5.4 Destruction Tips and Quirks

[vladMTL 1]

i like your destro guide zagam but please if you use the demo guide and replace the things for destro. read it again.. :s a lot of errors in the text..

the grammar nazi ? hi, i'd be the troll

edit: to add a more serious note thank you for the guide since I see you're all serious and sh** here

Edited March 15, 2013 by vldsb

[FellintoOblivion 2]

Like another poster mentioned, how grouped up your tanks keep the adds is largely going to affect your DPS on Horridon. I've had fights where my DPS was 70k and others where it was over 90.

[Vestion 8]

Thanks for this, should help boost my current destruction dps above 50-60k xD

I have a question about reforging. I know you say a lot that the stats are very close, but if I were to heavily stack mastery by getting rid of some crit, would that be better? I think keeping at least the first haste cap should be a given, but I dont see why I should get crit chance (apart from ember generation) to increase chaos bolt damage while I could increase all spell damage with mastery. Not to mention going mastery heavy would help if you had an affli OS.

[Zagam 1,982]

Hello,

I have a question about how to do mass dmg with destro?

I am able to do 108+k dmg for example to "Jinrok the Breaker" but when time comes to do mass dmg i only do about 50k. So my question would be how to do mass dmg, the basic rotation.

I always try to use the rules what Zagam wrote:

1) Apply Rain of Fire

2) Apply Fire and Brimstone:Immolate

3) Apply Fire and Brimstone:Conflagrate[

4) Use Fire and Brimstone:Incinerate

but this does not help me..

Using those 4 steps you quoted, I do 400k+ on trash. Destruction currently has the highest AoE capabilities with mobs stacked tightly together. It's literally as easy as I put there. Make sure that Rain of Fire is running constantly. If Rain of Fire is up, apply FnB:Immo. If RoF and FnB:Immo are up, use FnB Conflag and spam FnB: Incinerate. When mobs are below 20%, execute via Shadowburn while keeping Rain of Fire running. To only be doing 50k "Mass Damage" or whatever that means (guessing trash?) something isn't working on your end.

Like another poster mentioned, how grouped up your tanks keep the adds is largely going to affect your DPS on Horridon. I've had fights where my DPS was 70k and others where it was over 90.

Considering there should be one tank on adds and one tank on Horridon, the adds should be relatively grouped up. Definitely close enough to Fire and Brimstone them. 70k and 90k are on the very low end of parses for Horridon. Make sure you are utilizing Destruction's proper AoE priority as well as using Havoc on cooldown when there is more than 1 enemy present.

Thanks for this, should help boost my current destruction dps above 50-60k xD

I have a question about reforging. I know you say a lot that the stats are very close, but if I were to heavily stack mastery by getting rid of some crit, would that be better? I think keeping at least the first haste cap should be a given, but I dont see why I should get crit chance (apart from ember generation) to increase chaos bolt damage while I could increase all spell damage with mastery. Not to mention going mastery heavy would help if you had an affli OS.

You kind of answered your own question. If you sacrifice Crit for Mastery, you won't see a big overall change, but you will see a gameplay change. You won't generate as many embers, but each attack you do will do a little more damage. The problem with Haste as Destruction is the Haste ceiling you reach under certain circumstances. I have a hair over 4k Haste rating and my Backdrafted Incinerates are at 1.3 seconds. Under Bloodlust, these go down to 0.8 seconds. The absolute Haste ceiling for Destruction is when your non-Bloodlust Backdraft Incinerates are cast at 1.0 seconds as any faster than that will create 'waiting' time for your casting queue. Since as Affliction you want Haste = Mastery, you'll be creating a skewed off-spec reforge. If you want to play two different specs right now, you can't 100% maximize either one. As long as you avoid Crit as Affliction and excessive Haste as Destruction, you should be fine.

[Jonathan 0]

I recently tried rolling Destruction since the nerf a few days ago but I feel like my DPS is overall lacking, even compared to my now nerfed Demonology Spec. One thing that I noticed is that you said to avoid using Grimoire of Sacrifice at all costs because you lose DPS from it which I'm now going to fix when I get home but I'm curious as to where this DPS loss comes from? Is the DPS from having a pet greater than the increase that the talent gives you?

Edited March 16, 2013 by Jonathan

[FellintoOblivion 2]

So when you cast a FandB'd Incinerate is it still considered a single target spell for Havoc? That is, if there's 4 mobs within 10 yards of each other and one has Havoc on it he will get hit twice by a single cast of incinerate?

