Demonology Warlock: Midnight Expansion Preview

Welcome to our Midnight expansion preview for Demonology Warlock, a resource page where you can find changes, Hero talent trees, and an initial assessment on the state of the spec.

The purpose of this page is to offer an up-to-date overview of how Demonology Warlock is changing in the forthcoming Midnight expansion. As such, it is not to be treated as a guide or a replacement, since the current state of tuning is not representative of what the final product will be.

Demonology Warlock received a complete talent restructuring for the class and the specialisation trees alongside a fourth branch for each Hero Tree.

Below are the most notable changes:

• Curses are now mutually exclusive choices, meaning players will have to choose between Curse of Weakness, Curse of Tongues and Curse of Exhaustion;
• A new talent Foul Mouth allows chosen curses to also affect any secondary target within 10 yards of the main target;
• Howl of Terror is on a choice node with Shadowfury;
• Demonic Gateway has been moved further down the tree and has a supporting talent that allows players to use it twice before incurring the cooldown;
• Blight of Weakness is a new AoE debuff effect that is mutually exclusive with any Curses.

Going into Midnight, the intention seems to offer the AoE Curses at the expense of less flexibility in what to choose from the start. That creates a situation where the default choice will most likely be Curse of Tongues , as the alternatives do not offer enough of an upside in a direct comparison, barred some very specific cases. Warlock's overall utility package seems to be still on the lower end of the spectrum, especially in Mythic+ scenarios. Howl of Terror has the potential to be used as a more reliable interrupt, but the target cap is still a bit of a problem.

Moving on to the Demonology side, the whole tree has been overhauled to lessen the reliance on addons and the need to track multiple effects. The layout is for the most part similar, progressing from a first gate almost devoid of choices towards the third gate which holds most of the options comparatively.

See below a list of the most transformative changes:

• Wild Imps behaviour has changed and they will last 40 seconds without any energy consumption associated and start with a cap of 3;
• Imp Mastery and Hellbent Commander raise the cap by 3 each, for a maximum of 9 when taking both;
• Hand of Gul'dan has been changed to a modal spender, AoE until reaching the maximum number of Wild Imps available and then single target as long as the threshold is met;
• Demonic Strength and Bilescourge Bombers have been removed;
• Soul Strike has been removed;
• Grimoire: Felguard has been removed;
• Doom has been removed;
• Vile Fiend and its upgrade in Mark of Shatug or Mark of F'harg have been appended to Call Dreadstalkers and cannot be casted on their own;
• The new Apex talent Dominion of Argus is themed around summoning a third Dreadstalker, doubling the damage of Felguard abilities, and a random Soulkeeper summon.

Midnight Demonology tree has been streamlined and simplified to a great extent, with thematic areas consolidated around the themes of Wild Imps, Felguard, and Dreadstalkers. Most effects/extra abilities have been integrated into the baseline rotational skills.

While the gameplay idea remains mostly the same in practical terms most of the rotation has been simplified, Tyrant setups have been removed, alongside most short cooldowns.

Hand of Gul'dan's' new behaviour offers a straightforward approach to Implosion cycles but equally limits the choice in when to use single target and when to AoE.

Hero Trees have not been updated yet, with only the description of the fourth column being available.

The Diabolist Hero tree is themed around a sequence of Greater Demons that offer temporary effects such as damage amplification, shard generation or a high damage AoE ability before cycling toward the next one.

The playstyle, as such, is influenced by this cadence while not being an interference in the rotation at the same time. What changes the most is the damage profile instead, with Gloom of Nathreza directly buffing shard spenders, and higher burst capabilities thanks to Ruination or particularly in Tyrant windows, thanks to Abyssal Dominion.

Regarding defensive options and utility, Soul-Etched Circles offers a niche use case while Annihilan's Bellow drastically increases the frequency of use of Howl of Terror. Infernal Vitality and Infernal Bulwark also ties a sustain element to Unending Resolve which is definitely more enticing than what other Hero Tree currently seem to offer, albeit overall not great.

The Soul Harvester Hero tree takes a different approach, with a theme centered around shard cost reduction for spenders, direct damage increase, and additional damage over time in the form of Soul Anathema.

The synergy with Power Siphon through Necrolyte Teachings and Sataiel's Ambition while not being as transformative as it is in Affliction still offers a reliable direct damage increase, particularly with Shadow Bolt when talenting Rune of Shadows and Sacrificed Souls.

In AoE Mantle of the Harvester helps provide additional Demonic Core to fuel the damage.

In terms of defensive and utility options, again few improvements in terms of Gorebound Fortitude offering Soulburn Healthstones at no additional shard cost, and Friends In Dark Places giving an additional 25% to the baseline absorb value of Dark Pact. Eternal Servitude on the other hand enable a more frequent pet swapping/resummoning as a quality-of-life change, with the alternative of an improved combat res in Gorefiend's Resolve similar to other classes.