Topic
(Sticky)
[PvE] Destruction in 4.3: A guide.
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Edited by Jessicka on 06/03/12 11:00 (UTC)
Introduction
Destruction was buffed in 4.3 and seems to be performing pretty well. It has some nice utility in the form of Nether Ward, Shadowfury and Bane of Havoc as well as offering good burst, and solid sustained damage, as well as good dual target damage. It's presently simming just behind Demonology on a single target, Patchwerk style encounter, but also a little more susceptible to movement than Affliction. Spec 3/7/31, http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/tool/talent-calculator#Vc02!aj!Ygg!PggSegVeTd Is the current spec to use. Totally optional talents are Aftermath, Nether Protection, and Nether Ward. Move those points around as you wish, maybe even pick up some other the other blank spaces, but I see no serious use for them in PvE. Glyphs As shown in the above link. Imp is our most powerful one, followed by Conflagrate and then Immolate. There isn't really anything that matches up to those, not even Incinerate. Life Tap is the only major glyph that's useful, but even that drops out of favour with high levels of haste, and the high mana returns from Soul Leech. Stat Priority Int > Hit > Haste > Crit >= Mastery Crit and Mastery are very close, and may switch value depending on gear. At lower levels Crit is generally better, at higher levels Mastery may overtake it, depending on your other stats. Haste Plateaus The only ones that matter are those for Immolate, as increasing damage from by way of gaining an extra tick also increases Conflagrate damage. Assuming fully raid buffed with DI and 5% Haste, those are (according to https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/lv?authkey=CKPti9oE&hl=en&key=0AsDL8HE-bGDVdEU1S1NqMW5IbWU1dURKcmdibFFTeVE&toomany=true#gid=12) 218 (one additional tick) and 2589 (2 additional ticks) for non-goblins, and 90 (first tick), 2437 for Goblins. 2681 For an extra 4 ticks during Heroism/Bloodlust for non-Goblins, 2527 for Goblins. Further ticks are unattainable in current gear. The Plateaus are points to aim for if you are close to reaching them and can do so without an unreasonable loss of Intellect or Hit. They are not points at which Crit or Mastery overtake Haste as being the most valuable stat. This, as with any stat weighting for any class or spec may happen at these or other points depending on your gear and other stats. Corruption, Banes and Shadowflame scale linearly, they have no plateaus of real value. If you are within a couple of hundred of these, it may be worth reforging out of Hit below the cap, or if within 50 or so, gemming away from Intellect to reach them. Priorities • Soul Fire to maintain ISF buff. • Immolate • Conflagrate • Bane of Doom • Corruption • Shadowflame • Soul Fire (Emp. Imp/Soul Burn) • Chaos Bolt* • Shadowburn • Incinerate • Life Tap AoE • Bane of Havoc on a big target/boss if present • Shadowflame • Rain of Fire Other • Curse of Elements/Weakness/Tongues depending on raid compostion/encounter requirements • Nether Ward • Fel Flame on movement • Soulshatter Use Demon Soul on cooldown or when appropriate like any other 'burst' cooldown. Use Fel Flame when moving, facing the boss and don't need mana or to refresh Bane/Corruption. Mana Feed and Soul Leech should provide plenty of mana between them, so it's unlikely you'll need to Life Tap much, but do so when moving and not facing the boss anyway just to make sure and to be doing something. *Chaos Bolt is presently quite questionable. It offers a very minor DPS increase, thanks largely to Soul Leech but should not be used during Bloodlust while Backdraft is procced if this will bring it's cast time below the global cooldown. There's also a strong suggestion that by dropping it altogether and thereby easing up the rotation could prove a DPS increase for some. Bane of Havoc. This is very situational, but, when those situations arise, it is Win in it's purest form. Any time you need to switch from the boss for any length of time put this on it before you switch - if you need to AoE stuff, then even better, as Shadowflame is not AoE capped. Remember also to keep Immolate and Corruption stacked with it, while they wont contribute to BoHs damage, their high DPET ensures they're still worth casting. DoTs and ISF should be clipped inside the last couple of seconds, with the exception of Bane of Doom which should only be clipped if you have more buffs than at the original point of casting. |
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Edited by Jessicka on 16/01/12 23:50 (UTC)
Pet
Imp. Only ever use your Imp. Burning Embers and Empowered Imp procs are a Good Thing. He also hits surprisingly hard. Gems Brilliant, pure Intellect gems are favoured. If a socket bonus offers 20 Int or more, then Int/Haste or Int/Hit gems may be used. Trinkets (Curtesy of neubs986: http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/1033285-BiS-Trinket-lists.) Destruction HCoC- 3579 HWoU- 3437 HICM- 3409 CoC- 3173 ICM- 3076 WoU- 3064 HVPL- 3060 CoC(LFR)- 2808 ICM(LFR)- 2800 WoU(LFR)- 2730 VPL- 2718 DMC:V- 2421 FGDL- 2252 BW- 2181 RoZ- 2122 Other resources: http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/1018656-Destruction-A-Guide-%284.3%29 http://elitistjerks.com/f80/t111390-destruction_cataclysm_4_3_release/ This is still a work in progress, as it's not a spec I play with any frequency but because this is a popular spec I felt it worth posting. Any further input would be appreciated. |
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Sticky requested it.
