Demonology Warlock in Wrath of the Lich King

Whereas in previous expansions, all possible specs were essentially variations on Destruction, Wrath of the Lich King marks a significant departure. Each speciality has its own gaming style and niches to be aware of. Demonology warlocks become a support spec thanks to Demonic Pact, a boost that is triggered by our demon critting and grants everyone in the raid 10% of our spell power at the time. This also features “Pet Twising,” which allows you to recall your pet if the internal cooldown of Demonic Pact has expired and you have less spell power than when your first Demonic Pact was initiated. In this situation, you would disable your pet’s ability to do damage in order to avoid overwriting Demonic Pact with a lesser version. It remains to be seen if this will be changed before the game’s release; further information on this can be found in the rotation section.

The fact that you are no longer a Destruction Warlock with a Felguard is another way Demonology differs from The Burning Crusade. Because to new skills and procs, the Demonology rotation alternates between Soul Fire, Shadow Bolt, and Incinerate. Making for more exciting and enjoyable gameplay when your Felguard swoops for the legs of some big enemy.

Another significant alteration is that we can transform into demons and therefore become Illidan’s younger brother (all before Demon Hunters take this away from us). This is accomplished through Metamorphosis, a new cooldown that not only drastically enhances our survival but also significantly increases our damage. In addition, we gain a few new abilities like as Immolation Aura, Shadow Cleave, and Demon Charge (more about these in the rotation section). As a result, placement is more crucial than ever. When using them, you should ideally be at melee range to do the highest amount of damage possible.

All of this makes Demonology Warlock one of the greatest support caster classes, with high burst potential and enjoyable gameplay.

Demonology Warlock Strengths & Weaknesses

Strengths

Excellent Caster Support
There is nothing else like Demonic Pact on the market. It adds 10% of the Demonology Warlock’s spell power to the raid, making it one of the most powerful spell power boosts in the game when combined with Demonic Aegis and Demonic Knowledge.

High survival rate
Warlock tanks have long been the class dream. None so much in Wrath of the Lich King, with several reworks such as crushing blows being removed, warlocks gaining crit immunity, and shared damage with your pet. It makes for a very strong damage dealer, which is useful when you need to be near to get the most out of Immolation Aura.

Excellent Burst
Warlocks now have an on-use cooldown that enhances our damage, Metamorphosis. Along with Decimation (which we may fish for on low-health adds with rank 1 Shadow Bolt), Molten Core can provide a large amount of burst.

Best AoE Demonology for Warlocks Warlocks have the most AoE potential of any Warlock Spec owing to a combination of variables. Metamorphosis increases our damage by 20% while also providing Immolation Aura and Shadow Cleave. Furthermore, this drives us into melee range, which lets us to easily utilize Shadowflame, and our pet provides some AoE damage with Cleave. On top of that, we may continue to spam Seed of Corruption.

Weaknesses

Bot Buff
The primary reason you are most likely brought to raids is to boost the DPS of the other caster. This also implies that you may be asked to gear and play in a way that maximizes this function. This comes at the expense of personal DPS, either through prioritizing things that improve your spell power or via “Pet Twisting.”

Pet Twisting* This is related to the Buff Bot statement. Pet Twisting is the act of ceasing to inflict damage with your pet in order to extend the duration of a high spell power Demonic Pact before renewing it with a lesser version. Some individuals find this gaming entertaining, but most people prefer to retain their demons fighting and doing damage. It clearly comes at the expense of personal DPS.

Demonology Warlock Utility

Demonology Warlocks provide the following raid bonuses and debuffs to a raid, in addition to their damage:

Buff to Spell Power – Demonic Pact
Demonology Warlocks are distinct in that they may grant a Spell Power bonus dependent on their own Spell Power level. Demonology Warlocks may get a lot of spell power through Demonic Aegis and Demonic Knowledge, making it the most powerful Spell Power enhancement for casters.

Healthstone Fel
Who doesn’t enjoy some healthy green fel candies? Healthstones have been a Warlock mainstay since the beginning of time, saving people’s lives and assisting your raid in dealing with heavy burst mechanics. Just for them, at least one Warlock will be required in every raid.

Fight Resurrection – Demonic Soulstone Warlocks are one of two classes that can resurrect someone in combat, which is always a huge help for your raid. As new ways of wipe avoidance become available with each expansion, the value of Soulstones diminishes slightly, but they remain quite useful.

Curse of the Elements increases spell damage taken by 13% (does not stack).
This debuff was only available to Warlocks in earlier expansions, although Affliction Warlocks get an improved version. Death Knights (Ebon Plaguebringer), Druids (Earth and Moon), and other Warlock specialties can now all grant the same benefit. Demonology Warlocks lose less DPS than Affliction Warlocks but more than Destruction Warlocks (over Curse of Agony or Curse of Doom).

In certain encounters, Curse of the Elements does have the benefit of having a 5-minute duration. Death Knights (Ebon Plaguebringer) and Druids (Earth and Moon) duration of their debuff is shorter, meaning if they have to move out of range it will eventually fall off.

5% spell crit (not stackable) – Improved Shadow Bolt
In Wrath, the Improved Shadow Bolt skill has been revamped. There’s little doubt about it: this was a big nerf for Warlock functionality. It now raises the target’s probability of being crit by spells by 5%, which is a debuff shared by Fire (Improved Scorch) and Frost (Winter’s Chill) Mages. You still pick the skill, but not for the utility element – though it may come in handy in 10-man raids if there aren’t any Fire Mages nearby.

Reduced armor by 5% (does not stack) and attack power by 5% (does not stack) – Curse of Weakness
In Wrath, this curse receives a modest enhancement, offering the same 5% armor loss debuff as a Druid’s Faerie Fire, as well as its prior attack power decrease effect, which still does not stack with other comparable effects. While incredibly effective, this curse has the same disadvantage as Curse of the Elements in that it reduces DPS if used by a Demonology Warlock. Fortunately, Druids are better at delivering the armor reduction debuff than other classes are at supplying the attack power debuff, so you’ll almost never need to use this one.

Curse of Tongues 30 percent cast speed slow (does not stack)
This useful little debuff has been significantly nerfed, with its cast speed slow decreased to 30% from 70%, but it is still quite good. Rogues can use it with Mind-numbing Poison as well, although Warlocks are often better at it due to our 30-yard range. As with other curses, you normally don’t want to use this because it reduces DPS significantly, but there are some boss battles (for example, Sindragosa with her Blistering Cold) when it can be useful.

Summoning Ritual
Being able to rapidly get everyone where they need to go is a huge benefit, as it has always been. In Wrath, summoning has been greatly simplified: instead of summoning each player separately, you conjure a summoning stone that everyone may use to summon others. This will save you a lot of Soul Shards and time.

Conclusion

I hope this tutorial has given you all of the knowledge you need to get the most out of your Demonology Warlock. Please see the other pages for information on gear, rotation, skills, and other topics.