Demonology Warlock
About the author
This guide is lovingly hand-crafted by Furty, a connoisseur of coffee, relapsing academic, sagacious wordsmith, gastropornographer, lover of music, geek, gamer, Michael Fassbender doppelgänger, Lord of Purple Men, and hardcore raider in Midwinter. Furty has been playing all three warlock specs at the highest level since the launch of Mists of Pandaria, though he’s been around since the inception of the game. He may be a true purple man at heart, but his love of the game extends to all classes and roles (except healers, yuck!). You’ll often find him AFK in Stormshield, pondering the recondite existence of humanity. Any questions? JUST ASK!
Spec Overview
Demonology is a complex, multi-faceted spec that can unleash potent burst damage while remaining relatively unaffected by movement. This spec is extremely flexible, allowing you to shift between a variety of playstyles to custom tailor your damage to adapt to different encounters. For example, Demonbolt has you stockpiling large pools of fury to discharge for a massive window of burst, once every minute or so. When playing Demonic Servitude or Cataclysm, however, managing your Molten Core procs and efficiently weaving in and out of Metamorphosis is of crucial importance. No matter your talent choice, careful forethought and planning are at the forefront of this specialization.
Demonology currently ranks as one of the strongest specializations in the game for single target, cleave, and AoE.
Note for clarity: You should never cast Soul Fire without Molten Core.
Links
Changelog
• 3/29: A guide is born
Demonic Servitude Rotation
This is the basic rotation and priority system. In the Advanced Play section I’ll cover more complex methods to greatly improve your play. You should be using Grimoire of Service when playing as Demonic Servitude.
1) Keep Corruption and Doom applied to the main target at all times. You should aim for a minimum of 95% uptime on Corruption and 98% uptime on Doom. Apply Corruptions to all secondary targets if they will live for longer than around 6 seconds. This will result in much higher average damage in both single and multi-target scenarios, due to the abundance of 4-set procs combined with the bonus fury generation. Only apply Doom to new targets if they will live long enough for Doom to tick once (approximately 15 seconds). This too will result in higher average single target due to Doom criticals spawning
Wild Imps. It’s good practice to re-DoT when you are forced to move if your DoTs are in pandemic range, as they are instant cast.
2) Keep Hand of Gul’dan applied to the main target when you have 2+ charges. It’s important we maximize the uptime of the DoT component, so we don’t use the charges back-to-back. Use the first charge, cast other spells for 4-5 seconds, then use another charge to stack the debuff to 2. You should never use Hand of Gul’dan if you only have one charge. Hand of Gul’dan generates Molten Core procs. With average levels of haste in Blackrock Foundry you should have time for 2 Shadow Bolts, or 3 Corruptions, depending on the encounter.
3) Cast Grimoire: Doomguard and Dark Soul: Knowledge on cooldown. You should always save 800+ Demonic Fury along with 5-8 Molten Core procs for this dump. While Dark Soul is active, cast Soul Fire inMetamorphosis form. If you are in danger of capping Hand of Gul’dan charges or you run out of Molten Core procs, cast Chaos Wave. If you are out of Chaos Waves and Molten Cores, cast Touch of Chaos for the remainder of Dark Soul. In cleave situations, or during major procs, Chaos Wave should take priority over Soul Fire unless you are at 10 Molten Core stacks and the boss is above 25% hp.
4) Cast Shadow Bolt to generate Demonic Fury.
5) Cast Soul Fire in caster form to generate Demonic Fury when the boss has less than 25% health.
6) Cast Soul Fire in Metamorphosis while under the effects of powerful procs such as trinkets, or the legendary ring.
7) Cast Life Tap as necessary. It’s good practice to save your taps for times where you are forced to move, given this spell is instant cast.
8) Cast Touch of Chaos when you’re at risk of capping Demonic Fury and have no active procs to pair with Soul Fire. You can also cast Touch of Chaos if you’re forced to move for extended periods and you don’t need to Life Tap or re-DoT.
9) If you reach the Molten Core stack cap of 10 you should cast 1-2 Soul Fires in caster form to ensure you’re not wasting any potential stacks.
Priority System
This is a list of abilities that are ordered based on the priority they have in the rotation.
1) Doom
2) Grimoire: Doomguard and Dark Soul: Knowledge on cooldown
3) Soul Fire during trinket procs
4) Don’t let Hand of Gul’dan cap charges
5) Corruption
6) Touch of Chaos if you’re going to cap Demonic Fury
7) Shadow Bolt
8) Life Tap
Opener
1) Draenic Intellect Potion
2) Pre-cast Soul Fire 4 seconds prior to boss engagement
3) Hit pet attack macro at 2 seconds prior to boss engagement for Doomguard’s Doom Bolt pre-cast
4) Grimoire: Doomguard
5) Hand of Gul’dan
6) Dark Soul: Knowledge + On-use Trinkets + Racials
7) Corruption
8) Shadow Bolt
9) Hand of Gul’dan
10) Doom
11) Chaos Wave
12) Soul Fire as many times as Molten Core procs/Demonic Fury allows
13) Shadow Bolt several times to generate Demonic Fury
14) Soul Fire 1-2 times with remaining trinket/DS time and Chaos Wave once if you don’t have time to get a Soul Fire off
Demonbolt Rotation
This is the basic rotation and priority system. In the Advanced Play section I’ll cover more complex methods to greatly improve your play. You should be using Grimoire of Synergy and Glyph of Dark Soul when playing Demonbolt.
