Destruction Warlock PvP Rotation and Playstyle — The War Within (Season 1)

Last updated on Sep 09, 2024 at 18:00 by Chanimal 7 comments

PvP requires you to perform various actions in the course of a duel, match, or battleground: interrupting/silencing enemies, damaging them, bursting them down, defending yourself, keeping yourself alive, etc.. It is a game mode that fully utilises your kit, especially spells that are rarely used in PvE. On this page, we go through all the spells you need to use in PvP as a Destruction Warlock, how you should use them, and we explain what your playstyle should be.

This page is part of our Destruction Warlock PvP Guide.

1.

Playstyle for Destruction Warlocks

The Destruction Warlock has two roles in an Arena: set up kills with large Chaos Bolt Icon Chaos Bolts and survive. Destruction Warlocks are powerful because they have strong single-target damage and the ability to crowd-control enemy teams. Most of your damage and kills will come from your Chaos Bolt Icon Chaos Bolts and Conflagrate Icon Conflagrates. You will survive by using Fear Icon Fears and Mortal Coil Icon Mortal Coils on enemies. You can also use your Demonic Gateway Icon Demonic Gateway to create distance.

1.1.

Before Gates Open

Have a plan for who you will mainly use your crowd control on. Destruction Warlocks can use their main crowd control, Fear Icon Fear, along with Mortal Coil Icon Mortal Coil. You also have Shadowfury Icon Shadowfury. This has a short cast time and will AoE stun anyone in range for a short period.

You should also use Create Soulwell Icon Create Soulwell to generate Healthstones for you and your teammates. Additionally, cast Soulburn Icon Soulburn as the Soul Shard is refreshed, you will keep the Soulburn Icon Soulburn buff.

2.

Damage Rotations

2.1.

The Opener

The opener refers to your team's opening crowd control chain and damage done as soon as you exit the gates. The main goal in the opener is to force your enemies to use their cooldowns, especially their Gladiator's Medallion Icon Gladiator's Medallion.

If any of the enemies use their trinkets in the opener, they are in trouble. In the opener, Destruction Warlocks should focus on maintaining Wither Icon Wither, using Conflagrate Icon Conflagrate charges to generate Soul Shards while dealing damage with Incinerate Icon Incinerate, Shadowburn Icon Shadowburn and fishing for Chaos Bolt Icon Chaos Bolt opportunities by casting Fear Icon Fear to bait interrupts and find Chaos Bolt windows.

This is the rotation you should use on your target at the beginning of the game.

  1. Cast Demonic Gateway Icon Demonic Gateway from your pillar to another part of the map.
  2. Use Demonic Circle Icon Demonic Circle and place it behind a pillar.
  3. Apply and maintain Wither Icon Wither on all enemies to generate Soul Shards. If enemy targets are stacked, use Cataclysm Icon Cataclysm instead.
  4. Cast Shadowburn Icon Shadowburn once to generate charges of Ritual of Ruin Icon Ritual of Ruin, and get the cooldown rolling.
  5. Cast Conflagrate Icon Conflagrate once to generate charges of Backdraft Icon Backdraft, generate Soul Shards, and get the cooldown rolling.
  6. Cast Fear Icon Fear to bait interrupts and create Chaos Bolt Icon Chaos Bolt windows.
    • If you are interrupted on Fear Icon Fear, you can still cast Chaos Bolt Icon Chaos Bolts.
  7. Use Conflagrate Icon Conflagrate to deal instant damage and generate Soul Shards.
    • With the passive Backdraft Icon Backdraft, Conflagrate Icon Conflagrate will also, reduce the cast time of your Chaos Bolt Icon Chaos Bolts or Incinerate Icon Incinerate.
  8. Once you have at least 4-5 Soul Shards, and the enemy does not have interrupts, you will be able to use your burst rotation.
2.2.

Burst Damage

  1. Ideally, you will have 4+ Soul Shards before using your burst rotation.
  2. Cast Wither Icon Wither on your target.
  3. Cast Malevolence Icon Malevolence to empower your Wither Icon Wither and grant you haste.
  4. Cast Shadowburn Icon Shadowburn to apply Eradication Icon Eradication to your target.
  5. Cast Conflagrate Icon Conflagrate to generate Backdraft Icon Backdraft stacks.
  6. Cast Soulfire Icon Soulfire if you get a Decimation Icon Decimation proc.
  7. Use Summon Infernal Icon Summon Infernal on your kill target.
  8. Cast Chaos Bolt Icon Chaos Bolt.
  9. Cast Chaos Bolt Icon Chaos Bolt.
  10. Cast Conflagrate Icon Conflagrate once or twice if you do not have enough Soul Shards.
  11. Cast Chaos Bolt Icon Chaos Bolt.
  12. Cast Incinerate Icon Incinerate if you have Burn to Ashes Icon Burn to Ashes stacks
  13. Use Conflagrate Icon Conflagrate to generate Soul Shards.
  14. Cast Chaos Bolt Icon Chaos Bolt whenever you have 2 Soul Shards and a stack of Backdraft Icon Backdraft.
  15. Cast Shadowburn Icon Shadowburn if it's not on cooldown.
  16. Cast Wither Icon Wither if you need to refresh the DoT.
  17. Cast Incinerate Icon Incinerate as a filler.

