05-10-2005, 10:56 PM
Since this hasn't gotten a sticky over there, and since it's a very good read, I am reproducing the post here. I take no credit for this work. :P
Warlock Talent Guide
Warlock Talent Guide
Quote: Jouda's Guide to Warlock Talents
If anyone would like to add something, feel free. I in no way suggest that I'm all-knowing in this department, this is purely my opinion in many areas, though I'll try to be as objective as possible.
The point of this is, of couse, to help out people who're either new to the class, or are looking for some basic thoughts on the talents before investing their points. I don't expect someone who's got a good grasp of the class's talent selection to benefit from this. Take it with a grain of salt if you want, but here it is:
All talent descriptions are listed at their highest rank. Talent based spells are listed at their highest rank as well.
AFFLICTION TALENTS:
Affliction talents involve dots and debuffs, as well as shadow damage in general. These are more subtle talents, and are perfect for a more subtle warlock.
TIER 1:
Suppression: Reduces the chance for enemies to resist your Affliction spells by 10%. (5 ranks)
With arguable effectiveness, the biggest downfall of this talent is that the other tier 1 talent, Improved Corruption, is far better and there's absolutely no reason you'd want this over it. Another concern is that, unlike mage spells, once a dot lands, it does full damage. There's not a resist chance on each tick, and the spell doesn't have a chance of ending early based on a resist check (with the exception of Fear). So if you have to cast corruption 3 times to get it to land, that's fine, because once it does, you're getting full duration out of it. There're people who swear by Suppression... but I'm certainly not one of them, and they're definately a minority.
Improved Corruption: Reduces the casting time of your Corruption spell by 2 seconds. (5 ranks)
As you may note, the base cast time of Corruption is... 2 seconds. So, with 5 ranks in this talent, it becomes instant cast. This is invaluable, in many situations. I'd go as far as to call this a must-have talent, regardless of your build. It's tier 1, it's awesome... it doesn't get much better then that. I don't think this needs much explaination. Instant cast spells are good. It should be noted that effects that increase casting time (such as Curse of Tongues) will cause Corruption to stop being instant, even with 5 ranks in this talent. This is due to the increase being added before the decrease (so a 2 second spell with +50% time becomes a 3 second spell, then 2 seconds are removed, leaving 1 second).
TIER 2: (require 5 points in Affliction talents)
Improved Curse of Weakness: Increases the effect of your Curse of Weakness by 20%. (3 ranks)
Curse of Weakness is a fairly weak (no pun intended) spell without the talent, and... well, a 20% increase isn't too helpful for it. At it's highest rank (6), Curse of Weakness reduces melee damage done by the target by 31. With this talent, this becomes 37.2... this is a 6.2 point increase. Note that this is pre-armor reduction... so a warrior with near 50% damage reduction will only gain 50% of this belefit... or 3.1 damage per hit. This one's a waste of points. It's worth note that Amplify Curse will, for 1 point, allow you to cast this spell at +50% effectiveness. If you must use Weakness, that's the better option. Worth noting is that Amplify Curse, for 1 point, allows you to cast this spell with +50% effectiveness, and has other useful utility as well. A much better buy, if you must use Weakness.
Improved Drain Soul: Gives you a 100% chance to get a 100% increase to your Mana regeneration for 10 seconds if the target dies while while you drain its soul. In addition, your Mana may continue to regenerate while casting at 50% of normal. (2 ranks)
This talent might be useful if it worked as the description implies. The bonus is based on your spirit, really, but with a decent amount of spirit (I'm not going to get into a discussion about the usefulness of spirit. Suffice to say, it's probably not a warlock's primary concern when choosing gear), this 10 seconds could produce a fair amount of mana. However, in it's current implementation, the spell only produces the effect when the damage from the Drain Soul itself or one of your dots kills the enemy. So if another player, your pet, anything else does the final damage.. you get nothing. This actually works, I would say (as a rough estimate) 2-4% of my kills in which I use Drain Soul. Probably best left out of your build, at least until it's fixed.
Improved Lifetap: Increases the amount of Mana awarded by your Life Tap spell by 20%. (2 ranks)
This is a great talent, included in most builds (even if only for lack of a better talent in some cases). Lifetap is a staple spell for a warlock, and this improves the hp -> mana ratio significantly. It increases the mana gained, but not the hp lost, so at the highest rank of Lifetap, with this talent, it gives 504 mana for 420 health - that's 84 extra mana per cast. Fairly significant, I'd say. Definately a solid choice, especially for only 2 points.