1) Keep Corruption and Doom applied to the main target at all times. You should aim for a minimum of 95% uptime on Corruption and 98% uptime on Doom. Apply Corruptions to all secondary targets if they will live for longer than around 6 seconds. This will result in much higher average damage in both single and multi-target scenarios, due to the abundance of 4-set procs (Item – Warlock T17 Demonology 4P Bonus) combined with the bonus fury generation. Only apply Doom to new targets if they will live long enough for Doom to tick once (approximately 15 seconds). This too will result in higher average single target due to Doom criticals spawning
Wild Imps. It’s good practice to re-DoT when you are forced to move if your DoTs are in pandemic range, as they are instant cast.
2) Keep Hand of Gul’dan applied to the main target when you have 2+ charges. It’s important we maximize the uptime of the DoT component, so we don’t use the charges back-to-back. Use the first charge, cast other spells for 4-5 seconds, then use another charge to stack the debuff to 2. You should never use Hand of Gul’dan if you only have one charge. Hand of Gul’dan generates Molten Core procs. With average levels of haste in Blackrock Foundry you should have time for 2 Soul Fires, 2 Shadow Bolts, or 3 Corruptions, depending on the encounter.
3) Cast Soul Fire in caster form to generate Demonic Fury.
4) Cast Shadow Bolt to generate Demonic Fury when you have no Molten Core procs.
5) At 800+ Demonic Fury you should enter Metamorphosis, cast Dark Soul: Knowledge, then cast Demonbolt 4 times in succession. You should aim to fit a Demonbolt cycle in once every 60 seconds, maximum. You can and should wait a little while between 800 and 1000 Demonic Fury to fish out trinket procs to pair with your cycle.
6) Cast Life Tap as necessary. It’s good practice to save your taps for times where you are forced to move, given this spell is instant cast.
Priority System
This is a list of abilities that are ordered based on the priority they have in the rotation.
1) Doom
2) Cast Dark Soul: Knowledge and Demonbolt x4 at 800+ Demonic Fury
3) Don’t let Hand of Gul’dan cap charges
4) Corruption
5) Soul Fire in caster form
6) Shadow Bolt
7) Life Tap
Opener
1) Pre-Draenic Intellect Potion
2) Pre-cast Soul Fire 4 seconds prior to boss engagement
3) Hit pet attack macro at 2 seconds prior to boss engagement for Felguard’s Pursuit
4) Summon Doomguard
5) Hand of Gul’dan
6) Corruption
7) Shadow Bolt
8) Dark Soul: Knowledge + On-use Trinkets + Racials
9) Hand of Gul’dan
10) Doom
11) Demonbolt x2
12) Hand of Gul’dan (if you have Item – Warlock T17 Demonology 4P Bonus)
13) Soul Fire x3
14) Hand of Gul’dan (if you have Item – Warlock T17 Demonology 4P Bonus)
Cataclysm Rotation
This is the basic rotation and priority system. In the Advanced Play section I’ll cover more complex methods to greatly improve your play. You should be using Grimoire of Synergy when playing Cataclysm.
1) Keep Corruption and Doom applied to the main target at all times. You should aim for a minimum of 95% uptime on Corruption and 98% uptime on Doom. Apply Corruptions to all secondary targets if they will live for longer than around 6 seconds. This will result in much higher average damage in both single and multi-target scenarios, due to the abundance of 4-set procs combined with the bonus fury generation. Only apply Doom to new targets if they will live long enough for Doom to tick once (approximately 15 seconds). This too will result in higher average single target due to Doom criticals spawning
Wild Imps. It’s good practice to re-DoT when you are forced to move if your DoTs are in pandemic range, as they are instant cast.
2) Keep Hand of Gul’dan applied to the main target when you have 2+ charges. It’s important we maximize the uptime of the DoT component, so we don’t use the charges back-to-back. Use the first charge, cast other spells for 4-5 seconds, then use another charge to stack the debuff to 2. You should never use Hand of Gul’dan if you only have one charge. Hand of Gul’dan generates Molten Core procs. With average levels of haste in Blackrock Foundry you should have time for 2 Shadow Bolts, or 3 Corruptions, depending on the encounter.
3) Cast Cataclysm more or less on cooldown. When using Cataclysm on mass AoE and you have the Item – Warlock T17 Demonology 4P Bonus you should Cataclysm in caster form to apply mass-Corruption. When using Cataclysm on a single target or extended cleave (essentially on targets where you would manually applyDooms anyways) you should Cataclysm in Metamorphosis to apply Dooms. You should pair Cataclysm with Dark Soul: Knowledge, Grimoire of Synergy procs, and trinkets where possible. You should delay use of Cataclysm if adds are spawning in the near future.
