Destruction Warlock PVE Guide – Cataclysm

Welcome to the PVE Destruction Warlock Guide for World of Warcraft Cataclysm!

This guide will teach you how to play a Destruction Warlock in a raid. It covers talents, glyphs, gems, enchantments, rotation, and gameplay tips.

This talent build takes the standard Destruction Warlock talents.

Prime Glyphs

• Glyph of Conflagrate
• Glyph of Immolate
• Glyph of Imp

Major Glyphs

• Glyph of Life Tap
• Glyph of Soul Link
• Glyph of Soulstone

Minor Glyphs

• Glyph of Drain Soul
• Glyph of Health Funnel
• Glyph of Ritual of Souls

Gems are situational and depend on the build and equipment. They are used to reach the required stat caps.

• Meta – Burning Shadowspirit Diamond
• Red/Prismatic – Brilliant Queen’s Garnet, Brilliant Inferno Ruby, or Brilliant Chimera’s Eye (Jewelcrafting)
• Yellow
  • If Socket Bonus is not at least +20 Intellect or +30 of another stat, Brilliant Queen’s Garnet or Brilliant Inferno Ruby
  • Otherwise, Reckless Lava Coral or Reckless Ember Topaz
• Blue
  • If Socket Bonus is not at least +20 Intellect or +30 of another stat, Brilliant Queen’s Garnet or Brilliant Inferno Ruby
  • Otherwise, Veiled Shadow Spinel or Veiled Demonseye

• Head – Arcanum of the Hyjal
• Shoulder – Greater Inscription of Charged Lodestone or Felfire Inscription (Inscription)
• Cloak – Enchant Cloak – Greater Intellect or Lightweave Embroidery (Tailoring)
• Chest – Enchant Chest – Peerless Stats
• Bracers – Enchant Bracer – Mighty Intellect or Enchant Bracer – Precision or Draconic Embossment – Intellect (Leatherworking) with Socket Bracer (Blacksmithing)
• Gloves – Enchant Gloves – Greater Mastery or Enchant Gloves – Haste with Synapse Springs (Engineering) or Socket Gloves (Blacksmithing)
• Waist – Grounded Plasma Shield (Engineering) or Ebonsteel Belt Buckle
• Legs – Powerful Enchanted Spellthread or Master’s Spellthread (Tailoring)
• Boots – Enchant Boots – Lavawalker or Enchant Boots – Haste or Enchant Boots – Precision (for hit cap)
• Rings – Enchant Ring – Intellect (Enchanting)
• Weapon – Enchant Weapon – Power Torrent or Enchant Weapon – Hurricane
• Off-hand – Enchant Off-Hand – Superior Intellect

Take Spirit until you’re happy with your mana regeneration. Haste is only useful up if you can hit soft caps, so don’t bother adding extra haste until you can reach the next cap.

• Intellect
• Hit Rating (to spell hit cap of 17%)
• Haste (to softcap of 30.77%)
• Critical Strike
• Mastery

If no one else in the raid is applying it, keep Curse of the Elements on your current target. Keep Fel Amor on at all times. Use Dark Intent as assigned, and use an Imp as your minion.

Single Target Rotation

• Use Soul Fire (to apply and maintain Improved Soul Fire)
• Use Immolate and maintain
• Use Corruption and maintain
• Use Bane of Doom and maintain
• Use Conflagrate on cooldown
• Use Shadowflame, if it’s safe to be in melee range
• Use Soulfire, if it’s instacast cast via Empowered Imp
• Use Chaos Bolt on cooldown
• If target is below 20% HP, use Shadowburn on cooldown
• Use Incinerate

Multi Target Rotation

Use Shadowflame on weaker group of enemies, otherwise use the following guidelines.

• 2 enemies
  • Keep Corruption/Unstable Affliction maintained on both targets
  • Use Bane of Doom on one target and maintain
  • Use Bane of Agony on the other target and maintain
  • Use Single Target rotation
• 3-4 enemies
  • Use Bane of Havoc on the enemy that will survive the longest
  • Use Immolate and Corruption on all enemies and maintain
  • Use Bane of Doom and maintain on one target
  • Use Shadowflame on cooldown if in melee range
  • Use single target rotation on any target that isn’t the enemy with Bane of Havoc applied
• 5+ enemies
  • Use Soul Fire (to apply and maintain Improved Soul Fire)
  • Use Shadowflame on cooldown
  • Channel Rain of Fire

Cooldowns

• Use Demon Soul on cooldown, ideally paired with Heroism/Bloodlust/Timewarp and trinket procs. Demonology Warlocks benefit the most from an Imp, so use Demon Soul: Imp.
• Use Summon Doomguard when you have as many buffs as possible, generally at the start of the fight — unless you are facing a large group of enemies that require burst, in which case you can Summon Infernal