Introduction to the Destruction Warlock
Destruction Warlock is a very flexible specialisation that can find ways to excel in a variety of environments. Destruction can deal a lot of burst to a single target, and also efficiently cleave and AoE several targets at once.Destruction is a perfectly viable candidate for all content types. A very solid baseline toolkit makes the spec able to perform in any situation with a combination of very powerful cooldowns, one of, if not the strongest, 2-target cleave and the ability to burst on-demand, even outside cooldowns.
Below you will find a beginners guide to the Destruction Warlock, you can click on highlighted abilities, for a more in depth description of them.
Strengths and Weaknesses of the Destruction Warlock
Strengths
- Low ramp up time
- Fantastic cooldowns
- Good burst on-demand
Weaknesses
- Average overall damage output outside of cooldowns
- Unexciting talents
- Low mobility
Talents
Rotation of the Destruction Warlock
The basic rotation of the Destruction Warlock is as follows:
- Maintain
Immolate at all times
- Cast
Chaos Bolt if you are about to cap Soul Shards
- Cast
Cataclysm when available
- Use
Conflagrate if you have 2 charges
- Use
Conflagrate to generate Soul Shards
- Cast
Incinerate to generate Soul Shards
You can use the recommended Addon ConRo for help with your rotation, it can be found in our Addons Guide here
Cooldowns
Summon Infernal is our primary damage cooldown. The Infernal is a targeted ability that deals Fire damage and stuns within an AoE.
Havoc is a 10-second debuff that can be applied once every 30 seconds. During the duration of Havoc, all your single target spells cast will also be copied to the Havoc target.
Unending Resolve reduces damage taken by 40% for 8 seconds. Additionally, you are also immune to interrupt and silence effects for the duration.
Stat Priority
The stat priority for the Destruction Warlock is:
- Mastery = Haste
- Critical Strike
- Versatility
- Intellect

Pro Healer (If I’m tabbed in), otherwise a total Moob