Before I go into it, please forgive the insane amount of editing I’ve done on this post since I first wrote it. I’m still learning the forums, and just realized I could hide information behind drop-down menus. In light of that, I have TOTALLY rewrote this post to not only include Destruction Warlock, but all 3 specs AND the core tree!
This is a collection of suggested talent changes for Warlock, fully open to criticism, I’ve slowly worked on this from what I hear other players talk about, and what I myself experience. For context, I started Warlock in Cataclysm (the actual expansion, not Cata Classic, lol), and have mostly mained Destro ever since.
Core Tree Warlock Wish List
Demonc Circle/Teleport, Banish, and Soul Leech are baseline. Subjugate Demon and Ritual of Doom are no longer baseline.
PvP Talents (Shared by All)
- Soul Rip: Unchanged.
- Bonds of Fel: Unchanged.
- Call Observer: Unchanged.
- Agent of Chaos: Soulburn: Demonic Circle also causes you to unleash a Howl of Terror after teleporting, and enemies you pass through with Demonic Gateway are lashed by nether energies and knocked back.
- Dark Bargain: Instant, replaces Dark Pact, 2 min CD. Become immune to damage for 8 seconds, after which you suffer 50% of the damage taken during Dark Bargain over 8 seconds.
-Ichor of Devils places the downside of Dark Bargain onto your primary active pet. If Grimoire of Sacrifice is active, you instead radiate the penalty, damaging yourself and enemies within 8 yds of you.
-Frequent Donor reduces Dark Bargain’s cooldown by 30 sec. - Gateway Mastery: Unchanged.
- Nether Ward: Unchanged.
- Essence Drain: Unchanged.
- Shadow Rift: Unchanged.
Row One (Core Tree)
- Fel Domination: Unchanged, except auto-known by Demonology.
- Demonic Gateway: Replacing Demonic Circle(Live) and Soul Leech(Alpha), auto-known by Affliction.
- Burning Rush: Unchanged, except auto-known by Destruction.
Row Two (Core Tree)
- Fel Pact: Unchanged from Alpha, but hey… I made this change in my wish list like, 5 months ago! Beat em there!
- Demonic Subjugation: Directly below Fel Domination, does not connect to Curses of Enfeeblement. Auto-known by Demonology, and grants both Subjugate Demon and Ritual of Doom.
- Demon Skin (2): Unchanged.
- Kilrogg’s Cunning: Directly below Demonic Gateway, does not connect down to Abyss Walker. Auto-known by Affliction. If you cast Demonic Circle: Summon while controlling an Eye of Kilrogg, the circle will appear where the eye is located.
Additionally, Eye of Kilrogg has heightened stealth detection, and can see invisible targets.
- Fel Armor (2): Unchanged.
- Path of Destruction: Directly below Burning Rush, does not connect down to Howl of Terror/Mortal Coil. Auto-known by Destruction. Burning Rush allows you to walk on water, may be enabled while mounted, and deals no damage to you while mounted. Although Burning Rush will not increase your movement speed while mounted, it will prevent your movement speed from being reduced below 100% of normal movement speed.
- Fiendish Stride: Unchanged, but another talent I beat Blizz too, hehe.
Row Three (Core Tree)
- Curses of Enfeeblement: Unchanged.
- Abyss Walker: Using Demonic Circle: Teleport or your Demonic Gateway reduces all damage you take by 5% for 10 sec. If you used Demonic Gateway, during these 10 sec you may do so again but without triggering Abyss Walker.
- Howl of Terror / Mortal Coil Both unchanged, except Howl of Terror no longer has a target cap, like Psychic Scream.
Row Four (Core Tree)
- Amplify Curse: Unchanged.
- Demonic Embrace: Unchanged.
- Demonic Inspiration: Increases the attack speed of your primary pet by 5%, and increases the chance for Grimoire of Sacrifice to trigger by 10%.
- Wrathful Minion: Unchanged.
- Fel Vitality: Renamed Demonic Fortitude, but unchanged.
Nightmare / Horrify
- Nightmare: When Fear, or Howl of Terror, ends, the target is affected by Curse of Exhaustion (this is in addition to your other curses, the movement speed reduction does not stack with Curse of Exhaustion).
- Horrify: Your Fear and Howl of Terror can withstand 50% more damage before breaking, and causes targets to tremble in place instead of fleeing in fear.
Row Five (Core Tree)
- Foul Mouth: Renamed Teachings of the Satyr, the original name since its funnier, otherwise unchanged.
- Accrued Vitality (2): Drain Life heals for 15/30% of the amount drained over 10 sec, increased by 100% while below 50% health.
Sweet Souls / Swift Artifice
- Sweet Souls: Your Healthstone heals you for an additional 10% of your maximum health. Any party or raid member using a Healthstone also heals you for that amount. Soulstone also restores 10% more health.
- Swift Artifice: Reduces the cast time of Soulstone and Create Healthstone by 50%. Additionally, moving near an enemy’s corpse consumes their soul to reduce Healthstones cooldown by 1 sec, and Soulstone by 3 sec.
Gorefiend's Escape / Impish Instincts
- Gorefiend’s Escape: Using Healthstone, or reviving yourself with Soulstone, resets the cooldown of Demonic Circle: Teleport, and your Demonic Circle no longer disappears on death like Demonic Gateway.
- Impish Instincts: Taking direct damage reduces the cooldown of Demonic Circle by 2 sec, no more than once every 5 sec. (PvP talent gone)
Magical Appetite / Spell Lock
- Magical Appetite: Reduce the cooldown of your Felhunter’s Spell Lock by 4 sec if it interrupts a spell.
- Spell Lock: You gain Spell Lock and your Felhunter loses it if summoned or sacrificed. Instant, 40 yd range, 24 sec CD. Counters the enemy’s spellcast, preventing any spell from that school of magic from being cast for 5 sec.
Command Demon/Sacrificed Felhunter now uses Devour Magic instead of Spell Lock.
- Demonic Leech (2): Using a Healthstone increases the rate you gain Soul Leech by 6/12% for 20 sec (for 15% of single-target damage done at rank 2, assuming the 3% on WoWHead for the Alpha is correct).
- Greater Banish: Located directly below Nightmare/Horrify, connecting down to Shadowfury. Banish now effects Undead and Aberrations.
Row Six (Core Tree)
- Dark Pact: Unchanged.
- Strength of Will / Dark Accord Both unchanged.
- Shadowfury: Unchanged.
Row Seven (Core Tree)
- Ichor of Devils / Frequent Donor Both unchanged.
Grimoire: Imp / Voidwalker
Replaces Socrethar’s Guile.
- Grimoire: Imp: Functions like Grimoire: Felguard, but summons an Imp that uses Singe Magic on you or your target right away, repeating every 5 sec while active, preferring you if possible.
- Grimoire: Voidwalker: Functions like Grimoire: Felguard, but summons a Voidwalker that otherwise functions like Shaman’s Earth Elemental.
Grimoire: Felhunter/Sayaad
Replaces Sargerei Technique.
- Grimoire: Felhunter: Functions like Grimoire: Felguard, but summons a Felhunter that Spell Lock’s your target.
- Grimoire: Sayaad: Functions like Grimoire: Felguard, but summons a Sayaad that Seduces your target.
Grimoire of Service: Instant, 1 Soul Shard, 40 yd range, 2 min CD. Summons a demon to fight for you for 20 sec, dealing 25% increased damage. All Grimoire summoning abilities are placed in a single ability called ‘Grimoire of Service’, and share a cooldown. The old glyphs would be usable on these abilities to make them different from our primary demon.
- Darkfury / Demonic Breath Both unchanged, except Shadowflame was renamed to Demonic Breath.
Row Eight (Core Tree)
Fel Synergy / Grim Feast
- Fel Synergy: Soul Leech also heals you for 25% and your pet for 50% of the absorption it grants. Healthstone also heals your pet for 150% of what it healed you for.
- Grim Feast: Drain Life now channels 30% faster and restores health 30% faster.
-Master Channeler: Also reduces the cooldown of Drain Life by 15%.
- Demonic Tactics: Increases the melee and spell critical strike chance for you and your primary demon by 5%. Critical strikes done by you or your demon/Grimoire of Sacrifice has a chance to increase the other ones damage done by 2% for 15 sec. Multiple instances may overlap, up to 5 stacks.
