This guide has relevant information for all Challenge modes as either Affliction or Demonology. This is not to say that Destro is bad or is the wrong spec for challenge modes but this is to say that you can do it as either and any spec and this was just
MY experience and yours may be different. There are other tips I could give if you had specific questions but I think I covered most of it. Things that could change what you are able to do when will depend on where your group wants to do use Invis pots (this will determine if/when you can use DPS potions, when you have to dismiss your pet, etc).
General Information
I have done 9/9 on two different Warlocks and in both cases went mainly as Demo and then offspec was Affliction. Since most of the instances are about trash that has a very high burst requirement on it, Demo offers that for the group. For cases where you will want the single target dmg that Aff offers you have that spec available to you as well (there are times/cases where you will have full fury for a boss fight and demo will just be better but other times where you will have none and need the upfront damage Aff gives).
Gear
While the gear you are using doesn't truly matter as it's all scaled down to 463 (but not scaled up) personally I would not recommend trying to min/max your gear between best blues vs best epics since realistically it shouldn't come down to that minimal amount of stats (weapons excluded).
Some things to keep in mind:
- Tier bonuses are disabled
- Sha-Touched weapons can be used. The +500 Int gem is disabled but the prismatic socket you can have in them is not disabled (or scaled down).
- In my gear there are really only 2 or 3 "sub-optimal" pieces of gear; Offhand, 1 ring and my neck. It's not really worth the effort to go find that "best" blue for 3 pieces of gear. If you really wanted to, go for it but it's really not required.
[INDENT]- Legendary Meta Gem (and I will assume the Cloak proc in 5.4) are disabled - use a different helm with a normal meta gem.
Reforging
Hit (15%) > Mastery > Haste > Crit
From my experience the best way to approach the dungeons is to go this reforge route as it gives you the option to go either Demo or Affliction without being a hindrance.
Talents
Demonology:
- Harvest Life
- Shadowfury
- Sacrificial Pact
- Burning Rush / Blood Fear (would recommend keeping Blood Fear for the most part as you are able to provide instant CC if needed)
- GoServ / GoSup (if your group is lacking in AoE, I would suggest running GoServ. If your group is good on AoE you can easily stay with GoSup, both groups I cleared this with had adequate AoE and I ran with GoSup)
- KJC (MF can be used but it's really very situational)
Affliction:
- Soul Leech
- Shadowfury
- Dark Bargain
- Burning Rush / Blood Fear (would recommend keeping Blood Fear for the most part as you are able to provide instant CC if needed)
- GoSac
- KJC
Glyphs
Demo:
- Soulstone
- Wild Imps
- Fear (or Demon Training)
Affliction:
- Soul Shards
- Soulstone
- Fear (or Siphon Life)
Mogu'shan Palace:
Specs: Demo + Affliction combo, mostly Affliction
First pull + Trial of the King
Be Demo for the first pull/boss - since the first pull is the whole hallway you are there for a few things; knockbacks w/ Carrion Swarm, Shadowfury - AoE CoE + aoe. Use Infernal on this pull as a stun/CC + dmg.
Immediately after the floor falls and you start going down that 2nd hallway downstairs, leap and respec to Afflliction.
The reason you do this is:
a) you gain some easy distance
b) you will likely be using an invis pot before/after that first mob and you have to have your pet dismissed (it doesnt gain invis and cant jump over the ledge with you)
c) multidotting the adds for Gekkan puts you at an advantage since you will be swapping to whatever add gets the
Reckless Inspiration buff (takes increased dmg)
Remainder of instance
Stay Affliction for rest of the instance, the pulls aren't large enough to warrant being Demo and you don't have time between Gekkan and the last set of pulls to respec.
Gate of the Setting Sun:
Specs: Demo + Affliction combo, mostly Affliction
First pull + Saboteur Kip'tilak
Demo is the spec of choice again. The first hall there is again a massive AoE pack and having Sac Pact to save your tushy from being toasted by bombs is nice.
