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  1. #1

    [5.4] Brusalk's Destruction Warlock guide



    WoW Patch 5.4
    Guide Version 1.0.4



    TL;DR: 5.3 -> 5.4 Changes

    Current Theorycrafting Results. Please note that this is subject to change in the very near future as I experiment more!

    These results are based off of what we can expect in the first few weeks of the tier. These are T15H results, not T16H.

    Single Target:
    • RoF is still worth casting on one target under high-haste situations, such as Sinister Primal/Haste Procs + Hero, or when moving over Fel Flame.
    • Burning Primal is now better (slightly) than Sinister Primal
    • This is no longer true! (The optimal rotation involves only using Incinerate under Backdraft or Hero/Haste Procs. Fill with Fel Flame otherwise.)
    • GoSup/Serv/Sac are all roughly even
    • Mastery >= Crit >> Haste. This is the best reforging setup I've found.
    • Specific pet values are incoming, but I have not finished these yet.


    Beginning of 5.4 Destro Discussion
    Anything under this point of the guide is still 5.3.



    1. Destruction Abilities [Read this for rotational information!]
      • Single Target
      • Cleave
      • AoE
      • Cooldowns
    2. Stat Priorities and Pet Choice [Read this for gearing/stat philosophies!]
      • 1 & 2 Target Pet/Grimore Comparison Chart
      • Grimoire of Supremacy/Service
      • Grimoire of Sacrifice
    3. General Rotation
    4. What to Avoid and How to Fix Them
    5. My Personal Starting Rotation
    6. Gearing/Gemming
    7. Useful Addons
    8. Get a More Noticeable Rain of Fire
    9. TL;DR: 5.1 → 5.2 Changes
    10. Afterword


    Single Target:

    Immolate:
    Immolate is a 2sec casted dot which requires your character to be looking at the cast's target when the cast starts, and when the cast finishes. You can look away briefly while the cast is going.

    Immolate critical ticks will provide 1 emberbit.

    Immolate increases the damage done by Rain of Fire by 50% on affected targets.

    Immolate should only be cast on targets that will stay alive long enough that 2 ticks will get off. (This is 6 seconds with no haste, but closer to 5 with common haste values)

    Conflagrate:
    Conflagrate deals instant damage (slightly more than Incinerate) and has 2 charges. Each charge recharges every 12 seconds.

    By default Conflagrate will provide a 50% snare on the target if Immolate is on the target. With Glyph of Conflagrate Immolate is no longer required and Conflagrate will always snare.

    Generates 1 emberbit on hit. Generates 2 emberbits on crit.

    Conflagrate provides 3 stacks of Backdraft. Backdraft stacks up to 6 times and reduces the cast time and mana cost of your next Incinerate (consuming 1 stack) or Chaos Bolt (consuming 3 stacks).

    Conflagrate should be kept with 0 or 1 charge only. If you let Conflagrate sit on 2 charges you are losing Conflagrate casts. You should aim to only cast Conflagrate when you know that you will be able to get down to < 2 backdraft stacks before your next Chaos Bolt, and you are at 3 or less Backdraft stacks. You do not want to cast Chaos Bolt with more than 2 Backdraft Stacks as the reduction in cast time and mana cost is much better when used with Incinerate.

    Incinerate:
    Incinerate is Destruction's filler. You must be facing the target when the cast begins, as well as when it ends.

    Incinerate generates 1 emberbit on hit. Generates 2 emberbits on crit.

    Incinerate consumes 1 stack of Backdraft.

    Incinerate should be cast when you have nothing else more important to do. Bind this to a easy to use button as you'll be using it a lot.

    Chaos Bolt:
    Chaos Bolt is Destruction's ember consumer while the target is above 20%. It always critical strikes and crit chance increases it's damage significantly.

    Chaos Bolt consumes 3 stacks of Backdraft, if available, and benefits from the reduced cast time. This should be avoided however.

    Chaos Bolt consumes all 3 stacks of Havoc. This however is a very, very good use of your Havoc stacks.

    Chaos Bolt benefits significantly from temporary Crit and Intellect buffs. You should aim to only cast Chaos Bolt with a temporary buff of some sort. You do NOT want to cap on Embers however, and should you reach 3 to 3 and a half Embers you should cast a chaos bolt ASAP. If you are generating embers at a significant rate for some reason, you may need to cast a Chaos Bolt earlier than 3 to 3.5 Embers.

    Shadowburn:
    Shadowburn is Destruction's ember consumer while the target is below 20%. It does not always crit.

    Shadowburn consumes 1 stack of Havoc and is the best use of Havoc stacks, should you be able to take advantage of it. (More on this under the Havoc section)

    Shadowburn returns 15% of your mana after 5 seconds. This comes in the form of a debuff on the target. If the target dies while the debuff is on the target, you gain back the ember you spent, as well as an additional ember!

