For anyone that prefers a doc version over the forums (with a few minor adjustments):
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XkunDJbPq3dwHttuMYOKsRdqsAw6pf7vEJgwJV5MPEI/
Destruction Warlock M+ Guide
([WIP] Updated for 9.2) by Mannimarcø
Updated 4/5/22.
Intro
Hello everyone, figured I’d give it a go at creating my first official M+ guide for Destruction Warlock. With Destruction becoming more and more popular for M+ compared to last season, I decided I would put together resources to help any aspiring destro locks in their M+ grind. Destro is in a much better spot in S3 compared to the last 2 seasons, so I expect representation to be much higher (and possibly even see some nerfs as we’re an AoE outlier at the moment).
Preface
I’ve been playing Destro on and off since SoO in MoP, although I took about a 5 year break from the end of WoD all the way through to the very end of BfA (I’m told I missed both the best and worst expansions, so go figure). I peaked last season in SL as R48 in the world and R9 in the region. In the SL Post-S1 I peaked R30 in the world and R6 in the region. I ended S2 as R30 in the world again but R8 in the region. Season 3 is well underway and let’s just say things have changed dramatically. I will try to keep this guide relatively updated, but I will say I might not have all the answers you seek nor will this be 100% accurate all the time. There are a lot of factors in M+ that need to be accounted for. There will be a TON of disclaimers.
General
Legendaries
For season 3, you will be using Wilfreds or Madness(only with 4pc). Some may opt out of Madness to favor Diabolic Raiment instead, in which case your talent choices may change a bit. When using Wilfreds, I assume you’re already using RoF and are either using Dreamweaver or Korayn. With Dreamweaver, Soul Rot becomes a more essential part of your burst pattern because you want to be standing inside of the Haste zone to maximize shard generation. If there’s enough AoE to be done, lean towards Wilfreds. If your group lacks single target, opt into your raid build with Madness/Diabolic.
When in doubt: single target needed? = Madness, large pulls = Willys
F = Fortified, T = Tyrannical.
A) Madness:
Mists (T and low F)
Taz: Streets (T and F) [if you’re using left path w/ Core Hounds]
Theater of Pain (T and maybe F)
B) Wilfreds:
Plaguefall (T and F)
Spires (T and usually F)
De Other Side (T and F)
Halls of Atonement (T and F)
Sanguine Depths (T and F)
Necrotic Wake (T and F)
Taz: Gambit (T and F)
Seasonal Affix
Compared to S2, things are way more streamlined. Basically, unless there’s a Wo skip or you run the risk of overlapping Urh (in which case you’d target Vy) always get Urh.
That’s it.
The CDR alone is super good and allows for the Infernal feedback loop to continue to be strong, but the healing and mana recovery alone makes this one kind of overpowered. On top of that, Urh is a fantastic havoc target, stays in melee for the Infernal immolation cleave, etc.
Don’t overthink this.
Talents
Talents will change a little bit from build to build and dungeon to dungeon. These are highly dependent on comp as well, so there isn’t a one-size-fits-all style here. Experimentation is the way to go.
1 = leftmost talent.
2 = middle talent
3 = rightmost talent
With 4 pc in an AoE dungeon:
Use Wilfreds.
15 - 1 or 2 are both fine.
25 - 1 preferred, some like 3 to snipe with Shadowburn.
35 - 1 > 3. Inferno overtakes Cata in mass AoE. Use Inferno if you’re gonna see 8+ mob pulls consistently.
45 - 2. RoC everywhere, all the time.
50 - 1. SC > DS is still debated, but I’m finding with Wilfreds and 4pc, Infernal’s CD is far too desync’ed (I’ve had sub 1 min Infernals lol)
With 4 pc but Single Target oriented:
Use Madness or Diabolic Raiment.
15 - 2. Only 2.
25 - 1. Don’t bother with Shadowburn.
35 - 3. Cataclysm for sure.
45 - 2. RoC everywhere, all the time.
50 - 1 >= 3. Use SC(1) for Madness but 1 and 3 both work fine for Diabolic.
Trinkets
Soulletting Ruby - When using Wilfreds, generally Ruby is the way to go. If you’re ok at pvp, Ruby + Alacrity trink is a gnarly combo that will provide great burst windows roughly every 2 mins but Ruby will be doing the heavy lifting in any 2-min build configuration.
Inscrutable Quantum Device - Quantum, thankfully, has completely fallen to the wayside in S3. It’s too inconsistent, it doesn’t line up with with other CDs, etc. Some may cling to this trinket for dear life and have some success with it, but I’ll advise you to save yourself the headache and don’t use it unless you have no other options.
Titanic Ocular Gland - Use gland until you get a 278 Soleahs, a 265 Elegy, or a Changeling.
Shadowed Orb of Torment - Shadowed Orb has an incredibly long duration with a pretty high amount of Mastery. Still a strong trinket but you’ll want to replace this with Ruby as soon as you can.
Unbound Changeling - This trinket was solid before but with 9.2 it has become the premier equip trinket. Ideally, you’ll use Changeling + Ruby almost all tier.
Elegy of the Eternals - Basically the new raid’s version of Ocular Gland. Strong equip option if you aren’t running Changeling.
Honorable Trinket Mentions:
So’leah’s Secret Technique - This trinket was nerfed and is actually kind of bad now. Even a 278 isn’t anything to get excited about unless you don’t have very good alternatives.
Miniscule Mailemental in an Envelope - This trinket is awful right now and I think the proc is still kind of bugged. On the flip side, I’ve seen a key where this did almost 1 mil damage. I have no idea what’s going on with this one. May change.
Architect’s Ingenuity Core - It’s a trap, even with the weird trinket stack cheese. Don’t bother.
Grim Eclipse - I haven’t tested it, but I’d rather not stand in melee for a haste buff.
