Demonology Warlock Raid Guide
Welcome to the Demonology Warlock Raid guide for the World of Warcraft patch 11.0.5! This guide covers everything you need to know to understand your character! Are you starting out and leveling up from 70? Check out the leveling guide!
Overview
Hero Talents
- Diabolist and Soul Harvester perform similarly in both single-target and AoE. With Diabolist your burst damage through Summon Demonic Tyrant becomes a lot stronger and Soul Harvester emphasizes Implosion and AoE damage.
- Since both Hero Talents are extremely close in performance Diabolist is the recommended pick as it has a lot less variance in damage and is less punishing if you make mistakes.
- Spending a Soul Shard starts a cycle of one of 3 different Diabolic Rituals.
- Diabolic Ritual: Overlord
- Diabolic Ritual: Mother of Chaos
- Diabolic Ritual: Pit Lord
- Starts on 1. again.
- Only 1 Diabolic Ritual can be up at a time and each turns into their respective Demonic Art after it expires which is triggered after you spend your next Soul Shard:
- Demonic Art: Overlord
- A Fel Lord jumps at your target and applies Cloven Soul for 15 seconds.
- Demonic Art:Mother of Chaos
- Deals damage to your target and turns your next Shadow Bolt into Infernal Bolt which generates 3 Soul Shards.
- Demonic Art: Pit Lord
- Summons a Pit Lord that attacks your target with Felseeker and turns your next Hand of Gul'dan into Ruination which summons 3 Wild Imps at a 0 Soul Shard cost.
- Demonic Art: Overlord
- Your Summon Demonic Tyrant windows become a lot more important with Abyssal Dominion.
- Succulent Souls empower your Hand of Gul'dan and makes it apply Soul Anathema.
- Succulent Soul
- Every time you generate a Soul Shard it has a chance to give you a Succulent Soul.
- Summon Demonic Tyrant grants you 3 Soul Shards and 3 Succulent Souls.
- Soul Anathema
- Hand of Gul'dan applies Soul Anathema to all targets hit.
- Consuming a Demonic Core applies Soul Anathema to your current target.
- Shared Fate
- When you consume a Demonic Core your target gets afflicted by Shared Fate.
- During AoE scenarios it's important to never cast Demonbolts on targets that are too far away to benefit from Shared Fate AoE damage.
- Sataiel's Volition
- Combined with Demoniac you now have a 15% chance per Wild Imp to receive Demonic Core after casting Implosion.
- Make sure to be on a low amount of Demonic Core stacks before casting Implosion.
- Succulent Soul
Talents
When to use this Spec
Use this spec if it's a pure single-target scenario.
Gameplay Altering Talents
Discover all talents that significantly alter your gameplay within the Spec and Class Talent trees. This section gives a concise overview of these talents and their applications but for a more detailed look check out the Rotation and Deep Dive sections below.
Spec Tree
- Call Dreadstalkers
- One of your key abilities which is enhanced by a multitude of talents.
- Wicked Maw empowers other damaging spells like Implosion.
- Carnivorous Stalkers significantly increases the uptime of Wicked Maw.
- Demonic Calling allows you to cast Call Dreadstalkers for free and without cast time.
- Demonic Strength
- Strong AoE burst cooldown which requires no setup time like Implosion & Summon Demonic Tyrant do.
- Power Siphon
- Significantly boosts your influx of Demonic Cores.
- Make sure to always have 2+ Wild Imp before you use it.
- Fel Invocation
- Makes your Soul Strike generate 1 Soul Shard, keep this in mind to prevent overcapping.
- Summon Demonic Tyrant
- The main cooldown for Demonology, synergizes with the majority of spells within the spec.
- Reign of Tyranny enables you to empower 5 additional Wild Imps.
- Grimoire: Felguard
- The most important demon to empower with your Summon Demonic Tyrant.
- Summon Vilefiend
- One of your key demons to empower with Summon Demonic Tyrant.
- Mark of F'harg makes your Summon Vilefiend deal significantly more single-target damage.
- Doom
- Demonbolt leaves a strong DoT which also spawns a Wild Imp when it expires.
- This talent emphasizes swapping targets between each Demonbolt.
Class Tree
- Curses of Enfeeblement
- Gives you access to Curse of Tongues and Curse of Exhaustion which both have many different use cases.