Improved Drain Life: Increases the Health drained by your Drain Life spell by 10%. (5 ranks)
This talent is arguably a staple in any good affliction build. With this talent and Shadow Mastery, Drain Life at it's highest rank has a higher mana efficiency then Shadowbolt does, and it heals you whereas shadowbolt does not. While the actual increase may seem slight (71 damage per tick turns into 78 damage per tick, for a 7 point net gain, or 35 points over the full duration of the spell), when combined with Shadow Mastery, Drain Life deals 85 per tick (or 70 total gained over 5 seconds), which is essentially another whole rank of the spell. As I mentioned, this is arguable, and some warlocks opt to forego this talent... but with the rather poor selection at this tier, I'd say at least a few ranks of this talent are your best choice, hands down.
TIER 3: (Require 10 points in Affliction talents)
Improved Curse of Agony: Increases the damage done by your Curse of Agony by 6%. (3 ranks)
At it's highest rank, Curse of Agony does 1035 damage over 30 seconds. This talent adds 62.1 damage to this total. Now, this is spread over 30 seconds, with the bulk of it being in the last 10 seconds. This gain is almost unnoticable, and it's unlikely you'll gain even this much damage from it in a single fight, whether pve or pvp. This talent is fairly useless.
Fel Concentration: Gives you a 70% chance to avoid interruption caused by damage while channelling the Drain Life, Drain Mana, or Drain Soul spell. (5 ranks)
This talent is a staple for an affliction based warlock, especially if you invested in Improved Drain Life. The ability to drain while being melee'd (or attacked from a range, for that matter) is invaluable, and is in fact the way warlocks tank. At higher levels, affliction based warlocks will find themselves drawing aggro more and more frequently, and this spell will severely reduce the amount of damage you take, while allowing you do deal significantly more damage to the target. A must-have for heavilly affliction based 'locks.
Amplify Curse: Increases the effect of your next Curse of Weakness or Curse of Agony by 50%, or your next Curse of Exhaustion by 20%. (1 rank)
This talent is a must-have, if you've reached tier 3. Adding just over 500 damage to a top-rank Curse of Agony, 16 points to a Curse of Weakness, or improving Curse of Exhaustion to a 50% snare (from a 30% snare), and usable on a very speedy timer (3 minutes), you really can't go wrong here. For the single point it costs, why would you not take this talent?
TIER 4: (require 15 points in Affliction talents)
Grim Reach: Increases the range of your Affliction spells by 20%. (2 ranks)
This talent has mixed reviews. Turning a 30-yard spell into a 36-yard spell, and a 20-yard spell into a 24-yard spell, this is a fairly small boost in range... but it often makes a very large difference. This is particularly useful in PvP, allowing that precious extra time to land spells on a fleeing opponent, or allowing you to begin unleashing you arsenal from that little extra distance. It's worth noting that if you begin from max range, other classes will need to move closer before they can cast on you, giving you an additional advantage. (The exception is of course other classes with talents to extend their attacks' ranges.)
Nightfall: Gives your Corruption and Drain Life spells a 3% chance to cause you to enter a Shadow Trance state after damaging the opponent. The Shadow Trance state reduces the casting time of your next Shadow Bolt spell by 100%. (2 ranks)
This talent is a must-have. While 3% seems insignificant, you must consider that that is 3% per tick, per target. Consider that in a typical fight in an instance or group pvp situation, you can realistically expect to have Corruption on 3+ mobs/players, and be Draining another. With this very achievable 4 targets, you have, within the 5 second duration of the Drain Life, a 26% chance to proc nightfall. In some situations, you can achieve 5 or 6 targets or more, and this turns you into a veritable Shadowbolt machinegun. If the English had Nightfall during the American Revolution, we'd all be watching the BBC and singing God Save the Queen today. [No offense meant to non-Americans, it's merely a joke, don't hit me!]
Improved Drain Mana: Causes 30% of the Mana drained by your Drain Mana spell to damage the opponent. (2 ranks)
This talent, with the highest rank Drain Mana, will cause it to drain 136 mana per tick (the same as normal) while dealing 40.8 damage per tick to the target. Note that this spell still has no effect on targets without mana, and that only mana drained is returned to the caster. (The caster gains no mana or hit points for the damage done.) Drain Mana is generally considered to be too slow to be of much practical application anyway, and this talent doesn't improve this aspect of it at all, it merely adds a damage aspect which other spells can do better and for less mana. If you find yourself using drain mana a lot, and feel that an extra 204 damage tacked onto it would make or break enough fights to warrent spending 2 talent points on it, then by all means, take this talent. But don't say I didn't warn you when the rest of us giggle and point. It should be noted that during beta, Drain Mana did not break seduce (or other forms of CC), and thus a target could be seduced and then drained of all mana with no risk to the caster. This made Drain Mana significantly more powerful then it is currently. This talent, at that time, actually made the spell worse, since the damage would break the CC and render this tactic unusable. This is no longer the case, and Drain Mana will break CC on it's own, even without the talent. I mention this only because it comes up in discussion often on these forums, and it's always nice to know what people are talking bout.)