Resonant Reservoir - This trinket is pretty bad in single target from my testing but in AoE it’s actually disgusting. Seen it do over a million damage in a key. Get this for M+, dabble with it, and if you like the minigame: send it.
The First Sigil - This trinket feels pretty polarizing. Some like it, but I’m not one of them. Maybe I’ll change my mind later, but a 5 min CD may line up with potion, but it’s so long that I just don’t wanna bother.
Consumables/Enchants/etc
Flask of Spectral Power
Shadowcore Oil
Weapon Enchant: Celestial Guidance >>> Sinful Revelation
Food: Feast, otherwise Haste food (Tenebrous Crown Roast Aspic)
Chest Enchant: +30 Primary Stat or Eternal Insight (both fine)
Bracers Enchant: +15 Intellect
Boots Enchant: 10% reduced fall damage
Gems/Ring Enchants: +16 Haste or +16 Crit
Cloak Enchant: +20 Stam + movespeed (we’re a wheelchair class)
Potion: Intellect Pots
Stats for Mythic plus favor heavy AoE and guaranteed shard generation, therefore your stat priority for Destro M+ becomes something like:
Intellect > Haste > Crit >= Mastery > Vers
For specific ‘golden’ values to aim for, 4pc puts less stress on Haste, so I prefer something like:
Crit: 25%
Haste: 35%
Mastery: 50%
Vers: 5%
Stat priority can change wildly depending on trinkets and current gear, so the above figures are a rough spitball estimate.
Dungeon Guides
Dungeon By Dungeon Breakdown:
Note: Dungeon routes can and will likely change over the course of the season and the optimal path at higher key levels may vary greatly from lower key levels. Routes are largely experimental. For the sake of clarity, I will commonly refer to specific groups from MDT in various discussions. Compared to last season, it’s even less consistent so info here will be much higher-level.
De Other Side
General Info:
As of right now, I see most people opting to use a ton of Wo skips. Because of this variance, try your best to have AoE ready to go for big pulls and bosses. Be extra careful with the invis usage.
Bosses are very painful here but there’s enough AoE that I would opt into a Wilfreds build to cut time off the trash as much as possible.
Advanced tips/tricks:
o When fighting the Dental Drills in Mechagon, save Cataclysm until after you LoS the Haywire ability. You can hit the drill around the corner using the edge of the Cataclysm circle.
o Shadowfury will interrupt Bladestorm in the Hakkar hallway but Mortal Coil will not.
o You get a damage increase by soaking the Manastorm crystal beam. Since we’re chunky locks you should be able to soak a beam without a defensive unless something goes wrong.
o In the Ardenweald section, try to interrupt or purge Bark Armor from the spriggans if you can. This isn’t super high priority, but it does stop them from putting artificial durability to other mobs.
o On the Dealer boss, be sure to take your fair share of lighting debuff. When it jumps is the large spike, so get comfortable with the jump timings and proactively using your DR. Also, when you get launched into the air to avoid the boss’ self bomb ability, you take fall damage when you hit the ground. It’s super min-max, but the Soul Tread boot enchant will reduce this damage and this is an excellent time to GCD weave with Mortal Coil to top yourself so that the healer can continue to babysit whoever has the lightning debuff.
o Curse usage:
§ Curse of Tongues: on Millhouse Manastorm, Incinerator Lt, the Shaman and Priest mobs in the Hakkar hallway, the Lubricators, the slimes in the Mechagon wing, and the Death Speakers in the central circle.
§ Curse of Weakness: any Matriarch birds in the Ardenweald section that get pulled. Anywhere else you see fit, like bosses on Tyrannical weeks.
§ Curse of Exhaustion: Not a ton of super clear use cases here, so just use if your tank needs assistance with kiting.
Halls of Atonement
General Info:
HoA is the same beast it was last season. In general, this dungeon requires very large pulls to confidently time the key. I will use italics here on several key points. Prevailing routes usually follow a massive pull → small pull → massive pull → small pull, etc type structure with an especially large 1st pull with lust. *Wicked Bolt will truck the hell out of your tank and needs to be interrupted/cc broken as much as humanly possible. * The obliterators and houndmasters will generally by your highest priority but since the Houndmasters love to hop around, you’ll have to AoE them the best you can. *Beware of the direction Rapid Fire is being shot in, as it will smoke you in a few shots on Fort weeks. * To be honest, due to the cast time of Loyal Beasts, you will either have to Mortal Coil it exceptionally well to interrupt it or should have someone else to do with an instant stun w/o a travel time. In HoA, I find that if you can make it to the point you’re pulling the 2nd boss around 13 minutes, you can comfortably time the key without any gross screw ups.
Shard Tips:
Before you could outrange thrash, but now you cannot, and it can be LOS’ed (at least on fort weeks or when your DR is down). For clarity, I’ll use group numbers based on MDT so there’s no confusion about which shard I am referring to. Each of the shards have a spot nearby them for ez LOS except for the 2nd shard (G53). Shard 1 (G52) should be tanked just to the left of the room it is in, and to LoS you just walk behind the pillar. This is the easiest one to handle. The 3rd shard (G54, which is usually the 2nd one killed) requires you to either hug a small pillar around the G5 pack or, my preference, the outer edge by the groundskeepers in G4. Demonic Circle makes getting there easy. Just don’t walk off the edge if you are running this key while you’re drunk on a Friday night/Saturday morning at 2 am . For the 2nd shard (G53) the best LOS point is behind one of the pillars of the little ‘hut’ where G22 is.
Lust timings:
In Fort weeks, I like lusting the first giga pull → Lusting the first boss with 2 gargoyles → Lust in the chapel room. On Tyrannical weeks, I like lusting the first giga pull → Lust on Echelon → Lust on the last boss.