- Get in the habit of applying curses when you are forced to move without any Demonic Cores available.
- Soulburn
- Empowers a multitude of utility spells, mainly used for Demonic Circle: Teleport, Demonic Gateway & Healthstone.
- Sweet Souls
- Only works if other people use the Healthstones that you created.
- Soul Conduit
- Alters your cast sequence by refunding Soul Shards.
- Pact of Gluttony
- Massive for survivability since it alters your Demonic Healthstone to be usable multiple times per combat.
When to use this Spec
This spec should be used on any 2-3 target cleave as it's more or less single-target except for being able to apply Wicked Maw on all targets for stronger Implosion.
Talent Adjustments
Listing all the changes within the Class and Spec tree compared to the default build.
Spec Tree
- Added
- Dreadlash
- Huge boost to your stacked AoE damage, also applies Wicked Maw to all targets which buffs Implosion.
- Antoran Armaments
- Significant boost to passive cleave damage from your Felguard.
- Flametouched
- Also more passive cleave from Call Dreadstalkers.
- Dreadlash
- Removed
- Imp-erator
- Removed for Dreadlash.
- Impending Doom
- Removed for Flametouched.
- Pact of the Ered'ruin
- Removed for Antoran Armaments.
- Imp-erator
When to use this Spec
This spec should be used whenever there's significant AoE that's mostly stacked to get good value from Shadow Invocation.
Talent Adjustments
Listing all the changes within the Class and Spec tree compared to the default build.
Spec Tree
- Added
- Dreadlash
- Huge boost to your stacked AoE damage, also applies Wicked Maw to all targets which buffs Implosion.
- Shadow Invocation
- Another passive boost to your stacked AoE damage.
- Antoran Armaments
- Significant boost to passive cleave damage from your Felguard.
- Flametouched
- Also more passive cleave from Call Dreadstalkers.
- Dreadlash
- Removed
- Sacrificed Souls
- Removed for Shadow Invocation.
- Imp-erator
- Removed for Dreadlash.
- Impending Doom
- Removed for Flametouched.
- Pact of the Ered'ruin
- Removed for Antoran Armaments.
- Sacrificed Souls
Rotation
Tier Set
- 2-Set: Your primary demon deals 5% increased damage, and your Shadow Bolt damage is increased by 50%.
- 4-Set: Shadow Bolt has a chance to enrage your primary Felguard, increasing the damage of their next Legion Strike by 300%.
Single-Target
Opener
Soul Strike and Felstorm are assumed to be on autocast and are therefore not included in any Openers & Priority Lists.
- The goal of your opener is to empower and extend Call Dreadstalkers, Summon Vilefiend and as many Wild Imps as possible with Summon Demonic Tyrant.
- Below, you can see an example of how your opener looks like using the recommended Diabolist Single-Target build and depending on the number of Soul Conduit procs, among other factors.
- Pre-cast Power Siphon when you have 2 Wild Imps ideally with 8-10 seconds left on the pull timer / until combat.
- Use your active trinkets, Elemental Potion of Ultimate Power and racials like Blood Fury or Berserking in combination with Summon Demonic Tyrant.
Priority List
This is a general priority you aim to maintain throughout the fight.
- Cast Grimoire: Felguard, Summon Vilefiend and Call Dreadstalkers before Summon Demonic Tyrant.
- Cast Summon Vilefiend on cooldown.
- Cast Call Dreadstalkers on cooldown.
- Cast Demonic Strength after Summon Demonic Tyrant.
- Cast Power Siphon when you have 2 or less Demonic Core stacks and 2+ Wild Imps.
- Cast Ruination if Ruination is up.
- Cast Hand of Gul'dan if you are about to overcap on Soul Shards.
- Cast Infernal Bolt if you are below 3 Soul Shards and Infernal Bolt is up.
- Cast Demonbolt if you have 2+ stacks of Demonic Core.
- Cast Hand of Gul'dan with 3 Soul Shards.
- Cast Shadow Bolt to generate Soul Shards.
Opener
Soul Strike and Felstorm are assumed to be on autocast and are therefore not included in any Openers & Priority Lists.
- The goal of your opener is to empower and extend Call Dreadstalkers, Summon Vilefiend and as many Wild Imps as possible with Summon Demonic Tyrant.
- Below, you can see an example of how your opener looks like using the recommended Diabolist Single-Target build and depending on the number of Soul Conduit procs, among other factors.
