6.1 Demonology Guide

[Furyio 3]

My boy Berlinia (Mage moderator) has a comprehensive Excel spreadsheet he put together showing all pieces of gear.  It has Mage stat weights on it, so you can ignore that.  I'll see if I can get him to post it. 

 

That would be cool.

 

i'm definitely looking to burn some time in work ahead of the launch :) 

[Furyio 3]

I have my BiS list set up for pre raid including what 3 items I will be crafting and upgrading. I have about 150k saved up so it should be no issue for me to get everything set up before raid. I have the list at home, I can post it when I get there. I will be raiding as demo unless the other specs are just clearly ahead come mythic being released. 

 

Really havn't kept on top of proffesions and what they will be providing in WOD. Assume like MOP there will be crafted gear that will be the business through the tiers? 

 

Have decent money myself, and tailoring on my warlock which obviously helps :) 

[Adrammalech 2]

Really havn't kept on top of proffesions and what they will be providing in WOD. Assume like MOP there will be crafted gear that will be the business through the tiers? 

 

Have decent money myself, and tailoring on my warlock which obviously helps

 

There will be much more in terms of crafted gear, however you can only have 3 pieces equipped that are considered "draenor crafted." They start off at ilvl 640 (630 for the weapons) and can be upgraded twice by items from the profs up to ilvl 665 (655 for weapons). So they will be pretty good for preraid and decent for filling holes in gear later if you have the cash flow for it. They all also can have their stats rerolled with another item from the prof that creates them so that you can get the optimal stats for your class/spec.

Edited November 5, 2014 by Adrammalech

[Copperbad 5]

For understanding the gearing in WoD, this table has proven endlessly useful to me and my guild. Full credit to papajohn4 on MMO-Champion. 

 

 

 

Edited November 6, 2014 by Copperbad

[Zagam 1,983]

Yeah looks solid.  Most high end raiders will be set on getting their daily CM piece.  Crafted to fill in and upgrading if you can bear the grind.

[Twinkielock 15]

So is the inscription staff the best pre-raid weapon you can get?  

[Zilthy 36]

From what I have seen that inscription staff is the best pre-raid weapon.   I know for myself I would not switch for that, since that is something that will be replaced fairly quickly.   Nice perk though, instant decent weapon.

 

As far as gearing, what is bumming me out is the int swords do not have mastery like the wand and staff do.   I may try to go for sword anyway since I like my sword transmogs better for my different transmog outfits, especially since I have finally learned how to play somewhat, and really see how little difference gear makes.   At least as far as equal ilvl weapons with different secondaries goes. :)

[Furyio 3]

Was looking at the gear lists for WoD and there doesn't seem to be much in the way of gear with both mastery and multistrike, which I believe is simming as our best stats in WoD pre-raid and starting raid.

 

But the Fel Flame dungeon set, looks to have a nice amount of multistrike and mastery as totals from the entire set. 

 

Has there been any change from the initial multistrike and mastery priorities. In some quarters the statement is multistrike = Mastery > Int.

 

Thats mental, that int would be a third prio stat. Although I spose all the cloth gear I'd be getting will have int, and then it's trying to min/max the random secondary values. 

[Zagam 1,983]

Worrying about secondary stats scaling better than Intellect is no longer a concern because gemming is a tertiary bonus with gem sockets coming far and few between.  In WoD, you will ALWAYS want higher item level gear.  This is also true for trinkets - there is no longer a situation where a lower item level trinket is better than a higher item level trinket.  They did an exceptional job at balancing secondary stats for us.  You don't want to think about stats as just a DPS gain but how they interact.  Destruction loves Crit because critting gives more Embers and boosts Chaos Bolt.  Crit for Affliction, however, does nothing but double a spell's damage. 

 

If you have to decide between a piece of gear like Haste/Crit vs Haste/Multistrike, the values are going to be VERY close.  You can pick one if you want, but the overall change is going to be very, very small.  Everyone is going to focus on gear early on, but I implore you all to focus on gameplay.  Plan your positions, save your spells you can cast while moving without capping charges, and always be doing damage in some form.

[Furyio 3]

Worrying about secondary stats scaling better than Intellect is no longer a concern because gemming is a tertiary bonus with gem sockets coming far and few between.  In WoD, you will ALWAYS want higher item level gear.  This is also true for trinkets - there is no longer a situation where a lower item level trinket is better than a higher item level trinket.  They did an exceptional job at balancing secondary stats for us.  You don't want to think about stats as just a DPS gain but how they interact.  Destruction loves Crit because critting gives more Embers and boosts Chaos Bolt.  Crit for Affliction, however, does nothing but double a spell's damage. 

 

If you have to decide between a piece of gear like Haste/Crit vs Haste/Multistrike, the values are going to be VERY close.  You can pick one if you want, but the overall change is going to be very, very small.  Everyone is going to focus on gear early on, but I implore you all to focus on gameplay.  Plan your positions, save your spells you can cast while moving without capping charges, and always be doing damage in some form.

 

That's a fair point, I havn't been tracking the simming that much as I don't really like getting mad into it during beta or initial release as so much can change. 

 

I'm comfortable enough with my playstyle and how the class works. I'm running a Warlock since WOTLK so I'm not a Destro FOTM blow in :) Granted my play could of course improve,  I feel I manage my movement and being optimum with my play. 

