Cataclysm Classic Destruction Warlock Leveling
On this page, you will find our level-by-level Destruction Warlock leveling guide for WoW Cataclysm Classic.
Destruction Warlock Level-by-Level Rotation, Talents, and Trainer Skills
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Destruction Warlock Leveling Talents in Cataclysm
You don't start getting talent points until you're LV 10.
Starting with 3 points into Shadow and Flame will significantly boost your main
spell
Incinerates damage, as well as put up the 5% crit debuff on the target.
Starting with 3 points into Shadow and Flame will significantly boost your main
spell
Incinerates damage, as well as put up the 5% crit debuff on the target.
Bane reduces the cast time
of two of your other main spells
Immolate and
Chaos Bolt.
Starting with 3 points into Shadow and Flame will significantly boost your main
spell
Incinerates damage, as well as put up the 5% crit debuff on the target.
Bane reduces the cast time
of two of your other main spells
Immolate and
Chaos Bolt.
Improved Immolate is a nice talent,
as this will boost your main DoT's damage by 20%.
Starting with 3 points into Shadow and Flame will significantly boost your main
spell
Incinerates damage, as well as put up the 5% crit debuff on the target.
Bane reduces the cast time
of two of your other main spells
Immolate and
Chaos Bolt.
Improved Immolate is a nice talent,
as this will boost your main DoT's damage by 20%.
Emberstorm will reduce the cast time of your
Soul Fire
and
Incinerate by one second.
Starting with 3 points into Shadow and Flame will significantly boost your main
spell
Incinerates damage, as well as put up the 5% crit debuff on the target.
Bane reduces the cast time
of two of your other main spells
Immolate and
Chaos Bolt.
Improved Immolate is a nice talent,
as this will boost your main DoT's damage by 20%.
Emberstorm will reduce the cast time of your
Soul Fire
and
Incinerate by one second.
Improved Soul Fire is an important mechanic for
Destruction.
Whenever you
Soul Fire you gain an 8% damage buff for 20 seconds. You will want this buff up as much as you can.
Starting with 3 points into Shadow and Flame will significantly boost your main
spell
Incinerates damage, as well as put up the 5% crit debuff on the target.
Bane reduces the cast time
of two of your other main spells
Immolate and
Chaos Bolt.
Improved Immolate is a nice talent,
as this will boost your main DoT's damage by 20%.
Emberstorm will reduce the cast time of your
Soul Fire
and
Incinerate by one second.
Improved Soul Fire is an important mechanic for
Destruction.
Whenever you
Soul Fire you gain an 8% damage buff for 20 seconds. You will want this buff up as much as you can.
Backdraft is crucial as this reduces the cast time of your next three
Incinerate and
Chaos Bolt
by a whopping 30%.
Starting with 3 points into Shadow and Flame will significantly boost your main
spell
Incinerates damage, as well as put up the 5% crit debuff on the target.
Bane reduces the cast time
of two of your other main spells
Immolate and
Chaos Bolt.
Improved Immolate is a nice talent,
as this will boost your main DoT's damage by 20%.
Emberstorm will reduce the cast time of your
Soul Fire
and
Incinerate by one second.
Improved Soul Fire is an important mechanic for
Destruction.
Whenever you
Soul Fire you gain an 8% damage buff for 20 seconds. You will want this buff up as much as you can.
Backdraft is crucial as this reduces the cast time of your next three
Incinerate and
Chaos Bolt
by a whopping 30%.
Shadowburn was significantly buffed in Cataclysm and should be used on cooldown once the target
reaches 20% Health.
Burning Embers will cause your
Soul Fire and your Imps
Firebolt
to leave a DoT on the target that does 50% of the damage you just did over 7 seconds.
Burning Embers will cause your
Soul Fire and your Imps
Firebolt
to leave a DoT on the target that does 50% of the damage you just did over 7 seconds.
Soul Leech will simply give you
some self healing while you're leveling, as well as some mana from
Replenishment.
Burning Embers will cause your
Soul Fire and your Imps
Firebolt
to leave a DoT on the target that does 50% of the damage you just did over 7 seconds.
Soul Leech will simply give you
some self healing while you're leveling, as well as some mana from
Replenishment.
Backlash will allow you
to have a chance at an instant cast
Incinerate whenever you get hit by melee attacks, which will be frequent while
leveling.
Burning Embers will cause your
Soul Fire and your Imps
Firebolt
to leave a DoT on the target that does 50% of the damage you just did over 7 seconds.
Soul Leech will simply give you
some self healing while you're leveling, as well as some mana from
Replenishment.