    You should aim to save 3 to 3.5 Embers going into 20% health. As you don't want to cap on Embers you should cast at least one to keep yourself from being capped. The best use of Shadowburn in execute range involves saving up 3-4 Embers for when you'll have most of your trinket procs. It's at this point that you should pot and spam Shadowburn. There is no point in immediately burning all your Embers on Shadowburns the second the boss hits 20%. Save them and wait for the best time to use them.

    A sleight caveat to the above is if the fight provides a Havoc target under 20% health and you can potentially get more than 1 Havoc off during the execute phase. In this case you should use your 3 embers on the target as soon as you can Havoc, and then begin saving up 3 more for the next havoc cycle. Being able to cast 12 unbuffed/slightly buffed Shadowburns is better than only being able to cast 6 buffed Shadowburns.

    Fel Flame:
    Fel Flame is Destruction's filler while moving. It does around half the damage as an Incinerate and costs significantly more mana.

    It generates 1 emberbit on hit, and 2 emberbits on crit.

    Cleave:

    Havoc:
    Havoc is a 0.5sec GCD instant spell which when applied to a target provides 3 stacks of Havoc on the player. When a single-target spell is cast on a different target than the one with Havoc on it, the casted spell will also hit the target with Havoc on it. It has a 25 second cooldown and the buff lasts 15 seconds.

    This includes (but not limited to) Curses, Immolate, Incinerate, Conflagrate, Fel Flame, Chaos Bolt.

    The best use of havoc is at first glance easy, but at second glance rather complicated and requires significant foresight. The easy answer is to cast the spell(s) that will do the most damage with each stack of Havoc. The more complicated answer is as follows:

    Chaos Bolt is the best use of all 3 Havoc stacks when casted off of a mob that is above 20% health onto a mob that will take the full damage of the Chaos Bolt.

    Shadowburn is the best use of each havoc stack when casted off of a mob that is below 20% health.

    If you are able to cast at least 1 Shadowburn and consume the rest of the stacks by cleaving Incinerates then that is better than casting 1 Chaos Bolt.

    A thing to keep in mind is that the target you are casting on does not have to be the same for every stack of Havoc. You can easily cast Havoc on a high-health mob and then cleave 3 Shadowburns off of 1, 2, or 3 different low health mobs. A prime example of this being done is H Feng the Accursed and shield phase.

    Also, spells copied to another mob by Havoc do not obey the same rules as the original. Range does not matter, however the distance at which a spell will no longer be copied seems to be 80-100 yards. (Spells cast on an Echo and copied to Imperial Vizier Zor'lok do not transfer from the center of the first platform, to the center of the second.) Line of Sight and Facing requirements also do not matter. The spells will be copied to the Havoc'd target.

    Rain of Fire:
    Rain of Fire is a fire-and-forget AoE spell that lasts 8 seconds with a high mana cost. It deals 50% additional damage if the target it hits is affected by Immolate. It ticks every 1 second.

    Casting more than one Rain of Fire in one location has no effect. Rain of Fire ticks once per second in the area affected by Rain of Fire. If a rain of fire is in more than one location than each is separate and ticks according to when it was cast. If a second rain of fire shares some space with one that was placed first, the area that is being hit by both ticks according to the one placed most recently. Once the first Rain of Fire runs out it switches to the tick-time of the most recently placed Rain of Fire in that area. Below is an illustration of what I'm talking about.



    Rain of Fire's damage is considered periodic. It can proc trinkets like Light of the Cosmos, who's proc is based off of periodic damage.

    Rain of Fire has a chance to generate 1 emberbit on targets it hits. This no longer includes immune targets.

    Rain of Fire is a small DPS increase to use in the single target rotation, assuming that the target will take every tick of the Rain of Fire, one's not already there, and you have nothing more important to cast than an Incinerate. (An incinerate can be more important to cast if, for example, without casting the incinerate your next Chaos Bolt will consume 3 stacks of Backdraft) (Source)

    Rain of Fire is a significant DPS increase on 2 targets that will stay in the Rain of Fire for more than half it's duration.

    Rain of Fire on >3 targets will cause you to gain so many emberbits that you can likely almost spam Chaos Bolt as your filler.

    Rain of Fire on >7 targets will cause you to gain so many emberbits that you can easily spam Shadowburn given the opportunity.

    Area of Effect:

    Fire and Brimstone:
    Fire and Brimstone is Destruction's AoE ember consumer. It is on a separate GCD from all other spells. Activating Fire and Brimstone (FnB) consumes 1 Burning Ember and puts a buff with no duration on you. The next Immolate, Incinerate, Conflagrate, or Curse you cast will hit all targets within 15 yards of the target. If it does damage it's damage is reduced. The damage is buffed by mastery (as FnB grants bonus damage on Ember Consuming spells)

    If after FnB is cast you generate 8 emberbits by being out of combat the buff is removed from you. This is presumably so you can't start the fight with a FnB saved up.

