Demonology Warlock

Overview

Talents and builds

Level 60 build

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Raid build

The raid build moves 15 points from Improved Life Tap (2), Improved Corruption (5), Grim Reach (2), Soul Harvest (2) and 2 more to Unholy Power (3), Improved Sayaad (1), Demonic Pact (1), Improved Shadow Bolt (5) and 1 more.

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Key talents

• Fel Vitality3/3Up to 15% more maximum health, mana, and pet stats at rank 3, an early quality-of-life pick
• Demonic Sacrifice and Demonic PactThe raid build takes the 31st Demonology point in Demonic Pact. With Shadow Bolt as the filler, the rest of the build follows it: Improved Shadow Bolt and Ruin in Destruction instead of Improved Corruption and Aftermath, and both points of Master Summoner, so each pre-pull summon is a 6-second cast. Before the pull, summon your Imp, sacrifice it for Touch of Shadow (in Forever the Imp's sacrifice gives 15% more Shadow damage), then summon your Succubus. Pact keeps the sacrifice running through that summon; only re-summoning the Imp would end it. You then have both Shadow bonuses, the Imp's sacrifice and the Succubus' Master Demonologist, with Soul Link and Demonic Knowledge still up. This was worth about +4% over staying pet-out in our audit run
• Soul Link1/1Cast it before the pull, with your demon out. It moves 30% of the damage you take onto the demon, and you and the demon both deal 3% more damage. Soul Link needs your demon out and ends when it dies or is dismissed. After a re-summon, cast it again before you resume the rotation
• Improved Health Funnel, Demonic Aegis and Improved VoidwalkerThey add no damage. They are free points, and you may move them into Improved Sayaad or Unholy Power for a gain of under 1% in our simulator, or keep them for your survivability. Demonic Aegis only matters while you wear a demon armor
• Master Summoner2/2Up to 4 seconds off summon cast time and 40% off its mana cost at rank 2, useful whenever you need to re-summon mid-fight
• Demonic Knowledge3/3Up to 100% of your level added to your and your pet's spell damage while a demon is active, one of the tree's largest damage talents
• Master Demonologist5/5A scaling buff to both Warlock and demon that differs by pet, up to 10% at rank 5 for whichever pet is out
• Decimation2/2Cuts Soul Fire's cooldown by 90%; once the target is below 35% health, each Shadow Bolt deals 6% more and gives you 10 seconds of faster Soul Fires that cost no Soul Shard

In Forever your demon scales from your own stats and no longer takes the raid’s buffs. Forever’s character sheet gives it 10% of your Shadow or Fire spell damage, whichever is higher, as its spell damage, 17% as its attack power, and 35% of your armor. Its spells hit as often as yours, and its melee takes 8/17 of your hit. It does not yet take your spell crit; Blizzard plans to give it that and has not said when. Treat the demon’s share of your damage as an estimate until level-60 logs confirm it.

Rotation and priority

Before the pull, summon your Imp, cast Demonic Sacrifice on it, summon your Succubus, and cast Soul Link with the Succubus out; the sequence takes about a minute out of combat, so start it early. Pop a mana potion at the start of the fight if your mana is already below its usual threshold. Keep Bane of Doom and Corruption running throughout: Doom deals its whole damage when its minute is up, so recast it the moment it fires; in the last minute of the fight a new Doom would not fire before the end, so cast Bane of Agony instead, and Corruption is cheap, sustained damage that doesn’t compete with your Shadow Bolt casts for a global. Recast Immolate when under 3 seconds remain, since a running Immolate out-damages the globals it displaces. Cast Soul Fire only while Decimation’s buff is up: below 35% health a Shadow Bolt gives you 10 seconds of Soul Fires that cast in 2.4 seconds and cost no Soul Shard, and those beat the Shadow Bolts they displace. Above 35% Soul Fire is a 4 second cast that costs a shard and deals less per second than Shadow Bolt. Shadow Bolt fills every other global: with two Shadow bonuses running it beats Searing Pain. Life Tap keeps you casting once mana falls below about 10%. Wand only when you are out of mana: a wand shot cannot start during the global cooldown, so it never fits between spells.

Stat priority

1. 1Spell power
2. 2Shadow power
3. 3Hit
4. 4Critical strike
5. 5Fire power
6. 6Intellect
7. 7Spell haste
8. 8Spell penetration

Best in slot

Enchants and consumables

Races

• Human
• Orc
• Undead
• Gnome (Recommended)
• Troll (Recommended)

Gnome is the Alliance pick: Escape Artist and Expansive Mind. Troll is the Horde pick: Berserking.

Professions

Tailoring and Enchanting is the standard caster pairing in Classic-era play: Tailoring’s crafted spellcaster gear fills early slots, and Enchanting lets you apply your own weapon and gear enchants instead of paying for them.

Leveling

Outlined: points added in this level range.

Affliction is generally the stronger leveling choice for Warlock; Demonology can level well too, particularly with a Voidwalker tanking damage while you cast, but it’s usually considered slower solo than Affliction’s DoT-and-move playstyle.