[robotsteve 0]

So when you cast a FandB'd Incinerate is it still considered a single target spell for Havoc? That is, if there's 4 mobs within 10 yards of each other and one has Havoc on it he will get hit twice by a single cast of incinerate?

No he will not. FB spells don't count.

[Zagam 1,982]

I recently tried rolling Destruction since the nerf a few days ago but I feel like my DPS is overall lacking, even compared to my now nerfed Demonology Spec. One thing that I noticed is that you said to avoid using Grimoire of Sacrifice at all costs because you lose DPS from it which I'm now going to fix when I get home but I'm curious as to where this DPS loss comes from? Is the DPS from having a pet greater than the increase that the talent gives you?

Yes. Having a pet out with Grim of Sacrifice is a bigger DPS gain than using the actual Grimoire of Sacrifice.

[Dragoras 0]

Hey Zagam great guide as usual man your stuff is awesome. I have a question I notice you said with the tot trinkets having a small window you pop a chaos bolt when you get that 7500 intell proc etc.... do you recommend doing it when you have a trinket proc only or should i do it when I get lightweave and jade spirit procs

[Sternebrezeln 0]

I'd like to know how big the dps / damage loss is if you stay fully mastery reforged and play destro. If it's minor I would be switching between aff and destro in ToT.

Edited March 18, 2013 by Sternebrezeln

[Zagam 1,982]

Hey Zagam great guide as usual man your stuff is awesome. I have a question I notice you said with the tot trinkets having a small window you pop a chaos bolt when you get that 7500 intell proc etc.... do you recommend doing it when you have a trinket proc only or should i do it when I get lightweave and jade spirit procs

Depends on your ember situation. If you're almost capped and have Jade Spirit and Lightweave running, that's still going to be a 3500+ Int proc that will make CB bang harder. Also note your DS coming off cd...if it's close, that 30% crit is going to help more than JS and LW.

I'd like to know how big the dps / damage loss is if you stay fully mastery reforged and play destro. If it's minor I would be switching between aff and destro in ToT.

It is minor, as iterated many times in these forums. Your secondary stats don't matter a whole lot if you perform your rotation correctly. Being fully Mastery reforged indicates you'll be low on Haste. This will require near perfect play, as consuming CB with Backdraft may leave you very low on mana.

[Twinkielock 15]

Would you recommend making a macro to cast Dark Soul and BLood FUry (if Orc) with your other spells? For my aff spec I have it tied to Mal Grip. Was just wondering if a similar macro makes since for destro.

[Zagam 1,982]

No. I'll delay Dark Soul and other things on a need basis so if they're automatically being used, I can't optimize them.

[mediocregatsby 18]

@Twinkielock you really shouldn't do that for any spec. The difference between being top DPS and good DPS is lining up cooldowns and/or saving them for burn phase or other boss mechanics.

@Zagam: Do you use GoSac on fights with lots of AOE/adds? I know GoSac doesn't buff ROF or FNB, but it seems like the extra damage from Havoc and frequent Shadowburns might outweigh the higher single-target increase from pets (unless I missed something and the observer has any AOE damage). Also are there any fights where you use a different pet than the observer?

Anyways definitely looking forward to raiding destruction this week. I had a 1.3 million CB crit on LFR Jin'rokh and just started laughing maniacally as I wasn't even fully buffed; kinda reminded me of the first time I tried SOC spamming in AV... oh man that was some good shit. Will probably stick to affliction for Council and maaaybe Horridon though.

[Zagam 1,982]

I don't switch, but I've only done one week as Destruction. Things will change this week as I now have intimate knowledge of each encounter and how to maximize performance. No reason to use anything but an Observer or Voidlord as they do equivalent amounts of damage. The Voidlord has a disarm which is useless raiding while the Observer has a silence and spell steal which is more useful.

[Sifon 25]

Hello fellow warlocks, I have set bonus related question. With haste-crit heavy destruction build which bonus would be better, 4pc t14 or 2-2 from both tiers? I have to replace 517 t14 gloves and 496 t14 legs to obtain 2pc t15. I tried to sim both and got almost equivalent results so I have no idea at the moment. I can't link my armory because I'm on mobile. Greetings from Sifon-Twisting Nether(EU).

[Zagam 1,982]

You're trading more frequent Dark Soul uses for better Dark Soul uses. With the 2pc T15 set, you can squeeze off 5 Chaos Bolts if capped on embers or 4 with the same use that used to require 3. If the set bonuses are a wash, then just upgrade to the higher item level.