High level CD timings:
With Willys, Infernal should be up for just about every Shard pull, which is super nice to burn down the adds that are usually pulled along with the Shard especially the Collector mobs. When you pull the 2nd Shard in your kill order, generally your Int potion will be back up and should be used. If you make use of an invis potion in this dungeon as I do and you’re not an engineer, do NOT potion a 3rd time so you don’t screw up your timings. On Echelon, you can Infernal on the 1st wave and it’ll usually be back up by the time you pull G46. After G46, you can save it for the chapel room. I usually potion, Infernal, DS, etc the chapel room because while it isn’t a difficult room it’s a very time-consuming section if you don’t crank there.
Advanced tips/tricks:
o Make use of your curses in this dungeon. Remember that person who said they wouldn’t key bind their curses because it was useless flavor? Don’t be them. Be a boss lock and flex your full toolkit so everyone in your group knows your neckbeard is the longest.
o Curse usage:
§ Put Curse of Exhaustion on: the Gargons when your tank kites the bleeds.
§ Put Curse of Tongues on: the Obliterators, Collectors, Incinerator, the chapel room miniboss, and the 3rd boss.
§ Curse of Weakness sees value on the Gargons and Darkblades, but this isn’t as important as the other two curses imo.
o On the 1st boss, you can use Demonic Circle when the Sunlight ability goes out to avoid having to move into a quadrant that has a lot of red glass on the ground. With the movespeed Finesse conduit, this is especially nice.
o Use Shadowfury when the imp adds are clumped on Echelon. 1 interrupt is good, but why not lock them all briefly?
o On the last boss, the statue is thrown in the direction the boss turns it, so it helps to spread but also put Demonic Circle down to optimize your GCDs into casting rather than running.
o Also on the last boss, during the beam soak phase, you can soak 2-3 beams at once if you stand in the right place under the boss. Soaking more than one beam at once does the same damage as soaking 1. Generally the tank and 1 dps can handle all the soaks if done correctly. Since we’re generally the chunkiest DPS, if your group doesn’t have someone who can immune a double soak along with the tank you should usually be the next person in line. Coordinate with your healer if you’re soaking because generally they should handle one of the 2 soaks with their CDs and you can handle the other one. Even at very high Tyrannical keys and spacing out your abilities to prevent overlap if possible, with your UR ability, mortal coil, a healthstone, followed by a health pot and you can handle it all by yourself like the strong independent warlock I know you are. If you need it, you can even Drain Life to show the boss that your beam channel is superior.
Mists of Tirna Scithe
General Info:
Mists is generally the easiest dungeon to run, with the exclusion of Inspiring weeks (in my opinion). In the maze, interrupt the Tender heal as much as possible and either interrupt the Bramble casts or immediately purge it from whatever mobs gets the buff before it ticks and roots everyone. If you ever get two stacks of the bite DoT from the foxes, use UR immediately, especially on a Fort week. In the slug section post-2nd boss, ensure the staghorns are interrupted as much as possible. If the AoE absorb goes out, belf/AoE purge it or at least purge the staghorn yourself and continue nuking the hell out of it.
Lust timings:
First boss around 35-40% is my preference, to ensure you phase before the AoE fear goes out. If you have a shaman in your party with Tremor totem, you can delay lusting until the big tree dude’s shackles break, if you so choose. 2nd lust will generally be on the 2nd boss unless one of 3 things happen: 1) You got some really weird maze RNG. 2) Your group has someone with an autosolve weakaura or is filled with maze savants who simultaneously do top DPS in your key while battling Bill Gates in 4-dimensional Internet Backgammon. 3) Your group has disgusting levels of AoE. 3rd lust should always be on the last big slug boss, usually right on pull.
High level CD timings:
On the 1st boss, I open with Cata (if talented), Soul Rot, and then a lot of Havoc’ed Chaos Bolts. Assuming no shaman, I drop in Infernal when Tree dude is at 40% health, with lust. This gives you some cleave time and helps fuel you to a ~ 3.5 - 4 shard sweet spot for when Droman is in his vuln phase, taking increased damage. For the maze, Infernal should come back up around the time you get to the 2nd room. Infernal the 2nd room to make sure it’s up in time for the 2nd boss. Maze RNG will affect whether you have CDs for Mistcaller, but even if you don’t have CDs up for the Mistcaller pull, it’s fine to drop Infernal later in the fight, assuming Mistcaller is >= 30% HP. Infernal should be up again in time for some combination of a G36/G30/G31 megapull, where you should drop it again. After the megapull, save Infernal until the last boss. On the last boss, save Cataclysm usage for each larva wave that spawns. Generally, these are grouped up under the tank from whoever is fixated, making it perfect to hit all 4 larva and the boss with Cata each time. Funnel the extra shards into Chaos Bolts into big slug dude and you’re good to go.
Advanced tips/tricks:
o Curse Usage:
§ Curse of Tongues is superrrrrrr good in this dungeon. Put CoT on: Drust Harvesters, the first boss (Droman), the maze Tenders, the Incinerator Lt, the Staghorn slugs, Tred’ova (the last boss).
§ Curse of Weakness: as you see fit to assist in tank kiting.
§ Curse of Exhaustion: On the fixate fox on the 2nd boss.
o Use Shadowfury judiciously throughout the dungeon, especially in the maze. There’s a lot of casts/channels/etc going on in there, and AoE stuns are immensely valuable.
o You can pull mobs through the misted doorways by clicking a mob on the other side and issuing a pet attack command on them. Your pet will phase through the misted wall, walk up, and melee the mob to put you in combat with it.
o The 2nd lock gate skip has been patched from what I’ve seen in my testing, so if you used that a lot before, don’t bother.
o Don’t be afraid to fear or even Mortal Coil the fixate fox from the 2nd boss. Create some distance. If you lack cc, put Curse of Exhaustion on it.
o On the last boss, good use of Demonic Circle can make dealing with Mind Link much easier without forcing you to use Soulshape. If you’re not NF, Demonic Circle is even more important here. Also, put havoc on the small larva when they spawn to assist in generating more shards to Chaos Bolt the boss more. Dumping primary CBs into the worms is usually a huge waste, and even when they stack, you really shouldn’t be using RoF on them either.