Teachings of the Black Harvest / Health Tap
- Teachings of the Black Harvest: Unchanged, except Darkglare is treated as an Imp when it removes a Magic effect from an ally, or the cooldown of its Seize Magic ability is reduced by 5 sec if it removes a Magic effect from an enemy. Doomguard is otherwise share’s Felhunter’s cooldown reduction to its Destroy Magic ability, and Infernal’s Blaze Magic ability is treated as the Imp’s Singe Magic for this talent.
- Health Tap: Instant. Sacrifice a Healthstone in your inventory to gain that many Soul Shards. Puts Healthstone on cooldown.
-Sweet Souls: Health Tap also heals you for 10% of the amount Healthstone would have healed you for if used.
-Swift Artifice: Healthstone’s cooldown is reduced by 5 sec for each charge remaining on the Healthstone consumed by Health Tap.
-Soulburn: Health Tap restores 10% health and increases your maximum health by 20% for 12 sec.
Row Nine (Core Tree)
- Resolute Barrier: Unchanged.
- Soul Link: Unchanged from Alpha.
- Soul Conduit: Unchanged from Live.
- Demonic Resilience: Unchanged.
Row Ten (Core Tree)
- Master Channeler: Stolen right from SoD Era; Your Drain Life is no longer channeled, lasts 5 sec with a 5 sec cooldown, but costs 300% more mana. (It might need a longer cooldown then duration, but it can also be dispelled as a Magic effect!)
Grand Warlock's Design
- Affliction: Your Summon Darkglare spell now has a 6 sec cast and costs 1 Soul Shard, summoning a Darkglare with 10% more health than a Felhunter and the following abilities: Eye Beam, Seize Magic, and Optical Blast. If sacrificed, gain Shadow Lock.
- Demonology: Your Ritual of Doom spell is now Summon Doomguard, replacing Summon Tyrant with a 6 sec cast and costs 1 Soul Shard, summoning a Doomguard with the same health as your Felguard and the following abilities: Doom Bolt, Devour Magic, and Shadow Lock.
- Destruction: Your Summon Infernal spell now has a 6 sec cast and costs 1 Soul Shard, summoning an Infernal with 5% more health than a Voidwalker and the following abilities: Seethe, Burning Presence, Blaze Magic, and Meteor Strike. If sacrificed, gain Meteoric Burst.
- Soulburn: Unchanged, except expanded as so.
-Burning Rush: For the next 10 seconds while Burning Rush is active, you may cast 1 Warlock spell while moving.
-Amplify Curse: Your next Curse will afflict all enemies within a 10 yard radius of your target with its non-amplified curse.
-Demonic Breath: Demonic Breath now deals Shadowflame damage over 6 sec, and adds 6 sec onto any of your current damage over time effects on the target.
Affliction Warlock Wish List
Malefic Rapture is removed. Talent placement is mostly unchanged, except the top 4 rows, which for symmetry, would be laid out how Demo’s first 4 rows are laid out!
Unstable Affliction is changed accordingly:
2 sec cast, 2 Soul Shard, 40 yd range. Afflicts the target with Shadow damage over 16 sec, and generates 1 Soul Shard if the target dies while afflicted.
If dispelled, deals high Shadow damage to the dispeller and silences them for 3 sec (no target limit, but costs Soul Shards again).
First row is Haunt.
1.5 sec cast, 1 Soul Shard, 40 yd range, 15 sec CD. A ghostly soul haunts the target, dealing Shadow damage and increasing your damage dealt to the target by 10% for 12 sec.
If the target dies, generate 2 Soul Shards and Haunt’s cooldown is reset. If Haunt is dispelled, or the target survives, your next one is instant cast.
Xavian Teachings passive is simply renamed to ‘Improved Corruption’ like it was in Classic to make Corruption instant cast.
PvP Talents (Affliction)
- Soul Swap: Unchanged from the Live version, but a PvP talent once more.
- Rot and Decay: Unchanged.
- Rapid Contagion: Unchanged.
- Fatal Gardener: Seed of Corruption refunds 1 Soul Shard spent on it for each stack of Fatal Echoes on the target, up to 3. Corruption damage additionally has a 10% chance per stack of Fatal Echoes to trigger a demon seed explosion.
- Soulshatter: Instant, 100 yd range, 1 min CD. Consumes all of your Corruption effects on the 5 nearest enemies within 40 yards, dealing the combined total of all the removed Corruptions to each enemy Corruption was removed from.
This counts as Corruption damage, but cannot critically hit. - Jinx: Unchanged.
Row Two (Affliction Tree)
- Nightfall: Unchanged.
Focused Afflictions / Singular Affliction
- Focused Afflictions: Unstable Affliction costs 1 less Soul Shard, but is limited to a maximum of 3 targets. Additionally, Unstable Affliction deals 30% more damage, reduced by 15% for each additional target it is active on, for a bonus of 0% if active on three targets.
- Singular Affliction: Unstable Affliction costs 0 Soul Shards, but is limited to 1 target. However, Unstable Affliction deals 50% increased damage, and if dispelled, it generates 1 Soul Shard.
- Seed of Corruption: Channeled (2 sec cast), 1 Soul Shard cost to begin casting, 40 yd range, Empower Spell. Embeds a demon seed in the target that will explode after 12 sec, dealing Shadow damage to all targets within 10 yds of the target. The seed will detonate early if the target is hit by other detonations, or takes X damage from your other spells.
-Tier I: The demon seed applies Corruption to all targets within 10 yds of the target.
-Tier II: Costs 2 Soul Shards now, embeds a second demon seed in a nearby enemy.
-Tier III: Costs 3 Soul Shards now, embeds a third demon seed in a nearby enemy.
Seed of Corruption automatically casts if its cost would exceed the Soul Shards you currently have.
Yes, it uses Evoker’s ‘Empower’ spell system, but I felt it made a lot of sense for Seed of Corruption! You’ll see it again for Hand of Gul’dan and Decimating Bolt.
Row Three (Affliction Tree)
Bane of Shadows / Claw of Endereth
- Bane of Shadows: Instant, 40 yd range, 45 sec CD. Magical damage over time effects will strike the target an additional time for 20% of their damage as Shadow. Lasts 12 sec.
- Claw of Endereth: Drain Life now channels 20% faster and restores health 20% faster. This stacks with Grim Harvest.
-Master Channeler: Also reduces the cooldown of Drain Life by 10%.
Phantom Singularity / Vile Taint
- Phantom Singularity: Unchanged.
- Vile Taint: Unchanged.
Row Four (Affliction Tree)
- Drain Soul / Improved Shadow Bolt: Both Unchanged, per the Alpha.
-Connects up to Nightfall. Connects down to Relinquished, & Grimoire of Sacrifice/Summoner’s Embrace. - Dark Virtuosity: Shadow Bolt and Drain Soul deal an additional 10% damage per damage over time effect you have active on the target, up to an extra 30% (40% total).
-Connects up to NF, & Bane of Shadows/Claw of Endereth. Connects down to Grimoire/Embrace. - Cruel Inspiration: When Agony grants you a Soul Shard, you have a chance to gain Cruel Epiphany. Bane of Shadows consumes Cruel Epiphany to also cast Haunt on your target, and Drain Life consumes Cruel Epiphany to increase your Haste by up to 10%, determined by how long you channel it.
-Connects up to BoS/CoE. Connects down to Grimoire/Embrace, & Absolute Corruption/Siphon Life. - Vile Inspiration: Vile Taint’s cooldown is reduced by 5 sec and Phantom Singularity’s cooldown is reduced by 10 sec.
-Connects up to PS/VT. Connects down to AC/SL, & Volatile Agony/Cunning Cruelty. - Kindled Malice: Seed of Corruption, Phantom Singularity, and Vile Taint deals 10% additional damage. Reduces the cast time of Unstable Affliction by 10%.
Agonizing Corruption / Tainted Fruit
- **Agonizing Corruption: **Each detonation caused by Seed of Corruption increases the stack count of Agony by 1 on all targets damaged.
- Tainted Fruit: Seed of Corruption always refunds 1 Soul Shard spent on it, as long as it damaged at least 3 targets. Unstable Affliction generates 1 Soul Shard every 16 seconds it is active on a target.
-Connects up to Seed of Corruption. Connects down to Volatile Agony/Cunning Cruelty, & Spellstone.
Row Five (Affliction Tree)
- Grimoire of Sacrifice / Summoner’s Embrace Both Unchanged, per the Alpha.
- Absolute Corruption / Siphon Life Both Unchanged, per the Alpha, but will say… I had Siphon Life being a passive for Corruption since… maybe 7 months ago?
- Volatile Cruelty / Cunning Cruelty Both Unchanged, per the Alpha, just combined into a split talent choice.
