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 was a raider in Method for multiple expansions and have since moved into a role as DPS analyst, always aiming to extract every little bit from whatever warlock spec I'm currently playing, with demonology being my favourite.
Demonology Warlock Overview
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
Midnight Pre-Patch Demonology Warlock Changes
If you’re just looking for a TLDR of the changes:
- Playstyle is almost identical to previous expansions
- Implosion has a 15 cooldown
- Summon Demonic tyrant does no longer extend imps (no long setups needed)
- Vilefiend is baked into Call Dreadstalkers (1 less button)
- Apex talents (when available in midnight) empowers your tyrant cooldown
With the Midnight Pre-Patch and incoming expansion the game has gone through a massive overhaul, especially in the UI department. The core gameplay for Demonology Warlocks has not changed significantly, but some spells have been removed or merged with other abilities making the overall number of spells you need to keep track of has gone down.Most notable talent and spell changes are:
Warlock General Changes:
- Significant changes to warlock class tree and pathing
- Improved drain life/mortal coil talents (improved mortal coil, gorefiend’s avarice, Empowered drain life), buffing on demand self healing compared to TWW.
- Foul Mouth: Casting Curse of Exhaustion, Tongues or Weakness now curses all enemies within 10 yards. AOE CURSES YEY!
- Blight of Weakness/Blight of Tongues: Supercharged aoe curse for 12 seconds. Increasing enemy time between attacks or cast time by 100%.
- Frequent Traveller: Reduces the cast time of Demonic Gateway by 0.5 sec and you can now use a Demonic Gateway twice before triggering a cooldown.
Demonology Talent Changes:
New talents (not including passive damage amps):
- Dominant Hand: Increase damage dealt by Hand of gul’dan to its main target by 20%
- Infernal Rapidity: When your Wild Imps cast Fel Firebolt they have a 10% chance to instantly cast another Fel Firebolt at 200% effectiveness.
- Fel Armaments: The Cooldown of your Felguard’s Felstorm is reduced by 10 sec and damage dealt to your primary demon is reduced by 10%
- Imp Gang Boss (rework): Hand of Gul’dan now empowers 1 of the Wild Imps it summons, increasing its damage dealt by 100%
- Blighted Maw: Dreadbite deals 50% additional damage as Plague damage
- Empowered Felstorm: Increases the damage of your Felguard’s Felstorm by 20% and its duration by 4 sec
- Tyrant’s Oblation: Your Demonic Tyrant also empowers you while active, increasing your haste by 8%
- Antoran Armaments (rework): Your Demonic Tyrants armor is increased by 10% and assaults its target with powerful melee attacks cleaving all enemies in front of the caster
- Reign of Tyranny (rework): Demonic Tyrant lasts an additional 5 sec and extends the duration of your Dreadstalkers by 15 sec when summoned
- Master Summoner: Increases Mastery by 3% and reduces the cast time of your Summon Demonic Tyrant by 0.5 sec
- Demonic Calling (rework): Call Dreadstalkers cost 2 less Soul Shards and its cast time is reduced by 100%
- Summon Doomguard: Summons a Doomguard to assist you in combat for 12 sec, casting Doom Bolt Volley at 5 enemies within 40 yards. Consuming a Demonic Core reduces the cooldown of Summon Doomguard by 3 sec
- Hellbent Commander: Your demons deal 1% increased damage for each demon you control
- To Hell and Back: Power siphon and Implosion summon 1 Imp Gang Boss for every 2 Wild Imps sacrificed. Wild Imps summoned this way deal 50% increased damage and Fel Firebolt jumps to 4 additional targets
- Grimoire: Imp Lord / Grimoire: Fel Ravager: Summons and Imp Lord / Fel Ravager to assist you in combat for 20 seconds - Transforms into Single Magic/Spell Lock while on Cooldown
- Stabilized Portals: Increases the duration of your Summon Vilefiend, Grimoire: Imp Lord and Grimoire: Fel Ravager by 3 sec
- Summon Vilefiend: Call Dreadstalkers also summons a Vilefiend that assists you in combat for 15 sec