Many of the end-game players who focus on PVP soon realize that coming up against a warlock isn’t usually a pleasant experience. With the proper build and the right skills, many locks have been able to beat down some of the best players in the game without losing much health or mana. However, your talent tree will play a vital role in how well you are able to hold your own in the arena or on the battlefield.
While Affliction is usually the build of choice for PVP warlocks, many players insist that Destruction warlocks can hold their own in both the PVP and PVE environments. The key to doing well is in knowing how to spend your talent points properly. If you don’t want to be the laughing stock of the PVP crowd, you better understand where those talent points should be spent to enhance your PVP abilities.
Destruction Warlock PVP Build
A level 85 Destruction warlock who is serious about PVP should have their talent points spent as follows:
Affliction:
- 3 Points in Improved Corruption
Demonology
- 3 Points in Demonic Embrace
- 2 Points in Dark Arts
Destruction
- 3 Points in Bane
- 3 Points in Shadow and Flame
- 2 Points in Improved Immolate
- 2 Points in Aftermath
- 2 Points in Emberstorm
- 2 Points in Improved Searing Pain
- 2 Points in Improved Soul Fire
- 3 Points in Backdraft
- 1 Point in Shadowburn
- 2 Points in Burning Embers
- 3 Points in Backlash
- 1 Point in Netherward
- 3 Points in Fire and Brimstone
- 1 Point in Shadowfury
- 2 Points in Nether Protection
- 1 Point in Chaos Bolt
PVP in Destruction
Using your talent points to build this tree will provide you with increased stamina, shorter casting times and a greater chance for instant cast proc on your Soul Fire spell.
When fighting an enemy player, use your Soul Fire spell whenever your Empowered Imp ability procs and Incinerate should be used when Backlash procs. When Shadowburn is available, be sure you use it.
Use Chaos Bolt and Conflagrate on every cooldown and if you’re on the run, Fel Flame will be your spell of choice.
Your Netherward spell will help shield you from enemy spell damage, but be careful when using it against mages. Their Spellsteal spell may steal your Netherward from you, defeating the purpose of the spell and putting you at a disadvantage.
Nether Protection is another advantage that you will have, giving you the ability to lessen the damage that you take from certain spells. When you’re dealing with casters, this can prove to be a vital asset during a PVP encounter.
Overall, Destruction locks are definitely a force to be reckoned with in the PVP environment, as long as the talent tree is built right and you know how to play your class. By taking the above advice, you can be sure that you hold your own in your PVP adventures.
Hey, good to see that more people try out Destro for PvP in theese dark, Affliction-dominated times
I have a few thoughts though;
1. No Fel Synergy and no Demonic Rebirth means both that your pet WILL die, leaving you without Soul Link and you will be depending on Soul Shards to bring another one back up. Shards that could be spent on instant Soul Fires and Teleport sprints.
2. Improved Searing Pain is a waste, it deals marginally more damage than Fel Flame and can be interrupted. And to be fair, you should always try to have Backdraft up when casting, meaning both Chaos Bolt and Incinerate are roughly 1.5 sec casts, depending on haste, making the casttime gained even more useless compared to the much lower damage output.
Searing Pain does have situational uses but it should never be a cornerstone in your playstyle at this point and definately not specced in to.
3. While Soul Leech might not seem like much, every little bit helps since the Fel Armor nerf as far as selfhealing goes.
What I would do, is take the points out of Imp. Searing Pain and Dark Arts to put them into Fel Synergy and Demonic Rebirth.
Then, if you really want to spec around your Imp (a mistake, in my mind but diffrent strokes for different folks) then take 2 points from Improved Corruption and put them into Empowered Imp (a talent you referred to but do not actually have in the tree pictured).
Personally, I would take all 3 out of Imp. Corruption ant out them into Soul Leech.
Lastly I would advise against locking yourself up with one pet at all times. A great thing about being a warlock is the access to different pets for different situations. I am not saying you should switch pet for every opponent but try to familiarise yourself with all of them and make calculated descisions about what pet suits the situation at hand.
This turned into a wall of text but I hope I could be of some assistance
Thanks for the advice and the notice that the pic is wrong. I agree with what you said, I’m going to rework this page a bit.