Destruction Warlock Abilities and Talents Guide - Midnight

By Loozy Updated: 2026/08/12

Baseline Destruction Warlock Spells Offensive Abilities

Immolate (Immo) - A casted dot that deals fire damage and generates 1 soul shard fragment per tick, and has a 50% chance to generate an additional soul shard fragment on critical strikes.

Incinerate - Our primary filler, and single target soul shard generator that generates 2 soul shard fragments, and an additional 1 on critical strikes.

(talent) Chaos Bolt (CB)- Longer cast soul shard spender, that costs 2 soul shards to cast. Chaos Bolt always crits, and has its damage further increased based on your critical strike chance.

(talent) Conflagrate - (Conflag) - Instant cast ability that deals damage and generates 5 soul shard fragments, as well as grants a stack of Backdraft.

Offensive Cooldowns

Summon Infernal - Summons an infernal for 30 seconds that deals damage and generates extra soul shard fragments while active.

Havoc - Apples a curse to a target that copies all of your single-target abilities onto another target for 60% efficiency. This is also found in the passive proc version Mayhem.

Defensive Cooldowns

Unending Resolve (UR) - Shield wall effect, granting you damage reduction and immunity to spell cast interrupts.

Drain Life - Drains life from your target and restores it to you.

Utility Abilities

Fear - Fears a target in a random direction.

Curse of Weakness (CoW) - Debuff applied to an enemy mob, increasing the time between their attacks.

Healthstone(hs) - Granted to yourself and your party/raid by Create Soulwell or Create Healthstone - Usable item that restores 25% of your life on use.

Soulstone SS- Allows the target to resurrect after dying in combat. Usable before or during combat.

Ritual of Summoning - Conjures a summoning stone usable to summon anyone in your party or raid.

Passive Abilities

Soul Shards - Our main resource we generate and spend on damage abilities. For Destruction, every soul shard is split into 10 soul shard fragments, meaning we have a total maximum of 50 soul shard fragments. Out of combat, you regenerate up to 3 soul shards.

Soul Leech - After dealing single target damage grant a shield that absorbs damage.

Mastery: Chaotic Energies - Our Mastery effect make our spells deal x% increased damage, plus a random amount of x% additional increased damage.

Destruction Warlock Hero Talents Destruction Warlock TalentsKey Talent

Diabolic Ritual - After casting Chaos Bolt, Rain of Fire or Shadowburn you gain Diabolic Ritual. When the Diabolic Ritual buff expires you gain the ability to summon one of three empowered demons, Demonic Art: Overlord, Demonic Art: Mother of Chaos and Demonic Art: Pit Lord. You summon this demon by casting either Chaos Bolt, Rain of Fire or Shadowburn. The empowered demons always come out in the same order as listed just previously.

Capstone Talent

Ruination - After summoning Demonic Art: Pit Lord, your Chaos Bolt is transformed into Ruination; dealing additional damage and summoning 1 Diabolic imp.

Choice Nodes

Choice Node 1:
Soul-Etched Circles - Your Demonic Circle always has the effect of Soulburn.

Annihilan's Bellow - Reduced cooldown and increased range for Howl of Terror.

Cruelty of Kerxan - Casting Summon Infernal also grants Diabolic Ritual and reduces the duration of the ritual by 3 seconds.

Infernal Machine - Spending Soul Shards while Summon Infernal is active reduces the duration of your next Diabolic Ritual.

Infernal Vitality - In addition the the damage reduction, Unending Resolve heals for 30% of your maximum health over 10 seconds.

Infernal Bulwark - Unending Resolve grants an additional shielding effect to Soul Leech.

Passives

Cloven Souls - Enemies damaged by Demonic Art: Overlord also take an additional 5% damage from you and your demons for 15 seconds.

Touch of Rancora - When you summon your Demonic Art demon, your next Chaos Bolt, Rain of Fire or Shadowburn deals increased damage. Additionally, the cast time of your next Chaos Bolt is reduced by 50%.

Secrets of the Coven - Demonic Art: Mother of Chaos changes your Incinerate into Infernal Bolt, dealing additional damage and generating 2 complete Soul Shards.

Flames of Xoroth - Increases fire and pet damage slightly.