TIER 5: (Requires 20 points in Affliction talents)
Siphon Life: Transfers 35 health from the target to the caster every 3 seconds. Lasts 30 seconds. (1 rank)
At first glance, this appears to be a non-channel version of Drain Life. It does aproximately half the damage, but lasts twice as many ticks, so it must be good, right? Well, half right. If you're in a fight that lasts 30 seconds or longer, sure, it's good. I use it in these situations, particularly soloing elites, which sometimes takes many minutes. You're constantly using mana, you're constantly Lifetapping to get that mana back, and you're constantly gaining hit points from Siphon. This is good. However, what's not so good is that most fights don't last 30 seconds. Or, really, 40 or so seconds, because if you cast this spell first, you may need to re-evaluate your spellcasting order. The real defining characteristic of this talent is that it's required for Shadow Mastery, and if you've come this far in Affliction, you're probably going to want Shadow Mastery. So, if you're going to take Shadow Mastery, take this talent. If not, don't bother.
Curse of Exhaustion: Reduces the target's speed to 90% of normal for 12 seconds. Only one Curse per Warlock can be active on any one target. (1 rank)
This looks great at first. An instant-cast snare, that doesn't require line of sight? Wow! Awesome! The key here is that this takes up your curse slot on the target, for one, and requires Improved Curse of Exhaustion (another 4 talent points) to be of much use. A 10% snare effect is useless for all intents and purposes. Sure, it'll let you catch someone who's running... but very, very slowly. Sure, you can get away from someone with it... but again, very slowly. And considering that it only lasts 12 seconds, this is very useless in it's initial rank. Which moves us on to...
Improved Curse of Exhaustion: Increases the speed reduction of your Curse of Exhaustion by 20%. (4 ranks)
This is a must-have if you've taken Curse of Exhaustion. If you haven't, of course, it's useless. (And you can't take it anyway... but even if you could, why would you?) Improving Curse of Exhaustion (commonly termed CoEx) to a 30% snare, this makes the curse worth using in some situations. However, it still takes a curse slot, and it still has a very low duration. One thing to consider is that Warlocks aren't meant to be snaring things. We have better ways to prevent mobs from running (Recklessness), and in group pvp, other classes can snare things better then we can. (Hunters, Shaman, Mages, Rogues, Priests, Warriors. That is, almost everyone else has a better snare then we do. Druids, who didn't make that list, have Root, which is even better. Even running from mobs, this isn't too useful. Even once you cast it, you're still going to get hit another 2-3 times before you get far enough ahaid of what you're running from to excape melee range. You'd be better served just stopping, fearing whatever it is, and continuing your run. (And really, who would spend 5 talent points to improve their ability to run from something, when they could spend them on being better equipped to kill it in the first place?) This (and Curse of Exhaustion itself) are probably the most debated talents we have. My opinion is that they're not worth it. Many others swear by them. This is up to you.
TIER 6: (Requires 25 points in Affliction talents)
Shadow Mastery: Increases the damage dealt or life drained by your Shadow spells by 10%. (5 ranks)
This talent improves a whole lot of spells, and really makes a significant difference. This does stack with the increase from other talents that increase damage (Improved Drain Life, for example), and with items that increase shadow damage. A very solid talent, and in fact the last one that many affliction based warlocks get. I don't think this requires too much explaination.
TIER 7: (Requires 30 points in Affliction talents)
Dark Pact: Drains 250 of your pet's Mana, returning 100% to you. (1 rank)
This talent is the ultimate "Never again have downtime!" talent. Since pets regenerate mana far faster then their owner (A level 60 imp gains roughly 100 mana per tick), and you can drain their mana without interupting their regeneration, you effectively increase your mana regeneration rate by this amount, while stopping theirs. This is especially useful in a situation where your pet is not using it's spells. (Example, fear kiting mobs while keeping a voidwalker on hand for sacrifice... the voidwalker becomes a mana battery. Using a succubus for Seduce crowd control... excellent mana battery.) The only bad thing I can think of about this talent is that taking it means you can't take Ruin, in the Destruction tree, which unfortunately means many warlocks won't experience it's beauty. Massive criticals or near infinite mana... thus is the dillema for affliction 'locks to ponder.
DEMONOLOGY TALENTS:
Demonology is generally considered to be the weakest of the talent trees, and with fairly good reason. Some of the talents are very strong, but worth the lost talents from other trees? To a good many warlocks, absolutely.