4) Cast Dark Soul: Knowledge on cooldown. You should always save 800+ Demonic Fury along with 5-8 Molten Core procs for this dump. While Dark Soul is active, cast Soul Fire in Metamorphosis form. If you are in danger of capping Hand of Gul’dan charges or you run out of Molten Core procs, cast Chaos Wave. If you are out of Chaos Waves and Molten Cores, cast Touch of Chaos for the remainder of Dark Soul. In cleave situations, or during major procs, Chaos Wave should take priority over Soul Fire unless you are at 10 Molten Core stacks and the boss is above 25% hp.
5) Cast Chaos Wave on cleave/AoE when under the effects of powerful procs, such as Dark Soul, Synergy, and trinkets.
6) Cast Shadow Bolt to generate Demonic Fury.
7) Cast Soul Fire in caster form to generate Demonic Fury when the boss has less than 25% health.
8) Cast Soul Fire in Metamorphosis while under the effects of powerful procs such as trinkets, or the legendary ring.
9) Cast Life Tap as necessary. It’s good practice to save your taps for times where you are forced to move, given this spell is instant cast.
10) Cast Touch of Chaos when you’re at risk of capping Demonic Fury and have no active procs to pair with Soul Fire. You can also cast Touch of Chaos if you’re forced to move for extended periods and you don’t need to Life Tap or re-DoT.
11) If you reach the Molten Core stack cap of 10 you should cast 1-2 Soul Fires in caster form to ensure you’re not wasting any potential stacks.
Priority System
This is a list of abilities that are ordered based on the priority they have in the rotation.
1) Doom
2) Dark Soul: Knowledge on cooldown
3) Cataclysm
4) Soul Fire during trinket procs
5) Don’t let Hand of Gul’dan cap charges
5) Corruption
6) Chaos Wave on cleave/AoE during procs
7) Touch of Chaos if you’re going to cap Demonic Fury
7) Shadow Bolt
8) Life Tap
Cataclysm Single Target Opener
1) Pre-Draenic Intellect Potion
2) Pre-cast Soul Fire 4 seconds prior to boss engagement
3) Hit pet attack macro at 2 seconds prior to boss engagement for Felguard’s Pursuit
4) Summon Doomguard
5) Hand of Gul’dan
6) Dark Soul: Knowledge + On-use Trinkets + Racials
7) Corruption
8) Shadow Bolt
9) Hand of Gul’dan
10) Cataclysm
11) Chaos Wave
12) Soul Fire as many times as Molten Core procs/Demonic Fury allows
13) Shadow Bolt several times to generate Demonic Fury
14) Soul Fire 1-2 times with remaining trinket/DS time and Chaos Wave once if you don’t have time to get a Soul Fire off
Cataclysm 3-target Opener
1) Pre-Draenic Intellect Potion
2) Pre-cast Soul Fire 4 seconds prior to boss engagement
3) Hit pet attack macro at 2 seconds prior to boss engagement for Felguard’s Pursuit
4) Summon Doomguard
5) Hand of Gul’dan
6) Dark Soul: Knowledge + On-use Trinkets + Racials
7) Corruption (First Target)
8) Corruption (Second Target)
9) Corruption (Third Target)
10) Hand of Gul’dan
11) Cataclysm
12) Chaos Wave as many times as possible
13) Soul Fire as many times as Molten Core procs/Demonic Fury allows
14) Shadow Bolt several times to generate Demonic Fury
15) Soul Fire 1-2 times with remaining trinket/DS time and Chaos Wave as charges allow
Advanced Play
Trinket Choice
There are three trinkets you can use in Blackrock Foundry.
Darmac’s Unstable Talisman
Goren Soul Repository
Blackiron Micro Crucible
The best trinket for both consistency and overall DPS parity between the Demonology sub-specializations is Goren Soul Repository, however, there is some debate as to what your second trinket should be.
Darmac’s Unstable Talisman greatly aids your Demonic Fury generation, the casts of your pet, and reduces the cooldown of your Demonbolt cycle. Blackiron Micro Crucible gives you another damage proc to play with, adding increased flexibility for Soul Fire dumps, Demonbolt consistency, and Chaos Waving. Ultimately you should make the choice of your second trinket based on what’s available to you alongside personal preference. In summary, Darmac’s allows for increased frequency of fury dumps whereas Micro Crucible increases the potency and reliability of fury dumps.
For purely single target purposes, all three trinkets are more or less identical. On cleave and AoE, however, Goren Soul Repository and Blackiron Micro Crucible pull ahead by a noticeable margin, especially if you are playing Cataclysm.
