The 6.0 Demo Guide has started HERE, keep in mind this is a WIP and may not always be accurate
- Introduction
- Welcome To Demonology!
- FAQs
- Gearing
- Quick Gearing
- Stats
- Picking a Haste Breakpoint
- Enchants and Gems
- Racial Bonuses
- Trinkets
- Talents and Glyphs
- Level 75 Talents
- Level 90 Talents
- Imp Swarm
- Other Glyphs
- Harvest Life
- Rotation
- Single Target & Cleave
- AoE Rotation
- Fury Generation
- Mechanics
- Change Log
- Patch Changes
- Guide Changes
Welcome to Demonology!This guide will try to collect everything related to PvE Demonology play, and present it in a quick but accurate layout. Everything in here is correct as far as I am aware, if you notice anything in here that is incorrect please bring it up so I can keep it updated .
Demonology is a spec that can give unparalleled control over damage and mobility, properlly used this spec can produce some of the top damage in a variety of scenarios. Your Primary pets, Wild Imps, Doomguard, Molten Core, Demonic Fury, and Dark Soul give you insane amounts of control on when and how you are doing damage.
If you are a person that generally enjoys have many powerful cooldowns and can plan out your fight ahead of time then I highly suggest that you give Demonology a try. Be aware though, that Demonic Fury is a relatively slow building resource, if you are the kind of player that plays mainly in the moment then I would suggest Affliction or Destro.
FAQ
Q: Does Demonology Require good gear to play?
A: It doesn't require good gear, but good trinkets can make a huge difference.
Q: Can Demonology compete against Destro / Affliction?
A: On single target it is extremely competitive, in other occasions such as 3-4 Target Cleave it falls short to Affliction (as does every other spec in the game). However, compared to Non-Warlock specs it is very strong still.
Q: Do you need Legendary items to play Demo (Cloak / Gem)?
A: No
Q: Is Grimoire of Sacrifice viable?
A: No
Q: Should I use Glyph of Imp Swarm?
A: If you are a Troll it may be a solid option, if you aren't then most likely no. More info HERE.
Quick Gearing
Disclaimer:
So one of the things that players generally want right away in a guide is a quick and simple run down of what stats to gear for. For Demonology this is basically impossible because our secondary stats are so close together that depending on what trinkets you are using, what talents, if you have four piece, of just the level of you gear that Crit, Mastery, and Haste can all rotate being your top stat.
Quick and simple stat guide:
- Intellect
- Hit / Expertise
- Haste to a Shadowflame or Doom Breakpoint:
- 3036 (Doom)
- 8064 (Shadowflame)
- 14873 (Shadowflame)
- 21596 (Shadowflame)
- Mastery
- Crit
Stats
Intellect
This is our primary stat, everything we do scales with it.
Hit / Expertise
While some warlock specs (Affliction) can get away with not being hit capped, Demonology cannot. You need 15% or 5100 rating. With the release of MoP 1 point of Expertise is equal to 1 point of Hit.
Crit
Increases your crit chance by 1% every 600 rating. Soulfire now crits 100% of the time, and gains a damage increase based on your crit percentage, which makes this slightly less RNG then it used to be. Also, whenever Doom critically hits you spawn 1 Wild Imp that does good damage and will generate 50 fury over its duration.
Mastery
Increases basically all of our pets damage and increases the damage of metamorphosis by a solid amount. Also increases the damage while we are in caster form by a small amount. Unlike cataclysm, in Mists of Pandaria none of our abilities snapshot mastery.
1% Pet damage: ~600 Rating
1% Caster form damage: ~600 Rating
1% Metamorphosis damage: ~200 Rating
Haste
Haste rating increases the speed we cast, the rate our DoTs tick, how fast our Primary pets gain energy, and also decrease the cooldown of Imp Swarm and Demonic Calling. Touch of chaos is at a 1s GCD and is not effected by haste. You will need 425 rating for 1% haste.
