[VIDEO] Raiding as Demonology level 90 Preview - MoP Beta

[Deleted]

Another preview, this time the Demonology point of view.

Disclaimer for errors due to patch changes and more, the point of the video is not to figure the best DPS rotations yet, saving that for closer to live! It's just a teaser to get a feel of the spec, what spells you use to DPS with it and how it works in practice.




Cheers <3!

[darthades]

It has been suggested that Demo and Destro, both with ridiculous initial ramp up are given a 2m cooldown similar to fervor that gives instant secondary resources in order to be able use dps cooldowns at the start of a fight, like all the other classes.

[sugarfree]

Spark, do you like how Demo is functioning in beta right now? I mean, the mechanics are pretty much going to be the same in both PvE and PvP. There seems to be no middle ground between caster form and meta form. Caster form is basically meh then you go Meta and your dps SPIKES way up. I also heard from other locks in Beta that Meta is pretty much Godform and the normal form is kinda bad.

I'm not sure if I like that mechanic personally. As I'm speaking in a general sense, trying to build up that kind of DF to get your groove going is kinda bad since it's not that easy to generate DF (esp. in PvP).

[PlatedPriest]

thanks a lot. i am actually thinking about rolling a warlock in MOP. i currently have a shadow priest and the play styles of shadow and affliction are just to similar. this gave me a lot of insight of what demo locks actually do in raids. but i have one question for you or anyone else:

how FUN is demonology comparatively to other specs

[roahn the warlock]

It looks boring, Cata was too difficult.. Wrath was perfect. this is boring.

---------- Post added 2012-07-10 at 12:02 AM ----------

Do we not use chaos wave in demo?

[sugarfree]

thanks a lot. i am actually thinking about rolling a warlock in MOP. i currently have a shadow priest and the play styles of shadow and affliction are just to similar. this gave me a lot of insight of what demo locks actually do in raids. but i have one question for you or anyone else:

how FUN is demonology comparatively to other specs

That is REALLY subjective. Lots of locks find the mind-numbingly boring Destro rotation fun. So I don't know about your criteria of fun. But if you mean the stance dancing between Meta and caster form, then it kinda is. If you don't mind the discrepancies between the 2 forms (dps and survivability-wise) then the whole rotation seems to be *fun*. Personally, it needs something a bit more though resource-generation wise and cheapening the mana and DF costs. Also Meta seems to be Demonic Slash spamming?

Demonic Fury needs work though, seems to be too long to gather enough of it.

[Keren]

Wouldn't it be benefit to always switch to meta when Doom needs to be refreshed and not when you have full DF?

[Deleted]

Wouldn't it be benefit to always switch to meta when Doom needs to be refreshed and not when you have full DF?

It most likely would yes, i dont like to play too much with the best rotation and what not yet until we figure it all out better. Things change on a day to day basis more or less, so as i said in the topic this video is more or less to get a feel of the gameplay rather then showing the best. These recordings are 1 week old, so even from then things changed. Will do some proper guides at the real level 90 raiding

---------- Post added 2012-07-10 at 11:46 AM ----------

Spark, do you like how Demo is functioning in beta right now? I mean, the mechanics are pretty much going to be the same in both PvE and PvP. There seems to be no middle ground between caster form and meta form. Caster form is basically meh then you go Meta and your dps SPIKES way up. I also heard from other locks in Beta that Meta is pretty much Godform and the normal form is kinda bad.

I'm not sure if I like that mechanic personally. As I'm speaking in a general sense, trying to build up that kind of DF to get your groove going is kinda bad since it's not that easy to generate DF (esp. in PvP).

I like affliction more overall for everything, but meta has its moments too. It looks horrible, but you can see some use for it while you play it.

---------- Post added 2012-07-10 at 11:47 AM ----------

thanks a lot. i am actually thinking about rolling a warlock in MOP. i currently have a shadow priest and the play styles of shadow and affliction are just to similar. this gave me a lot of insight of what demo locks actually do in raids. but i have one question for you or anyone else:

how FUN is demonology comparatively to other specs

Affliction > Demo > Destro

Demonology can be fun, as you can move around while nuking in metamorphosis. I dont like the slow build up it has right now, but its more fun then it looks for sure.

