Warlock • Destruction • PVE
Destruction Warlock (PVE)
A burst-oriented caster spec that focuses on simple, high-damage shadow or fire spells.
Gear & Stats
Your most important gearing goal as Destruction is reaching spell hit cap for bosses, then stacking haste and spell power to scale aggressively. Expect many early best-in-slot pieces to come from Tailoring, which can be expensive but extremely strong.
Destruction Pre-Raid BiS
Destruction Phase 1 BiS
Stat Priority
Primary Priority
Spell Hit (until capped) > Spell Haste > Spell Power > Spell Crit > Intellect > Stamina
Hit Cap Targets (Bosses)
Against level 73 bosses you need 16% spell hit (202 hit rating). With Totem of Wrath: 164 hit rating. With Totem of Wrath + Draenei (Inspiring Presence): 152 hit rating. Spells also have an innate 1% resist chance that cannot be removed.
Why Hit Comes First
Hit is your biggest DPS gain per point until you cap—after that, additional hit has no value. It’s common to keep a couple of swap pieces (often rings/trinkets) to adjust hit between bosses and trash.
Secondary Stats Explained
Spell Haste
Haste speeds up casts and reduces your global cooldown. For level 70 Warlocks, 15.77 haste rating equals 1% haste and generally outperforms crit on a 1-to-1 rating basis.
Spell Power
Spell Power increases the damage of your offensive spells and becomes your main stacking stat once hit capped. Spell scaling depends on spell coefficients, so it benefits your core fillers heavily.
Spell Crit
Crit increases the chance for spells to critically strike (150% baseline). Destruction benefits strongly due to Ruin increasing crit damage to 200%, but crit typically trails haste and spell power once hit needs are satisfied.
Intellect / Stamina / Spirit
Intellect increases mana pool and slightly increases spell crit, while Stamina helps survivability. Spirit is largely low value because Warlocks spend most of combat casting and rely on Life Tap rather than regen.
Gearing Notes
Tailoring is a Major Power Spike
A large portion of strong pre-raid and early raid gear comes from Tailoring (including highly contested crafted caster sets). These items are powerful but can be expensive due to high demand and limited materials.
Plan for Hit Flexibility
Because hit caps change based on party buffs and target level, it’s smart to maintain a small hit ‘toolkit’ so you can stay capped without wasting item budget.