Are you guys happy with the new demonology?

[Coils]

Pretty disappointed with it tbh. Had a great concept but hard to disagree with any of the mechanical shortcomings everyone has been mentioning:

1) Ramp-Up time is essentially as bad, if not worse than Affliction because demons are nothing but short duration dots with visuals attached. You simply cannot burst out a squad of demons quickly on demand, which means you are poor at priority target burst, target switching, etc.
2) You have to weave Demonic Empowerment in after every single demon summon. This honestly feels ridiculous after a while, especially because it is an incredibly unsatisfying spell to cast, imo. This slows the rotation and further contributes to ramp issues.
3) AoE requires the same build up as single target. Even with Implosion, it is not really possible to have on-demand burst unless you've saved up some shards.

Honestly at the end of the day it feels like a flashier, clunkier Affliction Warlock. It suffers from the same problems and has the same strengths, for the most part. I feel like my button presses are lackluster since my character doesn't actually do much and it is difficult to feel and see the impact of your demons outside of solo content. Maybe others disagree.

[Deleted]

I was really looking forward to it. But after playing it for a while on beta, i am to stay far away from the horrible, horrible spec they made it. Try doing a dungeon with it, even healers can do better dps on trash because of the horrible ramp up time. I really wish it was more fun, but too bad it isn't..

[klogaroth]

Demonic empowerment isn't really your traditional maintenance buff.

If you cast if after pretty much anything you summon it's not like something like improved soul fire. You end up clipping it a lot, often heavily. It's not a thing that'll often be cast as it's about to fall off, you'll rarely cast it for that reason. Most of the time it's gonna be cast because you've just summoned something. That makes it more an extension of each summon's cast time, but without having to include a 3 second long cast to summon stuff.

That makes it kinda different, and in my view better than an ordinary maintenance buff. For me it just feels a little bit too distanced from fighting an enemy though, since it does function more as a rotational spell than a maintenance buff that being put onto a spell that has zero damage isn't something I'm particularly fond of. Other people might like it, but's it's not something I can really be enthusiastic about.

[Brightamethyst]

After 10+ years or warlocking this might be the first time I go destro. I've been running affliction since 7.0 (RIP demo) but I'm not loving it.

I absolutely LOVED the old demo. Meta was awesome and I miss it so much. I really like the idea of the pet army except, a) my other "main" is a BM hunter so I already have that (or will next week anyway,) and b) it's really freaking annoying to actually play. It's kind of baffling that a concept as cool as "control a demon army" could be so bleh in practice.

I'm also not really sold on affliction atm. It's just so insanely slow. I like the play style but I also like actually being able to just nuke something down occasionally.

Destro always seemed kind of boring compared to the other specs. Now however it looks like it's, if not the best, at least the least annoying.

[muto]

They scrapped the most fun specc in the game for this shit.

My answer is: no, i dont like it

They scrapped the most unfun spec in the game for this amazing spec.

My answer: Yes, I like it.

[tyry]

I'm really enjoying it so far. It's disappointing to see so much negativity in this thread.

Compared to Aff and Destro, I find it much faster, engaging and with a MUCH better flow of soul shards. I actually like Demonic Empowerment too, although I'm not using GoService or Darkglare, so maybe I'm not having to spam it as much as other people? I'm certain I cast Shadow Bolt more often. Also, imps are by far my favourite demon (I used to run Destro just so I could have one out), so I am very entertained all round.

My only big complaint is mana, I'm having to lifetap more than Affliction, not sure if that changes at 110?

[sugarfree]

Mechanic-wise, it's OK I guess. Damage wise, I hate it, since the ramp up time is out of the world. In PvP, it has a niche, but they need to buff it somewhere else as it is seen as a gimmick right now with Implosion spec.

The PvP team is completely failing in their department. A lot of specs (not just warlocks) are being destroyed for the sake of putting something in the talent trees. Warlock pvp is a joke. One spec went from being raid bosses to shitty (on the verge of being useless), one spec is gimmicky, and one spec is utter garbage.

This is Cataclysm Warlock all over again, for PvP at least. And they will notice that once the population dwindles again during the expansion. I have not seen, heard or watched any PvP warlocks that are happy with this class after the knee-jerk nerfs to Affliction and the constant ignorance and apathy towards Destruction.

[Deleted]

Mechanic-wise, it's OK I guess. Damage wise, I hate it, since the ramp up time is out of the world. In PvP, it has a niche, but they need to buff it somewhere else as it is seen as a gimmick right now with Implosion spec.

The PvP team is completely failing in their department. A lot of specs (not just warlocks) are being destroyed for the sake of putting something in the talent trees. Warlock pvp is a joke. One spec went from being raid bosses to shitty (on the verge of being useless), one spec is gimmicky, and one spec is utter garbage.

This is Cataclysm Warlock all over again, for PvP at least. And they will notice that once the population dwindles again during the expansion. I have not seen, heard or watched any PvP warlocks that are happy with this class after the knee-jerk nerfs to Affliction and the constant ignorance and apathy towards Destruction.