- Pre-cast Power Siphon when you have 2 Wild Imps ideally with 8-10 seconds left on the pull timer / until combat.
- Use your active trinkets, Elemental Potion of Ultimate Power and racials like Blood Fury or Berserking in combination with Summon Demonic Tyrant.
Priority List
This is a general priority you aim to maintain throughout the fight.
- Cast Grimoire: Felguard, Summon Vilefiend and Call Dreadstalkers before Summon Demonic Tyrant.
- Cast Summon Vilefiend on cooldown.
- Cast Call Dreadstalkers on cooldown.
- Cast Demonic Strength after Summon Demonic Tyrant.
- Cast Power Siphon when you have 2 or less Demonic Core stacks and 2+ Wild Imps.
- Cast Hand of Gul'dan if you are about to overcap on Soul Shards.
- Cast Demonbolt if you have 2+ stacks of Demonic Core.
- Cast Hand of Gul'dan with 3 Soul Shards.
- Cast Shadow Bolt to generate Soul Shards.
AoE
Opener
- Below, you can see an example of how your opener looks like using the recommended Diabolist AoE build and depending on the number of Soul Conduit procs, among other factors.
- Pre-cast Power Siphon when you have 2 Wild Imps and ideally 8-10 seconds left on the pulltimer / until combat.
- Use your active trinkets, Elemental Potion of Ultimate Power and racials like Blood Fury or Berserking in combination with Summon Demonic Tyrant.
Priority List
- Cast Grimoire: Felguard, Summon Vilefiend and Call Dreadstalkers before Summon Demonic Tyrant.
- Cast Summon Vilefiend on cooldown.
- Cast Call Dreadstalkers on cooldown.
- Cast Demonic Strength on cooldown.
- Cast Power Siphon when you have 2 or less Demonic Core stacks and 2+ Wild Imps.
- Cast Ruination if Ruination is up.
- Cast Hand of Gul'dan if you are about to overcap on Soul Shards.
- Cast Infernal Bolt if you are below 3 Soul Shards and Infernal Bolt is up.
- Cast Demonbolt if you have 2+ stacks of Demonic Core.
- Cast Implosion on 2+ targets with 6+ Wild Imps.
- Cast Power Siphon when you have 2 or less Demonic Core stacks.
- Cast Hand of Gul'dan with 3 Soul Shards.
- Cast Shadow Bolt to generate Soul Shards.
Opener
- Below, you can see an example of how your opener looks like using the recommended Diabolist AoE build and depending on the number of Soul Conduit procs, among other factors.
- Pre-cast Power Siphon when you have 2 Wild Imps and ideally 8-10 seconds left on the pulltimer / until combat.
- Use your active trinkets, Elemental Potion of Ultimate Power and racials like Blood Fury or Berserking in combination with Summon Demonic Tyrant.
Priority List
- Cast Grimoire: Felguard, Summon Vilefiend and Call Dreadstalkers before Summon Demonic Tyrant.
- Cast Summon Vilefiend on cooldown.
- Cast Call Dreadstalkers on cooldown.
- Cast Demonic Strength on cooldown.
- Cast Power Siphon when you have 2 or less Demonic Core stacks and 2+ Wild Imps.
- Cast Hand of Gul'dan if you are about to overcap on Soul Shards.
- Cast Demonbolt if you have 2+ stacks of Demonic Core.
- Cast Implosion on 2+ targets with 6+ Wild Imps.
- Cast Power Siphon when you have 2 or less Demonic Core stacks.
- Cast Hand of Gul'dan with 3 Soul Shards.
- Cast Shadow Bolt to generate Soul Shards.
Deep Dive
Implosion Cycles
Implosion is a unique spell, making it potentially confusing. Here are some tips and tricks:
- Best Usage:
- For maximum damage use Implosion with at least 6 Wild Imps.
- Always use Implosion when targets have the Wicked Maw debuff.
- You sometimes need to use Implosion without this debuff due to low amount of Carnivorous Stalkers procs.
- During Demonic Tyrant:
- For maximum uptime of empowered Wild Imps you should avoid using Implosion until the end of Demonic Tyrants duration.
- If most targets die before Demonic Tyrant expires, use Implosion earlier.
- If you have 10+ Wild Imps that expire soon, use Implosion earlier.
