[GUIDE] Destruction PvP in WOTLK

[Arbiterone]

CREATOR OF THIS GUIDE IS NO LONGER ACTIVE.

Introduction

Hi, it's always nice to have a clue who is the person behind the guide u are about to start reading. My in-game name is Hollowitz and u can find me on Deathwing (horde, of course). I've been playing Warlock since TBC (on retail) so I think I can say I know what I'm talking about. This guide gives you some basic information about a Destruction Warlock in PvP.


Content

• Fraction & Race
• Gear
• Gemming & Enchanting
• Talents & Glyphs
• Spells
• Pets
• Battlegrounds & Arenas

Fraction & Race

The fraction you choose should depent on what fraction your friends play or what what you like the most (in case you don't have any WoW or real-life friends that play on Warmane).
Some people tend to choose their race based on racial benifits. I'll give a brief explenation.

• Alliance:
  Human is definitely your best choice here. Every Man For Himself is a free Trinket you get just for being Human. This opens a item slot you can spent on another Trinket. Perception is a nice addition vs. Rogues.
  Gnomes on the other hand, well, the're just little bastards, witch can be used un their advantage (a Tauren casting whatever in a bush, you'll see instantly, a Gnome on the other hand...) For the racials, Escape Artist and Expansive Mind are actually quite valuable.
• Horde:
  I find Undead to be the best choice for Horde players. Will of the Forsaken gets you out of Fear effects, and as a free bonus, Undead just looks to evil.
  Some people would say that Blood Elf is your best option for Horde, because Arcane Torrent provides you a silence and some instant mana, but mana shouldn't be a problem anyway and you should probably not be in a 8 yard range too much when playing as a Warlock, but Blood Elf is also a good call.
  Although Orc really looks lame in a robe, the racials are ok for PvP: Hardiness, usefull against Rogues and other stunners, and both Blood Fury and Command providing you with some additional DPS.

Gear

When you hit 80, first thing you probably wanna do is join a battleground and pawn the **** out of Alliance (or in rare cases Horde). Well, you can't! Simple explenation is that your gearscore is about 1500 (for most of the fresh 80's this is the case). This is way to low to join any battleground (I, and I'm not alone, can one-shot you). Please (and I can't stress this enough) don't join battlegrounds untill you have decent gear.

The first step in gearing up is getting your gearscore from about 1500 to 4000-4500 (PvE). This can be done easely by doing some rep farms (Ashen Band of Endless Destruction should be the first thing you get), some quests, some heroics, and finding a good tailor. It's not up to me to tell you how to gear (other guides are availbe for this), but please, you leveled all the way to 80, take some extra time to give your gearscore a boost.

When you have reached 4000+ you will still be 2-3 shotted, but al least you can do some damage (and you wont piss off good geared people). Now you can join battlegrounds and start farming honor. My advice is to go for at least 4/5 Furious and the Wrathfull offset. Then you can start going for the Wrathfull set (I would skip Relentless because it is a waist of valuable Arena Points).

When gearing up there are some caps you must reach:

• Hit: 6% (you can gain 3% Hit by using your talent points)
• Spell Penetration: 135

These stats are pretty much required if you like all your spells to hit the target. More then 6% hit is of no use in PvP (unlike PvE)

Other stats that are important for a Warlock, but don't have a cap (these depend on your playstyle):

• Resilience: 1100 seems like the bare minimum to me, but don't be afraid to aim higher
• Spell Power: 3000 unbuffed is considered normal (I have about 3100 unbuffed)
• Haste: I would say 500 is the minimum. Some Locks push it over 700, while others invest in Crit. (I have about 650)
• Crit: 20% unbuffed seems the minimum to me (I have about 25% unbuffed)

Basicly, there is no such thing as "BiS" gear, because unlike some other classes, Warlocks benifit from differend stats depending on there playstyle.

All your gear should be PvP gear (Wrathful). For your offset you can pick up some Haste pieces and some Crit, finding the balance between the two that fits your playstyle best.
If you like to use PvE gear, following are acceptable (note you should always have at least 4/5 of your PvP set):

• Shoulders of Mercy Killing
• Plaguebringer's Stained Pants

Don't play with a Staff. Go for a Dagger (or Sword) in combination with an Off-Hand.