Hand of Gul’dan vs Chaos Wave
This is where a very large portion of the skill cap resides currently. There’s no easy answer as this is very much about making the right decision based on your current situation. A quick overview:
• Hand of Gul’dan does higher DPET; the Demonic Fury generating component combined with the damage outweighs the fury loss and damage of Chaos Wave
• Hand of Gul’dan has the potential to generate multiple Molten Core procs, whereas Chaos Wave generates only a single Molten Core proc (guaranteed). In multi-target situations Hand of Gul’dan will generate many procs, whereas Chaos Wave will still only generate a single proc
Despite Hand of Gul’dan being seemingly better at first glance, there is a caveat that can make Chaos Wave stronger. Since Hand of Gul’dan is a damage-over-time effect, it benefits from procs dynamically. Chaos Wave, being instant cast, funnels all that damage into a single GCD, essentially “snapshotting” the proc. In situations where you have multiple procs active it can be a significant increase to Chaos Wave outside of Dark Soul. Situations where Chaos Wave can and should be used:
• During Dark Soul
• When you are high on Demonic Fury, inside Metamorphosis, and in-danger of capping charges
• When you have multiple procs active and you are Soul Fireing inside Metamorphosis but don’t have time to cast another Soul Fire before the procs expire, and you are high on charges
• When Blackiron Micro Crucible is at maximum stacks (18+) and you are at a reasonable Demonic Fury level
• On AoE burst
• When targets won’t live long enough for them to benefit from an entire Hand of Gul’dan (or when the boss is about to die and you’re dumping any remaining fury)
However, even these situations don’t guarantee you should be casting Chaos Wave. If you are extremely fury starved, or you are at middling fury levels and have a Dark Soul dump approaching soon, you should Hand of Gul’dan in almost any situation purely for the fury generation.
I recommend you experiment with this before trying it in a raid, as casting Chaos Wave at the wrong times can result in you hemorrhaging DPS. When in doubt, cast Hand of Gul’dan. However, learning to utilize this playstyle correctly can result in a noticeable damage gain, be it single target, cleave, or AoE.
The only time you want to be casting Touch of Chaos is when you are at risk of fury capping and you have no active procs to pair with Soul Fire. In this situation you should siphon around 150-200 fury with Touch of Chaos to ensure you don’t cap resources. Once you get a proper proc you can do a fury dump with Soul Fire.
Casting Touch of Chaos during periods of extremely high, sustained movement is also acceptable, though planning re-DoTs and Life Taps along with proper use of Demonic Circle should allow you to cast it as little as possible.
Any time you don’t have enough Molten Core procs to cover a Dark Soul/Trinket dump, or you don’t have time to cast another Soul Fire and you have no charges to Chaos Wave with inside of Dark Soul/Trinkets, you should cover with Touch of Chaos.
I recommend moving your Doomguard within range of the boss manually prior to engagement. This will have him start his pre-cast immediately instead of spending the first couple seconds moving into range. Look for opportunities to position your Doomguard pre-fight so it doesn’t have to chase the boss the first time the boss moves.
Always save your last Grimoire: Doomguard for execute range (<20%). Your Doomguards hit 20% harder in execute range; essentially this is free damage if you remember to save it. Make sure you’re position is favorable when you cast Grimoire: Doomguard. If you cast it at max range and the boss moves further away, your Grimoire pet will spend precious seconds chasing the boss instead of doing damage. Think about positioning before using this important cooldown.
Make sure you’ve used all your Molten Core procs before the boss hits 25%. After this point you get infinite procs, those any remaining stacks are wasted.
Cast Cataclysm in caster form on mass AoE when you have the Item – Warlock T17 Demonology 4P Bonus. The fury generation from all the Corruption ticking simultaneously combined with the charge return will allow you to essentially spam Chaos Wave.
Think about Cataclysm usage. It’s always worth it to save this important cooldown for times where you get maximum benefit. Cataclysm striking two targets is like getting an extra Cataclysm cast over the entire fight; think about when you’ll get the maximum possible punch out of this ability. Sometimes it’s worth it to Cataclysm immediately on less targets if you have extraordinarily powerful procs active. Weight the benefits and drawbacks of each and make an informed decision.
On some bosses it’s worth it sacrifice the damage component of Cataclysm in favor of the DoT application benefit. For example, I will occasionally Cataclysm a large stack of shielded slag elementals on Mythic Blast Furnace Phase 3 to apply Dooms. Even though this did very little damage due to the 99% damage reduction, this can be a large single target gain over using Cataclysm on the boss as the imps will cause you to gain absurd amounts of fury and molten core procs.
Make sure you’ve used all your Molten Core procs before the boss hits 25%. After this point you get infinite procs, those any remaining stacks are wasted.
Once you hit 800 Demonic Fury you should always wait a little while before beginning your cycle to fish out Grimoire of Synergy and Trinket procs. This is a huge net damage gain, though you shouldn’t delay your cycle by too long or it will result in a loss.
Try not to spend any Demonic Fury on anything except Doom and Demonbolt. You cannot afford to Touch of Chaos when playing this spec.
Talents Cheatsheet
Level 15: Soul Leech
Level 30: Shadowfury
Level 45: Soul Link
Level 60: Burning Rush
Level 75: Grimoire of Service
Level 90: Archimonde’s Darkness
Level 100: Demonic Servitude
Advanced Talents
Level 15: Dark Regeneration, Soul Leech, Harvest Life
Dark Regeneration
A viable alternative on encounters where Soul Leech has little effect (the magical soaking on Ko’ragh, for example).
