Destruction Warlock PvP Guide for WotLK Classic

Destruction Warlock differs from Affliction Warlock greatly. Instead of focusing on spread pressure, Destruction Warlocks aim to crowd control the enemy team and burst down one target quickly in a short window. Destruction Warlocks hard cast a lot of their abilities, and pairs well with other classes that have a lot of Crowd Control abilities and burst damage.

Strengths

• Extremely high burst damage, can easily surprise your enemies.
• Very quick damage setup, can quickly swap targets if you catch someone out of place.
• Multiple forms of crowd control for peeling.

Weaknesses

• Relies on casting most spells for damage.
• Hard time dealing with line of site and high mobility targets.
• Damage is very telegraphed who and when you are bursting.

This talent build differs by having 4 points in Improved Shadow Bolt. This causes your Shadow Bolt ability to deal the same amount of damage as an Incinerate while applying the Shadow Mastery 5% crit debuff. This is the general build that should be ran for PvP scenarios.

In 2v2, you should change some talents to take Improved Sayaad while using the Succubus pet. This allows you to double CC by yourself, using Seduction on 1 target and Shadowfury into Fear on your kill target.

1. Glyph of Conflagrate — Allows you to freely cast Conflagrate without removing Immolate.
2. Glyph of Shadowflame — Snares targets hit by your Shadowflame, allowing you to kite or peel for your teammates.
3. Glyph of Succubus — Causes your Seduction to remove DoT effects.
4. Glyph of Immolate — Causes your Immolate to deal 10% more damage, and therefore your Conflagrate to as well.

1. Glyph of Curse of Exhaustion — Increases the range of your Curse of Exhaustion spell, allowing it to be used from 41 yards away.
2. Glyph of Drain Soul — Allows you to gain extra Soul Shards when casting Drain Soul.

As a Destruction Warlock it is important to prioritise the correct stats in order to perform in Wrath of the Lich King PvP. Below, we go over relevant stats that you should aim for.

Resilience is the single most important stat for a Destruction Warlock in PvP. This stat grants a flat damage reduction, reduced chance to be crit as well as reducing the damage taken from any crits that land. Destruction Warlocks want to aim for at least 1300 resilience.

In order for your spells (and your pet's spells) to land without missing, you need to reach Hit Rating thresholds. Against level 80 players, this cap is 4%. However, there are certain specs such as Retribution Paladins and Subtlety Rogues who require an extra 4%. Additionally, certain races such as Draeneis, Blood Elves and Undead require an extra 2%. As such, the realistic Hit Rating % to aim for is 6%.

Similar to Hit Rating, Spell Pentration is another stat that is required so that your spells don't resist. Spell Penetration counteracts Magic Resistance such as Shadow Resistance. For a Destruction Warlock, you should aim for as close to 130 Spell Pentration as possible.

Spell Power increases the damage dealt by all of your abilities. This stat is the best stat to aim for if you want to increase your DPS output.

Haste is the best stat after Resilience, Hit Rating and Spell Pentration. While Haste is not the best stat for increasing raw DPS output, it allows you to dish out damage and maintain your curses. Additionally, it reduces your Global Cooldown time and reduces your cast time.

Critical Strike Rating is better for increasing your DPS than Haste but not Spell Power. However, due to the fast-paced nature of Wrath of the Lich King PvP, Haste is a better stat to prioritise.

If you are looking to optimise your Destruction Warlock in Wrath of the Lich King PvP, these are the recommended professions:

1. Jewelcrafting — Gives you three Jewelcrafting specific gems, Mystic Dragon's Eye, totalling an extra 42 Resilience.
2. Engineering — Hand-Mounted Pyro Rocket gives you an off-global instant Rocket that deals a moderate amount of damage, allowing for extra burst or sniping a Tremor Totem.
3. Blacksmithing — Socket Bracer and Socket Gloves gives you 2 extra sockets in your gear, totalling an extra 40 Resilience.

Destruction Warlocks playstyle should focus on creating as many windows to free cast damage as possible. For example, asting Shadowfury into a Fear on an enemy healer, and then casting damage into your target is much more effective than dealing damage while the healer is not in Crowd Control.

• Cast Fear on a target.
• Cast Immolate on your kill target.
• Cast Conflagrate to gain Backdraft stacks.
• Cast Shadowfury on your target.
• Cast Chaos Bolt.
• Cast Incinerate.
• Cast Shadowburn as an execute.

It is worth applying Corruption to protect your Immolate and Fear from being dispelled or when you need to move.

The list linked below includes the best possible gear setup for a Destruction Warlock in PvP.

When it comes to evaluating Destruction Warlock's place within the Arena, we have created a number of guides devoted to listing a variety of popular team compositions which you can find below.