Introduction
My name is Sjele. I play mostly warlock as long as it is good and when it is not I cry as I reroll to whatever is. I’ve been a raider in Method for multiple expansions, always aiming to extract every little bit from whatever warlock spec I'm currently playing, with Demonology being my favourite.
Demonology is a fairly simple builder/spender where you build resources, and spend them on summoning demons. An easy way to think about it is that every demon is a damage over time effect or a “DoT”, but instead of the effect being on a target it is a demon on the ground.
Demonology is very good at doing sustained single target and cleave as long as the enemies are stacked.
Movement during cooldown setup and spread cleave are clear weaknesses of the spec.
In my opinion demonology is extremely fun to play and once you get into it it feels very natural in terms of the “flow” of the gameplay.
What has changed
Patch 11.1 Demonology Warlock Changes
This Patch features a whopping three whole changes to Demonology Warlock:
- Doom Eternal talent redesigned to grant 30% chance to gain a demonic core when doom expires
- Doom duration is now reduced based on shards spent (identical to dragonflight season 3 tier set)
- Demonic calling now has a 20% chance to make your next Call Dreadstalkers cost 2 fewer soul shards and have no cast time (was 10%)
With such “massive” changes it's no surprise that the overall gameplay changes very little if at all in the new patch. The one thing that does change is the demonic core economy. We have a LOT more core procs than in 10.0.5, so more demonbolts, fewer shadowbolts. I think we can all get behind that.
Demonology Warlock Changes for The War Within
Both the Class and Spec talent tree has gotten a major overhaul coming into The War Within pre-patch and expansion. Below is a list of every change from Dragonflight to The War Within expansion. If you're looking for the tl;dr, skip ahead to “Notable Changes”.
General Warlock Changes in the War Within
- Lifeblood now grants 4% Leech (was 7%).
- All talent trees have had many talents move locations or have had their pathing updated.
- New Talent: Pact of Gluttony — Healthstones you conjure for yourself are now Demonic Healthstones and can be used multiple times in combat. Demonic Healthstones cannot be traded.
- New Talent: Swift Artifice — Reduces the cast time of Soulstone and Create Healthstone by 50%.
- New Talent: Demonic Tactics — Increases melee and spell critical strike chance for you and your summoned demon by 2%.
- Fel Pact has been redesigned — Fel Domination cooldown is reduced by 60 seconds and is now a 1-point talent (was 2).
- Fiendish Stride has been redesigned — Reduces the damage dealt by Burning Rush by 10%. Burning Rush increases your movement speed by an additional 20%. Now a 1-point talent (was 2).
- Soul Leech is now a talent (was learned at level 10).
- Mortal Coil has a new visual effect.
- Soul Conduit is now a 1-point talent.
- The following talents have been removed:
- Grimoire of Synergy
- Inquisitor's Gaze
- Summon Soulkeeper
- Profane Bargain
Demonology Warlock Changes in The War Within
- New Talent: Pact of the Ered'ruin - When Doom expires, you have a chance to summon a Doomguard that casts 5 Doom Bolts before departing. Each Doom Bolt deals Shadow damage.
- New Talent: Mark of Shatug - Your Summon Vilefiend becomes Summon Gloomhound and learns the following ability: Gloom Slash – Tooth and claw are drenched in malignant shadow magic, causing the Gloomhound’s melee attacks to deal Shadow damage over 6 seconds. If this effect is reapplied, any remaining damage will be added to the new Gloom Slash.
- New Talent: Flametouched - Increases the attack speed of your Dreadstalkers by 20% and their critical strike chance by 15%.
- New Talent: Rune of Shadows - Increases all damage done by your pet by 4%. Reduces the cast time of Shadow Bolt by 25% and increases its damage by 40%.
- New Talent: Demonic Brutality - Critical strikes from your spells and your demons deal 4% increased damage..
- New Talent: Improved Demonic Tactics - Increases your primary Felguard’s critical strike chance equal to 30% of your critical strike chance.
- New Talent: Mark of F'harg - Your Summon Vilefiend becomes Summon Charhound and learns the following ability: Infernal Presence – Cloaked in the ever-burning flames of the abyss, dealing Fire damage to enemies within 10 yards every 1 second.
- New Talent: Shadowtouched - Wicked Maw causes the target to take 20% additional Shadow damage from your demons.