TIER 1:
Improved Healthstone: Increases the amount of Health restored by your Healthstone by 20%. (2 ranks)
Improves your healthstone. Self explanetory. Not mentioned in the description is that this only works for healthstones you consume, not ones that you make. If a warlock who doesn't have this talent gives you a healthstone, you will get the increase from using it... but if you make one and give it to someone else, they will not. Improves the final rank from 1200 to 1440. A 220 point increase, which, while significant, may or may not be worth 2 talent points... this is your decision. Consider that mobs at level 60 hit for significantly more then 220 in most situations (or hit for less but fast enough that 220 hp will generally not make or break a battle.)
Improved Imp: Increases the effect of your Imp's Firebolt, Fire Shield, and Blood Pact spells by 30%. (3 ranks)
This is a very solid talent, since the imp is a fairly good choice for a pet in many high end situations, instance groups being one of them. This increases the final rank of Blood Pact to a 50 stamina boost, adds a significant amount of damage to it's firebolts, and adds a rather insignificant amount to the Fire Shield spell. The blood pact and firebolts are the real reason to take the talent. It's worth noting that the increase to blood pact is present, but is not reflected in the buff icon mouseover description when the buff is in effect. So don't be fooled.
Demonic Embrace: Increases your total Stamina by 15%, but reduces your total Spirit by 5%. (5 ranks)
This one also gets mixed reviews. Not because of the lost spirit - a 5% reduction in spirit will only be 5-7 spirit points for many a warlock... and really, even if it was 20-30 points, would we really care? The naysayers state that, for a 5 point investment, the 15% increase in stamina is too slight. Consider a warlock with 400 stamina at level 60. This is achievable, but would be a very good number, with a lot of very high end gear (This is assuming no outside buffs. such as Mark of the Wild or Power Word: Fortitude.) This talent would give 60 additional stamina in this case, adding 600 hit points. Now, this seems pretty significant. The argument against the talent states that even the very first raid bosses hit for 1200+ damage a hit... so 600 hit points, against these mobs, with warlock damage reduction, would not even buy you 1 extra hit. Another argument states that even against normal mobs, or players, 600 hit points will not make or break the fight, because you generally either don't take much damage at all, or you die, there's rarely a middle ground. The argument in favor of the talent states that more hit points = more Lifetapping = more mana, less downtime, etc, and brings up the point that warlocks are very dependant on hit points, and 45-60 stamina is very significant, and well worth the cost in talent points. This one, I will leave up to you.
TIER 2: (require 5 points in demonology talents)
Improved Health Funnel: Increases the amount of Health transferred by your Health Funnel spell by 20%. (2 ranks)
Health Funnel is, of course, the pet heal spell. This talent increases the amount transfered per tick on the highest rank from 153 to 184 per tick. While this seems to be a rather significant upgrade at first glance, the real question is, how often will this save you in a fight? It is my opinion that it will not save you very often at all. When I use Health Funnel, one of two outcomes occurrs: 1) it easilly outheals the damage my VW is taking, and after one or two channels of it, I'm ready to go back to offensive mode. 2) The mob easilly outdamages the heal, and I sacrifice the VW and run. (I say VW because if I"m healing anything other then the VW, it's probably not in combat.)
Improved Voidwalker: Increases the effectiveness of your Voidwalker's Torment, Consume Shadows, and Suffering spells by 25%. (3 ranks)
If you're choosing talents for a PvE based build, and plan to use your voidwalker, this is a great talent to take. The increase to Torment and Suffering greatly improve the voidwalker's ability to hold aggro in a fight, which is what it's general purpose is. The talent does not improve the amount of shield provided by Sacrifice, presumably because the talent was designed when Sacrifice provided 10 seconds of invulnerability (in beta). Whereas it now provides a set amount of damage absorbtion, a change seems possible for this talent. We will have ot wait and see if this ever happens.
Haphaestus adds:
Q u o t e:
For the solo, or 'squishy'-grouped warlock, maxing out Improved Voidwalker as soon as possible is an absolute godsend. The difference between a 'factory model' VW and a 3-point improved VW is phenomenal. I'm Affliction with just enough points in Demonology to get the IVW, my partner is shadow, so we use the VW (obviously) as a party tank. Even with both of us regularly throwing high damage, including me using thorium grenades & rain of fire, it takes a lot of damage for the mob to switch aggro.
Fel Intellect: Increases the maximum Mana of your Imp, Voidwalker, Succubus, and Felhunter by 15% (5 ranks)
Only really useful if you plan to use the imp extensively (since it's the only one with a mana pool large enough to get any significant benefit), or if you want the talents below it in the chain. On a level 60 imp, this provides roughly 250-275 extra mana, and on the other pets, it's closer to 200. The imp is the only pet that consistantly expends it's mana pool (as it's only attack uses mana), and even with this talent, you're only gaining roughly 3 firebolts before it dries up it's supplies. Generally not worth it, unless you really want the talents below it.