Execution
For an ideal Implosion cycle, ensure you have at least 2 Demonic Cores. After casting the last Hand of Gul'dan, wait for the Wild Imps to spawn or use a filler global before casting Implosion.
When you don't have the luxury of having 2+ Demonic Cores you have to settle for 2 Hand of Gul'dans between each Implosion.
Felguard Priority List
Your Felguard has these four key spells:
- Demonic Strength
- Felstorm
- Guillotine
- Soul Strike
When your Felguard is casting Felstorm, Demonic Strength, or Guillotine, it cannot cast the other two until the current spell's duration ends. This creates a priority list for these three spells to optimize damage, applicable in both single and multi-target scenarios:
- Cast Felstorm
- Cast Demonic Strength
- Cast Guillotine
Soul Strike is not included in this list because it can be cast during the effects of the other spells. Note that Soul Strike generates 1 Soul Shard, so plan accordingly to avoid overcapping.
Minmaxing Doom and Pact of the Ered'ruin
When Doom expires you have a chance to spawn a Doomguard. This talent combination gives a few important things to keep in mind to maximize your damage output.
- Single-target
- To ensure maximum uptime of Doom it is beneficial to keep at least 1 Demonic Core in the back pocket to avoid periods of downtime on Doom.
- While doing this it's important to not overcap on Demonic Cores as the maximum amount of charges is 4.
- Multi-target
- When facing multiple targets, prioritize applying Doom to different targets for a higher chance of spawning Doomguard. During large pulls, tab between each Demonbolt to cycle through targets.
- Even if a target dies before Doom expires, it can still spawn a Doomguard, which is beneficial for boss damage in add-heavy fights.
Demonic Tyrant Mechanics
Your Demonic Tyrant is a so called Guardian pet that works a bit differently compared to your primary pet called Felguard that is a combat pet. Demonic Tyrant targets whatever your Felguard targets.
Guardian Pet Stat Update
Demonic Tyrant like many other Guardians does update dynamically with stat increases such as haste but sometimes does so very slowly.
Time Warp is cast at 0:02 but your Demonic Tyrant doesn't update his haste until 0:04. The same applies to all stats and damage increases.
This is just an example of an inconsistent mechanic and might not be accurate in every scenario!
Extending Duration of Wild Imps
- Whenever you cast Demonic Tyrant it extends the duration of any active demon by 15 seconds. This does not work for Diabolist demons or Doomguard.
- However, Wild Imps that are spawned after Demonic Tyrant still get their duration extended for as long as your Demonic Tyrant is up for. This works for a maximum of 10 Wild Imps, 15 with Reign of Tyranny.
- Technically Wild Imps don't get extended, they just don't consume their Energy.
Reign of Tyranny Snapshot
The amount of % damage increase your Demonic Tyrant gets from Reign of Tyranny is calculated when your Demonic Tyrant spawns and does not change for the entirety of its duration even if you spawn more demons.
Understanding Mechanics
Rotational min-maxing is just one aspect of mastering a specialization, but there are numerous other key mechanics that influence your performance. Use the following guides to improve them.
Nerub-ar Palace
← Scroll for more Bosses →
Offensive Cooldown Usage
Boss Tips
- You can immune Stalker Netting on Heroic difficulty if you use Soulburn together with Demonic Circle: Teleport or are talented into Soul-Etched Circles.
- Place a Demonic Gateway away from the boss to help your raid quickly escape when they are pulled towards the boss during Carnivorous Contest.
- Additionally, a Demonic Gateway can be used during Ready to Feed to speed up the feeding process of the boss.
- You can also utilize Burning Rush and Demonic Circle to feed the boss additional Chunky Visceras.
Offensive Cooldown Usage
If you're assigned to Group 1:
If you're assigned to Group 2:
- The goal with your DPS cooldowns regardless of what group you're in is to send Demonic Tyrant a few seconds before going into Gruesome Disgorge so that you can Implode at the end of the Demonic Tyrant duration.
- Do note that the length of the fight impacts your cooldown usage heavily. If your fight lasts shorter than 5 minutes you use your Grimoire: Felguard with your first Summon Demonic Tyrant regardless of what group you are in.
Defensive Cooldown Usage
If you're assigned to Group 1:
If you're assigned to Group 2:
Boss Tips
- Use Demonic Circle to easily jump over the Spewing Hemorrhage geysers to save globals.
