Destruction rotation, tips

[roahn the warlock]

This is a forum post to help out some with the new, very very long, destro rotation. this one here gets me about 10.5k on a dummy in a 6000 gs

when 4.0.1 hit there were a lot of new destruction rotations floating around, and after spending a very long time in front of the dummy I think I might have something.

Anyway, You will of course want to start out with a curse of the elements, since curses and banes are different.
You'll then want to follow up with a bane of doom, I say doom because it not only adds a occasional guardian but you'll need it for when you use a Doomguard or infernal.
After that I would throw on a corruption, At the time being corruption adds roughly 500 dps, but this one is really optional
Then you'll want to cast a soul-fire in order to put that nice little buff up to increase haste
After that its back to the basics with immolate, conflag, and chaos-bolt.
Lastly would be your filler Incinerate.

I can't say at the moment were fel flame will come in, but I would assume after every conflag would work well, and of course whilst running.

Ps. If anyone has any-thing they have found works better please feel free to yell at me justly.

[Dethh]

Each boss fight is "x" amount of time. You don't want to spend the beginning of the fight throwing up dots while everyone else is unloading. Use your time wisely. Usually you wont have to use curse of elements in a raid situation. You want soulfire buff up you can hard cast it if tank counts down for pre pots etc. Get immolate up asap after that its your priorities. Use pot> minion during heroism if possible.

[Skiptumalu]

I almost always hardcast the first soulfire first thing. Then Bane of Doom while I wait for travel time to put up the ISF buff. Then its Immolate/Corruption, Conflag, Chaos, Incin ----------> SB:SF when ISF has 1 sec left. Refresh DoTs with ISF, rinse/repeat. Really not much at all has changed with destro rotation. The only new real element here is how to get the most uptime on that ISF buff that you can on any given fight. It will be sooo much easier if the proposed beta changes go live, but for now, its rare you will be able to use more than 1 SB:SF on the boss to get the buff. Take a fight like Halion for example. You can use the Living Inferno adds to proc your ISF providing your tank has aggro or there is a misdirect. Throw hasted dots and havoc on the inferno, then you have 15% haste for AoE'ing the embers. (Shadowflame then RoF) Shadowburn the Inferno for fresh shards, rinse repeat.

When cata hits, it will be so much easier. All you have to worry about then is shadowburning for more shards, and cast soulfire on whatever you want for the buff.

[Seezer]

Each boss fight is "x" amount of time. You don't want to spend the beginning of the fight throwing up dots while everyone else is unloading. Use your time wisely. Usually you wont have to use curse of elements in a raid situation. You want soulfire buff up you can hard cast it if tank counts down for pre pots etc. Get immolate up asap after that its your priorities. Use pot> minion during heroism if possible.

Actually, if you can time it right, you can soulburn pre combat, soul harvest, then when combat starts, get off the instant soulburn for the 15% haste buff.

[Skiptumalu]

Yes, but then your soulburn is on CD and you will likely not get another ISF in the fight unless there are adds.

[Legendentity]

i can't reall say on test dummies, but in a 10m raid w/ a shadow priest and ele shammy i pull roughly 17k dps on single targets. WoW gearscore is "264" which i'm pretty much all in besides my wand(or higher levels)

for a "start" i actually start with Curse of Elements, followed by Immo/Conflag(it's nice to put those out first unless you're 100% sure your tank can handle an instant soul fire right off the bat). Followed by Instant soul fire, Bane of Doom, Corrupt, Chaos Bolt, then Incin filler.

refresh Immolate and Corruption BEFORE the last tick. of course keep Conflag/Chaos bolt on Cds, Conflag being the higher priority. I've read to use Shadowburn if you're in melee range(like certain strats w/ normal rotface).
I typically use Instant soulfire at the start, then on most Cd's after unless there is an execute phase(Sindr-30%) or certain times i need to move.

in ice crown a lot of bosses have "adds" including Sindragosa so using Shadowburn and good times can help get some more instant soulfire's in.

teleport is your beest friend, you can.. cheat quite a few mechanics, including the Valk's on Normal Lich king and get back to your positions from movement fights quicker to keep Dps up.