TIER 3: (require 10 points in Demonology talents)
Improved Succubus: Increases the effect of your Succubus' Last of Pain and Soothing Kiss spells by 24%, and increases the duration of your Succubus' Seduction and Lesser Invisibility spells by 24%. (3 ranks)
Lash of Pain gains no real significant benefit from this. If it reduced the mana cost, it might be more appealing, but Lash of Pain's damage output, even with the talent, is not worth using, in most situations. The increase in duration of Lesser Invisibility is no reason to take the talent. If you're in a situation where having to recast this on your succubus causes you to die, I'd love to hear about it. The only real reason to take this talent is for the improvement to her staple spell, Seduce. This increases the duration from 15 seconds to 18.6 seconds. So 3.6 seconds for 3 talent points. Hardly worth the investment, in my opinion, particularly since in most applications (pvp, anyway), you're going to be breaking your own seduce with a damage spell long before it runs it's course. Once again, if this reduced the mana cost, it might be more appealing.
Fel Domination: Your next Imp, Voidwalker, Succubus, or Felhunter Summon spell has its casting time reduced by 5.5 seconds and its Mana cost reduced by 50%.
While not stunning on it's own (Nice, but not stunning), the real gem of this talent comes when combined with Master Summoner (for which it is a prerequisite), allowing for a 0.5 second casting time pet once every 15 minutes. This allows for many new tactics, as you can sacrifice a pet and almost instantly produce another, or switch pets on a whim mid-fight.Many successul PvP tactics use this talent combination with Sacrifice to vastly extend the lifespan of the warlock. If you're going deep into the Demonology tree, this one is a must-have.
Fel Stamina: Increases the maximum Health of your Imp, Voidwalker, Succubus, and Felhunter by 15%. (5 ranks)
Not too useful for the imp (who gains a rather measly bonus from this spell), but far more significant for the voidwalker, felhunter, and to a lesser extent, the succubus. For a warlock who intends to extensively use the voidwalker in a PvE build, this may be worth investing in. Note that in PvP, most of the time your pet will not be under attack, and if it is, the extra hp from this talent generally won't be enough to make a significant difference. In a non-PvE build, this shouldn't be given much consideration.
TIER 4: (require 15 points in Demonology talents)
Master Summoner: Reduces the casting time of your Imp, Voidwalker, Succubus, and Felhunter Summoning spells by 4 seconds. (2 ranks)
Essential for anyone delving deep into Demonology, this is combined with it's prerequisite to grant the fabled 0.5 second pet. Fairly self explanetory. If you took Fel Domination, you will want to take this.
Master Conjurer: Reduces the Mana cost and casting time of your Stone creation spells by 40%. (2 ranks)
If you're summoning stones in combat, you need to re-evaluate your use of time and mana. The only reason I can see to ever summon a stone mid-fight is if your group is wiping and you just realized the priest is not Soulstoned. Even in this situation, you're going to die anyway... saving 40% of the casting cost won't matter, and if that 40% reduced casting time makes the difference... well, it won't happen often enough to justify 2 talent points. The main point here is that if you're only casting stones when safely out of combat, this will do naught but reduce your downtime (slightly). Hardly worth 2 talent points.
TIER 5: (require 20 points in Demonology talents)
Improved Enslave Demon: Reduces the Attack Speed and Casting Speed penalty of your Enslave Demon spell by 10%. (5 ranks)
This reduces the penalty from Enslave Demon to 20% in both categories. This is... well, sort of nice, I suppose. It's effectively a 14.3% increase in dps from your enslaved pet. What it doesn't do is really improve the aspect of the spell that needs improving: the duration and break chance. So your pet may do more damage for a short period, but it'll still break just as fast as it always did, and this won't help you re-enslave it at all. Not worth the investment.
Demonic Sacrifice: When activated, sacrifices your summoned demon to grant you an effect that lasts 30 minutes. The effect is cancelled if any Demon is summoned. (1 rank)
The bonuses granted by this talent are nice, there's no doubt... +15% shadow damage, +15% fire damage, +15% health, or +20% mana, depending on which pet is sacrificed. The kicker is that you can't summon another pet while using it. Now if you're using an enslaved pet, this could have it's uses. But in the vast majority of situations, you'd be better off keeping your summoned pet. The only saving grace of this talent (and the only reason I'd state that it belongs in 99% of all deep demonology builds), is that it's the prerequisite for the bar-none best talent in the tree.
Improved Firestone: Increases the damage done by your Firestone by 30%. (2 ranks)
If you use your firestone extensively (which some warlocks do, and swear by them), and are already going deep into the demonology tree, this could be for you. Otherwise, don't bother. The bonus is decent if you already use the firestone, but won't magically make you love your Firestone if you aren't. Nuff said.
