Destruction Warlock DPS Spec, Builds, and Talents — Dragonflight 10.2
On this page, you will find out the best talents for each tier for your Destruction Warlock in World of Warcraft — Dragonflight 10.2. We also have default talent lists for various types of content, such as raiding or Mythic+. If you play with Warmode on, we have your PvP talents covered as well.
If you were looking for WotLK Classic content, please refer to our WotLK Classic Destruction Warlock talents.
Talent Cheat Sheets for Destruction Warlock
With the introduction of the new talents system and the ability to freely change points and share/import builds free of consumables costs while out of combat, it is highly advised to adapt the build based on the type of situation at hand.
Best Talents for Destruction Warlock
Single-Target Talents for Destruction Warlock
To import the build directly ingame, click on the export button in the top-right of the calculator
Best AoE Talents for Destruction Warlock
To import the build directly ingame, click on the export button in the top-right of the calculator
Talent Explanations for Destruction Warlocks
Tier 1 (Rows 1-4) Class Talents For Destruction Warlock
Talents for all situations
Talent | Reason for taking |
---|---|
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Passive damage mitigation |
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Passive damage mitigation |
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Greatly increases Warlock mobility |
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Offers instant pet swapping or resummon in case of an untimely death. |
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A percentage-based heal on a very short cooldown, which makes potions trivial in comparison. |
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Gives access to strong utility Curses while opening the path
for ![]() |
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DPS increase |
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DPS increase |
Optional / flexible talents
Talent | Reason for taking |
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Substantially reduces ![]() |
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Enable to empower Curses. |
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Useful to control Demons or Aberrations if the situation arises. |
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Max HP increase which works well with percentage-based mitigations
such as ![]() ![]() |
Tier 2 (Rows 5-7) Class Talents For Destruction Warlock
Talents for all situations
Talent | Reason for taking |
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Further increase the healing from Healthstones. |
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The unique party/raid-wide movement tool exclusive to Warlocks can be used to quickly relocate, move between locations at different heights, and skip otherwise mandatory pathways. |
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Powerful defensive cooldown that increases the Warlock's effective health pool. |
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Increases the value of ![]() |
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DPS increase. |
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DPS increase. |
Optional / flexible talents
Talent | Reason for taking |
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Further reduces the cooldown of ![]() ![]() |
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AoE stun for when the situation requires it |
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Increases the frequency of use of ![]() |
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In cases where the silence/interrupt immunity is valuable. |
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When additional sustain is needed. |
Tier 3 (Rows 8-10) Class Talents For Destruction Warlock
In this section, there are DPS increase talents worth prioritizing
Talents for all situations
Talent | Reason for taking |
---|---|
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DPS increase |
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DPS increase |
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Both are DPS increases; the former is better suited for AoE situations and can add a bit more burst, while the latter is the safe single-target choice. |
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Extremely strong passive damage mitigation tool. |
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A very strong utility that can massively boost either your survivability or your mobility, depending on what spell is used. |
Optional / flexible talents
Talent | Reason for taking |
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Increases the potency of ![]() |
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Helps mitigate the health loss from ![]() |
Destruction Warlock Talents
The following section will go through Destruction Warlock Talents with a focus on PvE scenarios.
Tier 1 (Rows 1-4) Destruction Warlock Talents
The first section is where you choose the general direction of the build, if AoE is needed or not, and to what extent.
Talents for all situations
Talent | Reason for taking |
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Main single-target and cleave Soul Shard spender, also mandatory to progress down the path. |
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One of the few movement tools in Destruction kit, while also being instrumental to the following talent. |
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Passive DPS increase. |
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Passive that can offset the otherwise extremely long and disruptive
casts of ![]() ![]() |
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Signature spell for Destruction that works in any multitarget situation, from duplicating spenders to accelerating shard generation. |
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Cooldown reduction on ![]() ![]() |
Optional / flexible talents
Talent | Reason for taking |
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Provides a damage increase in single and cleave
(through ![]() |
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Increases the effectiveness of ![]() |
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This is your dedicated ground-targeted AoE spender. |
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Good AoE burst and ![]() ![]() |
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Highest sustained AoE output node by a long margin, better used in high Mythic+ keys or raid encounters with multiple targets alive for a long period of time. |
Tier 2 (Rows 5-7) Destruction Warlock Talents
Talents for all situations
Talent | Reason for taking |
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A mediocre damage increase, more useful in PvP where Warlock actually gets hit by melee. Generally used to reach nodes below. |
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Free Haste that can trigger in any scenario as long as there is at least a target above 80% health makes this talent a safe pick. |
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Noticeable damage increase for the only Destruction DoT. |
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Passive damage increase. |
Optional / flexible talents
Talent | Reason for taking |
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Execute talent which shines when sniping dying targets, thanks to
charge and shard refund mechanic and the synergy
with ![]() ![]() |
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A damage amplification tied to ![]() |
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Increases the usability of ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Important debuff on target applied by ![]() |
Tier 3 (Rows 8-10) Destruction Warlock Talents
Talents for all situations
Talent | Reason for taking |
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Destruction's strongest cooldown, providing damage and shard generation passively, and required to sustain the spender's high Shard cost during bursts. |
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Further increases Destruction's burst potential during cooldowns
by amplifying ![]() ![]() |
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Passive damage increase on Destruction spenders. |
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Focal talent of tier set bonuses, offering additional mobility while providing the best damage in any scenario. |
Optional / flexible talents
Talent | Reason for taking |
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Both augment Infernal, with the former increasing the activations while the latter adds burst damage. |
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Provides a reliable shard generation increase
from ![]() |
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Passive damage increase. Generally, a 1-point investment for AoE. |
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Free spenders help Destruction's Soul Shard costs. |
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Increases the frequency of ![]() |
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Provides a boost to ![]() |
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Another source of passive Soul Shard income. |
Raiding
Do note that the builds suggested above do not account for specific fights in the current raid tier; that said, we have a dedicated page that covers boss-by-boss talent recommendations, which you can find linked below.
