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Our Class Writers share their expert opinions based on rigorous testing and theorycrafting in hopes of contextualizing the changes coming in future patches of the War Within. Check out all of our released articles in our Editorial Section.
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Destruction Warlock in the War Within So Far
Destruction Warlock has experienced both highs and lows since the end of Dragonflight. We closed out that expansion in one of the strongest states the spec has seen, with our Dimensional Rift-based set bonus performing exceptionally well in Mythic+. The War Within has seen Destruction fluctuate—from being a very underwhelming single-target spec to now, where we’re the kings of cleave.
In this article, I’m going to cover what it’s been like to play a Destruction Warlock so far: the issues we’ve faced, our strengths and weaknesses, and what we hope to see in the future.
Season 1
In Season 1, Destruction was, generally speaking, the go-to spec for Warlocks across almost all types of PvE content. There were certain raid encounters that favored Demonology or Affliction more, but overall, it was a Destruction-heavy season. That being said, this doesn’t mean Destruction was a super-strong, stackable spec. In most raid compositions, you typically only saw one Warlock—and the main reason for that was utility, i.e., Healthstone, Soulstone, Demonic Gateway, and the added quality of life from having summons.
If we look at the raid statistics for Nerub’ar Palace in patch 11.0, Destruction sat in the bottom 30% of performing specs—a stark contrast to what we see in Season 2. Since then, we’ve received a few buffs and tweaks, most notably to our Hero Talent specialization Hellcaller, which has become a more prominent choice on many fights. We’ve also seen buffs to our damage output through spells like Chaos Bolt.
In Mythic+ during Season 1 of The War Within, Destruction was the best-performing Warlock spec, but it still wasn’t commonly seen in the highest keys. That said, Destruction’s AoE remains one of the more appealing profiles, especially since many specs are target-capped—and we are not. In fact, we scale better the more targets we can apply Wither and Immolate to. In Season 1 Mythic+, we were already playing Hellcaller, and with its significant buffs going into Season 2, Destruction is now positioned to be a more prominent Mythic+ spec right out of the gates.
Season 2
Currently in season 2, Destruction is one of the stronger DPS specs, and certainly one of the more often played specs. We do very well on certain fights, such as Mythic Mug’zee, which has proven to be a tough boss this tier. In this segment, I’m going to go over exactly what it means to be a Destruction Warlock in season 2 of The War Within.
When we look at the overall simulation expectations for single-target performance, Destruction ranks clearly on the lower end, possibly even at the very bottom compared to all other specs. So, how are we able to parse this high? The answer largely lies in how our damage profile aligns with the encounter design in Liberation of Undermine. This raid has a total of 1 fight that’s entirely single-target based, and as expected Destruction is the very bottom performing spec according to Warcraftlogs statistics as of writing this article. On the other hand, if we look at fights with burst cleave in spread out intervals such as on Mug’zee, Destruction is at the very top of performance. Some of the noteworthy strengths Destruction have, that play well in Liberation of Undermine are:
Frequent Cleave Opportunities
The more we’re able to benefit from Havoc, the better. Compared to other specs, we excel in situations where this cleave aligns with the cooldown nature of Havoc. However, with Mayhem now being a viable option—and receiving a duration buff—we can gain even more in these scenarios.
An example where Mayhem might outperform Havoc in terms of raw damage output is a fight like One-Armed Bandit. Conversely, a great example of how Havoc contributes to our strength is, as mentioned, Mug’zee. In the Mug’zee encounter, we can reliably use Havoc to damage the boss as well as priority targets like Volunteer Rocketeer and Mk II Electro Shocker.
In the top bracket, we see every cast of Havoc, and in the second and third, we see the damage output from Chaos Bolt and Shadowburn. It’s very clear that during many of these Havoc windows, our DPS spikes significantly. That’s because we’re able to generate soul shards leading up to those windows and then spend them efficiently during Havoc. Mug’zee is a great example of how Destruction’s resource system and cooldown design allow us to excel—and it’s fights like this that explain why Destruction ranks so high on the performance charts.