Plaguefall
General Info:
Routes here are currently undergoing large, sweeping changes because the bomber dudes were nerfed into Oblivion so hard, Mehrunes Dagon doesn’t know what to do with them. Even the Xivilai are upset. It’s worth doing this dungeon with a Necrolord if you can, because the Haste buff (red) especially is super potent. Invis skips at the start are the norm. Interrupt and purge as much as possible in this dungeon, including the slimes so that the green puddles don’t spawn (your melee dps and tank will thank you). On the 1st boss, if you don’t have someone that can CC lock the big slime (hunter, monk, etc) you can Banish it. Many of you probably don’t have this spell on your bars, but don’t feel bad. Now is your chance to remedy that. Banish is fantastic in this dungeon but there are caveats, of course, that I will cover in the advanced section. Don’t let the Rotting Slimeclaws facepull stuff once they get to be low HP. Stun them or put Curse of Exhaustion on them and prioritize killing them. *Be hyper cognizant of where your pet is, because if you pull a Plagueroc or something by accident, your (likely pug) tank may rage quit and blame you for all the problems in their life over the last 10 years. * We’re warlocks, not therapists, so do not do that to yourself. If someone gets grabbed by the Crushing Embrace from a tentacle, don’t watch in awe like you’re in an anime, but instead use a CC ability like Shadowfury or Mortal Coil to break them out. The tentacle can kill melee dps rapidly on Fort weeks. Setup a lock gate in the 2nd boss room, usually diagonally across. He won’t always jump that way when you phase him but if you predict it successfully, the people in your group will acknowledge you as the superior gamer and give you their gear at the end of the run. Interrupt the Venomous Sniper when he tries to summon a spider. CC the Defenders to stop the Bulwark channel (Coil, Fear, giving him really dirty looks). Save Shadowfury to AoE stun the Spiderlings spawned from the Brood Ambushers. A good SF + Cata combo on a spiderling wave will rapidly propel you to the top of the meters and the top 5 of your BFF’s MySpace page.
Lust timings:
Super straightforward. 1st boss on pull. 2nd boss either on pull or in the 2nd phase once the barrel spawns. Lust in the 2nd phase on the final boss (final phase usually results in wasted lust duration).
High level CD timings:
Infernal the first pull. Ensure you have Infernal ready for 1st boss. On the 2nd boss, do yourself a favor and put Havoc on the purple slime, not the boss. You’ll do much more damage that way (unless you’re using the Banish strat, covered below). Depending on how fast your group progresses through the Oozing Fields, you may be able to Infernal on either G34 (if it’s in your route). If you Infernal on G34, it’s usually up again for Domina (the 3rd boss). Your final 2 Infernal usages are super telegraphed: Infernal immediately in the final boss room to melt through the pre-boss trash in record time, and then finally Infernal in P2 of the boss fight. You can also opt for a P1 and P3 Infernal.
Advanced tips/tricks:
o Banish is great in this dungeon and has 2 very powerful use cases: 1) Banishing 1 of the big slimes on the 1st boss. 2) Banishing one the 2nd purple slime on the 2nd boss.
§ For use case 1, it’s pretty straightforward. You click it, you Banish it. The drawback is that Banish has a 30 yard range, rather than 40 yards like most of our spells barring Mortal Coil and it only lasts 30 seconds, compared to Hunter trap which lasts 60 seconds. The nice thing about Banish, especially in pugs is that you cannot break it with damage. I prefer to be on 2nd slime duty in groups, if I can. Be careful of your position to ensure you’re in range to re-Banish when the time comes.
§ For use case 2, coordinate this with your tank. Ideally you want to push away the purple slime (Typhoon, Ring of Peace, Mortal Coil horrify, etc) and then Banish it. Don’t bother doing this with the first purple slime, but definitely do this for the second purple slime.
o In the Force of Pestilence, kill G29 last. With a Necrolord, it matters less because Fleshcraft will give you a longer buff that’s mobile. Without a Necrolord, kill the red slime last, pull Doctor Ickus to this platform and then stand in the red pool with UR active. The puddle gives you the Haste stat buff for as long as you stand in it. It’s fun for the whole family.
o On Domina, save Cata for when the spider adds are grouped under the boss. Use Shadowfury to stun the ranged adds.
o On the last boss, use Demonic Circle to help navigate the tentacle slams. Havoc is great for the big slime add as well.
Sanguine Depths
General Info:
As a whole, let me say I believe this to be one of our greatest dungeons. Destro with Wilfreds here can easily crank 20k+ with 4pc. Per usual, ensure Shadowfury gets a lot of use here because there are a TON of hurtful casters you want to disrupt. Interrupt the tick channels and watch the stack counts as they die for bursts of damage, if you can predict a pack of them dying and use UR/coil to ensure your health stays high, do it. Use Demonic Circle on the 1st boss closer to the boss, run away for Severing Smash, and then use Circle to transport yourself back to the boss. This will put you into a position to body block any orbs from reaching the boss and keep your damage uptime as high as possible. Interrupt the Wicked Oppressor silence as much as possible, and if you do get silenced, scream in comms at your fellow dungeoneers until someone dispels you. If they ignore your pleas for help, politely tell them your dad is Bill Gates, owns blizzard, and will ban them all. Stand far enough back so that the Overseer chains are a non-issue. On Fort weeks, especially at higher keys, make sure interrupts are coordinated for the Depths Warden shackle spell. Remnant of Fury casts should prob be interrupted but if your party has a dispel, missing the interrupt isn’t a big deal at all. 2nd boss is all about bursting the add. This boss either feels like a cake-walk or a 15 min ordeal (regardless of actual kill time). Save defensives for Castigate, even if you gotta drain life during the channel. Use Havoc on the add that spawns and he’ll be burnt harder than the coffee beans at Tim Hortons. Beryllia hurts a lot so just save Mortal Coil/healthstone/health pot to be proactive and GCD weave during the golden swirly dance phase.
