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The destruction specialization was never preffered for arenas in 2.4.3 simply because it is not as viable as some other ones. In order to make it work or at least to some degree, both yourself and your partner need to be at the top of your games as well as be great as a team.
Good partners in arena (2vs2) for Destruction Warlock are:
- Druid (DS/Restokin)
- Discipline Priest
- Rogue
- Mage (Frost/Fire)
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A good and well geared destruction warlock is always something for the other team to fear in a battleground simply because of its outstanding damage output and reliable burst, which also makes them beloved by their own factions.
Here are some simple tips for the Battleground:
- Stay at the back of the group
- Don't try to carry flags
- Help your team by focusing healers and flag carriers
Warriors are one of the easiest targets for a destruction warlock because of Seduction. Regardless of that you shoudn't underestimate a warrior since one can butcher you in seconds due to your lack of armour and defenses. Your job against a warrior is to try and keep him controled as much as possible with seductions, shadow furies and death coils while of course giving him all the damage you can. After the opener you want to kite him and there are two ways to do so. The first way is the one with you not being hamstringed and hence slowed down. Basically what you should do then is just seduce the warrior and run at max casting range before starting to cast, he will not be able to charge you from there on and you should indeed try to stay at such range. The second way is the rogue way and in case you get slowed down. Try to stay at a neutral ground where he will not be able to neither charge, nor attack you with his melee abilities. Futhermore try to run after him for a moment after a death coil in order to try to avoid a potential PvP trinket on the coil and a charge on you afterwards. Watch out for Spell Reflections or you might kill yourself. Last but not least, keep an eye on your pet and its positioning. You do not want your pet feared.
- Use Rank 1 Curse of Weakness on Spell Reflects (it reduces attack power and doesn't really affect you)
- Place your Succubus somewhere near the fight (in range for a Seduction but out of Range for his fear)
- Curse of the Elements is your best pick against a warrior (since he will be controlled most of the time)
- Use your PvP trinket either on a hamstring proc or a stun (if you feel like you are getting in trouble)
- Conflagrate instantly after an Immolate (a good Paladin will cleanse it)
- Pull your Succubus away and back invisible if you are not using its abilities (otherwise it can get feared)
A Holy Paladin should be another easy target unless you allow them to extend the fight for so long that a point will come where you will find yourself both OOM and on low HP from lifetaps and damage taken and ultimately lose the fight. You can use both a Succubus and a Felhunter against such an enemy, although the Felhunter is preffered due to its bigger mana pool as the fight is expected to be prolonged. A holy paladin will not run out of mana, but you might therefore when you are not performing a destruction chain you should stick to low mana consuming abilities such as searing pain. Keep Curse of Tongues refreshed at most times in order to avoid having him heal at will and only consider Curse of the Elements if you have him one hundred percent controlled. Conserve your cooldowns such as shadowfury and death coil, watch your fear/seduction DR as well. You need those to interrupt key heals as the fight goes on. Ultimately try to save the big guns for after his bubble and you should fare well in the fight.
- Try to first-aid yourself during his bubble
- Save your PvP trinket for late fight (it won't make a difference before a bubble)
- Lifetap in advance (to avoid finding yourself OOM during a burst)
Shockadin is a build that you should definitely not sleep on. They have an incredible burst and are capable of destroying you in seconds. Most shockadins preffer wings over a bubble, yet you shoudn't rely on that fact alone. The Succubus is the preffered pet against this enemy as the fight is highly unlikely to prolong itself. Try to draw first blood with a seduction and getting some distance in order to be out of range of his stun before beginning your chain. He will seek first blood himself so he is likely to try to stun you on the opener indeed. Remember that these people can kill you in a five second burst. Here is what you can do to avoid such a scenario: The perfect idea is to Seduce him the moment he stuns you and begins doing his thing. From there on he will most likely use his PvP trinket and begin his assault on you. Once that happens you have two options: Either use your PvP trinket on whatever remains of his stun and continue with a death coil and a healthstone in order to avoid another quick burst and a surprising loss before continueing with your destruction chain. In the said scenario he would have most likely used his wings as he wasted his PvP trinket to try to kill you, therefore you should just keep him controlled and throw everything that you have left at him to finish him off. Just make sure you get the kill in one chain since if you don't - you are most likely looking at a loss. The second option is to do a second seduction instead of waisting your PvP trinket when he uses his. What I dislike about this version is that even though you will have your PvP trinket, which you likely will not need due to the usually short fight, you will have a DR on your fear/seductions and therefore be unable to execute a longer destruction chain and hence may fall short indeed. The second scenario is however viable if the shockadin elected not to use wings and will therefore most likely bubble at a certain point. That will most likely give you time to execute a proper chain eventually while conserving your PvP trinket for when he comes back at you with another stun.