*You should be able to have near full (or full) fury for the boss and just burn him down
Pull(s) to (and including) Striker Ga'dok
After killing Saboteur Kip'tilak, leap as far as you can and respec to Affliction
DoT the mobs and keep them dotted as you kite them away to the next pack. It was my "job" to kill them before they crossed the bridge.
Striker Ga'dok
DPS the boss as much as possible without sitting in fire (make sure you are near the group in case you get picked for his Prey Time. You should be nearly full time on the boss, he should die before the 2nd full flight phase.
Remainder of instance
Stay Affliction for the remainder of the instance. Trash up to and including Commander Ri'mokand are smaller packs that Affliction still does well on.
Raigonn is pure single target and your pet can't attack the weak spot, pretty logical choice to just stay Affliction.
Siege of Niuzao Temple:
Specs: Affliction
General
You are going to be Affliction for this entire instance; there are no large aoe packs and every boss requires max single target.
First pulls + Vizier Jin'bak
First few trash packs are only pulls of 4 and then the little oozes that explode for ramping damage every one you kill so you want to kill them one at a time.
Vizier Jin'bak is a DPS monkey's dream; you should have many many stacks of the residue and the boss should just fall over.
Commander Vo'jak
Multidot the adds while the tank has them in the puddle on the ground floor.
Kill the Sik'thik Amberwing and hit the gong as many times as you can to gain time from the RP beforehand.
Keep your portal up top so you can port up after a Dashing Strike and put another bomb down (make sure you jump back down after).
General Pa'valak
Basic single target fight but there is an AoE component to the fight that the bombs will take care of you. Excessive use of the bombs on those large trash packs and the boss is HIGHLY recommended.
Wing Leader Ner'onok
You will want to sacrifice your Felhunter for Spell Lock to interrupt the boss ASAP.
- Place your portal at the first line of cones and port back and be ready to interrupt.
- The boss cannot be casting for more than 1s if possible.
- Leave early going the other way (turn on Burning Rush) to interrupt (you will be able to get both).
Stormstout Brewery:
Specs: Demo
General
You will be Demo the entire instance mostly because the whole instance is AoE.
First pull + Ook-Ook
The first pull should consist of all the Brawlers + enough neutral monkeys to hit 40
- Kill the sprites in the air that are empowering the monkeys with fire or they will crap on your tank.
- AoE the 40 mobs as much as possible; use carrion swarm/stuns/infernal.
- For the boss I would suggest for you to NOT be on barrel duty; your pet disappears and you can't be in Meta form. IMO let the other 2 DPS and healer do barrels, 3 people doing them should be plenty
.
Second pull + Hoptallus
On the way to Hoptallus you will want to kill the Boppers (hammer bunnies) as you go.
- Let your pet tank since they do a lot of damage and pick up the hammers.
Kill mobs until Hoptallus comes out then kill boss.
- You can cheese some Demonic Fury on this fight with hellfire on the adds that come down for better/bursty damage.
Remainder of instance
Rest of the instance is pretty much self explanatory.
- AoE mobs, kill boss.
- There is a highly likelihood that your pet will die a few times on these pulls as it doesn't take reduced damage from the ground AoE like they normally do.
- A trick about the boss is you can have your pet stand in front of one of the healing adds and soak up the healing 100% of the time. You basically gain an extra person to soak the healing beams.
Temple of the Jade Serpent:
Specs: Demo + Affliction (half/half)
Wise Mari
This should be the first side that you do for this instance.
- You will be Demo for this trash + boss.
- Carrion Swarm knockback + Infernal should be used to keep the adds off the tank as much as possible so they die in a location away from the group + inner rings.
- You are able to stand in a sweet spot and just get knocked back up against the wall instead of running around the circle and just heal through the damage.
Lorewalker Stonestep
On the way over to the other side of the instance for the 2nd boss dismiss your pet.
- This is where most groups invis pot all the way over to the bridge.
- Start resummoning your pet once you get to the top of the bridge.
- AoE the trash (it silences so you need as must burst AoE as you can get).
- Keep both your DoTs on the boss (you swap often enough that you will never have corruption fall after the initial cast).