Lust timings:
Lust 1st boss, lust 2nd boss, lust last boss. Ezpz
High level CD timings:
First pull is usually a 2-3 pack pull on top of jar. Blow all CDs here. If some combination of a group pull with G8/G9/G10 is done after the first boss, Infernal again there. On a Fort week, you can prob Infernal again if your group pulls G13. You can get another Infernal use somewhere in the donut ring, but make sure you have Infernal up for the 2nd boss. Even if Infernal doesn’t come up until like 10-15 seconds after pull, it’s fine because you will drop it when the add spawns. CD again on 3rd boss. Hold CDs until the first pull in the gauntlet, where you will pop everything again. Most tanks double pull the 1st pull in the gauntlet, and you can easily top the meter there. If you’re generating and spending shards efficiently in the gauntlet, you should be able to drop 1 with G35 & G36, another on G39 or G40, and have it come back up or almost be back up in time for the final boss fight.
Advanced tips/tricks:
o Curse Usage:
§ Curse of Tongues: Pick any caster you see fit and put CoT on him. CoT sees value on: Wicked Oppressors, Grand Overseers, Incinerator, Depths Warden, Remnant of Fury (only bother with this if you don’t have a curse dispell)
§ Curse of Weakness: Bosses, Brutes.
§ Curse of Exhaustion: Not much space to kite here, so this very rarely gets used. Best place to get value is slowing the dog packs in the gauntlet while you run from pack to pack, since the dogs spawn infinitely.
o Just to reiterate, on Fort weeks, especially at higher levels, make sure interrupts are coordinated for the Depths Warden shackle spell. Even one of these going out will root you, put a nasty bleed on you that lasts awhile, and is usually a death sentence without blowing every defensive in your kit. If these go out repeatedly, expect to spend more time inoperational than the ice cream machines at McDonalds. If you do get hit by it, bear in mind that you CAN soulshape while rooted. It does not clear the root but you can use it to relocate yourself so the Scribe explosive books don’t 1-shot you. Soulshape, immediately UR, once UR ends use a healthstone or health potion if you’re below 70% HP and continue to watch your health because you may need to use another one. If you get hit, you can also Soul Rot + Drain Life combo to sustain yourself without defensives for a solid 4 seconds. If you’re quick on your feet with this, it’s probably one of the best examples of getting value from the secondary Soul Rot effect I’ve seen this entire xpac.
o If Stoneskin doesn’t get interrupted from the Chamber Sentinels, just purge it. It’s not a big deal at all. If you’re fighting multiple packs and there’s a Sentinel in the group, don’t even interrupt Stoneskin. Save your interrupt for something else and just use your purge on Stoneskin.
o Grand Overseers have a stacking debuff that goes out that continually reduces your damage health. These small tri-packs may not seem threatening, but they can be very time consuming if not dealt with quickly. Depending on your group’s damage output and CD timings with G11 and G12, it may be beneficial to even pop CDs here and wipe these dudes out to save time.
o Research Scribes are notorious for not wanting to move into the jar zone, especially if your tank isn’t stutter-stepping to move them. In a pinch, you can use Mortal Coil to force them away from you if you angle it correctly to move them into the jar zone. It’s no ele shaman Thunderstorm, but don’t underestimate the value you can gain if the M+ comp you’re in has no other knock effects.
o If you time Soulshape or Demonic Circle correctly, you can actually avoid the bleed from the last boss, if you’re targeted by her dash. Right as she is making contact with you, if you use it before the AoE visual effect goes out, you can avoid it. I’ve heard people say you can time jumps correctly to also avoid it, but I’ve never been able to do that consistently.
Spires of Ascension
General Info:
This dungeon is great for us. A lot of fights we get a lot of value in and our ability to solo handle the Menders/Champions is also great. Lots of Curse value as well, due to the volume of casters and the punishment for missing crucial casts, such as Goliath’s Rebellious Fist or one of the Mender/Champion heals. I find that if your group has a Kyrian, you’re better off going to the right after the first boss, but if you lack a Kyrian, a strong argument could be made to go left instead. Because of the Left vs Right variance, it’s a little harder to give CD timings, but I’ll cover it from a top-down view nonetheless with more emphasis on the Right path. When it comes to any Menders/Champions, you’ll be watching their Infuse Weapon cast, waiting for it to finish, and immediately purging it. This causes the weapon to drop, which can be picked up by a melee dps. This grants a buff that does a massive magic damage cleave effect on their next attack. Purge the weapon, tell your melee it’s purged and where it dropped, and let them grab it. After the weapon is purged, they’ll generally try to cast their healer afterwards, for which you can just interrupt it. With good Havoc use, you can usually pick some high priority mob in a pack with a healer, and nuke both of them cleanly. On the first boss, open with Soul Rot + Cata while the bird and Kyrian girl are clumped, then drop Infernal, set Havoc and blast. Use Shadowfury practically on CD during the Etherdiver packs and the Stealthclaw packs so your tank has less DoTs/Bleeds to deal with. If your tank is healthier on those pulls, they tend to move less which means Rain of Fire becomes great. Any packs with a Squad Leader mean the Squad Leader is the highest priority. Squad Leaders have an Inspiring Presence buff they give other mobs that reduces the AoE damage mobs around them take by a massive amount (30%) and they are immune to CC. Avoid using RoF on pulls with Squad Leaders because you’re far better off using any Shards on Havoc CBs to burn the SL as fast as possible. On the 2nd boss, if she dashes to you on a Tyrannical week, wait about 2-3 seconds, and then use UR. The DoT she puts on you hurts pretty bad, so mitigate it the best you can. If you’re able to dodge the black swirly darts confidently, stand closer to where the boss is tanked so you can use Mortal Coil to heal yourself, should you need it. Otherwise, stand far away from the black dart spawn zones to ensure you can dodge them easily, because they hit hard and launch you way up in the air. Dismiss pets and run along the right edge on the final platform before the 3rd boss. You can lock gate from the middle of the upper stairs to the right ledge, allowing you to skip G27. For G32, you don’t need to invis pot, just hug the very right wall while the tank grabs the pack and LoS them behind the right pillar in front of the 3rd boss. On Oryphrion, if you get targeted by the beam, bear in mind it puts a nasty DoT on you. You should be able to UR the first DoT, Mortal Coil + Health pot a 2nd one, and Healthstone a 3rd one with perhaps a little Drain Life action if your healer can’t keep up. If you want to help your team (which you should), on the final boss, you will want to swap to the Imp pet, and I’ll explain why in the Advanced section.
