Demonology in Kara

Post by Mandalore

Hello all,

I've been playing as Affliction for awhile, and started raiding Kara with it. It's a great spec and was very useful. I've also toyed with Destro, but whatever.

Anyway, I've decided that I want to try out Demonology (5/41/15) as I've never really played it at 70. Although I've read and understand why it is a weaker spec for most end- game raiding, how does it do in Kara? I am curious what other demo locks experiences are like. Does your DPS suffer compared to affliction spec? What are some hints that can help me maximize this spec in Kara?

Also, I am pugging Kara mainly on my server, and I wondering if the felguard does ok on trash, but I definitely accept being on imp duty for boss fights especially.

Thanks.

Post by Dunsinane

As demo, you do not want to be on imp duty. Ever.

Felguard builds do just fine in Kara. Your damage should be on a par with the rest of the dps, depending on your gear.

The most important thing is to know the fights, and thus to know when its safe to send your felguard in to melee and when you need to hold it back.

Post by Kaitain

Anyway, I've decided that I want to try out Demonology (5/41/15) as I've never really played it at 70. Although I've read and understand why it is a weaker spec for most end- game raiding, how does it do in Kara? I am curious what other demo locks experiences are like. Does your DPS suffer compared to affliction spec?

I actually didn't try Felguard raiding until I already had all epics i wanted from Kara/Gruul/Mag so i can't say from direct experience how it fares with dungeon blues gear compared to an affliction build with the same gear, but with t4+ level epics i can say it fares extremely well IF you are playing it right. That's quite a big if, but ofc that applies to all 3 talent trees. God knows I've seen some affliction and destro locks who really suck at it.

What are some hints that can help me maximize this spec in Kara?

A big part of it is controlling the pet well, but doing it without a moment's pause in your own casting rotation. The way I do it (while using WASD to move) is have 2 main pet control macros keybound to Q and E. E is /petattack and Q is /petpassive**. The Casting rotation is, whatever curse you're using, then Immolate>Corruption>Shadow Bolt until the DoTs run out. (as with any Lock spec if the mobs die before the DoTs can run, leave out the Corruption and possibly even the curse too).

As that's not a lot of instants spells and mostly casting you should try to control the pet during the casts. The duration of a 2.5 sec SB is easily long enough to select another target, put the pet on that, then reselect your nuke target. It's also a pretty simple cast rotation so it should give you time to monitor the Felguard's health. Another handy macro is /petdismiss /castsequence Fel Domination, Summon Felguard. If the Felguard is near death spam that and it will pop a new one with full health all it's old buffs intact. If it had a DoT on it though it will resummon with the DoT still there :-(

The only other thing is make sure your Pet gets melee buffs. Blessing of Might, Trueshot Aura, Battleshout, Leader of the Pack are all nice DPS boosts for the Felguard.

Also, I am pugging Kara mainly on my server, and I wondering if the felguard does ok on trash, but I definitely accept being on imp duty for boss fights especially.

What Dunsinane said. Felguard should be out 99% of the time. Felhunter for resistances sometimes. If they demand an imp tell them politely "sry i am not imp spec", at the very start is probably best. If the PuG wipes, and they blame it on lack of the imp buff, then it's likely that the grp is either under-geared or under-skilled to do the fight.

** - I think /petpassive is better than /petfollow because 99% of the time the pet will return to you side anyways, but sometimes on more challenging fights you may need to park your pet somewhere specific and /petpassive makes it return to it's holding spot, whereas /petfollow breaks the holding spot and you need to walk it over and park it again.

Post by Mandalore

TYVM for the detailed responses. I will definitely test out the macros and start getting the hang of it!

Demonology in Kara

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