Warlock Destruction PvE Guide for 3.2.2
Written by Faulken.
This video aims to address most of the common choices that are presented to current PvE Destruction Warlocks, if you want to discuss it’s content then head to the forum. Stay tuned for more guides presented in video format!
190 Comments so far
Leave a reply
Nothing that your guilds warlock class advisor shouldn’t already know, but it covers almost everything for those who doesn’t.
I think many people who are new to the warlock class, or to the destruction specc will have good use of this guide.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
220 
8
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Poorly-rated. Like or Dislike:
36 
145
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Poorly-rated. Like or Dislike:
15 
201
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
69 
14
Hit cap apparently doesn’t only judge miss chance, but if your not capped it just outright nerfs your damage.
Hot debate. What do you think?
68 
67
Also, being at 17% hit is great, but I usually sit at 15 or so (raid buffs included) and don’t find myself missing at all. Hit is, though, my agreed #1 stat priority.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
50 
17
In our line of work after hit, which i personally consider 14% because the druids and priests make up the rest. The next thing up is spell power, which is godly and then comes haste and crit. I have also noticed that sitting at 25% crit and up, up’s your dmg significantly compared to a lock sitting at say 20%.
Another question i guess i need to address is the meta gem requirement that you highligted. Chaotic skyflare diamond is the basic meta gem used by locks across wow for the most part. But from personal experience and countless hours of working the dummies, i have just come to reckon that if your at 25% crit, this maybe a better options for a meta socket (Ember Skyflare Diamond) which yields 25 spell power.
Other then some of the above comments i think its a great guide for destro builds.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
49 
16
The haste on spellstone is obviously more beneficial than the crit on the firestone but it’s the fact that the firestone gives you 1% extra damage from direct spells, seeing as direct spells account for >90% of your overall damage I found Firestone to be more beneficial for myself from my testing.
The reasoning is similar in my answer to your second question; the 25 spellpower on Ember Skyflare is better than 21 crit rating on the Chaotic Skyflare but it’s the second bonus on these gems which means that the Chaotic Skyflare easily surpasses it, the 3% increased crit damage makes Chaotic the only realy choice for both myself and others who have run simulations.
I think it is great that you run your own tests, there are so many variables at play in these simulations from different gear to personal playstyles, that I believe it still is best to test things out for yourself. If your finding better results with a different meta gem or stone choice then make sure you test it lots and if it’s still better then stick with what is best for your personal situation
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
108 
5
To the real point… my rotation is near the same as yours, minus the addition of a corruption cast in between Immolate and Conflag (as a filler since conflag isnt immediately available) Normally, if I dont cast CoE and Corruption running in, I would cast CoE > Immo > Corruption > Conflag > Chaos > Incin till Conflag is almost off CD then go by CD priorities as you mentioned in the video.
Adding Corruption into the rotation improved my DPS slightly, especially if kept refreshed. It is an extra GCD but at times it serves as a great filler in between Immo and Conflag. Just a thought.
I also just changed from Immo glyph to Life Tap and was wondering if that was a good choice. Now I also have a new spec to try out once WoW is back online. I copied my spec from a friend who had Imp Soul Leach and just never bothered to change it. Your SL spec looks much more to my taste. Thank you for all the great information.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
30 
10
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
22 
10
As an addition to Faulken’s reply, I hope you havn’t missed the difference between an extra 3% crit and the Chaotic Skyflare Diamond’s 3% additional critical strike -damage-, upping it from 200% to 203%.
This actually means that all your crit rating on all your gear gets a higher value. The more often you can crit, the more you can damage for 203% instead of only 100%, it’s -more- than twice as much.
In conclusion, the Chaotic Skyflare Diamond scales with your crit rating, up to a certain point. It’s more than just some extra crit and some extra damage.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
20 
4
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
28 
9
Thanks again for the great vid, im sure it will help out a lot of learning locks. =]
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
22 
3
Just food for thought. Thanks for the video, Faulken.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
10 
2
the reason that your damage decreases when you are not hit capped is because although you don’t miss, part of your spell can be resisted. Fully hit capped your spells will not be resisted
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
24 
4
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
18 
2
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
6 
1
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
12 
1
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
11 
2
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
21 
4
Hot debate. What do you think?
12 
11
im at 472 atm…should it be higher?
i have 2700 gear score hit capped and still am only pulling
4.2-4.8 dps…how do i raise it? should i focus on crit?
in sitting at 27% unbuffed
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
11 
7
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Poorly-rated. Like or Dislike:
10 
28
With the supression 3/3 you need 367.25 to be capped. SELF capped. During the raids, if you are alliance, there is a good chance there will be a dreanei in the raid. In that case, you need 341.02. If there is a shadow priest or a balance druid in the raid, you need 288.55. If there is Dreanei and spriest / boomkin you need 262.32 to be hit capped
You can check out hit calculator if you’re still in doubt
http://www.wow-track.com/hitcalculator.php
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
16 
3
Maybe it’s better if Faulken reply to you, since Warlocks are kinda his thing. But, from the research i’ve done, haste raiting gives more dps increase then crit rating untill 700ish haste rating. @ around 550-600 you get gcd cap with backslash proc / bloodlust or heroism. You should try getting your haste till 550ish, and maybe check out your rotation / build. Sorry i can’t help you more, i’m more in to healing
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
8 
4
Hot debate. What do you think?
8 
8
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Poorly-rated. Like or Dislike:
1 
27
The best tip was that he said to have your imp out and unphased during buffs. Your Imp is a critical tool in recieving a good bit of your crits, so always have him out.
I personally only DoT CoD unless I’m moving around alot on a boss fight. I hit Corruption only when I’m moving or running. Other than that I pop up Life Tap, Immolate, Chaos Bolt, Conflag, then Incenirate a few times. You can get 1 life tap per 2 rotation.
Pulling about 6k on average fights. This is a great starter guide, but leaves a lot of details out. But you can’t put per boss strats without experiencing them.
Rule of thumb…only DoT when moving, don’t DoT if you are just standing there blasting. You can always be casting Incinerate waiting on a CD.
If you aren’t hit capped you will rarely miss, just that your damage is mitagted.
I’m still not convinced totally that you can’t have too much crit or that Haste is > than Crit. I’ve tried alot of haste specs, but once you get 450-500 haste I think stacking crit is a good option.
One thing he left out is that Affl is > than Dest in T7 and Dest is > Affl in T8+. So if you are starting out in Naxx be Affl. That video is coming soon I’m sure.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
31 
0
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Poorly-rated. Like or Dislike:
4 
8
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
8 
3
Hot debate. What do you think?
5 
5
Hot debate. What do you think?
4 
4
And would it be greater if hit caped by gear and using 0/13/58 build with glyph`s: incin.+immo.+conf. ?
And to all ppl who`s having trouble with keeping up rotation I`d strongly recommend Event horizon addon. Made my raiding a lot easier.
…just google`it
cheers
Hot debate. What do you think?
5 
7
Generally accepted stat weights for destro warlocks as created by simcraft in case anyone was looking.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
8 
4
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Poorly-rated. Like or Dislike:
2 
5
Hot debate. What do you think?
4 
6
Hot debate. What do you think?
3 
5
Hot debate. What do you think?
12 
9
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
13 
5
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Poorly-rated. Like or Dislike:
8 
11
i choose to do a chaos bolt because u have to wait a second to use conflag right after, why not be casting all the time, then after CB confag can be cast with no wait and inc will be quick from the global cool down recovery talent(backdraft i think).
anyways this rotation works for me and i hope it helps out.
Hot debate. What do you think?
9 
7
Great Video, deff reccomend it. Everything I’ve come to find out about destruction warlocks was mentioned.
-Muj “Viral”
Shattered Hand
Like or Dislike:
2 
3
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Poorly-rated. Like or Dislike:
1 
4
Cheap, Instant cast, and what the heck you might as well do something while moving around and the more dmg the better.”
The DPCT of corruption is so low that the only time you should ever be casting it is when you’re moving, and for people that run 13/58 that time is saved for lifetap.
It’s not a free cast, nor is it instant. Does it have a cast time? No. Is it governed by the GCD? Yes. You’re wasting time casting it, period. It’s making you lose dps. Drop corruption.
Comments about the video:
17/54 (the author’s main spec) is not a top dps spec. It’s used during hardmode encounters because you take a lot of damage (aoe or otherwise) and you use soul link to mitigate some of that. 3/13/55 barely beats out 13/58 for people in the top gear rungs (hard mode t9, hard mode toc offset), since you can push more gear not itemized for hit rating and gain more spellpower using the lifetap glyph.
Author: You seem to imply that in the spec you use, you use lifetap glyph -because- you don’t have ISL. I get it, but it should be pointed out that the whole point of getting ISL is to free up a glyph slot for Glyph of Immolate by dropping Glyph of Lifetap, effectively increasing your Conflagrate damage by 10%.
I agree completely on everything else, though it should be noted that spirit is actually weighted nearly equally to crit (with spirit being a tiny bit better),
Good video.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
10 
6
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Poorly-rated. Like or Dislike:
1 
7
THANK you for having something about what curse to cast.
As a moonkin who has tried (and failed) to educate every warlock on his server about it, it’s nice to see someone who knows what he’s doing re: knowing when not to cast curse of elements. All I want is more dps for our raid but if they want to waste a GCD it’s their prerogative once I tell them about it.
Like or Dislike:
4 
3
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Poorly-rated. Like or Dislike:
1 
4
1) I’ve noticed that my immolate ticks were very low on the list in my damage meter, even when I had glyph of immolate (somewhere around 1.5k per a tick). For this reason I chose Glyph of Chaos Bolt over Glyph of Immolate which means I can cast Chaos Bolt 6 times a minute instead of the non-glyphed 5. I think the extra damage from being able to cast the relatively low mana cost Chaos Bolt once more for every minute is a much better choice then the relatively low damage we get from immolate ticks. Especially when Chaos Bolt hits for 5k and crits for 14k at my spell power. It also lines up it’s cooldown with conflagrate perfectly making for a smoother cast rotation.