Lust timings:
o Fort weeks: Lust 1st pull, either a huge pull with spear or 2nd boss, and the final miniboss of the trio before the last boss (usually Klotos).
o Tyrannical weeks: Lust 1st boss, 2nd boss, and P2 of the last boss.
High level CD timings:
I’m gonna cover this from a Right-side route, and if there’s demand, I can do a separate Left side route. I’m only covering Right at this moment because ideally, you’d want a Kyrian in your group anyways. Infernal the first pull, which usually consists of G1, G2, and even the first Goliath depending on confidence levels. After this, hold DS and Infernal until 2nd boss. If G4 and the first Lt take forever to kill, sometimes you can get away with another DS before 1st boss is pulled but it’s usually uncomfortably close, so I opt to hold. Blow all CDs including pot on first boss. Usually, groups will go left and grab G8/G9, then go right. On the right side, Infernal a G6/G7/Praetor pull. G15 and G16 are usually pulled together and a spear is used, so ensure your DS and Infernal are up for that monster pull. Spear makes mobs take increased damage, so you can really crank there. Infernal 2nd boss. You can usually DS and Infernal again on either the Helion in the last section or the Lt that’s right behind her. On the 3rd boss, DO NOT use CDs on pull. The boss takes increased damage on the orb soak intermission, so pop CDs then. Infernal and DS the final Kyrian angel miniboss (where the last spear is usually used). On the final boss, use CDs on P2, especially during Tyrannical weeks because that’s when Lust should be going out.
Advanced tips/tricks:
o Curse Usage:
§ Curse of Tongues: Pick any caster you see fit and put CoT on him. CoT sees value on: Menders/Champions (although you can usually get the 1st interrupt yourself and kill them before a 2nd one is attempted), Goliaths (with CoT, a shaman can easily solo interrupt a goliath), Incinerator, Castigators.
§ Curse of Weakness: Bosses. Haven’t seen melee being too much of an issue from others but there could be something I’m overlooking.
§ Curse of Exhaustion: Stealthclaws are a big one, because the tank will almost always need to kite these extensively.
o Final Boss Imp advice: Swap to your Imp on the last boss. The Lost Confidence ability is a magic DoT that hits pretty hard, especially on Tyrannical weeks. When it is dispelled, it drops a black puddle that damages you. These puddles usually aren’t too problematic, even if they’re dropped in the safety dance shield, so just pay attention where you’re standing and flame your group mates if they can’t move out. Let the healer get the first dispel (unless you get the debuff on you, in which case immediately dispel yourself) and dispel the second one.
o Because we have two AoE stuns (Infernal impact and Shadowfury) pay close attention in this dungeon to what AoE stuns are being used by others in your group, such as shamans, monks, or DHs. On packs with Stealthclaws especially, you want to get full stun value which means not overlapping stuns and spacing them out properly to prevent the diminishing returns from making them worthless.
o On the trio of angels before the last boss, you can tell where the black echoing waves will radiate from the spears based on how they are facing. When the spear goes down (avoid the impact, obviously) look to where it’s facing. It shoots out in 4 directions per spear based on where it’s pointing. Imagine it’s pointing ‘North’, and know it’ll shoot ‘North’, ‘South’, ‘West’, and ‘East’. Once you get the hang of it, you’ll never get hit by the effect again.
o On the final boss, if your whole group stacks in the center, when Devos uses run through you can guide her into the wall a short distance from where she is tanked. When done properly, this ensures all dps, especially melee, has maximum uptime on her because she isn’t sliding 40+ yards away across the platform.
The Necrotic Wake
General Info:
This dungeon is a really weird one for us, because the routes vary wildly, and weapon use seems super inconsistent from group to group. Because of this, I’ll give some insight based on what I see most of the time, but you probably can’t extrapolate that info very well. Spears ideally should be used on a target, usually a boss, through a pack of a mobs. It has a pass-thru damage mechanic that is essential to make good use of. Your positioning on the throw is incredibly important. For Collectors, Goresplatter hits like a truck on Fort weeks and really, really needs to be interrupted. Shadowfury practically on CD while fighting trash in this dungeon. You can lock gate skip G17 if you hug the last side of the wall and Gate over the hut (next to where the hammer is), just make sure you dismiss pets first. Most groups skip G24 by walking onto the fallen pillar to the right of them. Dismiss your pets because walking over because it will pull the pack if you’re not mounted. Interrupt the Flesh Crafter’s Repair Flesh ability up in the necropolis. The last boss in this dungeon is (imo) one of the worst bosses, if not the worst, in Shadowlands. It’s a weird fight with a variety of bugs and super anti-warlock. See the advanced section for more detail.
