Warlock - Destruction

This information is up to date as of Patch 3.2.

Purpose

A Destruction Warlock is a DPS character, which principally does damage via crits and fire spells.

Talents

Replenishment: 00/13/58∞
Deep Destruction (no Replenishment): 3/13/55∞

Ability Rotation

Main Rotation:

Lifetap (rank 1), Curse of Doom(unless boss has < 60 seconds, then CoA), Immolate, Conflag [backdraft starts], Chaos bolt, Incinerate, Incinerate [backdraft ends]

If you have the glyph, Life tap as needed to keep the Life Tap buff up
Refresh Curse of Doom and Immolate as needed.
When Conflag is available, cast 1x chaos bolt and 2x Incinerate to use up Backdraft.
Fill with Incinerate.

On AOE pulls:

Rain of Fire

Pets

Imp. You imp's crits increase your crit chance significantly.

Which Curse?

1. Curse of the Elements (if you're in a group where 3 or more casters will benefit from the +13% spell damage and the group does not have a boomkin to provide "Earth and Moon" or an Unholy Deathknights to provide "Ebon Plagebringer")
2. Curse of Doom (if the mob will live for greater than 60 seconds)
3. Curse of Agony (if the mob will live for greater than 20 seconds)
4. None (on fast dying mobs it's better to skip the curse)

Stats (In Order of Importance)

Hit Rating. At level 80 you will miss a raid boss (level 83) 17% of the time. 1% hit = 26.23 hit rating. You can get hit from gear, raid buffs (3% from misery from Spriest OR 3% Imp Fairy Fire from druid), talents (Suppresion at 3/3 is 3%), or Draenei Racial (1%).
- You need 446 hit rating to never miss a raid boss.
- If you have 3/3 Suppression, and either Misery or Imp Fairy Fire then you need 289 Hit Rating (3% from talent, 3% from Raid) to never miss.
- If you have 1/3 Suppression, and either Misery or Imp Fairy Fire and a draenei in your group then you need 315 Hit Rating (1% from talent, 3% from Raid, 1% from Draenei) to never miss.
- For Heroics, you only need to make up 6% spell hit. That's 158 spell hit rating.
Spell Power
Haste
Crit
Spirit (with fel armor up and Life Tap glyph, 2 spirit = 1 spell power)
Intelligence

Notes:

1. The value of each stats varies a little by gear and spec. Before full T7 spirit is slightly more valuable than crit after that it is below crit.
2. Hit has a hard cap of 17% any hit beyond that adds nothing to your DPS. In other words, before hit cap hit is #1, after the hit cap hit it is worthless.
3. Haste has a soft cap, the GCD can not be reduced below 1s. Haste in excess of that point has a reduced effectiveness. Only spells with a cast time will still continue receiving benefits from haste, instant cast spells won't. Generally only attainable with raid buffs such as Bloodlust/Heroism/Wrath of Air Totem etc.

Recommended Glyphs

Incinerate
Conflagrate
Life Tap or Immolate

According to the latest EJ thread ( link below) Glyph of Incinerate and Conflagrate are required. Use Glyph of Immolate in lower level gear, and Life Tap at higher level gear.

Recommended Enchants

Head: Arcanum of Burning Mysteries∞, Kirin Tor Revered
Shoulder: Greater Inscription of the Storm∞, Sons of Hodir Exalted (see also: inscription only shoulder enchant has superior stats)
Back: Greater Speed∞ (see also: tailoring only Lightweave Embroidery∞)
Chest: Powerful Stats∞
Wrist: Superior Spellpower∞ (see also: Blacksmiths can add another gem slot to their own gear)
Hands: Exceptional Spellpower∞ (see also: Blacksmiths can add another gem slot to their own gear)
Waist: Eternal Belt Buckle∞
Legs: Brilliant Spellthread∞ (see also: tailoring only spellthread has cheaper mats but gives the same benefits)
Feet: Icewalker∞
Rings (Enchanters only): Greater Spellpower∞
Weapon: Mighty Spellpower∞

Recommended Gems

Match the gem color to the socket color only if the socket bonus is worth getting or if it is necessary to activate your meta gem. Otherwise jam Runed Scarlet Rubies into every available socket.

Red: +19 spellpower Runed Scarlet Ruby∞
Orange: +9 spellpower +8 hit Veiled Monarch Topaz∞ or +9 spellpower +8 haste Reckless Monarch Topaz∞
Yellow: +16 hit Rigid Autumn's Glow∞
Green: +8 Hit Rating and +8 Spirit Shining Forest Emerald∞
Blue/Purple: +9 spellpower +8 spirit Purified Twilight Opal∞

Meta: +12 crit +3% critical strike damage Chaotic Skyflare Diamond∞

Recommended Consumables

At all times, keep your fel armor up. This adds a significant amount of spell power.
At -all- times you should have a spell stone applied to your weapon.
Flasks:
Flask of the Frost Wyrm∞
Food:
Tender Shoveltusk Steak∞ +46 spellpower +40 stamina
Shoveltusk Steak∞ +35 spellpower +30 stamina
Snapper Extreme∞ +40 hit rating +40 stamina

Raid Utility

Warlocks provide the following benefits to a group/raid:

Buffs: Warlocks provide buffs via pet auras, either +stamina (from the Imp) or +intellect and +spirit (from the Felhunter). These buffs are less powerful than the ones provided by certain classes, (+stamina from Warriors, +intellect from Mages, +spirit from Priests) and will be overwritten (will not stack) by them.
CC: Warlocks can Banish Elementals and Demons, which is a very effective form of crowd control. (30s, unbreakable, mob is invulnerable while banished.) Warlocks can also Enslave demons, though this is currently a little-used ability in WotLK. The Succubus can Seduce humanoid mobs (20s, channeled ability so pet cannot dps while Seducing, breaks on damage). The Voidwalker can off-tank most mobs briefly due to its high HP and armor, though it will not last long without healing support.
Summoning: Warlocks can create a summoning stone anywhere, with the assistance of two other party members. The summoned stone lasts for 5 minutes and works like a regular meeting stone. Very helpful for replacing raid members in-raid.
Healthstones: Warlocks can create healthstones, which are essentially free potions. Any character can only have 1 stone in inventory at any time. Their main benefit is that they are on a separate cooldown from potions, so a character can use a healthstone and a healing potion in the same fight.
Other Abilities: The Felhunter can dispel a enemy buff/player debuff via Devour Magic. Downsides: must be micromanaged, has a 10s? cooldown, must be in melee range of the target to dispel. The Felhunter can also interrupt spellcasters via Spell Lock every 30s, which is unfortunately not usable on most boss encounters. Warlocks can also cast Detect Invisibility and Underwater Breathing, which are of situational usefulness.

Additional Tips

To increase your dps, increase the uptime on your dots. Every second your dot isn't up on a mob is a second of lost damage. To increase uptime, track your dots using an addon like DoTimer.

Try to avoid clipping your dots (refreshing them before their final damage proc) as this will significantly lower your dps.)

Sources and Other Resources

Warlock's Den∞
World of Warcraft official forum: Warlocks∞
http://elitistjerks.com/f80/t38033-mage_equivalent_destruction_warlock/∞
http://elitistjerks.com/f80/t48311-simulationcraft_post_3_1_specs/∞