Haste will generally drop in value after hitting a break-point that includes both Doom and Shadowflame. Which break-point is best is going to depend on your ilvl and how much haste is naturally on your gear. I recommend you hit the highest haste break-point that you can without sacrificing socket bonuses.
Picking a Haste Breakpoint
Quick Note:
I personally recommend going to the highest haste point that you can without sacrificing socket bonuses, however you can focus more on Mastery if you choose, the method of picking a haste point if you choose Mastery is the exact same you just pick a lower one.
Picking a Haste Breakpoint is actually very simple, but since there are so many different Haste cooldowns available what you should be shooting for can vary a lot from person to person. I highly reccomend using Ask Mr. Robot's Haste tool HERE
First off Unchecked Corruption, you should basically just never worry about corruption breakpoints.
Under Temporary Buffs check off every single buff that you have available to you. First pick the Shadow flame break point that looks to be closest attainable with your gear level. For most people this will be either 8064 or 14873. Once you've done that see if there is a Doom Break Point near that, this will be your opener Doom.
For Example:
This player is a Worgen and is trying to choose between 8064 and 14873. If he picked 8064 he could easily jump to 8397 to get an extra tick of Doom during his initial Meta Gem and Bloodlust Doom. If he chose 14873 the opener Doom is under that so he doesn't need to go any higher.
Gems and Enchants
Enchants
*As Demonology warlocks, we have a lot of mobility and can probably get away without having a run speed enchant on our boots, but I wouldn't recommend doing so.
Gems
Haste Focused
Meta Sinister Primal Diamond, Burning Primal Diamond Red Wicked Vermilion Onyx / Reckless Vermilion Onyx Yellow Quick Suns Radiance Blue Lightning Wild Jade
Mastery Focused
Meta Sinister Primal Diamond, Burning Primal Diamond Red Keen Vermilion Onyx / Artful Vermilion Onyx Yellow Fractured Suns Radiance Blue Sensei's Wild Jade
At very low gear levels it might not be a good idea to gem Secondary over Int, however with the gear that is available at this time you shouldn't be in that gear range for very long.
Racial Bonuses
Trinkets
Generally for demonology you want trinkets that have a high value proc, over trinkets with a high passive stat. This is because you have so much control over your cooldowns and can place most of your damage in very small windows throughout the fight.
5.4 Trinkets
Left list is single target, right list is 3 targets. It is created using my gear in Simc build 540-3.
Level 75 Talents
For Demonology you basically only choose between the Grimoire of Supremacy and Grimoire of Service. In general Grimoire of Service is always slightly ahead of Supremacy, however the difference between the two is pretty small so if you don't want another cooldown to press you can get away with using Supremacy without much issue. Grimoire of Service does have a few perks to it however. On any fight with AoE having an extra Felstorm every two minutes is going to outweigh the 20% increased Felstorm from the Wrathguard. GoServ will also generate 60 fury over its duration, which is a huge help on the opener when you are going to be fury starved.
Level 90 Talents
Archimonde's Darkness
In 5.4 this talent has been reworked significantly. It no longer is a damage reflect and instead modifies our main cooldown, Dark Soul. The talent now makes our Dark Soul cooldown have two charges. The main strength of the this talent comes from the fact you can now sit on a charge of Dark Soul and not get penalized for not using it until it hits its second charge. You 'can' just use it back to back, however I find that isn't optimal in most situations. This talent is strongest on single target fights, anything more then that and Mannoroth's Fury is most likely a better option.
Kil'Jaeden's Cunning
In 5.4 this KjC no longer provides complete passive cast while moving with a snare. Instead it lets us cast our base fillers (Shadow Bolt for Demonology) while moving with no snare. Fel Flame is nearly the exact same damage, just at a higher mana cost. There is literally no scenario I can think of where we would take this talent anymore.
Mannoroth's Fury
Mannoroth's Fury is going to feel like Demonology's bread and butter talent this tier. It no longer provides a passive AoE radius increase, and instead gives us a 1 minute cooldown that increases the damage of Hellfire and Immolation Aura by 100% and also increases their radius by 500%
Anything more then 2 targets sustained and this becomes a very solid damage increase to be using on cooldown. The biggest thing to remember when using this talent is that Immolation Aura is a far stronger ability and you will want to make sure you have the proper amounts of fury saved up for its use.
