[BETA] Demonology Warlock Discussion

[garonne]

about target swapping, whats wrong with darkglare and implosion? this is me inquiring, not arguing its use.

[Smog]

about target swapping, whats wrong with darkglare and implosion? this is me inquiring, not arguing its use.

Implosion is burst and disrupts your sustain, especially if you have to do it early (such as if you need to target swap one or two seconds after an add comes down). Imps are only a single part of our sustained dps. So you implosion them to a new mob, and then have to ramp back up all over again. Good target swapping implies you can move to a new target with minimal loss of your sustained dps. Implosion does not allow you to do that.

Darkglare will continue attacking anything doomed, but is again only a small part of our overall dps, especially on single targets. On fights that require alot of target swapping, but where there is rarely more than one doomed target, you wouldn't take darkglare. Basically, this talent isn't used when target swapping aptitude is needed.

[Count Zero]

I haven't had a problem at all with Demo imps switching targets, actually.

[Maleific]

Then we got Wrath and affliction was strong until the decided no no, being strong with the DOTs on single target makes you too strong on anything else, here, have some nerfs, then the result was raid leaders saying "affliction locks stay on the boss at all times" but at least the nicer ones didn;t say "cos you're no use at anything else" or "we'll take a warlock, we need healthstones, soulstones and summons yuk yuk"

Well for a good part of Wrath I was our guild's *volunteer* DP bitch, I didnt mind cos I loved the spec lol. I am a little concerned about Demo in mythic+ dungeons, though i'd imagine destruction will be just fine.

[leaprah]

so ive been reading the past 60 ish pages of this thread and i cant find any info or guide on how demo is supposed to be played in legion to see if i am doing it right or not. i thought this was the right thread so if anyone could point me out to the right one, it would be appreciated. nothing very useful here so far exept people expressing their hatred and not speaking about demo locks

[Baconeggcheese]

@leaprah

Keep dogs on CD, follow any pet summons with demonic empowerment (if you're going to have back to back summons probably makes sense to offset the DE), every time you reach 4 shards spend them on imps unless dogs is about to come off cd and you don't have a demonic calling proc.

The talents should be fairly intuitive, so take the appropriate ones for the appropriate situation. In aoe situations you use demonwrath to fish for shards and summon more imps, and then implode them if you went that route, you'd also keep darkglare on cd if you took that.

I mean, most of it should be fairly intuitive outside of very niche / nuanced situations so, not sure what exactly you're looking for.

[Smog]

so ive been reading the past 60 ish pages of this thread and i cant find any info or guide on how demo is supposed to be played in legion to see if i am doing it right or not. i thought this was the right thread so if anyone could point me out to the right one, it would be appreciated. nothing very useful here so far exept people expressing their hatred and not speaking about demo locks

http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...monology-Guide It's stickied.

[Deleted]

Soo, anyone experimented with our level 90 talents for leveling? Leveling spec in general?
Not that it makes a tremendous difference either way, but still interesting.

[Smog]

@Clonan



This is what I leveled with.

Shadowy Inspiration gives you a bit of movement and wiggle room, but this tier doesn't matter terribly much.

Implosion is a must. It gives you burst, sustained aoe for big packs, ways to not waste imp damage as you go from mob to mob, etc.

Demon Skin is pretty much a given, but Shadowfury could be fine.

Hand of Doom or Power Trip, either one. I pick Hand of Doom because I chain dungeon queue while leveling.

Burning Rush because you gotta go fast.

Some people advocate for GoSup, but I think GoServ is much stronger. It allows you to double felstorm for burst aoe and a bigger TKC, emergency summon an extra silence if necessary, etc. The huge aoe pulls you can do with double felstorm, implosion spam is pretty crazy, and it's obviously the best choice for dungeons as well.

I prefer Soul Conduit because I like turning my brain off while leveling, plus Demonbolt isn't nearly as good in non-sustain situations (bouncing mob to mob), and Darkglare is just extra upkeep that I don't want to bother with while leveling (plus you're rarely going to take advantage of its aoe).

[Taeron]

@Clonan

Some people advocate for GoSup, but I think GoServ is much stronger. It allows you to double felstorm for burst aoe and a bigger TKC, emergency summon an extra silence if necessary, etc. The huge aoe pulls you can do with double felstorm, implosion spam is pretty crazy, and it's obviously the best choice for dungeons as well.