    Spells modified by FnB generate emberbits as normal, as if the spell was cast on each target individually.

    Before 5.1 Conflagrate had a separate FnB charge, however as of 5.1 Conflagrate has shared charges between FnB and normal.

    There is three different things to take into account when considering whether to use FnB and what to use it on. In general you keep Immolate on everything, keep RoF up, don't let Conflagrate cap charges, and Incinerate otherwise. If you have extra embers you can spend it on FnB-CoE.


    AoE Damage per Cast
    This is the same as the single target rotation. Conflagrate will do slightly more than Incinerate. Immolate is worth it to cast if it will tick on everything twice.

    Getting AoE Started
    As both Immolate and Curses do not immediately give embers back, if you are wanting for embers when AoE starts it may be worth it to build up a few embers (depending on the number of AoE targets) by making sure RoF is down and casting a few FnB-Incinerates and FnB-Conflags before casting your FnB-Curse or FnB-Immolate.

    Number of Targets to Sustain AoE
    When casting FnB-Incinerate and FnB-Conflagrate, the number of targets that is required to get back the Ember you spent casting them is dependent on your crit chance. I'll go more into this later on in this section in more detail. If you don't care as much you can use the following rule of thumb:

    When between two and four targets, FnB-Casts (with RoF ticking) will not immediately give back enough embers to continue AoEing unless you have some embers to start with (in which case you are sacrificing Embers for AoE damage).

    When there's 5 or more targets, FnB-Casts (with RoF ticking) will begin to reliably generate as many or more emberbits as they took to cast, and so you can easily sustain an AoE rotation.

    Only cast FnB-Immolate or FnB-Curse when you have >2 Embers or your next cast is a RoF and you'll generate enough emberbits to cast another FnB after the RoF. (More accurately: When you can proceed with casting a FnB-Incinerate or FnB-Conflagrate when you need to)

    In Depth:
    Since critical strikes with both Conflagrate and Incinerate generate 2 emberbits on crit, crit chance has an effect on the number of targets required to (on average) give you back enough emberbits to sustain an AoE rotation. You are guaranteed 1 emberbit per target on cast.

    When you cast on 6 targets, you need 4 to give you 2 embers, or in other words to crit. Thus you need 4/6 to crit, or 2/3 or 66% crit chance to maintain the AoE rotation on 6 targets. (Not including RoF)

    On 7 targets you need 3 targets to crit, out of 7, so 3/7 or 42.9% to maintain the AoE rotation on 7 targets.

    On 8 targets you need 2 targets to crit, out of 8, so 2/8 or 1/4 or 25% to maintain the AoE rotation on 8 targets.

    Formula for those inclined:
    Crit % to Gain Cost Back = (10-n)/n, where n is the number of targets hit by the cast.


    This is a bit complicated by RoF generating embers, so in actuality the crit chance required is lower than it'd appear, which is why it's possible/easy to maintain the AoE rotation on 5 targets, and possible to do on 4. (No real formula available for this, as I don't know the exact chance %. If someone knows let me know in the comments and I'll update this section with an actual formula!)

    Cooldowns:

    Dark Soul: Instability:
    Dark Soul: Instability has a 2 minute cooldown and provides 30% crit. The cooldown is reduced to 1:20 with the 4pc T14 bonus.

    Above 20% target health, the best use of Dark Soul is to save up almost 4 (but not exactly 4!) Embers, and cast 3-5 Chaos Bolts under the effect of the Crit Chance increase.

    Under 20% target health, the best use depends heavily on the length of the fight that's remaining. If you will get another Dark Soul off in execute range then you should immediately cast Dark Soul as it comes off cooldown. However, if you will only be able to get 1 more Dark Soul in, you should instead save it for right when you start your all-CDs burn of shadowburns. With the increased crit chance you can potentially generate enough embers during it's duration to cast another fully-buffed or partially buffed shadowburn.

    Skull Banner:
    While Skull Banner is technically a warrior cooldown, you should definitely be aware of Skull Banner's existence. It provides 20% critical strike damage for 10 seconds on a 3 minute cooldown. You can think of it as a mini-Dark Soul that you have little control over. It does not provide Critical Strike rating!

    When Skull Banner is up, you should consider the ICDs of your Int Procs and how soon you'll need to cast a Chaos Bolt. I do not personally know the scaling value of Critical Strike rating for increasing Chaos Bolt damage. According to neubs986 on MMO-Champion, 20% critical strike damage is roughly worth about 5,400 Int. I'm unsure whether that number is accurate, though it fits in with roughly with my experience that 2+ int procs is worth more than Skull Banner.

    When considering whether to cast a Chaos Bolt during Skull Banner, you should take into account a few things.

