[Tip] How to do damage with Destruction!

Classes Warlock
1

I see a lot of posts saying how low Destruction damage is right now… and it is!

But the biggest part of the problem is that people seem to do what the guides and websites tell them to do, rather than playing with different talents and stats to find out what works.

I see people complaining about Chaos Bolt being weak. With some saying it should not be a spell to spam, but something with bang. Well what do people expect when they stack Haste and believe Haste is the most important secondary stat?

I have been playing the Warlock as Destruction spec for the past 14 years and I have to tell you all, if you are stacking Haste, you are doing it wrong.

Firstly you should have at least 40% Mastery. Anything less and you will be very weak.
Next you should forget about stacking Haste and stack Critical Strike!

Chaos Bolt is based on Critical Strike and having as much Critical Strike as you can is important. If you get some Haste on an item ok, but don’t look to stack Haste.

You need to have around/over 20% Haste to shorten the base cast time of Chaos Bolt to 2.5 seconds. Which makes it a complete waste of stats. Leave Haste to combat buffs, choose the items/gems/enchants which give you the most Critical Strike, and do not go under 40% Mastery.

Yes, Destruction’s base damage needs to be buffed. I completely agree with that. But when people are going by the wrong stat priority for the spec, and not using certain talents just because some guide told them so… what can people expect but for Destruction to be doing worse damage than the tank?

What guide online tells you to use the Backlash talent? None! That’s 3% extra stat points (to Critical Strike), that nobody is taking, because the guides say not to.

My current stats are like this… (at the time of this post with 384 item level)
28% Critical Strike (with the extra 3% from Backlash)
13% Haste
41% Mastery
3% Versatility
4% Leech (from wrist & cloak enchants)
4% Speed (from boots enchant)

This is my talent string for you to import…
BsQAbtPS25JQs0VfQSDmhm+p3cACSSikEANlg0SSSkClkDgSSioFUKNJBAAAAAAAAAAAQAtkE

Rotation?
Immolate > Conflagrate > Chaos Bolt > Cataclysm > Infernal > Conflagrate > Chaos Bolt > Conflagrate > Chaos Bolt > refresh Immolate when needed, either with the Immolate spell or with Cataclysm and cast Conflagrate before Chaos Bolt whenever it is off cooldown.

Want some AOE?
Rain of Fire > Cataclysm > Infernal > Spam Rain of Fire and Conflagrate with Incinerate…
Procs will give you so many Soul Shards (Cough-Cough “Burning Embers”, Cough) you will bring down so many Infernals in a Rain of Chaos!

Want to do more damage?
You get the hint from the name of the Specialisation “Destruction”…
What is more Destructive? Big Crits or a steady flow of pew pew?
Stop stacking Haste and start stacking Critical Strike!

2 Likes
2

I like your transmog. Those pants are criminally underutilised.

3

Thanks Illusiel :slight_smile:

4

Nice feelycraft, got some more advice with that massive 4/8 Normal experience?

1 Like
5

yea… 4/8, so what? After 14 years you might not be in such a rush to complete the end game content.

So - advice: stop looking at the advice of those Affliction Warlocks who write the guides which tell you how to do some damage as Destruction spec, in an Affliction Warlock’s Haste gear.

6

Yeah okay, bruh.

First of all I main this lock all the way from start of TBC. It was my alt in Vanilla. Which is what 16 years now?

Secondly - I play this lock at a decent level with multiple Famed Slayer titles under the belt and I massively prefer Destruction doing it, so my experience playing Destruction is pretty damn good.

And finally - what you are saying is pure and complete feelycraft based on nothing. Feels is what we did back in TBC, since then we have quite advanced both in the data and tools available to us. I don’t need to “feel” what stats to take, I can sim it.

Whatever you advise there is a complete and total nonsense, both from experience - and my experience runs circles around yours, because I actually do something more than stumbling by accident into normal pug. And from the simple data perspective, both generated and available.

But sure, keep preaching your “14 years” as if it means anything. Newsflash - there is a ton of boomers like you and me who can say same the same, does not mean anything.

1 Like
7

/played?

Total time played: 722 days

8

Damn I did 10 times whatever you did with my mere 552 days /played.

Who cares about that? As if this is somehow making your argument any less ridiculous with your extra 170 days you AFK’ed and achieved nothing in the game.

Last time your profile did ANYTHING meaningful was back in WOD. So what are we even talking about here?

