[6.0] Brusalk's Destruction Warlock Guide

[toshax]

TL;DR:

• RoF is no longer in the single target rotation
• RoF may not be in the AoE rotation either
• Single target buffed by 8%
• Charred Remains mandatory for sustained AoE

Let's be real here. I don't know the numbers but with the loss of RoF ember generation, single target feels like it took a dip. Can anyone correct me on this?

[Killface1]

Is the (lack of) damage worth a quarter of your mana though?

Probably, you're not trying to weave it in anymore and you probably wont be running out of mana anymore without it being a part of your single target rotation. But if it interferes with your ability to handle mechanics at all, definitely not, since you'll get about 1500damage out of the entire duration haha.

[Medieve]

Let's be real here. I don't know the numbers but with the loss of RoF ember generation, single target feels like it took a dip. Can anyone correct me on this?

Single target feels slower, although it could simply be not enough time in front of a target dummy and low crit runs. I didn't see test damage going down, which is good, and all my delta's were showing a slight buff overall, but within expected error ranges meaning it could just be low sample bias. Still, my initial feel is a pretty neutral change in actual play to slight increase. The real issue I've run into already is trash pack AoE. It was already dicey at times keeping embers flowing, and now it's impossible unless you get that one guy tunneling a mob and you can SB snipe embers to continue.

Edit: Ran without Charred Remains, I'll have a comparison point tomorrow after work to see how they stack up, unless someone else can get one sooner.

Edit 2, kind of a sidenote: Brusalk, are you still keeping up with EventHorizon? I'm redoing my UI and wanna try it out, but don't want to get invested if it's falling behind (which I understand, you do a ton for us already ).

[Count Zero]

Let's be real here. I don't know the numbers but with the loss of RoF ember generation, single target feels like it took a dip. Can anyone correct me on this?

Don't have good data but anecdotally I feel weaker on single-target. Maybe just because it feels slower.

Ugh. I had just gotten used to my Terrorguard, but I'm gonna have to try CR again. can't stand how long it takes to generate embers without it. Maybe I got spoiled by only playing much Destro in MoP after I had plenty of haste.

[ZaneBusby]

Yeah, sorry, where on the front page did they comment on shadowburn/mana regen issues? Ctrl F only seems to turn up with an 8% gain on SB damage which also applies to CB and the rest.

The mana Regen was only an issue when RoF was in the ST rotation, because it's so mana intensive, and not having the Chaos Bolt cast time to regen mana meant we ran oom sub 20% because the mana return from SB was removed with 6.0.
Also, I thought you were asking if someone from Blizz had even confirmed that RoF had been nerfed, and implying that I was questioning stuff based off unconfirmed nerfs, hence why I said to look at the front page. My apologies.

They didn't comment but it has been a known issue for quite some time.

https://twitter.com/Celestalon/statu...98981967081472
https://twitter.com/celestalon/statu...95593799655424

Two tweets from Celestalon about SBurn and mana regen. Obviously they weren't using RoF for ST in their sims and that's why they weren't seeing what we were. Now it's a non-issue anyway. Lol.

Think Zane was referring to RoF causing mana issues prior to this hotfix. Now that it's worthless, Shadowburn gets to see the light of day again.

Yeah.

[Deleted]

Let's be real here. I don't know the numbers but with the loss of RoF ember generation, single target feels like it took a dip. Can anyone correct me on this?

I've only ran one CM since the change, but ST feels lower to me, but I'm not sure if it's just placebo since the rest of the dungeon is DEFINITELY far worse.
Felt like I was struggling to keep up with people who I usually don't have much trouble topping or keeping pace with.

The buffs certainly don't feel like they do anything more than offset the ROF nerf, and our ST felt mediocre at best before all of this came around.

[Derivatives]

Wait, are destruction warlocks not using supremacy and demonic servitude anymore?

[ZaneBusby]

Wait, are destruction warlocks not using supremacy and demonic servitude anymore?

Brusalk said this on the last page:

Use Sup/Serv if you're taking DServ.
Use Sacrifice if you're using Charred Remains.
Use Cataclysm if there is occasional burst AoE phases that line up with the CD
Use Charred Remains if you need to sustain AoE for more than ~10 seconds and you're not using Cataclysm
Use DServitude if you're not picking one of the other talents.

(So, for ST, Sup+Servitude is still best)

[Grizelda]

I really enjoyed weaving RoF into the rotation. It gave me something to think something to think about in the absence of last tiers 4 piece.

I don't think that they will get the results that they are looking for.

I wish someone at Blizz would take ownership of the class. Preferably someone who plays a Warlock.

[Derivatives]

Brusalk said this on the last page:


(So, for ST, Sup+Servitude is still best)

Thank you!

[Deleted]

I wish someone at Blizz would take ownership of the class. Preferably someone who plays a Warlock.

I hear things like that a lot, but the last time we had one person taking a lead, we got the MOP revamp which seems the root of a lot of the problems warlocks have.