Abyssal Dominion - Empowers your Summon Infernal making it deal additional damage, and makes your Summon Infernal shatter into 2 smaller infernals at 50% effectiveness for 10 seconds after it ends..

Gloom of Nathreza - Enemies marked by your Havoc take an additional increase damage from your single-target abilities.

Diabolic Oculi - Whenever you reduce the remaining duration of your Diabolic Ritual, you gain a stack of Diabolic Oculi, up to 3 stacks. When you then summon your Diabolic Ritual demon, these stacks of Diabolic Oculi explode for fire damage to all enemies within 7 yds of your target.

Looks That Kill - Diabolic Oculi stacks now deal damage to your target while these stacks are active, dealing 100% increased damage per active stack of Diabolic Oculi.

Mind's Eyes - Your Diabolic Oculi exploding, increases your intellect by 2% for each stack that explodes.

Destruction Warlock TalentsKey Talent

Wither - turns Immolate into Wither. An instant cast with the same DoT soul shard generation effect.

Capstone Talent

Malevolence - A 1-minute cooldown that makes targets affected by your Wither to take damage, gain 6 stacks of Wither. For the duration of Malevolence you gain 8% haste, and when spending soul shards your Wither targets gain 1 additional stack per soul shard spent.

Choice Nodes

Choice Node 1:

Aura of Enfeeblement - When Unending Resolve is active, you apply Curse of Tongues and Curse of Weakness to all targets within 30 yards of you.

Curse of the Satyr - Curse of Weakness is changed into Curse of the Satyr, increasing time between enemies attacks by 20%, and casting time of spells by 30%.

Bleakheart Tactics - Wither damage is increased by 20%, and when Wither gains a stack from Blackened Soul it has a chance to gain an extra stack.

Hatefury Rituals - Hatefury Rituals damage is increased by 30%, but its duration is 15% shorter.

Illhoof's Design - Reduces your maximum health by 10%, but allows your Soul Leech to absorb an additional 15% of your maximum health.

Zevrim's Resilience - Dark Pact heals you every second while active.

Passives

Xalan's Ferocity - Your fire abilities grant a 8% damage increase and an additional 10% more critical strike chance from all sources.

Blackened Soul - Whenever you spend Soul Shards, Wither gains 1 stack. Each timer Wither gains a stack there's a chance it collapses, losing 1 stack every second, dealing extra damage until it only has 1 stack.

Xalan's Cruelty - Your shadow abilities grant a 2% damage increase and an additional 10% more critical strike chance from all sources.

Mark of Xavius - Increases the damage of Wither by 25%, and Blackened Soul by 2% per stack of Wither.

Seeds of Their Demise - When Wither reaches 8 stacks, or your target reaches 20% health, Wither collapses, losing 1 stack per second until it has 1 stack. additionally, Blackened Soul damage has a chance to grant 2 stacks of Flashpoint.

Mark of Peroth'arn - Wither critical strike damage increased by 10%. Wither has a chance to gain a stack when it crits.

Through the Felvine - Increases the damage of Chaos Bolt and Rain of Fire.

Devil Fruit - The damage your Wither deals has a chance to grant you Malevolence for 8 seconds.

Alzzin's Iniquity - Malevolence grants an additional 4% haste and increases the stacks of your active Wither debuffs by an additional 2 stacks.

Destruction Warlock TalentsWarlock Class Talents

Fel Domination - Allows you to quickly summon your pet, generally always taken as a safety net for when you need to resummon your pet.

Soul Leech - After dealing single target damage grant a shield that absorbs damage.

Burning Rush - Basic movement ability, togglable, but comes at a cost of your health. Additionally makes it so that you can't be slowed past 100% movement speed.

Fel Pact - Allows you to cast Fel Domination more often.

Demon Skin - Enables your Soul Leech to regenerate passively and increases how much it absorbs.

Fel Armor - Additional damage reduction added into Soul Leech but allows it to be spread out instead of a bulk hit to your shield.

Fiendish Stride - Makes you go faster when using Burning Rush and take less damage from it being active.

Demonic Embrace - Basic additional stamina.

Choice node:

Nightmare - After your Fear expires, makes the target move slower.