    1. When's the next time you need to cast a Chaos Bolt? Is it soon?
    2. Will there be temp Int/Crit procs coming up before before you'd have to cast a Chaos Bolt to avoid capping?
    3. Will the value of those temp procs be worth more than around 5,400 Int and be up at the same time?
    4. Is the damage from those Chaos Bolts required a bit later in the fight, or would be buffed from fight mechanics?

    If all those are true, you should postpone casting Chaos Bolt(s) until those temp procs/fight mechanics roll around.
    If not all of those are true, then you should cast 1 or more Chaos Bolts during the duration of the Skull Banner.

    Summon Doomguard:
    Doomguard lasts 1 min and will continue to cast on the target the players' targeted when summoned until the duration runs out. The only time the Doomguard will not cast on the first target is if the target no longer exists or phases out. If the target goes immune the Doomguard does not stop casting. (Except if fight mechanics force it, like on Spirit Kings) (Example of Phasing: Going into the shadow realm on Garajal with the Doomguard casting on the boss will cause the Doomguard to come run over to the player)

    Over the course of the 1 minute it will cast 17 doombolts. Each doombolt inherits the stats of the caster when the doombolt is cast. It does not snapshot the casters stats when the Doomguard is summoned like it did in Cataclysm.

    Each doombolt does 20% more damage if the target is under 20% health.

    This is the single target Guardian cooldown. It doesn't do as much damage as it did pre-MoP, but it's still significant damage and worth it to cast.

    Optimally you want to cast Doomguard 1 minute before the boss dies, so that the Doomguard casts as many Doombolts sub 20% as possible. However this is extremely hard to do in practice. If a fight is more than 10.5 minutes long you should cast one at the start and at the end

    Summon Infernal:

    Infernal lasts 1 min and prefers to target and attack the enemy closest to the location it was cast at. It is cast by ground targeting an area. The infernal will come crashing down and does approximately half it's damage(!) over the course of it's duration immediately, and causes a 1 second stun in the area. This area is affected by Mannoroth's Fury.

    The infernal's melee causes an AoE cleave that does small but not insignificant damage.

    This is the AoE Guardian cooldown. It doesn't do as much damage as it did pre-MoP, but it's still significant damage and worth it to cast.

    The Infernal should be cast over the Doomguard if and only if there are 7 targets to attack for the vast majority of it's duration. Fight mechanics which buff single target damage significantly could warrant the use of Doomguard over the Infernal even if this is true. (Example: Heroic Wind Lord Mel'jarak with Recklessness)



    Stat Priorities vary drastically depending on level 75 Talent Choice.

    The below results may very well be wrong. I'm working on updated results, but the below results may be a result of a specific set of reforgings on the part of the T15H simc profile and are NOT representative of stat priorities in general
    For the time being:
    Grim of Sac: Mastery > Haste == Crit
    Grim of Serv/Sup: Haste==Crit > Mastery


    Key for stat priority:
    Symbol Meaning
    Haste == Mastery There is no practical difference between Haste and Mastery. Each stat's weight is within the other's error boundary. (Who knows which is better)
    Haste > Mastery Haste is noticeably better than Mastery, but the error boundaries of each stat overlap. (Haste is probably better than Mastery)
    Haste >> Mastery Haste is much better than Mastery. The error boundaries do not overlap at all. (Haste IS better than Mastery with no doubt)

    Single Target:

    Grimoire/Pet DPS Priority
    Sup/Observer 172596 Mastery == Haste > Crit
    Serv/Felhunter 172349 Haste == Mastery > Crit
    Serv/Succubus 172310 Haste > Mastery > Crit
    Sup/Voidlord 172253 Haste > Mastery > Crit
    Sup/Shivarra 172233 Haste == Mastery > Crit
    Serv/Voidwalker 171961 Haste > Mastery > Crit
    Sup/Fel Imp 171057 Haste > Mastery > Crit
    Serv/Imp 170912 Haste > Mastery > Crit
    Sacrifice 164203 Mastery > Crit == Haste


    2 Target Cleave:

    Grimoire/Pet DPS Priority
    Sup/Observer 222427 Mastery == Haste > Crit
    Sup/Voidlord 222188 Haste > Mastery > Crit
    Sup/Shivarra 222139 Haste > Mastery > Crit
    Serv/Succubus 221686 Haste >> Mastery>> Crit
    Serv/Felhunter 221357 Haste >> Mastery>> Crit
    Sup/Fel Imp 220998 Haste == Mastery>> Crit
    Serv/Voidwalker 220793 Haste > Mastery>> Crit
    Serv/Imp 219941 Haste >> Mastery>> Crit
    Sacrifice 215995 Mastery >> Haste>> Crit

    Grimoire of Supremacy/Grimoire of Service:

    With Grimoire of Supremacy and Grimoire of Service, you are shifting your damage sources away from Ember Consumers and towards the Ember Generators (Incinerate, Immolate, etc). The importance of when you cast Ember Consumers matters less when using Grimoire of Supremacy/Service. As such, the stat priority shifts away from buffing the Ember Consumers, and towards buffing your Ember Generators and pet damage.

