Warlock Destruction PVE 8.0.1 gearing and 8.3.7 class Guide UPDATED

[hoodzgate]

Introduction
Base Spells
Talents
Stats priority
Azerite Traits
Rotation
Gearing
Macros





Hello and welcome to the new BFA Warlock Destruction PVE oriented guide designed for 8.0.1 gearing and 8.3.7 class design. We will start the guide by explaining the basics such as Base spells and we will go through this slowly to talents choosing, traits, stats priority in different scenarios, macros and eventually we'll reach an opener rotation and what you should really do to sustain the damage output on the target. If I had missed something, do go ahead and point it out to me and I'll edit the topic and add it to the guide.

Basic Information


We will discuss Azerite traits however they will be subjective as traits can change based on different boss fights and situations.

A destruction Warlock utilizes 2 key resources - Soul Shards and Mana. There are always 3 Soul Shards when out of combat. you can have a maximum of 5 of them. They are spent on strong spells and on summing pet demons. Unlike the other specializations, in this one, the Soul Shards are separated into 10 Soul Shard fragments. Mana is used as a resource for any spells.

Strongest assets:
- Great damage in any combat type;
- Nice Target switching
- An ability to provide the raid with emergency mobility through Demonic Gateway
- Big damage spells

Weakest Assets:
- Relatively low mobility which has an impact on sustained damage where you need to cast longer spells.





Changes to the class

Many talents have been removed in 8.0.1 or seen changes

Summon Doomguard has been removed

Mana cost for many spells has been altered with the removal of Life tap. Most spells now cost less mana.

Former level 75 talents have been moved to the level 45 talents and Dark Pact and Demon Skin both had nerfs

Soul Conduit has been reduced to 15% chance

Summon Infernal was redesigned to an impact damage with a 30 second add. You gain 1 soul shard every 0.5 seconds if it alive

Backdraft is now baseline but only generate 1 charge unlike before

Havoc's cooldown is reduced but now only copies 60% of damage.


Most Important Abilities

Summon Infernal, despite the massive damage it will give you soul shard fragments which is very important. We will often use this as part of our opener. It is on a 3 minute cooldown and you want to use this on cooldown unless your group saves the Bloodlust for the end of the fight in which case you will save one for that window.

Unending resolve: your biggest defensive cooldown making you essentially unkillable for about 8 seconds

Backdraft: decreases the cast time of your next Chaos bolt of Incinerate by 30% you want to use most of these stacks for Chaos bolt as it is the biggest decrease with regards to time spent casting.


Offensive Cooldowns



Incinerate deals average Fire damage and generates 2 Soul Shard fragments. If the hit was critical, count on 3 fragments.

Immolate deals minor instant Fire damage to a target leaving a DoT on it. The DoT deals Fire damage for 18 secs. Besides that, each teak creates 1 Soul Shard fragment and, with a 50% probability, one more if the hit is critical.

Conflagrate – deals instant Fire damage to a target and generates 5 Soul Shard Fragments. 2 charges. CD 12 sec. It puts 2 stacks of Backdraft on you when you are casting it and reduces the remaining cooldown on the next Chaos bolt or Incinerate by 30%.

Chaos bolt requires 2 Soul Shards. Always deals massive critical Chaos magic damage. Since it’s a constant critter, the chance of a critical hit increases the damage dealt by this spell.

Rain of Fire allows you, for 3 Soul Shards, to cast Rain of Fire onto a selected area. The base duration is 8 secs (decreased by the value of Haste).

Drain Life is a channel spell dealing minor dark magic damage off each teak. 500% of the damage you deal will return to you as Health.


Important Burst CDs


Summon Infernal - Summons an Infernal at a target location stunning all enemies for 2 seconds. This is here because of the Destruction Golden Trait "Lord of Flames", we'll get to that in a second.
Havoc - Marks a target with Havoc for 10 seconds causing your single target spells to also strike this target

Defensive Spells


Unending resolve decreases the incoming damage by 40% and makes you resistant to numbness and interruptions. Active time 8 secs, CD 3 min.

Soul Leech transforms 8% of the incoming damage into a damage-absorbing shield for 10 secs. Max value of the shield can be 15% of your max HP.