2) It’s important not to forget that Haste is a multiplier, and while it’s value has been calculated in comparison to other stats, that value changes. I always went by the book when it came to stats on my lock till I saw a lesser geared lock out dps by 800 points… Why? His haste was stacked. while I had tons more spell power then him not to mention I was hit capped and he was 120 points shy, he was throwing out 30% more incinerates then I could (and topping me in other casts too).
The point is your haste is reliant on your other stats to be worth anything, but once your other stats are there in force… haste trumps anything else you can add to your stats. It makes you crit more, hit more and even makes up for your hit rating if your below cap (since your making up for those misses with shear volume of the spells you can throw out.
Good guide though.. it takes hours out of searching and reading and puts it all into a nice video under 10 minutes
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
17 
1
1. Curse of Doom in top level raids is your 3rd priority curse.
a) You do 5-7k DPS at this point. Add that up for 60 seconds (the proc time for CoD which will hit for between 15-25k) you are doing over 300k damage per 60 sec. The 13% damage increase from Curse of Elements will net you 39,000 Damage in the same time period. End of story, not even close and the disparity is even greater if you do more than 5k DPS.
b) I said that CoD was 3rd. I also said “in top level raids” ie ToC heroics, and Uld Hard modes, so this pertains to encounters where you will spend alot of time on the move and casting CoA 3x does not hinder your ability to cast something else. The only time to NOT cast CoE is when another lock in the raid has already done so. Be smart, work this out before the encounter, I see way to many locks swapping curses with each other during encounters. Curse of Agony x3 (60 second up time) will always do more damage than CoD x1, you will have plenty of time to refresh this DoT while on the move in these encounters
2. You should NEVER cast corruption as part of your normal rotation.
a) Here is proof. Put up your CoE on a target dummy, turn on your recount to overall damage and clear it out. Cast corruption, wait til it is done, you will see something like 3k damage. Well it took you 1 second to cast it (If you are at around 500-600 Haste) and you had a second in your 5-7k DPS which only did 3k damage. This means you lost 30% DPS during that second.
b) I said NORMAL rotation, this means all things perfect, feet planted in ground casting your face off, corruption has no place. Once you are on the move, it is appropriate to keep it up while you are moving as any damage is better than none while you are running.
c) Want a filler for your delayed proc on Conflag after you cast Immolate? Try casting Chaos bolt first, as it has a much faster cast time than Incinerate, you will benefit more from backdraft on 3 incins rather than Chaos bolt then 2x incin. (Note: Watch your threat when you combo Chaos Bolt then Conflag)
All this said the recomendation I am making in summary is:
CoE-> Immolate-> Chaos Bolt-> Conflag-> Incinerate-> CD Priority
Happy Blasting!
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
28 
4
You should also skip CoE if you have in your raid the following classes spec’d in to these abilities:
Boomkin – Earth & Moon
Unholy DK – Ebon Plaguebringer
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
14 
0
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Poorly-rated. Like or Dislike:
2 
6
The reason to why Glyph of Immolate > Glyph of Chaos Bolt is this:
Conflagrate
Consumes an Immolate or Shadowflame effect on the enemy target to instantly deal damage equal to 12 sec of your Immolate or 8 sec of your Shadowflame.
12 out of 15 seconds means that 10% damage added to your immolate is 8% added to your conflagrate.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
9 
1
Haste, as I said is a multiplier and it’s purpose is to make the stats above more effective. Without those other stats.. it’s usefulness is dramatically decreased. Which was my point, it’s value cannot be accurately determined as it must be addressed by the individual on a case by case basis.
As for haste becoming less valued above 600 that doesn’t make any sense to me. Haste cap is when your spells cast in one second or less. Since your global cooldown takes 1 second to let you cast again.. a haste rating that lets you cast something in less then one second is wasted.
At 600 haste even with Heroism/Bloodlust your immolate spell still takes longer then the 1 second GCD albeit 1.04 seconds. If you had 1000 haste and Heroism/Bloodlust Incinerate and Chaos Bolt would still be well over the GCD. That means your haste would only be wasted on immolate and that’s a worthy waste of haste when you can cast extra Incinerates.
Cusco, yeah after crunching the numbers I’m not sure what’s better, if you stripped it down to the basics… Glyph of Chaos Bolt wins out… But after talents (and I sure as hell don’t have the energy to crunch all those numbers) I have no idea… but for point of reference if anyone wants to crunch em…
Stripped down to the basics using no modifiers except for the glyphs (stats should treat both the same)..
With Glyph of Immolate:
Immolate cast 4 times will cause 5478 damage over 60 seconds.
Conflagrate cast 6 times will cause 6573.6 damage in 60 seconds.
Chaos Bolt cast 5 times will cause 8105 damage in 60 seconds on average.
Grand Total: 20156.6 over 60 seconds or 335.94 dps
With Glyph of Chaos Bolt:
Immolate cast 4 times will cause 4980 damage over 60 seconds.
Conflagrate cast 6 times will cause 5976 damage in 60 seconds.
Chaos Bolt cast 6 times will cause 9726 damage in 60 seconds on average.
Grand Total: 20682 over 60 seconds or 344.7 dps
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
9 
4
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Poorly-rated. Like or Dislike:
4 
7
Now you’re just being silly, My post was based off of my own observations and simcrafts that I have run, not based on what other people have stated…
“the reason being is the first boss came out the he was able to cast more spells.” Huh??
And finally, “thus devaluing haste..because haste requires time to catch up to a crit.”
How does that work? If I can cast 10% faster then you then I can cast 99 spells where you can only cast 90. With two warlocks in the same fight with the haste difference I just mentioned… the warlock casting 9 extra incinerates is going to have more chances to crit then the one with less haste… because he rolled the die more often.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
7 
0
“Does the improved healthstone really make a difference? It’s only +850 health per fight. I’d rather have 2 points in suppression so I can remove some +hit gems or gear.”
I think this is a great idea and I’d personally recommend it if you have enough high level igear to replace some of that hit gear. Thanks for that gnube and thanks to everyone else for continuing to share their thoughts on Warlocks, it’s very interesting reading them all
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
5 
0
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
19 
0
See now that makes complete sense to me… While I disagree that one wouldn’t be able to get that extra cast or two in, your absolutely right.
Since Conflagrate and Chaos Bolt are our two hardest hitting spells and they cannot be directly affected by haste in a positive way (atleast a way that makes them more powerful). Perhaps crit and spell power really do outweigh the benefits of haste. To be honest I’d much rather crit more often on those 2 then throw out a bunch of extra incinerates.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
5 
1
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Poorly-rated. Like or Dislike:
0 
3
First of all, if an enchant costs an insane amount of money and you know you’re going to replace the item within a week or two anyway, don’t buy the bis enchant. Other than that, always try and have the best enchants possible.
If you have a profession which offer enchants, they’re often better than ones available to all players. Rings for enchanters, shoulders for scribers.
Head: Arcanum of Mysteries *
Shoulders: Greater Inscription of the Storm **
Chest: Enchant Chest – Powerful Stats
Legs: Brilliant Spellthread
Boots: Enchant Boots – Icewalker / Enchant Boots – Tuskarr’s Vitality ***
Wrist: Enchant Bracers – Superior Spellpower
Gloves: Enchant Gloves – Exceptional Spellpower
Back: Enchant Cloak – Greater Speed
MH: Enchant Weapon – Mighty Spellpower
* = Requires Revered with the Kirin Tor-faction
** = Requires Exalted with the Sons of Hodir-faction.
*** = Tuskarr’s Vitality gives +15 stam and a minor run increase, very useful on hard modes.
Icewalker gives +12 hit and +12 crit. More useful overall, especially if you have a hard time getting hit capped.
Don’t forget to add a Eternal Belt Bucket to your waist. This is a prismatic socket, so I’d recomment putting a Runed Cardinal Ruby in it.
———————-[Gems]———————–
Red: Runed Cardinal Ruby (23sp)
Yellow: Reckless Ametrine (12sp 10 haste) / Rigid Ametrine (20 hit)
Blue: Purified Dreadstone (12sp 10 spirit)
What I personally do is that I see if the socket bonus is worth to get, I don’t aim for all socket bonuses. When I don’t think a socket bonus is worth getting, a good example of this is a blue socket with +4 critical strike rating (t8.5 gloves), I put a SP gem in there.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
13 
1
I only have one toon and its a lock i work hard on her and its really depressing to see my dps so low, I’ve tried all the information off various sites to try and increase it and often wondered why it wasnt easily accessable. thankyou for the video it covers alot of information i havnt been able to find. heres hoping my dps can atlast outdo the 2200 i’v previously managed. however i have one question is it better for me to keep with the imp on bosses or should i bring out my doomguard? i dont know alot about him but i dont see anyone using him is there a reason for that?
Like or Dislike:
2 
2
Wow, alot to take in there from the video to the end of the comment page.. I’ve only started playing since August 2009. lvled up my first toon to 80 lock, as demon, was pulling about 2.2k DPS. now i respecced to Destro, using the similiar build as the video mentioned. now my question about the rotation choice. Curse of Element OR Curse of Doom?? i just want my DPS to be off the charts and be GOD OF DPS! somethin like that, currently im hittin Life Tap first, then CoD, Immolate, Conflagerate, Chaos bolt, Incinerate, rinse and repeat. pullin about 1.7k dps, 2k (IF IM LUCKY) is it my gears? (ElPerdedor is my toons name, it means The Loser) any suggestions? thoughts? Tips? Advice?