Mythic+
For specific Mythic+ advice, which typically involves having a set-up that can perform both in single-target and AoE situations, and this set-up can also be influenced by affixes and other things like party composition and pull layout. Check out our dedicated M+ page below.
How To Use Destruction Warlock Talents
Since several talent choices have an effect on your gameplay, we recommend reading our rotation page linked below to find out how to adapt your playstyle and priority based on your selected talents.
Picking Warlock Class Talents
Other than a handful of DPS increase nodes, the path progression is generally flexible and allows to opt in or out of specific utilities that may not be relevant in a specific situation. The following sections will highlight the key talents while also making suggestions for what to pick to progress down the tree.
For detailed information about each individual talent, follow the link to the Spell Summary page:
PvP Talents (War Mode)
Under our Talents section, there is the option to enter "War Mode." Enabling War Mode provides the following benefits:
- PvP talents enabled in the outdoor world;
- 10% increase in World Quest rewards at maximum level;
- 10% more experience gained while leveling;
- Earn Conquest Points which can reward gear every week.
With the benefits of enabling War Mode for leveling and PvE content, it is recommended you enable the feature. In most situations, this will allow for the maximum returns despite the risks. You will make yourself available for open-world PvP and the possibility to be "ganked" while leveling or doing World Quests exists.
Destruction Warlock War Mode Talents
In this section, we will rank the PvP talents best for leveling and doing solo / small group PvE content. Below is a ranking of both General PvP Talents and Destruction Warlock-specific PvE talents.
Warlock generic PvP Talents
Essence Drain stacks a damage reduction effect on enemies that are damaged by your
Drain Life. You can reduce their damage by up to 25%, which is a large increase in your ability to survive and sustain.
Bonds of Fel allows to burst targets by dragging them away from the marked location.
Bane of Fragility reduces the target's maximum health by up to 10% by 15 seconds, which is very desirable when setting up bursts.
Casting Circle is a 1-minute cooldown ability that creates an area where you are immune to silence and interrupt for 8 seconds. Removes silence/interrupt immunity from
Unending Resolve.
Gateway Mastery increases your gateway's range by 20 yards and reduces the duration of the debuff placed on players using it by 15 seconds, making it a good choice when increased mobility is needed.
Nether Ward summons a shield lasting 3 seconds and reflecting back all harmful spells targeted at you.
Call Observer is only relevant when dealing with a lot of casting mobs.
Precognition and
Shadow Rift are mostly irrelevant in the context of leveling.
Destruction Warlock PvP Talents
Cremation causes
Conflagrate to deal up to an additional 3% of the target's maximum health in Fire damage if the target is afflicted by
Immolate. This is a really nice boost to your damage and can be taken advantage of using
Havoc.
Fel Fissure causes
Chaos Bolt to create a 5 yard Felfire pool under the target, reducing movement speed by 50% and reducing healing received on all enemies by 25%. This talent seems great in all situations, but particularly when you are dealing with multiple enemies at once.
Bane of Havoc causes
Havoc to become a ground-targeted spell. Everything inside will be treated as it was debuffed by
Havoc.
Changelog
- 06 Nov. 2023: Talents updated for Patch 10.2.
- 04 Sep. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.1.7
- 10 Jul. 2023: Updated talents for Patch 10.1.5.
- 01 May 2023: Updated talents for Patch 10.1.
- 20 Mar. 2023: Updated talents for Patch 10.0.7.
- 24 Jan. 2023: Updated talent selection for single target and 2 targets for Patch 10.0.5.
- 24 Dec. 2022: Updated talent selection for single target.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 25 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
More Warlock Guides
Guides from Other Classes
This guide has been written by Motoko, Warlock main since The Burning Crusade, co-admin in the Warlock Discord, and theorycrafter and contributor for LockOneStopShop.
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