My Demonology Wishlist.

[LTCrystallite]

I feel that Demonology's gotten way better this expansion coming from Wrath. The last expansion gave it some solidarity as a DPS spec with the addition of Molten Core, Metamorph and Decimation, but it used all of the baseline spells that were for other specs. It didn't feel unique, and I think Cata has done a decent job with the addition of Felguard abilities and Hand of Gul'dan, but I also think there's a some changes needed.

Pre info: There have been quite a lot of threads on the WoW forums and some on MMO Champ about standing in melee range and using Shadowflame, why Demonology gets a new demon but uses afflictions pet for single target damage (a big DPS difference), the "Cataclysm Pet design philosophy, all pets do almost equal damage but use the best pet for the scenario" was attempted but failed, the very restricted "obvious choice" usages for Soulburn, and the pitiful spell that is Searing Pain. I'm not getting into any of this, as more than half of you may already know it, and the other half can easily find a thread on any of these topics.

These are just things I feel would make Demonology a better rounded DPS spec, and make it more unique without asking too much. These changes would be for Demo ONLY.

1. Relatively equal pet damage/DPS. Because of the Felhunter's Shadow Bite increasing on Shadow DoT damage, it tends to pull ahead of all pets for single target damage. A true demonologist should want to use his/her favorite pets, or the best pet for the scenario instead of the one that obviously does more damage. A good start is to find a way to increase the overall damage for ALL pets (including the Voidwalker and Felguard single target damage) to make them equal to the extra power that the Felhunter has.

2. Give all pets 45 sec cooldown AoE attacks to compete with the Felguard's. This way, you won't feel like the Felguard is the obvious choice for AoE if you happen to like having the Imp out for a defensive dispel during a fight, or because you like the Void Sacrifice shield. It also gives you a reason to love having out certain pets you've never really used before.

OR another idea:

3. Make all pets instant cast, but keep the current mana cost. For Demonology only, I feel this would be balanced if it's mandatory to pet swap. Mind you, it's not that the current "pet swapping" is too difficult, it's just very unfun and feels uneven. Some Locks even hard cast pets during certain bosses, which to me feels like preparing during combat. It's something you should do quickly.

4. Change Shadowflame to deal more damage for more targets it hits, but lower the base damage and DoT slightly. It should feel necessary to use Shadowflame during Metamorph with Immolation Aura up or when you're AoEing with Hellfire. Using it always during single target to me feels unnecessary and out of the way, just another DoT key to press, not to mention standing around melee range as a caster.

5. Already mentioned for MoP, making Metamorph feel like more than just gaining 20%+ extra damage. New abilities/changed up playstyle or priority list would be interesting.

6. The need for corruption/corruption glyph. I'm personally not a fan of using Corruption as Demonology OR Destruction, but I know some people don't mind it. I'd prefer if the GCD was better spent on casting something else because it doesn't feel powerful, and the glyph just adds another proc to watch on top of the huge array of procs and cooldowns. These include: Meta, Demon Soul, Soul Burn, Hand of Gul'dan, Molten Core, Doomguard/Infernal, Decimation, and semi Impending Doom, not to mention pet swapping. Watching a nightfall proc with all those doesn't feel right to me, but the instant cast Shadowbolt is probably what makes people like it.

7. A stronger Soulfire during decimation. A little soulfire damage buff on Molten Core procs (like in Wrath) would make the "kill phase" feel more destructive and intense. I really loved the feeling of Decimation on a boss fight with Molten Core up during Wrath. Combined with Meta and trinkets, it was overwhelmingly fun.

8. Remove searing pain entirely, and buff Fel Flame's damage. Searing Pain feels extremely outdated, and is not worth using in any scenario besides leveling. At 85, it's literally pointless. Also, it's very similar to scorch, and massively inferior to scorch.

In the end of it all, Demonology is still currently pretty fun, but could still use many improvements. I would be perfectly fine if any combination of changes from numbers 1-3 took place, and make the spec feel more like a demonologist.

[Deleted]

I'm not with you about Searing Pain. I personally just like useluss spells, which I often tend to cast when fooling someone or for other reasons, such as a fast cast in PvP.