Pets


Warlocks have access to multiple demons that can do it's bidding. Each pet has a niche and a special ability that can be used via Command Demon.
Summon Imp - Summons an Imp under your command, that casts firebolts from a distance.
Command Demon: Cauterize Master - heals the Warlock for a short amount of health.
Summon Voidwalker - Summons a Voidwalker under your command, that is able to tank mobs and withstand heavy damage.
Command Demon: Suffering - The Voidwalker taunts the target to attack it, and increases the threat generation against the target for 5 seconds.
Summon Succubus - Summons a Succubus under your command, that deals moderate damage and can seduce targets to prevent them from attacking you.
Command Demon: Whiplash - Deals moderate AoE damage and knocks targets back.
Summon Felhunter - Summons a Felhunter under your command, that deals moderate damage, can devour enemies' magic effects, and disrupt their spells.
Command Demon: Spell Lock - interrupts the target.





Talent Discussion

Level 15:



Flashover. Conflagrate deals 25% more damage and grants an additional charge to Backdraft.
Eradication. Chaos bolt increases the damage you deal to the target by 10% for 7 sec.
Soul Fire. 1.5 sec cast spell with fire damage. Gives you 4 Soul Shards. It has 20 sec CD, but each Soul Shard you spend reduce Soul Fire‘s CD by 2 sec.

* Flashover is the best choice. Eradication can be good only for a single target.

Level 30:



Reverse Entropy. You spells can give you 15% Haste for 8 sec.
Internal Combustion. Chaos bolt consume 5 sec periodic damage of Immolate and instantly deal them to your target.
Shadowburn. Has 2 charges and the same restoring time. Deals Fire damage, generates 3 Soul Shard fragments, and if the target dies within 5 secs after you’ve used it, you get 5 more Soul Shard fragments.

* Reverse Entropy your best choice by default. You also can use Internal Combustion if you play with Eradication for single target.

Level 45:



Demon Skin. Soul Leech now restores by 0.5% of your Health every second, and the max value of the shield is now 15% of your max HP.
Burning Rush. Allows you to increase your running speed by 50% but in return, it takes 4% of your max Health every sec. Movement impairing effects can’t push your Haste below 100%. Active until cancelled or until your current HP stock is less than 4%.
Dark Pact. You can sacrifice 20% of your Demon’s current Health to get an absorbing shield for 250% HP you sacrifice, for the next 20 secs. If you don’t have a Demon while using it, you’ll sacrifice your own Health. The ability can be used while you are stunned.

* Your pick. You need mobility? Pick Burning Rush. You’re not running but rather getting regular damage? Then, Demon Skin. You’re facing surviving burst damage no oftener than once a min? Dark Pact is your choice.

Level 60:



Inferno. Damage from “Rain of Fire” has 20% chance to restore A soul fragment.
Fire and Brimstone. deals 40% damage to all enemies that are close to the target and creates 1 soul fragment for each damaged enemy.
Cataclysm. An ability with a 2-sec application. Allows you to create a cataclysm in a selected 8-m area dealing major Fire damage and applying Immolate on all the targets. CD 30 sec.

* Cataclysm the best talent for the most cases that is good in a fight up to 3 targets.

Fire and Brimstone is a good alternative talent that can work in fights with adds gathered near the target. In such situation you will have a quick soul fragments regeneration.

Level 75:



Darkfury. Reduces the cooldown of Shadowfury by 15 sec.
Mortal Coil. You can make your enemy run away for 3 secs thus restoring 20% of your max Health. Action radius – 20m. CD 45 secs.
Demonic Circle. For 15 min, you create a portal under you. The second cast relocates you to the portal and cancels any movement-impainring effects. Action radius – 40m. CD for teleportation – 30 secs.

* All the talents in this Tier interact differently with the control mechanics. Demonic Circle is your default choice as it provides extra mobility and can cancel any movement impairing. Mortal Coil can be considered for rather steady combats with little fuss. This way you could use it as an additional healer. Darkfury if you need stun.

Level 90:



Roaring Blaze. “Conflagrate“deals additional fire damage for 6 sec.
Grimoire of Supremacy. Every spent Soul fragment deals 8% more damage from Chaos bolt while Infernal is active.
Grimoire of Sacrifice. Sacrifice a Demon so that your Command Demon uses the special ability of the Demon you’ve eaten. As a DPS bonus, your spells will sometimes deal additional damage to the target and all the enemies within the 8-m range. Active for 1 hour or until you summon a Demon.

* Grimoire of Supremacy – a strong talent if you need additional bursting damage for a single target but Roaring Blaze is better for mytick keys or bosses with adds because it grants stable high damage.

