Is demo hard or do I just really suck at it?

[DeadmanWalking]

That's the kinda expectations the average raider has at my level, but if you're only worried about heroics I think that your raid leaders ego is bigger than his reality.

Yep, Since I like being married mythic raiding is out, its a guild of casual heroic raiders. The raid leader use to be in a mythic guild until some drama made them quit and I don't think it has sunk in yet that casuals won't be progressing like hardcores do, fortunately the guild leader understands that we are a casual raiding group.

[pvw1075]

I've been maining my warlock since Wrath - and oddly that's the last time I raided as demo.
I picked it up last night to try it hearing about buffs, on heroic imp...i did 14k dps haha
Went back to aff did 27, I think i need come practice. lol

[Baconeggcheese]

The raid leader use to be in a mythic guild until some drama

Yeah that's never an easy transition, honestly he might find that he can't really make that transition over time. You can very easily burn out having been spoiled by a certain standard and then not being able to adjust to something more relaxed.

Hopefully all that works out.

[Turturin the Warlock]

How exactly do you pre-havoc? You mean putting havoc up on the imperator 10-12 seconds before the arcane add spawns, while still dpsing imperator, and then when the arcane add spawns you switch to him? I guess the 3 stacks of havoc won't get used if you're just dpsing the same target?

Yes, that's exactly what it means. It's usable in many situations to get extra cleaves, especially now that havoc has a 15 sec cooldown.

[Deleted]

Maybe in BRF, but in Highmaul there really isn't any encounter with unpredictable movement which you'd be using Demonbolt on.

Next week I'm definitely going to be taking KJC for Twin Ogron. This week was my first time playing DB on it (previously played with Cata which made movement a non-issue), and almost all the mechanics in that fight require you to move a bit, inevitably screwing up at least one or two of your DB cycles. Yes you can call the movement predictable in terms of when the mechanics are going to happen, but with things like quake in particular, you can never guarantee you'll be in a safe position for 10 seconds / wait until the end of the quake to start a cycle.

[iriecolorado]

(previously played with Cata which made movement a non-issue)

The longest cast in the game makes movement a non-issue? I might be daft or doing something crazy wrong, but it's a lot easier for me to sneak in three one-point-something second casts in my 10 second DS window than it is to sneak in one, three second cast in the middle of constant light movement.

[Turturin the Warlock]

The longest cast in the game makes movement a non-issue? I might be daft or doing something crazy wrong, but it's a lot easier for me to sneak in three one-point-something second casts in my 10 second DS window than it is to sneak in one, three second cast in the middle of constant light movement.

What he means is that by taking cataclysm, he can freely spend fury on ToC. That is why cata is a far more mobile spec than demonbolt.

[Deleted]

The longest cast in the game makes movement a non-issue? I might be daft or doing something crazy wrong, but it's a lot easier for me to sneak in three one-point-something second casts in my 10 second DS window than it is to sneak in one, three second cast in the middle of constant light movement.

Cata = no requirements on what you spend your fury on = constant ToC for every movement phase

[DeadmanWalking]

Another thing that is annoying is that demo instant casts have a cooldown before you can use another spell, destro you can just slam away at your insta casts and go right into casting. It's wierd getting use to having to wait a second after corruption to get HoG going, smacking buttons and getting no response because corruption is on cooldown can make me miss a cast that I need in the time that I judge that I have before a mechanic goes off.

[iriecolorado]

Another thing that is annoying is that demo instant casts have a cooldown before you can use another spell, destro you can just slam away at your insta casts and go right into casting.

Destruction has two insta-casts outside of execute. Rain of Fire and Conflag. They both trigger the same global cooldown as Demonology. Shadowburn inside of execute is instant and again, is on the same global cooldown as every other damage dealing ability.

It's wierd getting use to having to wait a second after corruption to get HoG going, smacking buttons and getting no response because corruption is on cooldown can make me miss a cast that I need in the time that I judge that I have before a mechanic goes off.

Huh? Corruption has no spell-specific cooldown. It's on the same global cooldown as just about every other damage dealing ability in the game.

http://wow.gamepedia.com/Cooldown

Global cooldown
The global or universal cooldown, frequently shortened to "GCD", is the cooldown which starts every time you start to use a spell or ability, and affects all of your class spells and abilities. There are exceptions to this, however, as noted below. The basic rule of thumb is that if the spell affects the casting of the next spell, it will not activate the global cooldown.

The term 'global' is also often used to refer to a single global cooldown. In this way it serves as a basic unit of measurement for time and ability usage. It may take a certain number of globals to set up a rotation, to deal a certain amount of damage/healing, or to respond to an event. The phrase 'to global' (or 'to be globaled') refers to being killed extremely quickly, such as in the duration of only a single GCD.

If a spell has a casting time less than the global cooldown (or instant cast), you generally have to wait the remainder of the global cooldown. If a spell with casting time is interrupted before it has finished casting, the global cooldown is canceled. This allows you to immediately begin casting a new spell, be it the same spell or another.

The base global cooldown is generally 1.5 seconds for all classes except hunters, rogues, [Cat Form] druids, monks and death knights, whose abilities mostly have one second global cooldowns. Shaman totems also only trigger a one second global cooldown. However, since patch 2.4.0, haste can reduce the global cooldown to a minimum of 1 second. A few specific abilities have global cooldowns as short as 0.5 seconds. The global cooldown affects the wait for the next ability, so using an item or ability with the standard 1.5 second cooldown will require waiting that long before a 1 second global cooldown ability can be used.

Some abilities are not affected by the global cooldown, and do not trigger the global cooldown when used. This means that they can be used at times when other abilities cannot (such as immediately after using an instant ability), and can be followed immediately by another ability without delay. Such abilities are often referred to as being "off the global cooldown" or "not affected by the GCD". All such abilities are currently instant cast, allowing several to be used simultaneously, followed immediately by the use of another ability. Many of these abilities have the effect of augmenting the character in some way, and are often placed in macros with other abilities, for speed and convenience.

Abilities noted for not affecting nor being affected by the global cooldown:

Warlock-
[Soulburn]

[Baconeggcheese]

Havoc has a .5 second gcd, I was under the impression the rest of destructions spells had a default 1s gcd instead of 1.5 during mop but I wouldn't quote me on that.