Row Six (Affliction Tree)
- Relinquished: Unchanged.
- Malediction (2): Unchanged.
- Sacrolash’s Dark Strike: Unchanged.
- Contagion (2): Unchanged.
- Spellstone: You gain 2% Critical Strike as long as Corruption is active on a target. Repeating for Agony and Unstable Affliction.
Row Seven (Affliction Tree)
- Unstable Haunting (2): Haunt deals 15/30% increased damage if the target is suffering from Unstable Affliction, and 50/100% of Haunt’s initial damage affects all other targets suffering from your Unstable Affliction.
- Fatal Echoes (2): Casting Unstable Affliction applies a stack of Fatal Echoes to the target until Unstable Affliction expires or is otherwise removed. Unstable Affliction damage has a chance to generate a Soul Shard and increase the stack count of Fatal Echoes, up to 3 stacks, it can generate Soul Shards even if the stack count is three.
Each stack of Fatal Echoes increases the damage of Unstable Affliction by 5/10%, and grants Unstable Affliction a 1/2% chance to consume all stacks to reapply itself instantly. - Soul Siphon (2): Drain Life heals you for 6/12% more each time it deals damage, and drains an additional 3/6% for each of your damage over time effects afflicting the target, up to 9/18%.
Row Eight (Affliction Tree)
- Tormented Crescendo: While Agony, Corruption, and Unstable Affliction are active, your Shadow Bolt has a 30% chance and your Drain Soul has a 15% chance to make your next Haunt refresh, cost no Soul Shards, and be cast instantly.
- Shadow Embrace: Drain Soul damage applies Shadow Embrace, increasing your damage dealt to the target by 3% for 16 sec, stacking 3 times.
Shadow Bolt applies 2 stacks of Shadow Embrace, 3 if Nightfall was consumed.
Oblivion applies 3 stacks over its channel. - Summon Darkglare: Unchanged.
- Death’s Embrace: Damage done by your Agony, Corruption, and Unstable Affliction is increased by 5% when your target is at or below 30% health, increasing by 1% as the targets health decreases, up to a maximum bonus of 35% more damage.
Row Nine (Affliction Tree)
- Scouring Tithe: Haunt now deals Shadow damage over its duration and lasts 3 additional seconds. When a target dies under the effects of Haunt, you generate 3 additional Soul Shards. When the Haunt spell ends or is dispelled, the soul returns to you, healing for 50% of the damage it did to the target.
- Rend Soul: Each stack of Shadow Embrace on your target grants Shadow Bolt a 2.5% chance, and Drain Soul a 1.5% chance, to deal up to 100% additional damage based on the target’s missing health and treat them as if they just died.
The chance is doubled when Shadow Bolt or Drain Soul is affected by Nightfall.
Creeping Death / Malefic Grasp
- Creeping Death: Your Agony, Corruption, and Unstable Affliction deal damage 15% faster.
- Malefic Grasp: While channeling Drain Soul, and for 3 sec after casting Shadow Bolt, your damage over time effects deal 15% increased damage to the target.
- Malevolent Visionary: Increases the damage of your Darkglare by 70%. When Darkglare extends damage over time effects it also sears affected targets for Shadow damage.
-Grand Warlock’s Design: Eye Beam deals an additional 10% damage for each damage over time effect present. If Darkglare is sacrificed, Grimoire of Sacrifice deals 5% increased damage for each damage over time effect present. - Soul Rot: Unchanged.
-Master Channeler: Your next Drain Life within 8 sec is free and also affects every enemy affected by your Soul Rot.
Row Ten (Affliction Tree)
- Haunted Soul: Your Haunt spell also increases the damage of your damage over time effects to all targets by 20% while active.
- Oblivion: Channeled (3 sec cast), 2 Soul Shards, 40 yd range, 45 sec CD. Unleash wicked magic upon your target’s soul, dealing Shadow damage over 3 sec. If fully channeled, the target is treated as if they just died.
Deals 10% increased damage, up to 30%, per damage over time effect you have active on the target.
Dark Messiah / Grim Reach
- Dark Messiah: Your Darkglare now freezes the duration of your damage over time effects while active (meaning more or less a 20 sec extension instead of an 8 sec extension).
-Grand Warlock’s Design: Eye Beam now extends the duration of your damage over time effects by 1 sec on the target. If Darkglare is sacrificed, Grimoire of Sacrifice damage extends the duration of your damage over time effects by 0.5 sec. - Grim Reach: When Darkglare deals damage, it deals 50% of that damage to all enemies affected by your damage over time effects.
-Grand Warlock’s Design: Eye Beam, or Grimoire of Sacrifice (if Darkglare is sacrificed), deals the increased damage from Malevolent Visionary to all enemies affected by your damage over time effects.
- Dark Harvest: Unchanged.
Demonology Warlock Wish List
First row is Call Dreadstalkers (unchanged), but Hand of Gul’dan is changed:
Channeled (1.5 sec cast), 1 Soul Shard cost to begin casting, 40 yd range, Empower. Calls down a demonic meteor, dealing Shadow damage on impact to all enemies within 8 yds of the target.
Tier I: Summons 1 Wild Imp.
Tier II: Costs 2 Soul Shards now, summons 2 Wild Imps.
Tier III: Costs 3 Soul Shards now, summons 3 Wild Imps.Hand of Gul’dan automatically casts if its cost would exceed the Soul Shards you currently have.
PvP Talents (Demonology)
- Demonic Houndmaster: While your Felhunter is active, reduce the cooldown of Call Dreadstalkers by 5 sec, and casting it cause your Felhunter to charge after your target as well, using its Shadow Bite.
- Pleasure through Pain: While your Succubus is active, your Shadow damage is increased by 15% and the cast time of your Demonbolt and Shadow Bolt is reduced by 0.5 sec.
- Curse of Gul’dan: Casting Hand of Gul’dan with 3 Soul Shards roots targets damaged by it for 1 sec, and stuns them for 3 seconds if they are still at the impact site 6 seconds afterward. Damage may break the root effect. For each Soul Shard above 3 that Hand of Gul’dan consumes, the root lasts 1 additional second.
- Imp Lord: While your Imp is active, summoning a Wild Imp has a 15% chance to summon an additional Wild Imp. Using Implosion causes your Imp to participate, sacrificing the demon to cause a much bigger implosion!
- Fel Obelisk: Unchanged.
- Call Fel Lord: Unchanged, but with a bonus effect!
-Gul’dan’s Ambition: Nether Portal now summons a Fel Lord for 10 sec instead of a Pit Lord. The Fel Lord will throw its axe at your target upon being summoned, dealing Chaos damage and knocking down targets near where it landed for 2 seconds, then will pursue its axe 1 second after throwing it, causing Physical damage to all enemies between it and its axe, as well as knocking them upward and slightly away.
After reclaiming its axe, the Fel Lord unleashes a Felstorm for 3 seconds, causing Chaos damage, after which it simply auto-attacks for Physical damage.
Row Two (Demonology Tree)
- Demoniac: Unchanged from LIVE, not Alpha, cause holy crap.
Dreadlash / Tiny Knights of Evil
- Dreadlash: Unchanged.
- Tiny Knights of Evil: Dreadstalker’s arrive with a Wild Imp on their backs who fire a Fel Firebolt at your target each before getting knocked off by your Dreadstalker’s charge!
- Demonic Rebirth: When your primary demon dies, you gain a stack of Demonic Core. Your Summon Demon spell now consumes up to 4 Demonic Cores to cast 15% faster for each one, up to 60% faster.
Row Three (Demonology Tree)
Summon Vilefiend / Soul Strike
- Summon Vilefiend: 1.5 sec cast, 1 Soul Shard, 40 yd range, 30 sec CD. Summon a Vilefiend to attack the target for 15 sec. Explodes when it fades or dies, dealing additional area of effect Chaos damage and generating a Demonic Core. If the Vilefiend cannot reach its target, it spits acidic bile from afar, dealing Nature damage.
Additionally deals Nature damage to nearby enemies every 1 sec while active. - Soul Strike: Teaches your primary Felguard the following ability: Soul Strike: Strike into the soul of the enemy, dealing Shadow damage. Generates 1 Soul Shard.
Bilescourge Bombers / Guillotine
- Bilescourge Bombers: Instant, 40 yd range, 30 sec CD. Tear open a portal to the nether above the target location, from which several Bilescourge will pour out of and crash into the ground for 6 sec, dealing Shadow damage to all enemies within 8 yards.