People keep talking about double felstorm but everytime I use GoServ>Felguard and then hit felstorm, only my primary felguard starts whirling, while the other just attacks normally.

[Smog]

People keep talking about double felstorm but everytime I use GoServ>Felguard and then hit felstorm, only my primary felguard starts whirling, while the other just attacks normally.

The other Felguard is a guardian and does not follow pet commands. It automatically Felstorms approximately 3 globals after being summoned. I have never had him fail to do so.

[Lucrece]

I would have thought dark pact would be far more desirable than fel rush.

[Deleted]

I would have thought dark pact would be far more desirable than fel rush.

I don't think you'll use defensive cooldowns while leveling very often and even in dungeons it's fairly useless most of the time.

[striderZA]

I don't think you'll use defensive cooldowns while leveling very often and even in dungeons it's fairly useless most of the time.

Idk I tend to grossly overestimate how many mobs I can pull.

[Deleted]

I just want to confirm, I was playing with the mechanics for demo. Soo, target switching is bad because of ramp up time? By time you send dreadstalkers + DE + imps + DE, the target is dead right?

It's terribly because

(a) your main pet is a melee with the problems this implies, if it's a "adds enter from across the far right" type fight he will spent ages running to them (odds on bet being he won;t have the energy to use charge)
(b) your othe rpets are guardian ones, with an even dumber AI that half the time won't target switch at all
(c) even if they will, two of them are also melee ones (which is why they made the Dreadstalkers leap when they are first summoned)
(d) demo has horribly long rampup times - even worse than affliction, and affliction was always one of the worst at switching, but demo beats that record

People say use Implosion, but this is contingent on your having a decent number of imps up, it is in essence a burst cooldown because you can only do it once then you have to build up shards to do it again, plus it craps all over your sustained dps because of course all your imps instantly die which is a buttload of lost damage

You wouldn't use the darkglare he only attacks Doomed targets, doesn;t do much damage and of cours eis exclusive with better talents

- - - Updated - - -

Well for a good part of Wrath I was our guild's *volunteer* DP bitch, I didnt mind cos I loved the spec lol. I am a little concerned about Demo in mythic+ dungeons, though i'd imagine destruction will be just fine.

Demonic Pact? Yeah, I was the "utility warlock" for a while too, when my old guild folded and I joined a new one.

Indicentally, I wouldn;t mind betting that Implosion is going to get nerfed again. It has so much more utility and damage in many situations it makes th eother two talents look poor by comparison, they already nerfed it once did they not. They don;t like go-to talents, why they bother I don;t know because there are always talents that have the edge

[Smog]

I would have thought dark pact would be far more desirable than fel rush.

Idk I tend to grossly overestimate how many mobs I can pull.

Spec whichever you want, but I assure you I did not make small pulls while leveling, and I still never had the mobs beating on my face, at least not long enough to warrant Dark Pact. You spend far more time than you realize running from quest item to quest item or mob to mob in caves, dungeons, and buildings. The amount of time that Burning Rush saves while leveling should not be underestimated.

If speedrunning, leveling, and server first leveling achieves have taught me anything, it's that runspeed (even in small amounts) should not be underestimated.

[striderZA]

Spec whichever you want, but I assure you I did not make small pulls while leveling, and I still never had the mobs beating on my face, at least not long enough to warrant Dark Pact. You spend far more time than you realize running from quest item to quest item or mob to mob in caves, dungeons, and buildings. The amount of time that Burning Rush saves while leveling should not be underestimated.

If speedrunning, leveling, and server first leveling achieves have taught me anything, it's that runspeed (even in small amounts) should not be underestimated.

Don't tell me how to live my life!

[Smog]

Don't tell me how to live my life!

That's my purse! I don't know you!

[Daranged]

Love the feel of the new Demo lock! Thinking about main switching from huntard :x but... so hard to part from my very first character ever since BC! ;~;

[wholol]

@Smog GoServ might be a better talent for burst but 1.5 min cd man, there's going to be a gap between uses unless you literally pull everything in sight and after u kill those you wait for the cd to come back up,it's a hassle tbh.

I'd much rather stick to GoSup simply for ease of leveling, want ST summon DG/ want aoe or tank summon infernal.

Either way you're saving 2 extra shards that you would otherwise be using on GoServ and infernal/doomguard, I feel it just makes the leveling consistent, at least thats how it felt for me.