    These are good choices for fights where single target damage is important and you don't spend a significant amount of your time casting ember consumers.

    Grimoire of Supremacy/Service are both viable Single-Target choices.

    Grimoire of Sacrifice:

    With Grimoire of Sacrifice, you are shifting your damage further towards Ember Consumers, and as such when you cast Chaos Bolts is slightly more important when going this route. As you can see in the table above, Grimoire of Sacrifice is balanced to be roughly equal to Sup/Serv with 2 targets, and is significantly behind on single-target.

    Grimoire of Sacrifice is no longer a viable Single-Target choice, and is the not the go to talent for when you are able to cleave. When cleaving you should consider the importance of where your damage goes:
    If there is a primary target that requires more damage than a secondary target, you should use a pet talent and sic your pet onto that target.
    If there is no real primary target and you want more evenly distributed damage, you should use Sacrifice.

    I do not have a specific formula for when you should switch to Sacrifice over one of the pet talents. All I can say is that if you are spending the majority of your time casting ember consumers, then you should consider using Sac over Sup/Serv. The presence of 2 targets no longer warrants the use of Sac over Sup/Serv unless you want to split your damage on the two targets more evenly




    Single Target:
    The single target Destruction rotation is rather simple to describe, but can be difficult to execute in reality.

    You essentially want to keep Immolate on the target, while avoiding capping embers. You also want to keep Conflagrate from reaching 2 recharge stacks and avoid casting Conflagrate while you have >3 stacks of Backdraft. You want to ideally only cast Chaos Bolts while you have temp buffs like Dark Soul or Int Procs up. You have such a large amount of time to cast Chaos Bolts before worrying about capping that there's no real excuse to cast unbuffed Chaos Bolts unless you are generating embers extremely fast, or AoE'ing.

    The Destruction single target rotation consists of Ember generating phases, as well as Ember consuming burns. You want to aim to have very close to 4 Embers as your Dark Soul is coming off of CD.

    As you don't want to cap on Embers, and you will generate more than 3 Embers in one minute, I've found it best when without 4pc T14 to have 2 separate Ember burns in around 1 minute cycles. Most temp procs are coming back up around 1 minute intervals, so when those pop up again you should consume nearly all your embers, assuming you won't need them before your next burn due to fight mechanics. At least as much as you have time for with the temp procs.

    You should never cap on Embers so you should always cast a Chaos Bolt regardless of buffs if you're about to cap. A good rule of thumb is to cast a Chaos Bolt if you're above 3.5 Embers.

    2 Target Cleave:
    All the aspects of the single-target rotation is the same, however you should now keep RoF on both targets and keep Immolate rolling on both targets. If you haven't already you should go back up and read about Havoc and the other “Cleave” abilities. I go over in detail quite a bit up there.

    AoE:
    Very similar to the single-target rotation, however you also need to keep RoF up and cast Fire and Brimstone between your casts. If you haven't already, you should go back up and read more about the “AoE” abilities. I go over in detail a LOT that is useful information.



    1. Casting Chaos Bolts with 3 or more Backdraft Stacks

    As Chaos Bolts can consume 3 stacks of Backdraft, you should avoid casting Chaos Bolts with 3 or more Backdraft stacks. The damage you gain from the faster Incinerates benefiting from Backdraft does not compare when consumed with Chaos Bolt. One of the purposes of Chaos Bolt is to regen mana while it's casting, and reducing the amount of mana you get while free-casting a Chaos Bolt actually results in more waiting time, and a DPS loss.

    The way to fix it is to plan ahead and get down to 2 or less Backdraft stacks before you'd need to cast a Chaos Bolt. I know that's not much of an answer, but it's all you can really do. There are some situations where you might be forced to consume 3 stacks of Backdraft, such as to avoid capping on Embers and Conflagrate charges.

    2. Capping on Embers
    Just don't do it. Seriously. Cast an unbuffed Chaos Bolt if you need to!

    3. Capping on Conflagrate Recharge Stacks

    While Conflagrate is sitting on 2 recharge stacks you are potentially losing casts throughout the fight, as it's not recharging while sitting there.

    The way to fix it is to pay attention and plan ahead a little bit. If you're about to encounter a situation where you'll be forced into a choice that results in capping Conflagrate stacks, consider casting the Conflagrate before you're forced to. It's a good idea to keep it at 0 stacks and get to 1 briefly while doing other more important things.

