Demonology Warlock DPS Gear and Best in Slot — Dragonflight 10.1
On this page, you will find the best gear and best in slot items for your Demonology Warlock in World of Warcraft Dragonflight 10.1.
If you were looking for WotLK Classic content, please refer to our WotLK Classic Demonology Warlock gear and best in slot.
Gearing a Demonology Warlock
Welcome to our Gearing Page for Demonology Warlock; this section will cover everything you need to know about equipping your character correctly.
If you have a new piece of gear for which you need gems and enchant advice, you can find everything on our dedicated page below.
How To Effectively Compare Upgrades as an Demonology Warlock
Due to the simplicity of determining upgrades with a simulation in the current game era, we recommend using the popular Raidbots tool to decide which pieces of gear offer the most potential for your character. The main reason why this is a considerable advantage is due to the vast number of variables that differ from character to character, such as Stat Quotients and Scale Factors.
The Top Gear function can be handy, as it allows you to compare multiple items and item types to find the best combination of upgrades.
Learning to use the tools available will allow you to reach the most accurate conclusions with the least effort. It is highly recommended that you avail yourself of these tools, which will serve you well when evaluating items.
Droptimizer
The Droptimizer feature from Raidbots lets you identify which dungeons and Raid Bosses you should spend your Bonus Rolls on. It simulates all of the potential upgrades in a raid or a dungeon, and lists the bosses/dungeons by rank order of how much DPS you can expect to gain from bonus rolling on it. We have a guide for it that you can access using the link below.
Demonology Warlock Gear Upgrades in Dragonflight Season 2
The Valor Upgrade system is gone in Season 2 and is replaced by a new system that allows for item upgrades to be obtained from a wider variety of content.
Dragonflight Season 2 introduces two new currencies: Flightstones and
Shadowflame Crests both obtainable from practically all forms of content in the
game. They can be used to upgrade gear up to Item Level 441, which is entry-level
Mythic Raid Item Level. They can also upgrade Crafted Gear up to iLvl 447, which
is late-Mythic Item Level.
For more information on the new Gear Upgrades system, check out our dedicated page for it below.
As with Valor, the cost to upgrade scales differs per slot but now also increases quickly as item levels go up.
Onyx Annulet and Primordial Gems
Introduced in Patch 10.0.7 the Onyx Annulet is an obtainable ring
that feature 3 sockets for Primordial Gems.
For more information regarding the Onyx Annulet, the Primordial Gemstones, and how to obtain them, follow the link below.
For a list of what Primordial Gems are the best for Demonology Warlock, see our Enchants and Gems page.
Onyx Annulet for Demonology Warlock in Dragonflight Season 2
In single target, the Onyx Annulet with the right gemstones will
still retain some degrees of relevance during the first few weeks of Patch
10.1; however, once Mythic gear becomes available, the ring itself will be
outperformed by other higher item level options.
In multitarget, the ring has always been inferior to stat-based alternatives.
Should you itemize your Onyx Annulet for single target or AoE?
It generally depends on what kind of content the player is mostly doing. Single target output will offer the most consistent results, as no matter the raid or the dungeon, there will be value to be extracted. For heavier AoE situations, rings with secondary stats are preferred anyway.
Should Demonology Warlock Farm Onyx Annulet in Dragonflight Season 2?
Broadly speaking, no, secondary stat rings of higher item level will outperform the ring in its niche of single target while retaining superior multitarget performance.
Crafted Gear & Embellishments
The newly revamped crafting system gives players access to an alternate avenue of gearing, offering unique embellishments, which are limited to two equipped at any time.
Spark of Shadowflame will remain the main limiting factor when
crafting high-end gear, as it can be acquired once every two weeks.
At the start of a tier, it will be possible to craft two pieces (the first from the initial quest and the second from the initial bi-weekly reward).
