Destruction Warlock Pre-Patch Guide for WotLK Classic

Warlocks receive a number of changes with the Wrath of the Lich King pre-patch and, for the most part, they have a very positive impact on the rotations of each specialisation.

The usage of Conflagrate and the shift towards a more Fire-Destruction-focused build sees some changes to the rotation of Destruction, as well as a more involved and active playstyle.

The talent tree listed above is a fairly standard build for Destruction, avoiding talents like Improved Shadow Bolt in favour of fully committing to the Fire Destruction playstyle.

At Level 70, you will only have access to 2 of your 3 major glyph slots. The minor Glyphs for Warlock are massively unimpactful at this point, hence why we have not chosen to recommend a full set of them. Simply choose as you wish.

Given the move away from Shadow Bolt and the Shadow playstyle, this build favours the Incinerate glyph over the Shadow Bolt one.

The rotation as a Destruction Warlock is the simplest of the three specialisations, but there is a key difference to the Level 80 rotation — given that we will not have access to the glyph for Conflagrate, you will have to ensure that you refresh your Immolate after casting Conflagrate.

1. Maintain Curse of Doom, but only put it on the target if it will not die within the next 60 seconds.
   • Use Curse of Agony if the target will die within 60 seconds.
2. Maintain Immolate
3. Use Conflagrate when available
4. Use Chaos Bolt when available
5. Use Incinerate as your filler spell

The majority of the recommendations for gear in the pre-patch stay the same for Destruction, which you can read on our TBC Warlock gear guide, which is linked below.

For your tier set bonus, you should still aim to have your 4-set T6 bonus and can easily do so by taking the belt, bracers, and boots for 3 of the pieces, given that they are already very strong for Destruction.

For the final piece, you should use either the shoulders or helm, depending on the other piece of gear you have for the second slot.

For your enchants, you should use the following:

Slot	Enchantment
Head	Glyph of Power
Shoulders	Power of the Scourge, Greater Inscription of Discipline, Greater Inscription of the Orb, depending on whether you have PotS left over from Naxxramas, as well as your choice of Aldor or Scryers.
Back	Enchant Cloak - Subtlety
Chest	Enchant Chest - Exceptional Stats
Bracers	Enchant Bracer - Spellpower
Gloves	Enchant Gloves - Major Spellpower or Enchant Gloves - Spell Strike, depending on if you need additional hit.
Legs	Runic Spellthread or Mystic Spellthread, depending on Gold.
Weapon	Enchant Weapon - Soulfrost (or the easier-to-obtain Enchant Weapon - Major Spellpower)

Warlocks have a large number of consumables that are used in different situations and you can read all about the choices on our TBC Enchants page for Warlock below: