Destruction Warlock DPS Mythic+ Tips — The War Within (Season 1)

Mythic+ has become a large part of the World of Warcraft endgame, but the The sheer number 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.

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, AoE crowd control abilities such as Shadowfury and Howl of Terror, and uncapped AoE spells.

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 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 usage, consider cleaving with Havoc Chaos Bolts instead.
• Destruction's toolkit is exceptional at bursting targets and funneling priority damage due to the insane shard generation multiple Immolates can provide, so keep that in mind during weeks when it is more important to focus on key targets over even AoE.

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 can reduce the number of interrupts required by the group, while Curse of Weakness alleviates the incoming damage on the tank from auto attacks. Last but not least, 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.
• Healthstones have a 1-minute cooldown and heal for 25% of max health, allowing for an emergency heal for each player.
• Soulstones offer a combat resurrection that can be used both reactively and preemptively in the case of a death run.
• Demonic Gateway offers the unique ability to skip certain parts of the map, depending on the dungeon in question, avoiding specific pulls.
• Shadowfury helps alleviate pressure on the tank during big pulls as it is a 3-second AoE stun.
• Fear and 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.

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.

• Demonic Circle, Shadowfury, Banish and Amplify Curse should be considered flex slots in order to accommodate individual dungeon or affix mechanics;
• Ichor of Devils can be swapped with Frequent Donor if higher uptime on Dark Pact is desirable;
• Similarly, Dark Accord can be considered instead of Strength of Will
• Howl of Terror is another AoE crowd control that can be considered but is capped at 5 targets thus Mortal Coil is generally more beneficial

First setup:

• Inferno can be swapped to Cataclysm when doing most pulls above 8 targets;
• Shadowburn can be swapped with Pyrogenics;
• Improved Chaos Bolt can be swapped for either Chaos Incarnate or Dimension Ripper, but both would be slightly worse numerically.

Second setup:

• Cataclysm can be swapped for Inferno when pulling for the most part, 5 or fewer targets at a time;
• Havoc can be swapped for Mayhem to try and duplicate a higher amount of Shadowburns at the expense of less agency;
• Fiendish Cruelty helps mostly in single target during bosses and so that can also be swapped around for Pyrogenics, or Improved Chaos Bolt.

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.

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.