first glance.

If you are unfamiliar with Mythic+ and its associated general mechanics, you can read more about it on our Dragonflight Mythic+ Season 3 page below.

Destruction Warlocks offer some of the highest on-demand bursts and 2 target cleave potential across all DPS, while having strong and short enough cooldowns that can be used frequently on each pull. The spec still retains all the class baseline toolkits comprised Healthstones, Soulstones, skip-enabling Demonic Gateway Icon Demonic Gateway, AoE crowd control abilities such as Shadowfury Icon Shadowfury and Howl of Terror Icon Howl of Terror, and uncapped AoE spells.

1.1.

Destruction Warlock Mythic+ Rotation

While both single- and multi-target rotations do not differ substantially from the standard priority outlined in Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities page there are few points worth noting:

  • While Rain of Fire Icon Rain of Fire is generally strong in terms of numbers, targets moving out of the radius due to kiting or repositioning can affect the overall efficacy of the spell. In situations where it would be hard to leverage heavy Rain of Fire Icon Rain of Fire usage, consider cleaving with Havoc Icon Havoc Chaos Bolt Icon Chaos Bolts instead.
  • Destruction's toolkit is exceptional at bursting targets and funneling priority damage due to the insane shard generation multiple Immolate Icon Immolates can provide, so keep that in mind during weeks when it is more important to focus on key targets over even AoE.
1.2.

Inferno playstyle

Inferno Icon Inferno talent is not tied to cooldowns, so the opener is not set in stone and does not differ from the multi-target priority section in the Rotation page.

That said the playstyle of Inferno Icon Inferno is somewhat different as it requires to aggressively spend shards on Rain of Fire Icon Rain of Fire, maintaining Immolate Icon Immolate on targets to ensure a continuous shard income, while using liberally Havoc Icon Havoc and Conflagrate Icon Conflagrate to generate 1 shard per cast.

In this build, Rain of Fire Icon Rain of Fire is the centerpiece and should be used when there are at least 3 targets, utilizing Havoc Icon Havoc to duplicate shard generating spells such as Immolate Icon Immolate, Conflagrate Icon Conflagrate and Incinerate Icon Incinerate.

1.3.

Tier set and Dimensional Rift usage

Being the theme of this season tier set bonuses, Dimensional Rift Icon Dimensional Rift sees play in the vast majority of situations; however, its usage differs depending on the target count.

In dungeons, for the most part, it is optimal to avoid capping Dimensional Rift Icon Dimensional Rift charges at all, making particular attention to start Havoc Icon Havoc phases with no charges. Otherwise, it can be considered a slightly better Incinerate Icon Incinerate, which can also be cast on the move.

1.4.

Destruction Warlock Utility

While damage is the bigger reason to bring a Destruction Warlock, the class itself offers a noticeable amount of crowd control and various supporting abilities:

  • Recently reintroduced, the Curses can offer some advantage against specific dangerous enemies: Curse of Tongues Icon Curse of Tongues can reduce the amount of interrupts required by the group, while Curse of Weakness Icon Curse of Weakness alleviates the incoming damage on the tank from auto attacks. Last but not least, Curse of Exhaustion Icon Curse of Exhaustion can be used to slow targets in situations where kiting is required. While these effects can be noticeable, it is better to use curses on a few key targets, as the time spent to apply these effects is time not spent doing damage.
  • Healthstone Icon Healthstones have a 1-minute cooldown and heal for 25% of max health, allowing for an emergency heal for each player.
  • Soulstone Icon Soulstones offer a combat resurrection that can be used both reactively and preemptively in the case of a death run.
  • Demonic Gateway Icon Demonic Gateway offers the unique ability to skip certain parts of the map, depending on the dungeon in question, avoiding specific pulls.
  • Shadowfury Icon Shadowfury helps alleviating pressure on the tank during big pulls as it is a 3-second AoE stun.
  • Fear Icon Fear and Banish Icon Banish are both spammable crowd control abilities that can be used to interrupt a cast in a pinch or to temporarily remove a target from combat.
2.

Mythic+ Talents for Destruction Warlock

Below are the recommended talents for Mythic+. There is a certain degree of flexibility when progressing down the path, to accommodate for preferences or to meet specific requirements, as discussed further.

3.

Dungeon Builds for Destruction Warlock

Fortified Week Talents Fortified Week Inferno Talents Tyrannical Week Talents Channel Demonfire Variant
4.

Fortified Week talents for Destruction Warlock

To import the build directly ingame, click on the export button in the top-right of the calculator

Default build for dungeons, Crashing Chaos Icon Crashing Chaos offers more burst and usually higher output especially in the context of not casting that many Incinerate Icon Incinerate in a run.

4.