- You can outplay Goresplatter easily by pre-placing a Demonic Circle and Demonic Gateway. Use the Demonic Gateway first to get away from the Boss and use Demonic Circle: Teleport to get back. This way you are not forced to run through the Black Blood and take unnecessary damage.
Offensive Cooldown Usage
Boss Tips
- Dark Pact whenever you are targeted by Decimate or Decimates are about to hit Cosmic Simulacrums.
- Place a Demonic Circle in the middle of the room to reposition after getting targeted by either Decimates or Phase Blades.
- Shattering Sweep can also knock you off the platform if you get hit accidentally and the same Demonic Circle can save you from falling off.
Offensive Cooldown Usage
Boss Tips
- Stun Infested Spawn with Shadowfury.
- Move out with Spinneret's Strands and quickly teleport back with Demonic Circle: Teleport.
- Put down a Demonic Gateway to help your raid keep up with the boss when he changes his position.
- The boss flies away at 1:30, 3:00, 4:30 and 6 minutes, whenever one of these timers are approaching you should start pre-moving on your instant casts to minimize downtime while running.
Offensive Cooldown Usage
It is important to use Summon Demonic Tyrant as soon as it comes up during this fight as demonstrated on the timeline to ensure that you have a big Implosion ready for the majority of the add waves.
Defensive Cooldown Usage
Boss Tips
- Use Demonic Circle: Teleport to quickly cleanse yourself from Unstable Web.
- Be careful of your Demonic Circle placement since you're going to trigger a Web Eruption at your Demonic Circle's location.
- Use Axe Toss to interrupt Poison Burst.
- You can also apply Curse of Tongues to the Voracious Worms to make the interrupts a bit easier.
Offensive Cooldown Usage
Defensive Cooldown Usage
Boss Tips
- Use Unending Resolve as an emergency button. For example, if you get hit by multiple Twilight Massacres.
- Multiple stacks of Queensbane can be quite dangerous. Consider using a defensive!
- The main thing to keep an eye out for on this boss is the position of each Nether Rift. Their placement dictates how much you get pulled towards them. Try to position yourself in a way that each Nether Rift is at a similar distance to you.
- Pre-place a Demonic Circle in a good position for the strategy of your group, usually the middle of the room should be safe. Use it whenever it's helpful during the Nether Rift pull.
Offensive Cooldown Usage
- Aim to maintain Doom on both bosses as much as possible during the fight.
- In the timeline below you can see how to line up your cooldown with each of the Entangled windows to maximize damage.
- The cooldown timings to achieve this are somewhat precise and requires some extra attention.
- Have your pets attack Anub'arash for the majority of the fight since Skeinspinner Takazj jumps around the room very frequently with Skittering Leap.
Defensive Cooldown Usage
Boss Tips
- Use Dark Pact at 8 seconds left on your pull timer to cover the first Venomous Rain while ensuring you have Dark Pact back ready for the second Venomous Rain as well.
- Pre-place a Demonic Circle and teleport back instantly after getting pulled in by Web Vortex to save yourself some movement.
- Alternatively, use Demonic Gateway to negate the pull in effect.
- Try to get some good distance from the adds that spawn from Call of the Swarm since they fixate the closest target.
- You can freely use Axe Toss to help yourself or other raid members with the fixates.
Offensive Cooldown Usage
Defensive Cooldown Usage
Boss Tips
- Cast Demonic Circle: Teleport while the boss is casting Silken Tomb to immune the root.
- When you play Diabolist you have access to Soul-Etched Circles which saves you both a global and a Soul Shard each time you do this.
- Important note is that you still spawn a puddle whenever you immune the root so make sure to not place it in a bad spot.
- During Phase 1 you can only get targeted by Frothy Toxin, whenever this happens you should use Dark Pact or Strength of Will.
- Demonic Gateway can be used to travel up the bridges faster in Phase 2 for both yourself and the rest of the raid.
- Utilize Demonic Circle: Teleport to teleport past Frothing Gluttony and avoid taking the damage in Phase 3.
- Summoned Acolytes have a very big hitbox and can often be cleaved by Implosion and your Felguard if you are targeting the boss.
Stat Priority
Understand your secondary stat priority and the tertiary stats needed for optimal performance during Raid boss fights as a Demonology Warlock. For more detailed information, visit the Stats and Attributes guide.