Soul Leech
The strongest option for the majority of encounters.
Harvest Life
Do not take under any circumstances.
Level 30: Howl of Terror, Mortal Coil, Shadowfury
Howl of Terror
Breaks on damage limiting its usefulness on raid encounters.
Mortal Coil
Doesn’t provide the healing return to mobs that are immune to the horrify effect.
Shadowfury
Most adds are stunnable making this the go-to talent in general.
Level 45: Soul Link, Sacrificial Pact, Dark Bargain
Soul Link
The best option for most raid encounters. If you are playing with Grimoire of Sacrifice, you are instead granted 20% maximum health which results in the same effective health increase.
Sacrificial Pact
A strong alternative if damage is very spaced out, or you’re assigned to soak a specific mechanic. Best paired with Glyph of Demon Training and a Felguard for a larger absorption shield.
Dark Bargain
Only used in scenarios where an immunity allows you to game a specific mechanic. It’s worth noting that Dark Bargain is considered an absorb, so it can be used even for mechanics that ‘pierce immunities’ (the orbs and magical shield on Ko’ragh, for example).
Level 60: Blood Horror, Burning Rush, Unbound Will
Blood Horror
Doesn’t really have applicable use in PvE.
Burning Rush
Your go-to talent in most situations, due to our lack of a baseline movement speed cooldown.
Unbound Will
Has its uses on encounters with important mechanics that need to be dispelled immediately, though I find this talent is often overrated when you consider the merits of Burning Rush in comparison.
Level 75: Grimoire of Supremacy, Grimoire of Service,Grimoire of Sacrifice
Your choice of Grimoire is tied directly to your choice of level 100 talent. I’ll go over these in more detail later.
Grimoire of Supremacy
Generally inferior to the other two options. Scales linearly with increased number of sustained targets.
Grimoire of Service
The best single target option when paired with Demonic Servitude. Scales poorly with increased number of sustained targets.
Grimoire of Synergy
The best option when playing Cataclysm and Demonbolt. Scales exponentially with number of sustained targets.
Level 90: Archimonde’s Darkness, Kil’jaeden’s Cunning,Mannoroth’s Fury
Archimonde’s Darkness
You will use this on every encounter.
Kil’jaeden’s Cunning
Pales in comparison to the potency of an extra Dark Soul, given we’re relatively unaffected by movement.
Mannoroth’s Fury
Immolation aura is too weak currently for this talent to be considered.
Level 100: Demonbolt, Cataclysm, Demonic Servitude
Demonbolt
Best paired with Grimoire of Synergy and Glyph of Dark Soul. Greatly simplifies the rotation and provides extremely high burst in short windows. Not as strong as Demonic Servitude for single target, but you struggle to master the traditional Demonology playstyle you might get better results out of this talent. Also useful for bursting down priority targets (Primal Elementalists on Blast Furnace, for example).
Cataclysm
Best paired with Grimoire of Synergy. This talent is the strongest option for cleave and mass AoE. Glyph of Dark Soul can be used for very slightly higher overall DPS on sustained cleave (such as Iron Maidens) but at a single target and priority target damage loss.
Demonic Servitude
Best paired with Grimoire of Service. Allows you to replace your Summon Doomguard and Summon Infernal spells with permanent pets. Your Doomguard hits extremely hard, and once every two minutes you will be able to summon a second Doomguard via Grimoire: Doomguard (when playing Service). All Doomguards hit 20% harder when the target is below 20% health. This talent currently offers the most flexibility with movement, the highest possible burst in a 20s window, the highest execute damage by a landslide, and the highest single target damage overall.
Glyphs
Major
Glyph of Eternal Resolve
Replaces Unending Resolve with passive 10% damage reduction. Weighing 8s of 40% damage reduction every 3 minutes (~4.5% maximum uptime) against 10% damage reduction all the time it’s easy to see why this glyph is well used by all warlock specializations.
Glyph of Dark Soul
Halves the duration and cooldown of Dark Soul. Best paired with Demonbolt. Also usable by Cataclysm on sustained cleave, though you sacrifice a very large amount of priority target damage for a negligible cleave gain.
Situational
Glyph of Demonic Circle
Reduces the cooldown of your Demonic Circle from 30s to 26s. Just like the ability Demonic Circle, this glyph is highly underrated and underutilized by the majority of warlocks. There are a lot of mechanics on 30s timers, and the use of this glyph allows Demonic Circle to be available for all of them (e.g. Demolition on Blackhand).
Siphon Life
Causes Corruption ticks to heal you for 0.35% of your maximum health when it ticks. This glyph is highly overrated but if you need to fill a glyph slot it doesn’t hurt.
Glyph of Demon Training
Should be taken if you are playing with Demonbolt/Cataclysm and Sacrificial Pact. Increases your Felguard’s health by 20% and since the size of your Sacrificial Pact shield is based off your demon’s current health, it results in larger absorbs.