Like or Dislike:
2 
1
I assume this is you:
http://us.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Moon+Guard&n=Elperdedor
1. Get two rings
2. Buy Evoker’s Charm instead of Frozen Tear of Elune; Warlocks has no use of mp5, at all.
3. Get these two trinkets: Abyssal Rune & Sundial of the Exiled
4. Run a lot of heroics, buy t8.5 helm and chest.
Don’t forget that you can exchange conquests for valors, and valors for heroisms. There’s a lot of gear for you to get with emblems.
Enchant your gear, add a belt buckle to your waist, put gems in all of your sockets. Never uncommon gems, only rare and epic.
Once you get gear you wont replace that easily, only put epic gems in your sockets. See my post above to see which enchants and gems you should have.
If you do all of this, your dps will be a lot higher.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
10 
1
Second, Crit vs. Haste
Now in my guild there are 2 warlocks both destro, Me and another. He has Slightly better gear and about 300 more haste but also 3% less crit. As I’ve been experimenting with various gems and spec builds I’ve repeatedly found that crit gives me more overall dps. However during raids me and the other lock are generally are neck and neck. I would also like to mention that I’ve managed to spec Imp SB because our mages are lazy but i do get Focus Magic for my troubles. So imo the value of crit and haste are fairly even. However as most people have been saying haste is a very vital stat because even tho you can’t stand there and cast and get the “extra” spells off you do cast faster and in various fights where movement is the key, the quicker you get the cast off the sooner you can move.
For Example: Hodir, I’ll use random number for examples. Lets say you have 400 haste and you cast 5 spells before you have to move. Now say the person next to you has 700 haste and get 6 cast off.
This is where haste would win. Please note this doesn’t take into account for campfires or crit buffs.
Another Example: Yogg, No movement but do you really want to be looking at him when he does his gaze. No.
You have roughly 10 sec to cast before each gaze so giving yourself time to turn away and back say roughly 8-9 sec. Haste would prevail here also. The most spells you can hurl at his ugly face in that 8-9 sec the better.
Now I know I said that imo crit is better, but there are times when I wish I had more haste.
Hot debate. What do you think?
8 
5
Cusco — thanks for listing the enchanting suggestions.
Does the Tailoring Cloak Enchant (Lightweave Embroidery) trump the haste enchant if it’s available?
Also, regarding AoE. Assuming Rain of Fire > Seed of Corruption (as pointed out earlier in comments), what is the “magic number” of mobs for swapping to AoE vs. single target dps? In TBC, for instance, it was worth it to start seeding if there were 4+ mobs, otherwise SB spam was still more efficient.
And finally, what would be the suggested “tipping point” for going with the LifeTap glyph over the Immolate glyph? (it was mentioned “once your gear was good enough”, but wasn’t sure exactly when that point was).
Great video — very easy to understand & not condescending. Appreciate all the helpful comments as well!
Like or Dislike:
3 
1
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Poorly-rated. Like or Dislike:
1 
4
this was an awsome guide, with just these tips i boosted my DPS from barely over 2k, to 3.5k (on dummy) knowing raid buffs do what they do i can probobly expect to hit 4k
Like or Dislike:
4 
2
Im wondering when I should switch over from the immolate glyph to the life tap glyph. I have 493 spirt as of now. Any help is appreciated.
Like or Dislike:
1 
1
Very nice vid. The comments following helped a ton. As a lead lock in my guild I am expected to be the best, along with helping other locks to increase thier performance as well. I realized through these comment that I was going about a few things very wrong. I changed 3 gems and switched my rotation by just 1 spell and my DPS increased from (7-7.5k) to (8-9k) in most ToC fights. Thank you all for the advice. I will be passing this info and site on to my guildies.
Like or Dislike:
0 
1
Good guide for beginner locks and for discovering a tip or two that might have been overlooked by an experienced lock.
Like or Dislike:
2 
2
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Poorly-rated. Like or Dislike:
0 
10
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Poorly-rated. Like or Dislike:
1 
6
Poorly-rated. Like or Dislike:
3 
6
My turn to ask you guys a question.
I live in Sweden, but I play on US servers. My guild-raids start at times like 2am – 5am my time, so I can’t really guild raid.
Therefor, the only raids I can expect to get done every week is Ony 10/25, Voa 10/25 and Toc 10. Toc 25 happens, but it’s not very often I can join a fresh run which is successful.
I recently OS-rolled on the 232 chest which drops from 10 Anub, despite it not really being an upgrade. (Do note, though, that I was the only one rolling. I would’ve given it away if anyone would’ve needed it, ms or os)
I use t8.5 gloves and chest and I’m thinking of swapping to the new chest and 232 t9 gloves.
My current stats self buffed (no fire-/spellstone) is:
SP: 2998 (damn that 3k)
Hit: .5% above capped
Crit: 22.98%
Haste: 358
If I swapped to the new gloves and chest, I’d gain/lose:
Stamina: +3
Intellect: +16
SP: -26.6
Hit: +-0
Crit: +63
Haste: -10
As you can see, there’s a loss in both sp and haste, but a gain in crit. I think I need more crit.
I can’t decide wether to keep my t8.5 pieces or if I should switch to the t9 232 gloves and the 232 chest.
I currently have 2/5 t9 (both 245) so when I get my t9 legs, I wouldn’t gain nor lose any set bonus, seeing as t8 set2 and t9 set4 is the exact same thing for a destru warlock prior to 3.3 and the release of the corr haste glyph.
I really cannot decide what to do, so I’d love to get more opinions from other locks.
Like or Dislike:
1 
2
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Poorly-rated. Like or Dislike:
1 
5
Im curious to find out what other locks are pulling for dps on dummies, after a full mana use of 20k.
Currently I’m pulling 4.7-5k, using firestone/felarmor, and life tap glyph, on a dummie. I feel it’s to low considering my gearscore. When in raids lower geared locks surpass my dps. It makes me think, “wow, what the hell am I doing wrong?’
My rotation is; LifeTap1-> Curse-> Immolate-> ChaosBolt-> Conflag-> Incin x 5 repeat immolate-> CB-> conflag-> incin x5
There was mention of CD prioritys. Should I be casting conflag/CB as soon as they’re ready, and not keep to my current rotation?
Another thing is the Crit Vs. Hst argument. Locks pulling more DPS have higher crit %. This is important note, considering in ToGC we need high burst DPS.
As destro, I feel we are getting screwed by how much gear dropping has hit, leaving us without crit and hst on items. Im currently piecing ToC 25 gear together. What are your guys thoughts on the pros/cons of getting the t9.25 set?
If you guys get a second please take a look at my set, any reccomendations would be appreciated.
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Shattered+Hand&n=Muj
Thanks,
Muj
Like or Dislike:
2 
1
muj,
With that much hit you should be running that 0/13/58 spec you have A LOT of HIT All most too much if im correct. but other then that your gear looks great.
Like or Dislike:
1 
2
Muj you have too much hit. 446 is hit cap and you have 500. Replace with crit and spell dmg IMO.
Like or Dislike:
3 
4
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Poorly-rated. Like or Dislike:
0 
3
awesome! with the basis reference to this video guide for warlock in destrc talent, I knew more about rotation to lvl up my dps. ty somuch.
Like or Dislike:
0 
2
Can we talk about aggro? I found that when i stacked lots of crit (30% ) and was hit capped…i drew lots of aggro. and i AM conservative about when i start dpsing. there were times i had to just stop dps for a few sec’s. i am considering adding another point in grim reach. i use 13/58 spec.
Like or Dislike:
1 
3
I have enjoyed reading all of these comments and am begging to find out of anyone else is as upset with the tier 9 bonuses as I am…..seems too much the same as the 8.5 bonus. I was in full 7.5, then 4/5 8.5 and am now in 4/5 tier 9 with the 245 robes and the non tier 245 pants (which I will be swapping out for non tier 245 gloves when I get my next trophy for 245 tier pants). I find that Blizzard seems to be taking more and more haste away and every time I change tier sets I have to go through a massive adjustment to get my dps back to where it was before I can finally squeeze out a little more. It feels as if they are working really hard at getting us ready for the day when we no longer have +SP and such.
I have found that hit is almost impossible for me to get rid of. Currently, while raid buffed, I am at least 3% over hit cap and I have no hit gems. My biggest problem is that almost every piece of gear these days has hit on it and my second best trinket is The Living Flame. I tried to swap it out for someting else (tried embrace of the spider, the valor badge trink, and the darkmoon card, but the +595 SP on the living flame is really hard to make up for with anything else. I like to save it for when hero pops and my dps gets higher than the other trinks.
I guess my biggest question to everyone is how are you adjusting to the lack of haste on the new gear. All gem slots but my 2 blues and 1 haste gem are currently filled with sp so my casts are sticking around 1.8 secs. Am I just picking the wrong non tier items or should I throw a few more haste gems into my gear? Elitist Jerks say to pass over all slot bonuses for the improved SP, but I havent heard anything about stacking haste over crit until now.
I guess I should also say that my rotations include corruption (CoE, corr, immolate, chaos, conflag, inc, inc, inc, immolate, etc, etc) I am not using the life tap glyph, but after watching the vids I am wondering if my bonus from that will trump my 5% + dam from incinerate.) I stay towards the top of the charts these days….usually 3-5 overall damage, but with tier 7 and 8 I was always 1 and 2 and I want it back! My dps just seems to vary too much with these boss encounters….sometimes I am at 4k and other times I am up to 6k.