Level 100:



Soul Conduit. Gives you a 15% chance restores each spent soul fragment.
Channel Demonfire. A channel spell letting out 15 charges of fire into random enemies hit with your Immolate within a 40-m range, and deals Fire damage to them. It also provides some minor fire splash-damage around the Immolate-hit targets.
Dark Soul: Instability. Infuses your soul with power that increases critical strike chance by 30% for 20 sec, 2 min cd.

* Dark Soul: Instability would be the best talent to dps a boss and also is good to combine with Grimoire of Supremacy if you need to increase burst during some certain moments.

Channel Demonfire is an alternative choice that grants good cleave damage. It is especially good in mythic+ because has a synergy with Cataclysm.


So, we can boil it all down to the following build:

Flashover / Eradication
Reverse Entropy / Internal Combustion
Burning Rush by standard.
Cataclysm
Demonic Circle by standard
Grimoire of Supremacy
Dark Soul: Instability or Channel Demonfire for more effective cleave.





Intellect > Mastery >= Haste > Critical > Versatility

We generally want to be looking for gear with haste as the priority stat and mastery as a secondary stat. This is what you want to look for when you go out to gear. Crit will eventually become more important as we begin to progress however versatility should be a stat you want to keep as low as possible (unless you are pvping).

Though mastery is the most important secondary stat you should equally balance it with a haste focus.

Mastery
Mastery provides a passive bonus to your character based on your specialization. Mastery: Chaotic Energies causes your spells to deal an additional amount of random damage and also reduces the damage you take by a random amount.

Haste
Haste increases attack and spell casting speed, adds additional damage and healing to DoTs and HoTs, and reduces the GCD.

Crit
Critical Strike increase the chance for your spells and attacks to critically hit for additional damage and healing.

Intellect
Intellect increases the damage and healing done by your spells.

Versatility
Versatility increases your damage, healing, and absorption done and decreases damage received.






In BFA typical sets were removed and Azerite armor took their place. Now every chest/helmet/shoulders have a few ring traits. You will need to collect the best traits. First of all you need those that grant maximum profit as 1 in the armor. When you stack up traits only the first one grants an effect, the rest increase your damage. These traits would be the best for you:

I Generally recommend if you come across a piece of gear with the same or higher Ilvl you do not delete or scrap it as different traits excel in different environments. Also certain traits only excel when matched with appropriate talents.

Crashing Chaos. Grants a good burst damage on a single target but not that great for cleave fights. Basically it is used for a single target.
Flashpoint. A great talent for fights with targets that have more than 80% HP for long time or just for fights with adds.
Blightborne Infusion This is one of the top all rounded traits, can be used effectively in conjunction with Demonology
Rolling Havoc is good as Flashpoint at multidot encounters.
Chaotic Inferno Is a good boost to Chaos bolt damage

The next traits are not that great but still could be used:

Chaos Shards
Bursting Flare


Your Middle ring traits are very analog and you should therefore sim your character and choose the ones that best suit your current set up.

Your inner Ring traits will most likely focus on
Resounding Protection which offers survivability and utility. It should always be selected when available
Longstrider will help with movement speed and is useful in encounters that require quick footwork.
Impassive Visage will provide extra healing and will trigger often in combat. It is best for fights where there is splash and raid damage which will allow you to get more return from healing spells.


Your BIS Azerite Traits are going to be

Flashpoint x 3
Crashing Chaos x1
Bursting Flare/Blightborne Infusion/Chaotic Inferno x1-2


It is important to note though that your Azerite traits can have an impact on your rotation. If using 3x Flashpoint you will be better able to take advantage of your haste buff, you also want to always be using Havoc and maximize its global cooldown if stacking Rolling Havoc as a trait



For general conception, take a look at the overall priority list:

On 1-2 Targets:


Keep up Immolate on the target 100% of the time.This debuff can be put with Cataclysm if you have this talent. .
Chaos bolt to avoid soul fragments overcap.
Cataclysm every cooldown (if you have this talent)
Channel Demonfire every cooldown (if you have this talent)
ON 2 TARGETS: Use Havoc on the second targets as often as you can savin up 2-3 soul fragments in advance and at least 1 stack of Conflagrate in the moment of usage. While Havoc is active you need to cast not less than 3 Chaos bolt and 2 Conflagrate.
Soul Fire every cooldown (if you have it)
Chaos bolt
Conflagrate, can be used while moving but never let 2 charges be up
Incinerate to generate Soul fragments.


