Destro Lock current up to patch 4.0.3

[Alvah]

Most of this info is from wowhead, Asakawa, and EJ.

Q: Whats the Best PvE spec?
A: 3/7/31

Optional talents include Aftermath, Backlash, and nether protection.

For fights like saurfang, you can take two points out of nether protection and swap them into Aftermath.

For fights like marrowgar you can take 2 points out of nether protection and one from Nether ward and put them into Backlash.


Q: What glyphs should i use?
A: Prime Imp Conflagand Immo


Q: What are my spell priorities?
A: Soul Burn: Soul fire for ISF buff (If no Bloodlust)
*Soul fire for ISF buff
*Bane of Havoc ( when applicable, IE: Not on the main target. )
*Immolate
*Conflagrate
*Bane of Doom
*Shadowflame ( If in melee )
*Corruption
*Chaos Bolt
*Soul Burn>Soul Fire
*Soul Fire ( If empowered Imp )
*Incinerate

Q: What is my Opening Spell rotation?
A: Soul Burn: Soul Fire ► immolate ► Bane of Doom ► Conflagrate ► Shadowflame ( If melee ) ► Corruption ► Chaos Bolt ► Incinerate

Q: How do i Gem as a Warlock?
A:
Brilliant Inferno in all red slots
Reckless Ember Topaz in all yellow slots
Rigid Ocean Sapphire if you need more hit. Keep in mind you want 17% hit first and foremost above all other stats.

Q:How do i Enchant as a Warlock?
A: Enchant intellect where possible, remember you want 17% hit, if int and hit are not an option enchant haste. Theorycrafting stat weights have crit prioritized over haste. You may want to try some simcraft, but for now enchant haste over crit.

Q: What are the stat weights for
A: Destruction:Hit (Until 17%) >> Int >> Spellpower > Crit > Haste = Mastery
These are of course generic stat weights and should not be taken as a fact. Your mileage may vary.

Q: What spells do i use for AOE?
A: Destruction: Rain of fire.


Tips&Tricks

Before the pull, like you do when you pre-pot, pop Soulburn and use SOul harvest. You'll start the fight with soulburn up but with 3 Shards. Do this as Destruction and Demonology for Soul Fire.

As demonology, You can use Metamorphosis on Cooldown now, as the Decimation phase isn't as important as before. However you should still try to time Meta with Bloodlust if possible.

Summonable pets ( Doomguard/Infernal ) Stack with your pets now. Use these during bloodlust. Doomguard for single target Infernal for AOE.

For demonology, macro your nukes to auto use Felstorm ( Just like you did for Demonic empowerment. )

Start casting Soul Fire roughly 2 secounds before the buff runs out to maximize uptime and hasten your soul fire buff.

#showtooltip Insert Spell name Here
/run SetCVar("Sound_EnableSFX", "0")
/use 13
/use 14
/use 10
/cast Felstorm
/cast Insert Spell Name here
/run SetCVar("Sound_EnableSFX", "1")
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()

Thats all for now. I would like to give props to EJ and Asakawa (mod in wowhead) it you would like to go directly to this thread it can be found here

As far as affliction and demo you may have to ask Jack. I have never played those specs.

[Alvah]

Q: What is the Haste "Cap" for Destruction?
A: Currently, the haste cap for bringing Incinerate down below the GCD cap ( 1 secound ) is as follows
Normal: 1406

With Improved Soul Fire: 795

With Heroism/Bloodlust: 325
These are based on having the 3%haste moonkin aura buff aswell as the 5% haste totem/spriest buff.

[Alvah]

Dark Intent

I would like to thank Gherkin from MMO-Champion for his work regarding the increases provided by this buff, his comprehensive overview can be found here:

Dark Intent - The Guide (2010/12/24)

With his permission, I have reposted the information he has provided into this thread:

It is important to note:


Originally Posted by gherkin
First and foremost, you should gauge the needs of your group. When learning raid fights or playing with undergeared healers, they should always come first. When you hit enrage timers or wipe because the boss has a burn phase you didn't complete - this is when to consider applying it to DPS classes. I'll leave this up to you.

Healer Ranking:

Unfortunately, healing is relative to the encounter and the ability of the people in the group to not take damage. Exact numbers cannot be given, but here is the ranking based on number of crits per minute for healers:

1) Restoration Druid
2) Holy Priest (Raid Healing)
3) Restoration Shaman
4) Holy Priest
5) Discipline Priest**
6) Holy Paladins***

** Some discipline priests will forego Renew entirely, meaning they have much fewer hots than you would expect
*** Only have a HOT via Glyphing, so you are basically only providing 3% haste to them.

DPS Rankings

All of the numbers in this guide were obtained using BIS T11 gear (iLVL 372).

Raid DPS Gain Rankings


Class DPS GAIN
1) Shadow Priest 4131
2) Balance Druid 3462
3) Fire Mage 3332
4) Feral Druid 3127
5) Survival Hunter 2909
6) Frost Mage 2641
7) Combat Rogue 2580
8) Assassination Rogue 2361
9) Arcane Mage 2213
10) Elemental Shaman 2200
11) Frostfire Mage 2192
12) Unholy DK 2119
13) Ret Paladin 1944
14) Frost DK 1740
15) MM Hunter 1555
16) Enhancement Shaman 1444Personal DPS Gain Rankings


Class DPS GAIN
1) Balance Druid 1999
2) Shadow Priest 1992
3) Fire Mage 1963
4) Feral Druid 1942
5) Frost Mage 1920
6) Survival Hunter 1835
7) Combat Rogue 1774
8) Arcane Mage 1686
9) Frostfire Mage 1642
10) Assassination Rogue 1549
11) Elemental Shaman 1468
12) Ret Paladin 1288
13) Unholy DK 1230
14) Frost DK 1145
15) Enhancement Shaman 1072
16) MM Hunter 1061Other important notes:



Originally Posted by gherkin
A few things to cover:
1) There may be glitches where certain abilities do not proc Dark Intent on Critical Strike. This will lower that class' ranking.
2) Frost mages do very little periodic damage, however they have a high crit rate on Frostfire Bolt's DoT. Therefore, the uptime is higher for the lock and as a result they rank higher than others.
3) Balance druids have a guaranteed crit mechanic via Sunfire, but because they have less % of damage from DoT's they rank lower than Shadow Priests and Fire Mages.
4) This is very much gear and skill based.
5) This calculation doesn't take into account some class' inability to stack the buff to 3. However, the ones with low enough proc rates to worry about are so low on the tree that this is inconsequential in a normal raid. I am working to improve my calculations for future updates.
6) If you skip the Shadow Priests to buff a Balance Druid for a pathetic 13 dps personal gain over a 700 raid dps loss, and I find out you used this post to justify it, I will find you and punch you in the junk.