Anyway, I am not even sure if I am making sense at this point so please, feel free to check my armory and give any advice if you like. Thanks in advance. :p
Like or Dislike:
2 
2
” grizelda
November 1st, 2009 | 8:14 pm
Can we talk about aggro? I found that when i stacked lots of crit (30% ) and was hit capped…i drew lots of aggro. and i AM conservative about when i start dpsing. there were times i had to just stop dps for a few sec’s. i am considering adding another point in grim reach. i use 13/58 spec. ”
I too used to find that aggro was a big issue……it still is sometimes. My biggest problem with aggro was the tank. I always give the tank a good 3-5 secs before I go all out. My rotation allows for it, I will cast my surse, then corruption, then immolate and chaos bolt, conflag. By the time your 2 hard hitters (chaos bolt and conflag) hit, the tank has had at least 5 secs to get threat established. If the tank is pulling enough threat then you should be good for at least 1.5 minutes of steady assault. Sometimes the tank has to move and you pull a little too fast so just stay ready with your shatter and give him another few secs with your beginning rotation minus your coe. That should take you through the rest of the fight. If it gets to be a big problem call out for a pally to sanc you or if the tank is a warrior make sure you are getting vigilance. The only other thing you can do is stop casting and yell at the tank to get better….lol
Like or Dislike:
3 
2
I have been 80 for a little over a month or so, and found the video to be very helpful especially with the talent build. I plan on making my specs go 3/14/54, any other advice is greatly appreciated. My realm is US Darkspear.
Like or Dislike:
2 
1
I found the vid. very helpful, ive been looking for help. I dont really have time to do research so even tho I think I have good gear, my dps is not nearly as high as others who are pretty much equal or close too it with gear and stats. My dps is usually around 2.4K in raids.this is my armory link.
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Tortheldrin&n=Zolstar
My rotation is. Lifetap rk1, CoE, Immo, CB, conflg, immo, spam incen, then cast according to cool down and priority
I have been increasing my gear and my dps levels have not increased much, what am I doing wrong? Also when someone ask me what my dps is, do you give what it is on dummies or in raids cause mine is always diffrent?
Like or Dislike:
1 
1
Add: I will start using CoD most of the time now unless there or no other casters present then use CoE is that right? Any advice on spec changes or gear recoomendations , enchants, glyphs or any other changes I should make would be GREATLY appreciated thank you!
Like or Dislike:
0 
1
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Poorly-rated. Like or Dislike:
0 
3
Zolstar ,
Why are you using a melee ring? The 1 Ring would help your dps more, to be honest.
The hit cap is 17% (446 hit rating). This information can be found in two comments on this very page And in the video. Not to mention that most casters know this already, it takes less than a minute to ask this question in trade and get a correct answer.
Why do I even mention that? Yes, because you’re at 22.37% and therefor you have a staggering 5.37% hit doing no good what so ever. Get rid of it, replace it with whatever you want. Stamina is more useful, even strength is more useful ’cause you might somehow accidentally hit a boss with a melee hit. Hit rating above the hit cap really is worth that little. It’s worth 0. You can be at 238% hit and you still wont get even 1 dps higher than if you had 17%.
Also, swap out your glyph of Immolate / Life Tap to Glyph of Conflagrate. That way your immolate doesn’t get consumed when you use conflagrate, and you won’t have to put up immolate twice in your rotation.
Problem solved.
Like or Dislike:
4 
2
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Poorly-rated. Like or Dislike:
0 
3
Well i jst did the re-spec today n soared to the top of the dps charts for H DTK & H ToC. The video once again a huge help
Like or Dislike:
2 
2
I have written a small addon that handle all the destro rotation.
It is called easyDestro and can be found on curse: http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/easydestro.aspx
Like or Dislike:
2 
2
Great info. I am trying the life tap rotation and is not as difficult to implement it into the rotation. i was wondering what was the song you use for your video.
Like or Dislike:
1 
1
It really doesnt matter if you cast Chaos Bolt before Conflag. Unless the raid boss is right in your face, you will get Conflag off before the Chaos Bolt hits.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
just a simple question i’m well over hit cap now im at 509hit and i want to respec but i dont know if i should keep my immo glyph or switch it ouch with the life tap glyph….for those who use the life tap glyph would you say that it ups your dmg more than the immo glyph does with the 15% dmg increase to your immo dots?
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
I don’t know anything about you except the fact that you’re at 509 hit (get rid of a lot of it if you can). But based on your hit, I’d keep the immolate glyph (which btw isnt 15%. It’s 10%, but note that 10% increased damage on immolate equals 8% increased damage on conflagrate as well).
Life Tap glyph requires you’d need to life tap at least once every 40 seconds.
Since you’re at 509 hit rating, I really hope you arn’t using 3/13/55. I hope you’re using 0/13/58 – if you’re destru or becoming destru, that is. That’d mean you have ISL, which basicly gives you more mp5 whilst casting = you don’t need to life tap as often.
Since you wont have to life tap very often with ISL, there isn’t a 100% chance you’ll have to life tap once every 40 seconds and therefor you dont know if you’re going to have a 100% uptime on the life tap glyph on each fight. Any life tap is a dps loss, so the start of a fight is the only time you should ever life tap without needing mana, at least in my book.
This is how I personally see it:
3/13/55 = Life tap glyph
0/13/58 = Immolate glyph
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
5 
0
Nice video …
Anyone know the Name of that background song ?
Like or Dislike:
1 
3
Its a good guide, really close to my rotation, and my build is a little different. I like to use:
COE-COR-Immolate-Conflag-Chaos Bolt-Incinerate spam
And with his stats I found that after about 250 haste and with 25% crit that its best to just stack SP. I had gemed for haste and my incinerate went from 2.1 seconds to 2.06 seconds with 40 haste increase, so SP,Crit, and haste is my priority. But very good video overall… whats the music in the background?
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
So, should I be using Seed of Corruption or Rain of Fire on trash pulls?
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Enjoyed your video. informative for sure. i noticed a reply above to the video above that suggests to use corruption as a filler in between immolate and conflage. then use corruption as needed while on the move. If anyone asks me on my server how to warlock dps, i strongly suggest to do that. Also the third spec you mentioned in your video is my favourite. I challenge hard modes every week, and i find the extra up time on casting abilities very useful for maximizing dps.
To Evilgizmo’s question above, Use Rain of fire on AoE pulls <3
Thanks for the awesome video
Like or Dislike:
2 
0
[...] wow track build Hi guys, whilst wondering around the net I found this Warlock Destruction PvE Guide for 3.2.2 | WoW-Track its interesting that they say not to run the LT glyph on the w/o suppression build they also [...]
Like or Dislike:
1 
1
hey cusco thanks for the info and yeah i meant 10% and no i was using the 3 in suppression because i wasnt hit capped and now that i have the gold to re spec im going back to 13/58 and keeping the immo glyph…thanks so much
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Poorly-rated. Like or Dislike:
1 
4
Just a note for any new players out there who only hear hit > sp > haste > crit…etc. Note that it doesn’t mean any piece with hit is better to get then one with other stats. A piece with 80 sp and 40 hit is not better then a piece with 80 sp 35 haste and 30 crit…regardless of what your hit is at. Prioritize hit up to the hit cap, but take the piece that is overall the best every time.
In BC I was usually 80-100 hit behind the 3 other warlocks in our group. But I had 5-6% more crit, and I would laugh at them all the way down the meters. In wrath, my lock is an alt. He runs about 240 hit, but more crit then our main locks in his scrub gear and was only pulling about 400 dps below the mains. Balancing is key. If you feel you aren’t pushing the numbers for yoru gear, you are likely just overstacked in one area and weak in another. All the stats feed off each other
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
awsome video, great infor in all the postes. I am woundering what is better glyph of immo thats dishes out a 10% periodic dmg to immo or glyph of life tap that grans 40% of spirit into SP?
Thanks
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Nice guide along with several useful comments.
After reading through everything on the entire page, though, I did not see any mention of one thing that, I think, is well worth pointing out.
Hit rating is directly connected to crit rating. This is another reason why hit is THE most important stat for any spell caster class.
Basicly 100% hit (whether 446 in an improper raid environment or 368 in a proper raid environment) means that the crit strike percentage shown in your crit stat on your character screen is the the actual crit you have when you hit with a spell. As your hit rating drops under 100% it effects that crit rating stat shown for purposes of the actual crit your receiving against a lvl 83 boss. You will never see or know that this modification is taking place by looking anywhere on your stat’s, but it takes place just the same.
For example and for purposes of explaining this further, lets say that the game-mechanics first “roll” for a hit and then “roll” for a crit. After a successful hit, crit chance is modified internally based on hit chance. The less hit a caster has, the more their crit is modified downward, internally, on a successful hit. So, and again for example, an extremely low hit rating, even when a spell hits successfully, can reduce the shown crit chance to next to nothing, even though it may be shown on a character screen as 25%. A person with uncapped hit rating might say “Well, even though my hit is low, I only miss 0.7 percent on wowwebstats/worldoflogs so instead I stack haste/crit”. That may very well be true, but the person doing so likely never realizes that being under the hit cap (soft or hard, depending on raid make-up) is losing a large amount of the crit they are seeking to stack in the first place, when a spell does by chance hit successfully.
The following is pasted from wowwiki and confirmed by Blizzard CM “Eyonix”:
The effect of Hit chance on Critical Hit chance
Unlike the melee combat system, spell crit makes absolutely no difference to hit chance. All spells, regardless of whether they are treated as binary or not, roll hit and crit separately.
Conceptually, the game rolls for your hit chance first, and if the spell hits you have a separate roll for whether it crits.
Overall chance to crit over all spells cast is thus affected by hit rate. To calculate overall crit rate, multiplying the two chances together:
crit rate over all spell casts = crit * hit
For example, a caster with no spell hit rating gear or talents, against a mob 3 levels higher (83% hit chance), and 30% crit rating from gear and talents:
crit rate over all spell casts = 30% * 83% = 24.9%
As the wowwiki excerpt states, the person with zero hit loses a whopping 5.1% crit on a successful spell hit against a level 83 boss. This will not do.
