How to Play a Demonology Warlock in the Shadowlands Pre-Patch

By NotWarlock Updated: 2020/10/16

How to Play a Demonology Warlock in Shadowlands Pre-Patch

Keep Call Dreadstalkers on cooldown, cast Hand of Gul'dan with 3 Soul Shards, and depending on talents you'll be looking to keep as many demons out as you can.

Shadow Bolt and Demonbolt are our baseline Soul Shards builders with Demonbolt having a heavy cast time that is reduced to instant with Demonic Core.

How Different Does Demonology Warlock Feel in the Shadowlands Pre-Patch?Inner DemonsNether PortalImplosionWicked MawDreadlashCall DreadstalkersDreadbiteNew Abilities for Demonology Warlocks in Shadowlands Pre-Patch

Ritual of Doom - A strange way for Blizzard to add back in some flavor to Warlock by having this spell still murder one of your friends (or you) is....something you'll probably not press unless you're down for some Russian roulette.

Curse of Exhaustion - More of a last resort than anything else since it's single target and can be/is overridden by a majority of classes that have AoE slowing built into their kit.

Curse of Tongues - A particularly good curse for any boss that casts spells as, currently, it affects bosses. The only downside would be having to maintain it as it is a 30-second debuff.

Curse of Weakness - If tank damage is an issue you'll see at least one Warlock using this ability on the boss. Reducing attack speed is not a bad mitigation tool at all especially if the boss is hitting you for 50% of your HP each swing.

Corruption - Please don't put this ability on your bar. I'm just as confused as you are why this spell is back in our kit.

Fel Domination - Given how often we have to resummon our pets this shouldn't see too much use but is nice for resummoning your pet after a wipe or if it dies in open world content. Just be sure to....not let your pet die more than once every 3 minutes.

Power Siphon - The only thing to change for this talent is the bonus damage for Demonbolt that didn't exist previously. This talent may not be preferable to Demonic Calling given you will still want to pay attention to your Wild Imp duration closely so as not to sacrifice two full energy Imps.

Wicked Maw - There is a small change to this talent that has a larger impact when paired with Dreadlash. Previously Wicked Maw only included your damage and did not include Dreadbite. With it now affecting Dreadbite you can pair the two talents and have AoE damage Dreadbite that also applies the Dreadlash debuff to all targets bitten, which then boosts your Hand of Gul'dan splash damage on all targets. It's a small change with a somewhat big impact for talent choice.

Demonic Consumption - Instead of absorbing all your Wild Imps and making them all go away, this talent is adopting a theme from Legion and absorbing some of all of your demons health in order to boost its damage. A welcome change that brings back some of the more fun things about Legion Demonology.

Axe Toss

If mob is stunnable, Axe Toss stuns.

If mob is stunnable but on full stun DR, Axe Toss does nothing.

If mob is boss target and not stun immune, Axe Toss stuns.

If mob is boss target and stun immune, Axe Toss interrupts.

Axe TossWild SkyscreamerAxe TossHow Do AoE Target Caps Affect Demonology Warlocks in Shadowlands Pre-Patch

Implosion in BFA was "target capped" in such a way that it only did full damage to the primary target you cast the spell on, and reduced damage to all others. This is now removed and does full damage to all targets.

Felstorm is actually the "new" spell affected by the target cap, going from all targets to a limit of 8. This is probably a good change since Felstorm contributed a good chunk of your damage overall in AoE.

ImplosionHow Strong are Demonology Warlocks in Shadowlands Pre-Patch?What are the Big Gameplay Changes for Demonology Warlocks? Soul ShardsSummon Demonic TyrantSummon Demonic TyrantSummon Demonic TyrantDemonic ConsumptionImplosionHow does the Loss of Corruption Affect Demonology Warlocks in the Shadowlands Pre-Patch?Best Talent Builds for Demonology Warlocks in Pre-patchGrimoire: FelguardSoul ConduitBest Rotation for Demonology Warlocks in Pre-Patch

Cast Summon Vilefiend and/or Grimoire: Felguard, if talented.

Cast Summon Demonic Tyrant with one set of Call Dreadstalkers and 2+ sets of 3 Wild Imps (one freshly cast if possible).

Cast Demonic Strength, if talented.

Cast Hand of Gul'dan and Call Dreadstalkers to use your Soul Shards.

Cast Shadow Bolt or Demonbolt (if you have Demonic Core) to gain Soul Shards.

Soul ShardsHand of Gul'danImplosion

Pre-cast Demonbolt

Cast Summon Vilefiend and/or Grimoire: Felguard, if talented

Cast Hand of Gul'dan

Cast Call Dreadstalkers

Cast Summon Demonic Tyrant

Cast Demonic Strength, if talented

Follow the above priority

Beginner's Guiderotation hereBest Stats for Demonology Warlocks in Pre-Patch

Item level

Haste

Critical Strike

Versatility/Mastery

Best Azerite Traits for Demonology Warlocks in Pre-PatchBaleful InvocationExplosive PotentialDemonic MeteorSupreme CommanderAzerite Guide for Demonology WarlocksBest Essences for Demonology Warlocks in Pre-PatchWorldvein ResonanceBreath of the DyingMemory of Lucid DreamsVision of PerfectionVision of PerfectionBreath of the DyingMemory of Lucid DreamsEssence of the Focusing IrisEssence GuideAll Shadowlands Demonology Warlock Changes

Comments

Comment by tkoreaper

"our AoE simply isn't consistent enough to warrant being played in dungeons." I strongly disagree.

Comment by jshbee

Always great to see the class guide authors essentially say "why are you even playing this spec idiot".

Comment by Pendji

My primary issue with classes having 3 dps specs is that one will always be better and easier. AoE is a chore as demonology, and keeping track of imps is a bother the other specs don't have. And where's the reward? None.

Demonology gets no such praise, as you're basically gimping yourself to "enjoy" pets, which is already taboo since pets are generally considered for an insecure kind of player.

Comment by maglen69

I see the "We rather you didn't play Demo" mindset still holds true.

Comment by Matchbook

" Corruption - Please don't put this ability on your bar. I'm just as confused as you are why this spell is back in our kit."
Because we're a Warlock. It's part of the flavor. I hated that most things were removed because they weren't useful (by raiders' standards?). That's for us to decide how to play these classes. I love finding fun ways to make myself feel more in tune with my class. I'm sure I can find some way to use this. Heck, RP'ers will definitely use this.

How to Play a Demonology Warlock in the Shadowlands Pre-Patch

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