It is essential to understand that your individual crafting strategy depends heavily on the kind of progress and therefore drops available, the speed at which you progress through the content and whatever drop you can obtain early. As a result, there will not be a single best path, instead listed below will be some guidelines:
The new embellishment from raid Shadowflame-Tempered Armor Patch is the best
single target choice, to the point where two of them in off-tier pieces slots
are the best option regardless of warlock spec.
Double Blue Silken Lining remains a decent choice overall regardless
of the situation, assuming you can remain above the health threshold for at
least 70% of the time in total.
Similarly, the Azureweave set composed of Azureweave Mantle
and
Azureweave Slippers offers a close total output to the previous
combination, albeit without the drawbacks.
Worth mentioning is the Hood of Surging Time which is the
better option in situations with frequent influx of new targets, in a setup together
with
Elemental Lariat. The obvious downside is that it does require
different tier pieces from the ones recommended.
Best in Slot Gear for Raiding
Tier Set for Demonology Warlock
In Dragonflight season 2 Demonology Warlock get access to a new tier set with the following bonuses:
Warlock Demonology 10.1 Class Set 2pc:
Demonbolt deals 15% additional damage. Consuming a
Demonic Core reduces the cooldown of
Grimoire: Felguard by 1 sec.
Warlock Demonology 10.1 Class Set 4pc:
Grimoire: Felguard damage increased by 20%. While
Grimoire: Felguard is active, all of your demons deal 20% additional damage.
Warlock Demonology 10.1 Class Set 2pc is around a 3% increase in single target, scaling down to 2.3% at 5 targets;
Warlock Demonology 10.1 Class Set 2pc together with
Warlock Demonology 10.1 Class Set 4pc is a 15.4% increase in single target, scaling down to 12.2% at 5 targets.
Both bonuses offer a damage increase without affecting the rotation in a meaningful way.
It is important to note that achieving
the Warlock Demonology 10.1 Class Set 4pc is a higher gain than having the set on
the sub-optimal slots.
That said, tier set slots are mainly influenced by whichever Embellishment effect is incorporated in the gearing setup:
- The Azureweave set involves a shoulder slot as the off-set piece therefore Head, Chest, Hands, and Legs as tier pieces;
- When using
Hood of Surging Time, Shoulder, Chest, Hands, and Legs are the tier pieces
- If running double
Blue Silken Lining (typically on Wrists and Back) use Head, Shoulder, Chest, and Hands as tier pieces.
Weapons for Demonology Warlock
There are no unique or outstanding choices
for Demonology Warlock; anything that is higher in item level and
It has good secondary stats and is a direct upgrade. The best staff would
be Erethos, the Empty Promise from Aberrus
due to its item level.
For main hand and off-hand combo instead, Rod of Crystalline Energies
from Neltharion's Lair in Neltharion's Lair
and
Echo's Maddening Volume from Echo of Neltharion
in Aberrus offer the best damage.
Trinkets for Demonology Warlock
Due to the prevalence of high item level trinkets via Mythic+, raiding, and PvP, there are a variety of suitable options when it comes to trinkets. It is always best to use Raidbots Top Gear to determine what your optimal trinkets are.
From Aberrus Neltharion's Call to Dominance
is the overall best trinket, with
Igneous Flowstone being a good
passive choice in the second slot.
From dungeons Irideus Fragment is the best active trinket,
with
Time-Breaching Talon being a strong contender.
Trinket Simulations for Demonology Warlock
DISCLAIMER: sims are currently being developed; therefore, take the following charts with a grain of salt.
Single Target
Cleave
Changelog
- 01 May 2023: Updated for Patch 10.1.
- 24 Mar. 2023: Updated Onyx Annulet section to account for live hotfixes.
- 20 Mar. 2023: Added patch 10.0.7 new ring section. .
- 24 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 13 Dec. 2022: Updated Embellishment recommendations.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Updated for Season 1 launch.
- 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 25 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
More Warlock Guides
Guides from Other Classes
This guide has been written by Motoko, Warlock main since The Burning Crusade, co-admin in the Warlock Discord, and theorycrafter and contributor for LockOneStopShop.
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