Stat Priority for Demo

[Doxa]

Again, and for the last time... Do not rely on Simcraft for Demonology weights.

Thanks, Teye.

I apologize if I have overlooked this fact somewhere. Frankly, I have yet to find anything definitive on demo.

I know you said you'd only post once.. but.. what should we rely on for demo stat weights?

[lichanator]

If you try to sim for breakpoints at 3036 or 8064, you'll get Crit=Mastery>Haste, but that's with Simcraft not scaling Shadowflame with Meta weaving your HoG. That extra Shadowflame damage is a really big deal, and it would put Mastery priority solidly above Crit.[/B]

This is correct, if you can get to 8064 haste mark, do it. Shadowflame weaving is a big increase, especially on adds fights where shadowflame is your top or second top damage.

[Woz]

Don't wait on Fury to pop your cooldowns at the pull.

There's actually a bunch of discussion in the sticky at the top of the forums about this, and stat weights. My own sims and reforge plots have been pretty consistent in saying Haste > Mastery ~ Crit.

Orly? I don't really play Demo very often (literally 2 fights; H Tsulong and H Lei Shi) so I'm not really thoroughly informed about it.

[Doxa]

If you try to sim for breakpoints at 3036 or 8064, you'll get Crit=Mastery>Haste, but that's with Simcraft not scaling Shadowflame with Meta weaving your HoG. That extra Shadowflame damage is a really big deal, and it would put Mastery priority solidly above Crit.
[/B]

Is it possible for someone to explain the proper usage of HoG "with Meta weaving your HoG"?

Also, should Chaos Wave be cast while in Meta?

[The GameMaster]

Is it possible for someone to explain the proper usage of HoG "with Meta weaving your HoG"?

Also, should Chaos Wave be cast while in Meta?

Basically cast Hand of Gul'dan and IMMEDIATELY shift into metamorphosis. You have ~.5-1 second to do this due to the flight time of Hand of Gul'dan actually landing. This is because HoG calculates it's damage based on when it lands, not when it is cast. This is for the same reason that (at least at one time when it was worth casting) IF a Warlock was going to cast Chaos Wave then that Warlock *HAD* to make sure he/she/it stayed in meta form UNTIL it landed, otherwise you would lose damage on the cast. I like to cast HoG, shift into Meta demon form, cast 1 spell in demon form (usually ToC), and then quickly shift out every 10-15s so I don't sit on HoG charges (longer on procs and ESPECIALLY when I am in my (not the boss's) burn phase). As for your second question... there was a time when Chaos Wave was worth it... the answer is typically you do not want to cast chaos wave UNLESS a) you are trying to do a fast aoe burn (targets with only a few hundred thousand hp that needs to die FAST) or b) if you are sitting on a stack of Molten Core charges and their timer is about to expire because you had a bad run of RNG with HoG maintaining those stacks. In general though that *nerf* to Chaos Wave not long ago completely murdered this spell, it doesn't hardly do any more dmg than HoG (with weaving) and in general isn't worth the fury cost. If they intend on maintaining the dmg of this spell at current levels they need to reduce the fury cost down further. It was 120 fury, it was reduced by 1/3 to ~80 along with the 33% reduction to dmg during the nerf... needs to be more like 40-60 fury for the damage that it does to be worth using. I sorely wish Blizzard would get a clue as to how to balance a game...

[Deleted]

Do I understand it right when I say: so u shouldnt stack HoG? I mean cast HoG (1 cast) -> meta -> ToC -> cancel meta -> HoG -> meta and so on once u get a charge?
or do u still do as I do now that u cast HoG -> corru and a SB (letting the dot tick) -> cast 2nd HoG and THEN -> meta and "weave" the shadowflame with x2 dot?

[Jessicka]

Do I understand it right when I say: so u shouldnt stack HoG? I mean cast HoG (1 cast) -> meta -> ToC -> cancel meta -> HoG -> meta and so on once u get a charge?
or do u still do as I do now that u cast HoG -> corru and a SB (letting the dot tick) -> cast 2nd HoG and THEN -> meta and "weave" the shadowflame with x2 dot?

You still want to double stack it as it effectively offers a full additional cast, which is much greater increase than getting the Meta bonus on two separate casts. Shadowflame itself is about 9% of your output on single target, so doing this will gain you at best 1.5% if executed perfectly every time (which may not be possible, or even desirable due to Meta's cooldown); I don't think that's really enough to effect overall stat weights quite as much as Teye suggests.

The example lichinator gives is pretty extreme (and thus rare), and allows very, very high Meta uptime through Shadowflame's Fury generation, where of course Haste will be devalued as it's purpose is to generate Fury rather than spend it.

[Pooutine]

This is the Demonology pet/grimoire rankings right now (Felguard is using GoServ, Wrathguard GoSup), so it's really marginally better:

This is also for single target. Using GoService on a group of adds and the difference between serv and sup jumps from marginally to mandatory

[Teye]

This is also for single target. Using GoService on a group of adds and the difference between serv and sup jumps from marginally to mandatory

Yes, but if you use GoSup for sustained AoE (lasting longer than 2 minutes), its better than Serv.

"Situational talents are situational."

[Woz]

This is also for single target. Using GoService on a group of adds and the difference between serv and sup jumps from marginally to mandatory

Like Teye said - for burst/on demand AoE GoServ blows GoSup out of the water but for sustainable AoE they are pretty much the same.