Demonology Warlock DPS Guide — The War Within Pre-Patch

Demonology Warlock is a versatile specialization centered around summoning waves of expendable minions to do your bidding while you generate resources in between. While the specialization does have some ramp-up time, it does feel smooth and fast once it is running at full steam. Demonology Warlocks are especially strong in encounters that have stable mobility rather than helter-skelter movement.

Like all Warlock specializations, Demonology brings Demonic Gateway, a powerful raid cooldown that can transport your entire group 40 yards instantly.

Strengths

• Strong single target damage and cooldowns
• Efficient cleave damage
• High mobility
• Very high AoE burst with enough resources

Weaknesses

• Requires time to gain a steady flow of resources
• Non-existent spread cleave
• Being dependent to pets and guardians their AI can sometimes be problematic

We have a dedicated leveling guide to help you get your Demonology Warlock to max level, complete with many tips and suggestions.

While playing with the default UI for the leveling is entirely possible, transitioning to a max level rotation with a substantially different UI layout can feel overwhelming and ultimately disorient or frustrate the player. Instead, we recommend implementing layout changes gradually in order to allow you to acclimate to a more effective and personal UI. The Addon page below offers some recommended options.

Demonology Warlock is a spec designed around continuously summoning temporary demons to do your bidding with relatively short cooldowns, some of them requiring a precise setup and a good amount of pet management. At its core, the gameplay is about generating and spending the Warlock's iconic resource: Soul Shards.

Demonology is the spec that embodies the rule of Always-Be-Casting the most but is also straightforward and intuitive. Keep generating Soul Shards through Shadow Bolt and Demonbolt and spend those resources on Call Dreadstalkers and Hand of Gul'dan.

If you are a newcomer to the spec but would like to learn the basics, start browsing the Spell Summary and head over to the page linked below.

For those more familiar with Warlocks, we invite you to check out the Talents and Rotation pages to have access to more detailed and in-depth information.

Due to the increased number of variables and additional systems, picking gear has become a much less intuitive and immediate process. Nevertheless, you can find guidelines on how to best equip your Demonology Warlock on our dedicated gearing page, including the current Best in Slot equipment for the current tier.

Equipping gear is not enough, as you also need to choose the right consumables and gear augments to maximize your character potential. Below is listed a page that can guide you through those choices as well as a page to better understand the implications each stat has on your Warlock.

Being geared and well-equipped is only half of the journey, as the end game activities require each a different approach to the spec. In order to find out more information regarding how to better tackle these challenges, check out the pages below.

Understanding your errors and refining your performance is a constant exercise, which can be frustrating or confounding at times. Below are listed some pages that offer tools and can point to and help correct those mistakes.

Prepatch of a new expansion is usually a time when 2 different systems/ideas overlap for a brief period, resulting in often quirky interactions with various degrees of power creep associated. In general any spec is going to be, at the very least, a viable option in the content available, but it is by no means representative of how the spec will perform in The War Within, due to the lack of Hero Talents.