CREATOR OF THIS GUIDE IS NO LONGER ACTIVE.
Hi. My name is Firemanz (Frostwolf). Almost 2 years of experience with the masters of Shadow & Flame and an jerk elitist. So enough about me, let's get to business.
Why play Destro?
If you like burst damage classes, this one is a blast. Unlike Demo, Destro does not have a definitve Execute phase, but rather a consistent dps throughout the whole fight, and unlike affliction, destro does not rely that much to Damage over time spells (DoTs). Destro brings Replenishment (through
Improved Soul Leech), and good add management tools such as
Aftermath and
Shadowfury.
1. Talents and Glyphs
1.1 Talents
0/13/58 - This one "is" the optimal, sacrificing Shadowburn in favor of Demonic Power, and 1 point in Improved Soul Leech (ISL) to get 3/3 Demonic Aegis. The spec does not include Shadowfury, beacuse it's a straight single target. If you wish you can take a point away from Demonic Aegis and put it into either Shadowfury or ISL.
1.2 Glyphs
Major
Glyph of Incinerate
Glyph of Conflagrate
Glyph of Immolate
You might argue that
Glyph of Life Tap is more useful than the Immolate glyph, but as you start moving into ICC level of gear, you will notice that spirit is abscent, thus lessening the value of the glyph. Also since the changes made in patch 3.3.3 Life tap no longer scales with spirit, but with spell power instead, making this glyph even less powerful. About the glyph of chaos bolt - no, it's a pvp glyph and does not a have a place in raid situations, as you'll cast chaos bolt less often than Incinerate for example.
Minor
Take whatever you want, they're all crap.
2. Stat priority
2.1 Hit rating -
Your number 1 priority is to get hit capped. Being hit capped ensures that none of your spells will ever miss a boss, thus making hit rating the highest dps increase of all stats. You become hit capped when you reach 17% hit chance against raid bosses (446 rating) or 6% chance against heroic dungeon bosses (157 rating). After reaching the hit cap, all additional hit (higher than 17% for raids, or 6% for heroics) is completely useless and offers 0 addiotanl dps.
2.2 Spell Power - This increases the damage your spells do. Get as much as you can of it. There is NO spell power cap.
2.3 Haste Rating - A very powerful stat. It reduces the cast time of your spells, as well as your global cooldown. Destro benefits greatly from it beacuse of
Backdraft. ( I mean who wouldn' t like 0.7sec cast incinerates ;) ) Bear in mind tho, there is a haste 'soft cap'. That is the point when haste has reduced your global cooldown to 1sec. At lvl 80 thats equivalent to around 1600 rating (50%). During backdrafts when bloodlust is present for example a "soft haste" capped lock might see some dps loss due to his spells being lower than 1 sec, while the global cooldown cant go below 1 sec. This will sometimes result in a human error hitting an incinerate and beacuse of the global cooldown an error popping up, saying that the spell is not ready yet. The best way to get over this problem is to spam your buttons like a crazy horse. A VERY crazy horse.
2.4 Crit rating - Increases the chance that your spells will be criticals. No caps.
All in all the priority goes like this: Hit (until hit capped) > Spell Power > Haste > Crit
3.Gemming
For your meta gem, you will allways want
Chaotic Skyflare Diamond. For red sockets, always gem Runed Cardinal ruby (+23 spell power). For yellow sockets -
Reckless Ametrine. And finally for blue sockets -
Purified Dreadstone.
On a side note, you CAN put red gems into blue sockets, but doing so will not give you the socket bonus of the said item. If you want to ignore a socket bonus, the best choice for gem is the spell power one. In my opinion you should never gem for socket bonuses less than 6 spell power.
4.Enchanting
Head:
Arcanum of Burning Mysteries
Shoulder:
Greater inscription of the Storm, or
Master's inscription of the Storm, if you have the inscription profession.
Cloak:
23 haste, or
this, if you're a tailor,
Springy Arachnoweave if you're a engineer and like to throw yourself off of cliffs :D
Chest:
+10 to all stats, or
+15 spirit, if u don'thave enough gold
Wrist:
+30 spell power, or
this, if you're a leatherworker.
Hands:
+28 Spell power,
Hyperspeed Accelerators, if an engineer
Waist:
+ 1 prismatic socket for a +23spell power gem
Legs:
+50 spell power and 20 spirit - a cheaper version of this requiring only 2 pieces of cloth are available to tailorers.
Boots:
+15 stam & movement speed,
Nitro boots, if an engineer
Rings:
+23 spell power - NOTE: only enchanters can enchant their rings.
Weapon:
+63 spell power, or
+81 spell power, if you're using a staff.
5. Spell priority
The basic destro priority (formerly known as rotation) is:
1.Always keep Immolate up on the target
2.Use Chaos Bolt on every cooldown
3.Use Conflagrate on every cooldown
4.Use Incinerate, when immolate is up on the targte, and both Chaos Bolt and Conflagrate are on cooldown.
5.1 Curses
When no Unholy Death Knight, Balance Druid, Shadow Priest, or other Warlocks are present, you should always use
Curse of the Elements (CoE). If, however one of those are present and can give the debuff, then
Curse of Doom, is your highest DPS increase. When the boss (or an add) is near death and CoD won't be able to damage him before he dies, Curse of Agony will be most efficient.
5.2 Demon choice & selfbuffs
The highest DPS pet for a destro lock is the imp. His Blood Pact ability must be present at all times. Fel Armor should also be present on you at all times. If u feel you need some extra haste, enchant your weapon with a Spellstone. The stone enchants DO NOT replace your regular weapon enchant. Otherwise use a Firestone.
5.3 Food, flask, potions
Imperial Manta Steak is your best option,
Baked Manta Ray is second.
Flask of the frost wyrm is your flask of choice.
Potion of Speed and
Potion of Wild Magic are the best.
6. Additional Notes
If u want to be a serious dps, NEVER RAID WITH PVP ITEMS ON. - As simle as it is, pvp items lack intellect, and have resiliance (which is completely useless in any raid environment).
That's all I can think of for now... see ya and njoy roasting your enemies. :)
Edit: Added engineer enchants.
Edit: Fixed talent link.
Edit: Added Curses, Demon Choices and Consumables, thanks to jsf316.