[5.4] Demonology Warlock Guide

[Badahs]

As a lock coming back after a few months of absence, I am very confused because we don't have a set rotation/glyphs/spec and it changes with our ilvl/stat values. Here is my armory http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...counsel/simple

I have normal Lei Shen trinket, but otherwise I have no idea what glyphs, rotation or talents (grims) I should have because each guide and simcraft say something different. In Simcraft even the normal gear and the heroic gear profiles are different for glyphs and spec and I'm not sure if either is correct.

My questions are:
1) Should I have glyphs of EA and Imp Swarm at my ilvl? (SimCraft says no for normal and yes for heroic, I'm unsure since I don't have t15 2 set so I'm hurting on fury gen)
2) Which grim should I be using? (SimCraft says service for normal, sac for heroic)
3) Should I use SF in meta? (It always feels like my DF generation is too low for me to make optimal use of MC procs, especially w/o the 2 set)
4) Which stat should I be reforging for? (Simcraft says haste, but I'm not sure since I'm nowhere near the 8097 breakpoint)
5) Should I even be playing demo at my ilvl? (I assume yes because of the huge boost from Lei Shen trinket, but the lack of a 2 set might be hurting. Also simcraft, puts it as the highest spec for my gear)

[FurtyIRL]

As a lock coming back after a few months of absence, I am very confused because we don't have a set rotation/glyphs/spec and it changes with our ilvl/stat values. Here is my armory http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...counsel/simple

I have normal Lei Shen trinket, but otherwise I have no idea what glyphs, rotation or talents (grims) I should have because each guide and simcraft say something different. In Simcraft even the normal gear and the heroic gear profiles are different for glyphs and spec and I'm not sure if either is correct.

My questions are:
1) Should I have glyphs of EA and Imp Swarm at my ilvl? (SimCraft says no for normal and yes for heroic, I'm unsure since I don't have t15 2 set so I'm hurting on fury gen)
2) Which grim should I be using? (SimCraft says service for normal, sac for heroic)
3) Should I use SF in meta? (It always feels like my DF generation is too low for me to make optimal use of MC procs, especially w/o the 2 set)
4) Which stat should I be reforging for? (Simcraft says haste, but I'm not sure since I'm nowhere near the 8097 breakpoint)
5) Should I even be playing demo at my ilvl? (I assume yes because of the huge boost from Lei Shen trinket, but the lack of a 2 set might be hurting. Also simcraft, puts it as the highest spec for my gear)

Should probably play destro at your ilvl, especially without demo 2pc.

1. Yes
2. Service - Sac definitely takes the lead in higher ilvls though, with the exception of fights that need burst AoE (Lei Shen balls)
3. Definitely not w/o 2 set, but with 2 set and procs up *probably* - this is situationally dependent, if you have enough imps to sustain meta for it's CD duration and the entire length of your procs then it is usually worth it to SF. Bear in mind in a single target scenario you don't usually have enough fury banked or imps to sustain SF in meta for a long time, barring your opener.
4. Haste to 8100, then mastery
5. Again, not really - destro is likely stronger until you get a little more gear and 2pc. That said, if you enjoy the spec and you're not raiding super seriously, why not?

All this said, most of this information is answered in the original guide.

[Count Zero]

I dunno -- I'd think with having UVLS he'd want to go with Demo, even without set bonus.

[whisperica]

IF you have UVLS you should definetly go demo.

[weakdots]

i beat my previous #20 rank on h megaera this week using grimsac demo and 0 tier pieces, also ranked for the first time ever on jikun so so the set bonus def is not needed, only time i even notice it is on the opener.

[Divinedoom]

My guild broke up after our first Lei Shen/Ra'den kill back in may and I took a long break from the game after that. Recently returning, havn't kept track at all on the game/lock theory in the meantime. Now I'm trying to get my game back into shape and have a few questions.

Unfortunatly we never had a breath drop and dispite coining every week no luck. So to pair with my normal UVLS I have either Hc Wush or Hc Cha-Ye. I was using Cha-Ye before (had no choice at the time due to hit on gear). But with the Ra-Den legs I can now use Wush without being massivley over hit capped and it allows me to drop about 700 crit and put it into mastery (regardless of mast/haste build, won't get extra haste out of it).