Gemming & Enchanting

When gemming there are several options. Go for the gems with stats you think you need most (if you lack Haste, go for Haste gems, if you lack Crit, go for Crit gems,...). Gems make you able to fine tune your Warlock into the Warlock you like.
For the Meta Gem I would defenitely go for +21 Crit / 3% Crit DMG. For your Blue slots go for the 12 Spell Power / 13 Spell Pen gem (some sort of Dreadstone I think). For the other slots there are several options. Just gem for what you feel you need the most.
(In my Red Sockets I use the 23 Spell Power gem, in my Yellow the 12 Spell Power / 13 Crit gem).

Enchanting is a whole other story. Go for the following:

• Head: 29 Spell Power / 20 Resilience or Arcanum of Dominance
• Shoulders: 23 Spell Power / 15 Resilience or Inscription of Dominance
• Cloak: 35 Spell Penetration
• Chest: 20 Resilience
• Bracers: 30 Spell Power
• Gloves: 28 Spell Power
• Legs: 50 Spell Power / 30 Stamina
• Boots: Tuskarr's Vitality
• Weapon: 50 Spell Power

Talents & Glyphs

Some talents are arguable, but the basic spec for any PvP Destro Lock is this one.
The final 3 points are up to you, but should not be invested in something else then these:

• Suppression: You should put your final 3 points in Suppression when your equipement doesn't provide you 6% Hit rating (wich is the PvP cap). Also note that when using Suppression, the hit you need from your gear drops to 3%, so you can go for other stats.
  (For the final 3 points I use Suppression)
• Demonic Brutality: If you are Hit capped, Demonic Brutality is a good choice when you are playing BG's. A 30% boost means your Voidwalker's Sacrafice can adsorb about 13k of damage (so you basicly get the strongest bubble in the game).
• Improved Succubus: Again, if you are Hit capped, Improved Succubus gives your CC a great boost, making Seduction almost instant (0.5 sec cast time). If your focus lies in Arena matches I find this your best choice.
• Pyroclasm: If you use your Felhunter most of the time and you have reached your Hit cap, you can also choose to invest your points into Pyroslasm for a minor DPS boost.

There are some Glyphs that are mandatory for any Destruction Warlock.

• Glyph of Conflagrate: This one doesn't even need an explenation, the DPS boost it delivers is huge!
• Glyph of Shadowflame: Turns your Shadowflame into an instant slow ability, so it provides you with some additional mobility.

For your 3th Glyph some options are availble:

• Glyph of Chaos Bolt: Reduces the cooldown of your Chaos Bolt with 2 sec. This isn't huge, but I still find it viable.
• Glyph of Fear: Provides you with some more CC. But most of the time my targets die before they get out of Fear (if they don't Trinket out of it of course).
• Glyph of Incinerate: Altough a 5% damage boost isn't alot, Incinerate is the spell you will be using most of the time to DPS.
• Glyph of Soul Link: Gives you more survivability, always welcome for a Destro Lock.
  (I use Glyph of Soul Link for my 3th Mayor Glyph)

The Minor Glyphs are all crap. The least crappy ones are: Glyph of Drain Soul, Glyph of Kilrogg and Glyph of Unending Breath.


Spells

A Warlock is a caster, and a caster uses spells. I'm gonna give you a brief explenation of your spells and how to use them correctly.

Damaging Spells:

• Immolate: Immolate just trigers everything for a Destro Lock, and should ALWAYS be up. No Immolate means no Conflagrate, means no Backdrafts,... No matter what you do, always Immolate!
• Conflagrate: An instant cast, that does a nice amount of damage and Dazes the enemy. Triggers Backdraft, so you'll understand it's importance.
• Incinerate: This is your main nuke. Altough it has some conditionals for being succesfull. First of all, Incinerate should only be casted on a target affected by Immolate, else it loses half of its damage. Second, if Backdraft isn't active, the cast time is way to long. Never Incinerate without Backdraft being active.
• Chaos Bolt: This one is your big nuke. Make good use of it, because it has a 12 sec cooldown (10 when Glyphed). Chaos Bolt penetrates true most of the bubbles in the game (all exept for Divine Shield), witch can come in verry handy from time to time (I've won tons of Arena's like this).
• Shadowburn: Altough it is designed to be a finishing move, you should use it whenever Backdraft is down, and Conflagrate is still on cooldown. It's an instant cast! However, make sure you have enough Soul Shards (I always go farming when I go below 10).
• Shadowfury: Mostly used as a CC tool, but I use it as a finisher as well (when all other instant casts are on cooldown). It's area of effect and only has a 20 second cooldown. Use it as often as you can (holding in mind you need to maintain CC), because I see some Locks only using it as an opener.
• Death Coil: It's damage output isn't that high, but is does damage. I tend to use it to finish enemies who's health is within killing range but still needs more then one spell. Death Coil gives you the time to cast another spell without the enemy escaping. Use it wisefull, 2 minute cooldown!
• Shadow Bolt: DPS is to low, but can be used for fake casting and luring your enemy into locking your Shadow school (as most of your spells are Fire).