Glyph of Soulstone
Causes players resurrected by your Soulstone to revive at 100% of their maximum health. This glyph is very strong if you’re pre-soulstoning tanks because it basically eliminates the possibility of them being immediately gibbed.
Glyph of Strengthened Resolve
Increases your Unending Resolve‘s reduction to 60% and increases the cooldown by 60s (4 minutes total). This glyph is useful for allowing you to soak extremely large hits without having to spec Sacrificial Pact. Combined with Soul Link it totals 80% damage reduction while active.
Glyph of Unending Resolve
Reduces your Unending Resolve reduction to 20% and reduces the cooldown by 60s (2 minutes total). This glyph is useful on fights where you need the silence immunity provided (Thok is the only good example).
Glyph of Healthstone
Increases the healing done by your healthstone by 100%, but instead of being instant, the heal is applied over 10s. This glyph is best paired with Dark Regeneration. In general I find this glyph to be somewhat of a trap since the primary benefit of a healing tonic/healthstone is to give a quick instant heal to save you from the next hit. Unless you’ve premeditated where you’ll be using your healthstone I would avoid the use of this glyph.
Stats
Practical Stat Priority: Mastery > Crit = Haste > Multistrike > Versatility
One thing that is extremely important to understand, no matter what class you play, is the relative values of stats to your character. In most cases, stats you have very little of will inflate in value, while stats you have a surplus of will diminish in value. What this means for you is that the stat priority isn’t ironclad; Crit and Haste for example, have interchangeable value depending on how much or little of each you have.
Intellect
Our primary and most important stat. All our damage scales with intellect.
Mastery: Master Demonologist
Increases the damage done by all of our damaging spells, albeit at varying degrees of effectiveness. The damage of spells in Metamorphosis is affected most, ensuring that Mastery scales extremely well with AoE.
1% Caster Form Damage = 110 Mastery Rating
1% Pet Damage = 110 Mastery Rating
1% Metamorphosis Damage = ~36.7 Mastery Rating
Crit
Increases your chance to critically hit with your spells. Doom Criticals cause Wild Imps to spawn. Since Soul Fire always critically strikes, Critical Strike instead causes Soul Fire damage to increase linearly. 1% crit is exactly 1% bonus damage on your Soul Fires.
1% = 110 Critical Strike Rating
Multistrike
Increases your chance to strike at the target multiple times in the same spell. Each spell has a chance to multistrike twice. Multistrikes cannot multistrike. The damage of a multistrike is always 30% the value of the initial hit. This means the maximum potential bonus damage of a single attack is 160%. To compensate for this being inherently less than a critical strike, multistrike is a ‘cheaper’ stat. Multistrike does not have any guaranteed interaction with our spells the same way Critical Strike does, making this stat inferior to crit in all situations.
1% = 66 Multistrike Rating
Haste
Haste is an all around good stat, increasing cast speed, DoT tick rate, Global Cooldown, and our pets’ energy regeneration rate. Touch of Chaos has a 1s baseline GCD and is thusly unaffected by haste rating.
1% = 90 Haste Rating
Versatility
Increases your damage, healing, absords, along with reducing the damage you take. Versatility is intentionally tuned to be an expensive stat since it does so many things.
1% Damage/Healing/Absorbs = 130 Versatility Rating
1% Damage Reduction = 260 Versatility Rating
The stat priority is roughly the same across all talents and grimoires, though the significance of each stat varies depending on your choices.
Enchants
Rings: Enchant Ring – Gift of Mastery
Cloak: Enchant Cloak – Gift of Mastery
Neck: Enchant Neck – Gift of Mastery
Weapon: Mark of Bleeding Hollow
Gems: Greater Mastery Taladite
Consumables
Food: Sleeper Sushi
Potion: Draenic Intellect Potion
Flask: Greater Draenic Intellect Flask
Gear
| Slot | Item | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Helmet | Shadow Council’s Hood | Kromog |
| Necklace | Gruul’s Lip Ring | Gruul |
| Shoulder | Shadow Council’s Mantle | Thogar |
| Cloak | Runefrenzy Greatcloak | Kromog |
| Chest | Shadow Council’s Robes | Flamebender |
| Bracer | Bracers of Darkened Skies | Trash |
| Gloves | Toothbreaker Grips | Oregorger |
| Waist | Seeking Ember Girdle | Beastlord |
| Legs | Shadow Council’s Leggings | Blast Furnace |
| Boots | Cavedweller’s Climbers | Gruul |
| Ring | Uk’urogg’s Corrupted Seal | Iron Maidens |
| Weapon | Inferno-Flame Staff | Gruul |
| Trinket | Goren Soul Repository | Oregorger |
| Trinket | Blackiron Micro Crucible | Blackhand |
Blackrock Foundry
Oregorger
Talents
Soul Link, Burning Rush, Grimoire of Service, Demonic Servitude
Strategy
Save re-dotting and tapping for movement from the Retched Blackrock. Leave your Doomguard on passive and sic it on the boss for the duration of the encounter. I like to move mine to the lane left of the boss before the encounter starts, otherwise it ends of in the back of the room away from the group and eventually dies from Soul Link. Put a Demonic Circle down outside your assigned lane as an insurance policy against rolls. You can forego Eternal Resolve glyph if you’re afraid you might get rolled over. I usually save my second service for after the first roll phase, otherwise it will spend it’s duration chasing the boss around. During roll phase I leave my pet on the boss. You can apply Doom to the boxes that die last (for us, the center boxes) and Corruption to any boxes in your vicinity. Take advantage of Demonic Gateway on this fight.