- Guillotine: Instant, 1 min CD. Your Felguard hurls his axe towards the target location, erupting when it lands and dealing Shadowflame damage every 1 sec for 6 sec to nearby enemies.
While unarmed, your Felguard’s basic attacks deal reduced damage, but damage all nearby enemies and attacks 50% faster.
Row Four (Demonology Tree)
Implosion / Demonwrath
- Implosion: Instant, 40 yd range. Demonic forces suck all of your Wild Imps toward the target, and then cause them to violently explode, dealing Shadowflame damage to all enemies within 8 yards.
- Demonwrath: Channeled (3 sec cast). Causes your demons to crackle with demonic energy, dealing Shadow damage to all enemies within 10 yds of any of your demons over 3 sec. Castable while moving.
- Shadow’s Bite: When your summoned Dreadstalkers fade away, they increase the damage of your Demonbolt by 10% for 8 sec. Shadow Bolt increases the duration of this by 1 sec, and adds a stack of Shadow’s Bite, up to 4 for a bonus of 40%. Subsequent fading Dreadstalkers reset Shadow’s Bite to 1 stack.
- Shadow Invocation: Increases all damage done by your pet and Vilefiend by 5%. Reduces the cast time of Shadow Bolt by 25% and increases its damage by 40%.
- Carnivorous Stalkers: Unchanged.
- Fel Invocation: Your spells now have a chance to summon a Bilescourge Bomber, and Hand of Gul’dan’s cast time is increased by 1 second, gains an extra 2 empowerment stages, summoning 4 Wild Imps for the cost of 4 Soul Shards at Tier IV, and 5 Wild Imps for 5 Shards at Tier V.
- Demonic Calling: Shadow Bolt and Demon Bolt have a 10% chance to make your next Call Dreadstalkers cost no Soul Shards and have no cast time.
Fiendish Prowess / Annihilan Training
- Fiendish Prowess: Increases the attack and casting speed of your primary demon by 25%.
- Annihilan Training: Your demon receives specialized training.
-Imp: When Singe Magic cleanses an effect, it also cauterizes the wound, healing the target for 5% of their maximum health over 10 sec. This is a Magic effect.
-Voidwalker: When Shadow Bulwark is used, all party and raid members within 40 yards gain 15% temporary and maximum health for 10 sec.
-Felhunter: Devour Magic has a 20% chance to remove a second magic effect, doubling the Felhunter’s benefits.
-Sayaad: Whiplash has a 20% chance to knock back its target and other enemies within 5 yards.
-Felguard: Reduces the cooldown of Felstorm by 10 sec.
-Doomguard: Destroy Magic has a 20% chance to remove a second magic effect from an enemy, filling the Doomguard’s Energy bar.
Row Five (Demonology Tree)
- Power Siphon: Unchanged.
- Inner Demons: Unchanged.
- Legion Elite: Your primary demon’s basic attack deals 30% additional damage, and takes 10% less damage. Additionally, your primary Felguard’s Felstorm deals 5% additional damage, and its Legion Strike damage is increased by 10%.
- Grimoire: Felguard: Unchanged, except stored within ‘Grimoire of Service’ and the damage is only boosted by 25%.
Row Six (Demonology Tree)
- Spiteful Reconstitution: Implosion and Demonwrath deal 10% increased damage, and consuming a Demonic Core has a chance to summon a Wild Imp.
Doom: Instant, 30 sec CD, 40 yd range. Inflicts impending doom upon the target, causing Shadow damage immediately, and Shadow damage to enemies within 10 yards after 20 sec. Damage reduced beyond 8 targets. - Fel Sunder: Each time your Primary Demon deals damage with a specific ability, it increases the damage the target takes from you and your pets by 1%, and your primary pet’s critical strike chance by 2% for 8 sec, up to 5% more damage, and 10% increased critical strike damage.
-Imp: Firebolt
-Voidwalker: Suffering
-Felhunter: Shadow Bite
-Sayaad: Lash of Pain
-Felguard: Felstorm
-Doomguard: Doom Bolt
Row Seven (Demonology Tree)
- Houndmaster’s Stratagem: Your Shadow Bolt and Demonbolt have a 5% chance to reset the cooldown of Call Dreadstalkers and for its next cast to summon a third Dreadstalker.
- Imp Gang Boss: Summoning a Wild Imp has a 30% chance to summon a Imp Gang Boss instead. An Imp Gang Boss deals 25% more damage, and increases the critical strike chance of your non-Gang Boss Wild Imps by 5% while active.
Implosions from Imp Gang Boss deal 25% more damage and summon a Wild Imp. Demonwrath generated from an Imp Gang Boss has a 25% increased radius. - Brand of Kazzak: Consuming a Demonic Core reduces the duration of Doom by 3 sec, and when Doom is removed you summon a Doomguard that casts 5 Doom Bolts before departing.
- Dread Calling: Each Soul Shard spent on Hand of Gul’dan increases the damage of your next Call Dreadstalkers by 5%.
- Umbral Blaze: Hand of Gul’dan has a 10% chance for each Soul Shard spent to inflict Corruption on targets damage, and Corruption now deals Shadowflame damage.
Row Eight (Demonology Tree)
- Maw of F’harg: Dreadbite causes the target to take 20% additional Shadowflame damage from your spell and abilities for the next 12 sec.
- Summon Tyrant: Unchanged, except it also generates 5 Soul Shards.
- Grimoire of Supremacy: Your summoning prowess increases, upgrading your normal demons and your Felguard!
-Imp: When your imp critically hits with a Firebolt, it summons a Wild Imp to assist you.
-Voidwalker: When you fall below 20% health, your Voidwalker casts its Shadow Bulwark on you, for half the usual cooldown and duration (if Demonic Might is talented, this counts and also grants you 15% bonus health).
-Felhunter: When your Felhunter critically hits with a Shadow Bite, it triggers a Dreadbite as if it was one of your Dreadstalker’s (regardless if Call Vilefiend is talented).
-Sayaad: While charming a target, the target now walks towards one of the warlock’s enemies to attack them. Players do not use abilities, only auto-attacks, NPCs will use abilities.
-Felguard: Deals 20% additional damage, and Soul Strike now deals 25% of its damage to nearby enemies. If Legion Strike or Soul Strike only damage one target, their damage is increased by an additional 30%.
-Doomguard: Each time Doom Bolt damages an enemy, 25% of its damage repeats on all targets affected by its Curse of Doom, or your Doom spells.
-Grimoire of Service: These summoned demons benefit from this talent as if they were your Primary demon (but only this talent).
Row Nine (Demonology Tree)
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Master Summoner (2): Call Dreadstalkers, Summon Vilefiend, Summon Tyrant, Summon [Demon], Ritual of Summoning, and Ritual of Doom spells cast 10/20% faster.
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Mark of Shatug: Maw of F’harg causes the target to take 20% additional magic damage from your demons. Shadow Bolt increases the duration of this by 1 sec, but subsequent Dreadbites reset Maw of F’harg to its 12 sec duration.
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Pact of the Ered’ruin (2): Increases your primary demon’s critical strike chance equal to 15/30% of your critical strike chance, and critical strikes from your spells and your demons deal 3/5% increased damage.
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Nether Portal / Dark Apotheosis (Separated into 2 dropdowns due to extensive notes!)
Nether Portal
- Nether Portal: Your Tyrant leaves the portal it emerged from open for 15 sec, allowing you to command demons from the Nether to come out and fight for you.
When you spend Soul Shards, you also command a demon from the Nether to come out and fight for you. These demons are unaffected by your Tyrant, but deal 5% increased damage for each Soul Shard spent that summoned them.
-Grand Warlock’s Design: Nether Portal is once more an ability with a 1.5 sec cast and a 1.5 min CD, that opens a portal for 15 sec. Casting Nether Portal also tethers your demons to your service, increasing the duration of your Dreadstalkers, Grimoire of Service summon, Vilefiend, and up to 10 of your Wild Imps by 15 sec.
Dark Apotheosis
- Dark Apotheosis: Instant, replaces Summon Tyrant, 1.5 min CD. Sprout shadowy wings, horns, and a swirling aura (glyphs for red/green). You, but not any of your demons, gain 30% Haste for 15 sec, and you also pause the duration of your Dreadstalkers, Vilefiend, Grimoire of Service summon, and up to 10 of your Wild Imps by 15 sec. Demonwrath pulses around yourself as well as your other demons.
Each Soul Shard you spend during Dark Apotheosis, increases the damage you deal by 5% until Dark Apotheosis ends.