Higher Item level items are better in most scenarios. For an accurate representation of what item to equip you should use Simcraft! A static "Stat Priority" is just a starting point and can easily shift depending on your individual gear.
- All secondary stats are affected by diminishing returns. Click here to learn more!
Tertiary
- Avoidance - Great stat to reduce the damage intake of "Area of Effect" abilities.
- Leech - Provides additional healing through damage dealing. The damage of your pets does not heal you thus Leech is a bad tertiary for you since most of your damage is from your pets.
- Speed - Niche tertiary that can be very useful and has been proven useful in the past. Makes playing certain mechanics a lot easier.
Gear
| Slot | Item | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Head | Devotee's Discarded Headdress | Rasha'nan |
| Neck | Sureki Zealot's Insignia | Sikran |
| Shoulder | Hexflame Coven's Altar | Catalyst |
| Cloak | Wings of Shattered Sorrow | Rasha'nan |
| Chest | Hexflame Coven's Ritual Harness | Catalyst |
| Wrist | Consecrated Cuffs | Crafting |
| Gloves | Hexflame Coven's Sleeves | Catalyst |
| Belt | Hexflame Coven's Dormant Eye | Catalyst |
| Legs | Hexflame Coven's Leggings | Catalyst |
| Boots | Tainted Earthshard Walkers | The Stonevault |
| Ring 1 | Seal of the Poisoned Pact | Queen Ansurek |
| Ring 2 | Key to the Unseeming | Bloodbound Horror |
| Trinket 1 | Spymaster's Web | The Silken Court |
| Trinket 2 | Ara-Kara Sacbrood | Ara-Kara, City of Echoes |
| Weapon | Sovereign's Disdain | Queen Ansurek |
| Offhand | Vagabond's Torch | Crafting |
Below you are presented with a good list of farmable alternatives that are obtainable outside of WoW’s weekly lockout system. While replaced in time as you progress, these offer immediate character power.
| Slot | Item | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Head | Intertwiner's Shadowcowl | City of Threads |
| Neck | "Emergency Stop" Keychain | The Stonevault |
| Shoulder | Reanimator's Mantle | The Necrotic Wake |
| Cloak | Swarmcaller's Shroud | Ara-Kara, City of Echoes |
| Chest | Arachnofrost Vest | City of Threads |
| Wrist | Vitriolic Veinwoven Wraps | City of Threads |
| Gloves | Tricksprite Gloves | Mists of Tirna Scithe |
| Belt | Burrower's Cinch | Ara-Kara, City of Echoes |
| Legs | Archaic Venomancer's Footwraps | Ara-Kara, City of Echoes |
| Boots | Tainted Earthshard Walkers | The Stonevault |
| Ring 1 | Experiment 08752's Band | City of Threads |
| Ring 2 | Devout Zealot's Ring | The Dawnbreaker |
| Trinket 1 | Ara-Kara Sacbrood | Ara-Kara, City of Echoes |
| Trinket 2 | Empowering Crystal of Anub'ikkaj | The Dawnbreaker |
| Weapon | Krix'vizk's Speech Rod | City of Threads |
Trinkets
Below you can find active and passive alternatives to our recommended trinkets. Do note that some trinkets are better than others depending on the raid boss.
Active Trinket alternatives
- Treacherous Transmitter
- Strong on-use trinket but doesn't line up well with your cooldowns.
- Requires you to jump 3 times, chase an orb or go pick up a transmitter on the ground to receive the buff.
- Mad Queen's Mandate
- On-use damage trinket, this type of trinket usually perform worse during AoE scenarios.
Passive Trinket alternatives
- Empowering Crystal of Anub'ikkaj
- Great passive stat proc trinket, good in both AoE and single-target.
- Satchel of Misbegotten Minions
- Strong damage proc trinket, good on both AoE and single-target.
Embellishments
- Writhing Armor Banding
- Empowers any Nerubian embellishment by 100%.
- Darkmoon Sigil: Ascension
- Gain a random secondary stat stacking up over time.
Remaining Sparks
- Crafted items are 636 item level and regular items are 636 on max item level, therefore, it's not beneficial to equip crafted items outside of your 2x embellishments unless you don't have access to other high item level gear on that slot.
Simcraft
To find the best combination of gear available to you or identify the best possible upgrades, visit our Simcraft guide to learn how to utilize Simcraft easily and effectively.