[Kashii]

Nice video - thanks for posting.

I know we aren't theorycrafting but I have to ask...is the loss of pet dps using Grimoire of Sacrifice really better than GoSupremacy?
I guess I really thought the design goal was something like:

1. Need good sustained damage - talent GoSupremacy
2. Need good burst damage - talent GoService
3. Can't us a pet for some reason - talent GoSacrifice

Also, I know people complain about ramp up time for Detro and Demo but honestly it's MUCH MUCH worse for Destro to the point I can't even play that spec and enjoy it. I don't even notice the ramp up time for Demo that much, and building Demonic Fury actually seems more "fun" than the horrible Burning Ember mechanic.

Honestly, I'd choose my spec based on the fight. If I wanted good sustained DPS I'd go Affliction. If the fight called for burst or heavy AoE I'd go Demo (I still think Seed of Corruption won't pan out in practice). I don't think anyone can simply say one specialization is better than another unless you consider the fight you are facing.

[Deleted]

Nice video - thanks for posting.

I know we aren't theorycrafting but I have to ask...is the loss of pet dps using Grimoire of Sacrifice really better than GoSupremacy?
I guess I really thought the design goal was something like:

1. Need good sustained damage - talent GoSupremacy
2. Need good burst damage - talent GoService
3. Can't us a pet for some reason - talent GoSacrifice

Also, I know people complain about ramp up time for Detro and Demo but honestly it's MUCH MUCH worse for Destro to the point I can't even play that spec and enjoy it. I don't even notice the ramp up time for Demo that much, and building Demonic Fury actually seems more "fun" than the horrible Burning Ember mechanic.

Honestly, I'd choose my spec based on the fight. If I wanted good sustained DPS I'd go Affliction. If the fight called for burst or heavy AoE I'd go Demo (I still think Seed of Corruption won't pan out in practice). I don't think anyone can simply say one specialization is better than another unless you consider the fight you are facing.

I really agree with this, we have a lot of different situation glyphs, specs and talents. Im pretty sure Grimoire depends on fight before anything. You will always be able to find some sort of simulation or time range of a f ight where y goes better then x grimoire. That's why its hard to judge yet, and say look this is best. Changing a little mechanic on a fight might make one better then the other. But blizzard said they wanted talents to be situational rather then DPS depended. If they want to stick to that, im sure they will scale them around the same DPS numbers, where you then can pull more on certain fights with one vs the other (burst vs downtime vs other things).

It's very interesting and a ton of theorycrafting that can be done to determine what we want to do, thats why i dont like to give too much detail on preview. Once you make the preview you can check back 2 days later and things are completly revamped again. I simply just try to cover the basics of the specs, to show what it consists of, to give an idea of the playstyle. Wether we press x or y button at x or y moment time will tell!

So very well said in your post, and yes destruction seems lacking. I think they wanted a, no offence to anyone "no brainer" spec for Warlocks, so anyone can go in and do 'decen't dps with the class. Right now on live, there is a lot of small efforts vs DPS rewards and if you dont do them you will be far far bottom on the meters.

[Micke]

So very well said in your post, and yes destruction seems lacking. I think they wanted a, no offence to anyone "no brainer" spec for Warlocks, so anyone can go in and do 'decen't dps with the class. Right now on live, there is a lot of small efforts vs DPS rewards and if you dont do them you will be far far bottom on the meters.

I think that's very true, it will make the class more appealing to new players/rerollers, but it can also serve as a "feeling a bit meh, I'll just be destro for tonights raid" or similar situation, or perhaps for learning an encounter without having to pay too much attention into your dps.

Though I'm not quite sure how destros burst (in the span of 4 CBs) compares to meta in demo, it's possible it could have a niche of its own if its balanced correctly.

