WotLK Classic Demonology Warlock Guide
Welcome to our Demonology Warlock guide for WotLK Classic, tailored for PvE content. Here, you will learn how all you need to know to play Demonology Warlock proficiently. Click the links below to navigate the guide or read this page for a short introduction.
Introduction
Demonology Warlocks, unlike previous expansions, are not only one of the coolest looking specs in the game, but also extremely powerful. No other class compares to their AoE and their single-target is right up there with the best of them.
The biggest thing about them is that they bring the best Raid buff in the game
in Demonic Pact, which buffs your entire raid with 10% of your Spell Power
when your pet crits. There is more to it than that and there is some finesse with
it, but we will get into that in a later section. Demonology is also a
very good mix of all that a Warlock can bring. You have hard-hitting
damage-over-time abilities that must be kept up at all times, alongside major
and much-needed utility, and even powerful cooldowns like
Metamorphosis,
which turns you into an unstoppable Demon with its own special abilities. You are
also one of the only Specs with an execute ability, meaning when the boss gets
low enough in health (35%) you get to spam fast-casting and free
Soul Fires
that Hit for a ridiculous amount of damage. And let us not forget about the almighty
Summon Felguard, who has come back even stronger than before.
Support Demonology vs Personal DPS Demonology
There are generally two types of Demonology Warlocks. You have the
ones who are purely there for support, whose job is to 100% do everything they can
to supply the largest Demonic Pact buff that they possibly can for their
Raid, even at the loss of their own personal DPS. On
the contrary, you have the guys who are not there to buff the raid and are there to just
deal as much damage as they possibly can. Whether there are multiple
Demonology Warlocks in the raid and they can just blast, or the guild
does not mind them taking more of a DPS role
and losing out on some Spell Power from
Demonic Pact, Demonology has a
real choice to make. This is talked a lot about in
the Warlock community and which one you choose is completely up to you
and more importantly, up to your Raid Leader.
The difference in gameplay differs slightly, but not much at all. Your rotation more or less stays the same outside of you never ever holding your Felguard back and you use Potions of Speed for the Haste, rather than Potions of Wild Magic for the 200 Spell Power.
The bigger difference between support and Personal Demo is the gearing, or
more importantly the stats. Without getting too deep into it since there is a
section about it later, the most common difference objectively is as a personal
DPS Demo, you would choose Haste and would gear more like an
Affliction Warlock would for the most part, Whereas a full support Demo
chooses the pieces of gear that give up that Haste for a healthy amount of Spell
Power, Spirit, and to a degree even Hit Rating. There are some gear sets where you
can sacrifice a good chunk of Hit, but get an even bigger amount of Spell Power or Spirit.
Thus giving up a good bit of personal DPS in return for some bigger
Demonic Pacts.
If you are the only Demo lock in your raid, then I would suggest a nice middle ground, giving up Haste pieces for some Spell Power and Spirit pieces and giving up a couple percent of Hit to achieve the same thing. But at the end of the day, this decision is solely up to you. Just know that if you are the only Demo lock in your raid and they are gearing you up specifically for that reason, then I personally think it is fine to give up some stats to buff your raid.
For a better understanding of where Warlocks are in regards to other classes and specializations in Wrath Classic, you can check out our PvE DPS rankings below. However, ultimately, you should not let these lists dissuade you from playing what you enjoy.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Brings the extremely powerful
Demonic Pact buff to the raid.
Demonology typically gets funneled gear to buff the raid more.
Strong burst and AoE during
Metamorphosis.
Weaker single-target DPS than Affliction.
You lose a lot of damage if your pet dies.
Pet AI can have issues on some fights.
Typically only one Demo Lock in the Raid.
Best Races for Demonology Warlock
The best race for Warlock is Human, if you are Alliance, and Orc, if you are Horde.
For Alliance players, Human grants you an excellent PvP racial in the form of
Will to Survive, as well as additional Spell Power via
Fel Armor,
Glyph of Life Tap, and the bonus Spirit Humans gain from
The Human Spirit.
For the Horde, Command and
Blood Fury are both very strong
for a Warlock, making Orc by far the best choice.
Best Professions for Demonology Warlock
Overall, Demonology Warlocks have a few viable options for professions
and which you choose depends on which one you want. You can go Tailoring
for the big Lightweave proc, which will more often than not proc on pull with your
trinkets and whatever else, allowing you to snap a very big Demonic Pact,
which at the end of the day is why you are in the Raid. If you go
Jewelcrafting instead, you get straight Spell Power, rather than the
proc, giving your raid a nice static amount of Spell Power from Demonic Pact the
whole encounter. Which one you choose is up to you and they are
so very close to each other, so you can choose which to use based on your
preferences and the economy of your server for gold-making.
