Destruction Warlock DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — Battle for Azeroth (BfA) 8.1.5

1. Ability Priority List for Destruction Warlock

The Destruction specialization revolves primarily around generating Soul Shards via your filler spells before unleashing them for a large burst of damage. This specialization does not follow a strict and consistent rotation, rather, the emphasis is on leveraging opportunities as they arise.

1.1. Single Target Priority for Destruction Warlock

1. Maintain Immolate at all times.
2. Cast Chaos Bolt if you have 5 Soul Shards.
3. Cast Cataclysm when available.
4. Cast Channel Demonfire whenever available (if talented).
5. Cast Soul Fire (if talented).
6. Cast Conflagrate if you have 2 charges.
7. Cast Chaos Bolt to keep the Eradication debuff applied.
8. Cast Conflagrate to generate Soul Shards.
9. Cast Incinerate to generate Soul Shards.

1.2. Cooldown Usage for Destruction Warlock

Destruction's main cooldown, Summon Infernal, is relatively simple. The Infernal does AoE damage, and also deals damage and stuns when it impacts from the initial summon. Infernal will often be used on cooldown, however, if you can delay it for a little while in order to maximize cleave damage it can be a net gain.

If you are playing with Dark Soul: Instability, you should aim to use it on cooldown. In preparation for use, you should ensure your Immolate is freshly refreshed and you have a healthy supply of Soul Shards; 4+ is ideal. Your aim will be to unleash as many Chaos Bolts as possible during this time, and therefore, Shard generation is also important. Having Conflagrate charges ready to quickly supplement the Soul Shards consumed is also a big advantage.

When you are playing with Grimoire of Supremacy and Dark Soul: Instability, it is optimal to combine these cooldowns whenever possible. The length of the encounter at hand is the main determining factor for whether or not you should delay Dark Soul.

• If the encounter is ~190 seconds or shorter, use Dark Soul on cooldown.
• If the encounter is 190-250 seconds long, delay Dark Soul for your second Infernal use.
• If the encounter is 250-380 seconds long, delay Infernal for your third Dark Soul use.

The main objective is to maximize the number of uses for both cooldowns. The simple rule of thumb is that if using either cooldown immediately will result in a full extra usage during the fight, you should use the ability immediately.

1.3. Opening Sequence for Destruction Warlock

1. Use Battle Potion of Intellect.
2. Pre-cast Incinerate*.
3. Pre-cast Immolate.
4. Cast Summon Infernal.
5. Use your trinkets and racials.
6. Cast Dark Soul: Instability.
7. Cast Conflagrate.
8. Cast Conflagrate.
9. Cast Chaos Bolt.
10. Cast Channel Demonfire.
11. Cast Chaos Bolt.
12. Cast Conflagrate.
13. Cast Chaos Bolt.

*If you are talented into Cataclysm, you should pre-cast Incinerate into Cataclysm.

1.4. Multiple Target Priority for Destruction Warlock

Destruction can thrive in environments with steady cleave, as we do it efficiently. In many cases, the presence of secondary targets actually enhances our single target output considerably.

1. Maintain Immolate on the main target.
2. Cast Rain of Fire if there are 5+ targets with Havoc up, or 3+ if on cooldown.
3. Cast Chaos Bolt if you have 5 Soul Shards.
4. Cast Cataclysm (if talented).
5. Apply Havoc if a secondary target is present.
6. Cast Shadowburn (if talented) if the target will die within 5 seconds.
7. Cast Channel Demonfire when available.
8. Cast Chaos Bolt to spend Soul Shards.
9. Cast Conflagrate to generate Soul Shards and Backdraft stacks.
10. Cast Shadowburn to generate Soul Shards.
11. Cast Incinerate to generate Soul Shards.

2. Important Notes for Destruction Warlock

There are several important nuances that are not common knowledge.

2.1. Soul Shard Generation and Consumption

You start every fight with 3 Soul Shards/30 Soul Shard Fragments. During combat, Soul Shards are generated through the use of your core abilities.

• Conflagrate generates 5 Soul Shard Fragments on cast.
• Immolate generates 1 Soul Shard Fragment on normal ticks, and 50% chance for an additional 1 Soul Shard Fragment on critical ticks.
• Shadowburn (if talented) generates 3 Soul Shard Fragments on cast.
• Incinerate generates 2 Soul Shard Fragments on normal casts, and an additional 1 Soul Shard Fragment on criticals.
• Fire and Brimstone generates 1 Soul Shard Fragment per target hit.