Generates 5 Soul Shards, and during Dark Apotheosis, it is replaced by Demonic Leap. Instant, 10 sec CD. Leap into the air upon demonic wings, moving a short distance. Causes you to fall as a demonic meteorite, preventing falling damage until you land if you’d take falling damage (even if Dark Apotheosis ends before you land).
-Grand Warlock’s Design: Instead of gaining Summon Doomguard, Dark Apotheosis is permanent, though instead of its normal effects it instead causes you to pulse Demonwrath around yourself while channeled (if talented), AND your Mastery increases your own damage done too. Gain Demonic Leap as an extra ability, as Dark Apotheosis is now a ‘stance’.
Additionally, spending Demonic Cores extends the duration of your Dreadstalkers, Grimoire of Service summon, Vilefiend, and up to 10 of your Wild Imps by 1 sec.
- Pact of the Imp Mother (2): Unchanged, except it casts again at the Empower stage it was cast at.
- The Expendables: Unchanged.
- Infernal Command (2): While your primary demon is active, your Wild Imps and Dreadstalkers deal 5/10% additional damage.
Increases the attack speed of your Dreadstalkers by 8/15% as well.
Row Ten (Demonology Tree)
- Demonic Discord: Shadow Bolt has a chance to sometimes summon an Inquisitor for 6 sec at the enemy’s location that pulses for Chaos damage. Demonwrath and Implosion has a reduced chance, with each target damaged by Demonwrath having a chance to summon the Inquisitor, and each Wild Imp imploded increasing the chance for Implosion to summon an Inquisitor.
(This one is iffy, given Bilescourge Bombers can be a passive effect that procs from your spells, but the idea of summoning a powerful demon that does X was pretty cool! Vs bilescourges which divebomb the target!) - Ner’zhul’s Volition / Gul’dan’s Ambition (Separated into 2 dropdowns due to extensive notes!)
Ner'zhul's Volition
After your Tyrant expires, gain 1 stack of Demonic Core, and increases your Mastery by 1% for 10 sec, for each demon summoned by Nether Portal, up to 10%.
After Dark Apotheosis ends, gain 1 stack of Demonic Core, and the increased damage caused by spending Soul Shards persists for 10 sec, reduced by 5% every 1 sec.
-Grand Warlock’s Design: Your Doomguard’s Doom Bolt and Curse of Doom damage have a 5% chance to grant 1 stack of Demonic Core. While in Dark Apotheosis, Shadow Bolt and Demonbolt have a 5% chance to grant 1 stack of Demonic Core.
Spending Demonic Core’s increase your Mastery by 1% for 10 sec. Multiple stacks can overlap.
Gul'dan's Ambition
Active Wild Imps grant 1 stack of Demonic Servitude, and active greater demons grant 3 stacks, up to 15 stacks. Demonic Tyrant deals 10% additional damage for each stack of Demonic Servitude active at the time of his summon.
When Nether Portal ends, you summon a Pit Lord that serves you for 10 seconds. The Pit Lord charges your target, dealing Physical damage and unleashes a Horrifying Roar that debuffs all enemies within 12 yds of the demon for 8 sec. The Pit Lord then simply auto-attacks.
→ Horrifying Roar reduces the target’s movement speed by 40%, and both their attack and casting speed by 20%. The Pit Lord’s auto-attacks increase the duration of Horrifying Roar by 1 sec.
→ The Pit Lord’s auto-attacks hit all other targets near its target for 40% of its base damage, reduced beyond 5 targets.
Dark Apotheosis now transforms Hand of Gul’dan into Chaos Wave, and Demonic Breath into Carrion Swarm. These abilities inherit related talents, and empowers all non-instant Demonbolt’s, and your next 1 Shadow Bolt, to drain 8% of the life from all your demon servants to deal additional Shadow damage equal to the life you stole.
→ Chaos Wave: Chaos Wave: Instant, replaces Hand of Gul’dan during Dark Apotheosis, 1-3 Soul Shards. Its Empower Stage is equal to Soul Shards spent. Hurls a wave of chaos to strike the target and all enemies within 6 yards, dealing Chaos damage. Deals reduced Chaos damage to all enemies it passes through on its way to the target.
→ Carrion Swarm: Instant, replaces Demonic Breath, 15 sec CD. Flaps your wings, unleashing a wave of carrion which deals Shadow damage, and slows targets by 70% for 6 sec. Soulburn also causes Carrion Swarm to knock targets back as well, applying the slow after they land.
-Grand Warlock’s Design: Each active demon increases your Doomguard’s ‘Curse of Doom’ damage by 5%.
^- Nether Portal is affected normally in regards to Pit Lord summoning.
^- Dark Apotheosis still transforms Hand of Gul’dan and Demonic Breath respectfully, but no longer empowers your Demonbolt’s and Shadow Bolt by stealing the life of your demons, instead the damage of your single target spells are increased by 5% for each active demon.
- Demonic Empowerment: Instant, 45 sec CD. Empowers your current primary demon!
-Imp: Unstable Soul (The imp gains 20% increased critical strike chance for 8 sec).
-Voidwalker: Void Shell (All attacks made against the Voidwalker for 8 sec trigger a blast of Shadow damage against the attacker).
-Felhunter: Magic Immunity (The Felhunter becomes immune to magical effects, dispelling harmlessly any magic effects it currently suffers from).
-Sayaad: Master Charmer (Seduction loses its cooldown for 8 sec, and can charm any target, regardless of its type, and is harder to break from damage).
-Felguard: Demonic Strength (Infuse your Felguard with demonic strength, commanding it to unleash a Felstorm that lasts for 8 seconds and deals 200% increased damage. While Felstorming in this way, your Felguard can still use Pursuit and Axe Toss). If this Felstorm only damages 1 target, its damage is further increased by 100%).
-Doomguard: Bane of Doom (For 8 seconds, every Doom/Curse of Doom spell counts down 100% faster).
Destruction Warlock Wish List
Both Conflagrate and Rain of Fire are baseline, except Conflagrate only has 1 charge. Talent placement is mostly unchanged, except the top 4 rows, which for symmetry, would be laid out how Demo’s first 4 rows are laid out!
First row is Chaos Bolt (unchanged).
PvP Talents (Destruction)
- Bane of Havoc: Unchanged.
- Cremation: When Conflagrate triggers Internal Combustion, it deals an additional 0.5% of the target’s maximum health in Fire damage and roots them for 1 sec, per 1 second of Immolate’s duration consumed by Internal Combustion. Damage may break the root effect.
- Fel Fissure: Unchanged.
- Shadow and Flame: Cataclysm and Shadowfury can consume Backdraft to cast 30% faster now. Shadowfury now also removes a beneficial magic effect from enemies hit, and Demonic Breath no longer consumes Soulburn for its empowered benefit.
- Kil’jaedan’s Cunning: Burning Rush now allows you to cast Incinerate while moving. Soulburn: Burning Rush is not consumed by Incinerate.
- Unstoppable Chaos: 15% of Chaos Bolt, Decimating Bolt, and Soul Fire’s damage pierces through absorption effects and immunities to deal direct damage to players.
Row Two (Destruction Tree)
- Flames of Xoroth: You gain the following passive, and Conflagrate gains a second charge.
-Devastation: Increases the critical strike chance of your Destruction spells by 5%.
Reverse Entropy / Flashpoint
- Reverse Entropy: Your spells have a chance to grant you 15% Haste for 8 sec.
- Flashpoint: When your Immolate deals periodic damage to a target above 80% health, gain 5% Haste for 8 sec. Stacks up to 3 times for 15% Haste.
- Shadows of Nathreza: You gain the following passive, and Shadowburn.
-Hellfire: While Burning Rush is active, you radiate 2% of your maximum health in Shadowflame damage to enemies within 8 yds of you, every 1 second.
Additionally, when you take damage from Burning Rush, there is a 6% chance to gain 1 Soul Shard Fragment. For each enemy damaged by Hellfire, the chance improves by 6%, up to a maximum chance of 30%.
Row Three (Destruction Tree)
- Backdraft: Conflagrate has a 50% chance to guarantee your next cast of Conflagrate to critically strike, and increase its damage by your critical strike chance.
-Connects up to Flames of Xoroth. Connects down to Roaring Blaze/Improved Conflagrate, Conflagration of Flame, & Havoc/Mayhem. - Aftermath: Immolate lasts 2 additional sec. Each time you deal critical damage to a target affected by your Immolate, its duration increases by 1 sec, and Corruption increases by 0.5 sec if also present.
