Destruction Warlock DPS PVE Guide – WotLK

Welcome to the PVE Destruction Warlock DPS Guide for World of Warcraft Wrath of the Lich King!

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

There are two main specs for Destruction Warlock. The first one is better when you can just stand still and use your spells. Soul Leech and Improved Soul Leech will allow you to be full health and mana all the time. You won’t be using Life Tap and will be able to concentrate on dealing damage.

The second build is more for a dynamic fight, where you have to move constantly. Here we don’t take Soul Leech and Improved Soul Leech because Unholy Power is considered to be more profitable in this situation. This build is for fights where you can use Life Tap without losing DPS because you will have to move anyway.

Major Glyphs

• Glyph of Conflagrate
• Glyph of Immolate
• Glyph of Incinerate

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

• Meta: Chaotic Skyflare Diamond
• Red: Runed Cardinal Ruby
• Yellow: Potent Ametrine
• Blue: Purified Dreadstone x2

• Head – Arcanum of Burning Mysteries
• Shoulder – Greater Inscription of the Storm
• Cloak – Enchant Cloak – Greater Speed
• Chest – Enchant Chest – Powerful Stats
• Bracers – Enchant Bracers – Superior Spellpower
• Gloves – Enchant Gloves – Exceptional Spellpower
• Waist – Eternal Belt Buckle
• Legs – Brilliant Spellthread
• Boots – Enchant Boots – Icewalker
• Weapons
  • Two-handed – Enchant Staff – Greater Spellpower
  • One-handed – Enchant Weapon – Mighty Spellpower or Enchant Weapon – Black Magic

Apply Curse of the Elements or Curse of Doom on the target. If you have an Unholy Death Knight or Moonkin in your raid then use Curse of Doom. If not, your usual choice is Curse of the Elements

Keep up Immolate and Corruption on the target at all times. Incinerate and Conflagrate are the main spells in your rotation. Chaos Bolt is used on cooldown.

Your pet of choice is Imp. It deals the most damage with this spec and the Empowered Imp talent, which gives us a 100% critical chance after the imp deals critical strike.

Stat Priority

1. Hit Rating
2. Spell Power
3. Haste
4. Critical Strike Rating

Spells require 17% to always hit the target. This number can be reduced by:

• Improved Faerie Fire (Moonkin) or Misery (Shadow Priest) – 3%
• Heroic Presence – 1%

With either a Balance Druid or Shadow Priest in your group, you will require 14% (367 hit rating). It’s safe to assume that you will have either of these classes in raids, where the hit requirements are the highest. [1% Hit = 26.23 Hit Rating]

Spell Power is the primary stat for the build as it improves the efficiency and damage output of all spells. It also converts partly into Attack Power and Spell Power of your pets.

Haste is another significant stat for Warlocks. It increases the number of spells you can cast in a certain period and thus drastically improving DPS. The soft cap for Haste is 50% (1640 haste rating) with raid buffs. Keep in mind that Haste stacks multiplicatively. Additionally, Backdraft helps to reduce the global cooldown of spells.

Critical strike rating is last on the list only because Haste outperforms it when stacked enough. It is still a great stat, and Destruction Tree has different talents to increase the crit chance, such as Devastation, Backlash, Empowered Imp, Fire and Brimstone, and a crit multiplier – Ruin. There is no cap for this stat.