TIER 6: (require 25 points in Demonology talents)
Unholy Power: Increases the damage done by your Voidwalker, Succubus, and Felhunter's melee attacks by 20%. (5 ranks)
This talent is a funny one. It doesn't affect the imp, which is the real dps pet in our aresenal. It also has 2 others as prerequisites. Now, let's examine this: The Voidwalker is clearly not meant for dps. It would benefit from Fel Stamina a fair amount, but it's not worth taking this talent if the VW is your pet of choice. The Felhunter does semidecent damage and has semidecent hit points, I suppose you could say it would benefit from this talent and from Stamina, but if you're looking to do damage, and using the felhunter, you need to re-evaluate your pet choice. So it's not for the felhunter. The Succubus does decent damage, but doesn't really benefit from Fel Intellect (she rarely runs out of mana, unless you steal it with Dark Pact), and she's not a tank, so Fel Stamina doesn't really help her much. And if you're using her, you're probably more interested in seducing things, then adding mad DPS. So really, there's no pet that benefits from all 3 talents in this line. Therefore, somewhere along the line, you've wasted 5-10 points for a mediocre talent. Think about that one.
TIER 7: (require 30 points in Demonology talents)
Soul Link: When active, 50% of all damage taken is split with your summoned demon. Lasts 30 seconds. (1 rank)
Ahh, the gem of the tree. This is by far the best talent in the tree, and really, the main reason anyone would consider Demonology as their main specialization. This talent, when used in tandem with the voidwalker, effectively adds it's hit points to yours. This works for all forms of damage (except Lifetap damage), and it should also be noted that the voidwalker (the obvious best choice to use with this talent), heals much faster then you do. Furthermore, you can still sacrifice the voidwalker when it's near death, and gain the full benefit from the sacrifice. This talent allows for some truely incredible amounts of damage to be shrugged off like nothing.
Improved Spellstone: Increases the amount of damage absorbed by your Spellstone by 30%. (2 ranks)
Why anyone would take this talent is beyond me. Spellstones are largely considered to be a novelty item, useful only in a very tiny percentage of circumstances, and a 30% improvement on an already mediocre-to-bad spell does not make it good. It only makes people laugh at you for wasting 2 talent points. Stay far away from this one.
DESTRUCTION:
The 'guns-a-blazing' talent tree, Destruction is all about... well, destruction. Making warlocks as close to mages as possible, that's the plan here.
TIER 1:
Improved Shadowbolt: Your Shadow Bolt critical strikes increase the next 4 sources of Shadow damage dealt to the target by 20%. (5 ranks)
This talent may not look too appealing at first glance, but it becomes far moreso when you observe the alternative. It's a classic case of "the best of the bad choices" syndrome. The main problem with this talent is that if you're using shadow-based dots (such as Corruption, which you should be using in almost every situation), the ticks from the dot will eat up the 'charges' from this. So rather then adding 20% damage to 4 shadowbolts, you add 20% damage to 1, 2 tops... and the other 2-3 charges are wasted on dot ticks. This does, however, allow for some truely impressive criticals. It should be noted that your criticals will leave (with this talent) a residual debuff on the mob (granting the +20% bonus to shadow damage), and that this does count toward the currently-strict debuff limit of 8. In group situations this generally won't be much of a problem, but in raid or group pvp situations, it most certainly could be, knocking off more useful debuffs, and getting knocked off itself (though it really shouldn't be around more then a few seconds anyway in these situations.) The main point is that it's better then...
Cataclysm: Reduces the Mana cost of your Destruction spells by 5%. (5 ranks)
With a cool name like Cataclysm, you'd think this talent would result in some ungoddly amounts of destruction and mayhem... and you couldn't be further from the truth. A 5% reduction in mana might look nice at first... but consider that the only spells it affects are Shadowbolt, Immolate, Searing Pain, Hellfire, Rain of Fire, Soulfire, Conflagrate and Shadowburn. Now consider that you'd have to cast any of these spells 20 times to save enough mana to cast it 1 extra time. If you're running out of mana, this won't save you from that fate. Stay away from this one.
TIER 2: (require 5 points in destruction talents)
Bane: Reduces the casting time of your Shadow Bolt and Immolate spells by 0.5 seconds. (5 ranks)
These are going to be 2 commonly cast spells for most destruction based warlocks, and thusly, a 0.5 second reduction in the casting time is very significant. Reducing Immolate's cast time from 2.0 to 1.5, and Shadowbolt from 3.0 to 2.5, this can significantly increase your dps. (If you spam shadowbolts, this will increase your overall dps by roughly 20%.)