Crowd Control tools:

• Fear: Your main CC. Should be used on any off-target. Well actually should be used on any target that gets to close to you. Note that most classes have something they can do against Fear.
• Death Coil: Death Coil works as a emergency button for me when it comes to CC. Mostly, when intended for a CC chain, Death Coil is instantly followed by another Fear.
• Shadowfury: An instant AoE Stun, with only a 20 second cooldown? Give give give. I use this almost everytime as my opening move. You can gain easy control of a crowd (literaly). Use it to deal damage, keeping in mind that it is best used when the enemy comes too close.
• Seduction: Seduction works the same as Fear, only you'll need your Succubus as a pet to cast is for you. And to be honest, this is a good thing, because you can cast a Chaosbost while Fearing at the same time. Make sure to use a marco so you can keybind it to anything you like.
• Spell Lock: You can silence a caster for 3 seconds, using your Felhunters Spell Lock. There is nothing you can do to "escape" being silenced, so this can be a verry good CC tool if used correctly. Try to watch out for fake casting (a Frost Mage casting Fireball). Note that both a Hunter and a Death Knight can be silenced!
• Shadowflame: When Glyphed correctly, your Shadowflame kinda works like a Mage's Cone of Cold. Shadowflame should be used to regain a acceptable gap between you and your enemy.
• Conflagrate: In combination with Aftermath your Conflagrate spell Dazes your enemy for 5 seconds. Note that Conflagrate can consume a Shadowflame as well! So Shadowflame + Conflagrate can be an excelent combo to regain distance. As for Immolate to maintain distance.
• Banish: See that stupid tree HoT'ing the entire opposing team? Well, he's an Elemental... Same works for other Warlock pets, and even that MetaLock (rofl). Banish can be pretty good, although it's not used that often.
• Howl of Terror: Only valuable when playing Affliction, should never be used.

Survivability:

• Death Coil: This one really must be important if I mention it three times, well, it is. Death Coil is instant DPS, an instant fear, and 3th and perhaps even the most important, it heals you for 3 times the amount of damage it did. Death Coil can really be a gamebreaker, or a turning point. You can be in a hopeless situation and still turn it around with a well timed Death Coil.
• Soul Link: This one is pretty obvious. 20% Damage reduction is huge. Should be up all the time when you have a pet (and you should always have a pet).
• Fel Healthstone: You should always have one of these in your bags. This is your instant emergeny heal button. It has a pretty hugh cooldown, but it really proves itself to be valuable. You should always give your arena partner(s) one as well.
• Sacrafice: This one is hugh. A 8k (if specced for it 13k) Absorb shield is way more then other classes can pull of. To bad it's Pet dependent.
• Shadow Ward: This one is for those nasty Shadow Priests and Death Knights. Use it whenever you see one (or one has seen you)!

Warlock specific spells:

• Demonic Circle: Summon & Demonic Circle: Teleport: This one meens the difference between an OK Lock and a full PWN Lock. Mages have their Blink, Shadow Priests have Dispersion, we Warlocks have our Portal. This might be the hardest of all escape skills to master, but it is crucial that you learn how to use it. Always put up your Portal before engaging in too a fight!
• Curse of the Elements: Curses define you from other casters, being a Warlock specific debuff, and works different to dispell (most common dispellers like a Paladin and a Priest can't dispell your Curses). Curse of the Elements is the one to use being a Destro Lock. The bonus DPS it offers is huge and should be on your kill target most (if not all) of the time (exeptions are for example when you and 4 or 5 raid members face a single enemy in a battleground, because the burst then is just to high do make a notable difference). The only other Curse you should be using is Curse of Tongues to screw the opposing healer.
• Life Tap: This is your way to almost never go OOM, pretty obvious I guess.
• Fel Armor: You have two (undispellable!) self-buffs, two Armor buffs. As a Destruction Lock, Fel Armor should be used most often. But don't forget you have Demon Armor as well. For example: When facing two meelee's in arena I find it more valuable to run with Demon Armor (since my partner is a healer).
• Grand Firestone: No questions asked. Firestone = Destro, Spellstone = Affli