 

Interesting that you say stats are so close like that. I would normally be a stickler for making a checklist of gear each new expansion or tier, and relentlessly go after each piece. Focusing on just ilvl and ensuring I have ilvl appropriate gear will make the process that bit quicker. 

 

The Fel Flame dungeon set does look to have a nice balance accross the main stats though, so if I want to get picky might focus in on that set :) 

[Zagam 1,983]

Everything I've evaluated has shown ilvl trumps all other decisions.  This usually only has exceptions with trinkets, but for this round, not so much.  I'm curious to see how tertiary stats come in.  There may be a Mythic mechanic where someone has to kite and maybe movement speed as a tertiary stat makes that person the dude to kite even if it's a DPS loss.  I look at everything from a raid leading point of view - having someone knock out a mechanic is more valuable to me than someone who does 99%ile DPS and that's it. 

[Liquidsteel 279]

We have 4 hunters and we plan to abuse them for picking the easy mode class. Again. 

 

Also, it seems that none of the gear from Highmaul will be BiS. It's pretty poorly itemised and the ilvl gain from foundry trumps it. For this reason I'm not going to get too hung up on Highmaul drops.

[Zagam 1,983]

Highmaul drops will only be prioritized to get BRF drops. 

 

I've already told both of my Hunters that they're getting the shit jobs on every single fight.  Mostly because they're dependable, but also because they GREATLY care about their actual numbers when it's usually meaningless since we crushed the enrage timer.

[Furyio 3]

Highmaul drops will only be prioritized to get BRF drops. 

 

I've already told both of my Hunters that they're getting the shit jobs on every single fight.  Mostly because they're dependable, but also because they GREATLY care about their actual numbers when it's usually meaningless since we crushed the enrage timer.

 

I'd say they are also careful about their numbers because Hunters have been largely trash throughout beta and the hunter community showing real concerns that for raids where there might not be the flexability in the roster, hunters will get dropped. 

[Furyio 3]

Does anyone here using Bartender have problems saving Demonbolt to their bars when they hit 100?

 

I change into Meta, save the spell yo mt bar, but it sticks when i get out of emta, overriding the spell i normally have there 

[Deamux 4]

Question: do we want to manually refresh corruption now or keep prolonging and refreshing with touch of chaos? Because doing just that, it feels like it take to much fury. I always feels starved (which is normal I guess)

 

Also about the damage output, do you guys think the nerfs will be reverted? I really doubt they will.

[Liquidsteel 279]

Manually refreshing is fine, using ToC to extend is a waste of Fury, as you said.

[Deamux 4]

Will we be doing that in raid gear also?

[Liquidsteel 279]

Most probably. If we're speccing Demonbolt we don't want to waste Fury if we can help it. As we get more gear, we'll have more to play around with in between burst cycles, however we will still want to avoid wasting fury where possible. 

 

Incidental refreshing through ToCing whilst moving is fine, but actively entering meta to extend is not.

[Alkeir 1]

So is demonology going to be viable now...? :(

[Zilthy 36]

It depends on what you mean by viable.  Viable, yes.  Optimal, no.  As long as you are not confusing 'top performing spec' with viable, then Demo is viable.  And if you play it well, you will outperform someone who is mediocre in Dest.  But you'll have to work harder, and know your game better.   And if you do the same with Dest, you'll outperform Demo.

 

*shrug* It really depends on how well you play and what your group expects.

[Zilthy 36]

This is what I have been finding with Demonology so far:

 

DPS is lackluster (thought that a nicer way of putting it) outside of burst.

 

Line up 4 Demonbolts inside a Dark Soul window (glyph-ed), overall damage is acceptable.   Don't want to miss that at all though, KJC has become my best friend there.  Miss that Demonbolt being in Dark Soul, damage drops a lot.   Sort of nifty though, that KJC cd lines up with DS cd and it all works out.

 

This seems to be working out well, but the hardest part I am having with it is retraining muscle memory (and probably need to spend more time on target dummies for that).

 

Currently for the burst phase I am finding it more reliable to:

 

meta -> doom -> DS (glyphed) -> unload fury (4x demonbolt) [KJC if needed, which, is more often than not]

 

when before I did:

 

DS -> meta -> doom -> unload fury

 

Much smaller margin of error in the 10 second window vs 20 second, still working on timing and silly muscle memory, might swap places between doom and DS, although pretty sure will actually go meta before both now.

 

In a way, it is kind of fun, but in another, it is kind of annoying, as to how well that ten second window needs to be used.

[Alkeir 1]

How do you do your opener with demonbolt?

[Imagine 0]

How do you handle the mana as demo?  thats my biggest trouble!

[Zagam 1,983]

How do you do your opener with demonbolt?

Should be pre-casting Soul Fire, Hand of Gul'dan, Corruption, Shadow Bolt, Hand of Gul'dan -> Metamorphosis + Dark Soul, 2x Demonbolt, assume normal rotation.  This opener allows for 2 Demonbolts in opener which is the best you can do.  From there, it's build and dump cycles.

 

How do you handle the mana as demo?  thats my biggest trouble!

Life Tap.  More specifically, Life Tap during build phases.  You'll be Life Tapping more when using Demonbolt since you'll be using Soul Fire to generate DF faster.  I strongly suggest glyphing it and letting your healers know it's a healing absorption thing and it's safer than taking direct damage which could divert their healing.