[Sifon 25]

You're trading more frequent Dark Soul uses for better Dark Soul uses. With the 2pc T15 set, you can squeeze off 5 Chaos Bolts if capped on embers or 4 with the same use that used to require 3. If the set bonuses are a wash, then just upgrade to the higher item level.

m.

With that logic, 4pc T14 reduces Dark Soul cooldown with %33 but 2pc T15 makes Chaos Bolts %20 efficent while Dark Soul is active. But since I gain 31 item level on total that close the gap between that percents. I think I'm gonna stick with T14s until I get 4pc T15.

[Zagam 1,982]

4pc T14 gives you Dark Soul on an 80sec CD instead of 120sec CD. This makes the uptime go from 16% to 25%. If you were able to lay it out on a time table, you could look at it this way:

0pc T14 Dark Soul timed uses (on CD): 0 sec, 120 sec, 240 sec, 360 sec, 480 sec, 600 sec (10 minute fight)

4pc T14 Dark Soul timed uses (on CD): 0 sec, 80 sec, 160 sec, 240 sec, 320 sec, 400 sec, 480 sec, 560 sec, 620 sec (10:20 fight)

What the 4pc does is give you extra uses based on fight length. For example,

180 sec (3 mins)

0pc T14 = 2 uses

4pc T14 = 3 uses

240 sec (4 mins)

0pc = 2 uses (comes off CD)

4pc = 3 uses (comes off CD)

300 sec (5 mins)

0pc = 3 uses

4pc = 4 uses

360 sec (6 mins)

0pc = 3 uses (comes off CD)

4pc = 5 uses

420 sec (7 mins)

0pc = 4 uses

4pc = 6 uses

480 sec (8 mins)

0pc = 4 uses (comes off CD)

4pc = 6 uses (comes off CD)

540 sec (9 mins)

0pc = 5 uses

4pc = 8 uses

600 sec (10 mins)

0pc = 5 uses (comes off CD)

4pc = 8 uses

You can see the longer the fight goes, the more beneficial the T14 bonus is. This set bonus was truly quite amazing...it'll be interesting to see what the T16 bonus is to trump this one.

Now, with 2pc T15 and 2pc T14, you'll still get the 10% buffed Incinerate (or is it 5%, not sure). But with the empowered Dark Soul, you trade additional uses for better versions. Let's say you pool at least 3.2 embers for each Dark Soul (pooling 4 is risky to not cause embers to be wasted). Now instead of pinching off 3 Chaos Bolts during Dark Soul, now you can squeeze off 4.

Personally, I think the 4pc T14 is mega awesome...but the item level just can't compete. I think I'll be holding off until I acquire all 4 pieces of T15 before making the swap, but to each their own.

[Sifon 25]

Thanks for calculations Zagam, I know how awesome 4pc T14 is and gonna keep it until 4pc T15 just because of item level increase is too much at that point. Btw kinda offtopic but there is another question that bugs me. I was playing demo and swapped to destro recently but I know affli will pull ahead at 522 item level so should I chose my gear for affliction because I have like 3-4k unavoidable crit already on me.

[Zagam 1,982]

Affliction doesn't pull ahead until about 528ish ilvl. Unless you plan on hitting that anytime soon, I wouldn't bother thinking about it. Honestly, once Affliction pulls past Destruction again, you'll either be done with the tier or extremely overgeared.

[Sifon 25]

Okay than since we are a newly formed 25man guild 528ish item level will take lots of time as you mentioned. I just checked your armory for gemming and I saw int+mastery gems, any reason for that?

[vladMTL 1]

Okay than since we are a newly formed 25man guild 528ish item level will take lots of time as you mentioned. I just checked your armory for gemming and I saw int+mastery gems, any reason for that?

I think he is testing man and as long as he cannot reach any definite conclusion he won't regem his gear since that would mean not that much for any of his findings i reckon ?! ...

Edited March 19, 2013 by vldsb

[Sifon 25]

I think he is testing man and as long as he cannot reach any definite conclusion he won't regem his gear since that would mean not that much for any of his findings i reckon ?! ...

Might be that, thanks.

[Zagam 1,982]

Nope, it's because I forgot to regem last night. I changed my reforges and other crap, but noticed when I armoried myself I still had 1k+ Mastery rating coming from gems. Those will be Int/Haste gems pretty soon. I found my burst to be FAR better with higher Crit and Haste last night, but I wasn't raiding...just farming those Zandalari Trolls. Tonight I should be able to test more stuff.