Lust timings:
1st boss, 2nd boss when the 1st add wave spawns, last boss.
High level CD timings:
1st pull of the dungeon is usually 3-4 packs, and you’ll definitely want to Infernal that pack. It’s common to pull several packs into the 1st boss too, so ensure you have everything up for that as well. Infernal on the 1st wave of adds on the 2nd boss (Amarth). If Amarth drags on, you can sometimes Infernal again later in the fight. On Amarth, I find you can usually NOT spear him if you coordinate CDs. When done correctly, you don’t even have to use an orb. Ideally, you’d have 1st wave - Infernal, 2nd wave - other DPS player’s CDs, 3rd wave - more CDs, 4th wave - Infernal (assuming you even get to a 4th wave). Up in the Necropolis, you can usually Infernal 4-5 times before Stitchflesh is fought. Infernal once on the first large AoE pull, again on one of the back corner packs, and then Infernal the 1st of the minibosses that Stitchflesh makes active. If done correctly, you’ll have Infernal and DS ready to go for when Stitchflesh is yanked off his platform. Infernal the last boss, usually on pull.
Advanced tips/tricks:
o Curse Usage:
§ Curse of Tongues: Not a ton of value here in my opinion outside of a few select mobs. Sees value on: Corpse Harvesters/Collectors, Brittlebone Mages (if they aren’t CC’ed via something like Hunter trap), Amarth, Incinerator, Bonemenders.
§ Curse of Weakness: 1st boss, Goregrind/Rotspew. It might have more value than I think here, but I’m not really convinced.
§ Curse of Exhaustion: the main mobs you would want to use this against here are immune to it. If you don’t have any other slows/stuns available, put CoE on the worms that Blightbone spawns.
o Final Boss Imp advice: Imp can dispel the Frozen Binds. If for whatever reason your healer is dispel deficient, be a strong independent warlock and do it yourself.
o Nalthor advice: This boss is super frustrating to deal with as a lock, especially Destro. When the frozen swirl storm comes out, get a good Conflag in and maybe GCD weave with Mortal Coil if you don’t have full HP. If you get through Dark Exile without any issues, drop Demonic Circle when you land immediately, run to the corner to drop the frost zone and immediate use your circle teleport. This will prevent you from taking even a single tick of frost damage from the zone.
o Nalthor rant (feel free to skip this, if you want):
If you get Dark Exile’d, pray to Ion that your pet doesn’t bug out. I’ve had my pet despawn on the lower level, which is hard to deal with while you’re juking frost swirls in a race to the end of the platform. More consistently I see my pet reach the far end of the platform after you’ve already killed the mob and are spam clicking the angel. About 85%+ of the time, your pet is useless down there. The mob down there requires you to either interrupt (which is a problem if your pet bugs out) or use another CC like Mortal Coil to break the Enfeeble channel (which is what I usually do). The mob isn’t too problematic, it’s just a pain to deal with if you get back frozen swirl RNG, especially if you aren’t running Cinders. Lastly, if you’re a Necrolord lock using Bonesmith, you are basically 1 misstep away from causing your group to fail the key. Congratulations. If you die on the lower level as a Bonesmith Necrolord, your body will snap to the top platform again (which is ok, as that’s where your body goes when you die on the lower level anyways) for the duration of the effect. Canceling the effect or when it expires after time runs out, will cause your dead body to snap BACK to the lower platform. When down there, even if someone brez’es you, there’s only 1 angel at the end and you will not be able to get back to the top unless the person who rez’ed you stays down there.
Theater of Pain
General Info:
There’s a few weird… anti-synergies with Xav but overall this is a dungeon that warlocks bring a lot of value to, probably more than you’d expect. My favorite route so far involves using either a DH imprison or invis skip on the first pack, and pulling the Raging Bloodhorn into the first boss, then burning it all together. Probably wouldn’t recommend this if your group lacks a soothe, but I’ve pulled it off on a Fort week even without Soothe by prioritizing the Bloodhorn higher than normal.
o Xav Wing:
§ Prioritize killing the Arbalest units, as they hit pretty hard.
§ For just about every miniboss, you can gain value from using Demonic Circle to move quicker and keep your dps output up.
§ On G4, kill the Ancient captain as fast as possible. It has a damage aura it gives and on a Fort week, empowered Arbalest mobs will rapidly kill off group members without lots of CC and burst.
§ On Xav, use Havoc on the boss and funnel damage onto the banner to bring it down quickly. The banner’s slow effect alone can be devastating. Also use Demonic Circle/Soulshape to navigate his slams. You can usually survive a slam if you absolutely cannot dodge it by using UR and immediately popping a Healthstone to recover. Don’t let yourself get interrupted by Xav’s AoE circle, Deafening Crash. Even if you’re not in the circle, if you’re casting when it goes out, it will spell lock you. Since locks are super tanky, generally you should be the one winning the lower level duels unless you have <= 1 shard and you get yanked.
o Gorechop Wing:
§ Interrupt/CC the sludge spewers. They do a lot of damage and put out some nasty debuffs.
§ Use Shadowfury a lot here, because the small mobs like to hop around which ruins Rain of Fire’s value. If you can layer a few RoFs with CC, this area will melt pretty quickly.
§ Interrupt the Diseased Horror’s Meat Shield immediately. The absorb it grants them will stack up quickly and is just annoying to deal with.
§ The Rancid Gasbags will have a front and back cone shape ability that goes out. Ideally, just stand on the mob’s flank and it’s not a big deal. You may want to use Mortal Coil to deal with the radiant damage while fighting one of these mobs.