- Swap between Curse of the Elements and Curse of Tongues (according to the situation)
- Try to first-aid yourself whenever possible
Retribution Paladins are nerfed and find themselves pretty weak in 2.4.3, they are however, usually still a bigger threat to you than Warriors because of their bigger control and survivability. There isn't much to say here, just try to stay as far away as possible from the Paladin, do not stay in one place and have him chase you around whenever you are waiting for cooldows. Just seduce/control him and chain him down. Try to save your PvP trinket and Death Coil for after his bubble or you might find yourself in trouble. If they elect to use wings instead, just seduce them and chain them down again.
- Curse of the Elements is your best choice
- Do not waste your PvP trinket on a repeance (unless it is a 110% sure kill opportunity)
Hunters. Survival and Marksman specializations shoudn't be a problem for you. The Succubus is your best choice against these. Your job is to use abilities such as seductions, shadow furies and death coils in order to stay as close as you possibly can to a hunter and therefore force them into melee range in order to neutralize their damage output. Beastmaster hunters are the other side of the coin and they can be a huge problem for you. You should go with a Voidwalker for the sake of sacrifice. Ultimately you have to hope on backlashes and critical strikes to keep up with them because they will get you down in no time. If possible, use line of sight to bypass their cooldowns. Killing the pet should only be an option if the hunter is not attacking you, or unable to do so.
- Will of Forsaken (undead) against Survival Hunters' CC String
- Trash buffs are a must (in order to protect your backlash procs)
- Backlash instantly and on proc otherwise you risk losing it (even with trash buffs)
- PvP Trinket on pet stun against BM or on whatever keeps you from hugging the hunter against the rest
- Curse of the Elements is your best bet, yet use Curse of Agony if you are not using a Succubus
- Double or Triple Voidwalker Sacrifice is your only hope if you want to face-to-face a BM Hunter (one before the duel starts, another one during the fight and a third one if you have the master summoner spec)
Balance Druids strike fear in the hearts of many due to their high damage combined with extremely quick casting. Lucky for you, a Destruction Warlock is not one among-st these "many" since you have the ultimate counter in Curse of Tongues. Both the Succubus and the Felhunter are viable against a balance druid although a Felhunter might be the ultimately better pick since a good balance druid will likely kite you to prolong the fight, heal and so forth. While a Succubus might OOM if this is the case, the Felhunter will not. It's damage fight and your job is to deal more damage than them in the time given. Start aggressive and force the druid to play defensively even though they won't have much a choice if you keep your Curse of Tongues refreshed at all times. Once their defensive cooldowns are down, prepare your own cooldowns and abilities and just chain them to death.
- Curse of the Elements only when the druid is defenseless and you are chaining it down
- Save your PvP trinket for late-fight (an early PvP trinket for the sake of burst hunger will likely result a loss)
Both yourself and the Feral Druid heavily rely on luck when it comes to critical strikes and abilities' procs in this match-up. Spam your anti-stealth macro on the opener for starters. You can also try to get him out of stealth using Howl of Terror and Rank 1 Rain of Fire and Hellfire. After the opener, your job is to keep him controlled and/or off of you as much as possible simply because you cannot handle his damage and would quickly die otherwise. Get a Shadowfury into Fear on him which will likely force him to trinket. Once he is defenseless, chain him down but be sure to make it count. The Succubus, the Felhunter and the Voidwalker are all viable against a Feral in their own right. The Succubus will slow his attack speed down while you could get a lucky seduce if he goes out of form to heal. The Voidwalker will give you some extra defense with the Sacrifice while the Felhunter might help you get the opener and could silence a key cyclone or heal of his. Chose the pet wisely and both according to your own prefferences and playstyle, as well as your enemy's.
- Curse dance. Elements when you have him controlled, Agony (+Corruption) to avoid a re-stealth and for the finisher, and Tongues if you feel they are about to heal/cyclone
- Try not to blow your PvP trinket early (you will probably need it late to prevent them from healing)
- Predict feral charges and fake cast, don't get yourself silenced
The Felhunter is an absolute must against Restoration Druids. Do note that a good restoration druid will never be nuked. What you have to do is conserve mana while being aggressive enough in order to force the druid to play defensive so you do not have HP issues. Use searing pain and drain his life and mana at every fear that you can get. Watch for his heals over time and do chains every time they are about to expire or have already expired since this will most likely force them to waste their defences. Once their defences are down, keep turtling until you can once again catch them off guard and chain them down for a final time.
