WoW Forever Destruction Warlock PVP Guide

Destruction Warlocks are a high burst class, vs the rot damage over time or high pet damage that is offered from the other two trees. You have spells like Conflagrate Shadowburn Incinerate that offer that burst damage that Destro is known for. In Battlegrounds and world PVP, your main focus will be to burst down targets from afar providing high damage for your team or group. In one on one situations all you need is a burst window open, and usage of your pet can help with that in order to win the one on one situations. Warlocks are considering to be an S tier class by many in one on one situations, with options like Fear, Seduction, Death Coil to help get some room between you and your opponent.

You'll want to go Spell Power > Crit > Stam, although for an Undead the stamina will translate into damage at 1.15 value from Demonic Embrace and with Touch of the Grave would translate to 1 additional damage and 1 additional healing per point, along with survivability so it does more than the other races but minimally.

Spell power will allow most of your spells to benefit, which some of the highest increases to your core abilities Soul Fire, Incinerate, and even your instant cast spells Shadowburn and Conflagrate. This isn't to say your DoTs don't benefit either, just higher value from those longer spells and burst from your instant cast instant damage abilities.

Crit plays into destruction really well with Ruin and all the damage amplifiers Agonizing Flames and of course Shadow and Flame.

Orc does have the most useful kit for a destruction warlock:

Hardiness for reduced stun duration, making it much easier to fight a Rogue Cheap Shot and Kidney Shot, or a Paladin Hammer of Justice

Command for 5% pet damage has some use, even if you're using a Seduction build eventually the pet will do some sort of damage so it's not nothing.

Blood Fury for 10% spell power for 15 seconds on a 2 minute cooldown. This will be huge into a window where you blast the target with Shadowburn and Conflagrate and potentially even a couple Incinerate, but gives value to all your spells.

Shatter Curse for the curse removal and 5% magic damage mitigation for 8 seconds, on a 3 minute cooldown. This would be great into a mirror match vs a warlock, or still even against any sort of casters. It may even mitigate something like Shadow Oil, Frost Oil, or that new Holywrath damage from the Paladin weapon Wolfsbane (assuming there's a 60 version or something like it.)

Troll has an amazing kit for Destro as well, although one is not the best for PVP.

Berserking gives 10% spellcasting speed for 15 seconds on a 3 minute cooldown, however falls off if the fights are a bit longer. If you can burst down your target within a minute then the calculation would be 10% extra for 15 seconds so roughly 1 additional cast of Incinerate, at a 500 spell power build it's 730 extra damage with Immolate on your target (Which the last one would not be during that window as all 15 seconds would pass but for the math we'll just use this assuming you casted 1 immolate during the Berserking) then that's an extra 49 DPS in that 15 second window. However after 45 seconds that DPS would be about 16 DPS, and degrading as time passes on.

Rapid Regeneration gives you 50% of your max health over 6 second as a channeled ability on a 3 minute cooldown, which can change the course of the fight with one great landed Fear or Seduction, or you could even Life Tap your way back to full mana and then use it!

Regeneration is now 20% of your health regeneration continues during combat, which gets more value out of longer fights as well.

Human is arguably one of the best races for Destruction as well

Perception grants a dramatic increase to your stealth detection on a 3 minute cooldown, making it much easier to find a Rogue or Druid in stealth. Disrupting their opener will very likely tip a PVP fight in your favor.

Ruthless now gives 1% crit chance which is only second to spell power for gain. This is amazing for longer fights where something like Blood Fury, Berserking and Eureka! lose value as time goes on and before their second CD comes back. A couple crits in a row on a full Destro cannon is killing pretty much any opponent in PVP.

The Human Spirit now grants 10% spirit as a passive ability. This doesn't add the highest value, but Life Tap scales off of spirit now so situation may prevent the need for a second tap before combat ends, or to take a couple enemies on at the same time. Makes your downtime shorter for resets after kills as well.

Will to Survive removes stuns from you instantly on a 3 minute cooldown. It's an extra downgraded trinket slot, however on a 3 minute cooldown instead of Greater Insignia of the Alliance Greater Insignia of the Horde the 5 minute ones these seem to carry. Can change the course of a fight having 2 other trinkets on, while still being able to get out of a stun opener or Bash Hammer of Justice for your opponent to heal, allowing you to end the fight.

Gnome really has an ideal pvp kit for most classes

Escape Artist to remove any roots or slows and grants immunity from it for 3 seconds on a 2 minute cooldown. It's the last remaining racial that gives an immunity after a removal, great for making sure you can escape a scenario of being chased after, or even to do the chasing. Death Coil into Escape Artist is a clean get away almost every time.

Engineering Specialization reduces the rate of backfire or failing from engineering devices by 20%. As you can imagine, you will want to have Engineering as one of your two professions for PVP, so a backfire reduction is going to be massive. Too many times did we see an unfortunate demise of someone due to fall damage or Goblin Mortar backfires that stunned you in place as you tried to get away or interrupt your enemy fleeing or casting.