Consumables
- Phials
- Flask of Tempered Swiftness -- maximum DPS.
- Flask of Tempered Versatility -- less DPS but more survivability.
- Food
- Feast of the Divine Day
- Feast of the Midnight Masquerade
- Combat Potion
- Tempered Potion
- Health Potion
- Algari Healing Potion -- a big burst of healing
- Weapon Oil
- Algari Mana Oil -- Better on AoE
- Oil of Deep Toxins -- Best on single-target
- Augment Rune
- Crystallized Augment Rune
- Sockets
- Versatile Ruby
- Culminating Blasphemite -- Unique, use one of each gem color to enhance your Culminating Blasphemite.
- Quick Sapphire
- Deadly Emerald
- Quick Onyx
Enchantments
| Head | Nerubian Gemweaver |
| Neck | Magnificent Jeweler's Setting 2x |
| Cloak | Enchant Cloak - Chant of Winged Grace |
| Chest | Enchant Chest - Crystalline Radiance |
| Wrist | Enchant Bracer - Chant of Armored Avoidance Nerubian Gemweaver |
| Waist | Nerubian Gemweaver |
| Legs | Sunset Spellthread |
| Boots | Enchant Boots - Scout's March |
| Ring 1 | Enchant Ring - Radiant Critical Strike Magnificent Jeweler's Setting 2x |
| Ring 2 | Enchant Ring - Radiant Critical Strike Magnificent Jeweler's Setting 2x |
| Weapon | Enchant Weapon - Authority of Radiant Power |
You buy Nerubian Gemweaver from the Great Vault Vendor to add sockets to your Helm, Wrists & Waist.
Races
For min-maxing a Demonology Warlock in raiding, different racial traits can provide a tremendous benefit to your character. If this is not your top goal, picking a race that fits your style works just as well.
- Stoneform -- Dwarf
- Dispels Magic and Bleed debuffs. Has been useful in the past on some bosses with Bleeds.
- Rocket Jump -- Goblin
- Do a small jump in the direction your character is facing.
- While you're in the Rocket Jump animation you are placed on a global cooldown until your character lands.
- Berserking -- Troll
- Strong DPS racial but lines up poorly with Summon Demonic Tyrant.
- Reduce the duration of movement-impairing effects by 20%. This was only useful once in the recent history of progression raiding but is still worth noting.
- Blood Fury -- Orc
- Strong racial for damage because of both Command and Blood Fury which lines up with Summon Demonic Tyrant.
- 20% reduced stun duration on you which can be useful in some situations.
- Spatial Rift -- Void Elf
- Spawn a shadow traveling into your facing direction, and activate it again to teleport to it.
- Maximum range of 100 yards.
Recommendation
In general, it's safe to say that if you care about min-maxing your DPS, you should go with the highest DPS racial. That being said, the story is a bit different if it's about progression raiding. Some help out massively to speed up the progression on certain bosses. Notably, Dwarf with their Stoneform helped out on Tindral Sageswift and Fyrakk the Blazing in the latest Race to World First by having easy access to dispelling yourself at crucial points of the fights mentioned.
Macros
Discover recommended macros for Demonology Warlocks during Raid encounters and watch a quick video guide on creating simple macros for your character.
Cursor Macros
Guillotine -- Casts Guillotine on your cursor without confirmation.
#showtooltip
/cast [@cursor] GuillotineDemonic Strength / Bilescourge Bombers -- simple macro to have both Demonic Strength & Bilescourge Bombers on the same keybind while also casting Bilescourge Bombers on your cursor without confirmation.
#showtooltip
/cast [known: 267171] Demonic Strength
/cast [@cursor][known: 267211] Bilescourge BombersShadowfury -- Casts Shadowfury on your cursor without confirmation.
#showtooltip
/cast [@cursor] ShadowfuryMouseover Macros
Pet Macros
Utility Macros
Addons
Below, you see a screenshot of the author's User Interface for their Demonology Warlock, outlining which addons are used and how they are utilized in Raids to make your life easier.
Addons
WeakAuras
Changes this Patch
Patch 11.0.5
Patch 11.0.2
Patch 11.0
FAQ
Q: Why can't I cast Demonic Strength sometimes?
Credits
Written By: Wolfdisco
Reviewed By: Xerwo