-Connects up to Shadows of Nathreza. Connects down to Havoc/Mayhem, Conflagration of Shadow, & Grimoire of Sacrifice/Summoner’s Embrace.
-Note: Internal Combustion subtracts duration from Immolate after applying additional duration from a crit, and Soul Fire applies its free Immolate before adding extra duration for a crit.
Row Four (Destruction Tree)
- Explosive Potential: Reduces the cooldown of Conflagrate by 2 sec, and gives it a 5% chance to generate double Soul Shard Fragments.
-Connects up to Flames of Xoroth. Connects down to Soul Fire/Decimating Bolt, & Internal Combustion. - Roaring Blaze / Improved Conflagrate Both unchanged.
-Connects up to Flames of Xoroth, & Backdraft. Connects down to Internal Combustion. - Conflagration of Blaze: Conflagrate has a 50% chance to guarantee your next cast of Conflagrate to critically strike, and increase its damage by your critical strike chance.
-Connects up to Backdraft. Connects down to Internal Combustion. - Havoc / Mayhem Both unchanged.
-Connects up to Reverse Entropy/Flashpoint. Connects down to Pandemonium, Fire and Brimstone, & Rolling Havoc. - Conflagration of Shadow: Shadowburn has a 50% chance to guarantee your next cast of Shadowburn to critically strike, and increase its damage by your critical strike chance.
-Connects up to Aftermath. Connects down to Backlash. - Grimoire of Sacrifice / Summoner’s Embrace Both unchanged from Alpha.
-Connects up to Aftermath, & Shadows of Nathreza. Connects down to Backlash. - Improved Shadowburn: The refund period of Shadowburn is increased by 2 sec, and the cooldown of Shadowburn is reduced by 2 sec.
-Connects up to Shadows of Nathreza. Connects down to Backlash, & Xavian Teachings/Emberstorm.
Row Five (Destruction Tree)
- Internal Combustion: Conflagrate combusts your Immolate on the target, consuming up to 5 sec of its damage over time effect on your target, instantly dealing that much Fire damage. Each 1 sec consumed also increases the chance for Explosive Potential to trigger by 1%.
- Pandemonium: Unchanged, but no longer a split talent.
- Fire and Brimstone: Instant, toggle.
Incinerate, Conflagrate, and Immolate deal 30% reduced damage and consume 1 Soul Shard while active, to deal that 30% reduced damage to all enemies near your target. Soul Shard Fragments are only generated for the primary target or Havoc targets damaged.
-Explosive Potential: The chance to generate double Soul Shard Fragments is increased by 1% for each additional target Conflagrate strikes.
-Diabolic Embers: Incinerate also generates 1 Soul Shard Fragment for each critical strike on additional enemies. - Rolling Havoc: Each time your spells duplicate from Havoc, gain 2% increased damage for 6 sec. Stacks up to 5 times.
- Backlash: Increases your critical strike chance by 3%. Casting Chaos Bolt or its replacements, and Physical attacks against you, have a 25% chance to make your next Incinerate instant cast. This effect can only occur once every 6 sec.
Row Six (Destruction Tree)
Soul Fire / Decimating Bolt
- Soul Fire: 4 sec cast, replaces Chaos Bolt, 1 Soul Shard, 40 yd range. Burns the enemy’s soul, dealing high Fire damage and applying Immolate.
- Decimating Bolt: Channeled (2.5 sec cast), replaces Chaos Bolt, 1 Soul Shard to begin casting, 40 yd range, Empower. Hurls a bolt of decimating magic at your target, dealing Shadow damage.
-Tier I: Decimating Bolt’s damage now increases as your target’s health decreases, up to 50% additional damage.
-Tier II: Costs 2 Soul Shards now, hurling an extra decimating bolt.
-Tier III: Costs 3 Soul Shards now, hurling a third decimating bolt.
Decimating Bolt automatically casts if its cost would exceed the Soul Shards you currently have.
- Inferno: Unchanged from Alpha.
Charred Remains / Cry Havoc
Connects up to Fire and Brimstone. Connects down to Ashen Remains, & Eradication.
- Charred Remains: Chaos Bolt, Decimating Bolt, and Soul Fire are affected by Fire and Brimstone, reducing their damage by 10%, costing an additional Soul Shard, and dealing that 10% reduced damage to secondary targets.
-Decimating Bolt requires 2 Shards to fire 1 bolt, 3 Shards to fire 2, and 4 Shards to fire all 3 bolts! - Cry Havoc: Unchanged, but includes Soul Fire/Decimating Bolt as also causing the explosion!
- Cataclysm: Unchanged.
Xavian Teachings / Emberstorm
- Xavian Teachings: Immolate always applies Corruption for half of its applied duration, even when applied by other spells like Cataclysm.
- Emberstorm: Increases the damage done by your Fire spells by 3% and reduces the cast time of your Incinerate spell by 10%.
Row Seven (Destruction Tree)
- Ruin: Increases the critical strike damage of your Destruction spells by 10%.
- Ashen Remains: Chaos Bolt, Soul Fire, Shadowburn, and Incinerate deal 10% increased damage to targets afflicted by Immolate.
-Connects up to Inferno, Pandemonium, & Charred Remains/Cry Havoc. Connects down to Summon Infernal, & Diabolic Embers/Soulsnatcher. - Eradication: Chaos Bolt, Decimating Bolt, Soul Fire, and Shadowburn increases the damage you deal to the target by 10% for 7 sec.
-Connects up to Charred Remains/Cry Havoc, Rolling Havoc, & Cataclysm. Connects down to Diabolic Embers/Soulsnatcher, & Ritual of Ruin. - Alythess’s Dark Flame: Immolate’s peridoic damage over time is increased by 15%, and when made instant cast by Backlash, or applied by Cataclysm, Immolate deals Shadowflame damage, and its initial damage is increased by 15% as well.
-Xavian Teachings: Corruption damage is also increased by 15%, and becomes Shadowflame damage.
-Emberstorm: Incinerate now deals Shadowflame damage, and it increases the duration of Immolate by 1 sec, and Corruption by 0.5 sec (stacking with Aftermath).
Row Eight (Destruction Tree)
The bottom 3 rows are unchanged in terms of talent placement!
- Summon Infernal: Unchanged.
Diabolic Embers / Soulsnatcher
- Diabolic Embers: Incinerate now generates 100% additional Soul Shard Fragments, and Shadowburn now generates an additional Soul Shard when the target dies within its refund period.
- Soulsnatcher: Chaos Bolt, Decimating Bolt, and Soul Fire damage to their primary target or to Havoc targets have a 6.66% chance to grant 1 Soul Shard, while Shadowburn damage has a 6.66% chance to reap the benefits as if the target just died.
- Ritual of Ruin: Every 15 Soul Shards spent grants Ritual of Ruin, making your next Chaos Bolt, Soul Fire, Decimating Bolt, or Rain of Fire consume no Soul Shards and have its cast time reduced by 50%. Rain of Fire’s duration is increased by 30% as well.
-This casting time reduction stacks with Backdraft, for up to 80% casting time reduction!
Row Nine (Destruction Tree)
- Crashing Chaos (2): Summon Infernal increases the damage of your next 8 damaging Chaos Bolt, Soul Fire, or Decimating Bolt by 25/50%, or your next 8 casts of Rain of Fire by 35/75%.
-Grand Warlock’s Design: Using Meteor Strike or Meteoric Burst empowers your next 2 spells. - Infernal Brand (2): Your Infernal’s melee attacks cause its target to take 3/5% increased damage from its Immolation, stacking up to 15 times, and each stack increases the damage the target takes from your spells by 0.16/0.33% (up to 2.5/5% at 15 stacks).
-Grand Warlock’s Design: Affects Burning Presence in addition to Immolation. If your Infernal is sacrificed, then Grimoire of Sacrifice damage also stacks Infernal Brand. - Power Overwhelming (2): Unchanged.
- Firestone (2): Replacing Ruin on the Alpha calculator, this is a renamed ‘Burn to Ashes’. In addition, Soul Fire generates 2 stacks of Firestone, or 3 if it critically hits. Decimating Bolt generates 1 stack of Firestone per bolt fired.
- Master Ritualist (2): Unchanged.
- Azj’Aqir Chants (2): Chaos Bolt, Soul Fire, and Decimating Bolt damage is increased by 15/30% while Ritual of Ruin is active. Rain of Fire’s radius is also increased by 15/30% when consuming Ritual of Ruin.
