Destruction Warlock Guide — Class Guides · WoW Wrath of the Lich King

Direct damage with Shadow Bolt and fire spells, crits and burst.

A cloth-wearing caster who curses enemies, drains their life and summons demons to fight beside them. Warlocks use Soul Shards, Life Tap and Healthstones. More about the warlock

Class: Warlock
Roles: Damage
Used for: Raids and dungeons, Player versus player
Top talent: Chaos Bolt
Popular builds: 2
Version: WoW Wrath of the Lich King

How to play

Destruction in Wrath delivers big hits: Chaos Bolt can't be resisted and ignores absorbs, Conflagrate hits hard and Backdraft speeds up your next casts after it, and Empowered Imp gives your next spell a certain crit when the Imp crits. Improved Soul Leech gives the raid Replenishment.

Keep Immolate and your curse up, Conflagrate and Chaos Bolt when ready, and Incinerate to fill, faster after Backdraft.

Destruction is the burst warlock and strong in arenas with Shadowfury and Shadowburn.

At a glance

Single-target damage
Damage to groups
Survivability
Utility for the group
Solo play and leveling
Ease of play

Rated 1 to 5 against the other specs in WoW Wrath of the Lich King.

Rotation and priorities

1Imp out; Immolate and your curse kept up.
2Conflagrate whenever it is ready.
3Chaos Bolt whenever it is ready.
4Incinerate to fill; Backdraft speeds up the next ones.
5Life Tap for mana; Shadowfury and Shadowburn against players.

Strengths and weaknesses

Strengths

Big burst with Chaos Bolt and Conflagrate.
Replenishment through Improved Soul Leech.
Strong in arenas.

Weaknesses

High threat.
Burst relies on cooldowns.
Little to do while moving.

Stats and gear

Stat priority

Most valuable first. Bars compare each stat with the best one; a cap in the note means the stat drops off once you reach it.

1
Hitto 446 rating
2
Spell power
3
Haste
4
Critical strike
5
Intellect
6
SpiritFel Armor

What to look for

Spell power and hit to the cap, then haste and crit.
Spell power gems.
Resilience and Stamina for arenas.

Items worth chasing

Phylactery of the Nameless LichA trinket with a big spell power proc.
Muradin's SpyglassA trinket that stacks spell power.
Dying CurseA trinket with a spell power proc.

Builds

Each bar splits the build's talent points by tree.

Affliction
Demonology
Destruction

Destruction Raider
DamagePvE
1358
0/13/58
Raid damage with 58 points in Destruction, down to Chaos Bolt, and 13 in Demonology.
- Conflagrate 1/1
- Backdraft 3/3
- Empowered Imp 3/3
- Fire and Brimstone 5/5
- Chaos Bolt 1/1
Glyphs: Glyph of Conflagrate (major), Glyph of Life Tap (major), Glyph of Incinerate (major), Glyph of Souls (minor), Glyph of Drain Soul (minor), Glyph of Subjugate Demon (minor)
Open in the talent calculator Theorycrafting
Destruction Gladiator
DamagePvP
1751
3/17/51
Arena and battleground damage with 51 points in Destruction, down to Chaos Bolt, and 3 in Affliction and 17 in Demonology.
- Conflagrate 1/1
- Backdraft 3/3
- Shadowfury 1/1
- Fire and Brimstone 5/5
- Chaos Bolt 1/1
Open in the talent calculator Theorycrafting

Key talents

Chaos Bolt · top talent, up to 1
Sends a bolt of chaotic fire at the enemy, dealing 864 to 1088 Fire damage. Chaos Bolt cannot be resisted, and pierces through all absorption effects.
Conflagrate · tier 7, up to 1
Consumes an Immolate or Shadowflame effect on the enemy target to instantly deal damage equal to 60% of your Immolate or Shadowflame, and causes an additional 40% damage over 6 sec.
Soul Leech · tier 7, up to 3
Gives your Shadow Bolt, Shadowburn, Chaos Bolt, Soul Fire, Incinerate, Searing Pain and Conflagrate spells a 30% chance to return health equal to 20% of the damage caused.
Pyroclasm · tier 7, up to 3
When you critically strike with Searing Pain or Conflagrate, your Fire and Shadow spell damage is increased by 6% for 10 sec.
Shadow and Flame · tier 8, up to 5
Your Shadow Bolt, Shadowburn, Chaos Bolt and Incinerate spells gain an additional 20% of your bonus spell damage effects.
Improved Soul Leech · tier 8, up to 2
Your Soul Leech effect also restores mana to you and your summoned demon equal to 2% of maximum mana, and has a 100% chance to grant up to 10 party or raid members mana regeneration equal to 1% of maximum mana per 5 sec. Lasts for 15 sec.
Backdraft · tier 9, up to 3
When you cast Conflagrate, the cast time and global cooldown of your next three non-channeled, non-instant Destruction spells is reduced by 30%. Lasts 15 sec.
Shadowfury · tier 9, up to 1
Shadowfury is unleashed, causing 357 to 421 Shadow damage and stunning all enemies within 8 yds for 3 sec.
Empowered Imp · tier 9, up to 3
Increases the damage done by your Imp by 30%, and all critical hits done by your Imp have a 100% chance to increase your spell critical hit chance for your next spell by 100%. This effect lasts 8 sec.
Fire and Brimstone · tier 10, up to 5
Increases the damage done by your Incinerate and Chaos Bolt spells to targets afflicted by your Immolate by 10%, and the critical strike chance of your Conflagrate spell is increased by 25%.

Destruction abilities by level

When each ability arrives: trained abilities at the level a trainer first teaches them, talent abilities (gold frame) at the first level the talent can be taken.