Fortified Week Inferno talents for Destruction Warlock

Consider this alternative only in situations where the majority of the pulls will last about a minute or longer, otherwise, the default Cataclysm alternative will offer overall better output.

To import the build directly ingame, click on the export button in the top-right of the calculator

4.

Tyrannical Week talents for Destruction Warlock

To import the build directly ingame, click on the export button in the top-right of the calculator

4.

Channel Demonfire Variant for Destruction Warlock

A variation of the mainstream build that uses Channel Demonfire Icon Channel Demonfire to augment the cleave damage and offer permanent Immolate Icon Immolate uptime thanks to Raging Demonfire Icon Raging Demonfire extension.

To import the build directly ingame, click on the export button in the top-right of the calculator

3.1.

Class talent tree fundamental nodes

Generally, all output nodes are hard to give up, but fortunately, there are enough point to offer the choice of whichever utility options to pick instead.

  • Demonic Inspiration Icon Demonic Inspiration;
  • Wrathful Minion Icon Wrathful Minion;
  • Socrethar's Guile Icon Socrethar's Guile;
  • Sargerei Technique Icon Sargerei Technique;
  • Soul Conduit Icon Soul Conduit;
  • Grimoire of Synergy Icon Grimoire of Synergy;
  • Summon Soulkeeper Icon Summon Soulkeeper or Inquisitor's Gaze Icon Inquisitor's Gaze.

Some other utility nodes are also too good to pass up, especially in the context of dungeons:

  • Fel Domination Icon Fel Domination;
  • Mortal Coil Icon Mortal Coil;
  • Dark Pact Icon Dark Pact especially on 45s cooldown;
  • Demonic Gateway Icon Demonic Gateway to skip areas of the dungeon;
  • Shadowfury Icon Shadowfury as one of the few AoE stuns.
3.2.

Destruction Warlock talent tree fundamental nodes

Due to a lot of AoE pulls throughout a dungeon run, leaning towards cleave and AoE is generally the safer choice, even in the case of a Tyrannical Week.

  • Havoc Icon Havoc is extremely valuable whenever there are multiple targets, as it can be used to generate shards faster or to duplicate your spenders, which is further encouraged with Pandemonium Icon Pandemonium;
  • In higher keys, Inferno Icon Inferno is the better choice for sustained damage output during pulls with more than 3 targets;
  • Avatar of Destruction Icon Avatar of Destruction offers very frequent mini cooldown windows just by playing the spec.
  • Summon Infernal Icon Summon Infernal should be used freely as the main appeal is the shard generation over a 30-second period.
3.3.

Destruction Warlock talent tree options

  • For low keys Cataclysm Icon Cataclysm offers strong AoE burst and multiple Immolate Icon Immolate applications, ensuring a steady flow of Soul Shards;
  • Havoc Icon Havoc can be swapped out for Mayhem Icon Mayhem while also, reallocating the point from Backlash Icon Backlash into Rolling Havoc Icon Rolling Havoc to yield higher uptime on the latter.
  • For even more AoE damage at the expense of single target, swap from Roaring Blaze Icon Roaring Blaze to Improved Conflagrate Icon Improved Conflagrate.
4.

Stat Priority for Destruction Warlock

  1. Intellect;
  2. Haste;
  3. Mastery ≅ Critical Strike;
  4. Versatility.

Simming item upgrades remains the preferrable approach instead of relying on stats blindly.

5.

Pet Choice for Destruction Warlock

The Felhunter is typically the best choice, as it grants you an interrupt, which is a huge advantage in Mythic+; consider swapping to Imp if you need additional dispel.

6.

Trinket Considerations for Destruction Warlock in Mythic+

When choosing your trinkets, we recommend simulating yourself on Raidbots using the Patchwerk option for raids and single-target, and Patchwerk with 4-5 targets or Hectic Add Cleave for an educated guess on multi-target performance in Dungeons. Usually, trinkets that proc stats are more versatile and better performers than single-target spell damage procs unless they are overtuned.

You can also get a quick overview of good Mythic+ Trinkets on our Gearing page, specifically the Simulation chart for multi-target scenarios.

7.

Changelog

  • 15 Jan. 2024: Updated Talents for Patch 10.2.5.
  • 03 Jan. 2024: Updated Talents and Stats.
  • 06 Nov. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.2 and Season 3.
  • 04 Sep. 2023: Restructured Talent section.
  • 10 Jul. 2023: Talents updated for Patch 10.1.5.
  • 01 May 2023: Talents updated for Patch 10.1.
  • 20 Mar. 2023: Talents updated for Patch 10.0.7.
  • 24 Jan. 2023: Added an Inferno section, and updated the talent recommendation.
  • 11 Dec. 2022: Updated recommended build.
  • 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
  • 25 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
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