Eureka! Your non-periodic damaging abilities have their mana cost reduced by 10% and heal 10% more damage for 8 seconds (Channeled abilities are not considered periodic) 2 minute cooldown. This is one of the best abilities for pvp, low cooldown means you can get into fights more frequently as well as it having a reduce mana cost. This along with something like Enchant Weapon - Revelation could have a very strong chance for an Incinerate cast, and since it doesn't get consumed until the spell lands, you easily could get in a Conflagrate that will crit and have the 10% bonus damage.

Expansive Mind Maximum Mana increased by 5% this honestly paired with Eureka! makes the need for Life Tap less, and can make a difference in a PVP fight. Now it doesn't grant Intellect as a raw stat so there's no spell crit attached however at level 60 we can speculate maybe 5,000 mana, and that 5% will be just shy of enough to cast one last Conflagrate at 255 mana. With Eureka! active though it saves you the Life Tap global.

Undead pairs nicely with how Destruction plays as well

Cannibalize newly in forever regenerates 7% of total Health and Mana every 2 seconds for 10 seconds, requires a corpse of a humanoid or undead within 5 yards. This is a channeled affect so damage or movement will break it. With it regenerating both it can quickly help you mid fight as opposed to having to get out of combat to drink and eat, you can Fear or Death Coil to get some ticks of regeneration in, or even Seduction. It also reduces the down time in between fights if you're in a Battleground or even doing some World PVP.

Underwater Breathing lasts 300% longer than normal. This is somewhat useless as an undead warlock past level 16, no real place for it in PVP.

Will of the Forsaken Instantly removes any Sleep, Charm, or Fear effects on a 2 minute cooldown. It's a freebie trinket for some form of Crowd controls, but not all. Most dangerous ones being stuns as they don't break from damage the way sleeps, charms, or fear effects do, but can be used a fair amount situationally from Magic Dust, Slumber Sand, Seduction, Fear Psychic Scream, Mind Control, Gnomish Mind Control Cap or Intimidating Shout.

Touch of the Grave Damaging spells and attacks have a 30% chance to drain health from the Target, up to 5% of your maximum health. 15 second internal cooldown. This has been one of the most changed Racials in WOW Forever, it's received several nerfs, and finally got buffed. The math works out to ((Max Health x 0.05)/15) in how it plays into your DPS, so we can assume at around 5,500 health it increases your DPS by roughly 18, however the big thing is that this also heals you for the 5%, giving it quite a bit of utility. With it proccing on first impact, it makes the potential for 1 shots much higher as well, since as we've already seen so many Destruction locks in the past just pick up the Zerker buff seduce and soulfire people and if it crits it's just a 1 shot or nearly a 1 shot.

My top picks would be Gnome for Alliance and Undead for Horde.

Really a must have is Engineering, from Advanced Target Dummy Gnomish Cloaking Device Goblin Mortar Arcanite Dragonling Gnomish Mind Control Cap Goblin Rocket Boots to the Thorium Grenade there is just so much utility that can come from Engineering. To get deep into PVP I believe this is a must have, and if you're playing a Gnome it's even more important.

Tailoring for crafts that we may not have even seen yet, from Fel Cape to others that were Bind on pick up from the Durotar Supply and Logistics Faction at the Crossroads in Barrens or Azeroth Commerce Authority in Red Ridge Mountains. They also supply quite a bit of upgrades while leveling.

Enchanting may also provide good value as with the Bind of pick up items at the same Durotar Supply and Logistics Factions at the Crossroads in the Barrens or the Azeroth Commerce Authority in Red Ridge Mountains sell a few upgrades. I'm certain that those won't be the only Bind on Pick up items designed for crafting professions that were added in Forever.

For profession guides follow the links below:

• Engineering Guide: 1 to 300 Leveling, Trainers and Recipes
• Tailoring Guide: 1 to 300 Leveling, Trainers and Recipes
• Enchanting Guide - Leveling, Trainers and Recipes

I would recommend getting used to things like having your MOVE TO command on pet being bound to something, in case of something like a Priest rushing you to Psychic Scream or potentially two enemies coming at you from different directions, you could move your Summon Succubus or Summon Incubus to a target location away from the first fight and Seduction the target there, keeping them just out of reach to help the second enemy.

These are some macros I would also recommend having

Fear

#showtooltip Fear

/cast [@mouseover,harm,nodead][] Fear

Seduction

#showtooltip Seduction

/cast [@mouseover,harm,nodead][] Seduction

Banish

#showtooltip Banish

/cast [@mouseover,harm,nodead][] Banish

Death Coil

#showtooltip Death Coil

/cast [@mouseover,harm,nodead][] Death Coil