- Curse of the Elements is your best pick, swap to Curse of Tongues if the druid gets aggressive
- Save your PvP trinket for as long as possible
- First-aid yourself at every given chance
- Predict feral charges and fake cast them, don't get silenced
- Life-tap in advance (avoid getting OOM during a chain)
- Watch out for Grounding and Tremor Totems (use your totem killer macro)
- Use your Backlash instantly (or a good Shaman will purge it)
- Fake cast (to bait his Earth Shocks)
- Conflagrate instantly after an Immolate
- Try to keep Trash Buffs up at all times (for the purging)
Elemental Shamans are identical to Balance Druids in terms of their amazing haste and therefore ability to deal a lot of damage for a small ammount of time. All you have to do is keep your Curse of Tongues on them at all times while giving them all the damage you can. Once they are defenseless, just chain them down. Both the Succubus and the Felhunter are viable options for this match-up.
- You can consider using Curse of the Elements during your final chains (when the Shaman is controlled)
It's usually a quick fight against an Enhancement Shaman. While you should defeat them, you should also know that they are extremely dangerous and can destroy you in seconds. A single mistake can cost the most of your life. All you need to win is to get rid of their Tremor totem and control them as much as possible. You do not want an enchancement Shaman to get any hits on you as any could be fatal indeed. You can use both a Succubus and a Felhunter. Voidwalker is not viable since a good Shaman will just purge your Sacrifice.
- Consider using your PvP trinket on a Frost Shock (if you are desperate and need to run away)
- Curse of the Elements is what you should be sticking with (possibly Tongues in late fight)
You want to go with a Felhunter against a Restoration Shaman and dispell them at all times. A side from that you should just keep Curse of Tongues refreshed on the Shaman at all times while getting them down in attempts to try and force them to use their defensive abilities. Chain the Shaman down once he is defenseless. Save your Shadowfuries and Death coil for as long as you can and for heal interrupts if fear/seduction is on DR. You shoudn't waste your coil prior to them using their PvP trinket, as well.
- Lifetap in advance (to avoid getting OOM during a chain in late fight)
- Keep your pet in range for abilities yet away from you and the priest (or it will get feared)
- Conflagrate instantly after an Immolate (a good priest will dispell immolate)
- Backlash instantly upon proc (or it will get dispelled)
- Keep your Shadow Ward up (even if a good priest will keep dispelling it)
- Save your PvP trinket for as long as you can (you will need it for a kill in late fight)
- Life-tap in advance (don't find yourself OOM during a destruction chain late)
Against a Discipline Priest, the Felhunter is your best friend because of its bigger mana pool and dispelling abilities. Note that just like a good restoration druid, you cannot nuke a good discipline priest. It's a long and boring fight where you will have to be aggressive enough to force the priest to play defensively and waste cooldowns, while in the same time being conservative enough not to find yourself out of mana too early. Keep applying pressure with searing pain because of its low mana cost while also considering draining life and mana during fears. Once the Priest is defenseless, you want to get his shield down, dispell the renew if you can, lock him down and chain him to death from there on.
- Spellstone early (it is likely to be a fight longer than three minutes, therefore you can use it twice)
- Keep Curse of Tongues up at all times (force them to play defensive)
It's a pure damage fight versus a Shadow Priest. Kill him before he kills you. Both the Succubus and the Felhutner are viable companions in this fight. It is important to know that whatever you do, you shoudn't try and turn this into a mana fight as you will probably lose. While in other match-ups you don't so heavily rely on long casts such as Incinerate and Shadowbolt, you need to do so against a shadow priest simply because the quick ones will flat out not be enough to overcome his shields, mending, renew and vampiric healing. What you need to do is force a PvP trinket by getting his shield down and executing a destruction chain. Once he is defenseless, perform the exact same thing to bring him down. Searing Pain is a good way to get rid of his shield and bypass time until a chain because of its low mana usage.
- Use your Spell Stone at dots peak and when silenced (the two usually happen together)
Mages are one of your hardest opponents, especially Frost. A Felhunter is an absolute must and your best friend against any kind of Mage while you will have to use it both defensively and offensively in terms of dispelling depending on how the fight is going and who has the edge.