Cooldowns management:


Summon Infernal – a pretty simple burst, in most of the cases you should use it every cd. When playing with Dark Soul: Instability, you should use this ability every cooldown, but before using it make sure that your Immolate was cast recently and also you should have 4+ souls fragments. Chaos bolt while bursting as often as you can. It is important to generate soul fragments attentively.


When playing with Grimoire of Supremacy and Dark Soul: Instability, it is optimal to combine these 2 cooldowns when it is possible. The important factor in this situation is the fight duration.:

If combat lasts less than 190 seconds , use Dark Soul: Instability every cooldown.
If combat lasts 190-250 seconds hold Dark Soul: Instability for the second Summon Infernal.
If the fight lasts 250-380 seconds, hold Summon Infernal for the third Dark Soul: Instability.


A few rules for AOE:


Rain of Fire is a bigger priority than Chaos bolt on 3+ targets considering that mobs will leave the range of an ability.
Rain of Fire is a bigger priority than Chaos bolt for Havoc on 5+ targets.
Immolate should be kept on up to 8 targets if they would live not more than 6 seconds..
Although Immolate has less priority than Rain of Fire or Chaos bolt.
Havoc is good to use on a pack of not less than 4 targets.
If Grimoire of Supremacy is taken and you Summon Infernal on AOE and not on a single target then you should hold Havoc until the last 10 seconds of Summon Infernal. Cast Rain of Fire in the first 10 seconds to spend a lot of Soul fragments and in the last 10 seconds spam Chaos bolt while Havoc is active.
On 5 or more targets Havoc can be used for a fast soul fragments generation for Rain of Fire.


Single Target:


Superior Battle Potion of Intellect + Incinerate 3 seconds before the combat.
Cataclysm for Immolate if you have the talent otherwise cast Immolate manually.
Conflagrate.
Summon Infernal.
Generate soul fragments without overcapping them. If their amount is close to 5 spend them on Chaos bolt.
20 seconds before Summon Infernal ends cast Dark Soul: Instability and use trinket if you have it.
Cast Chaos bolt as often as possible in these 20 seconds generating soul fragments with Incinerate and Conflagrate, spending stacks of Backdraft on Chaos bolt.


2 targets:


Superior Battle Potion of Intellect + Incinerate 3 seconds before the combat.
Cataclysm for Immolate if you have the talent otherwise cast Immolate manually.
Conflagrate.
Summon Infernal, Dark Soul: Instability use trinket if you have it.
Generate soul fragments without overcapping them. If their amount is close to 5 spend them on Chaos bolt.
20 seconds before Summon Infernal ends cast Dark Soul: Instability and use trinket if you have it.
Use Havoc on an additional target.
Cast Chaos bolt, until you run out of soul fragments.
Cast Conflagrate
Try to cast Chaos bolt as often as possible while Havoc is on.
Cast Chaos bolt as often as possible in these 20 seconds generating soul fragments with Incinerate and Conflagrate, spending stacks of Backdraft on Chaos bolt.


Pets management:

The pet choice does not affect damage, you need to chose the pet according to the situation.
You should play with Summon Imp in raid usually because it can dispel. Besides Imp spends a bit more time to change the target.
In mythic keys you should use Summon Felhunter that can interrupt casts.





If you are going to pick warlock as your class and you choose destruction you are most likely doing it to see the big damage numbers. Destro has this damage on depend unlike Affliction which slowly builds it up.
This is a fairly easy spec to get into, but can become very intricate once you begin to master the spec

Patch 8.0.1 Gearing Pre raid and Raid BIS




End Game 8.3.7 gear BIS ***will not release for a long time here for future reference*


#Gems
Leviathan's Eye of Intellect
Quick Sand Spinel

#Ring Enchants
Enchant Ring - Accord of Haste
Enchant Ring - Accord of Mastery

#Weapon Enchants
Enchant Weapon - Machinist's Brilliance
Enchant Weapon - Quick Navigation
Enchant Weapon - Masterful Navigation

#Flasks
Greater Flask of Endless Fathoms

#Potions
Potion of Unbridled Fury (best for 1 target)
Superior Battle Potion of Intellect (best for >2 targets)

#Food
Famine Evaluator And Snack Table
Abyssal-Fried Rissole






-Demonic circle Initial Cast and Aura Cancelation:

Spoiler:

#showtooltip Demonic Circle
/cancelaura Demonic Circle
/cast Demonic Circle

-Rain of Fire cast on cursor:

Spoiler:

#showtooltip
/cast [@cursor] Rain of Fire

-Demonic Gateway cast on cursor:

Spoiler:

#showtooltip
/cast [@cursor] Demonic Gateway

-Burning Rush Initial Cast and Aura Cancelation:

Spoiler:

#showtooltip
/cast Burning Rush
/cancelaura Burning Rush

Update @ 01-12-2020, 05:45:56

Will update further in a few days.