How do you guys feel the proc of Wush works out in Demo? It's not going to line up with your opener Doom as Cha-Ye can, but the overall int during your opener will be significantly higher. From what I remember though, Cha-ye's has better uptime during a fight then Wush generally?

My second question is considdering the full haste Sac build for single target which I've seen mentioned, is that something thats worth it with Ilvl 540? (not getting any gear upgrades since may sucks..). If so what ToT bosses do you guys use it on? Iron Qon I've seen mentioned, which by extention includes Twins as well I guess (assuming no adds to aoe at start of p2). What about bosses with dmg buffs/burst windows like Jin'rokh and Ji-kun, mastery is obviously more favoured there then on a non dmg buff/burst fight but is the haste/Sac build still better?

Not as important anymore with the patch close but I'm doing some alts runs with old guildies and I am ever so competative!

[Deleted]

I've never seen hydra drop either so I've been using hc wush too. I love it!

Sure you don't get as much of an empowered doom, but really doom is just there to give you imps. On the opener once you get to the soul fire dump phase wush is usually on 6+ stacks, and from there I really like cranking out 5-6 soulfires back to back, 10 stack wush + dark soul soulfires are delicious. Throughout the rest of the fight, when wush procs I'll go about my business as usual, but take special care to dump another 3-4 soul fires at 8+ stacks. The rest of the proc depends on how much fury I have at the time; if i'm almost maxed out I'll just ToC for a while when it procs then dump soulfires towards the end etc. You kinda just have to play it by ear and decide when to begin dumping fury; the proc is long enough that you can spend half of it building up the fury you need to unload once its nicely stacked up.

Regarding sacrifice at my 542ilvl, I personally play with a heavy haste set up as I run an affliction offspec, and I just prefer the faster paced gameplay in general. I've played around with both setups and cannot pinpoint a difference. I also raid 10 man so the need to burn many adds quickly isn't as frequent. Haste vs Mastery is in my opinion down to personal preference (at least in 10's).

Now which bosses you take it on, I would say Jinrokh as you already mentioned, Horridon (though I have to run supremacy to mass dispell sunlight qq), Council (this is the daddy), Megaera (10 mans have less adds and you can roll doom on venomous head 24/7), and Ji-Kun. You can run it on iron qon and twins but I prefer the bigger burst which service gives and the passive from soul link, but I think these fights are more down to personal preference. Regarding twins I've only killed them once on heroic as we've only just started progress on dark animus. You can probably run it on dark animus too especially if you zerg it, but I cannot really comment as I've never done it.

Hopefully some more experienced people can correct me where I'm wrong or add some other details, but regardless I hope that was of some help to you at least, however minor.

[Deleted]

I have both Wush and Breath and the results with both trinks paired with UVLS are pretty much similar. The only reason to use Breath imo would be if you can't get rit of the excesive hit on Wush. Personally i use Wush because i use it across all 3 specs, and if i don't use it in demo i have to do too much reforging to get the hit on my gear again. Now i can just switch Breath for UVLS and be ready to go.

[varren]

Does anyone have/know of a macro that can be spammed to apply Doom to all 4 bosses on council? Right when UVLS procs I just want to be able to spam this button and hopefully hit all 4 with a Doom.

[Deleted]

Does anyone have/know of a macro that can be spammed to apply Doom to all 4 bosses on council? Right when UVLS procs I just want to be able to spam this button and hopefully hit all 4 with a Doom.

Not a single macro, but you can make one for each boss.

#showtooltip
/stopcasting
/use [form:0]Metamorphosis;[form:1]
/use [@boss1] corruption

Make 4 macros and just change the boss number at the end from 1-4. If you open on sul you can put your first doom on him with the normal opener, then just cycle through boss 1-3, as Sul is boss 4.

Afaik you can't make a macro to cycle through targets like that, but I may be wrong.

[Rayaleith]

I think when the healing spirit spawns from the bitch, it occupies a boss frame as well. I am not sure/remember which though. I prefer using mouseover macros for this reason on this fight.

[Deleted]

Does anyone have/know of a macro that can be spammed to apply Doom to all 4 bosses on council? Right when UVLS procs I just want to be able to spam this button and hopefully hit all 4 with a Doom.