- Keep your pet in range for abilities yet away from you or the mage (or it can be controlled and miss a key silence)
- Use your Aura Removal macro to get rid of your Nether Protection when it procs (or it will be spell stolen)
- Curse dance. Elements when controlled, Tongues when he gets offensive and Agony in the meantime to tick down his shields (+ corruption if you have the Improved Corruption build)
- Use your Spell Stone and PvP trinket on things like Frost Novas to avoid being shattered
- Try to banish the pet (only if you will not get silenced, otherwise you lost the fight there)
- Conflagrate instantly after an Immolate to bring down his shields faster, re-Immolate afterwards (he can also block and you'd lose the Immolate)
- First aid yourself whenever possible
- Use your Shadowfuries and Shadowburns whenever ready to keep bringing these shields down
- Control the Mage as much as possible (spam these fears)
- Time your chains to begin whenever Curse of Tongues is about to expire (a good Warlock will keep it refreshed)
It is extremely unlikely for you to defeat a skilled SL/SL Warlock simply because of how overpowered they are and how good Curse of Tongues works against you in this fight. The Felhunter is your best friend against a SL/SL Warlock. You will need it to dispell his fears from you, interrupt his drain lifes and therefore also silence his shadow school for 8 seconds therefore rendering them useless for that time. Matter of fact, all of your controlling abilities should first be focused on stopping his drain lifes and secondly his crowd controlling attempts. Don't bother in trying to kill his pet, you will either die first or if you by some miracle succed, he will just summon another one and you lost the fight regardless. A good enemy of a Warlock will never let his own pet to attack you in order not to trigger your backslash, therefore what you should do with his pet is try and keep it banished for as long as possible. Whenever the pet is banished, Soul Link is not active and the Warlock takes 20% more damage. From there on and a side from your destruction chains, your best windows of opportunity are whenever nether protection procs for you. Give your enemy everything you got during that time.
- Use Spell Stone on dots peak and if you have nothing else to interrupt a drain life with (the two usually happen together)
- Keep refreshing your Shadow Ward (even though it might get dispelled)
- Conflagrate instantly after an Immolate (or Immolate might get dispelled)
- Stick to Curse of Tongues to avoid him from being too aggressive and start casting (swap to Elements when you have him controlled)
You should fight Affliction Warlocks the same way you fight SL/SL Warlocks. The only major difference between the two is that Affliction Warlocks will take more damage due to the likely lack of Soul Link, but will also deal more damage instead. Here you might actually want to not Banish their pet and instead keep it around for the hope of having it attack you and triggering a Backlash. Consider banishing it before its silence cooldown is off.
- Keep refreshing your Shadow Ward (even if it might get dispelled)
- Use Curse of Tongues at all times (an affliction will probably cast more than a sl/sl)
- Watch out for Unstable Affliction (do not spell stone with it on you, unless you want to kill yourself)
Demonology Warlocks are one of the best 1vs1 classes in 2.4.3, so you are in for a hard fight against those. You will be rolling a Felhunter and you want to banish his pet whenever possible. The damage you will take from a Felguard is not worth the Backlash procs in my opinion. Save your fears and silences for interrupting his drain lifes because you will need your shadow furies and death coils for other casts of his since a demo warlock will cast considerably more than affliction or SL/Sl. Your biggest window of opportunity is once again during Nether Protection procs.
- Keep refreshing your Shadow Ward
- Curse of Tongues is your best option
- Use your Spell Stone on dots peak and when you have nothing else to interrupt a drain life with (the two usually come together)
Destruction Warlock against another one is one of the most luck based fights that could possibly exist. The one with the most and/or most important Nether Protection procs is likely to win the fight. With all that in mind, there are still a couple of things that could help you get an edge against a mirror of an opponent. Have your Felhunter still yet in range for a silence, you do not want to give him any free Backlash procs. If he is smart enough to do the same with his Felhunter, try to banish it. Aim to silence his Shadow School so he can't control you and go hard during Nether Protection procs. It is important to watch for his own Nether Protection and be careful when casting since you do not want to faceroll and lose half of your cooldowns into his immunity. Conserve your controlling abilities to interrupt his casts instead of for a destruction chain because a nether protection will likely ruin one regardless.
- Do not allow Curse of Tongues to expire
- Keep refreshing your Shadow Ward
A Rogue is your hardest opponent and you are unlikely to ever defeat a skilled one and/or one that uses all of their cooldowns. You could always try though. A Succubus is your best pick against a Rogue regardless of wether it is an undead or not and of what everybody else might say. You might want to use the Master Summoner spec in order to swap for a Voidwalker Sacrifice in late fight if it gets to it. Try to get the Rogue to blow both his PvP trinket and racial if its an undead in the opener with Seductions. If this is the case you will likely need your PvP trinket for his blind. If he decides to waste his blind on your pet, save your PvP trinket for the second kidney shot. Ultimately force the Rogue into Cloak of Shadows with a small chain after the opener, yet keep your big guns such as Death Coil for after it. Once his trinket and Cloak of Shadows are gone, it is your turn. Chain him down and make it count, since if you don't - you might as well ALT+F4 once he gets out of all the controlling.
- Consider combining a healing PvP trinket with your healthstone (might be your best shot of survival)
You might want to check similiar tactics actually employed in real time combat and documented:
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