Liu Flameheart
Get over to the trash after Lorewalker Stonestep and swap to affliction
- Multidot the bigger adds and SB:Seed to do moderate AoE damage to the smaller silencing adds.
Boss is easy and single target straightforward.
Sha of Doubt
Sha of Doubt is another single target burn with the 5 adds that spawn (you can drain them for full shards so you will never be starving for shards).
- Doomguard will be available for this boss.
Shado-Pan Monastery:
Specs: Demo (first pull) +Affliction (remaining)
General
You will be Demo for the first pull only as there are a TON of adds and you need to AoE them down, bursty/sustained AoE is where Demo will help.
- Use all your CDs, Imps included as you will be swapping to Affliction as soon as you drop combat from that pull.
The remainder of the instance you will stay Affliction; moderate AoE pulls that multidotting is more than sufficient for and the remaining bosses are all single target fights with no real opportunity to go in with decent fury. Pretty basic instance when it comes to DPSing.
Gu Cloudstrike
Nothing special. Max single target DPS (you can prepot+pot during combat).
Master Snowdrift
You can prepot on this fight (don't pot during combat since you'll likely be using your invis pot after this boss).
- Kill the adds with Felflame (1 or 2 will kill it).
- Avoid the fists flying through the air, they hurt. A lot.
Sha of Violence
Nothing special. Kill boss and get stacks of the debuff to increase your damage. The healer should only dispel themselves and tank until the boss + first trash pack after is dead.
Taran Zhu
Again simple single target DPS fight. If your group doesn't have a good option for killing the Gripping Hatreds you should swap to them and kill them in the order they spawn so you don't get gripped around the room (and potentially pull the trash pack you skipped in front of the boss). Both groups I ran had better options than a dotter to kill them, so I didn't swap but you should if your comp doesn't have that option.
Scholomance:
Specs: Demo
General
For this instance you will be Demo from start to finish because there are many many many maaaaaaaaaaaaaaany AoE pulls and the extra CD w/ Sac Pact saved me more times than I can even think.
Instructor Chillheart
Don't stand under books. They hurt....a lot.
Jandice Barov
Either have someone with the WoW script or use this WA* to see which is the right add so you kill it in one shot and not prolong the fight and cause damage that you don't need to cause.
Rattlegore
Keep a shield on yourself and that's about it.
Lilian Voss
Again straightforward. The only word of caution I have for you is to avoid the fire...it hurts quite a bit and you might as well since you have KJC anyway . Tank the fixate with Unending Resolve, if you get fixated a second time you can tank it with Sac Pact but I would suggest just kiting with KJC.
Darkmaster Gandling
AoE the adds when they are coming out (you + tank should be able to duo them) otherwise just kill boss. If you get picked they should just fall over dead, gogo Demo.
*3D model WA:
Code:
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Scarlet Monastery:
Specs: Demo
This is another all Demo instance; the pulls are loud and large and you will need the damage you get from Demo to overcome it. Most of the bosses you will go in with full fury making it extremely lucrative to not change specs.
Nothing really special to do in this instance except do max AoE DPS when required. It's pretty much all on the tank in this instance. Be a DPS monkey and have fun.
Scarlet Halls:
Specs: Varied
I have done this instance as either Affliction only, Demo only and a mix so really do what your group will need the most. The groups I ran with had the "easiest" time when I was Affliction the entire instance because there are not many large AoE packs where DoTs aren't going to be a hindrance to the groups DPS and in some cases will be beneficial.
Closing remarks
If you have specific questions about any instance or how I approached the instances PM me or leave a reply. Again this isn't meant to be the Challenge mode Bible for Warlocks but it is what I have found to be the best option(s) for myself. This is mostly because I don't play Destro often and wouldn't feel comfortable playing it though I'm sure it's completely viable.
There are many ways you could approach these instances I felt like having the ability to swap between the two specs depending on what you were doing without causing the group to be slow was beneficial and worth the 5s respec when the option presented itself.
Thanks for reading and I hope this helps fellow Warlocks who are hoping to get Challenge modes done.