Horrify - When a target is afflicted by Fear, it trembles in place instead of fleeing.

Demonic Fortitude

Banish - Banishes a target, making them immune.

Curse of Exhaustion - Slows your targets movement speed.

Curse of Tongues - Slows your targets cast speed.

Infernal Beneficiary - Increased the healing done by Drain Life.

Mortal Coil - Single target horrify that heals you for 20% of your health, usable as a heal against immune targets as well.

Pact of the Annihilan - Passive increase to your Critical Strike chance.

Demonic Circle (DC) - Personal portal/movement ability given baseline. Allows you to drop a circle at any location which you can teleport back to given you are in range of the circle. Can also remove movement impairing effects.

Pact of the Satyr - Passive increase to your Haste.

Improved Mortal Coil - Increased the range and healing of Mortal Coil.

Dark Pact (DP) - Sacrifices health from yourself for a large shield on you, usable always even if stunned.

Foul Mouth - Makes any of your casted curses apply to all enemies within 10 yards.

Empowered Healthstone - Increased effectiveness of your healthstone healing.

Abyss Walker - After using your personal or group portal you take less damage.

Fortified Soul - Improves Soul Leech absorb.

Teachings of the Black Harvest - Empowers your primary pet with an additional ability.

Gorefiend's Avarice - Drain life is channeled quicker and heals faster.

Choice node:

Ichor of Devils - Reduces the sacrificed health when Dark Pact is used, does not make the absorb larger.

Frequent Donor - Reduces the cooldown of Dark Pact.

Pact of the EredarPact of the NathrezimDemonic ResilienceEmpowered Drain Life

Choice Node:

Strength of Will - Empowers Unending Resolve to reduce additional damage.

Dark Accord - Reduces the cooldown of your major damage reduction cooldown, Unending Resolve.

Demonic Gateway

Howl of Terror - Instant cast AoE fear.

Shadowfury - Instant cast AoE stun.

Swift Artifice - Quality of life cast time reduction on Soulstone and Create Healthstone.

Soul Link - Enables you to take extra damage reduction, which is transferred to your pet.

Frequent Traveler - Reduces cast time of Demonic Gateway and allows you to use it twice before going on cooldown.

Fel Synergy - Provides you with additional healing from Soul Leech.

Oppressive Darkness - Reduces the cooldown of Shadowfury or Howl of Terror, increases radius or fears additional targets.

Pact of Gluttony - When you conjure a Create Healthstone for yourself it transforms into a Demonic Healthstone that can be used multiple times during an encounter which also gives you a healing over time effect when used.

Soulburn (SB) - For the cost of a Soul Shard, empowers various utility spells to have an additional effect.

Choice Node:

Blight of Weakness - Summon a mist that surrounds targets within a 10 yard range, reducing their time between attacks and critical strike chance.

Blight of Tongues - Summon a mist that surrounds targets within a 10 yard range, reducing their cast speed.

Destruction Specialization Talents

Embers of Nihilam - Casting Incinerate has a chance to proc an Echo of Sargeras, which deals damage to your target, and splashes damage onto all targets within 10 yds of that target.

Embers of Nihilam - When you proc an Echo of Sargeras, your haste and crit is increased for 6 seconds.

Embers of Nihilam - Casting Chaos Bolt will always proc an Echo of Sargeras at 50% effectiveness, and Rain of Fire will proc one at 60% efficiency.

Chaos Bolt (CB)- Longer cast soul shard spender, that costs 2 soul shards to cast. Chaos Bolt always crits, and has its damage further increased based on your critical strike chance.

Conflagrate - Instant cast flat damage ability with 2 charges that generated 5 soul shard fragments.

Rain of Fire (RoF) - AoE effect you place at a target location, that deals its damage over an 8 second period, at a 3 soul shard cost.

Improved Conflagrate - Grants Conflagrate an additional charge.

Backdraft - Makes Conflagrate reduce the cast time of your next Incinerate, Chaos Bolt or Decimation by 30%.

Practiced Chaos - Passive 2% Mastery.

Roaring Blaze - Increases the damage of Conflagrate, and spreads the targets Immolate to up to 3 nearby enemies.