On a positive side as far as rated BGs go i am intersted to see how destro is perfoming with wreck havoc and bane of havoc. It has the potential to put insane pressure on the enemy team (at least on paper)
Affliction is pretty standard. dot everything and amplify dots with artifact.
Not sure what demo's role would be in rated bgs. What is this niche you are talking about?

[Dominus89]

My only real problem with this spec is that you need to recast empowerment each time you summon a demon.. they should just make it so that you need to recast it before the buff runs out, and that every demon thats summoned during that time, gets empowered.

I'm sad to see that destro will be the go-to spec for raiding in Legion aswell.

[Deleted]

If they did what you say it would lead to generating many more shards = skyrocket dps. Which then would lead to heavily nerf the buff duration,meaning you ll end up again casting it after every summon. A nerf to demonic empowerment duration would also lead to awkward situations where you cant cast all the time (ie pvp).

[SpikeySquad]

No, though the summoner concept is interesting I much prefer the WoD Demo playstyle

[Deleted]

Demonology was awesome at MoP launch (only did the first tier).

Stance dancing, fun multi dotting, ton of cooldowns, nice mobility and a lot of AoE stuff (Carrion Swarm, Immolation aura, Hand of Guldan/shadowflame, Void Ray, Chaos wave for quick burst and felguard bladestorm). You also the highest damage in the game during cooldowns when playing demo, but very weak during ramp up. But at least it was very interactive as you had to jump in and out of metamorphis and also an extremely rewarding spec. Suvivability was also very rewarding with absorbs and quick regeneration over time.

I don't think I will be playing any warlock this expansion. I've tried the new demonology for a while, but I don't like it, and I never liked affliction or destruction anyway. There is nothing in this game I'd rather do than playing the old version of MoP demonology in Legion raids and especially mythic+. Instead I will be playing shadow/disc/holy which in my opinion are three specs that all feel very rewarding playing and also really unique (although shadow was better in Cataclysm).

[Styxz]

MoP locks were probs the best designed class the game has seen imo (obviously biased coming from a lock on the lock forums, but...)

Everything flowed and synergized well, shit did LOTS of damage, and we felt powerful af.

[klogaroth]

MoP locks were probs the best designed class the game has seen imo (obviously biased coming from a lock on the lock forums, but...)

Everything flowed and synergized well, shit did LOTS of damage, and we felt powerful af.

Outside of soul swap shenanigans I'd agree.

[varren]

I think the new Demo is crap. Shadow priest became what Demo should have been all along.

[Deleted]

When I first saw demonology I was excited. I thought it looked great and was what demo always should have been, a master of demons.

But it's turned out really badly.

1. The mechanic of casting demonic empowerment after summoning every single demon is mind-numbing
2. Demonic Empowerment is visually incredibly boring. Your demons get very, very slightly bigger. Originally they turned much larger which was great but that got junked
3. They gave us a brand-new model in the inquisitor firing frostbolts. Then they junked it and gav eus that crappy eyeball thing instead. WHY?
4. Demo is immobile as hell, because it is tied to slow hard casts for almost everything
5. The rampup times are ludicrously long, it takes 14 seconds to reach your sustained damage
6. The rampup times make demo crap at bursting priority adds, which is compounded by the fact that your main pet is melee, and your othe rpets are guardians that won;t switch unless their original target dies
7. Your option for burst is Implosion, which literally sacrifices a bunch of your dps
8. Demo has a massive amount invested in Doom, which will become progressively more and more worthless as stuff won;t live 5 seconds, let alone 20. It will quickly become worthless for trash in any circumstance, rendering Hand of Doom pointless except for making your crappy eyeball thing attack them
9. Demo, like all the warlock specs, presents the talents as binary choices. You can AOE or you can single target. Clearly the intent was talent switching on the fly, with the "ooh, we need to make professions worth it" slapped on at the end. But there are other classes who are good all-rounders like MM hunters who can pick a talent choices and be good at ST and AOE, which will give them a massive advantage in a Darmac style fight

I'd say demo is the No Man's Sky spec - looked good, hyped up to the limit, ending up as a badly designed, half-arsed buggy spec people are going to regret taking

[Deleted]

I REALLY hate it! Terrible spec! It's boring, swapping targets is difficult, boosting pets as fillers is so FREAKING boring!

[Deleted]

I love everything about it (i like the other specs too, but not so much as this one). I even like demonic empowerment. the only thing i would want is some visual green stuff to go with the spec.
Btw guys if you dont enjoy pet classes or interacting with pets you shouldnt play a warlock in the first place, just play mage or sp. The petless playstyle that was forced in the last expansions should never exist in the first place. But thats just my opinion.

[Deleted]

Pet classes would be fine if it wasn;t for the bad AI and the awful guardian pets which you have no control over

[Lucrece]

Guardians should just attack whatever you're shadowbolting/incinerating.