Pets

Differend Pets provide you with differend ability's you can use. So it's essential to know what pet you should use when.

• Voidwalker: Mainly used for Sacrafice and therefore mostly seen in Battlegrounds (probably 90% of all the Locks on Deathwing run with their Void in BG's). But you should not overlook the other usefull ability's your Voidwalker has. Consume Shadows can be used to increase your Stealth Detection (note your Voildwalker has to Channel this one). I find it hilarious to do so when defending a Flag or Graveyard, when all others are spamming their AoE, you can relax, drink and eat something while your Void does what needs to be done. Don't ignore Torment and especially Suffering (note that it also lowers Hit, might be valuable). They both can be used against players who fail to control their pet (for the pet aggro is still the same as in PvE, but is overruled by the owner). When prepping for Arena, you can summon your Void for the bubble, and then Hard Summon a new (more desired) Pet.
• Succubus: This one you'll probably never see in a Battleground (to bad, it's the most epic pet ever). Although when standing in common duel areas (like Durotar / Oggrimar) you'll see this one more (if you look close enough, Lesser Invisibility you know). This is because Succubus shines the most in Duels and Arenas, being an awesome CC pet due Seduction. Note that Seduction shares Diminishing Return with Fear. Another notable Spell your Succubus has to offer you is her Soothing Kiss, lowering Atk Speed by 10%.
• Felhunter: This one is the third viable option for PvP. Your Felhunter is at his best vs. Casters, because he can both Dispell (Devour Magic) and Silence (Spell Lock). Fel Intelligence offers a nice buff, although it can not be used in Arena. Felhunters can be seen anywhere.
  (I run with by Felhunter most of the time)

Battlegrounds & Arenas

Battlegrounds:
I know it has happened to you, you are playing like your best game ever, you check the score, and some Warlock has a way better score, hasn't even died yet, and has practicly every killing blow. You can be that guy, just by knowing how to be a true Warlock!
You are not the flag capper, you are not in any way the hero of the battleground what so ever. You are the nasty little bastard who attacks enemy in the back, when they least expect it, you are the one standing behind the line of Meelees and trowing in some heavy fire. You are the one running away when things are getting to hot, not the one dieing for the group. You are evil, remember? Play that way, because that is the way we true Warlocks are (and are ment to be).

Arenas:
You are a quite valuable partner for most teams, being one of the highest burst and DPS classes in the game, but you are no easy partner. You offer only support by DPS and CC, so do it well!
For 2 vs 2 games, you gain most by playing with another burst class (Elemental Shaman, Retribution Paladin,...) or with a healer (I play with a Discipline Priest). The combos that can be succesfull in 3 vs 3 are just too much to say. It all just comes down to one thing: Communication. If you can succeed in communicating what to do, what you are doing and what you expect from your partner, then you can start winning arenas.

I, by no means, claim to have written a perfect guide. I'm open for discussion, corrections, and critisism, as long as done so in a decent and polite way. I hope you like this guide and I'm willing to add information if asked for.

Updates:
12/4/2012: Added some information for Gnome and Orc racial benifits, added Shadow Bolt to Spells section and added a Pet Section

[rix]

Nice guide but need alot of fixes on your spelling.

[nebulah]

Talent link doesn't work. Please fix.. or what most people do is post a picture of the build so they don't have to rely on a different source when a link goes bad.

[Tbcwascool]

''Howl of Terror: Only valuable when playing Affliction, should never be used.''

I came here in hope Ill learn something, but nope, as usual
Howl of terror share different DR than FEAR so it can be used when fear in on DR
Shadowfury+howl of terror

[Kuleshov]

talent build is down, also there is two times the same glyph... can u update it ? thx !