Did some fairly focused testing on the Kriegval’s Rest and Fungal Folly delves this past week as warlock. I did a couple runs as all 3 specs and pushed up through tier 9. While my focus was on the delve content moreso than the class/specs, after the experience I had I do want to share feedback on how Destruction felt specifically (I only tried out Diabolist).
Things I like about destro on beta
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Cataclysm is more easily accessible in the tree. In any multi-target scenario cata feels like a must-have for me and I’m happy to see it not locked behind Pyrogenics anymore.
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There is a lot more flexibility in the middle of the tree. On live, the choices feel pretty restrictive as there are a lot of ‘mandatory’ feeling talents such that you usually only have 2-3 points total to allocate for talents like Shadowburn, Rolling Havoc, or Cataclysm (and kills any chance of using niche talents Soul Fire / Fire and Brimstone).
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I like the design of Avatar of Destruction more than the old version. The Overfiend model looks really cool and I’m happy to see it’s effect be more single-target focused rather than continue to pile on in aoe where we already tend to shine.
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Decimation finally makes Soul Fire feel like a playable talent. The crit proc/interaction adds some reactive gameplay which is a nice addition in a spec that doesn’t have much of that in the core rotation. While not having an execute niche makes it a little less interesting than it used to be, I like the idea that I can handle Immolate maintenance with an actual hard-hitting spell.
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Gloom of Nathreza is a welcome use for Havoc on single target.
Things I don’t like about destro on beta
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I have never felt so resource flooded while playing this spec, especially in single target, and especially during Infernal. It felt like it was near impossible to spend shards as fast as they were coming in while also trying to keep conflag, cata, channel demonfire, and dimensional rift on cooldown (plus Decimation procs). If I had gotten a good 45+ seconds to stand still with no mechanics I could have probably caught up but when there was any kind of movement I felt like I either had to rain of fire just to dump shards or let abilities sit off cooldown much longer than feels appropriate. I’m not sure if there’s an easy solution to this problem, but absent some new/faster way to spend shards, I feel like shard generation needs to be cut down.
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This is kinda tied into the above, but in a world where we are resource flooded that means we are hardly ever going to need to cast Incinerate. While I wouldn’t mind a little less rotation filler, it felt like I almost never casted it and thus a ton of our talents that key off Incinerate feel dead to me as a result.
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While the addition of Dimensional Rift on the surface sounds like a boon to our mobility, in practice it isn’t adding much right now. With the Amirdrassil tier set giving frequent resets Rift was up often enough to make an impact on mobility, but with 3 charges on a 45s cd the mobility will quickly dry up. In theory, Dimensional Ripper could offer more frequent resets, but related to my point above there is hardly ever time to cast Incinerate to get the reset. On top of it all, it already feels like I’m drowning in Soul Shards so casting Rift when I need to move often simply overcaps me on shards. Personally, I am okay if we are intended to be more stationary compared to other casters and have to plan our movement / tank the occasional mechanic, but if that is the case it feels odd to put Rift right in the middle of the tree like it’s a core part of the spec.
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I am disappointed to see Rolling Havoc dropped from 2->1 talent point if it means that we can only get half of the effect. Destro has long been known as a 2 target specialist and it’s a shame to see that niche diminished. If the buff must be weaker, I’d at least like to see the buff last longer so that it is more practical to try to keep it rolling via good Mayhem play.
If background matters, I currently main warlock and have played it at a cutting edge level in raid for a half dozen tiers + some high end arena here and there. While I’ve done progression on all 3 specs, destro is my go-to.