Soul Shards will mostly be consumed with the following abilities.

• Chaos Bolt consumes 2 Soul Shards/20 Soul Shard Fragments.
• Rain of Fire consumes 3 Soul Shards/30 Soul Shard Fragments.
• Summon Imp, Summon Voidwalker, Summon Succubus, and Summon Felhunter consume 1 Soul Shard/10 Soul Shard Fragments per cast.

2.2. Chaos Bolt

Chaos Bolt costs 2 Soul Shards/20 Soul Shard Fragments to cast. Since we can only have a maximum of 5 Soul Shards/50 Fragments, this means that the maximum number of Chaos Bolts we will be able to reliably cast in a short window of time is Chaos Bolt → Chaos Bolt → Conflagrate → Chaos Bolt. For these reasons, casting Chaos Bolt during beneficial procs is less of a priority now, as we cannot fit anywhere near the same amount of casts into a small window of time.

Chaos Bolt should now primarily be used to maintain as high an uptime as possible on the Eradication debuff (if talented). This is will noticeably increase your Immolate damage as well as increasing the damage of your next Chaos Bolt. You should still look out for good windows to cast increased numbers of Chaos Bolts. This is your best spell for quickly bursting down high priority targets.

The Felhunter is the best choice in terms of single target damage and if you need interrupt or purge, consider swapping to Imp if you need a dispel.

2.3. Havoc Usage

Havoc is one of your most important spells. Havoc copies any of your direct spells, however, and it does affect the Soul Shard generation of your Soul Shard generating abilities (i.e. you generate double Soul Shards). The Soul Shard consuming abilities still cost the same amount, however, and only 60% of the total damage done will be copied.

In multi-target scenarios this should be used on cooldown, without exception. Now that Havoc copies all spells for a 10-second window without limit, it is a significantly more potent tool for cleaving that it ever was before.

It is best to use Havoc to duplicate spells that are limited by Soul Shards, due to the efficiency of expenditure. If possible, try to lead into your Havocs with several Soul Shards at the ready. Follow up by dumping Chaos Bolt casts to debuff each target with Eradication (if talented) and double your Shard efficiency.

Havoc range is 60 yards after you apply the debuff on a target and is unaffected by line of sight requirements. Over time you will develop the knowledge and instinct to take full advantage of the ability. A good way to go about building this experience is by paying close attention to your boss timers. If you know that an add will be spawning in the next 10 seconds, you should hold on to your Soul Shards and Conflagrate charges for Havoc. If you have 4 Soul Shards ready, you can immediately cast Havoc as soon as the add spawns. Cast Immolate, then Conflagrate, dump 2 Chaos Bolts, Conflagrate again to generate a Soul Shard. This is very much a 'feel' ability! When in doubt, however, use Havoc on cooldown when a second target is present.

Remember to cast Havoc on the secondary target, since it will only duplicate single target spells at 60% of their original value.

2.4. Movement Management

While it is difficult to describe the best ways to position and move during a dungeon or raid encounter, it is essential to your success as a Destruction Warlock. Demonic Gateway can be highly effective on many encounters, and is under-appreciated by many players and raid groups. Think of Demonic Gateway as a raid cooldown that can instantly teleport your entire raid group 40 yards, and the potential this ability holds quickly becomes clear. Ask your group if they want Demonic Gateway anywhere specific; if not used for your strategy, use it instead as a personal cooldown.

Conflagrate can be used strategically to cover movement, as can Havoc. Shadowburn can also be a good choice on fights with high amounts of movement, as you gain 2 charges of a new instant cast ability for you to leverage. You can mitigate the need to move by positioning in locations central to fight movement. For instance, if a boss is being kited in a circle, you should stay on the inside of the kite path to ensure minimal movement. You should also determine how your Demonic Circle can make a fight easier for you. There are many boss mechanics that can be trivialized with a clever portal, which can free you up to deal a lot more damage.

2.4.1. Quiet Movement

Many players will unconsciously move during fights, despite it being unnecessary. For example, sometimes the boss or adds will be moved by the tank a couple yards, and though you are still in range to cast, you subconsciously mirror that movement, costing you global cooldowns. Consciously work to "quiet" your movement, and reduce unnecessary movement to a minimum. The best way to see this in action is to take a video of your raid, then watch yourself play. Most players will be surprised by the amount of wasted movement they commit. When you are forced to move, make your path as direct and decisive as possible.

3. Changelog