Backlash will allow you
to have a chance at an instant cast
Incinerate whenever you get hit by melee attacks, which will be frequent while
leveling.
Nether Ward will help give you an absorb to ALL magic damage, instead of just shadow damage.
Burning Embers will cause your
Soul Fire and your Imps
Firebolt
to leave a DoT on the target that does 50% of the damage you just did over 7 seconds.
Soul Leech will simply give you
some self healing while you're leveling, as well as some mana from
Replenishment.
Backlash will allow you
to have a chance at an instant cast
Incinerate whenever you get hit by melee attacks, which will be frequent while
leveling.
Nether Ward will help give you an absorb to ALL magic damage, instead of just shadow damage.
Fire and Brimstone
increases the damage done by your
Chaos Bolt and
Incinerate by 15% if the target has an
Immolate
on it, as well as increases the chance that your
Conflagrate will crit by 15%.
Burning Embers will cause your
Soul Fire and your Imps
Firebolt
to leave a DoT on the target that does 50% of the damage you just did over 7 seconds.
Soul Leech will simply give you
some self healing while you're leveling, as well as some mana from
Replenishment.
Backlash will allow you
to have a chance at an instant cast
Incinerate whenever you get hit by melee attacks, which will be frequent while
leveling.
Nether Ward will help give you an absorb to ALL magic damage, instead of just shadow damage.
Fire and Brimstone
increases the damage done by your
Chaos Bolt and
Incinerate by 15% if the target has an
Immolate
on it, as well as increases the chance that your
Conflagrate will crit by 15%.
Shadowfury is a great spell
that is instant cast, deals strong damage and stuns all enemies hit with it.
Burning Embers will cause your
Soul Fire and your Imps
Firebolt
to leave a DoT on the target that does 50% of the damage you just did over 7 seconds.
Soul Leech will simply give you
some self healing while you're leveling, as well as some mana from
Replenishment.
Backlash will allow you
to have a chance at an instant cast
Incinerate whenever you get hit by melee attacks, which will be frequent while
leveling.
Nether Ward will help give you an absorb to ALL magic damage, instead of just shadow damage.
Fire and Brimstone
increases the damage done by your
Chaos Bolt and
Incinerate by 15% if the target has an
Immolate
on it, as well as increases the chance that your
Conflagrate will crit by 15%.
Shadowfury is a great spell
that is instant cast, deals strong damage and stuns all enemies hit with it.
Empowered Imp gives your Imps
Firebolt
a 4% chance to cause your next
Soul Fire to be instant cast.
Bane of Havoc is great to cleave and put on another target, while continuing to blast
your main target, since this will transfer 15% of all damage you deal to it, giving you some strong cleave damage when fighting
more than one enemy.
Bane of Havoc is great to cleave and put on another target, while continuing to blast
your main target, since this will transfer 15% of all damage you deal to it, giving you some strong cleave damage when fighting
more than one enemy.
Chaos Bolt is a main spell for Destruction and will be used frequently.
Bane of Havoc is great to cleave and put on another target, while continuing to blast
your main target, since this will transfer 15% of all damage you deal to it, giving you some strong cleave damage when fighting
more than one enemy.
Chaos Bolt is a main spell for Destruction and will be used frequently
Dark Arts, as this
will reduce the cast time of your Imp by .75 seconds, making him cast faster.
Bane of Havoc is great to cleave and put on another target, while continuing to blast
your main target, since this will transfer 15% of all damage you deal to it, giving you some strong cleave damage when fighting
more than one enemy.
Chaos Bolt is a main spell for Destruction and will be used frequently
Dark Arts, as this
will reduce the cast time of your Imp by .75 seconds, making him cast faster.
Improved Corruption, giving you 12% more
damage on your
Corruption.
Bane of Havoc is great to cleave and put on another target, while continuing to blast
your main target, since this will transfer 15% of all damage you deal to it, giving you some strong cleave damage when fighting
more than one enemy.
Chaos Bolt is a main spell for Destruction and will be used frequently
Dark Arts, as this
will reduce the cast time of your Imp by .75 seconds, making him cast faster.
Improved Corruption, giving you 12% more
damage on your
Corruption.
Improved Life Tap will give you more mana back whenever you
Life Tap.
Bane of Havoc is great to cleave and put on another target, while continuing to blast
your main target, since this will transfer 15% of all damage you deal to it, giving you some strong cleave damage when fighting
more than one enemy.
Chaos Bolt is a main spell for Destruction and will be used frequently
Dark Arts, as this
will reduce the cast time of your Imp by .75 seconds, making him cast faster.
Improved Corruption, giving you 12% more
damage on your
Corruption.