Aftermath: Gives your Destruction spells a 10% chance to daze the target for 5 seconds. (5 ranks)
While this may look good on paper, the problem is that with a 10% chance, and only a 5 second duration, this rarely fires and stays on the mob or player long enough to be useful. Don't get me wrong - it has it's moments. If you like procs, this is for you. If you really feel that you need that slight chance of a snare, this is for you. This is significantly more powerful for a warlock specializing in Searing Pain then one opting for Shadowbolt, but it will work for either spell (and for any other destruction spell, of course).
TIER 3: (require 10 points in destruction talents)
Improved Firebolt: Reduces the casting time of your Imp's firebolt spell by 1 second. (2 ranks)
I cannot say how great this talent is if you plan to use your imp in the majority of situations. This flat out doubles it's dps (from roughly 55 to roughly 110) and is very potent in just about all situations where the imp is in use. it does result in a much shorter shelf life for the Imp, as it runs out of mana twice as fast. But for burst dps, this is the undisputed king. A must for any imp-lover. (err... imp-user?) As many people have added, the actual cast time is not exactly 1 second, but what's important here is that this significantly increases the dps of the pet, regardless of what the actual times are.
Improved Lash of Pain: Reduces the cooldown of your Succubus' Last of Pain spell by 6 seconds. (2 ranks)
Wow, what a great way to run your succubus out of mana even faster! This talent doesn't improve the already-poor Lash of Pain, it merely makes it waste your succubus's already small mana supply even faster. if you're using Lash of Pain instead of saving mana for Seduce... well, suffice to say, Seduce is the better use of her mana in most situations where she's going to be in use.
Devastation: Increases the critical strike chance of your Destruction spells by 5%. (5 ranks)
A staple for any destruction warlock and a lot of non-destruction warlocks. This is a prerequisite to the best talent in the tree, and on it's own is very solid. The crit chance for spells is based on intellect, and is, if I'm not mistaken, improved at a rate of 1% per 100 intellect. Other then items, that's it. That's the only way to improve it. This talent, therefore, is the crit-chance equivilant of +500 intellect. That's damn significant!
Shadowburn: Instantly blasts the target with 450 to 502 Shadow damage. Requires 1 Soul Shard. If the target dies from Shadowburn, and yields experience, the caster gains a Soul Shard. (1 rank)
A lot of people just shouted, "But Devastation isn't the prerequisite for Shadowburn!".... Ok. You're right. Shadowburn may be the best talent in the tree. That's a matter of personal preference. This talent is a gem. There's absolutely no reason you shouldn't take it. It's not only the only instant direct damage we get (other then Death Coil, with it's 10 minute cooldown), it's also a very nice chunk of damage. The shard cost is negatable by either using it to kill targets, or finishing the target with Drain Soul active (allowing you to break even on shards in either case). This talent is one you should not pass up.
TIER 4: (require 15 points in Destruction talents)
Intensity: Gives you a 70% chance to resist interruptiong caused by damage while channeling the Rain of Fire or Hellfire spell. (2 ranks)
For the warlock who wants to participate in high-end instances and be the most effective he or she can be, this is the talent for you. When things need to die all at once, this is the way to get it done. It's the only way (save a lot of shielding from other classes) that you'll get off a full-duration Hellfire against a large number of targets, and in almost all upper end instances, this is a must. This will make you much more powerful in these situations. It's nice in pvp too, if you're one that likes to maintain a high profile. It should be noted that if you're playing Alliance, this will stack with a paladin's Concentration Aura, to give you a 105% chance to avoid interuption (meaning the only things that can interupt you are spells like Counterspell or abilities like Kick, normal hits will not phase you.) if you're on the Horde side, however, you'll still have problems channeling this spell through large numbers of enemies. A good way to test this is to use the (much easier to aquire) Fel Concentration, and attempt to cast a Drain Life while being pummeled by a number of mobs. That being said, a 70% bonus is still nice, and much better then no bonus at all. This will also work signiificantly better if they get around to fixing Pyroclasm, since roughly 1/4 of your enemies will be stunned at all times while using these spells, and therefore unable to mollest you anyway.
Destructive Reach: Increases the range of your Destruction spells by 20%. (2 ranks)
This, like it's Affliction counterpart, is a matter of personal preference. The extra range is nice, but I'd classify this as not as useful as Grim Reach in the Affliction tree. This really matters the most when you're chasing a fleeing target, and for this, you need instant cast spells. Shadowburn is the only instant cast spell that this affects, and it only adds 4 yards to it's meager range. However, it will add a bit of distance to your Shadowbolts, Soulfires, and Immolates, so this may be to your liking.
Vuelhering adds:
Q u o t e:
There is a bug, though, that it doesn't quite add 20%. Instead of 36 yd range, it's 35.