Limited Movement Requirements for Mechanics
I’m not saying there’s no penalty for moving, but Destruction has been in worse shape in the past. Currently, with Havoc, we can manage movement much better. We can chain Eradication, avoid overcapping soul shards, and in many situations, even deal increased damage by casting Shadowburn, thanks to talents like Blistering Atrophy and Fiendish Cruelty.
Historically, Destruction suffered heavily from movement constraints, having only Conflagrate to cast while moving. Compared to the other Warlock specs, Destruction now performs well under movement-heavy conditions, compared to a lot of other specs. Affliction typically uses movement time to reapply DoTs, while Demonology can rely on Demonbolt procs, but risks wasting soul shards if overused.
Current Issues for Destruction Warlock
In this section I’m going to cover some of the issues we face as Destruction Warlocks, This can be both weaknesses, issues with our talents, utility or an overall feeling of the spec.
The State of Diabolist
In the early days of The War Within, it looked like we were going to be a very Diabolist-heavy spec. However, that has changed significantly since then—so much so that Diabolist is now mostly reserved for pure single-target fights, such as Sprocketmonger Lockenstock.
Initially, it seemed like Diabolist was intended to be an AoE-focused Hero Talent, with abilities like Ruination dealing very high burst damage in AoE situations. But this shifted when the proc frequency of Diabolic Ritual was reduced, making Diabolist unable to compete with Hellcaller on encounters involving multiple targets.
The unfortunate result of this change is that we now rarely play Diabolist, as Hellcaller becomes significantly stronger the moment there’s a secondary target you can apply Wither to with any degree of reliability.
The Tier Set Bonuses of Destruction
Our tier set bonuses are unbelievably boring. Other classes and specs get interesting effects that either make their gameplay feel better or introduce slight changes, but Destruction ends up with the dullest deal—a passive proc that buffs another passive.
It feels odd seeing your set bonus proc. You know it means you’re dealing more damage, but given how Destruction functions, you can’t always actively take advantage of the increased Mastery scaling during its very short 10-second duration.
Previously, Destruction has had set bonuses that added a proc effect to Chaos Bolt, making it more exciting to cast, or bonuses that added a stack to Conflagrate, which sped up the pace of gameplay. Unfortunately, both the Season 1 and Season 2 set bonuses from The War Within have been far less exciting.
Tuning
This may sound strange coming from one of the statistically highest-parsing specs of the raid tier, but with the current state of tuning, I feel a bit uneasy heading into Season 3. Let me elaborate—our single-target damage is very low compared to how it has been in the past, and even more so when compared to the specs we directly compete with.
As I explained earlier in the Season 2 segment, the reason we’re able to parse so highly is largely due to how our damage profile aligns with encounter design. But that won’t always be the case. This puts Destruction in an awkward position: if we receive buffs to improve our single-target, we risk becoming very overpowered in cleave situations. Alternatively, if we remain strong on cleave, we may continue to lag behind in single-target.
That said, I do believe Destruction will be fine overall. One solid approach to keep our cleave in check is by tuning the duration and damage percentage of Havoc and Mayhem. The literal damage we get from Havoc is only one part of the equation—the added Soul Shard generation it provides also heavily impacts our gameplay feel, often more than the raw numbers themselves.
Talent Bugs
In patch 11.1 we received a few tweaks to our talent tree. The big ones here are Demonfire Infusion and Dimension Ripper. Both of these talents have a very clear tooltip stating a percentage based proc chance, but it was quickly discovered that both of these actually procced significantly less than stated in their tooltips. As of writing this, Demonfire Infusion is the only one out of the two that have been fixed.
Soul Fire not applying Immolate/Wither to its target if the target moves out of range as the spell channel finishes.