I'd much rather the team just looked back at what USED to work and what was done in the past to address issues we're currently having.
I loved WOTLK / Cata design for the most part, though I guess that's not news to anyone anymore.

[xuros]

Went with GoSac and charred remains in Everbloom tonight. 28k on the boss with the bubbles. 20k on the spider and council. now the last boss i dipped down to 13k with all of the movement. AE felt meh unless the pulls were big enough to get lots of embers gen for ae chaos bolts.

Overall it felt ok.

[Grizelda]

@ Nagassh

Not everything done post cata was bad. I agree with your statement though. The prob seems that they can never take a step back to unite what worked in the past with what works now. None of the lock problems are insurmountable. They are sooo close to getting it right.

[PickleballAce]

Even putting aside the ember generation nerf, RoF on a single target barely ticks harder than a melee swing. That's just.......I don't have the words for it.

[Killface1]

So like, Blizzard is all about talent choices right? They felt there was a little bit too much bloat with all of the talents, and so they went to a 6 tier 1/3 choice per tier. I like that. And they did a nice job for the most part of keeping similar talents or things you might want on the same tree, so that you had some real choices to make. Do you want single target or AoE? Do you want to break your own cc's, or do you want to be able to stun others? But here's the problem: Mannoroths fury is completely worthless now, and KJC was worthless earlier. It doesn't really seem fair. So I think my proposal to Blizzard will be supported by the lock community and is in the best interest of locks everywhere: Nerf Archimonds Darkness to a 5% crit buff. It hardly seems fair to have one mediocre talent sitting with two terrible talents, making such an obvious choice. The only way to save locks everywhere right now is to nerf AD across the board. I shall send Blizzard, and my congressmen a sternly worded letter in hopes of a positive change.

[Aetherine]

Anecdotal observation and question here.

Hi I'm Will. I do the fire.

For the past week I've been grinding out Heroics, but am having some trouble with my AoE just today. My Fire and Brimstone isn't able to keep up like it used to. With five targets I've been able to Fire and Brimstone Incinerate and keep my embers level since I hit 100; fairly reliably without gear, smoothly with. Since the latest change (the one where Rain of Fire got gutted), I've been unable to keep my embers up with Fire and Brimstone. I don't know if it's some random change to my gear I've made (only replaced a 620 blue with Torva's Lightning Repository), but it's been a stark enough change that I'm actually coming here to figure it out.

And no, it has nothing to do with Rain of Fire on my end.

[Deleted]

So like, Blizzard is all about talent choices right? They felt there was a little bit too much bloat with all of the talents, and so they went to a 6 tier 1/3 choice per tier. I like that. And they did a nice job for the most part of keeping similar talents or things you might want on the same tree, so that you had some real choices to make. Do you want single target or AoE? Do you want to break your own cc's, or do you want to be able to stun others? But here's the problem: Mannoroths fury is completely worthless now, and KJC was worthless earlier. It doesn't really seem fair. So I think my proposal to Blizzard will be supported by the lock community and is in the best interest of locks everywhere: Nerf Archimonds Darkness to a 5% crit buff. It hardly seems fair to have one mediocre talent sitting with two terrible talents, making such an obvious choice. The only way to save locks everywhere right now is to nerf AD across the board. I shall send Blizzard, and my congressmen a sternly worded letter in hopes of a positive change.

Discuised mage in our forums, trolling?

[weakdots]

for cmodes running cr anyone using glyph of dark soul?

[Rayaleith]

The main problem now is that even with DServ, you could do some AoE dps with AD'ed FB'ed Incinerates, since RoF was there for the ember generation. Now they made Sup/DServ exclusively single target (it was really strong ST now it is stronger) which requires at the moment to keep embers for the boss pull... This is the most annoying imo.

Other than that, they try to make us take Charred Remains by making it more strong with the buffs and making ember generation much harder in this gear level. Well, we'll have to test and see.

[Kromus]

So I'm not sure if the changes were live last night when I was playing (EU) but I noticed my AoE damage absolutely stank in heroics using my normal stuff, mainly being MF and RoF. I was ROCK bottom during trash packs and was barely breaking 10k, it was embarrasing.

After a few packs I changed from MF/Servitude to AD/Cataclysm. Major improvement.

I'd only started putting in the Shadowburn + Havoc spam yesterday, but I was comfortably top of the meters for the rest of the fight.

My DPS on Single Target bosses was also noticably higher then it had been over the course of the last five days.

I'm going to stick with AD/Cata for now, while I wait to see if there is any tangible data advising otherwise.

Heroic dungeons is where I'm at while waiting on raiding (not even bothering with CM's) so need to burn down trash quickly and do decent on bosses, which on last nights evidence I seem to be doing.

VERY interested to see how Demo ends up after this latest rounds of changes. My favourite spec and would drop Destro in a second if I could go back to it.