Get hit-capped, be hit-capped, or suffer secret crit loss.
Other side notes that have been stated previously:
Don’t waste global cooldowns on corruption/agony unless you are on the move to avoid damage. Less is more. A simple rotation/priority involving immolate, conflagrate, chaos bolt and incinerate spam will put out more dps than dropping a curse or other DOT that will steal precious seconds off your other casts. Drop a curse of doom when you can, throw a corruption while moving, but otherwise don’t waste your time while standing and casting as oftentimes it will kill your dps, rather than enhancing it. The only DOT that MUST be kept on at ALL times is Immolate, and be sure to ONLY refresh it exactly as it expires. Refreshing it when it has only ran halfway through its course waste the cast time, the global cooldown, AND the DOT ticks it would have done if it had been allowed to run its entire course.
Also, CoE is a useless spell in any properly-formed raid which contains the previously mentioned Unholy DK or Boomkin. Don’t bother with it, use Curse of Doom. As far as the overall damage debate for 1 minute of CoD vs 1 minute of several casts of Curse of Agony, yes, it’s true that CoA will do more damage over 1 minute than CoD will. But within that minute CoA must be cast 5 to 6 times, which equals a loss of 5 or 6 global cooldowns and less casts of direct-damage spells such as incinerate and chaos bolt. Don’t use CoA, it’s a waste, unless you’re on the move and the boss is almost dead. The same goes for Corruption, as I’ve stated above.
As for the debate of haste vs crit, too much of any one thing is bad. Seek a balance. Haste outweighs crit in the long run, but not at the cost of all crit. 900 haste with 12% crit is just as bad as 100 haste with 40% crit. Go for about 475-575 haste and around 25% crit. You will crank.
As a warlock that puts out anywhere from 7,000 to 10,000dps, I can honestly say that, aside from all the good things in the tutorial video and posts that follow it, a major key to high dps and damage output is to simply not leave a single millisecond between your casts. While you’re casting one thing, be spamming the next key for the next spell in your priority/rotation. Again, you will crank.
For the new people who do not know: To unphase your imp (it should never be phased, it’s a useless skill) right-click the phasing skill on your petbar to remove the shiny swirl on it, then left click it to unphase the imp. He will never phase again. As a result, he will receive all those delicious raid buffs that make him hit harder and crit more. His crits effect your crits. You will crank.
I hope some of you all find these tips helpful, and thanks for reading.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
12 
1
Great Video!
I am in a situation.
I am a level 80 lock with a gear score of 2759. I work hard to try and understand the gear and workings of playing my toon. I have gemed and re-gemed to get better dps. I use the same rotation you mentioned. I have worked with the better locks on my realm to gain knowlegde on my lock.
The guild I just left kept compairing my dps to a lower geared lock. They said I didnt deserve to get better gear when lower level locks can out dps me. They then demoted me. They said because my “dps was crap compaired to my gear.”
My dps is 4k-5k on avg.
I have worked so hard to make my lock a good one. I know I am not that great of running and dpsing but… I am a good lock.
What am I doing wrong?
It is my gems or am I just slow? Or are they just wrong?
Ty for taking the time to look me over,
Starsong
Mok’ Nathal
Alliance
Like or Dislike:
2 
0
I have a quick Question about the hit rating stat. on my locks character sheet, its says that i have %17+ chance to hit, which i know is over hit cap. I am spec’d with the 3 points into suppresion for the +3 hit%. Now my question is does the charecter sheet stat take in consideration my talents? Do i have 17% plus the additional 3% from suppresion giving me a total of 20%? Or can i drop my displayed hit rating to 14% then have the extra 3% from suppresion added on to make it to the 17% hitcap? Ive always wondered about this and i hope somone can help me.
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
Stryker, To my understanding, 17% is hit cap. By saying cap, means that you get no other beneficial attributes from stacking more gear with hit. 3% from suppression and 3% from moonkin or spriest will lower the amount of hit required for your cap.
Numbers i go for are:
289 (11%) while specd into supression(3%) and spriest/boomkin available in raid
368 (14%) while either spec’d into supression OR boomkin/spriest is available (not both)
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
and to ” Toocents” reply a few blocks up, I’ve never seen this secret crit theory. i was wondering if you could link a website or someway i can access this information to read the full thread myself. thanks
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
When you build your spec into supression(3), does it change your hit stats percentage when you hover over the hit rating, or say I show 14%, does that mean I actually have 17% because of surpression? or is it already included?
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
It’s already included.
Like or Dislike:
2 
4
If you have 3/3 suppression and it says 14% on Character, you’ve got 17%.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
4 
0
[...] and provides a reasonable amount of accuracy for comparing gear. The is also a good video guide at wow-track.com. The only flaw I see with it is that it lists crit as more important than spirit. For lower geared [...]
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Thnx for you help guys.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
He was mostly right. I myself use glyph of choas bolt. Life tap didnt really look worth it. More Choas bolt is really nice to have. My rotation is basictly the same. Excpet i dont not leaving anytime between Cooldowns on Chaos bolt and Conflagrate. Both of those are on cooldown 99% of the time. I will looking into this video more to see what else every can learn
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
Polterhumen:
Not saying you’re wrong, but I think it feels kind of weird that a two second shorter cooldown on CB could compensate for what in my case is an additional 135 sp (before spirit-buffs) on all my spells.
I can’t test this out myself due to now playing on EU-servers = new account(can’t continent-transfer). So it’d be awesome if someone else could compare CB-glyph and LT-glyph and post their results?
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
above and beyond sirens of the sea great song
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
I also have something to add about haste/crit. You really do have to find a balance. My haste rating is at 750 and my crit is at 25.5% A fellow guildie lock went the exact opposite of me and has 290 haste and 31% crit. With absolutely no gear on, the cast time of an incinerate is 2.27 seconds. With his gear on, he casts incinerate in roughly 2.07 seconds. With my gear on, I cast incinerate in 1.87 seconds. I have nearly tripled my haste compared to my guildie, but I have only reduced my cast time by .2 secs. This means that in a perfect world, where my rotation is perfect and I never miss anything, after 20 spells I get 1 more then my guildie. But in that time frame, my guildie is crtting much more often then I am, which increases his dps. So I am now working to bring my haste down and my crit up and it has already greatly improved my dps. So in short, balance the two out
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
thanks for the upplad i really needed to know what i should do when i hit level 80, very nice
Like or Dislike:
0 
2
This may seem a little off topic, but can anyone tell me the name of the addon on this video that shows the damage of each ability? I would like to switch mine out as this one seems to not take up half the screen.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
EoT/-C/-V = Emblem of Triumph/Conquest/Valor
Head = 58 EoC
Neck = 19 EoC
Shoulders = 46 EoC
Cloak = 25 EoV
Chest = 58 EoC
Wrist = 60 EoV, BoE so buy this last of all
Gloves = 58 EoC
Waist = 28 EoC
Boots = 40 EoV
Ring = 25 EoV
Ring = 25 EoV
Trinket = 50 EoT
Trinket = 50 EoT
Main Hand = Spectral kris from Heroic ToC 5, or any other 213+.
Buy an item, put it on and sell it back for a full refound. Repeat with other items. When needed, exchange emblems for emblems with a lower..”value” (ie. conquests –> valors).
That’s what you need, really. 50 Triumphs and 60 Conquests.
I actually promised myself that if 3.3 would arrive before I got to 80 again, I’d obtain the [Epic] achievement within 24 hours of becoming level 80. Unfortunately, I was too fast.
Btw don’t forget that you can also use honor or whatever, I just wanted to calculate the amount of emblems needed for myself. And don’t forget that it doesnt matter if the item is a tank item, it only requires you to put it on once.
I think this achievement was truly an achievement in it’s time; before 3.1, but now it’s worthless.
I myself pulled 3.4k dps sigle target in 3 epics (ilevel 200), 8 blues and 5 greens on my gnome. I think that proves gear doesn’t matter -that- much.
And even if it would, the achievement [Epic] no longer requires you to actually have any more than two pieces of gear counting towards the achievement, as proven with this post.
Proof of 3.4k dps (no heroism, despite the shaman):
http://i49.tinypic.com/2nktjeo.png
Gear (remove ~150 sp, gear got better):
http://i47.tinypic.com/2iho4lc.png
TL;DR: Skill > Gear. The [Epic] achievement is neither a proof of skill, nor a proof of good gear. So stop requiring it, it’s stupid.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
6 
0
@ Mcjoose and Twocents:
I haven’t read the thread but it’s an intuitive concept that makes perfect sense if you think of it the right way. The explanation provided is correct but a little misleading. Hopefully this will clarify.
Basically, your crit % only affects spells that do in fact actually hit their target. Let’s say your crit % is 25%. If you cast 100 spells, but miss 17 of them, you will crit approx. 25% of the remaining 83 spells that did hit. So your effective crit % (the actual % of your total spellcasts which crit) is only (.25 * .83) * 100 = 20.75% crit.
If, on the other hand, you have only 21% crit chance and are hit capped, you won’t miss at all and your effective crit % will actually be the full 21%, PLUS you gain back all that damage from the spells you cast that won’t have missed.
For a more realistic example, lets say you are close to hit capped but still missing 2% of your spells. Your effective crit would in that case be .25 * .98 * 100 = 24.5%.
Like or Dislike:
2 
0
Amazing as always
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
I tried to watch this video after reading some of the great comments about it. However, being partially deaf, the music in the background blended in so well with the accented voice, that it was just a polite mumble-grumble of barely distinguishable words.
If it is in anyway possible, it would be very much appreciated if there was a version *without* the background music that could be posted in addition to the current one?
Despite not being able to follow the video, Faulken should give himself a hearty pat on the back for all his hard work… from all the positive comments, its obvious that he’s helped a good number of people
Thank you.
