Destruction Warlock DPS Spec, Builds, and Talents — The War Within Pre-Patch

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.

3.

Talent Explanations for Destruction Warlocks

3.1.

Tier 1 (Rows 1-4) Class Talents For Destruction Warlock

3.1.1.

Talents for all situations

Talent	Reason for taking
Demon Skin	Passive damage mitigation
Fel Armor	Passive damage mitigation
Burning Rush	Greatly increases Warlock mobility
Fel Domination	Offers instant pet swapping or resummon in case of an untimely death.
Mortal Coil	A percentage-based heal on a very short cooldown, which makes potions trivial in comparison.
Curses of Enfeeblement	Gives access to strong utility Curses while opening the path for Demonic Embrace.
Demonic Inspiration	DPS increase
Wrathful Minion	DPS increase

3.1.2.

Optional / flexible talents

Talent	Reason for taking
Fiendish Stride	Substantially reduces Burning Rush health cost while also increasing the max speed.
Amplify Curse	Enable to empower Curses.
Banish	Useful to control Demons or Aberrations if the situation arises.
Demonic Fortitude	Max HP increase, which works well with percentage-based mitigations such as Soul Leech and Dark Pact.

3.2.

Tier 2 (Rows 5-7) Class Talents For Destruction Warlock

3.2.1.

Talents for all situations

Talent	Reason for taking
Sweet Souls	Further increase the healing from Healthstones.
Demonic Gateway	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.
Dark Pact	Powerful defensive cooldown that increases the Warlock's effective health pool.
Strength of Will	Increases the value of Unending Resolve to a more relevant 35%.
Socrethar's Guile	DPS increase.
Sargerei Technique	DPS increase.

3.2.2.

Optional / flexible talents

Talent	Reason for taking
Frequent Donor	Further reduces the cooldown of Dark Pact to match Mortal Coil.
Shadowfury	AoE stun for when the situation requires it
Dark Fury	Increases the frequency of use of Shadowfury.
Dark Accord instead of Strength of Will	In cases where the silence/interrupt immunity is valuable.
Lifeblood	When additional sustain is needed.

3.3.

Tier 3 (Rows 8-10) Class Talents For Destruction Warlock

In this section, there are DPS increase talents worth prioritizing

3.3.1.

Talents for all situations

Talent	Reason for taking
Demonic Tactics	Passive Critical Strike chance.
Soul Conduit	DPS increase
Soul Link	Extremely strong passive damage mitigation tool.
Soulburn	A powerful utility that can massively boost either the survivability or the mobility of the Warlock, depending on what spell is used.

3.3.2.

Optional / flexible talents

Talent	Reason for taking
Swift Artifice	Mostly used for pathing purposes.
Teachings of the Black Harvest	Niche use for when the bonus effects on pet abilities might be relevant.
Fel Synergy	Helps mitigate the health loss from Soul Link, especially on pets.
Resolute Barrier	Cooldown reduction for Unending Resolve.
Pact of Gluttony	Allows Healthstones to be used as a personal heal with multiple uses at 1 minute cooldown.

4.

Destruction Warlock Talents

The following section will go through Destruction Warlock Talents with a focus on PvE scenarios.

4.1.

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.

4.1.1.

Talents for all situations

Talent	Reason for taking
Conflagrate	One of the few movement tools in the Destruction kit, while also being instrumental to the following talents.
Backdraft	Passive that can offset the otherwise extremely long and disruptive casts of Chaos Bolt and Soul Fire.
Rain of Fire	This is your dedicated ground-targeted AoE spender. Required to progress down the tree.
Roaring Blaze	Provides a damage increase in single and cleave (through Havoc).
Indiscriminate Flames	Further empowers Backdraft and is required to progress further.
Scalding Flames	Noticeable damage increase for the only Destruction DoT.

4.1.2.

Optional / flexible talents

Talent	Reason for taking
Improved Conflagrate	Adds another charge but generally is a worse option than its alternative.
Backlash	A mediocre damage increase, more useful in PvP where Warlock actually gets hit by melee. Generally used to reach nodes below.
Havoc	Signature spell for Destruction that works in any multitarget situation, from duplicating spenders to accelerating shard generation.
Mayhem	Passive alternative with worse output and player agency.
Pyrogenics	Damage amplification when using Rain of Fire.
Cataclysm	Good AoE burst and Immolate application on any target affected, which synergizes well with Channel Demonfire.
Inferno	Increases the sustainability of Rain of Fire spam in multitarget..
Rolling Havoc	A damage amplification tied to Havoc windows.

