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WoW: In-Depth Look at WotLK Warlock Talents – Destruction

In this in-depth look at the World of Warcraft Warlock Talents, we're going to be going over all the changes and new talents done for each talent tree of those published at Blizzard's site.

We will begin with the Destruction tree, a tree popular for those who like burst damage and those who like high DPS in raids at the cost of more mana. Destruction was highly viable in end-game raids by the end of the Burning Crusade, so let's see what new changes have come for Wrath of the Lich King.

As of writing this the talents are in no way finalized so things may change as Blizzard continues to balance before launch.

Tier 1

No changes here

Tier 2

A new Talent has added, Molten Core, 3 points maximum. Your shadow spells and damage over time effects have a 4% (and up to 10%) chance to increase the damage of your fire spells by 10%.

A nice new talent for those specializing in Fire, giving it a little more viability in groups and solo-play. Would only be good if you're heavily fond of fire (and you are if you're climbing up this tree).

Tier 3

No changes here, aside from Improved Lash of Pain being removed entirely (not many picked that talent up to begin with)

Tier 4

No changes here

Tier 5

No changes here either

Tier 6

No changes here

Tier 7

Conflagrate is now a pre-requisite for Tier 9's Backdraft

Tier 8

A new talent at last! This one is Improved Soul Leech, also restoring mana to you and your pet equal to 5% or 10% of your damage caused by the effect of Soul Leech (2 points)

Tier 9

Backdraft - new Talent. Increase the critical chance of your conflagrate, immolate and shadowflame by 4% and up to 12% (3 point Talent). A good talent, if you're going the nuking route for sure. This along with Ruin will make your damage go way up in the charts.

Empowered Imp - new Talent. Increase damage done by your imp by 5% up to 15% and all critical hits from your imp have a 33%, 66% or up to 100% chance to increase your spell critical hit chance for your next spell by 100%, this effect lasts 8 seconds.

This is an interesting talent, for sure. Not many Warlocks use their imps to attack as-is since without phaseshift imps don't have a lot of survivability, however, they do crit a lot, and this talent makes it ever so appealing to make your imp shoot! Situational and will make you decide which battles to use it or not.

Tier 10

Eternal Flames - new Talent. Your searing pain and incinerate spells have a 20% chance to refresh the duration of your immolate spell on the target, up to 100% chance to refresh the immolate spell if maxed. In addition, your searing pain and incinerate spells add 5% more damage from immolate. A great talent for those firelocks that have made it this far, immolate compliments nicely your other nukes and it being kept up by your nukes is a giant plus.

Tier 11

Chaos Bolt - new Talent (final). Sends a bolt of chaotic fire at the enemy, deailng 1012 to 1278 fire damage. Chaos bolt cannot be resisted and pierces through defensive immunities. 1.5 second cast, 8 second cooldown. Awesome new spell, very promising as it deals fire damage (which is already high from your former talents) and will rip through immunities and resists.

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