    The only situation that you're regularly forced into running into this situation is when attempting to burn off 4-5 Chaos Bolts during a Dark Soul. If you can plan ahead a little bit and enter the burn with 0 stacks of Backdraft and 0 stacks on Conflagrate, you can easily use 2 GCDs while Dark Soul is up to cast a Conflagrate followed by an Incinerate to get down to 2 charges of Backdraft before resuming with the Chaos Bolts.

    4. Clipping Grimoire of Sacrifice's DoT portion of Chaos Bolt

    This is something you're rarely (if ever) run into, but it's good to know that it's possible. The DoT portion of Chaos Bolt does benefit from Pandemic and normal DoT refreshing mechanics, but in situations where the boss is moving a lot and your first of two Chaos Bolts takes a long time to travel, while your second one has very, very little time to travel, it's possible that the second Chaos Bolt will hit before the 2nd tick of the first's DoT portion. This isn't a large DPS loss as it's a small amount of damage over the course of a fight, but if you're using Kil'jaden's Cunning it's easily avoided as you can just run away from the boss and force some extra travel time on the 2nd Chaos Bolt.




    I'm not going to claim that this is the optimal starting rotation for Destruction, but I have found that it gives me great burst that is comparable to other classes off the start of a fight. I've found it also sets up the rest of the fight well in terms of trinket timings for temp proc stacking.

    Pot/Precast Immolate
    Rain of Fire
    (Doomguard – If used at start)
    Conflag
    Conflag
    Dark Soul/On-Use Int
    Incinerate
    Incinerate
    Incinerate
    Incinerate (backdraft now at 2 stacks and around 2 Embers)
    Chaos Bolt
    Immolate (benefits from all temp procs and crit increases)
    Incinerate to 2 Embers (If required)
    Chaos Bolt

    Then I go onto the rotation as normal. This puts most trinket procs and the like as coming up right around the 1min mark, which is the same time as my Engineering gloves. I then do a mini-burn of most of my Embers at the 1 min mark, and then do the first 4 Ember DS burn 2 mins in (fight permitting). This then repeats for the most part, while paying attention to trinket ICDs for the optimal timing to cast Chaos Bolts from now on.




    You should aim to get gear that has enough hit for you to hit cap, and then go full on into whatever secondary stats' best for you depending on your level 75 talent choice.

    As for gemming, a good rule of thumb is to go Int in all sockets. If the socket bonus provides more than 100 Intellect (or 200+ of a secondary stat), then you should match socket colors. If the socket bonus for any gear with a blue or yellow gem in it is worth gemming over pure Int, then you should go Int/Hit or Int/Expertise, whichever is cheaper to get, for Blue, and Int/Best secondary stat in yellow.

    The way to determine if a gem is for sure worth going for over pure Int in a socket is by doing a bit of math and Simming your own character's stat weights. If you want to skip this step you can use the rule of thumb preceding this section.

    You essentially want to find out what the scale factors are of Int, Hit, Haste, Mastery, and Crit, and compare the total worth of if you were to gem pure int regardless of color and if you were to go for the socket colors. How you do this is the formulas below:

    Value of a Gem = [Gem's Stat's Weight]*[Gem's Stat's Amount]

    Worth gemming Pure Int = [Int's Stat Weight] * [Int Gem's Amount] * [# of Sockets]

    Worth gemming going for socket bonus = [Value of a Gem (above) for Socket 1] + [Value of a Gem (above) for socket 2] + … + [Value of a Gem for socket n] + [Socket Bonus' Stat Weight]*[Socket Bonus' Amount]

    The result that gives the biggest number is the best choice.


    Example for item Imperial Ghostbinder's Robes

    Value of gemming Pure Int = 4.1*160*2 = 1312

    Value of gemming for Sockets = 4.1*160 + 4.1*80 + 2.0*160 + 4.1*120 = 1796. Best Choice

    Above I gemmed for Int in the red socket (4.1*160), and an Int/Mastery gem (2.0*160 + 4.1*12). Since I matched colors I added the socket bonus' value (4.1*120)




    EventHorizon Continued:

    EH tracks DoTs, CDs, Buff durations among other things, on a rolling timescale that lets you look into the near future and see where abilities/cds are lining up, giving you like 5-6 seconds to figure out whether you want to cast that Conflag or Immolate first. (Probably the one addon I couldn't really live without, which is why I took over development of it when the previous author quit WoW :P)

    You can take a look at how I use it in any one of the kill videos I have, but here's a link to our H Sha 10 kill. (LINK)
    It is the bars that are above my portrait, to the right of my grid raid frames, and below my main cast bar.

    TidyPlates:

    TidyPlates is great for tracking the duration of DoTs on multiple targets, as well as their health. I personally use the Quatre/Damage setup, and I specifically configured it so that the health bars of mobs turn read when they are below 20%. (Of course for easy spotting of Shadowburn-able mobs!)

    Weak Auras:

    Great for making pop up alerts for raid mechanics or for a Skull Banner notification. Somewhat harder to configure than PowerAuras, but it's still being updated and has extra features PowerAuras doesn't.