Hans’gar & Franzok
Talents
Soul Link, Burning Rush, Grimoire of Service, Demonic Servitude
Strategy
Cataclysm is equally viable if that’s your preference, but due to the high-movement nature of the encounter and the leaping bosses Serv/Serv is generally preferred for consistency. Place a Demonic Circle near your starting point to help you reset positioning for the second set of smart stampers, and help you traverse the room during Searing Plates. Re-apply Doom before either jumps up so you continue to benefit from the imp procs.
Beastlord Darmac
Talents
Soul Link, Unbound Will“], Grimoire of Service, Demonic Servitude
Strategy
Cataclysm is also usable here, though it results is significantly lower priority target damage and is mostly just meter padding. If your raid kills spears slowly, apply Doom and Corruption to them for Imps and damage, otherwise, only apply Corruption for 4-piece procs. Make sure your Doomguard is set to passive and you’re always assigning it to hit the boss and his mounts, otherwise it will attack the spears. For maximum boss damage, use Hand of Gul’dan on the pack beasts for fury generation and Molten Core procs. If you need them to die ASAP, or you are under the effects of Dark Soul, use Chaos Wave. Save your second Dark Soul charge for execute as Darmac spends a long time in the sub 20% phase, and you can quickly regenerate fury from the pack beasts. Put a Demonic Circle down wherever you move the Rylak to for quick movement. You can use Unbound Will to self-dispel Conflagrate, or keep Burning Rush for any sustained movement — your call. Demonic Gateway can be of great help for your raid group.
Gruul
Talents
Soul Link, Burning Rush, Grimoire of Service, Demonic Servitude
Strategy
I like to place a Demonic Circle in case I don’t need to re-DoT or Life Tap when petrifying slam goes out, so I can instantly portal back to the ground. I save my extra charge of Dark Soul for execute, though if you kill the boss extremely quickly I recommend using the second charge at around 30% so you will benefit from the infinite Soul Fires around halfway through. Always save your last Service for <20%.
Flamebender Ka’graz
Talents
Soul Link, Burning Rush, Grimoire of Synergy, Cataclysm
Strategy
Place a circle wherever your spot in the room is, in case you get Molten Torrent and have to run to melee. You can use Cataclysm more or less on cooldown; every other usage will be available for dogs. Apply a second round of Dooms and Corruptions to the dogs before they die to extend their duration. DoTs continue to tick even after the wolves die, so you will be swimming in imps and 4-set procs for a little while. If you stack the dogs in melee I recommend using your second Dark Soul charge on the first set of dogs and just spamming Chaos Wave.
Operator Thogar
Talents
Soul Link, Burning Rush, Grimoire of Service*, Demonic Servitude*
*Synergy/Cata if your raid goes to different sides, Serv/Serv if your raid all goes to the same side
Strategy
Save Cataclysm for the first add train if talented. Make sure you call your felguard over for splits, otherwise, leave your pets on the boss. Using add waves for fury generation for maximum possible priority target damage. DoT up gunners with Corruption/Doom if they die slower than 15s. Place a Demonic Circle in the lane adjacent to the boss on the far right. You can use this to dodge the first deforester and a second deforester later in the fight. Gateways can be used to help your raid deal with deforesters as well.
Blast Furnace
Talents
Soul Link, Burning Rush, Grimoire of Synergy, Cataclysm
Strategy
All 3 level 100 talents have their advantages and disadvantages here; my preference is Synergy/Cataclysm. This will give you the best overall combination of priority target damage, boss damage, and cleave. You will have Cataclysm available at least once per elementalist, and it will save you a ton of fury in Doom applications. I like to pre-DoT the elementalist with Doom as we’re burning down the slag to break the shield, as it takes around 12 seconds before its first tick. If you have absurd amounts of excess fury you can DoT the shielded elementalists with Doom as even immuned Doom ticks can provide imps, resulting in a DPS increase.
Kromog
Talents
Soul Link, Burning Rush, Grimoire of Service, Demonic Servitude
Strategy
Place a Demonic Circle on top of your assigned hand area for quick movement. Place a Demonic Gateway to help with movement between pillars. Just like Flamebender you can place Dooms on all three pillars and they continue to tick after they “die”. Use the hand phase to generate fury and Molten Core procs via Hand of Gul’dan for the first pillar phase. I save my second Dark Soul charge for execute since Kromog has a lot of health.
