Why is Destruction's Eradication the most recommended AoE talent in the guide?

Ask Mr. Robot
1

In the Destruction Warlock’s guide on AMR, I can see that Flashover and Soul Fire are very close to Eradication, with almost full bars, but Eradication is still the only 100% full bar in that tier for all covenants in a Multi-target scenario. I don’t understand why or how numbers can produce such a recommendation.

The guide itself puts Rain of Fire well above Chaos Bolt in action priorities when there are 3+ targets, and there’s no cooldown on Rain of Fire, so in a multi-target scenario, why would I be spending any Soul Shards on Chaos Bolt to benefit from Eradication at all when I can spend those shards on stacking Rain of Fires?

When it comes to Flashover, which is the multi-target recommended talent in both Wowhead’s and Icy Veins’s guides, you can benefit from a 25% increased damage to an instant spell and also an extra faster Incinerate that you need to spam anyway in a multi-target scenario when you don’t have enough shards for a Rain of Fire.

I would fully agree with the argument that Eradication should be taken for Mythic+ scenarios in Tyrannical weeks but as it stands, taking Eradication over Flashover for general multi-target scenarios, even if only due to a slight edge, just isn’t making any sense to me yet. I hope someone can explain to me that slight edge that is making Eradication the only 100% full bar in that tier.

2

Our “multi-target” isn’t looking purely at a situation where you always fight 3+ targets. It uses a series of pulls at various target counts, including a short single target portion at the end. It is meant to mimic a typical mythic+ situation for average players. Usually players want to see their damage maximized for a whole dungeon, not just the small AoE portions of certain pulls.

Advanced players will often be able to round up larger pulls and in that case may want/need more tailored builds to make those strategies work, but our defaults need to work for the broadest group of players possible.

In the situation we have the simulator set up for, the massive damage you can get from havoc chaos bolts (which apply eradication) + incinerates buffed by shard of annihilation is huge. If we removed the two target pulls from the script, I assume we’d see a change in the recommendations.

3

I see what you mean, Swol. Yes, in a certain talent setup, the AMR guide does say that if Havoc is up, then cast Chaos Bolt even in 3+ target scenarios. And it can make sense that those Havoced Chaos Bolts give at least a slight increase in the overall DPS output.

Thank you very much for explaining this.