You can't, well, it's really difficult without hero since you can only fit 3 global cooldowns into 3 seconds normally, I just have 4 seperate Doom to target macro, like
/target "target here"
/cast doom

simples

[Deleted]

You can't, well, it's really difficult without hero since you can only fit 3 global cooldowns into 3 seconds normally, I just have 4 seperate Doom to target macro, like
/target "target here"
/cast doom

simples

You can if you're lucky on your GCD progress when it procs, but it's unlikely.

[Bonkura]

if you're not aiming for 4 dooms I see no reason to macro it.

[JV Chequer]

I already put a couple times 4 UVLS dooms without this macro -and with 200ms - so I see no reason beeing difficult within.

[lichanator]

So I did some testing on the ptr today whether fel flame was viable as a filler instead of shadowbolt. if MC procced I used soulfire, and if Meta gem popped I used Shadowbolt it went down to 1.5 sec cast.

I did several 2 mins tests no buff and every time fel flame came out on top damage wise.

Shadow bolt for was 2.03 secs on the ui, fel flame instant. shadow bolt gave me 25 fury regen, and Fel flame have me 15 fury Regen, but you get 2 fel flame per shadow bolt, so Fel flame gave me 30 fury regen.

on avg shadowbolt hit for 102k, and felflame hit for 64k on avg on 2 mins of testing.

So it might be viable or is there something I am missing here. I guess we have to wait for latest Simcraft to come out so we can test, but for me, a higher fury regen, and more avg damage could be a winner, I guess you don't get a chance to pop a imp, but if using glyph it's a less of a loss?

[Xorn]

So I did some testing on the ptr today whether fel flame was viable as a filler instead of shadowbolt. if MC procced I used soulfire, and if Meta gem popped I used Shadowbolt it went down to 1.5 sec cast.

I did several 2 mins tests no buff and every time fel flame came out on top damage wise.

Shadow bolt for was 2.03 secs on the ui, fel flame instant. shadow bolt gave me 25 fury regen, and Fel flame have me 15 fury Regen, but you get 2 fel flame per shadow bolt, so Fel flame gave me 30 fury regen.

on avg shadowbolt hit for 102k, and felflame hit for 64k on avg on 2 mins of testing.

So it might be viable or is there something I am missing here. I guess we have to wait for latest Simcraft to come out so we can test, but for me, a higher fury regen, and more avg damage could be a winner, I guess you don't get a chance to pop a imp, but if using glyph it's a less of a loss?

Were you using the T16 4 set? I feel like that would skew the results in the favor of SB.

But yeah, barring that, they really need to buff the Demo/Destro fillers, otherwise Fel Flame is going to win out.

[lichanator]

Were you using the T16 4 set? I feel like that would skew the results in the favor of SB.

But yeah, barring that, they really need to buff the Demo/Destro fillers, otherwise Fel Flame is going to win out.

No because I was on single target I went with 2 t15 & 2 t16 for less fury spent in DS.

[Harsesis]

If your SBs are 2.03s then you have approx 19% haste making your GCD ~1.2sec. This means that you are spending 2.4 sec to cast 2 Fel Flames. Fel Flame costs 5% of your base mana and SB costs 5.5%. Going by the numbers you give above you are gaining 5.8% dps (between the two not overall) by using Fel Flame. However you are burning somewhere in the realm of 55% more mana to do it. The extra lifetaps from this will more than offset this.

[lichanator]

If your SBs are 2.03s then you have approx 19% haste making your GCD ~1.2sec. This means that you are spending 2.4 sec to cast 2 Fel Flames. Fel Flame costs 5% of your base mana and SB costs 5.5%. Going by the numbers you give above you are gaining 5.8% dps (between the two not overall) by using Fel Flame. However you are burning somewhere in the realm of 55% more mana to do it. The extra lifetaps from this will more than offset this.

Yeah I didn't take life tap into the equation. .5% more mana, would that be 1 extra life tap?, Faster fury gains means a quicker time to return to meta, thus saving time for mana gains while in metaform? Now if they would give us back Fel Flame refresh Dots, that could be very nice