Like or Dislike:
2 
1
Excellent video. I recently respec’d 3/13/55 to get the points in suppression to up my hit and DPS.
I have bought the Bejeweled bracers and Merlins robe mats and have them made as well as bought the best enchants and put all epic gems in my gear. My brother is enchanter and my main is JC so that helped.
With all of this I remain under hit cap by about 4.5% (im around 9.5%). I used the +13 SP/ +10 hit gems in all but my meta required spots.
My AOE dps gets me closest to 3K DPS, my single target falls much lower at times. I diligently watch to keep life tap buff up and immolate buff. I cast CB and Conflag when they are off cool down.
Can someone take a peak at my armory and give some thoughts?
Dagrump on ner’zhul
Like or Dislike:
0 
1
What about the firing of your trinkets before all of your dot castings, rather than just with your incin. I didn’t see any comments with respect to this ordering
Asth
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
My most loved toon ever is my lock and my guild officers keep complaning about my lack of DPS for every raid we run. I installed Quartz (for lag-casting time) and followed every suggestion from Rawr as my gear allows it. I keep trying against de dummy but my DPS still rounds between 2200 and 2800. If I’m lucky, it gets to 3100. The video rotation is my own rotation, but it’s not working =(
Can any of you, warlock masters, help me? 3.3 is coming soon and I don’t want to be excluded.
Please take a moment and check my dear toon.
Mimidra – Ragnaros (US).
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Great video, it actually gave me a better idea of what changes i need to make.
however i still have a few questions,and i know that is no easy answer for this.
I am trying to have a balance on the different stats.
So far my this is my basic specs (with no buffs)
SP 2269
Hit 342
Crit 30.12%
Haste 302
1065 Inte and 514 spirit and i am using the suggested gems on my gear and almost every enchant that i could find to improve stats haste, sp and crit.
Based on the video there it should be ok to make a decent dps, but i still fell that i’m missing something here not sure if more Hit and less Crit will be the answer
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
with 3/3 backdraft, which you should have, you should always cast conflagrate before chaos bolt
Like or Dislike:
1 
1
síouxsie:
No. Chaos Bolt has a shorter cast time than Incinirate, and therefor you benefit more from casting three incinirates with your backdraft buff; you save more time. Time is dps.
Like or Dislike:
1 
1
I forgot to add that I don’t mean you shouldn’t cast three incinirates before chaos bolt, but that you should cast chaos bolt before conflagrate.
Like or Dislike:
0 
1
should*, not shouldn’t
(PLEASE add an edit-button, if possible)
Like or Dislike:
1 
2
Thank you this has been so helpful. I have been having such a hard time with my lock and really needed the guidance. This is going to make my raiding so much better. Thank you once again
Like or Dislike:
1 
1
I read way up near the top something about Chaotic Skyflare being less useful once you reach a certain amount of crit, but in reality it becomes more useful the more crit you have. The reason being is aside from the crit it gives you, it also gives your critical strikes increased damaged by 3%. That 3% sounds small compared to ruin, but trust me it’s huge.
Also, as far as spellstone vs firestone goes, I personally choose spellstone because point for point, you get more from 60 haste than you do from 45 crit. The 1% damage on all nukes is arguably better, but the 1% damage on dots in a round about way boosts your conflag damage because immolate counts as periodic damage and conflag gets it’s damage directly from how much damage immolate does.
All in all great video though. Thanks for posting!
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Ok so I have found that at about 2800 sp, 30% crit, and around 250 haste I was doing 3.5k damage and n matter what I did I could not bring it up… I tried stacking SP then Crit…both to no avail… Then I started regeming a few small things for Haste… WOW the increase. I jumped from 3.5-4k dps on raid bosses(with all of the buffs) to hitting 4.3k on HToC … I dont think I have ever hit that hard in a heroic b4… I think I have missed out quite a bit with having such a low haste rating… I always kinda wondered why I was doing less than other locks.
IMO if you can give up a small amount of SP to get haste do it. I would not suggest going below about 2600-2800 (self buffd). What I was able to do was drop some of the 23SP gems that I had that were mismatched into yellow sockets. I replaced them with Quick King’s Amber. ESPECIALLY if the socket bonus was SP. IF you get a socket bonus of SP and can add the haste then I would do it because you get a bit of benefit from both.
Here is my armory prof.
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Blackrock&n=Oberoth
(also with the new patch changing the black magic enchant to give more haste I would strongly recommend that if you are low on haste otherwise stick to the SP chant)
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
Is it good to have glyph of chaos bolt or is it a waste compared to having glyph of life tap
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
hardwarlock:
According to ElitistJerks, the Glyph of Chaos Bolt is labeled as “ignored”, compared to the life tap glyph which is labeled as “recommended”.
I suppose it’s of personal preference as skill is (within reasonable lines) more important than gear even for a faceroll spec like destruction. But if you want the numbers to be on your side, Life Tap, Conflagrate and Incinirate glyphs are the ones you should have.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Poorly-rated. Like or Dislike:
0 
3
so the lifetap glyph pays off more than immolate glyph?
just wondering in a long fight such as the ICC fights?
Like or Dislike:
0 
1
Bill.
Glyph of Immolate and Glyph of Life Tap was about equally good in patch 3.2.2, but since then, conflagrate has been nerfed.
Conflagrate was and is still the main reason for having glyph of immolate in the first place. So with this conflagrate-nerf, Glyph of Immolate sank in value, whilst Glyph of Life Tap didn’t.
The answer to your question is Yes, Glyph of Life Tap is better than Glyph of Immolate.
Frankly, the only reason I’m not removing conflagrate from my rotation all togeather, is the following three talents:
* Backdraft
* Pyroclasm
* Fire and Brimstone
Like or Dislike:
0 
1
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Poorly-rated. Like or Dislike:
0 
3
As a destruction warlock I’m at the top of the dps list or at least top 5 every ICC10/25.
This guide still works for me as of today.
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
Just a tip for Warlocks that use their Imps to improve their DPS in the Destruction tree. Remember to stay in range of Shaman totems when you can, both you and your imp…your Warlocks crits are increased by the totems, and so are your imps, which in turn increase your percentage of crits again – twice the bonus from being in range of the Shammy totems.
Plus, if you are going to be in an extended fight, make sure your Imp is alive. If your imp dies and the fight still has a ways to go (60 seconds or more), your total damage done would be better off to take the 10 seconds (based on talents) out from fighting and summon another Imp. Go to a dummy and test out your DPS with and without your Imp and see for yourself.
Like or Dislike:
3 
0
Can you tell me when to use AOE, I try not to use to as much as possible but once we get over three enemy the hunters and mages tend to out damage me ;(
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
What Callamity is saying is true, and a very good tip.
Also, if you happen to recieve Focus Magic, ask the mage to please recast it on your imp. If it crits, you crit and two crits is better than one.
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
HI first i want to say thank you for the video it was very helpful and i will be tring it out . I have an 80 warlock that has been an 80 for awhile and i have been trying every thing to get her dmg up and every one seems to be passing me left and right . So I am hopeful that this will help , I am so tired of ppl making bad remarks about it , it just makes me want to cry cause i am trying.
Thank you
Like or Dislike:
2 
1
Aeja – AOE when you feel like it! It’s your $15 a month!
OK, That’s not what you wanted to hear. 
I usually start to AOE with 4 or more mobs. With direct single target damage from a Warlock, 3 is boarderline. The faster you get a single target down, the less damage the tank will take. Once your DPS and your groups are stronger, you’ll probably start AOE’ing a large percentage of the fights in heroic dungeons just because mobs die so fast you’ll not do much dmg. This is because a warlocks dmg can take several seconds to really level out near the max, by which time most single targets are toasted!
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Cusco! Thanks for the compliment! It is appreciated!
Your tip is also very true and very clever! My guild doesn’t have many mages so they usually cast that on the healers. The next time I raid with our mage, I’ll ask him to buff my Imp and watch my DPS soar! Great tip!
Question…I’m curious how the crits would work out…getting crits on just the Imp crits, or getting 3% (is that right?) more crits on every spell I cast as a Warlock?
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
Aeja, sorry, I just thought more AOE facts. Often when I am going to AOE, I pick the target of the tank (where his threat is highest) and cast Immolate, Chaos Bolt and Conflagrate first, then start my AOE. If the tank is good I’ll cast a single DOT, then start AOE. I do this because if I start to AOE right off the bat, I may find out quickly (and in a bad way) just which MOBS the tank did not have a good threat lock on. You still have Soul Shatter, but with a 3 minute cooldown, why risk it? Plus, I have a healer that I enjoy playing and after playing a healer, I realize just how big of a pain it is trying to heal several people who cannot control there threat. I warn them a few times and if they don’t at least make some improvement, they tend to get less priority on heals as the dungeon progresses. I also play a tank and I understand what a pain it is trying to get a solid agro lock on MOBS when people start DPSing and AOEing too early. Many tanks will get initial lock on several MOBS and one will be pulled off, and the tank will not risk losing threat on the group to try and regain threat on a single target (lesser of two evils), so you are forced to Soul Shatter or deal with it on your own until the tank feels safe shifting their focus and regaining agro on the MOB that was pulled off early.
You mentioned people doing more DPS than you. DPS is a fun meter to watch, but it’s really not the important one. Someone can do amazing burst damage and die 10 seconds into the raid, and still do more DPS than you. What’s truly important is total damage done, which usually computes to not pulling agro and not getting yourself killed. Total damage done is what you want to watch. Total damage done is a strange best too. For example we were running ICC for rep last night and the shadow priest and mage had higher DPS than me overall, by 200-500 most fights. However, when I switched to view the total damage done for the set of fights, I was leading the charts, well over both of them. I don’t understand the mechanics of it all, but if someone is bragging about DPS, check the total…Warlocks seem to do better there, where it really counts. Last night we were in 10 man TOC and had bad luck and everyone died but a tank, healer, and shadow priest. When the druid/tank had time to battle rez, I was the person he chose (and usually the person he chooses) to rez if several DPS players die. Just play it a little safe and you’ll survive, which is the most important thing, even more important than DPS AND total damage done.
