[6.2] Furty's Destruction Warlock Guide

[MycantrumX]

Yes. Pure single target Chaos Bolt vs Shadowburn was up for debate but Chaos Bolt largely won out. However, 5% extra damage on Chaos Bolt alone is enough to make it better than Shadowburn, not even mentioning the reduction in cast time now. Only time we'll Shadowburn now is to generate embers or to cleave with Havoc.

Personally, I am happy with this niche use for Shadowburn. I never really enjoyed spamming Shadowburn on the boss and just being empty of embers in 5 seconds in SoO.

[Gaidax]

Don't know, I think it's a pretty weird situation where your execute is actually an inferior spell, but I guess they just can't do any better than that, because after they dropped Havoc to 15 seconds, Shadowburn became so cheesable that buffing it at expense of something else would give us even more issues in encounters where we can't cheese.

[Octa]

Yes. Pure single target Chaos Bolt vs Shadowburn was up for debate but Chaos Bolt largely won out. However, 5% extra damage on Chaos Bolt alone is enough to make it better than Shadowburn, not even mentioning the reduction in cast time now. Only time we'll Shadowburn now is to generate embers or to cleave with Havoc.

It's so weird to have your execute spell suck so badly lol

[MycantrumX]

Don't know, I think it's a pretty weird situation where your execute is actually an inferior spell, but I guess they just can't do any better than that, because after they dropped Havoc to 15 seconds, Shadowburn became so cheesable that buffing it at expense of something else would give us even more issues in encounters where we can't cheese.

I understand what you're saying, but for me it just doesn't fit the idea of an execute anymore so I stopped thinking of it in that way. It's a bit of a mix between Warrior Execute and DK Soul Reaper in that you get the big instantaneous damage of Execute and it has a secondary effect if the target dies like Soul Reaper. The difference is that we aim for that secondary effect in a lot of situations unlike DKs and its not as good as Warrior Execute. It stands apart from those two abilities in that regard.

[Deleted]

My main problem with it is it flies in the face of everything blizzard seem to have been promoting when it comes to ability pruning.

It's a niche ability that has potentially zero use in an encounter and is unintuitive to anyone who doesn't go and read outside sources about their class. I'd wager anyone who's unfamiliar to WoW or even familiar but not to a warlock, would take it for granted that the ability that lights up and becomes usable in an execute phase is supposed to be used. But it's not.

I'm fine with niche abilities and think they've cut far more than they should have in that regard, but it seems to be such double standards / so contrary to everything else they preach that it comes across as unintentional / poor design.

That and it'd be nice to have SOMETHING in destro's toolkit that you could use while on the move without feeling like you're gimping yourself.

[MycantrumX]

My main problem with it is it flies in the face of everything blizzard seem to have been promoting when it comes to ability pruning.

It's a niche ability that has potentially zero use in an encounter and is unintuitive to anyone who doesn't go and read outside sources about their class. I'd wager anyone who's unfamiliar to WoW or even familiar but not to a warlock, would take it for granted that the ability that lights up and becomes usable in an execute phase is supposed to be used. But it's not.

I'm fine with niche abilities and think they've cut far more than they should have in that regard, but it seems to be such double standards / so contrary to everything else they preach that it comes across as unintentional / poor design.

That and it'd be nice to have SOMETHING in destro's toolkit that you could use while on the move without feeling like you're gimping yourself.

Yes in a pure ST fight it has little use and would be a dps loss if used in lieu of CB in execute. However every encounter outside of Gruul and I suppose Iron Maidens it has a lot of use.

While yes it is a dps loss to be used purely as an execute, the tooltip also states that it refunds embers when used in a certain way. I don't agree with you that you should be able to play a class and immediately know what is a dps loss/gain. I do think that the most important use of Shadowburn is easily accessible and intuitive if you simply read what each ability does.

The min/max playstyle of your class or spec should come with extended play and/or research that you do.

[Gaidax]

My main problem with it is it flies in the face of everything blizzard seem to have been promoting when it comes to ability pruning.

It's a niche ability that has potentially zero use in an encounter and is unintuitive to anyone who doesn't go and read outside sources about their class. I'd wager anyone who's unfamiliar to WoW or even familiar but not to a warlock, would take it for granted that the ability that lights up and becomes usable in an execute phase is supposed to be used. But it's not.