Explosive Potential - Reduces cooldown of Conflagrate.

Choice node:
Havoc - Duplicates your single target spells onto the target for 60% damage. The soul shard generating abilities duplicated also generate extra soul shards.

Mayhem - Single target spells have a chance to apply Havoc to a nearby enemy target for a short period.

Scalding FlamesImmolate

Shadowburn - Instant cast soul shard spender that costs 1 soul shard, and can only be used on enemies below 20% health. If the target dies within 5 seconds of Shadowburn being cast, the soul shard is refunded.

Backlash - Increases your critical strike chance, and gives physical attacks against you a chance to make your next Incinerate cast instant.

Improved Havoc - Increases the duration of Havoc, and increases the damage they take from you by an additional 10%. This increased duration does not work for Mayhem.

Ashen Remains - Incinerate, Chaos Bolt and Shadowburn deal increased damage to targets afflicted by Immolate.

Cataclysm - Deals damage at a target location and affects enemies hit with Immolate.

Fiendish Cruelty - When your Chaos Bolt, Conflagrate and Incinerate crits, they have a chance to make your next Shadowburn cast cost no soul shard and be usable regardless of the targets health.

Chaotic Inferno - Increases Chaos Bolt damage by 5%, and makes your Chaos Bolt cast have a chance to make your next Incinerate instant cast.

Flashpoint - When Immolate deals periodic damage to a target above 80% health, gain a stacking haste buff for 10 seconds. This effect stacks up to 3 times.

Summon Infernal - Our 2 minute cooldown that summons an infernal for 30 seconds, that deals damage and generates 1 soul shard fragment every 0.5 seconds while active.

Emberstorm - Grants a flat damage increase to your fire spells, as well as reducing the cast time of Incinerate.

Fire and Brimstone - Makes Incinerate cleave onto all enemies near your target for 25% damage.

Lake of Fire - Your Cataclysm now leaves behind a a fire circle where you cast it. This circle deals damage, and makes Immolate deal increased damage to enemies within the circle.

Choice node:
Reverse Entropy - Your spells have a chance to grant you a haste buff.

Internal Combustion - Chaos Bolt consumes some of Immolate's damage over time effect instantly dealing that much damage.

Crashing Chaos - Casting Summon Infernal increases the damage of your next 8 casts of Chaos Bolt or Rain of Fire.

Rain of Chaos - While Summon Infernal is active, every soul shard you spend has a chance to summon an additional infernal.

Summoner's Embrace - Increases the damage dealt by your spells and your demon.

Grimoire of Sacrifice - Sacrifice your demon, gaining its command demon ability and causing your spells to sometimes deal extra shadow damage.

Ruin - Increases the critical strike damage of your destruction spells.

Improved Chaos Bolt - Increases the damage and reduces the cast time of Chaos Bolt.

Destructive Rapidity - Increases how quickly Rain of Fire and your Summon Infernal's imolation deals its damage.

Devastation - Increases the critical strike chance of your destruction spells.

Choice node:
Dimensional Rift - Chaos Bolt and Shadowburn casts have a chance to open a rift that deals damage to your target. This rift also generates 1 full soul shard over its duration.

Soul Fire - A longer cast that deals damage, applies Immolate and generates 1 soul shard

InfernoSummon InfernalConflagration of ChaosShadowburnConflagrateDiabolic EmbersIncinerate

Channel Demonfire - Channeled ability that deals damage to targets affected by your Immolate.

Demonfire Infusion - Your Immolate periodic damage, and your Incinerate has a chance to fire a demonfire bolt at your target.

Avatar of Destruction - Whenever you cast a Soul Fire you summon an overfiend. When you summon a Dimensional Rift, you have a chance to instead summon an overfiend.

Chaos Incarnate - Chaos Bolt, Rain of Fire and Shadowburn always benefit from at least 70% of the maximum effect from our mastery.

Alythess's Ire - Rain of Fire has a 20% chance to make your next Rain of Fire within 8 seconds free.

Raging Demonfire - Channel Demonfire and Demonfire Infusion fires an additional bolt or bolts, and each bolt increases the remaining duration of your Immolate on the target.

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Destruction Warlock Abilities and Talents Guide - Midnight

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