Bane of havoc is amazing on Shambling Horrors on lich king and other High HP adds. bought the only time it's really useful though

Try to use your Doomguard/Inferno right before a hero/lust is popped if they're popped at certain points(Saurfang 30% etc) as they do receive buffs.

that's about all i can think up haha.. i almost never need to lifetap anymore either o.O...

Anyone's welcome to look me up , Legends on Eonar(alliance), Been a warlock craze since Vanilla and am quite the talking WoWiki

[Elvy]

I almost always hardcast the first soulfire first thing. Then Bane of Doom while I wait for travel time to put up the ISF buff. Then its Immolate/Corruption, Conflag, Chaos, Incin ----------> SB:SF when ISF has 1 sec left. Refresh DoTs with ISF, rinse/repeat. Really not much at all has changed with destro rotation. The only new real element here is how to get the most uptime on that ISF buff that you can on any given fight. It will be sooo much easier if the proposed beta changes go live, but for now, its rare you will be able to use more than 1 SB:SF on the boss to get the buff. Take a fight like Halion for example. You can use the Living Inferno adds to proc your ISF providing your tank has aggro or there is a misdirect. Throw hasted dots and havoc on the inferno, then you have 15% haste for AoE'ing the embers. (Shadowflame then RoF) Shadowburn the Inferno for fresh shards, rinse repeat.
When cata hits, it will be so much easier. All you have to worry about then is shadowburning for more shards, and cast soulfire on whatever you want for the buff.

This is what I wanted to say more or less. Can add that shadowflame has still higher dpct than Incinerate and CB, so if you're in melee range use it.

[niteline]

Tbh You are better off with:
Soulburn Pre fight - Soul Harvest - Pot of Speed
-Combat-
Soul Fire - Elements - Doom - At this point you are at your spot if not cast corruption
Immolate - Chaos Bold - Conflag - Shadowbolt if you dont have a fire mage or demo/afflic lock
Incin till you can conflag - Soul fire for buff - Incin till conflag - Soul fire & incin till conflag

When there is adds in the fight you are king - keep spamming Shadowburn so you keep getting shards and misabuse the ISF buff alot !

[tb545462]

ignoring all other replies*
(CoE= Curse of elements | BoD= Bane of Doom)
the rotation I found to work the best is ; CoE > Instant Soulfire > BoD > corruption(with 2 points in imp corruption) > Immolate > Chaos bolt > Conflagrate > Incinerate x 3 > keep dots up and use chaos bolt whenever it's usable (The buff after using conflag reduces cast time on incinerate AND chaos bolt)

[Dockery]

I usually cast according to the priorities posted on EJ on my warlock - and I'm 1 piece from BiS and have achieved 25k on saurfang 25 HC. Instant soulfire, immolate, BoD, conflag, corr, incin - After that initial sequence it keeps the same prio order, although instant soulfires are used before incinerate, but you can delay them slightly if you want to avoid casting to keep improved soul fire up. Never wait to cast. Always use shadowflame if you're in range, its great now.

[Superfluous]

I've been having much success with: Soulburn/Wild Magic Pot-CoE-Immo-Corr-Conflag-Soulfire-Chaos Bolt-BoD-Incinerate Spam.

If I have to move into position and wait for the tank to establish more aggro: Soulburn/Wild Magic Pot-CoE-Corr-BoD-Immo-Conflag-Soulfire-Chaos Bolt-Incinerate Spam.

I can't break the habit of casting big Nukes after Conflag for the damage buff and I've seen too many 40k+ Soulfire crits in the first few seconds of a fight to stop now. Only thing that would make this spec really sing is to take the restriction off Shadowburn (pre-TBC) so I can cast it whenever I want. As it is, I'm never waiting for an ability to come off CD and am destroying meters no matter the length or mechanics of the fight.

[gherkin]

My only destro tips:
Cast from melee range.
Conflag on cooldown.
Clip the last tick of Immolate, but no more than this
Corruption is worth casting, especially while moving
Shadowflame is your friend.