Imp Swarm
Glyph Mechanics:
For the most part the new Major Glyphs are not going to effect your damage at all, with the exception of Imp Swarm.
Without the Glyph of Imp Swarm you will passively gain the Demonic Calling buff every 20s, which will spawn one Imp. This will grant you 6 Imps \ 2 minutes.
With the glyph you will passively gain the Demonic Calling buff every 24s. This means you get 5 Imps \ 2 minutes. You also have the option to use Imp Swarm which instantly spawn 4 Imps, but then make it so you cannot gain the Demonic Calling buff for 2 minutes. This means by using the glyph you are instantly losing 1 imp \ 2 minutes by glyphing it. Actually using the Imp Swarm ability lowers this by another 1. However due to the fact that the cooldown of Imp Swarm is snap-shotted the instant you cast it, you can 'game' the ability to some degree using it during haste procs.
Trolls:
If you are a troll, and have the Purified Bindings of Immerseus it will almost always be a DPS increase for you to use Imp Swarm. Use it during every PBOI + Dark Soul, and make sure when you have Berserking you using Imp Swarm after using Berserking. Keep in mind this is a very Minor Gain and if you are not comfortable with the Imp Swarm glyph it will not have a noticeable impact on your overall DPS unless the fight is very short.
Non Trolls:
In most cases using the Glyph of Imp Swarm will be a small DPS loss (1-2%). However if the fight is under 3-4 minutes it can still be in increase due to how much stronger it makes the opener. It will also be a BURST DPS increase if you need it for something specific in a fight.
Other Glyphs
Glyph Of Shadow Bolt
This glyph is NOT a DPS increase. It is also NOT a DPS loss. It is simply a cosmetic glyph.
Glyph of Demonic Training
This glyph doesn't suddenly make your Imp do a bunch of DPS, that is just your recount being shit. Still a very nice boost to your Sac Pact cooldown if you decide to use that talent.
Glyph of Unending Resolve
This glyph can me a fairly large DPS increase on Thok, being able to have interrupt protection during every Dark Soul is huge.
Glyph of Life Tap
This glyph will allow you to Tap indefinitely on Malkorok and Heroic Tortos. Not really needed outside those fights.
Harvest Life
Quick intro to Harvest Life:
As of 5.4 the 50% increased damage to Drain life and the extreme strength of Procs means that if used properly there is a minor DPS gain to be had when you add in Harvest Life into your rotation. Used to its max potential you can add ~1-2% overall DPS on average, more if you got lucky with strong Procs. I do not recommend that someone still learning Demo try to add this to your rotation. Only attempt to add this if you welcome the extra challenge and are very comfortable with your skill at executing the standard rotation.
Note: This does not require a lot of haste to be viable, however it can be more of a gain for high haste builds than mastery builds.
Simple Priority with Harvest Life:
This is a very basic overview of when it can be an increase to use Harvest Life, but to know for sure you can use my spreadsheet to go over your own trinket procs.
- If you have a % Haste Proc Up (Bloodlust / Meta Gem / Berskering) - Replace all Touch of Chaos casts with Drain life
- At the end of a Strong Int Trinket Proc (Black Blood / Bindings / KTT) - Replace Touch of Chaos and Shadow Bolt casts with Drain life
- At the end of a Fiery Wrath (2pc) Proc - Replace Shadow Bolt with Drain Life
- At the end of a Black Blood proc in Caster Form (assuming you have low fury or are not refreshing Doom) - Replace Shadow Bolt with Drain Life
Quick Guide in using DPET Spreadsheet
Link to spreadsheet HERE
First off input your UNBUFFED (No Dark Intent) character sheet stats into the character page. After that put your trinket stats into the two trinket slots on the right.
