Destruction Warlock Guide & Best Runes – Phase 4 Season of Discovery (SoD)

Welcome to the SoD Phase 4 Destruction Fire Warlock DPS Guide!

This guide focuses exclusively on the Destruction specialization, exploring key components such as Runes, Talent Trees, Stat Priorities, Rotations & Abilities, Best Professions, BiS (Best in Slot) items, and Race Choices. The new Rune System introduced in the Season of Discovery has granted Destruction Fire Warlock many new toys to play with, finally making the Destruction specialization viable. Since Fire Warlock is no longer constrained by Shadow Bolt, instead gaining Incinerate and Chaos Bolt, the specialization came to life under a completely new identity.

Talents

Runes

• Helm: Backdraft
• Cloak: Decimation
• Chest: Demonic Tactics/Lake of Fire
• Wrist: Incinerate
• Hands: Chaos Bolt/Shadow Bolt Volley
• Waist: Shadow and Flame
• Legs: Demonic Pact/Demonic Grace
• Feet: Demonic Knowledge/Mark of Chaos
• Ring: Shadow Specialization
• Ring: Fire Specialization

Stat Priority

1. Hit Chance
2. Spell Damage/Spell Power
3. Critical Strike Chance
4. Intellect
5. Spirit
6. Stamina

Rotations & Abilities

Phase 4 of Season of Discovery brought forth even more changes to Destruction Fire Warlocks, slightly altering the play style they were used to. They now gain a powerful execution tool through the Decimation Back rune while also no longer needing to refresh Immolation after each Conflagrate cast. Additionally, they gain access to a new powerful buff ability, Fel Armor, which increases their overall Spell Damage by a considerable amount. However, the overall changes to Demonic Pact, being now applied to the entire raid, and the addition of Mark of Chaos now make Fire Warlock take on a much more supporting role, rather buffing their allies’s damage than that of their own.

Alternatively, Destruction Fire Warlocks can choose to be selfish and prioritize Demonic Knowledge and Demonic Grace instead.

Single-Target Rotation

1. Maintain Fel Armor at all times
2. If you pick the Mark of Chaos rune
   • Cast Curse of Recklessness if nobody else can apply to trigger the Mark of Chaos debuff
   • Cast Curse of Agony & Upkeep it to trigger the Mark of Chaos debuff
3. Cast Curse of the Elements if possible to empower Fire Damage
4. Cast Curse of Recklessness if required by your group
5. Cast Shadowburn on targets that are about to die or if you have spare Soul Shards during movement
6. Cast Incinerate once to gain the Fire Damage Empowerment effect
7. Cast Immolation & Refresh it after its duration ends
8. Cast Conflagrate on cooldown to trigger and upkeep Backdraft
9. Cast Chaos Bolt on cooldown
10. Cast Incinerate (Main Filler)
11. Cast Soul Fire once the target reaches 35% HP (Execution Tool)
    • Spam Soul Fire as long as you don’t need to refresh Curses, Backdraft, and Incinerate‘s Fire Damage Buff

AoE Rotation

1. Maintain Fel Armor at all times
2. Swap to Shadow Bolt Volley for encounters that have 5 or less targets
3. Swap to Lake of Fire for AoE encounters
4. Cast Curse of the Elements on multiple mobs before positioning yourself
5. Cast one instance of Incinerate to gain the Fire Damage Buff
6. Cast Rain of Fire while having the Lake of Fire rune equipped
7. Cast Shadow Bolt while having the Shadow Bolt Volley rune equipped
8. Cast Hellfire if your tank can handle aggro in encounters that feature more than 10-15 mobs

Best Professions

Tailoring

Tailoring is by far the best profession that Destruction Fire Warlock can use as it not only allows you to craft the new Season of Discovery epic gear pieces but also provides you with a consistent way of generating gold. Furthermore, it pairs extraordinarily well with Enchanting.

Enchanting

Enchanting is the second-best profession that a Destruction Fire Warlock can use, providing a powerful synergy with Tailoring, the ability to add beneficial stats to equipment, and even disenchant gear pieces into magical essences. Enchanting is also viewed as one of the best gold generation tools in the game besides the bonuses it offers and the access to the specific Season of Discovery enchanting sigils.

Best Races

The best possible race for Alliance when it comes to Affliction Shadow Warlock is Gnome thanks to Expansive Mind and Escape Artist while the best race for the Horde is Orc thanks to Command.

Human

• The Human Spirit, Sword Specialization, Mace Specialization, Perception, Diplomacy

Gnome

• Expansive Mind, Escape Artist, Engineering Specialization, Arcane Resistanc

Orc

• Blood Fury, Command, Hardiness, Axe Specialization

Undead

• Will of the Forsaken, Shadow Resistance, Cannibalize, Underwater Breathing