[edit: if you’re just looking for 4.0.1 info for destro locks, go to this post… most up to date as of october 12, 1 hour before patch maintenance.]
While you may be misled by the title into thinking that there will be other posts for the other 2 specs, there won’t be. In the words of Nelson, if you were looking for that info, “haa-haa”.
Recently the realization that Cataclysm is coming has finally hit me.
![end[1]](https://underct.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/end1.jpg "end[1]")
With that realization came the sudden panic at not knowing anything at all about Warlocks. Now, this doesn’t go against my reluctance to really look at the Cata Beta because as we all know, patch 4.0.1 will be bringing a lot of Cataclysm to the live servers. It is currently on the PTR and will be live either today or next week (my best Boubouille impression).
4.0.1 will therefore go live and we will all get our talent points reset while the new simplified trees get presented to us. We’ll get a lot of new spells, some of them will be reworked, some new flight trainers for those without 310% riding or something like it, and oh! The new water textures are live on the ptr too. They’re pretty sweet, even if I’m a hater of change in things I like.
Warlock Mentalities
There are probably lots of good and bad things to be said for Affliction and Demonology. I do not know those things. Why? Because I’ve become a thoroughbred Destruction Warlock like I was meant to be when I started WoW. I can handle dots and turning into a demon (ok that’s actually really cool), but mostly, I like to blow things the hell up. Curse of Agony is cool and all, but Curse of Doom is clearly a better one. It’s not a DoT per se, even though it’s up for a minute… it’s more like a warning system:
“Hello, in one minute you will be blown the hell up!!!! Have a nice minute.”
Conflagration is my favorite ability of all. I feel like Athene the Best Paladin in the World when I use it. I feel like screaming about it every time I do, as if I was having an orgasm each time. Maybe I am. CONGLAGRATE BAM! Mmmmm.
Incinerate?
Conflagrate?
Hellfire?
Rain of Fire?
Chaos Bolt?
Searing Pain?
Curse of Doom?
Soul Fire?
CONFLAGRATE BAM! Mmmm
That list of abilities right there is what talking dirty is all about. Whisper those in my ear when we’re making love. Mmmm.
*cough* but I disgress…
Destruction Talents In 4.0.1
Blizzard said they were simplifying the talent trees and making it harder to be a total screw up with the talents we pick. I have to say they did a good job. Even if you threw every single point into one tree, you’d have a pretty good spec. There are very few “wasted” talents, if any at all.
Here is the top pve performer for destruction warlocks in 4.0.1 with a level 80 Warlock. This is important to keep in mind, we will be getting 5 more talent points up until level 85 and the tree will get a few extra perks (like mana regen).
But right now, when 4.0.1 hits live servers, and you want to be an awesome destro lock, this is what you use:
http://cata.wowhead.com/talent#IbZcZIrbfRbsodo:zV0baczVc
Disclaimer on the above: that is what I came up with. It is common sense as far as I know my class, and I know it well.
Your rotation looks like the existing one except you get Soul Fire procs where it becomes insta cast, and once Improved Soul Fire works properly, you would cast it yourself at the start of a fight as long as the boss is above 80% for a 15% haste buff for 15 seconds. Beyond that, same old rotation.
I will make a post documenting the dps I get from this on PTR, but as a teaser, here is my imp, and ONLY my imp, attacking a target dummy with a second target dummy Bane of Havoc’ed (15% of all damage done to main target is transferred to the Baned one).
That’s right. Imp. Only.
feed
The Undercity 
First, that is some -damn- fine imp dps.
Second, conflag consumes immolate and there’s nothing that we can do about it D:
does not!
“Talk dirty to me” has a whole different meaning for you, I see.
Thanks for an excellent guide. Please keep it up. Looking at your talent selection, can you enlighten me as to why you picked a point in Nether Ward and not use that point for Backlash? From a pure dps prospective (let the healers handle keeping my ass up 🙂 ), wouldn’t the occasional proc from Backlash increase dsp?
Good question. There are twopoints of contention in that talent spec: two points in affliction instead of improved searing pain, and the one you brought up.
The reason i chose nether ward over occasional free dps is that i’ve rarely seen a wipe where an extra incinerate or two would have prevented it, but plenty in which i died too soon and had to watch a excruciating fight ending with the boss at a couple hundred health… damage i would have done if alive. I’ve also seen plenty of progression fights where resistance gear wasn’t necessary but when worn suddenly made everythibg easier (saph, thorim, sindragosa as a tank) .
Finally, shadow ward has saved my ass many times on yogg, blood queen and has made infest on heroic lich king much more manageable.
I figure, shadow ward is a life saver… resistance to magic in general helps a lot sometimes… i like to live… oh hey nether ward looks awesome!
Oh, also i don’t foresee very many boss fights where i will get melee hit, so backlash would be incredibly rare a proc.
Oh, more thoughts! Healing is supposed to be much tighter in Cata, the devs always give the example that a lifetapping warlock might not get topped up as quickly. All the more reason for some damage prevention.
Ahh….. I have seen the light! Praise thegoat! Thnks for the detailed explanation
Thanks for the detailed post and explanations. I’ll be checking this out when 4.01 goes live. Kudos to yah…
I would probably skip Aftermath since it doesn’t improve the Immolate damage anymore and put the points in Nether Protection which I believe can be a life-saver in Cata.
But even Backlash is better than Aftermath it seems.
Nether Protection is a good alternative. I’m considering it although I absolutely adore the daze effect on adds on quite a few fights, so I may keep it in. I don’t believe any other talent would be a direct dps boost, so it becomes a matter of cosmetics (ie: nether protection = survival if/when needed but often doesn’t proc on boss abilities, backlash is good but how often do you expect to be hit by physical attacks in a raid setting, aftermath is cool because it dazes but how useful is that compared to the other two…) . I think it’s a case of 3 shitty choices.
Hey can you post your rotation its been awhile since i have played because of deployment to afghanistan just dont want to get at there and look like a tool ty
Tommy
Go to underct.com and scroll down. Third post or so as of today.
YOUR BAD
Lol umad bro??
Question: why do you put your points in dark arts rather than demonic embrace? In my experience it’s been all about the stamina, so…
Because it makes no sense to stack a stat that you don’t need at all in this current level 80 setup of these level 85 talents. Increasing your imp’s dps is infinitely better as a destruction warlock than increasing an already bloated health pool. I run with 48,000 health and lifetap once or twice a heroic icc boss fight.
Thanks for the quick reply! I just finished dl-ing the patch today – oh god, clearing all that space…haha – and didn’t check my health until you pointed that out. I see what you mean – my health has gone up a good 7k already, though it’s nowhere near 48k 😛 Think I’mma like this build.
Yeah, there isn’t much to gain from the health thing this time around. -maybe- at level 85 if it turns out that mana is an issue, but try it out right now and you’ll see that, well, one lifetap is enough for roughly a quarter of your mana. Destro locks are in a really really sweet spot now 😀
glyph of conflsg makes it to where u dont consume imm and putting points into nether ward is more pvp i would say and all i have to say aswell is that destro loks got uberd i do 10k minimum dps in icc10 my gear score is 5790 i think thats pretty bad ass
That is wrong. The glyph of conflagrate reduces the cooldown of conflagrate by 2 seconds. Conflagrate does not remove immolate on the target no matter what.