Dara Berry

This is just one way of running your raid Destruction spec Warlcok, so please treat all of this as advice, not the end all be all of Warlocks. Most of this post comes from experience and trial and error. Please feel free to leave feedback or suggestions.My spec and rotation is based on http://www.wowwiki.com/Warlock_builds Scroll down to Fire Raiding Destro. It should also go without saying you want to use your Fel Armor buff.

TALENTS
If you don’t have enough hit gear (below 14% hit), use this spec to gain %3 more hit. (I’d suggest putting the extra point into Shadowfury:
Destro Spec +hit/SF

If you have at least 14% hit and always have a shadow priest and/or a boomkin, use the spec I’m currently running:
Destro Spec +nomnomsouls/SF

***PLEASE PAY ATTENTION TO THE GLYPHS AS WELL***

PETS
The only pet you’ll use is the imp. You’ll want to keep him out of phase all the time. Always keep him in defensive unless there’s a good reason to change it. You rely on his crits for your crits and every buff your raid can give him helps. This is why you have pet healing in your demon tree.

I hardly ever have problems with him dying unless he’s in a puddle of goo and my attention is drawn elsewhere. He deserves it.

ROTATION
Put the following on your bar:
1. Life Tap (Rank 1) and (Rank 7) See macros section below
2. Curse of Doom and Elements See macros section below
3. Immolate
4. Chaos Bolt
5. Conflagrate
6. Corruption
7. Incinerate

Usually right before a boss fight starts, I hit 1, then throw Curse of Doom as I’m running into position. If it’s a longer run than usual, I also throw Corruption as this is pretty much your only other instant opening cast.

Rotation goes like this:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 7, 7, 7, 3, 4, 5, 7, 7, 6, 7, 1
repeat: watching the count down on Curse of Doom

You can go about two full rotation cycles before using Life Tap. Use either rank 1 or 7, depending on your need. Now this rotation won’t always go perfect or match up 100% of the time (especially depending on your haste or boss fight mechanics). Your main goal is to keep Immolate and Corruption up at all times (also your Doom) and always time your Conflag’s right so you can get 3 improved Incinerates off.

****NOTE****
When you pop conflagrate, don’t waste a cast re-applying Immolate. You have 3 casts with increased haste, so use your Incinerates first before re-applying Immolate.

TRASH MOBS
Don’t underestimate Shadowfury because it can mean the difference between life or death on trash mobs if you or a healer pulled agro from aoe. It can also save a tank, giving them a few extra seconds to get healed up. It also does a nice bit of damage, so keep it handy. Speaking of aoe, your best weapon of choice is Seed of Corruption for pulls of 3 mobs or greater. Otherwise single targeting DPS is better. You might have to life tap a few times during the fight, but you can easily double your normal DPS on aoe pulls.

When it’s a single target trash and it has conciderable amount of health (takes more than 2 full rotations to kill it, throw Curse of Elements up, and rotate like the boss mob rotation.

If it dies quickly, don’t bother with Curse of Elements and just go straight for your high DPS:
2,4, 5, 7, 7, 7, 7, 4, 3, 5, 7, 7, 7 usually is more than sufficient.

GEARZ
Since you have Life Tap Glyph and Fel Armor, you want to get as much spirit as you can. Spirit = Spell Power.

Currently, I get 527 extra spell power from spirit. I have 3400+ spell power just standing there with just my Fel Armor and Spirit Tap, and can get upwards over 4500 during a boss fight, occasionally reaching over 5k.

You’ll also want crit and haste gear as well, so you’ll balance dps and healer’s gear. Crit usually comes with caster dps as well as +hit, and you’ll get haste from the healer pieces.

I would suggest going with the tier Warlock pieces and collect spirit/healer gear for the offset pieces.

GEMS
Here’s the gems I’ve found to be most effective:
Yellow:
Reckless Ametrine +12 sp +10 haste
Quick King’s Amber + 20 haste
Rigid King’s Amber + 20 hit

Blue:
Purified Dreadstone +12 sp +10 spirit

Red:
Runed Cardinal Ruby +23 sp

MACROS
The only two macros that come in handy are the ones you place in hotbar 1 and 2. Easily switch from Life Tap 1 to 7 using shift, as well as control your curses you have up.

Hotbar 1 – Life Tap

#showtooltip;
/cast [modifier:shift] Life Tap(Rank 7);
/cast [nomodifier] Life Tap(Rank 1);

Hotbar 2 – Curses

#showtooltip;
/cast [modifier:shift] Curse of the Elements;
/cast [nomodifier] Curse of Doom;

ADDONS

The only addon I run specifically for my lock is ForteXorcist
This nifty little addon keeps track of everything you could want to keep track of. I use it to watch the dots on my target as well as become more aware of things like when to pop a soul well so you don’t waste a shard, see who you can soul stone (and if their battle rez or reincarnation is up), and also become more efficient when summoning people.

Here’s my UI thrown in just because. I know this post is kinda long but thanks for reading and I hope you can pick up a few tricks from this. Any feedback and/or suggestions are welcome!