[6.2] Furty's Destruction Warlock Guide

[FurtyIRL]

Does anyone know how the 4pc works exactly? Can it proc while you have the buff? I've never noticed the buff refreshing. Is there an icd? Can't decide if I should hold for procs or use quickly. Same question for 2pc.

AFAIK the proc is 1 RPPM. It can for sure override itself which is why I often do my best to spend it quickly instead of sitting on it.

Why do you think bmc is valued so low on the trinket chart? It seems like having the over budgeted int along with a stacking buff where you could time cbs/sbs with really high multistrike, it would be great for destro. Or is it that darmac's haste buff just allows you to gen enders that much quicker giving you more spenders overall?

Those are just single trinket sims, so they're not that valuable. If the trinket combination sims reflect that as well then I'll look into the APL — my guess in that situation would be that Simcraft is either overvaluing haste (typical) or the 2-pc bonus is inflating the value of a haste proc. Either way I think in practice BMC is much stronger, especially when you take into account multiple targets, or ember saturation from shadowburn.

[Deleted]

Hey Furty, good job for the guide love it & gratz for blackhand mythic

Can you share your weakauras for destro? and you addons ?

Actually on Kromog mythic, destro CR better than demono ?

Thanks!

[Styxxa]

Sweet. I'm playing Destro now since Furty told me to do it.

[Deleted]

Keep up the good work!

[Woz]

Actually on Kromog mythic, destro CR better than demono ?

I'd say they are very similar. In this weeks kill for my guild I was Demo and the other Lock was Destro and I did 1.3mil to pillars, he did 1.22mil.

Only thing that Destro will overshine Demo as on that fight are the hands, but they explode regardless if you hit them or not.

[FurtyIRL]

Hey Furty, good job for the guide love it & gratz for blackhand mythic

Can you share your weakauras for destro? and you addons ?

Actually on Kromog mythic, destro CR better than demono ?

Thanks!

I'll be making WeakAuras packs for all the classes I play. They should be available on my stream page within the next couple weeks

Sweet. I'm playing Destro now since Furty told me to do it.

Paraphrasing

[Grizelda]

Anyone have any better uses for TP?

For Operator I put my portal on the track I'm assigned to for the split

[Deleted]

For Operator I put my portal on the track I'm assigned to for the split

I think it's better used to dodge a Deforester, as you have a lot of time to move to the split position.

[FurtyIRL]

I think it's better used to dodge a Deforester, as you have a lot of time to move to the split position.

I put my portal on the far right side of the track adjacent to Thogar's start position. You can use it to dodge the first deforester and then again use it to dodge a second deforester later in the fight.

[Small snowball]

I'd say they are very similar. In this weeks kill for my guild I was Demo and the other Lock was Destro and I did 1.3mil to pillars, he did 1.22mil.

Only thing that Destro will overshine Demo as on that fight are the hands, but they explode regardless if you hit them or not.

Are you sure you calculate pillar damage correctly? I'm asking because logs record the dot damage even after the pillars are destroyed. E.g. this is my default pillar damage from my last mythic kill (Снежок character):
default damage

And that's the filtered data I've got (damage to pillars that are at 1 hp doesn't count)
correct damage

As you can see, demo & other specs with dots can get much higher damage to the pillars, but that's only because this damage is basically useless.
Plus, destro can make a lot of damage to the boss via glyphed havoc + shadowburn on the boss on the hands phase.

[Deleted]

I put my portal on the far right side of the track adjacent to Thogar's start position. You can use it to dodge the first deforester and then again use it to dodge a second deforester later in the fight.

That's actually much better, the second one being when you need to loop around behind?

I'll be doing that as of now for sure.

[Woz]

Are you sure you calculate pillar damage correctly? I'm asking because logs record the dot damage even after the pillars are destroyed. E.g. this is my default pillar damage from my last mythic kill (Снежок character):
default damage

And that's the filtered data I've got (damage to pillars that are at 1 hp doesn't count)
correct damage

As you can see, demo & other specs with dots can get much higher damage to the pillars, but that's only because this damage is basically useless.
Plus, destro can make a lot of damage to the boss via glyphed havoc + shadowburn on the boss on the hands phase.

Consider I had a total of 300k damage on all the pillars from dots it would bring me down to 1.7mil vs their 1.22mil and looking at boss damage I was still ahead 13.03mil to 12.22mil.

The large outlier between the two specs is the Grasping Earth damage where (as long as you don't play Cata as Demo) Destro owns Demo on so Destro looks better "overall" but hands die almost instantly even with me as Demo only doing 2.6mil compared to a Destro Lock doing 7.3mil.

So sure if you want to look amazing on the meter, play Destro or pick up Cata as Demo and your overall DPS will go up because you're nuking the hell out of Grasping Earth vs a more single target focused spec within Demo.

I'm obviously not saying Destro is by any means bad on the fight but most of the time if you take away the "padded" damage (only saying "padded" since it's damage that literally anyone could be doing and just makes your overall look ultimately better) Destro and Demo are equally fine on the fight.