Like or Dislike:
3 
0
A great video. i learned a bunch from it.
Im posting w/ my toons name here cause no idea how to post the link for my toon. I play on Baelgun US on the horde side. My stats are
stam….1285
int…..1203
spirit…560
hit….344
haste….655
dam….2618 b4 felarmor
dam…3070 w/ felarmor
crit….24.68% b4 firestone
glyphs…..imol. confl. inci
im also using the 3/13/55 build, and my dps in raids is usually around 3800-4900
Also doing the Curse, imol, con. or CB depending on lag then spam inc. till a more powerful spell is ready. I raid buff myself and imp, use flask, firestone, everything.
so questions are
How is it that people in less gear are out dpsing me? Some are doing over 6k and i have a hard time getting 5k ?
I will hit really hard at the start of a fight. Sometimes around 6-8k in the first three sec., but then watch it fall to 5k. after the first three attacks, and by the time im recasting immol. im at 4k ……So how do i get my toon to burst back up to around 6k in the middle of the fight ?
Also found that at different % on crit….i will hit for bigger number w/ less crits. or crit a lot, but for less amounts. Like 22% gives me bigger crit, but less of them. 29% gives me more, but for less damage. All b4 raid buffs.
Any idea on why this might b ?
Sorry for length, all the stats, and any misspelling………Any thoughts or ideas would be great.
Also we always have druid, so the less than 1% hit that im missing is made up for.
Like or Dislike:
2 
0
On the subject of those of you who have brought up corruption.
In my testing, I’ve found that even if it runs its full length, corruption doesn’t do enough damage to justify the GCD to use it.
Like or Dislike:
2 
0
I agree WereWolfy. I only use Corruption when I’m forced to move, like if a boss tosses flame at my feet. Since I can’t cast many spells while moving, I toss corruption. I also use it in fights where you get the warning “Stop Casting!” Usually instant cast spells are not effected.
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
Genneside, I have a similar talent build to you, almost the same stats, but higher crit rating (around 31%). I make sure Immolate is up full time unless there is under 10 seconds in a fight left, then use conflagrate every chance I get, then Chaos Bolt, then Incinerate. I never use Corruption unless it’s a filler when I’m moving or cannot cast anything besides instant cast spells. I use Curse of Exhaustion on longer fights, and my dps is in the same range as yours, from 2,200 to 5,500. Although I usually find that I do as much or more than similarly geared warlocks. Sometimes mages, rogues and hunters will out DPS me, but at the end of the night on the total damage done, I usually beat most of them. I haven’t seen many warlocks with similar gear do much better consistently.
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
Rotface is a perfect example of when corruption actually is useful.
My guild uses a tactic where everyone, ranged included, stack on the boss, this to prevent additional damage taken from ooze aoe and borderline ooze flood. Corruption is then perfect to cast when rotating away from the slime spray, or when kiting an ooze.
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
I have an 80 destro lock and have tried to follow the video and use the rotation as described.. HELP my dps rarely gets to 2K and I don’t understand why. I am hit capped(actually a little over) and have all T9 gear. Working on increasing spell and haste(406) but time after time I come up with the same numbers. My wow-heroes # right now is 2400+ which I know will increase as my gear,gems and enchants change. What am I doing wrong? Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Nozferatu,
My raw gear score is 2540 before enchants, 2645 after (yeah, I have 2 new upgrades I still need to enchant:P). See my post above. You don’t use a spell rotation so much as spell priority. Always keep Immolate active unless you have around 10 seconds or less on the mob you’re killing. When you are about 2 seconds from Immolate reaching the end of it’s cycle, recast Immolate. Along with this, use the major glyph, Glyph of Conflagrate. This will allow you to use your next most important spell, Conflagrate, WITHOUT Conflagrate consuming your Immolate, and allows 2 conflagrates without renewing Immolate, and the bonus of a longer lasting Immolate (and saves casting time and mana in the big picture). After Conflagrate, the spell of choice is Chaos bolt. When Immolate doesn’t need to be recast, Conflagrate. If Conflagrate is on cool down, cast Chaos Bolt. If Chaos Bolt is on cool down, cast Incinerate. That’s the bulk of what you will be doing on single targets and boss mobs. If you need to move, cast corruption. If you are fighting a boss mob, don’t be afraid to cast Death Coil on it. They won’t fear, but you do a little damage and heal yourself a little. These are your spells that give you DPS. If you are fighting a boss, or a mob that has a lot of health, use Curse of Elements. It reduces the targets resistance to all schools of magic by 165 and gives you and party/raid members 13% increased spell damage. Not shabby for a 5 minute long Curse! You should use a Firestone on your weapon for increased damage. Don’t be afraid to use a Flask of the Frost Wyrm for 125 spellpower (I think 125?). I’m assuming you are always using Fel Armor too. For AOE groups, Rain of Fire is great, and Seed of Corruption, but Seed of Corruption uses a lot more mana which forces you to life tap (so you’re not casting DPS, not great) and this forces healers to heal you more, so weight the cost. Seed has a great bonus though…rain of fire is an AOE in a single spot, where seed of corruption will follow the mobs around if the tank is mobile and chasing mobs.
Beyond that, always offer “Warlock Candy” (Healthstones) and SoulStones, and offer to summon stragglers to events. It really helps people love you more.
The best way to make groups love you is to keep the tank and healer happy, meaning you keep an eye on your “Omen” addon so you don’t pull mobs off the tank. As a tank, it’s a real pain to get mobs set up and then chase them down again. And as a healer, I know healers get tired of healing people that can’t keep control over their threat level. Knowing this, keep SoulShatter assigned to a key you can easily and quickly reach. I have mine bound to the “V” key, which is more or less where my thumb rests.
Two other glyphs you may want to research are Incinerate and Life Tap. Life Tap is iffy…it is definitely a boost by giving you 20% of your Spirit as Spellpower, but it only last 40 seconds (which is great), but if you don’t refresh it when it runs out, it’s useless. There are addons that tell you when to refresh this glyph…renew alert (if that’s not it, that’s a good addon) or similar. Necrosis is a good warlock addon, but I have occasional problems with the spell timer bar. Your meta gem should be the Chaotic Skyflare Diamond too.
Don’t gauge your DPS on trash mobs…only worry about boss fights. If a warlock cast Immolate, Chaos Bolt and Conflagrate back to back, especially with crits, their opening damage is crazy. If I get crits on each, tanks are unable to keep a lock on their threat and I hit soulshatter and get yelled at by the tank (I do it on purpose to our guild leader at times for fun), but after this, your DPS drops down a lot, and over time levels out to a higher level again. If you didn’t know, you can cast a spell before the current spell has actually gone off. If I’m casting a 2 second spell, I start casting my next spell around 1/2 second to 1 second early and it preloads the next spell cast to cut out down time. I am not positive, but I think Blizzard did this to help equalize people with various latency times. Use it to your advantage and always precast.
Enjoy!
Like or Dislike:
3 
0
is the DPS meter people are using in the raids accurate? I plan on switching to DESTRO but i have been using DEMON because i didnt know any better and all my spells are mostly DOT with the exception of my shadowbolt. i know i am doing damage but the DPS meters are misleading. for example, seed of corruption and rain of fire on 3 or 4 mobs and my dps is as high as 4000. one mob and all my DOTs and one curse and my DPS is like 1500 is this correct?
Like or Dislike:
0 
1
Cazperrzo:
A demonology warlocks rotation/priority is as follows:
——————————
Boss is pulled –> 35%:
Dots to keep up:
* Immolate
* Corruption
* Curse of Elements/Doom/Agony (in that order of priority)
Spam Shadowbolt until Molten Core procs
–> cast three Incinirates
–> Continue spamming Shadowbolt
—————
35% –> Boss dies:
Dots to keep up:
* Immolate
* Corruption
* Curse of Elements/Doom/Agony (in that order of priority)
Spam Soul Fire
–> cast Shadowbolt ONCE every 30 seconds
–> Spam Soul Fire
——————————
Demonology is not about dots, it’s about everything:
* High damage from dots
* High damage from direct damage
* High damage from your felguard
* Low dps compared to the 500k you expected from doing So. Much. Damage. So. Often.
(Note: Demon has very good dps, I just mean it’s low compared to the 500k you expect)
TL;DR: If you’re ‘mostly using dots’ as demon, you’re doing it wrong. Very wrong.
(Also updated my website to my EU lock, instead of my US lock, fur teh lulz)
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
Cusco, thanks for the reply. I redid my tallents to Destro and my D’s went from 1500 to 3000 on “the dummy” and i still have to get my hit up, its only %10 ATM. what is your EU locks name and relm so i can spy him? thank again.
Cadperrzo
sentinals
US
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Thanks for the guide, it’s been a great help.
I feel a bit embaressed asking but what’s the soundtrack in the background of the guide?
Like or Dislike:
1 
2
guys, if you read thru the post you will see the name of the song has been asked three times already. RIF! LOL
Like or Dislike:
2 
1
cadperrzo: My EU lock’s character is linked in my name here.
Just click the name Cusco in this comment and you’ll get to my armory.
Like or Dislike:
1 
1
questions…
1. what exactly does sp do? is is 50sp = 50 damage?
and
2. is 115sp > 60sp w/ 5o haste?
pls help me learn how to gear my lock ^_^
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
what are people referring to when they say “tick” im sure it has to do with spells but im not sure what else. also, i missed the part about when not to cast COE, can you tell me this because i use it on every boss. ty!