Row Ten (Destruction Tree)
Lord of Flames / Rain of Chaos
- Lord of Flames: Every 15 seconds Summon Infernal is off cooldown, gain a stack of Fiery Command, up to 4. Casting Summon Infernal consumes Fiery Command to summon an additional Infernal for each one, each lasting 8 seconds.
-Grand Warlock’s Design: Every 15 sec Meteor Strike/Meteoric Burst is off cooldown, gain a stack of Fiery Command, up to 4, consuming all stacks to summon that many Infernals for 8 sec each. - Rain of Chaos: While your initial Infernal is active, every Soul Shard you spend has a 15% chance to summon an additional Infernal that lasts 8 sec.
-Grand Warlock’s Design: While your Infernal is your active pet or sacrificed, each Soul Shard you spend has a 3% chance to summon an Infernal that lasts 8 sec.
- Chaos Incarnate: Chaos Bolt, Rain of Fire, Decimating Bolt, Soul Fire, and Shadowburn always gain the maximum damage benefit from your Mastery: Chaotic Energies.
Your Mastery: Chaotic Energies now also causes your spells to cast 0% to 1.3% faster (randomly). Improved by Mastery.
Dimensional Rift / Potent Ritual
- Dimensional Rift: When Chaos Bolt, Decimating Bolt, or Soul Fire consumes Ritual of Ruin, they open either a Shadowy Tear, an Unstable Tear, or a Chaos Tear to damage that target, while Rain of Fire opens a Flame Rift which launches 20 bolts at targets within that Rain of Fire. Dimensional Rifts deal 25% of its damage done to nearby targets, and continue to strike a target even if it is dead. Flame Rift bolts deal additional Fire damage over 10 sec, stacking.
- Potent Ritual: Each stack of Impending Ruin increases the critical strike chance of Chaos Bolt, Soul Fire, Decimating Bolt, and Rain of Fire by 1%, up to 10%, and Ritual of Ruin additionally increases the next Chaos Bolt, Soul Fire, Decimating Bolt, and Rain of Fire’s chance to critically strike by 10%.
With all this extra lovely space, I’m gonna add my Hero Talent takes too, starting of course with Soul Harvester!
Soul Harvester (Keystone)
Demonic Soul: A demonic entity now inhabits your soul, allowing you to detect if a Soul Shard has a Succulent Soul when it’s generated.
Affliction: A Succulent Soul empowers your next Seed of Corruption, removing the Soul Shard cost for Tier III, causing it to explode immediately, increasing its damage by 20%, and unleashing your demonic soul to deal an additional amount of Shadow damage.
Demonology: A Succulent Soul empowers your next Hand of Gul’dan, removing the Soul Shard cost for Tier III, and unleashing your demonic soul to deal an additional amount of Shadow damage.
Soul Harvester (Row 1)
- Necrolye Teachings: Unchanged.
- Soul Anathema: Unchanged.
- Demoniac’s Fervor: Unchanted.
Soul Harvester (Row 2)
- Gorebound Fortitude / Friends in Dark Places Both Unchanged.
Shared Fate / Feast of Souls
- Shared Fate: When you kill a target, its tortured soul is flung into a nearby enemy for 3 sec. This effect inflicts Shadow damage to enemies within 10 yds every 0.8 sec, reduced beyond 8 targets.
- Feast of Souls: When you kill a target, you have a chance to generate a Soul Shard that is guaranteed to be a Succulent Soul. If they were affected by Soul Anathema, the fiendish entity releases a burst of shadow, dealing Shadow damage to nearby enemies before fleeing. Deals reduced beyond 8 targets.
-Affliction: When Feast of Souls generates a Succulent Soul, the fiendish entity instead triggers a Tier I Seed of Corruption explosion instead of the normal burst.
-Demonology: When Feast of Souls generates a Succulent Soul, the fiendish entity lingers as a Doomguard, casting 5 Doom Bolt Volleys before departing. Each Volley deals Shadow damage to up to 4 enemies, increased for each missing target.
- Eternal Servitude / Spirited Away Both Unchanged, except if Path of Destruction is talented, Spirited Away simply grants the Water Walking of Burning Rush while mounted passively at all times.
-Soulburn: Burning Rush still only makes the next 1 spell castable while moving, but only within the next 6 sec, not 10.
Soul Harvester (Row 3)
- Satiael’s Ambition: Unchanged.
- Quietus: Soul Anathema damage increased by 25% and is dealt 20% faster.
Consuming Nightfall / Demonic Core activates Shared Fate or Feast of Souls. Feast of Souls cannot trigger a demon seed explosion or Doomguard when activated by Nightfall / Demonic Core.
- Mantle of the Harvester:
-Affliction: Corruption deals damage 25% faster, Haunt grants Nightfall, and Phantom Singularity damage has a chance to trigger Nightfall.
-Demonology: Wild Imp damage increased by 5%, and they always implode when they expire (or are killed), damaging enemies around them. The increased chance to generate a Demonic Core from implosion only occurs if they damage an enemy (be it their self-implosion, or from Implosion).
Wild Imps affected by Demonwrath cast 10% faster while affected.
Soul Harvester (Capstone)
Utter Consumption: You collect Tormented Souls from each target you kill, whenever your primary demon dies or you gain a Succulent Soul Shard, and occasionally escaped souls you previously collected.
Casting Soul Rot, Summon Tyrant, or Dark Apotheosis consumes all Tormented Souls to empower yourself for 15 sec, causing your Seed of Corruption and Hand of Gul’dan to always invoke your demonic soul, and causing your demonic soul to deal 1% increased damage per Tormented Soul consumed.
-Grand Warlock’s Design: Casting Soul Rot or Nether Portal triggers Utter Consumption. If Dark Apotheosis is talented, you instead gain the ability ‘Utter Consumption’ with a 1.5 sec cast time, 1 min cooldown, that empowers you for 15 sec as noted above.
Diabolist is next!
Diabolist (Keystone)
Diabolic Ritual: Unchanged, except it cycles: Overlord → Mother of Chaos → Pit Lord, repeating.
Diabolist (Row 1)
- Cloven Souls: Unchanged.
- Touch of Rancora: Demonic Art also grants Ritual of Ruin. Hand of Gul’dan/Ruination can consume Ritual of Ruin to channel 50% faster, and increase their radius of effect by 10% (otherwise Ritual of Ruin works as it does normally for Destruction). If Ritual of Ruin is already active, it gains an additional charge.
- Secrets of the Coven: Mother of Chaos empowers your next Shadow Bolt or Incinerate to channel raw demonfire (animation like the old Channel Demonfire, but the flames are more akin to Demonbolt).
Channel Demonfire: Channeled (3 sec cast), 40 yd range. Launches 15 bolts of demonfire over 3 sec at your target. Each bolt deals Shadowflame damage to the target. The 5th, 10th, and 15th bolt is empowered, as noted below:
-Demonology: The empowered bolt is functionally the exact same as Shadow Bolt, except animation, and are treated as individual casts of Shadow Bolt except as noted below:
^- Shadow Invocation (Demonology): Channel Demonfire channels 25% faster.
^- Gul’dan’s Ambition: The empowered Shadow Bolt from Dark Apotheosis applies to all 3 Shadow Bolts, each consuming 8% of your demon’s health!
-Destruction: The empowered bolt is functionally the exact same as Incinerate, except animation. Generally, your talents treat each empowered bolt as individual casts of Incinerate, except Fire and Brimstone, which only requires 1 extra Soul Shard for all 3 empowered bolts to strike additional targets nearby!
Diabolist (Row 2)
Soul-Etched Circles / Annihilan's Bellow
- Soul-Etched Circles: Soul-Etched Circles: You always gain the benefits of Soulburn when casting Demonic Gateway or Demonic Circle: Teleport. Will not consume Soulburn if already active.
- Annihilan’s Bellow: Unchanged.
Cruelty of Kerxan / Infernal Machine
- Cruelty of Kerxan: Dark Apotheosis, Summon Infernal, and Summon Tyrant, grant a second Diabolic Ritual. If no Ritual was active, they grant 1 Diabolic Ritual with a 15 sec reduced duration.
-Grand Warlock’s Design: Diabolic Ritual now only lasts for 50 sec, not 60 sec while an Infernal is active or sacrificed, Dark Apotheosis is active, or Doomguard is active. - Infernal Machine: Abilities that cost Soul Shards decrease the duration of Diabolic Ritual by 0.5 additional seconds while an Infernal, Dark Apotheosis, or Demonic Tyrant is active.
