Some Destruction questions - looking for good advice

[TummyBoy]

Alright, so before the end of WoD, I never really played Warlock. I very much enjoyed the class at the end of WoD, though, and decided to play some more in Legion. Despite a lot of people disliking a lot of the mechanical aspects, I didn't have much experience with the so-called "golden age" of locks, and therefore don't mind the current mechanics at all.

I do have some questions from a mechanical perspective and would like help getting better at playing my spec.

1.) Applying Havoc

I want to find a better system for applying Havoc. Previously I would use tab-Havoc-tab, but this was a bit unreliable, especially when I wanted to mass apply Immolate to every mob in a pack. I followed this by trying a mouseover macro with Havoc, but that too made targeting a nightmare. Lately I've used Enemy Grid, which works very well, but also has its shortcomings.

How do you typically apply Havoc? Do you have any effective system for it?

2.) Haste - any caps?

The next question is pretty simple. I'm at about 36% haste, and wondering if I'm starting to go overboard. On single target I still have issues with Soul Shard generation, but anything with two or three mobs gives me a satisfying number of shards to work with.

Are you aiming for any Haste cap?

3.) Rotation for 2, 3, 4, and 5 targets?

Alright, for 2-3 targets I generally follow this priority: get immolate up on everything, Conflag to get Backdraft, and Incinerate CB CB in Backdraft if possible.

For 4 and 5 targets it starts to get a little fuzzier what I should be doing. Does Rain of Fire become worth casting at this many? How about Chaos Bolt? At 5 targets with FnB it gets a bit difficult to figure out.

Any help is appreciated.

[FPS-Cobra]

I haven't played warlock since MoP so i can't help with your haste and rotation questions but i may have something for your havoc problem. The way i used havoc worked very well in raid and dungeon fights but not so much in quests. What i did was made a macro so that if i was holding shift when i cast havoc, it cast it at my target focus. A good example of this was for dark shamans. I would have main target as shaman #1 and set shaman #2 as focus target. This allowed me to not have to worry about switching target as i would be targeting shaman #1, hold shift and cast havoc on shaman #2 while still castung at shaman #1. I had pretty close to 100% uptime on havoc. You can also set this up for immolation and really and class that you might want to cleave with. I dont have the macro on me but a quick google and you should find it.

[zakalwei]

I want to find a better system for applying Havoc. Previously I would use tab-Havoc-tab, but this was a bit unreliable, especially when I wanted to mass apply Immolate to every mob in a pack. I followed this by trying a mouseover macro with Havoc, but that too made targeting a nightmare. Lately I've used Enemy Grid, which works very well, but also has its shortcomings.

Agreed, tab targeting is a real nightmare, I've also found it very slow not to mention the fact that you can sometimes target unwanted mobs. One thing I am goin to do tonight is make my enemy nameplates bigger so I can more easily target them.

I was also going to use a mouse over macro or similar, why does yours not give the desired results?

For 4 and 5 targets it starts to get a little fuzzier what I should be doing. Does Rain of Fire become worth casting at this many? How about Chaos Bolt? At 5 targets with FnB it gets a bit difficult to figure out.

I will usually apply Immo to 3 targets or so for the shard regen and then RoF. Incinerate to fill and when I get shard refund more RoF's. Once its down to a couple mobs I'll havoc one and then CB another to use the shards as they come thick and fast towards the end it seems.

[Auracle]

I'd recommend reading Brusalk's Destro guide on these forums, as it covers a lot of your questions.

From personal reading and experience:
1) Rain of Fire - viable at 3 targets IF all three will be hit by all 8 ticks of the spell. In practice I use it on backs of 5 and above, as I find that for four and below, in good groups, I have more utility bursting down priority targets using Havoc/CB cleave.

2) Havoc - I've read many different methods, for me what's simplest is a mouseover target macro bound to one of my mouse buttons. This way I never have to change targets. It can be hard to select a specific target in a large pack this way, but I've found those occasions few and far between. If you're having trouble, try using a nameplate addon like Tidy Plates, and/or telling the default UI to use 'stacking' rather than 'overlapping' nameplates.

3) Haste - from reading pretty much every new post on these forums, consensus appears to range from ~25 - 33% haste is a decent window, bulk of people seem comfy at ~28 - 30% range for comfort of playstyle and good damage. Most strong parses I've looked at on warcraftlogs are around this range, barring extreme padding or cheese parses.

4) Rotations - purely anecdotal, so probably a fair few inaccuracies here, caveat emptor. These assume you are running a Erad/WH build.
2 targets - havoc a, immo b, standard rotation on b
3 targets - immo a, havoc b, immo c, rotate on c and a, swapping to apply eradication debuff to each target for highest possible uptime.
4 targets - immo a and b, havoc c, immo d, RoF if stacked reliably, CB cleave priority targets
5 targets - as with 4 targets, i dont bother with the 5th immo usually as i find 4 provides sufficient shard regen to RoF/CB cleave in a reasonable fashion.
All of the above is different if you run using Cataclysm, FnB or Roaring Blaze.

That should roughly answer your questions, good luck!

[Deleted]

I use EnemyGrid addon for targets better overview, see you there spells (havoc, immolate) and his time, its perfect for example on Renferal when he is in spider form and spawning spiders or on eye boss. And if is cleave fight (dragons of nightmare), i use focus on second target where i apply Havoc.

Rain of fire, i use on pack of mobs +5, on smaller packs is better for me cast immolate on all targets and next, cast only incinerate - Fire and Brimstone talent!

Rotation is simply, i have roaring blaze talent therefore i start immo, 2nd immo for longer time, 2x confla, chaos bolt for spend soulshard, check if i have charge on rift - if yes i spend, and like a fill spell i use incinerate.....start rotation on boss is almost same, differece is, on start i cast Infernals (if u have Lord of flames) or Doomguard and on singlate target i have talent GoSer and cast Imp.