Demonology Warlock DPS Guide — The War Within (11.1.5)

Patch 11.1.5 did not bring directly changes to Demonology Warlock, however a live hotfix the 15th of April updated some of the tuning in regards to the relative strength of some spells and how are weighted in their application or intended scenarios:

• Demonbolt damage increased by 20%.
• Wild Imps damage increased by 20%. (This does not include Implosion).

Warlock baseline received a Drain Life coefficient change, now dealing 4 times the damage, while still healing for 5 times the damage dealt.

Several talents alongside Doom functionality were changed:

• Doom duration is reduced for each Soul Shard spent during that time;
• consequently Doom Eternal has been redesigned to give a chance to generate a Demonic Core;
• Demonic Calling chance to proc has been doubled from 10 to 20%.

Warlocks received a lot of attention entering The War Within, with talent changes spanning from the class tree bottom lift to the mostly reworked specialisation talent tree.

The specialisation has seen a reduction in complexity in its cooldown management with a very straightforward forward repeatable 1-minute loop centered around Tyrant. As a result, the gameplay is about doing a correct setup and, after that, firing everything on cooldown to avoid subsequent Tyrant windows drifting. The revisitation of Doom offers some dynamism in multitarget, but in general, the flow is streamlined and somewhat scripted gameplay.

The Class tree has received a few tweaks in both new talents and point distribution changes, creating constraints that force active decisions in what to bring in a given situation, as opposed to a set-and-forget approach.

Below are the most notable changes in regard to the class tree:

• Demonic Circle is no longer baseline;
• Demonic Tactics is a new output node;
• Soul Link has been consolidated as a 2 points node, removing Profane Bargain;
• Inquisitor's Gaze and Summon Soulkeeper node has been replaced by Soul Conduit at 1 point of effectiveness;
• likewise Grim Feast has been replaced by Pact of Gluttony.

The Demonology side of the tree received a more radical revisit with the whole structure and pathing changing, alongside the introduction of several new talents that focus on augmenting fewer spells but in a more profound fashion. As follows is a list of the most transformative changes:

• Vile Fiend is now 30 seconds cooldown and has been moved down the tree and a capstone instead of being a choice with Soul Strike;
• Summon Dreadstalkers now have a chance to generate a Demonic Core when fading away;
• Rune of Shadows has been introduced as a substantial way to scale Shadow Bolt damage;
• Summon Demonic Tyrant is now a 1minute cooldown baseline and has been moved in the second gate with Reign of Tyranny being a single point investment;
• Nether Portal and its relative nodes Ner'zhul's Volition and Gul'dan's Ambition have been removed;
• Doom has been moved down the tree and reworked entirely to provide AoE damage with additional nodes able to further reduce the cooldown and summon a Shadowbolt casting Doomguard, respectively with Doom Eternal and Pact of the Ered'ruin;
• Vile Fiend, being the central option at the third gate, offers augmenting talents that alter the visuals and additional behavior of the summon similar to Hounds of Sargeras, with Mark of Shatug summoning a GloomHound that deals additional shadow damage to a single target and Mark of F'harg summoning a Charhound that deals constant fire damage around;
• New talents augmenting Summon Dreadstalkers have been added at the third gate: Flametouched and The Houndmaster's Gambit.

One of the highlights of the new expansion is the Hero Talent Tree system, which further enhances specialisation with a unique twist both in visual and, to a lesser degree, in playstyle.

Demonology Warlock gets to choose between Diabolist and Soul Harvester.