Iron Maidens
Talents
Soul Link, Burning Rush, Grimoire of Synergy, Cataclysm
Strategy
If your guild is really struggling with the sub 20% phase switch to Serv/Serv for the single target damage. Keep full DoTs on all three and spend shadow charges on Hand of Gul’dan for Molten Core procs and fury gen. You will be able to cast Soul Fire in caster form a lot due to the excess of Molten Core procs. Chaos Wave during extreme procs and Dark Soul. Always use Cataclysm in Metamorphosis form on this fight for the free Doom applications.
Blackhand
Talents
Soul Link, Burning Rush, Grimoire of Service, Demonic Servitude
Glyphs
Glyph of Demonic Circle
Strategy
Place Demonic Circle and Demonic Gateway in Phase One to assist with movement. You can use Demonic Leap to reach the balcony on the way down to Phase Two, providing Falling Meteor isn’t glyphed — this provides an alternative to hunters/druids doing the first balconies. Save second Dark Soul charge for execute as Phase 3 is extremely important. DoT the siegemakers with Doom and Corruption but don’t focus any explicit damage into them unless your raid requires it.
Challenge Modes
Stat Priority
Mastery > Crit > Haste > Multistrike > Versatility
Focus on finding pieces with Mastery and Crit. You will never get enough of the other 3 stats for them to matter, so consider them equally ‘bad’. Generally speaking, a randomly rolled double Mastery piece is better than a Mastery/Crit piece.
Gear
With the amount of readily accessible randomly rolled gear there isn’t a true BiS list for all slots. Trinkets are the most important pieces by far:
Trinket 1: Copeland’s Clarity
Trinket 2: Stone of Fire
Alternative Trinket 2 (Alchemist’s Only): Draenic Philosopher’s Stone
Stone of Fire has 77 more int on proc inside of Challenge Modes versus the Philosopher’s Stone, however, the Philosopher’s Stone is basically free to craft and has a Mastery Passive instead of Versatility. Ultimately the Stone of Fire is slightly better though the difference between them is small. Both trinkets have a 55s ICD and will proc on basically anything you do (buffing, mounting up, etc.).
Other decent/usable trinkets are:
Goren Soul Repository
Munificent Orb of Ice
Quiescent Runestone
Primal Gladiator’s Insignia of Dominance
Here are a few pieces to keep an eye out for:
| Slot | Item | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Helmet | Hood of Arcane Mystery | Various Bosses |
| Necklace | Magister’s Chain | Various Bosses |
| Shoulder | Felflame Spaulders | Various Bosses |
| Cloak | Drape of Frozen Dreams | Various Bosses |
| Chest | Shadow Council’s Robes | Flamebender |
| Bracer | Frost-Touched Wristwraps | Various Bosses |
| Gloves | Primal Gladiator’s Gloves of Prowess | Conquest Vendor |
| Waist | Frost-Touched Cord | Various Bosses |
| Legs | Solarflame Legwraps | Rukhmar |
| Boots | Sandals of Arcane Mystery | Various Bosses |
| Ring | Kargath’s Last Link | Kargath |
| Ring | Seal of Arcane Wrath | Imperator Mar’gok (LFR) |
| Weapon | Spire of the Furious Construct | Araknath (Skyreach) |
These pieces are just guidelines. There are other Mastery/Crit pieces available with inferior weightings, and you can and should replace some of these pieces with better weighted crafted pieces (Hexweave, of the Peerless).
Talents
Level 15: Soul Leech
Level 30: Shadowfury
Level 45: Sacrificial Pact
Level 60: Burning Rush
Level 75: Grimoire of Synergy
Level 90: Archimonde’s Darkness
Level 100: Cataclysm
Macros
The only macros that I recommend everyone have are simple pet control macros.
/petattack
/petfollow
/petmoveto
These three macros give you full control over your pet. Your pet is just an extension of your character’s damage and having 100% manual control over it is very important. For example, certain mobs have larger hitboxes causing the Felguard to stand far behind it. If this is the priority target (e.g. Bellows Operator) and it’s in the middle of a pack of mobs when you cast Felstorm, your pet will just Felstorm at the large mob’s maximum hitbox, only hitting one mob. With the /petmoveto macro, you can move your pet right into the middle of the pack for maximum cleave.
AddOns
Weak Auras is, simply put, the best AddOn ever made. At worst, you can use this AddOn to create simple visual cues to track your procs, buffs, and debuffs. At it’s best this AddOn can do anything — replace your Boss Mods with custom timers, create cues that trigger other raid members Weak Auras when they need to do something important, and oh so much more. If you only ever get one AddOn, make it Weak Auras!
If you would like to get Furty’s Weak Auras, click here to get all his Warlock Weak Aura strings along with his Fury Bar.
ElvUI is an AddOn that replaces the default UI with a simple, clean, and customizable alternative. While it’s a little limited compared to some of it’s more specialized brethren, it does the job well enough if you don’t want to set up/maintain multiple AddOns.
Stat Weights
Single Target
Cleave
Single Target
Council Style
AoE
Racials
