Warlock Specializations: Demonology

(Staples, 2011) ©2014 Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

We continue the series about specializations in this second post covering the Demonology spec. Players who choose this specialization are going to utilize their minion pets to their maximum abilities. Warlocks are also more capable in melee range fighting with the help of an ability that transforms them into a demon.

What is Demonic Fury?

The last blog post briefly mentioned the secondary resource system that is essential to each specialization. Demonology warlocks use Demonic Fury for their spec abilities. Unlike the Affliction spec—which uses mainly two spells for resource gathering—Demonology recruits a variety of basic warlock abilities to maintain Demonic Fury: Shadow Bolt, Corruption, Drain Life, and Fel Flame. Even your demon pets contribute to your resource pool with their basic attacks.

And if you think those spells were enough help, four new abilities from this spec pull their own weight in regeneration:

• Soul Fire always critically strikes your target, which means it will do the most damage possible for each attack. It can be difficult to use at first, due to its 4 second cast time; the spell becomes more viable in later levels.
• Hand of Gul'dan is a great for CCing a mob of enemies; the more targets within its area of effect can make for a quick resource boost.
• Hellfire can be useful for multiple targets, but channeling the spell does initially damage the caster as well, so be careful. This ability upgrades itself for ease of use at level 62, which will be covered later in this post.
• Wild Imps passively add supplemental dps and resource regeneration with each imp summoned; the increase in minions on-screen also makes your battles visually appealing.

It's Metamorphin' time!

Metamorphosis temporarily enables a demonic form on warlocks and unleashes many powerful skills in the process; fueled by Demonic Fury, these spells replace some of your regular abilities. Warlocks gain some movement utility with Demonic Leap, helping reduce the distance between you and any enemies, or increase distance if you find yourself in retreat. Nether Plating assists by reducing enemy stuns and snares, as well as increasing the armor ability of your current gear.

Many of the following spells emphasize close encounters with your enemies.

• Shadow Bolt becomes Touch of Chaos, which adds a buff that continues refreshing Corruption on your targets.
• Corruption becomes Doom, a spell that summons an Imp into battle on critical strike attacks; having higher critical strike chance can bring more reinforcements to help fight.
• Carrion Swarm adds some up-close utility to warlocks, including a knock back towards melee fighters and an interrupt to caster enemies.
• Immolation Aura is a passive ability, allowing you to instant cast Hellfire and grants you immunity to its damage.
• Cursed Auras allows your single target curse spells to affect nearby enemies.
• Hand of Gul'dan becomes Chaos Wave, making it a more powerful direct damage spell.
• Fel Flame becomes Void Ray, upgrading from a single target spell to affecting any target within its path.

Other Demonology spells

Demonology warlocks stand out from the other specs with their ability to Summon Felguards. The Felguard is a melee demon whose attacks affect multiple targets simultaneously. They also bring heal debuffs and a stun mechanic to your enemies.

Demonic Rebirth allows an instant summon of any minion without the use of Demonic Fury; the 20 second window for casting this spell means paying more attention to what your pet is doing, especially during heavy battle instances.

Both Molten Core and Decimation essentially improves your Soul Fire spell in cast time and mana cost; more frequent use of Soul Fire helps increase your dps output. These passive abilities are dependent on certain spells from triggering their effect, so be sure to pay attention to your spell casting.

Mastery: Master Demonologist gives an overall increase in damage dealt by your normal attacks, including buffs to your demon pets' damage. Your Metamorphosis attacks receive a significant bump in damage as well. Dark Soul: Knowledge tops off the Mastery ability: increasing each damage buff by 30% allows you to burn down any enemy quickly and should be used on those encounters that prove to be difficult.

References

Staples, G. (2011). Forbidden Knowledge [Image]. Retrieved from http://us.battle.net/wow/en/media/artwork/trading-card-game/series1?view=tcg-series1-126

World of Warcraft. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://us.battle.net/wow/en/

Wowhead. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://wowhead.com/

Demonology Warlock DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities (WoW MoP 5.4). (2013, November 20). Icy Veins. Retrieved from http://www.icy-veins.com/demonology-warlock-wow-pve-dps-rotation-cooldowns-abilities

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