Improved Searing Pain: Increases the critical strike chance of your Searing Pain spell by 10%.(5 ranks)
Between Devastation and this talent, you can achieve a roughly 25% chance to critical with Searing Pain. This is impressive, to say the least. Add in Ruin, and you have a devastating spell. For anyone going deep into the Destruction line, this is a talent you'll want to pick up. Searing Pain will then become your bread and butter nuke, when soloing. Be mindful of it's taunt property when using it in groups, however, or you'll have not only an angry warrior and priest, but an angry mob to contend with as well. There are numerous different opinions regarding Searing Pain vs Shadowbolt and their respective effectiveness. I'll leave this one up to you.
TIER 5: (require 20 points in Destruction talents)
Pyroclasm: Gives your Rain of Fire and Hellfire spells a 26% chance to stun the target for 3 seconds. (2 ranks)
If working as advertised, this talent would be an absolute gem. It would, of course, affect every victim of the spells in question (or, have a chance to), and could definately cause some pain for those afflicted. However, the actual percentage chance to fire, seems to be much lower then advertised (some have suggested it's a 2.6% chance), and until this is fixed, it's not a very valid place to spend points.
Improved Immolate: Increases the initial damage of your Immolate spell by 25%. (5 ranks)
The initial damage of the highest rank immolate does 258 damage. This increases it to 322.5, a 64.5 damage increase. This is fairly significant, if you plan to spam Immolates (which is a posability, with Conflagrate thrown into the mix). Whether this damage is worth 5 talent points, well, that's a matter of opinion. But it's a prerequisite for Conflagrate. So if you plan to get Conflagrate, well, you'll need this too.
An excellent note from Gian:
Q u o t e:
This spell, combined with Inferno/Emberstorm (which is it called now, I forget!) has a slightly higher DPS if spam cast than shadow bolt. It deals 232.2 DPS not counting critical hits. Add in criticals with Devistation and Ruin (5% base) and you get 255.42. Using CoElements? Make that 293.72 DPS. This assumes Immolate's DOT never actually gets a single tick in. Eventually you'll stop spamming and the target will get to look forward to another 533 damage, assuming you don't toss off a Conflagrate. Compare to a best case Shadow Bolt using a 30/0/21 build which is 267.72 DPS (not counting a previous Improved SB crit). Of course, you'll use up mana 66% faster by spamming Immolate.
Ruin: Increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Destruction spells by 100%. (1 rank)
This gets my vote for Best in Show in the tree. The normal critical strike damage bonus is 50%, turning a 1000 damage spell into a 1500 damage spell. This increases it to 100%, turning a 1000 damage spell into a 2000 damage spell on a successful critical. This is powerful. Very powerful. Especially with a huge crit chance, as granted by Devastation and Improved Searing Pain. This is the keystone talent to a Destruction-based warlock. Your enemies will fear it. Your friends will stand by in awe as you deliver blows worthy of medals. Your... well, it's good. Just leave it at that.
TIER 6: (require 25 points in destruction talents)
Emberstorm: Increases the damage done by your Fire spells by 10%. (5 ranks)
A blanket increase in the same spirit as Shadow Mastery, this affects Immolate, Searing Pain, Hellfire, Soulburn, Conflagrate and Rain of Fire. This damage bonus is included in critical strikes, so with Ruin, you effectively increase your critical strikes by 20% with fire spells. This is good. Particularly if you're spamming searing pain, which goes from a 204-240 damage spell to a 245-288 damage spell. This is very good.
TIER 7: (require 30 points in destruction talents)
Conflagrate: Ignite a target that is already afflicted by Immolate, dealing 367 to 457 damage and consuming the Immolate spell. (1 rank)
This talent is a tricky one. You need to time it for best effect. Your Immolate spell is, of course, a dot as well as a DD, and when you Conflagrate it, you lose the remaining dot damage. so the key is to Conflagrate it just as it's about to wear off, adding a significant amount of damage to the spell, and allowing you to imediately cast another immolate for more damage. This can be an effective combo, especially since it's also affected by Emberstorm, but may not be worth it for everyone. It depends on how you plan to play your character... keep in mind you'll be giving up a Searing Pain cast to cast this instead, so the net damage gain is only roughly 180 points, and that's assuming you don't lose damage from the lost Immolate. Of course, if you use it to finish off a target... but you have Shadowburn for that. This is a situational spell. Might not be for everyone.
Gian adds:
Q u o t e:
The main point of this spell is mana efficiency. It is more than twice as mana efficient as Searing Pain. Using this spell helps a Destruction Warlock keep up his damage output without burning through his mana too quickly.
Well, there you have it, a breakdown of all the talents available to us as Warlocks. Hopfully you'll be able to gain something from this (and the myriad of posts that will no doubt follow this, flaming my opinions and adding more useful tidbits). Happy warlocking!
Feel free to add anything to this that you see fit.
Roland *The Gunslinger*