Destruction Warlock Hero Talents: Hellcaller vs. Diabolist
Both Hellcaller and Diabolist have seen their fair share of gameplay this far. Season 1 was largely Diabolist dominated, but after some buffs in patch 11.1, it seems that Hellcaller has taken over.
Hellcaller
Hellcaller has, without a doubt, been the most dominant Destruction Warlock Hero Talent in patch 11.1. The reason is very simple: Wither combined with Blackened Soul deals an immense amount of damage.
Before Season 2, we primarily saw Hellcaller used in encounters like Silken Court and in Mythic+—both scenarios where you gain significant value from spending Soul Shards to apply stacks of Wither through Blackened Soul to multiple targets simultaneously. This was especially impactful in Mythic+, where the setup of casting Cataclysm into Malevolence enabled massive AoE bursts. When pulls lasted long enough, you could continuously spend Soul Shards, stacking and collapsing Wither on numerous enemies for devastating results.
As mentioned earlier, one of the encounters where Destruction truly shines is Mug’zee in Liberation of Undermine. Below is a screenshot showing what the Wither and Blackened Soul damage breakdown might look like in a raid setting—it’s easy to see why Hellcaller performs as well as it does.
Diabolist
Diabolist is, in my opinion, the cooler of the two hero talent options—both thematically and in terms of gameplay. Unfortunately, the only time we really get to play Diabolist is if, for some reason, you decide to try your luck with full single-target Destruction. Otherwise, you’re likely better off playing Hellcaller. Diabolist used to be a good option for heavy AoE situations such as Mythic+, but that changed when the amount of time you could reduce Diabolic Ritual by was nerfed.
Below, I’ll suggest how Diabolist could be reintroduced as a viable contender for AoE, courtesy of the Warlock Discord.
Season 3 Destruction Warlock Wishlist
Destruction is, in all honesty, in a completely fine place right now. We’re a very strong DPS spec that can even warrant a second raid spot in certain situations. However, that doesn’t mean we can’t make a wishlist of things we’d like to see—primarily changes that would impact our gameplay.
More Interesting Tier Set Bonuses
In my opinion, set bonuses should be more than just numerical bumps. For many players, a tier is often remembered by the set bonus their class or spec had during that time. I refuse to believe anyone will look back on The War Within Seasons 1 or 2 and fondly remember how the set bonuses increased their character’s DPS by 8%. However, I do believe people will look back on Season 4 of Dragonflight, when Destruction gained access to a whole new talent—Dimensional Rift—and performed exceptionally well in a type of content where we’ve rarely excelled. I think tier set bonuses should meaningfully change the way you play your character during that period. It doesn’t have to completely redefine the spec, but thinking beyond simply tweaking mastery scaling would make things far more exciting.
Reintroduce Diabolist AoE
Diabolist feels like it should be a viable option for AoE, and one way to reintroduce this could be to revisit how Rain of Fire reduces the remaining duration of Diabolic Ritual. If the number of targets hit by Rain of Fire scaled the reduction of Diabolic Ritual’s duration, it would avoid the issue of Rain of Fire becoming the best single-target soul-shard spender—as seen during various beta and PTR builds. It could look something like this:
This would reintroduce AoE viability to Diabolist without risking Rain of Fire becoming the go-to single-target spender, and Chaos Bolt would still remain the better soul-shard spender on 1–3 targets during Havoc windows.
Keep Soul Fire and Shadowburn Relevant
This obviously isn’t a change, but playing Destruction in raids with Soul Fire and Shadowburn is so much more enjoyable than without them. Soul Fire is a great way to speed up the fun part of your gameplay—spending soul shards—and it saves you from having to reapply Immolate, unless you get very unlucky with Decimation procs. Shadowburn being an alternative soul-shard spender to Chaos Bolt and Rain of Fire makes perfect sense. Destruction’s movement has felt lackluster for what seems like an eternity, and having to balance your resources, talent buffs, debuffs, and Rain of Fire stacks feels like the perfect way to reward well-executed gameplay during movement. Big thumbs up for these two.
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