Destruction Warlock Patch 9.2 Changes Analysis and Tier Set Thoughts

This page will go over how the changes currently on the Patch 9.2 will affect Destruction Warlocks, specifically how the changes impact the playstyle, best Legendaries, Covenants, etc. If you are simply interested in what the current changes are for Destruction Warlock on the 9.2 PTR, you can instead read our full list of changes to the entire Warlock class on our dedicated page below. For an additional list of content coming in Patch 9.2, you can also check out our Patch 9.2 Overview page.

Destruction was one of the specs with tuning postponed to the beginning of Season 4 due to the extent of the changes:

• Chaos Bolt damage increased by 5% in PvE;
• Incinerate and Immolate damage increased by 20%;
• Conflagrate damage increased by 10% in PvE;
• Destruction Warlock 4-Piece: Blasphemy no longer grants Rain of Chaos (when talented).

The buffs to spells are meant to compensate the severe nerf to (an arguably overtuned) set bonus, at least in single-target, with the intent to remove some of the excessive Shard generation in multi-target (which was attempted previously with the change to Inferno). However, in practice this results in a slight performance nerf in single-target and a noticeable hit in AoE where the spec was definitely a strong outlier in terms of (over)performing.

Summon Succubus has received a new Incubus model option and a rework to her 2 abilities:

• Seduction causes the target to slowly walk towards the demon and has a chance of break on damage taken.
• Whiplash puts a debuff on target that increase the damage taken from Succubus by 1%, stacking 10 times.

Succubus changes have a deeper ramifications in the PvE settings: having a 10% damage increase over other baseline pets (albeit with a ramp up of 60 seconds) makes Succubus the default option for boss damage (breaking the previous normalized damage across pet rule), unless a Felhunter interrupt or a Imp dispel is required. Succubus will still be worse than Imp in situations where target swapping is frequent, especially between distant targets, and will also lose in pure AoE situations vs VoidWalker.

The Tier Set for Destruction has arguably the biggest impact in regards to talent changes among all Warlock specs. Eradication, Rain of Chaos, and Soul Conduit become the best options in their respective rows, due to the increased Shard flow generated by the Destruction Warlock 4-Piece bonus and the subsequent emphasis on Chaos Bolt casts.

With the advent of Patch 9.2 every class will have the opportunity to earn new gear sets either through the Great Vault or the Sepulcher of the First Ones raid.

Equipping at least 2 and 4 pieces of the set will unlock new passive effects which are the following for Destruction Warlock:

• Destruction Warlock 2-Piece — Every 10 Soul Shards spent makes your next Chaos Bolt or Rain of Fire free to cast.
• Destruction Warlock 4-Piece — When Rain of Fire or Chaos Bolt is freely cast, you summon a Blasphemy for 8 sec.

While the Destruction Warlock 2-Piece seems pretty average in value, slightly favoring AoE situations and stronger Havoc windows, the Destruction Warlock 4-Piece has interaction with Rain of Chaos and Infernal Brand, which can potentially lead to some changes in both talents and Potency Conduit choices.

Patch 9.2 will feature the ability to equip a Covenant Legendary simultaneously with another non-Covenant-specific one. While sounding great on paper, in reality it will not necessarily influence the Legendary of choice and instead will simply increase the borrowed power.

With the addition of the tier set, however, shifts the Legendary pick toward Madness of the Azj'Aqir and even Embers of the Diabolic Raiment in single-target specifically.

Necrolord with Plague Deviser Marileth offers very competitive damage in single- and 2-target cleave, but Night Fae remains the most versatile choice when playing multiple specializations. Necrolords offer great overlap between Demonology and Destruction.