I'm fine with niche abilities and think they've cut far more than they should have in that regard, but it seems to be such double standards / so contrary to everything else they preach that it comes across as unintentional / poor design.

Yes, that thought also crossed my mind, basically it's counter-intuitive, trap ability. IMO, Destruction was battered in WoD (that's besides the well deserved nerf from SoO status) - first the whole Rain of Fire thing, then Shadowburn becoming problematic case as well.

I wonder what Blizzard will do with either, I'd suppose they could leave Shadowburn as is and let players figure it out, but Rain of Fire definitely has to be changed to something actually useful for well... something.

On the other hand, at this point I think Destruction has a potential to get "balanced" tag, where it's decent and even awesome sometimes without being omnipotent like in 5.4, so I don't know if I really want Blizzard to start messing with it now.

[Werst]

Destro would be far more "fixed" with a little polish on the easy side and some design direction if they want to make it better longterm.

Short version: RoF now refunds embers and does damage when striking 3+ targets. No immolate interaction, just simple rule...3+ and you use it where it gives some embers and does "as if immolated" damage. Also lets put F&B on mannoroth's if its going to be the lion's share of the aoe potential. Buff shadowburn to be always better than chaosbolt but tax havoc'd shadowburns whatever percent necessary to keep it at current levels. Also wouldn't hurt to scale shadowburn's damage with haste rating like CB does crit.

Design version: chaosbolt hits 20% harder in execute range, shadowburn is a useable spell like blood tap after a certain number of nuke casts it becomes useable to a max of 3x charges....the perfect tool for more mobile dps for short periods between being able to cast. Thus rewards smart play and penalizes (but is still useful) to casuals that hit whatever button lights up. Could do a minor glyph that makes immolate instant and extends its duration slightly in exchange for immolate's up front damage.

[SpikeySquad]

I can't get my head around the calculations so would you ever use F&B below a number that sustains it? The guide suggests that is 8 though it seems to be around 4-6 targets to me. So what I mean is there are a bunch of adds should I F&B Immolate on them or manually apply it? What about say I am high on embers so should I throw a F&B CB their way or just stick to ST with Havoc? It probably does depend on add number so where is the cut off point? I suppose it will depend on what the priority target it. If I F&B then I will be losing boss damage for example. Thanks for any help in advance.

[FurtyIRL]

I can't get my head around the calculations so would you ever use F&B below a number that sustains it? The guide suggests that is 8 though it seems to be around 4-6 targets to me. So what I mean is there are a bunch of adds should I F&B Immolate on them or manually apply it? What about say I am high on embers so should I throw a F&B CB their way or just stick to ST with Havoc? It probably does depend on add number so where is the cut off point? I suppose it will depend on what the priority target it. If I F&B then I will be losing boss damage for example. Thanks for any help in advance.

It takes half the number of targets to sustain Fire and Brimstone for Charred Remains.

[Deleted]

With the new tier set having the chance for no cost chaos bolts, I am intrigued by the interaction between thisband FnB chaos bolt. Because FnB chaos bolt uses 2 embers with one cast, if the tier procs does it only consume 1 ember, would the cast be resource free or is FnB just entirely unaffected. And if it unaffected does this mean that the tier just doesnt proc or that it procs but is wasted?

[Kib]

With the new tier set having the chance for no cost chaos bolts, I am intrigued by the interaction between thisband FnB chaos bolt. Because FnB chaos bolt uses 2 embers with one cast, if the tier procs does it only consume 1 ember, would the cast be resource free or is FnB just entirely unaffected. And if it unaffected does this mean that the tier just doesnt proc or that it procs but is wasted?

with FnB active, casting Chaos Bolt with 2 Embers = you have 1 ember left if the bonus procs.