-Grand Warlock’s Design: Abilities that cost Soul Shards decrease the duration of Diabolic Ritual by 0.2 additional seconds while an Infernal is active or sacrificed, Dark Apotheosis is active, or Doomguard is active.
Infernal Vitality / Unending Bulwark
- Infernal Vitality: Unending Resolve heals you for 20% of the damage taken during Unending Resolve when Unending Resolve ends, up to 20% of your maximum health.
- Unending Bulwark: Unchanged.
Diabolist (Row 3)
- Nether Refinement: Unchanged, beyond renaming Flames of Xoroth to Nether Refinement.
- Abyssal Dominion:
-Demonology: Grimoire of Service’s cooldown is reduced by 30 seconds, and summons last 3 seconds longer.
-Destruction: Casting Cataclysm summons an Overfiend that casts a Chaos Bolt Volley, sending a Chaos Bolt at 25% effectiveness at every target affected by your Immolate, up to 8 targets, before departing. - Sinister Gloom:
-Demonology: Hand of Gul’dan deals 15% increased damage for each Soul Shard spent.
-Destruction: Enemies marked by your Havoc take 5, 10, or 15% increased damage from your single target spells, randomly.
Diabolist (Capstone)
Ruination: Summoning a Pit Lord causes your next Hand of Gul’dan/Chaos Wave or Chaos Bolt/Soul Fire/Decimating Bolt to become Ruination.
Ruination: Channeled (1.5 sec cast), 1 Soul Shard to begin casting, 40 yd range, Empower. Call down a demonic meteor from the depths of the Twisting Nether, dealing Chaos damage on impacting to all enemies within 8 yards of the target.
→ Tier I: Deals Chaos damage, damage to the primary target is further increased by your critical strike chance.
-Demonology: Summons 1 Wild Imp.
-Chaos Wave: Ruination travels along the ground as a wave, dealing reduced Chaos damage to targets in its path to the primary one.
→ Tier II: Deals more Chaos damage, but costs 2 Soul Shards.
-Soul Fire: And applies Immolate to the primary target.
-Decimating Bolt: Ruination damage now increases as your target’s health decreases, up to 50% additional damage.
-Chaos Bolt: Ruination deals an automatic critical hit against the primary target.
-Demonology: Summons 2 Wild Imps.
→ Tier III: Deals the most Chaos damage, but costs 3 Soul Shards.
-Demonology: Summons 3 Wild Imps.
Demonology Talent Interactions
- Fel Invocation (Demonology): Ruination’s cast time is increased by 1 sec, gains 2 empowerment stages, summons an Wild Imp per extra stage/costs 1 Soul Shard per extra stage.
- Call Fel Lord (Demonology, PvP): Also triggers if the Fel Lord is summoned. (Assuming the Pit Lord via Gul’dan’s Ambition and Nether Portal trigger Ruination!)
- Gul’dan’s Ambition (Demonology): Ruination channels 30% faster instead of being made instant cast like Chaos Wave which it replaced. This does stack with Ritual of Ruin via Touch of Rancora, making it channel 80% faster!
- Pact of the Imp Mother (Demonology): Ruination has a 8/15% chance to cast Hand of Gul’dan against its primary target at the same empowerment stage it was cast at.
Destruction Talent Interactions
- Backdraft (Destruction): Backdraft also causes Ruination to channel 30% faster.
- Firestone (Destruction): Ruination grants 1 stack of Firestone per empowerment stage reached.
- Charred Remains (Destruction): Ruination deals 10% reduced damage to the primary target and costs 1 extra Soul Shard to begin casting, but travels as a wave to the target, dealing that 10% reduced damage to secondary targets in its path.
Hellcaller to wrap things up!
Hellcaller (Keystone)
Impending Catastrophe: 2 sec cast, 40 yd range, 30 sec CD. Call forth a mass of shadowy flame that travels to the target enemy, dealing Shadowflame damage to enemies in its path.
When the mass reaches the target it explodes, dealing Shadowflame damage, applying Corruption, and inflicting either Curse of Weakness or Curse of Tongues to all targets damaged by the explosion.
-Affliction: Replaces Vile Taint if known, applying Agony to targets damaged by the explosion.
-Destruction: Replaces Cataclysm if known, applying Immolate to targets damaged by the explosion.
Talents which affect Vile Taint or Cataclysm also affect Impending Catastrophe.
-Xavian Teachings (Destro): Impending Catastrophe applies Corruption equal to the full duration of Immolate, instead of its normal duration or half Immolate’s duration!
-Animation is a Kil’jaeden’s Burning Will-type shadowfire ball that follows the target and explodes on arrival.
-Against Players, Impending Catastrophe applies Curse of Tongues to all Healers, Elemental Shamans, Mages, Warlocks, Balance Druids, and Evokers. Anything not listed gets Curse of Weakness.
Hellcaller (Row 1)
Bleakheart Tactics / Legashi Teachings
- Bleakheart Tactics: Damage over time effects applied by Impending Catastrophe last 50% longer, and Impending Catastrophe applies all three curses to targets damaged by its explosion, and either Curse of Weakness or Curse of Tongues to targets damaged while it travels.
-Absolute Corruption (Affliction): Corruption applied by Impending Catastrophe last 30 sec on players. - Legashi Teachings: You always gain the benefits of Soulburn when casting Amplify Curse. Will not consume Soulburn if already active. Soulburn: Amplify Curse also transforms both Curse of Weakness and Curse of Tongues into Curse of the Satyr.
Curse of the Satyr functions as both Weakness and Tongues on all targets its applied to through Soulburn: Amplify Curse, but the primary target also suffers the amplified effect of Curse of Weakness, being unable to critically strike.
Catastrophic Arrival / Immediate Catastrophe
- Catastrophic Arrival: Impending Catastrophe travels faster to its target, and deals 25% increased damage per enemy target hit on the way to its final target, up to 200% increased damage (8 targets).
- Immediate Catastrophe: Impending Catastrophe deals 15% increased damage for each enemy damaged by its explosion (up to 120%, 8 targets), but no longer requires a target, appearing above the chosen location and falling down 1 sec later to explode.
- Zevrim’s Resilience / Illhoof’s Design Both Unchanged.
Hellcaller (Row 2)
- Hatefury Rituals:
-Affliction: Impending Catastrophe generates 1 Soul Shard per target damaged by the explosion.
-Destruction: Impending Catastrophe generates 3 Soul Shard Fragments per target damaged by the explosion.
Mark of Xavius / Mark of Peroth'arn
- Mark of Xavius: Agony and Immolate deal damage 30% faster, and deal 15% more damage.
- Mark of Peroth’arn: When you kill an enemy affected by Agony or Immolate, its soul bursts into flames, dealing Shadowflame damage to nearby enemies. Deals reduced damage beyond 8 targets, and affects up to 8 enemies with the remaining duration of Agony/Immolate, or adding to an Immolate or Agony already present on a target, up to their maximum duration.
- Jadefire Blaze: Impending Catastrophe leaves a trail of burning hellfire as it travels, and burns the ground within 10 yds of its explosion, dealing Shadowflame damage to enemies in the flames for 8 sec.
-Affliction: Seed of Corruption causes the ground within 8 yards of where a demon seed explodes to burn with hellish flames, dealing Shadowflame damage to targets in the area for 8 sec.
-Destruction: Rain of Fire burns the ground with hellish flames, dealing additional Shadowflame damage to targets in its radius for Rain of Fire’s duration.
Hellcaller (Row 3)
- Xalan’s Cruelty: Fire and Shadow critical strike chance increased by 10% while you don’t have an active demon.
- Cull the Weak:
-Affliction: Agony and Shadow Bolt/Drain Soul damage has a chance to fire a bolt of entropic flame, dealing Chaos damage to their main target, sharing Agony’s chance to generate a Soul Shard. Chance increased when Shadow Bolt/Drain Soul is affected by Nightfall.
-Destruction: Immolate and Incinerate damage has a chance to fire a bolt of entropic flame, dealing Chaos damage to their main target. Bolts of entropic flame generate 1 Soul Shard Fragment. Chance increased when Incinerate/Immolate is affected by Backlash. Immolate’s only applies on its initial application affected by Backlash. - Xalan’s Ferocity: Shadow and Fire damage increased by 5% while you don’t have an active demon.
Hellcaller (Capstone)
Hell Breaks Loose: Impending Catastrophe now also summons a powerful demon for 8 sec at the explosion location.
Affliction: Darkglare, extending the duration of your dots by 8 sec.
Destruction: Infernal, treated as if from Rain of Chaos (no stun).