    1. Open the file Config.wtf in your WoW installation's WTF folder
    2. At the end of the file, add the line below:
    Code:
    SET spellEffectLevel "25"
    3. Start WoW
    4. Cast RoF.
    5. Success!

    It should already have more meteors visible, but you can further fine-tune the number of meteors by typing the following into chat:

    Code:
    /console spellEffectLevel #
    # can be any number, but numbers much higher than 100 and it starts getting extremely CPU intensive and bogs your framerate down significantly. The default number is I believe 10.




    Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
    Warlock (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
    What this means:
    • Sup/Observer is pretty much always going to be the Grim/Pet choice for Destro (including 2 target cleave) - Haste == Mastery > Crit
    • AoE is now much more potent, but has a smaller range
    • We got a single-target damage buff, but a cleave damage nerf
    • Shadowburn now grants +2 embers when a target dies with the debuff still on them. We no longer have to get the killing blow to get 2 embers back!



    If you have questions or suggestions about/for the guide, including formatting please let me know. I want them! I'm by no means decent at formatting a guide like this. I apologize if it's hard to read.




    1.0.3: Updated style with headers graciously given to me by Kink here on MMO-Champ!
    1.0.2: They fixed RoF granting embers on immune targets. Removed from guide.
    1.0.1: Given stat priority table may be incorrect. Added disclaimer and suggestion



    The old 5.0/5.1 Discussion and guide: http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...Week-Gear-List
    Last edited by Brusalk; 2014-02-20 at 07:04 AM.

  2. #2
    Good work on this guide

    Also could be helpful if you included the coding for any power auras or weak auras that you use, I know people are usually looking for those as well.
    Last edited by Cyner; 2013-03-06 at 06:32 PM.
    Cyner#1996

  3. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by Cyner View Post
    Good work on this guide

    Also could be helpful if you included the coding for any power auras or weak auras that you use, I know people are usually looking for those as well.
    I don't actually use any, but I know a lot of people do which is why I included it :P

  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by Brusalk View Post
    I don't actually use any, but I know a lot of people do which is why I included it :P
    When I am out of school for the day, I can PM you the ones that I find helpful if you would like to add them.
    Cyner#1996

  5. #5
    Awesome guide. I love destro as much as affliction so I might toy with it sometime. Have you had a chance since the patch hit yesterday to test out destro in ToT??

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by SpamHealzu View Post
    Awesome guide. I love destro as much as affliction so I might toy with it sometime. Have you had a chance since the patch hit yesterday to test out destro in ToT??
    My addon that normally auto-turns on logging wasn't working, so our priest healer has the logs, but hasn't uploaded them.

    I was destro for Horridon and a few other fights, and destro can easily pull it's weight in a raid group. However, even just on single target only I was pulling about the same as Demo for the same encounter and I have substantially less experience as Demo.

    I'd say destro is great for Horridon and Margera. I'm blanking on what other ones I was Destro for. (I was typically around 20% of the raid's damage done on a given fight last night as Destro IIRC).

  7. #7
    Did you go mannoroths fury for Horridon?

  8. #8

  9. #9
    First of all, I love you and everything you do. I especially love that you referenced me in your bit about Skull/Banner. However, 2 things about it (and sorry if they've been mentioned, having a tough time reading it on my device):

    1) I renamed myself on the forums, no big deal, but now my name actually matches my lock.
    2) I made those calculations when I thought that CB scaled point for point with crit % as if it were crit damage. I now know that is NOT the case, as both the Lei Shen trinket and the 100% crit buff that certain mobs put on the ground do NOT increase CB damage by 100% but rather by a MUCH smaller scale. Therefore I believe that 20% crit damage might be more valuable than I initially thought, but it will require more testing.

    This does, however, assume that the poor CB damage with 120% crit is intended and not a bug. Someone should tweet GC and ask for the crit calculation portion of CB to find out if it's a bug or if it' natural scaling.
    Last edited by Xorn; 2013-03-06 at 08:48 PM.

  10. #10
    First of all, great guide. Thanks

    Just a question tho, when you say ''Mastery == Haste > Crit''

    As i understand it, you giving Mastery equal Value to Haste, would you try to keep these 2 stats equal in gearing/reforge/Gems, or would you stack one over the other?

    OR, is it a case of working out what you can get the most of, HASTE or MASTERY, and stacking that one??

  11. #11
    What do you think the BiS trinkets are for destro this patch? I assume it's going to be Cha-Ye's Essence of Brilliance & Unerring Vision of Lei-Shen but wasn't too sure, especially since some trinkets are bugged atm :/ you should update your original trinket values chart

    How would you value the VP trinket? I was debating buying it to replace my Light of Cosmos or Relic of Yu'lon (never had any luck with Sha dropping his trinket)

  12. #12
    Brusaaaaaaaaaaalk! So glad this is released and thanks for it! A couple of things I noticed however is that FnB is now a 10 yard range(assuming the 15 yard range was written before the nerf), and Int/Expertise is an orange gem so would be for yellow sockets(unless mastery/haste are better for that), not blue.

