Destruction Warlock PvP Rotation and Playstyle (Shadowlands / Patch 9.0.2)
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.
Playstyle for Destruction Warlocks
The Destruction Warlock has two roles when in an Arena: set up kills with
large 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 Bolts. You will survive by using
Fears and
Mortal Coils on enemies. You can also use your
Demonic Gateway
to create distance.
Before Gates Open
Have a plan for who you will be mainly using your crowd control on.
Destruction Warlocks are able to use their main crowd control, Fear,
along with
Mortal Coil. You also have
Shadowfury. This has a
somewhat short cast time and will AoE stun anyone that is in range for a small
period of time.
You should also use Create Soulwell to generate Healthstones for you
and your teammates.
Damage Rotations
The Opener
The opener refers to your team's opening crowd control chain and damage done as soon as you get out of the gates. The main goal in the opener is to force your enemies to use their cooldowns.
If the enemy healer uses their trinket in the opener, they are in trouble.
In the opener, Destruction Warlocks should focus on using Immolate,
Incinerate, and
Conflagrate to generate Soul Shards.
This is the rotation you should use on your target at the beginning of the game.
- Cast
Demonic Gateway from your pillar to another part of the map.
- Use
Demonic Circle and place it behind a pillar.
- Apply and maintain
Immolate on all enemies to generate Soul Shards. If the enemy team starts behind a pillar, you can use
Cataclysm to put your
Immolate on all of them.
- Cast
Incinerate to generate Soul Shards.
- If you are interrupted on
Incinerate, you can still cast
Chaos Bolts.
- If you are interrupted on
- Use
Conflagrate to deal instant damage and generate Soul Shards.
- With the passive
Backdraft,
Conflagrate will also reduce the cast time of your
Chaos Bolts or
Incinerate.
- With the passive
- Once you have at least 4-5 Soul Shards and the enemy healer is in crowd control, you will be able to use your burst rotation.
Burst Damage
- Ideally, you will have 4+ Soul Shards before using your burst rotation.
- Use
Summon Infernal if the enemy team is stacked or you need an interrupt.
- Use
Dark Soul: Instability.
- Use
Havoc on the enemy you are not targeting.
- Use
Mortal Coil on the enemy you are focusing.
- Use
Conflagrate. This will give you 2 stacks of
Backdraft.
- Cast
Chaos Bolt.
- Cast
Chaos Bolt.
- Use
Soul Rot if you are Night Fae to deal spread damage.
- Cast
Cataclysm on the enemy team if they are running away.
- Cast
Immolate if they are not running away.
- Use
Conflagrate to generate Soul Shards.
- Cast
Chaos Bolt.
- Cast
Immolate if you need to refresh the DoT.
- Cast
Incinerate as a filler.
If you get interrupted when casting Incinerate, you should
immediately start casting
Chaos Bolt or
Cataclysm.
Sustained damage
Sustained damage is damage you do when your burst cooldowns are not available.
- Maintain
Immolate on all enemies.
- Cast
Chaos Bolt when you have 4-5 Soul Shards.
- Apply
Havoc and follow it up with a
Mortal Coil to prevent enemy players from interrupting your damage and to heal yourself.
- Use
Rain of Fire if multiple targets are running away and you are about to cap on Soul Shards.
- Cast
Cataclysm if multiple targets are stacked and you need to generate Soul Shards.
- Use
Soul Rot if you are Night Fae to deal spread damage.
- Use
Conflagrate to generate Soul Shards and generate stacks of
Backdraft.
- Cast
Incinerate to generate Soul Shards.
Cooldowns/Defensives
Unending Resolve is your primary defensive ability and should be
used 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 to stay alive or
Chaos Bolt for damage.
Demon Armor is an absolutely mandatory PvP talent. This talent is
what makes Destruction Warlocks so tanky and should be used against every
single team.
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, should be placed away from the enemy
team, but close to your healer. Make sure you coordinate when you will be 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.
Summon Infernal should be used to stun enemies that are trying to
chase you. This will typically best used when enemies are using their burst
cooldowns and you are close to dying.
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 that the target will deal. Below are the curses that you have and the best time to use them.
Curse of Weakness increases the time between the enemy's attacks. This should be used on a melee DPS to prevent incoming Physical damage.
Curse of Tongues increases the cast time of all spells the enemy casts. This should be used on a caster DPS to prevent or slow down incoming spell damage.
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 slow down enemy healers to make them easier to crowd control.
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.
Changelog
- 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.
This guide has been written by Mysticall, a seasoned PvP player who has repeatedly achieved Arena Master and 2500 rating. You can watch his stream on Twitch, and you can also check out his YouTube channel.
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