Improved Life Tap will give you more mana back whenever you
Life Tap.
The last point into
Fel Synergy will help heal your demon, so you don't have to
Health Funnel as often.
Destruction Warlock Leveling Glyphs in Cataclysm
Prime Glyphs
Glyph of Imp — This will make your Imp do 20% more damage.
Glyph of Immolate — This increases the DoT portion of your
Immolate by an additional 10%, making your hardest hitting DoT do even more damage.
Glyph of Incinerate — This makes your
Incinerate do 5% more damage.
Major Glyphs
Glyph of Life Tap — This will reduce the global cooldown of your
Life Tap by half a second and imporant since you will be
Life Taping frequently.
Glyph of Soul Link — This increases how much damage is shared from you to your demon from
Soul Link by 5%, making you take less damage.
Glyph of Soulstone — This allows you to resurrect with an additional 40% Health whenever you die and your Soulstone resurrects you.
Minor Glyphs
Glyph of Drain Soul — Whenever you kill an enemy that yields experience or honor you gain 10% of your mana back.
Glyph of Unending Breath — — This increases the swim speed of targets affected by your
Unending Breath by 20%. Helpful for any quests in the water.
Glyph of Curse of Exhaustion — This increases the range of your
Curse of Exhaustion by 5 yards. Can be helpful if you ever want to slow down your enemy or in PvP situations.
Leveling Rotation
Destruction focuses on hard hitting single target damage and is one of the best levelers in the game. Until
LV 82, most enemies died before they even got the chance to reach you. With a relatively easy rotation of keeping
up your Immolate and
Improved Soul Fire buff for your 8% damage buff. Keep
Conflagrate
on cooldown as much as you can so you gain your 30% haste buff and use
Incinerate as your filler while
making sure you you pay attention and use your instant cast
Soul Fire procs that you're gaining from
Improved Soul Fire.Make sure to use
Shadowburn when the target is less than 20% health as this
does very good damage. Always make sure your Imp is attacking and that you have you're personal buffs up as well.
- Have
Demon Armor on you all the time. This increases your armor and the amount of health generated from your spells. Once you hit level 62 you unlock Fel Armor, then use that instead as this supplies a ton of spell damage and causes you to heal for 3% of all single target damage done.
- Make sure your Imp is out and attacking. It can be helpful to have a Weakaura to track if your Demon is attacking.
- >Make sure to have a
Create Healthstone made for emergency reasons if you need some health.
- If you want, you can make sure to have a Soulstone on you, so you're able to resurrect if you die.
- Make sure to use whatever cooldowns you have, like Trinkets and racials such as
Blood Fury.
- Cast
Soul Fire or use your
Soulburn with
Soul Fire to gain an instant cast
Soul Fire. This is to get your 8% damage buff from
Improved Soul Fire
- Cast
Immolate and keep it up on the boss at all times.
- Cast
Conflagrate and keep it on cooldown as much as you can
- Cast
Corruption if the target will live for the duration.
- Cast
Incinerate until target is below 20%
- Use
Shadowburn to finish the target off.
- Use
Death Coil to get some healing back from it.
- Use
Life Tap whenever you need mana.
- Pay attention to your
Glyph of Corruption procs to use your instant cast
Shadow Bolts
- You can use
Drain Soul right when a target is about to die and if it dies while you're draining, you will recieve some mana back.
- Use
Soulburn with
Soul Fire to gain an instant cast
Soul Fire
List of Trainer Skills to Skip While Leveling
Warlocks have a ton of spells and demon Grimoires to buy. It can become daunting to think about which ones are worth getting. To keep it simple, you want to buy all ranks of spells that you find yourself using out in the open world. You can skip a bunch of spells if you want to save gold and make it less confusing. Some spells that you can skip training until level 85 are listed below in order of which they become available on your trainer.
Curse of Weakness
Curse of the Elements
Eye of Kilrogg
Subjugate Demon
Soulshatter
Warlock Addons and Macros
Addons and Macros can greatly improve your quality of life while playing. Listed below are some of our recommendations on Addons and Macros to help get the most out of your time playing the game.
How to Continue to Improve Your Destruction Warlock at Level 85
Once you achieve Level 85, we suggest checking out our Destruction Warlock Guide which goes more in detail of how to play Destruction at max level.
Changelog
- 17 Sep. 2024: Reviewed for Phase 3.
- 06 May 2024: Page added.
More Cataclysm Warlock Guides
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This guide has been written by Abide, TBC veteran for nearly a decade. Abide is a Warrior tank and multi-class expert currently playing on Faerlina as Horde. You can find him in the the Icy Veins Discord. You can also see him live on Twitch.
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