Good read, Jessicka, great explanation yet compact and no walls of text to dig your way through. |
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Edited by Hotsocks on 16/01/12 18:36 (UTC)
On glyphs tho, might wanna add that Soulstone glyph is very helpful when you reach 85 and raid :)
And I see no CoE? Even us destro have to put it up ourself if there's no affli around ;) (I don't see the glyphs when opening the link to the talents) |
True, but since it's basically the only useful curse (Curse of Weakness is often applied by others too), I guess it's taken as granted to apply CoE. |
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The haste plateau you should aim for is 2681 (4 extra immo ticks during lust/hero) and after that both mastery and crit will become stronger and at some point depending on your gear they will become more valuable then haste
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I've seen people who fail to use common sense like that ;) |
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Edited by Divinorúm on 16/01/12 22:17 (UTC)
im on 3013 haste myself and did some testing today by dropping 330 haste for mastery.. found no significant increase and felt that the dps without heroism (most of the fight) was actually more crippled.. so yea, for now im sticking to 3k haste and still topping most dps meters.. on a raider dummy i can get up to 10m damage in 5 mins (til CoE falls off) (with food, flask, potion, and a buddy giving heroism) with peaks up to 41k dps. i'll take the clunky feeling of hitting the global cooldown for granted for now. |
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Thanks for the feedback, I've clarified the part about Haste Plateaus adding the information about Heroism/Bloodlust and added a part about AoE.
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Nether protection is too important actually. On this tier, every fight consists high magical damages which helps healers greatly. 30% may look a little but think that tanks have 50%-40% damage reducing big cooldowns and you would jump on an opportunity that increases your damage by 30%(Vice-Versa). A line between death and life.
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Sticky requested, great guide. I'm not expert in Destruction PvE, but is Shadowburn still that low on the list even after its buff during 4.3? I manage to pull off 19k crits in PvP, which seems amazing when taking into account resilience.
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I think it that low since you can only use it while the target are low on life and have a CD. |
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Imo netherward is mandatory, I use it whenever it's not on cooldown if I know I take some AoE damage (like every boss). The healers love it.
I use Chaos bolt under heroism aswell for the mana. You could write some macros, my personally favourite while using the imp is to have Singe Magic cast on yourself binded; /cast [@player] Singe Magic It's a great dispeller, can save you from some nasty stuff (like the lava waves on Ragnaros if you somehow manage to get hit by them). |
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I don't think anyone is going to question the usefulness of Nether Ward/Nether Protection, especially when the alternatives; Aftermath and Backlash are so poor in a PvE setting.
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Thanks a bunch for this guide. My dps went up about 2,5k thanks to this!
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Nice job. Such threads we were missing for a long time at blizz forums.
Just one thing: Everyone says Chaos Bolt's dps increase is due to soul leach and gaining mana, however with mana feed talent I never forced to use life tap in most of situations, (may use in fights with AoE). i.e. at Ultraxion I never used chaos bolt and never had to life tap. Also it's better to drop chaos bolt for players with high latency. |
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Edited by Copperkop on 18/01/12 14:39 (UTC)
thx was fun reading for my alt :) dark you pick trinkets for a encounter so you are right indeed :)
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