Like or Dislike:
0 
1
do you not throw corruption down for the extra damage? you didnt mention it so im just wondering..
Like or Dislike:
0 
1
jkuss:
If corruption does a lower total damage than your dps, you dont cast it. This is the case in 99, if not 100% of the time.
Like or Dislike:
2 
0
In a Destruction build, corruption is not a good spell in most cases. The only time I use corruption is when I am forced to move, meaning the only thing I can cast are instant cast spells, or if for some reason I cannot cast anything but instant cast spells (like having a snobold on your head in TOC). Besides that, Corruption is not worth the cooldown in a Destruction build.
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
Hello. I am new into WOW (Warlock 57, Affliction type), but i though that destro warlocks with cca 5k crits are killers. Now, I have seen this and my eyes just drools.
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
Waki, then you should see my 19.5k chaos bolt crits as destru or 30.5k soul fire crits as demon.
Like or Dislike:
0 
2
Hello Cusco. Do not tell me about htat. I ll be jelaous.
I downloaded addon for DPS, and now whe I attack one “mermaid” (cca 52th lv.) it gets to cca 300 thehe. I thought that Stamina and Intellect are the most significant stats and I have not cared much about Spirit. I guess my bad. 30,5k oh helll…:-)
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
Regarding the specs, If you look at the first spec that is shown you could change some things.
If you take 1 point out of Destructive Reach (I think thats what its called) and put it in the talent below Soul Link, you get a 4% increase in your imp’s firebolt damage. This can be increased to 12% if you’d take both points out of the Healthstone talent (its pretty useless).
Personally I would probably keep 1 point in ShadowFury because it is a lifesaver and works wonders, even in ICC although its not required.
Like or Dislike:
0 
1
Great guide!! My char is 80 (chikung) on magtheradon realm.Our guild runs icc….I can’t seem to break 4k mark in dps. My gear looks solid. My rotations seem to be what’s discussed abouve in forum .Any help would be appreciated.. Only thing I see is I have 3/3 suppression and only 437 hit. Thnx for help.
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Poorly-rated. Like or Dislike:
0 
3
Didn’t really know how to link my armory..sorry . I did notice one thing tho. Most fights when I cast immolate>chaos>conflag ect I get Immune pop on boss or mob. Strange , just an observation. My posts seem like nub rants but I can’t seem to figure my low dps out.
Like or Dislike:
1 
1
Hi, have a DEST lock with gs around 4383, doing around 2000-2500dps.
Have a question, you are talking about conflagrate, but isn´t most of the bosses immune against that spell? 95% of the times that i cast it, it says immune… Know that it´s very powerful but useless if the boss is immune.
My rotation btw is
Curse of agony
Corruption
Immolate
Incinirate
Chaos Bolt , and then back to incinirate until the DOTs and the cooldown of chaos bolt runs out.
Any ideas on how to improve the dps?
Great video!
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
@Chikung… and Sweguy (if you’re serious and not trolling, anyway. With a gear score like that, I’m assuming you’re being sarcastic)
You probably have the talent that gives Conflag a daze effect. The daze is what they’re immune to, not the damage. The damage is dealt, just check your logs.
It’s something you notice when you try bringing an arcane mage into an instance. They’re usually immune to the slow effect. They actually had to change the way “Torment the Weak” works, piggybacking it on your basic tank’s attack speed slow as well as arcane/frost snares so Arcane could do good dps.
Like or Dislike:
0 
1
I have to quote this:
“Cheap, Instant cast, and what the heck you might as well do something while moving around and the more dmg the better.”
The DPCT of corruption is so low that the only time you should ever be casting it is when you’re moving, and for people that run 13/58 that time is saved for lifetap.
It’s not a free cast, nor is it instant. Does it have a cast time? No. Is it governed by the GCD? Yes. You’re wasting time casting it, period. It’s making you lose dps. Drop corruption.”
You’re an idiot. If you cast corruption right after conflagrate the GCD will be just about the same as waiting for it to cool down anyway and the DPS boost from Corruption is well worth it. I garuntee you a lock using corruption will out DPS you easily.
Like or Dislike:
0 
1
“Oh, and guys part of the reason you don’t cast CB before Conf is that you want Pyro on your CB. Dest Warlock = CB. Therefore you want to buff CB max as possible.”
I’m very conflicted on the max-dps casting order after Immolate:
*Prioritizing Conflag first means I actually have to PAUSE after the Immo and wait for Conflag to come up (become enabled). This excruciating pause is increased over and above the normal wait-for-Conflag time by my nominal 175-225 lag.
*Prioritizing Chaos Bolt first means I won’t get Pyroclasm on the CB BUT I’m not forced to pause casting- I can fire Conflag immediately after CB because by the time I have cast the CB, Conflag is up and ready.
I would very much appreciate some input on this. Every Destro Lock thread seems to be roughly evenly split on this issue- half say to cast Immo, Conflag then Chaos to get Pyro on the CB (and these folks don’t mention the Conflag arming delay), and the other half say to cast Immo, Chaos then Conflag to avoid the Conflag-arming delay.
Has anyone tested this both ways or is this the “Bermuda Triangle” of Destro Locks: full of rumor and mystery with no facts at all.
Malhexia
US – Blade’s Edge
Like or Dislike:
2 
0
CLARIFICATION of my post above:
I normally begin spamming the next spell button as soon as the one I’m casting actually goes off- this is to avoid unnecessary gaps between spells.
So when I said in my last post that I have to pause and wait for Conflag to arm itself after Immolate, I don’t actually mean that I stop casting and take a quick bio after Immo- I mean that I begin spamming Conflag as soon as Immo fires off BUT there is a considerable delay before Conflag actually fires, which means that there is a pause in my casting rotation because I’m spamming a spell that isn’t ready yet.
(Just trying to avoid the inevitable “you should never stop casting during a fight, you should always be casting something even if you are running” responses.)
kthxbai
Like or Dislike:
1 
1
After WEEKS of banging my head against the keyboard and bursting into tears during a raid, I’ve FINALLY upped my dps thanks to you, Faulken. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!!!!!!! /BIG KISS!
Like or Dislike:
1 
2
Wow this is a lot of help. THANK YOU!
Like or Dislike:
0 
1
I agree with the gem choices, but aren’t you forgetting that there are people with JewelCrafting.
Those who have that can use Runed Dragon’s Eye (+39 Spellpower) instead of Runed Cardinal Ruby (+23 Spellpower). Personally I dunno about what other gems a JC can make, but its worth the difference if you want to get the max out of gems.
Like or Dislike:
1 
1
I want to change to destro. Just wanted to know, what glyphs should I use? I been reading that you might not need life tap any more. I wanted to change to the 0-13-58 build. Also, if I wanted shadow fury, where should I take a point out of to get it? Thanks
Like or Dislike:
0 
1
I took your advice with the glyph of life tap and rotation and it maxed out my dps to 6k!!!!!
Like or Dislike:
0 
1
@Donmayo.
It shouldn’t be necessary to tell the Jewel Crafters to use their Jewel Crafting to craft jewels. There’s a difference between helping and hand-holding. It’s ok to leave a detail out of a guide if 99.9% of the people who watch the guide will say “No sh*t, Sherlock”. And for the .1% that can’t figure it out on their own… well, the gems wouldn’t be enough to help them anyway.
Like or Dislike:
2 
1
Well I assume this guide is rather old. I was looking for a confirmation on stat weights specifically the numbers I should be using to weight sp, haste, crit, spirit, and int and stumbled across this little guide. Some little things that are… simply not correct with this.
First the grammar nazi in me has to come out. If youre going to post a video as a guide and have people watch it spell shit correctly lol. It’s Conflagrate not “conflagerate” and its incinerate not icinerate.
Secondly the rotation is fairly solid however tossing corruption into your rotation and keeping that up will also increase your dps as a destro lock or any lock for that matter. It’s not difficult to incorperate that into your rotation.
Third your numbers are on par however you yourself have haste above crit rating in your stat priorities but you say to use a firestone over a spellstone. 1% damage to non-periodic damage wouldnt make up for the haste loss you take from not using a spellstone imo… also using corruption in your rotation gives the spellstone even more merit.
Like or Dislike:
0 
1
The move that you can Conflageration is actually called Conflagrate. Just thought you should know that.
Otherwise, thanks for the times on the gems and Life Tap. Didn’t think of making Life Tap a part of my rotation.
Like or Dislike:
0 
1
There was a debate about Immolate glyph vs Chaos bolt glyph and someone showed about 500 damage done increase over 60 seconds because of an extra chaos bolt. What the author forgot was that chaos bolt replaced an incinerate filler with is only about 20% or so stronger. Because you would have incinerated instead of chaos bolted you are only really gaining at most about 1000-2000 damage off that last cast (on a very well geared lock) vs an extra 3000+ damage from the immolate glyph (which double dips into your conflag damage as well.
As far as Conflag vs Chaos Bolt first: Your incinerates benefit more from the haste then your Chaos Bolt does and you do have to wait for conflag to enable initially, however you are also only talking about one spell choice that you might have to make 2-3 times over a 5 minute fight. The dps difference is nil outside of the extreme short term.
Like or Dislike:
2 
1
Nal, corruption is only used for affliction locks and must never be incorparated into your normal rotation as a destr lock. the choice is another incinerate while waiting on the CB and conflag GCD. this has been mentioned before, and in many other posts, so don’t get confused. take out corruption, unless of course you’re moving. (might as well cast something)
Like or Dislike:
0 
2
Kimmi, corruption is also very important for demonology warlocks. No corruption – no molten core – very low dps.
So that no one really thinks only affliction warlocks use corruption.
Like or Dislike:
2 
1