World of Warcraft: Forever · class guide
Destruction Warlock
Ranged damage
Fire and Shadow burst around 
Immolate, 
Conflagrate and, from 40, 
Incinerate. Weakest early, and Blizzard wants it to use both schools.
Destruction casts: Immolate, Conflagrate from 25, Shadowburn as an execute that refunds a shard, and Shadow Bolt or Incinerate as filler. Ruin still reaches +100% crit damage at 5/5. Bane of Havoc makes it the cleave spec: mark one enemy and 15% of your damage to anything else also hits it. Blizzard built the spec to mix Fire and Shadow, with Incinerate at the core; Shadow and Flame rewards that by buffing each school when you use the other's spell, and at 5/5 stops Conflagrate consuming Immolate.
Strengths and weaknesses
| Strengths | Weaknesses |
|---|---|
| Fire and Shadow burst around Immolate, Conflagrate and Incinerate | Weakest early: before 25 it is a Shadow Bolt caster with Immolate |
| Bane of Havoc makes it the cleave spec | Levels slower than Affliction until Conflagrate |
| Shadowburn finishes enemies and refunds a shard | Searing Pain and Hellfire make a lot of threat in groups |
| Ruin reaches +100% crit damage at 5/5 | Hellfire burns you each second for as much as it hits each enemy |
| Conflagrate consumes Immolate until Shadow and Flame 5/5 |
Stat priority
- Spell power
- Hit
- Haste
- Critical strike
- Spirit
- Intellect
- Stamina
Crit needs more testing before it moves above haste. Ruin makes crit worth double damage once you have it. The Spellstone now gives spell haste.
Do this
- Before 25 you are a Shadow Bolt caster with Immolate; Affliction levels faster until Conflagrate.
- Use Shadowburn as a finisher to get shards back instead of farming Drain Soul.
- Put Bane of Havoc on the enemy you are not attacking, never on your main target.
- Mix the schools: Blizzard designed the spec around both, and Shadow and Flame pays for it.
Watch out for
- Conflagrate consumes Immolate until Shadow and Flame 5/5; don't cast it early in Immolate's duration.
- Searing Pain and Hellfire make a lot of threat in groups.
- Hellfire burns you every second for as much as it hits each enemy.
- Conflagrate and Incinerate numbers rose between builds with no patch note; read the tooltips in game.