- New Talent: Foul Mouth - Increases Vilefiend damage by 20% and your Vilefiend’s Bile Spit now applies Wicked Maw.
- New Talent: The Houndmaster's Gambit - Your Dreadstalkers deal 50% increased damage while your Vilefiend is active.
- New Talent: Blood Invocation - Power Siphon increases the damage of Demonbolt by an additional 25%.
- New Talent: Fiendish Oblation - Damage dealt by Grimoire: Felguard is increased by an additional 10% and you gain a Demonic Core when Grimoire: Felguard ends.
- New Talent: Doom Eternal - Demonic Cores reduce the duration of Doom by an additional 2 seconds.
- New Talent: Impending Doom - Increases the damage of Doom by 30% and Doom summons 1 Wild Imp when it expires.
- Doom is now passive and has been redesigned - When Demonbolt consumes a Demonic Core it inflicts impending doom upon the target, dealing Shadow damage to enemies within 10 yards of its target after 20 seconds. Damage is reduced beyond 8 targets. Consuming a Demonic Core reduces the duration of Doom by 2 seconds.
- Fel Invocation has been redesigned - Soul Strike deals 20% increased damage and generates a Soul Shard.
- You now have a 35% chance to generate a Demonic Core from your summoned Dreadstalkers when they fade (was 100% chance).
- Summon Vilefiend cooldown reduced to 30 seconds (was 45 seconds).
- Summon Summon Demonic Tyrant cooldown reduced to 1 minute (was 1 minute and 30 seconds).
- Your Felguard now charges its target when using Soul Strike.
- The Houndmaster's Stratagem has been renamed to Wicked Maw and its icon has been updated.
- Dread Calling and Grimoire: Felguard icons have been updated.
- The following talents are now 1 point:
- Imp Gang Boss
- Umbral Blaze
- Pact of the Imp Mother
- Dread Calling
- Demonic Brutality
- Flametouched
- The following talents have been removed:
- Demonic Knowledge
- Nether Portal
- Ner'zhul's Volition
- Gul'dan's Ambition
- Stolen Power
- Heavy Handed
- Fiendish Prowess
- Shadow's Bite
- Infernal Command
- Fel and Steel
- Summon Shadowcaster
- Malefic Impact
- Cavitation
- Grand Warlock's Design
Notable Changes
Class Tree:
- New Talent: Swift Artifice - Reduces the cast of Soulstone and Create Healthstone by 50%
- New Talent: Demonic Tactics - 5% increased critical strike chance, 10% more critical strike rating from all sources
- Pact of Gluttony - Healthstones you conjure for yourself are now demonic healthstones and can be used multiple times in combat. Demonic healthstones cannot be traded. - Summon Demonic Tyrant is moved up, making it easier to access
Spec Tree:
- Summon Demonic Tyrant is moved up
- Reign of Tyranny is moved up, making it much “cheaper” to access.
- Sacrificed Souls is moved up, making it easier to access
- Doom is redesigned and has taken the “nether portal” spot in the talent tree.Doom now reads - When demonbolt consumes a Demonic Core it inflicts impending doom upon the target, dealing shadow damage to enemies within 10 yards of its target after 20 sec or when removed. Consuming a Demonic core reduces the duration of doom by 2 sec.This is very similar to season 3 and 4 tier set of Dragonflight but instead of being reduced by shards spent its being reduced by demonic cores spent.
- New Talent: Pact of Ered’ruin - When doom expires , you have a chance to summon a Doomguard that casts 5 doom bolts before departing.Again very similar to the old dragonflight tier set except it is a single target doom bolt instead of a doom bolt volley.
- Summon Vilefiend is moved down and turned into a “capstone path”, with additions like Mark of Shatug and Mark of F’harg turning your Vilefiend into a Gloomhound or Charhound with their own special abilities.
- Grimoire: Felguard has been significantly nerfed and is no longer a “must have” talent in all situations.
- New Talent: the Houndmaster’s Gambit - Your Dreadstalkers deal 50% increased damage while your Vilefiend
- New Talent: Rune of Shadows - Increases all damage done by your pet by 4%. Reduces the cast time of Shadow Bolt by 25 % and increases its damage by 40% (relevant for tier bonuses we will get to later)