In other words, the Chaos Bolt ember is refunded, the FnB ember isn't

[Restitution]

For Kromog and blast furnace, when cleaning up adds or the hands with F&B, do we cast CB as long as we have the embers or do we switch to SB spam once the first add drops to the hp threshold? I have been casting CB until i can cast shadowburn and then just tab SB everything in site. My dps actually seems to go down when i do this so was curious if there is a specific number of adds that determine when to SB spam versus CB + F&B. I know that 4+ adds can sustain F&B with CR but i'm having trouble determining the point in which to cast SB spam or CB. Now that i moved up in ilvl bracket, ranking high is much harder. I'm sitting in low 80's uppers 70's on average with 1 or 2 90's mixed in. I feel like i am just screwing up my F&B priority. Blast furnace is by far my worst multi target fight as Destro so any tips for that would be epic

[SpikeySquad]

Could someone advise me a on ember management please? So assume a 4 minute fight with no real nuke phase. So for DS there is no rush so ideally I want to be fishing around for a proc to pair it with. So do I stay around 3.5 for so long and risk capping embers (with a 2 set proc)? Or be more cautious and go into DS with less than ideal?

[Curinir]

Restitution, on Blast Furnace just try to use Havoc on CD. If you are up against 5 or more targets, then go ahead and F&B away, however Havoc will be your friend against anything less. Also, if you didn't know, if you cast Havoc on one target and SB on another, you can actually get 3 uses out of SB with Havoc, as opposed to only one Chaos Bolt, so I try to cast SB on anything and everything.

For Kromog, I like to throw out a couple of the aoe Chaos Bolts for the hands, then rebuild embers and havoc the boss and SB any remaining hands. As far as Pillars go, Havoc on those is absolutely insane. I personally haven't tried it yet, but I have seen the logs that testify that your pillar damage will be crazy.

- - - Updated - - -

Spikey, I assume you are talking CR destro? If so, I try to hover around 2.5 embers. If something procs, it takes no time at all to build up the proper amount of embers to fire off as many CB's/SB's as you can. Going into DS I try to run up to 4 full embers if possible, but if I have too many procs at the time, I just DS right away. CR Destro really feels like a betting act to me, because of the extremely fast pace and the fact that anything can proc at any time. For the most part, just use your best judgement and logic and you should be okay.

[Deleted]

Hey guys,

i'm back on my Destro after a 2 month pause, and i suck as hell.

687 ilvl 2pc

Im doing 30k on pure mono, and bewteen 30-40 in AOE fights, which is not nice at all

I played destro at CF a lot and it was OK but i have no idea what im doing wrong after reading so many giudes and destro logs.

Let's first focus on ST encounter : It seem we have to play GoServ + Charried remains but is it good with 2PC or only with 4 PC ? Should i play differently since i only have 2PC ?

[Deleted]

You shouldn't play anything but GOSac with Charred Remains imo, Servitude seems akward. At the moment Charred is the only way to go for destruction and there is only 2 things you need to worry about: not capping embers and using chaosbolts on any type of dmg increasing proc.

[SpikeySquad]

Hi Curinir,

Thanks for taking the time to reply and that makes sense. Yeah I did mean for CR-GoSac.

Feralover,

It is usually said that CR does not shine until 4 piece and GSR however I have no clue of the actual difference so I guess try and see. If you are soon getting the tier then you may be better staying as you are and learning the flow. Like Noxeh says if going CR you want GoSac. If going DemServ then GoServ tend to give a slight damage increase if you use it correctly but then you have another cooldown to worry about. If you have a look under the description for the level 70 and 100 talents there is more information in order for you to make an informed choice.

Otherwise keep reading and practising. If you still feel you are under performing then you can consider posting some logs in the Help my DPS thread. For AoE fights maximise Havoc use, snipe SB kills and use F&B optimally. Overall learn how to maximise DPS while having to move whether through banking Conflags and/or teleports/gateways.

[Restitution]

Hey guys,

i'm back on my Destro after a 2 month pause, and i suck as hell.

687 ilvl 2pc

Im doing 30k on pure mono, and bewteen 30-40 in AOE fights, which is not nice at all

I played destro at CF a lot and it was OK but i have no idea what im doing wrong after reading so many giudes and destro logs.

Let's first focus on ST encounter : It seem we have to play GoServ + Charried remains but is it good with 2PC or only with 4 PC ? Should i play differently since i only have 2PC ?

You're missing the key to CR and Destro locks in 6.1...4pc. That'll help a lot and depends heavily on trinkets.

[Kayaan]

Is there a bug with Sac/CR? Recently to get the hang of Destro again I swapped to it on a couple Single target fights. I am 90% sure I sac'd my pet on trash before the Boss pulls. Not overly happy with the results, I looked over my warcraft logs and none of my kills had Sacrifice Listed under my damage buffs.