1 Like
9

Who cares about that? yea it was a bit of fun… why so serious?

Now Mouse over the Chaos Bolt spell and tell, does it say that Chaos Bolt damage is increased by Haste or by Critical Strike?

The current bosses in both dungeons and the raid, require you to move a lot. The mechanics of the fights suit melee. This is partly why melee are showing top on the logs.

But the logs are based on player submitted parse data.
Blizzard have much more data, which they do not publish, and which they use to balance the classes.

If you can just stand still and cast, (like your simulation does) then you might do well to stack haste. You will cast many more Chaos Bolts, But your Chaos Bolt will lack in power compared to that of someone who stacks Critical Strike.

My current raidbots sim shows over 44k damage for me. not that it matters, since there are no fights where you can just stand still and cast.

So please get back to me here with your experience and Haste, when they start letting us move while casting.

10

I am sure you’re not aware, but people were memeing on you in Warlock discord over this post.

Overall, you’re right - nobody really cares about official forum, because it’s just a place where people without clue congregate with their wild claims and stories.

Like this is probably my first post in this place in a year or two aside from 1-2 posts in closed beta forums. And probably after this is done, I won’t be posting here another 2 years anyway.

But other than that - you’re just giving bad advice to people who may be gullible enough to swallow it. So on that level at least, I’d like to make a correction.

And on this silly bit, first of all you can sim with movement for what it’s worth and find that it does not change haste value much at all - if anything it boosts it.

Other than that - it’s pretty obvious, with good haste you complete casts before you have to move or get oneshot instead of having to interrupt them because your spells take 5 years to cast.

I think we learned that back in the 2nd grade on TBC Archimonde.

11

Some guide…Most of us follow Kalamazi guides…I think we can trust him from his experience with all 3 specs.

12

lol.

People were making memes of me ey? lol
trolling is a form of bullying. If they rather hide on some discord server doing that than bring some valid discussion to the forum that matters, the one run by blizzard, then no wonder the warlock is in such a mess.

Blizzard do take feedback and discussions from these forums seriously.

13

What valid discussion?

You brought a bunch of feels with 0 data and don’t have any actual meaninful experience to back it up. And when your argument based on feelings gets deconstructed you claim it’s bullying?

Wonder who’s trolling here.

1 Like
14

the data i am going by is not documented, but what i see on my screen when i am in combat.

you fail to add the “in my opinion” to your opinions, and write your opinions as though they are facts. Yet you question me as though i should be linking you to some elaborate source of data for you to mull over and pretend you understand.

I am not basing anything i say on “feelings”.

Go troll someone else.

15

So basically, feelycraft.

Gotcha.

“Look guys I don’t have any proof to my claims, but just trust me, ok?”

16

did you make this word up, or are you an average parrot?

“Look guys, try something different to what an Affliction Warlock would tell you to do!”

= if you have a higher amount of critical strike, then the spell does more damage!
if you have a higher amount of haste then it casts faster.

if people are complaining about it casting faster and doing less damage, then what should they do about it? stack more haste, or stack critical strike?

What data set do you need in order for you to understand this basic thing?

17

Yeahhh… I think I’ll just stop wasting my time here.

Was a mistake to even post here. What was I thinking.

1 Like
18

I don’t know, maybe you were thinking it would gain you some popularity with the meme making trolls on the private discord you mentioned.

19

You don’t even know know class discords exist…

Dunning-Kruger effect peaking.

3 Likes
20

O, i know they exist, and that they are run by a bunch of private individuals who do not work for Blizzard, or are outside of the authority of Blizzard. But now thanks to you I also know that they are where trolls like to hang out to avoid the authority of Blizzard.

Let’s pretend for a moment that they do not exist and all those players have to come to the Blizzard forums. How many would be banned for trolling here Vs there? & How many people get banned for “trolling” from the private discord - for disagreeing with, or for having a different opinion to the ones who run the server?

Basically, by coming here to inform me that people were making a meme of me on the private discord, you were inviting me to come there to be subjected to trolling/bullying/harassment there, by those who agree with you.

A “discord server” is essentially just a forum in an app. Why would i go hang out on a private forum where i would be subjected to biased/unmoderated trolling? when i can go to the official game’s forum and trust that it will be properly moderated… And trust that my feedback may make make some difference when the Devs read it.

Have you done derailing this thread?