4.2.

Tier 2 (Rows 5-7) Destruction Warlock Talents

4.2.1.

Talents for all situations

Talent	Reason for taking
Explosive Potential	Cooldown reduction on Conflagrate equals to more chances for hasted casts through Backdraft.
Summoner's Embrace	Passive DPS increase.
Emberstorm	Damage increase for all spells and cast time reduction for Incinerate.
Summon Infernal	Destruction's strongest cooldown, providing damage and shard generation passively, and required to sustain the spender's high Shard cost during bursts.

4.2.2.

Optional / flexible talents

Talent	Reason for taking
Shadowburn	Execute talent that shines when sniping dying targets, thanks to charge and shard refund mechanic and the synergy with Havoc and Mayhem.
Grimoire of Sacrifice	Single target damage increase does not scale with additional targets but rather, the single target proc will affect different targets.
Ashen Remains	Passive damage increase.
Channel Demonfire	High damage spell that cleaves and can help trigger Decimation.
Blistering Atrophy	Damage increase for Shadowburn.
Conflagration of Chaos	Increases the usability of Shadowburn and can help trigger Decimation.
Fire and Brimstone	Makes Incinerate cleave for a small amount of damage.
Flashpoint	Free Haste that can trigger in any scenario as long as there is at least a target above 80% health.
Raging Demonfire	Allows Channel Demonfire to extend Immolate duration on each hit while also increasing the number of total bolts fired.
Fiendish Cruelty	Reduces Shadowburn cooldown during execute.
Eradication	Important debuff on target applied by Chaos Bolt, which increases any damage received from you.
Crashing Chaos	Further increases Destruction's burst potential during cooldowns by amplifying Chaos Bolts and Rain of Fire damage.
Rain of Chaos	Increases Infernal damage and overall passive shard generation.
Reverse Entropy	Passive DPS increase.
Internal Combustion	higher dps choice in single target than its alternative.
Demonfire Mastery	Substantially increases Channel Demonfire damage and allows better pathing towards Dimensional Rift.

4.3.

Tier 3 (Rows 8-10) Destruction Warlock Talents

4.3.1.

Talents for all situations

Talent	Reason for taking
Devastation	Free Critical Strike chance, also required to path down the tree.
Ritual of Ruin	Free spenders help Destruction's Soul Shard costs.
Soul Fire	Very High damage single target ability that generates a shard and applies Immolate
Improved Chaos Bolt	Reduces cast time and increase damage of Chaos Bolt.
Master Ritualist	Increases the frequency of Ritual of Ruin procs for AoE-intensive situations.
Decimation	Dramatically increases the usability and the frequency of Soul Fire casts.
Avatar of Destruction	DPS increase.

4.3.2.

Optional / flexible talents

Talent	Reason for taking
Burn to Ashes	Provides a boost to Incinerate.
Power Overwhelming	Passive damage increase. Generally, a 1-point investment for AoE.
Diabolic Embers	Provides a reliable shard generation increase from Incinerate casts.
Dimensional Rift	Single target and mobility tool.
Chaos Incarnate	Increases the Mastery value on spender.
Dimension Ripper	Small chance for additional Dimensional Rifts.
Unstable Rifts	Adds a small amount of cleave to Dimensional Rift.

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.

For specific Mythic+ advice, which typically involves having a setup 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.

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.

Other than a handful of DPS increase nodes, the path progression is generally flexible and allows one 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:

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.

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.

1. Bonds of Fel allows to burst targets by dragging them away from the marked location.
2. 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.
3. Nether Ward summons a shield lasting 3 seconds and reflecting back all harmful spells targeted at you.
4. Call Observer is only relevant when dealing with a lot of casting mobs.

1. 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.
2. Bane of Havoc causes Havoc to become a ground-targeted spell. Everything inside will be treated as it was debuffed by Havoc.