    Other than that, would it be viable to basically be using affliction stats/gear(gemming mastery, going for 6637 haste breakpoint then stacking mastery, hit capping) since haste == mastery using GoSup Observer for single target and cleave? Or would it be a noticeable dps increase to gem for int still?

  13. #13
    The Lightbringer MrHappy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sabsy View Post
    What do you think the BiS trinkets are for destro this patch? I assume it's going to be Cha-Ye's Essence of Brilliance & Unerring Vision of Lei-Shen but wasn't too sure, especially since some trinkets are bugged atm :/ you should update your original trinket values chart

    How would you value the VP trinket? I was debating buying it to replace my Light of Cosmos or Relic of Yu'lon (never had any luck with Sha dropping his trinket)
    well Visions of Lei shen is definitely a BiS it adds like 100k to CB but tbh if you are rolling Sup/Observer then Breath of Hydra seems more appealing with Haste reforged to Mastery. Seems like it would be better but the no IDC on Cha-ye is really strong for destro especially during dark soul

  14. #14
    I put this in a PM instead.
    Last edited by jason1975; 2013-03-06 at 10:22 PM.

  15. #15
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by gnlogic View Post
    well Visions of Lei shen is definitely a BiS it adds like 100k to CB but tbh if you are rolling Sup/Observer then Breath of Hydra seems more appealing with Haste reforged to Mastery. Seems like it would be better but the no IDC on Cha-ye is really strong for destro especially during dark soul
    dunno, the crit trinket seems a bit iffy for destro. 4 seconds isn't much time to take advantage of it tbh.

    Anyways finally got to toy around with shadowburn on horridon. So many embers i was pumping chaos bolts all over the place <3

  16. #16
    Quote Originally Posted by Undercroft View Post
    dunno, the crit trinket seems a bit iffy for destro. 4 seconds isn't much time to take advantage of it tbh.

    Anyways finally got to toy around with shadowburn on horridon. So many embers i was pumping chaos bolts all over the place <3
    If you can, try to cast Havoc on Horridon, and then 3 SBs on adds, preferably when he has a few debuff stacks. It's... fun.

  17. #17
    Destro on Horridon is so much fun lol.People said afflic is better since you can multi dots but with havoc and embers, a well played destro can beat any other classes easily

  18. #18
    Mind if I roll need? xskarma's Avatar
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    Done my magic with the thread stickifying. Very, very nice guide Brusalk, my compliments.

  19. #19
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by petesakan View Post
    Destro on Horridon is so much fun lol.People said afflic is better since you can multi dots but with havoc and embers, a well played destro can beat any other classes easily
    Indeed. I was keeping ahead of our affli lock, although didn't get to see him spam haunt and drain soul due to some deaths, so not 100% sure how affli will sit near the end of the fight. Either way, really liking destro for it
    Considering trying MF next attempt as well. Was going with KJC due to all the running, but i'm thinking MF might be a little more useful to blanket all those adds in AoE.

  20. #20
    So, I wanted to know: what is the best strategy for dealing with a Lei Shen trinket proc. Since Demo is big on double casting Doom for the proc, I thought perhaps Destro might do the same with Immolate. So I did an experiment on a dummy. My haste right now is 3982, and casting two back to back Immolates gave me 8 total ticks before it expired. Now, that's 8 ember bits, since all would crit. Now, knowing that 100% crit does NOT double CB damage, it seems to me that this is a FAR more effective strategy than casting 1 CB. What we lose in damage is more than made up for by the Immolate damage and the near extra CB

    But, wait, there's more. Since Immolate is only a 1.38 second cast (for me anyway) I thought, why not add something else to the window? So I cast a fel flame, which, although hitting a cap on the duration, did provide a 9th tick on the dot, giving us 9 ember bits, and the 2 from the FF crit brings us to 11.

    So then I got to thinking: why reapply the dot when I can FF it back to full? So I figure that the average player could probably squeeze 3 FF casts into the trinket window. Depending on how much time Immolate had left when I started the FF casts, it gained an additional 8-10 (!) ticks, which translates to 14-16 extra ember bits.

    To me, this seems to be the best choice of action when using that trinket, as it provides decent FF and Immolate damage, as well as 1.5 extra CB on average. Now, the question becomes: what if I had more haste? What if I reached the next tick? What if this was during BL? What if the Meta gem had procced? What if all of the above? I could see this easily generating 20+ ember bits in such a scenario.

    However, I'm not great with Simcraft. So... if someone else is... perhaps they could look into this for us? =D

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