Destruction Warlock DPS Guide — The War Within (11.1.5)

Patch 11.1.5 did not bring directly changes to Destruction Warlock, however a live hotfix the 15th of April updated some of the tuning in regards to the relative strength of some spells and how are weighted in their application or intended scenarios:

• Cataclysm damage increased by 35%.
• Rain of Fire damage increased by 25%.

Warlock baseline received a Drain Life coefficient change, now dealing 4 times the damage, while still healing for 5 times the damage dealt.

Destruction by far received the most amount of changes, encompassing both talents new or redesigned and baseline spells that directly affect player experience:

• Rain of Fire is now a choice talent that offers 2 behaviour, either the old ground targeted or centered around a given target (but does not follow it);
• Demonfire Infusion is a new choice talent with Channel Demonfire, offering a passive proc based alternative, aimed at those who would rather not have an active ability;
• Dimension Ripper is now based on Immolate and Wither ticks, and is now a choice node with Dimensional Rift;
• Havoc duration has been increased from 12 to 15 seconds;
• Mayhem chance to trigger has been increased from 25% to 35%;

Warlocks received a lot of attention entering The War Within, with talent changes spanning from the class tree bottom lift to the mostly reworked specialisation talent tree.

The specialisation has seen perhaps the most radical gameplay change in the introduction of Decimation, which creates a more dynamic, varied, and reactive gameplay, especially in single target. The AoE situation is still somewhat mono-dimensional and overly reliant on Rain of Fire but with a worse scaling at higher target counts due to a reworked Inferno.

The Class tree has received a few tweaks in both new talents and point distribution changes, creating constraints that force active decisions in what to bring in a given situation, as opposed to a set-and-forget approach.

Below are the most notable changes in regard to the class tree:

• Demonic Circle is no longer baseline;
• Demonic Tactics is a new output node;
• Soul Link has been consolidated as a 2 points node, removing Profane Bargain;
• Inquisitor's Gaze and Summon Soulkeeper node has been replaced by Soul Conduit at 1 point of effectiveness;
• likewise Grim Feast has been replaced by Pact of Gluttony.

The Destruction side of the tree received a more radical revisit with the whole structure and pathing changing, alongside the introduction of several new talents that focus on augmenting fewer spells but in a more profound fashion. As follows is a list of the most transformative changes:

• Pandemonium and Cry Havoc have been removed;
• By reducing the number of points in the first gate, the Cataclysm/ Inferno node is more accessible;
• Inferno has been reworked to provide a flat shard cost reduction instead of scaling with the number of targets;
• A new talent Indiscriminate Flames now empower spells Backdrafted;
• A new talent Summoner's Embrace is now sharing the choice node with Grimoire of Sacrifice;
• Channel Demonfire has been moved to the second gate with a single point Raging Demonfire and a brand new Demonfire Mastery supplementing nodes;
• Emberstorm is a new addition that reduces Incinerate cast time by 20%;
• Shadowburn has received new supporting nodes, such as Blistering Atrophy and Fiendish Cruelty;
• Grand Warlock's Design has been removed, since Summon Infernal is now a 2 minutes cooldown baseline;
• Summon Infernal has been moved to the middle of the second gate and the following talent Crashing Chaos now shares a choice node with Rain of Chaos;
• Soul Fire has been moved as the third capstone, with the new Decimation node;
• Dimensional Rift now has 2 new supporting nodes in Dimension Ripper and Unstable Rifts;
• Several 2-point nodes, such as Burn to Ashes, Power Overwhelming, are now a single point nodes;
• Improved Chaos Bolt is a new talent that reduces the cast time by half a second, alongside a 10% damage increase;
• Chaos Incarnate has been reworked to a slightly weaker version;
• Avatar of Destruction has also been reworked to summon an Overfiend that casts Chaos Bolts for its duration.

One of the highlights of the new expansion is the Hero Talent Tree system, which further enhances specialisation with a unique twist both in visual and, to a lesser degree, in playstyle.

Destruction Warlock gets to choose between Diabolist and Hellcaller.