Destruction Warlock DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — The War Within (11.1.5)

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. Maintain Immolate at all times.
2. Maintain Wither at all times.
3. Cast Chaos Bolt if you are about to cap Soul Shards.
4. Cast Soul Fire during Roaring Blaze debuff on the target, when available, if below 4 shards
5. Cast Soul Fire when available if below 4 shards.
6. Cast Shadowburn when at 2 charges, and if movement is a necessity.
7. Cast Chaos Bolt if you have more than 4 Soul Shards and Mother of Chaos triggered Infernal Bolt.
8. Cast Cataclysm when available.
9. Cast Channel Demonfire during Roaring Blaze debuff on the target whenever available.
10. Cast Channel Demonfire whenever available.
11. Cast Conflagrate if you have 2 charges, possibly to hasten a long cast such as Chaos Bolt.
12. Cast Chaos Bolt to keep the Eradication debuff applied.
13. Cast Dimensional Rift at 3 charges to avoid overcapping.
14. Cast Conflagrate to generate Soul Shards.
15. Cast Incinerate to generate Soul Shards.

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, thanks to the additional resources generated.

1. Maintain Immolate on the main target.
2. Maintain Wither on as many targets as possible.
3. Cast Malevolence with as many targets affected by Wither as possible.
4. Apply Immolate on any secondary target that will last a minimum of 10 seconds.
5. Cast Soul Fire on cooldown.
6. Cast Cataclysm on cooldown unless it can be delayed a few seconds to hit additional targets.
7. Cast Shadowburn during Malevolence.
8. Cast Rain of Fire if there are 5+ targets with Havoc up, or 3+ if on cooldown.
9. Cast Chaos Bolt if you have 5 Soul Shards.
10. Make sure to be at 2 or less Soul Shards before spending Infernal Bolt.
11. Cast Cataclysm.
12. Apply Havoc if a secondary target is present.
13. Cast Shadowburn if the target will die within 5 seconds.
14. Cast Channel Demonfire when available.
15. Cast Chaos Bolt to spend Soul Shards.
16. Cast Conflagrate to generate Soul Shards and Backdraft stacks.
17. Cast Dimensional Rift at 3 charges to avoid overcapping.
18. Cast Incinerate to generate Soul Shards.

1. Pre-cast Incinerate.
2. Pre-cast Soul Fire.
3. Pre-cast Soul Fire.
4. Pre-cast Immolate.
5. Pre-cast Wither.
6. Pre-cast Cataclysm.
7. Cast Dimensional Rift.
8. Cast Summon Infernal.
9. Use your trinkets and racials.
10. cast Malevolence.
11. Cast Conflagrate.
12. Cast Chaos Bolt.
13. Cast Shadowburn.
14. Cast Conflagrate.
15. Cast Cataclysm.
16. Cast Chaos Bolt.
17. Cast Channel Demonfire.

Destruction's main cooldown, Summon Infernal, offers a rather straightforwards use. The Infernal stuns and damage enemies in the area at the time of summoning. For the whole duration it will deal both melee and pulsing AoE damage, as well as passively generating Shards. It is generally best used on cooldown, due to a relatively high uptime, especially if running Diabolist with Abyssal Dominion. Infernal may not look particularly strong on its own, especially in single target, but the ability to empower spenders with Crashing Chaos or shard generation with Rain of Chaos make the cooldown deceptively strong.

In its current iteration and tuning Cataclysm should be seen as a mean to apply the maximum amount of Immolate on the target area in a single cast, rather than a tool for AoE burst. It pairs especially well with Channel Demonfire and together aid substantially Wither management in multitarget for Hellcaller.

While it should be used more or less on cooldown in multitarget, (and potentially delayed by few seconds if able to hit a higher number of targets), in single target its relatively weaker spell power coefficient makes it a spell to use to seldom refresh Immolate or Wither when they are about to expire.

Pandemic is a hidden mechanic that allows you to refresh certain timed effects early without penalty. You can refresh your DoT effects when they have less than 30% of their maximum duration. This will add the new DoT's maximum duration with the remaining duration of the current DoT.

In the case of Immolate the baseline value for a safe refresh is 5.4 seconds, and 6.3 seconds when talenting Scalding Flames.

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.

It is best to use Havoc to duplicate spells that are limited by Soul Shards is 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's timers. If you know that an ad 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. 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.

Note that Mayhem applies the Havoc effect at a reduced duration (6 seconds currently).

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.

• Dimensional Rift generates 3 Soul Shard Fragments on cast.
• Conflagrate generates 5 Soul Shard Fragments on cast.
• Immolate generates 1 Soul Shard Fragment on normal ticks and has a 50% chance for an additional 1 Soul Shard Fragment on critical ticks.
• Soul Fire generates 10 Soul Shard Fragments on cast.
• Shadowburn (if talented) returns its Soul Shard cost if the target dies within 5 seconds.
• Incinerate generates 2 Soul Shard Fragments on normal casts and an additional 1 Soul Shard Fragment on critical hits.
• Fire and Brimstone generates 1 Soul Shard Fragment on critical hits only when talenting Diabolic Embers.

Soul Shards will mostly be consumed with the following abilities.

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

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 → Conflagrate → 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 will noticeably increase your Immolate damage as well as increase 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.

After 9.2 changes, Sayaad (Succubus or Incubus) has a clear advantage in terms of single target damage assuming no frequent distant target swap. However, pet choice is often dictated by the unique utility provided by each one: for defensive dispel, and if there are frequent swaps between distant targets, Imp will provide the highest uptime. Use Felhunter whenever an interrupt or a purge effect is required. Voidwalker can offer some additional AoE is due to its torment ability, but its biggest utility comes from a taunt. Succubus offers additional crowd control and permanent slow on a single target, which may be useful under certain situations.

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 in 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 if targets are frequently dying, 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.

Soulburn used in conjunction with Demonic Gateway offers a quick way to cover large distances and can be used in a rush when the need to reposition is immediate.

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 of 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 and 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.