If you get interrupted when casting Incinerate Icon Incinerate or Fear Icon Fear, you should immediately start casting the other spell, or Chaos Bolt Icon Chaos Bolt

2.3.

Sustained damage

Sustained damage is damage you do when your burst cooldowns are not available.

  1. Maintain Wither Icon Wither on all enemies or by using Cataclysm Icon Cataclysm if stacked.
  2. Cast Shadowburn Icon Shadowburn to apply Eradication Icon Eradication to your target.
  3. Cast Conflagrate Icon Conflagrate to generate Backdraft Icon Backdraft stacks.
  4. Cast Chaos Bolt Icon Chaos Bolt when you have 4-5 Soul Shards, and only if you have Backdraft Icon Backdraft charges.
  5. Cast Soulfire Icon Soulfire if you get a Decimation Icon Decimation proc.
  6. Cast Incinerate Icon Incinerate if you have Burn to Ashes Icon Burn to Ashes stacks
3.

Cooldowns/Defensives

Unending Resolve Icon Unending Resolve is your primary defensive ability. You should use it if your healer has no defensive cooldowns and you are at high health. You will not be interrupted while this is active, so you can use this time to cast Fear Icon Fear to stay alive or Chaos Bolt Icon Chaos Bolt for damage.

Dark Pact Icon Dark Pact is a mighty defensive PvP talent on a short cooldown. This should be used whenever the enemy team lands crowd control on your healer, and you are caught in a stun and can not get away. You can use this in any form of CC and while interrupted.

Healthstone Icon Healthstone should be used when you are at very low health and your healer does not have defensive cooldowns to keep you alive.

Demonic Circle Icon Demonic Circle should be placed away from the enemy team but close to your healer. Make sure you coordinate using this so your team can position themselves accordingly. You will want to use this when the enemy team is using their offensive cooldowns, and you need to create distance between you and them. Use the same concept when you need to take Demonic Gateway Icon Demonic Gateway.

Summon Infernal Icon Summon Infernal should be used to stun enemies trying to chase you. This will typically be best used when enemies are using their burst cooldowns and you are close to dying.

4.

Curses

Curses allow you to weaken a target based on which curse you use on them. Effectively using a curse on an enemy could prevent a lot of damage the target will deal. Below are your curses and the best time to use them.

  • Curse of Weakness Icon Curse of Weakness increases the time between the enemy's attacks. You should use this on a melee DPS to prevent incoming Physical damage.
  • Curse of Tongues Icon Curse of Tongues increases the cast time of all spells the enemy casts. You should use this on a caster DPS to prevent or slow down incoming spell damage.
  • Curse of Exhaustion Icon Curse of Exhaustion reduces the target's movement speed. This is a very flexible Curse and can be used to slow down melee DPS or enemy healers to make them easier to crowd control.
5.

Macros

It is advised to use Macros to use abilities on enemies or allies without having to target them. For this reason, we have a page dedicated to them.

6.

Changelog

  • 09 Sep. 2024: Reviewed for The War Within Season 1.
  • 21 Aug. 2024: Updated for The War Within Season 1.
  • 27 Jul. 2024: Reviewed for 11.0.
  • 23 Jul. 2024: Updated for The War Within Prepatch 11.0.
  • 07 May 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.7.
  • 22 Apr. 2024: Updated for Dragonflight Season 4.
  • 19 Mar. 2024: Updated for Dragonflight Patch 10.2.6.
  • 15 Jan. 2024: Updated for Dragonflight Patch 10.2.5.
  • 06 Nov. 2023: Updated for Dragonflight Patch 10.2.
  • 04 Sep. 2023: Updated for Dragonflight Patch 10.1.7.
  • 10 Jul. 2023: Updated for Dragonflight Patch 10.1.5.
  • 09 May 2023: Updated for Dragonflight Patch 10.1.
  • 21 Mar. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
  • 16 Mar. 2023: Updated for Dragonflight Patch 10.0.7.
  • 30 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
  • 11 Dec. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight Season 1.
  • 22 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
  • 30 Jul. 2022: Updated for Shadowlands Season 4.
  • 31 May 2022: Reviewed for Patch 9.2.5.
  • 02 Mar. 2022: Updated for Shadowlands 9.2.
  • 17 Nov. 2021: Updated for Shadowlands Patch 9.1.5.
  • 10 Aug. 2021: Updated for Shadowlands Patch 9.1.
  • 08 Mar. 2021: No updates needed for Patch 9.0.5.
  • 05 Dec. 2020: Updated Damage Rotations to include Covenant Ability.
  • 27 Nov. 2020: Removed outdated Traits and Essences.
  • 30 Oct. 2020: Updated all Damage rotations.
    • Updated Defensives section.
    • Add Curses section.
  • 20 Jan. 2020: This page was checked for Patch 8.3 and no update was deemed necessary.
  • 09 Dec. 2019: Page added.
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