Sources: Overgear, Ivy Veins, Skill capped, Noxxic

Cheerz,

Hoodz

[hoodzgate]

Updated with more links so that it goes to current site. Credit to Lechies for the update.

Cheerz,

Hoodz

[mates123]

Thank you for a great guide. I have a question.

You placed critical on 4th place. But when I go through BIS items you suggested, most of them have critical stats. Even the trinkets have versa / crit. Why didnt you put Vigilant's Bloodshaper (https://www.wowhead.com/item=160651/vigilants-bloodshaper?bonus=4798:1472) as a BiS.
I am not talking about 8.3.0 gear you posted at the bottom.
Why should we have crit on wep, rings, waist, boots, etc... I know it inceases the dmg of Chaos bolt, but why put Crit as 4th stat.

What is the ultimate bis gear on the patch we play on? I guess its a combination of pre-raid and uldir gear, but it doesnt make any sense. Since you suggested us to look for 3x Flashpoint and lo and behold none of the items you suggested as bis have Flashpoint in them. Is this bis gear just a screenshot from some website or did I miss something?

I know there are for example single loot items like boots. Or some items have secondary stat only crit or versa.. no problem with that.. but how can we know what is best in slot. could you provide a little more on this topic?

[hoodzgate]

So int is always going to be your number 1 stat because it is your primary dmg output that everything else scales off of. Mastery will up your overall base damage as well and haste will increase you cast speed. Crit is important but in this patch in the gear released in 8.0 content the better gear with higher chances of procing max ilvl stuff will come in the ones posted. The trinkets though scale int as a secondary ability and though vers is down on the list it still shouldnt be at 0. In this content I found it much better to have some balance between stats in Uldir. This changes in the next patch with more of a focus stacking specific stats as the gear scales up. The tendrils which basically gives additional range minions that shoot enemies overall increasing your dps more than a standard int increase. Its my favorite trinket, but do to how we have included 8.3 class scaling with 8.0 content adjustments could definitely be made to suit a specific play style.

Cheerz,

Hoodz

[mates123]

Awesome, now I understand it better. I think it is up on each player to choose what trinkets suits his playstyle better.
Although, primary stats on max ilvl (which is 395) should be haste/mastery (50/50 cca) with some versa and crit? Do I understand it right?
You didnt mentioned anything about your suggestion for azerite traits. Could you please give us a brief explanation? As I mentioned this gear you suggest doesnt have most of the bis traits you mentioned. There is a big discussion about azerite traits. Personally I dont find Flashpoint that usefull in any boss fights ( neither mythic or raid).

[hoodzgate]

Flashpoint is only really super useful in fights with adds where you can continue to proc the haste buff and fights where the boss will be over 80% HP for long periods of time. You should have some but it shouldn't be your only focus.


Crashing Chaos. Grants a good burst damage on a single target but not that great for cleave fights. Basically it is used for a single target.
Flashpoint. A great talent for fights with targets that have more than 80% HP for long time or just for fights with adds.
Blightborne Infusion This is one of the top all rounded traits, can be used effectively in conjunction with Demonology
Rolling Havoc is good as Flashpoint at multidot encounters.
Chaotic Inferno Is a good boost to Chaos bolt damage

The next traits are not that great but still could be used:

Chaos Shards
Bursting Flare


Your Middle ring traits are very analog and you should therefore sim your character and choose the ones that best suit your current set up.

Your inner Ring traits will most likely focus on
Resounding Protection which offers survivability and utility. It should always be selected when available
Longstrider will help with movement speed and is useful in encounters that require quick footwork.
Impassive Visage will provide extra healing and will trigger often in combat. It is best for fights where there is splash and raid damage which will allow you to get more return from healing spells.

Cheerz,

Hoodz

[mates123]

Awesome! Now we have a wider perspective how destro warlocks can be played on this patch. There are so many ways to play it.

Thank you for your responses. If there will be more questions, I will very much appreciate your opinions.