§ On Gorechop: Demonic Circle is your friend. If you get pulled in and the hook opening is far away, you can use Demonic Circle to create some distance to allow you to reposition. Try to time Cataclysm so that it hits the boss and both mobs he spawns. This helps the jumpy adds die faster AND puts Immolate on them to help generate shards for Chaos Bolts on the boss. In a similar vein, put Havoc on the mobs to keep Immolate up on at least one and funnel Chaos Bolts into the boss.
o Kul’Tharok Wing:
§ Interrupt or stun the Shackled Souls as much as possible. Their tether hurts but the slow is also a huge pain.
§ When fighting a Portal Guardian, coordinate how to counteract Soulstorm. Usually you’ll want a healer CD for one instance and a defensive + healthstone combo for another.
§ Purge the Boneshield from the Bone Magus to kill them faster. Interrupt their Bone Spike, especially if you do the duo pack, because if they both target the same person, they will 1-shot them.
§ Don’t let the Soulbinder get out a volley. Interrupt them or stun the cast.
§ When fighting one of the Darkspeakers, place Demonic Circle to juke the Dark Wind tornadoes. Between DC and Soulshape, locks should very rarely be getting blasted off the platform unless someone is griefing you.
o Last boss:
§ Stay close to the boss to make it easier to dodge the rotating cone attack.
§ Use Demonic Circle to assist in dodging the ghost charger mobs and the rotating cone attack.
§ Interrupt the ghost mobs that spawn if yours doesn’t die nearly instantly.
Lust timings:
You should have lust on the 1st and last boss. In between then, lust on the bosses it makes the most sense for. Xav might be one you can skip lusting on but it depends on group comp and decisions.
High level CD timings:
CD usage is all over the place here. Because of this, I’ll just point out a few great Infernal usage candidates, and you’ll have to figure out the nuance (sorry friends).
o Just about every boss, especially the 1st one, pop everything and cook them like Jesse Pinkman.
o G4 should be another ‘pop everything’ scenario.
o G21/G22, even with all the mobs hopping around can be a great choice. There’s a lot of mobs and if you’re blessed to have a hunter friend with Binding Shot or a DK friend with Slappy Hands, this becomes an even stronger choice.
o G24 is a pack with a lot of stuff going on, things to interrupt and CC, so Infernal here is great because it can melt through this group so quickly you don’t have to focus so hard on interrupts and such.
o The Shackled Souls are usually split into two separate pulls, (G5 + G6) and (G7 + G8). Pick one of these combos, and use Infernal there. Ideally you want to pop everyone on one such pull and have the other DPS in the group use CDs on the other.
o G11 is a good candidate as well, which is the trio platform pack with the Soulbinder, Bone Magus, and Portal Guardian. This pack can wipe your group if some casts go out, so CDs here can kill the two caster mobs before Soulstorm goes out, which makes this pack rather trivial. Because of this polarizing experience, this pack will either be a big struggle/group wipe or a minor footnote.
Advanced tips/tricks:
o Curse Usage:
§ Curse of Tongues: On the 1st boss, keep CoT on Paceran and Sathel. This helps keep damage down and ensures Searing Death should basically never successfully be cast. CoT also sees value on: Sludge-Spewers, Incinerator, Soulbinders, and Magus.
§ Curse of Weakness: All minibosses in the Xav wing, Dessia on the 1st boss, Xav, Gorechop, and Mordretha.
§ Curse of Exhaustion: Basically no kiting in this dungeon.
o Kul’Tharok Imp strategy: You will definitely want to use Imp on this fight. The Phantasmal Parasite DoT hits very hard, especially on high keys/Tyrannical. This DoT can overlap on a player standing in Grasping Hands, where the combo can kill an unsuspecting player in a few seconds. Much like for the last boss in Spires, let the healer dispel the 1st person and you dispel the 2nd person. If you’re affected, just dispel yourself immediately and let the healer get the other person.
o Xav Duel thoughts: I feel that Warlocks should generally be give the free win in the Xav Duels unless the lock getting pulled down has no resources at all. To review, here are the layers the player opposite of the lock has to peel through:
§ Demonic Embrace ensures Warlocks have 10% bonus stamina over our counter parts of other classes.
§ Demon Armor, which dramatically increases the strength of Soul Leech. You will likely be pulled into the duel with an absorb from this of 15% of your max health AND every second the absorb will recharge at a rate of 0.5% of your HP (even while you’re getting hit). % based health effects are further empowered by Demonic Embrace.
§ Destro lock Mastery + Versatility. Destro Mastery gives a DR (damage reduction) from hits received of about 1/9th of your % Mastery, and an additional amount of up to another 1/9th of your % Mastery. I have 47% Mastery as of this writing, and I have a flat 5.2% DR + (0 → 5.2%) additional DR.
§ Others: Armor kits gives stamina, which is amp’ed even more from Demonic Embrace and the other % health abilities. If you took a Necrolord into this dungeon, you’ll also have banner up with gives 10% versatility to the group.
Tazavesh: Streets
WIP
Tazavesh: Gambit
WIP
Final Thoughts
While NF is super strong in raid, there are great players getting value from every single covenant with Destro, even Venthyr. Most of this guide is covered from a NF perspective because that is where most of my experience is from, but I would not say any covenant is just straight up bad across the board for M+.
While this is a Destro targeted guide, a lot of the info above can be used for Demo and Affliction as well.
Thanks for reading this far, as I’ve put a lot of effort into this guide and putting forth my experiences to try to assist my fellow Destro lock forum friends. If any part of this guide is wildly inaccurate, feel free to let me know and I’ll investigate. If there are any great tips or tricks you’d like to add that I haven’t, I can add those as well. If you’re struggling with any M+ dungeons, I am more than happy to lend assistance to any warlock friend willing to learn in my spare time. My bnet is WTF7#1915. If you have any other questions or comments, post and I’ll do what I can. If you stream or record your M+ gameplay, I am also more than willing to do vod reviews.
Thank you.
TL;DR - Wilfreds = Infernal go brrr. Madness = Chaos Bolt go brrr.