Once you have done that you can go into the DPET (Damage Per Execute Time) page and compare the different spells. In this example I am comparing the damage of a buffed Drain Life to an unbuffed Shadow bolt. This means that if there is less time then a shadowbolt cast on either of the trinket procs that I should cast Drain life instead of that Shadow Bolt. Keep in mind when comparing ToC and Drain Life DPET that you can get 2-3 ToC casts off in the time it takes to Drain life, so if drain life is a 20k DPET gain, then you are actually gaining up to 60k+.
Single Target & Cleave
In general your single target rotation will follow this priority:
Single target DPS as Demonology is very dependent on good cooldown management, try to stack as many cooldowns together as possible without delaying the use to the point where you might lose uptime on a fight.
Opening Rotation
So, there is a few different things that might change up your opener rotation based on if you are using Imp Swarm, GoServ, Mannoroth's Fury of what fight you are doing. However this is the basic Opening rotation that I follow:
Prepot -> Precast Soulfire -> Hand of Gul'dan -> Corruption -> GoServ -> Berserking / Dark Soul / On Use Cooldowns -> Imp Swarm -> Hand of Gul'dan -> Metamorphosis -> Doom
If you aren't using Imp Swarm or GoServ you may have room after the corruption to add Shadow Bolts, but this will depend on your haste levels.
Metamorphosis
You want to plan to use your Demonic Fury when you have other damage increases like Dark Soul or trinket procs. When you enter into Metamorphosis after using Shadowflame you don't want to stay there for more then 1-2 casts unless you have procs to be spending the fury on. Always keep an eye on your ICD trinkets and Dark Soul Cooldown, there may be times when you get a nice trinket proc, but saving the fury for 30 seconds to be used with stronger cooldowns is worth it.
Hand of Guldan - Shadowflame Weaving
The 'correct' way to use Hand of Gul'dan is to wait until there is less then 6s until you get 2 charges of HoG. You then want to use one charge, cast a few spells, and then clip shadowflame right before it runs out so you have ~5s of a one stack shadowflame, then 6s of a 2 stack
shadowflame. As soon as you cast your second Hand of Gul'dan immediately jump into Metamorphosis to increase the damage of the 2 stack Shadowflame. Doing this correctly will make Hand of Gul'dan out-preform Chaos Wave virtually always, and makes Chaos Wave pretty useless in PvE.
Soul Fire - Molten Core
Using MC stacks correctly is a big part of making sure you are optimizing your damage as much as possible. You should be treating your Molten Core stacks like an additional resource that you use with other procs such as Trinkets, Engineer Gloves, Potions, ect. You should only be casting Soul Fire outside of Meta when you have high stacks (>8) or if you are under 30%. The goal is to make sure you have no MC stacks when you hit 25% so that none were wasted.
Choosing Your Pet
Currently you should be choosing to use Fel Guard in nearly every situation. However if you find your losing some damage due to your pet taking awhile to switch targets you can use Imp or Succubus instead. If you are really needing some extra burst Imp with Glyph of Demon Training will allow your pet to burst a little higher, however it is an overall damage loss. On fights such as Thok or Sha of Pride using Imp for dispels may also help your raid out.
Doomguard and Infernal
Most fights you should be using Doomguard.
Doomguard does not gain any casts from haste so when you use Bloodlust won't have an effect on when you want to use Doomguard. There are two ways you can use it, and either might be better. The first option is to use it right on the pull, you are guaranteed to have all of you trinkets and cooldowns effecting it on the pull so you will have the most consistent Doomguard with this option. The other option you have is using it sub 20%, I would only recommend this if the sub 20% phase is going to last at least a full minute and you'll use Dark Soul at some point during that period. It is a lot harder to time this well and will give you more inconsistent results, however if you time it right it may give more damage then just using it on the pull.
The majority of the damage that you will get from Infernal is from Infernal Awakening. In general you won't actually get much damage from the Infernal itself, maybe 200-300k. The damage of Infernal Awakening is buffed by Metamorphosis so you want to make sure you are in Meta when you cast it. If you have DS up you need to hit ~7-8 targets to equal the damage of Doomguard, if DS isn't up you will want ~15 targets.