If you are instead playing a pure support Demo, Tailoring and
Jewelcrafting have the most Spell power you
can give to your raid considering both Tailoring and Jewelcrafting supply more
Spell Power, meaning more value out of Demonic Pact. The issue with this is
that you cannot go Engineering. Engineering is pretty standard and is
even required among many guilds. But, this is not an issue for a lot of
people. So if your Guild does not require Engineering and you feel like
you can live without the
Nitro Boosts and Explosives, then I urge you
to go Tailoring and Jewelcrafting and be the best Support you can possibly be.
Engineering
Engineering
is extremely strong and is the best profession you can get in terms of damage. You
get an insane Haste enchant called Hyperspeed Accelerators on your Gloves
that gives you 340 Haste for 12 seconds and it is only on a one-minute cooldown.
This is an absolutely amazing ability and is worth Engineering
simply for that. You can pop this with your Trinkets and all your other cooldowns.
You also get the infamous Nitro Boosts, which are put ON your current Boots.
It is not a separate pair of boots like it was in Classic and TBC. They not only
give you some much needed mobility, but the boots can get you out of many
sketchy situations, allowing you to very quickly get away from things or get to
things and continue pumping. One thing I really like about them is that I am
constantly trying to seed, which naturally has me falling back every so often,
so I love to use the boots to catch quickly back up to the raid and continue seeding.
Another perk to Engineering is what has been known for years: the
explosives. You have Global Thermal Sapper Charge,
Saronite Bomb, and
even a
Frag Belt, all of which you must be Engineering to use
and all of which also will give you a solid boost in your overall damage.
You also get a cloak enchant called Springy Arachnoweave for 27 Spell
Power and also has the ability to turn your cloak into a parachute cloak.
Tailoring
Tailoring allows you to enchant your cloak with Lightweave Embroidery,
which is a proc chance of 295 Spell Power for 15 sec with a 60-second internal
cooldown. This is phenomenal for Demonology as it allows you to get some massive
Demonic Pacts off, especially on the pull since that is typically
when most guilds
Bloodlust/
Heroism and pop their cooldowns.
Jewelcrafting
With Jewelcrafting you get the lovely ability to use JC-only gems
called Runed Dragon's Eye. You can use three of them, which totals in an
extra 60 Spell Power in comparison to what gems you would be using if you were not
Jewelcrafting. This is a very solid static Spell Power increase that
you can always count on for all of your
Demonic Pact.
Changelog
- 18 Jan. 2023 (pre-raid gear page): Reviewed for Phase 2 release ahead of Ulduar raid release.
- 18 Jan. 2023 (enchants page): Reviewed for Phase 2 release ahead of Ulduar raid release.
- 18 Jan. 2023 (stats page): Reviewed for Phase 2 release ahead of Ulduar raid release.
- 18 Jan. 2023 (rotation page): Reviewed for Phase 2 release ahead of Ulduar raid release.
- 18 Jan. 2023 (talents page): Reviewed for Phase 2 release ahead of Ulduar raid release.
- 18 Jan. 2023 (spells page): Reviewed for Phase 2 release ahead of Ulduar raid release.
- 18 Jan. 2023 (this page): Reviewed for Phase 2 release ahead of Ulduar raid release.
- 17 Jan. 2023 (gear page): Updated for Phase 2.
- 19 Oct. 2022 (pre-raid gear page): Page added.
- 19 Oct. 2022 (gear page): Page added.
- 19 Oct. 2022 (enchants page): General guide updates.
- 19 Oct. 2022 (stats page): General guide updates.
- 19 Oct. 2022 (rotation page): Page added.
- 19 Oct. 2022 (talents page): Page added.
- 19 Oct. 2022 (spells page): Page added.
- 19 Oct. 2022 (this page): General guide updates.
- 25 Sep. 2022 (enchants page): Page added.
- 25 Sep. 2022 (stats page): Page added.
- 25 Sep. 2022 (this page): Page added.
This guide has been written by Crix, Co-Admin of the Warlock Discord and long time Warlock player. He hass cleared all TBC Content as a Warlock, as well as makes content on YouTube for Warlocks and streams Warlock gameplay daily over at Twitch.
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