[Grubjuice]

It would be great to see an AoE video demonstrating what Demo's multi target style looks like.
are there any current raids up in beta with a notable AoE phase?

[Deleted]

It would be great to see an AoE video demonstrating what Demo's multi target style looks like.
are there any current raids up in beta with a notable AoE phase?

Funny enough, there hasn't really been any fights with madness style of AOE. Some bosses with adds, but mostly control needed over pure aoe. I don't think there will be much need of pure AOE speccing this content. Don't sue me if it happens!

[Zinnin]

I have a feeling the 'down' phase for Gara'jal The Spiritbinder might end with some heavy AoE. But besides that there has been a surprisingly low amount of AoE.

[darthades]

Just one question spark. (I know some people will hate me for being insistent, but is the last one =P)

Do you think shadowbolt deserves a 2.5 seconds cast time considering they are lowering the casts for almost all the classes to 2.2s max (fireball but firemages have insane mobility in compensation for this)

Watching all these raid videos it is clear to me that the long cast time of SB is a liability even in PvE, most of these fights have a lot of movement so you interrupt your SBs a lot to "get out of the fire" mechanics and to chase stuff, etc-

I am no big raider, but i would never take a Demonology warlock over affliction, EVEN if demo THEORICAL dps is 5-10% higher, in real DIFFICULT fights you arent allowed to turret mega long casts 24/7 and the consistency of affliction is beautiful plus they almost even match demo burst now with their cooldowns up. Also affliction damage while moving is insane, thanks to the tier 90 KC talent, MG buff is still in full effect.

Since the overpowered 10%SP buff of demo is gone, if all the 3 specs do equal "theorical" dps, i dont forsee any guild taking demonology warlocks, respec aff or respec aff.

I wont even mention how fluid and "right" aff feels (like cata shadowpriest) compared to the clunkyness of the other 2 specs even if it is a big factor too.

[Onigumo]

snip

The problem is, no one has lobbied for shorter SB casts with an adjustment to it's damage. Many locks are and prefer Affliction resulting in things like SB casts time simply not happening.

[rap87]

Well, I gotta say I finally got on the PTR to play Demo and Aff. So far I found Affliction to be alil too relaxed...I've loved the spec and played it throughout ICC and throughout the first half of Cata, but maybe being forced to play Demo was a good thing. Felt like you had more stuff to do and going back Aff made me realize I was missing keeping dots up spamming a few nukes and going demon form lol. In Demo I felt like it had a more visceral feel especially when going Demo to get the instant spam Demonic Slash. I also think the new Hand of Guldan/Chaos Wave looks amazing. The fact that we're in Demon form quite a bit now is also really cool.

Has anyone glyphed the demonic leap fall dmg? OMFG that isn't the coolest thing ever...

Iono, I do a lot of pvp now and I love aff in the arena, but I feel like for me to get crazy about AFF again I'd need a lot of mutli target fights for it to feel visceral and fast paced. So probably hoping to go Demo and Pvp off spec Aff.

[Deleted]

I was doing Elegon HC last night. With the INT trink and popping CD's you get like a min of doing over 140K DPS. Issue is though Demonic fury is annoying though and once it drops off and your not using CD's the DPS drops even more dramatically than in Cata content. This is ilvl489 it's scaled up to. The good thing about touch of chaos, it lets you solo the Orbs in Phase 2. If this was using Cata mechanics, Warlocks never would had enough burst and it'd be Spine HC tendons all over again.

With Dark Bargain/Unending Resolve and probably Rejuvenation (symbiosis) it's a lot easier to cheat your self out of mistakes that would normally kill you. Dark Bargain is great on the Zorlok HC "Atramades" style attacks too, if you can't get out of way fast on a turn

I'm not that good a Lock, but I'm able to to do over 70K average on raids so for any complaint about the class, it's miles ahead of Cata. Destructo is annoying in Beta, but affliction plays pretty well and I assume it will be "pro" choice for raiding. However Demo's just so much fun.

[Grubjuice]

However Demo's just so much fun.

^^This

/ten character