[Moruff]

One of the advantages of destro on kromog hands is sburn all the ones on the edges that receive less aoe. Most effective ability to get all those people out fast.

[Margeta]

Thanks for the new, updated guide !

My 2c on opener with 4p : I tend to cast a chaos bolt after one conflag + one incin, just to get rid of the 4P proc that is always up at the pull.

My opener looks like this :

-3,4s : prepot + cast incin
Immolate
Pull : conflag
Incin
Chaos Bolt
Conflag
Incin *3
Chaos Bolt
Incin*2
Immolate
Conflag

Thoughts on this ?

[FurtyIRL]

Thanks for the new, updated guide !

My 2c on opener with 4p : I tend to cast a chaos bolt after one conflag + one incin, just to get rid of the 4P proc that is always up at the pull.

Opener without CR is extremely flexible depending on how your crits go. If you play with BMC the obvious goal is to make sure you weight your CBs towards the end of the proc. Outside of that there isn't too much optimization to make provided you get your 3 chaos bolts off inside your procs/Dark Soul.

[mirix]

How important is hitting the 1200 mastery breakpoint to play CR? I've seen that number thrown around but in the guides I've read there's no mention of needing this amount of mastery to play CR vs. Demonic Servitude. Furty just mentions needing to have 4 pc. I'm currently just starting to play my lock again so I'm only 640 ilvl but I'm pretty comfortable with the playstyle and flow of CR and prefer it to demo or destro w/ dem serv. Is the spec really that gimp without 1200+ mastery and/or 4 pc? It seems to be competitive for me at my ilvl.

[FurtyIRL]

How important is hitting the 1200 mastery breakpoint to play CR? I've seen that number thrown around but in the guides I've read there's no mention of needing this amount of mastery to play CR vs. Demonic Servitude. Furty just mentions needing to have 4 pc. I'm currently just starting to play my lock again so I'm only 640 ilvl but I'm pretty comfortable with the playstyle and flow of CR and prefer it to demo or destro w/ dem serv. Is the spec really that gimp without 1200+ mastery and/or 4 pc? It seems to be competitive for me at my ilvl.

There's no "breakpoint" — not sure who's perpetuating that information, but it's patently false. However, with mastery being so much better than any other secondary you will feel a lot more impotent playing CR with a mastery deficit. CR's definitely going to be feel a lot weaker until you're in the 670's because it's so gear dependent relative to DServ.

[Deleted]

Hi all, levelled a warlock as affliction and now trying to learn how to play destro. I've got the hang of single target, however I'm struggling to grasp the aoe aspect. For example what should I be doing for the large pack of adds on operator + the packs on beast lord? Thanks in advance. (Don't have 2pc or 4set bonus yet, also would like to know what talents + pets are using on such encounters)

[mirix]

There's no "breakpoint" — not sure who's perpetuating that information, but it's patently false. However, with mastery being so much better than any other secondary you will feel a lot more impotent playing CR with a mastery deficit. CR's definitely going to be feel a lot weaker until you're in the 670's because it's so gear dependent relative to DServ.

A couple people replied in the [Destro] Please help me find out what's wrong with our locks DPS thread.

I'm not an expert on Destruction Warlocks, but just from knowledge of reading posts, it would seem him being a Charred Remains spec without the 4 piece bonus is a problem. I also noticed his Immolate uptime isn't very good.

Edit: He also barely has enough mastery for the Charred Remains spec. Generally 1200 is considered the borderline minimum, and some even argue 1200 isn't enough.

He plays Destruction, that's what's wrong with his DPS.

And this isn't even a snide remark, it's the truth. You gimp yourself severely by playing Destruction. The spec is not viable.

People throwing around their opinions as fact. Saying everyone should just be playing demo.

[Rayaleith]

Very nice guide! It was needed for so long, although as you say, maybe destro is only now vaiable with the BRF trinekts and set bous. We need to thank

I saw in your Blackhand video that you did not use DS glyph. Regarding that our trinkets procs last 10 seconds, isn't it better to have more DS charges for shorter time? You mention it in your guide, but I wondered if you ever use it.

- - - Updated - - -

I topped our Hanz and Franz kill this week as CR-Destro w/ KjC. Don't completely write off the 35s CD on KjC and it's utility for fights such as H&F.

- - - Updated - - -

With respect to me stepping down: I'm currently trying to finish up my schooling, and to do so I've had to take more than a full-time load which . On top of this I've been progression raiding with my current guild, which has eaten up all of my free time. As a result I haven't had time to keep the guide's first post as up to date as I and many others would have liked.

My passion for Destruction hasn't waned at all since the re-design in MoP and when I first took over the guide, and I'll still remain active here on the forums answering questions or participating in discussions.

Major thanks and props to Furty for taking over this guide for me. The guide looks great!

Have you uploaded any videos of your accomplishments?

PS Thanks for your efforts on your guide since Soo.