Harvest Life
If you have a strong grasp on the basic rotation you can add Harvest Life for a small increase. More information HERE.
AoE Rotation
Demonology AoE is very encounter specific and has a lot of different situational options. When encountering an AoE situation you need to figure out how long the targets will be up for, how often the adds might spawn and if you will run out of fury during the AoE.
Your AoE rotation will follow this priority:
Cooldowns
1. Dark Soul: Knowledge
2. Grimoire: Felguard if talented
3. Glyph of Imp Swarm if Glyphed
4. Felguard: Felstorm on CD
Meta Form
1. Metamorphosis: Immolation Aura
2. Keep Metamorphosis: Doom Ticking on all targets. Under 8 Targets it needs to tick once, over 8 it should tick at least twice.
3. Chaos Wave If the targets will be alive under 10 seconds and you will not run out of fury for AoE
4. Carrion Swarm if you are in Meta, and corruptions are at max duration (Recommend using the glyph)
5. Use Metamorphosis: Void Ray is your filler AoE spell. Use it at 4+ targets. As of 5.4 it no longer refreshes corruption so you won't have free AoE corruption refreshes anymore. If you have Tier 16 4pc I would suggest just casting ToC instead.
If you have 4 piece tier 16 it is actually more dps over time to use ToC over void ray and hope for Chaos Wave procs. However, it is RNG and may or may not come out to be an increase on quick periods of AoE because of how unreliable it is.
Caster Form
1. Hand of Gul'dan - Double Stack like on single target if the targets will live long enough
2. Hellfire
Fury Generation
Single target fury generation:
Soulfire 15 Fury/s Shadowbolt 10 Fury/s Fel Flame 10 Fury/s Hand of Gul'dan 8 Fury/s (Entire DoT) Legion Strike 2.5 Fury/s Corruption 2 Fury/s (36 Fury per cast) Wild Imps 2 Fury/s (50 Fury per Imp) Hellfire 10 Fury/s + 3 Fury/s per extra target
If you want a more detailed look at fury costs and gains you can use the spreadsheetHERE
Mechanics
Dot Damage
Damage from DoTs DO NOT automatically benefit from procs, you have to refresh them manually or update them with Touch of Chaos. This does mean that if your DoTs are already gaining damage from a previous proc, and you refresh via any method that your DoTs will lose the damage from that proc. I suggest using using the addon 'Affdots' for tracking DoT strength. Shadowflame is included in these mechanics.
Corruption does not get any benefit from metamorphosis, however it does get a benefit from the caster form mastery. There is a slight delay upon leaving Metamorphosis where you don't have the caster mastery increase, so you do not want to cast corruption or hand of guldan directly after leaving meta.
Depending on the strength of you procs when you are casting Doom, you may want to consider double casting it to have a higher uptime of Doom + procs.
Refreshing DoTs
At level 90 you gain the Pandemic passive. This allows you to refresh a DoT under 50% of its normal duration without losing DPS. For example: Corruption has a base duration of 18 seconds, this means you can refresh at under 9s and it will go to a maximum of 27s. I strongly recommend using the addon 'Affdots' for tracking DoT strength.
Patch Changes
5.4
-Corruption Damage +10%
-UVLS Proc Chance Nerfed
-Fel Flame Damage +13%, Mana Cost +100%
-Hellfire / Immolation Aura Damage -20%
-Wild Imp Damage -30%
Guide Changes
6/14/2014
Added a short section about the opener rotation
5/5/2014
-Fixed Carrion Swarm's place in the AoE priority
4/22/2014
-Added a quick line to Harvest life about comparing Drain Life and ToC DPET
4/20/2014
-Starting Massive Overhaul on Guide
-Added a FAQ to the Intro
-Added Haste Gem Info
-Added Picking a Haste Point Sub Section
-Added a Harvest Life Section
-Improved the Imp Swarm Section
-Added Other Glyphs Section
-Hopefully made the Single target rotation easier to understand