Demonology Warlock DPS Mythic+ Tips — Battle for Azeroth (BfA) 8.2.5

Mythic+ has become a large part of the World of Warcraft endgame, but the sheer amount of different variables has left many players feeling overwhelmed. The group composition, weekly affixes, the item level of the group, the keystone level, and the experience and comfort level of the group are just several of the factors that will influence how you approach each dungeon. The purpose of this page is to prepare you for the key differences that set Mythic+ apart from the typical World of Warcraft endgame experience, including talents and rotational anomalies that may not be obvious at first glance.

• Fortified increases the Health pool of all non-boss enemies by 20% and damage dealt by 30%.
• Tyrannical increases the Health pool of boss enemies by 40% and their damage dealt by 15%.

Fortified and Tyrannical are two affixes, one of which is always present on all Mythic+ Keystones, regardless of level. These affixes shift the focus of dungeons from boss damage to trash damage depending on the current affix. Demonology Warlocks are fairly flexible, dealing with either affix well. Fortified can sometimes cause our cooldowns to line up better pack to pack, which can make the specialization feel very fluid.

• Raging increases the damage dealt by enemies below 30% by 100% until they die.
• Teeming adds additional trash mobs to certain packs throughout each dungeon.
• Bolstering buffs remaining enemies Health pools and damage dealt by 20% when an enemy dies nearby. To counter this affix, DPS all mobs down evenly and focus your casts into high Health mobs if there are any.
• Sanguine places a pool of blood on the ground when a mob is slain. This pool will heal remaining enemies who stay inside the zone and also damage players.
• Bursting forces enemy mobs to detonate when slain, afflicting the group with a stacking debuff that causes players to suffer 10% of their max Health in damage every four seconds..

• Volcanic spawns volcanic plumes underneath and around players when in combat with any enemy. When damaged by Volcanic, players suffer 50% of their maximum Health pool in damage. The more enemies you are in combat with, the more Volcanic that will spawn.
• Grievous afflicts players with a stacking DoT when they fall below 90%.
• Quaking will periodically attempt to interrupt casters by creating a damaging zone around each player. About 3 seconds after the zone forms, it will deal 20% maximum Health in damage to each player caught in the zone as well as interrupting any hard casts being finished during the shockwave.
• Explosive will occasionally spawn Explosive Orbs that need to be targeted and burned down within a short period of time or they will deal significant damage to the party.
• Necrotic debuffs the target of enemy melee swings with stacking healing reduction and minor DoT.
• Skittish reduces the amount of threat generated by tanks throughout the dungeon.

These affixes can be difficult for Demonology as they generally necessitate an interruption in your rotation, which stops most of your damage output. Focus on maximizing movement and casts to improve your damage and lessen damage intake.

These Emissaries each have a different "decree", based on their type. Enchanted Emissary, the arcane-themed, has a passive aura Queen's Decree: Blowback and the passive ability Enchanted. Use ranged attacks to knock the Emissary away until its energy depletes and it teleports away. Make sure to not use powerful attacks while inside the bubble, if you are not ranged, since you will suffer 150% of the damage you deal.

Void-Touched Emissary is the second type, easily recognizable by the purple shade and swirling bolts around it, reminiscent of a Shadow Priest's abilities. This Emissary comes with a passive aura Void Sight, granting it True Sight in a frontal cone. Once engaged, it will keep casting an AoE in a 60-yard radius, doing 50% of the target's health in Shadow Damage and triggering Queen's Decree: Hide, making following hits much harder. The strategy to deal with this target is to either break the Line of Sight on every cast or allow 1 hit, then hide to let the Queen's Decree: Hide debuff fade. Once the Emissary reaches 1 HP, it will stop any cast and instead teleport away, removing itself from the dungeon.

Emissary of the Tides is the third and last type, characterized by a white/light blue shade. The Emissary has a passive aura, Queen's Decree: Unstoppable, which makes every nearby ally immune to any crowd-control effect. Depending on the pull, it may become the primary focus, and once it reaches 1 HP, it will teleport away.

Level	Choices
15	✗ Dreadlash	? Demonic Strength	✓ Bilescourge Bombers
30	✓ Demonic Calling	✗ Power Siphon	? Doom
45	? Demon Skin	✓ Burning Rush	✓ Dark Pact
60	✗ From the Shadows	✓ Soul Strike	? Summon Vilefiend
75	✓ Darkfury	✓ Mortal Coil	✓ Demonic Circle
90	? Soul Conduit	✗ Inner Demons	✓ Grimoire: Felguard
100	✗ Sacrificed Souls	✓ Demonic Consumption	✗ Nether Portal

Most of our explanations are geared towards keystones that challenge the current item level of your group. If you are doing keystones that are well below the current power level of the group, you should default to our build recommended above, as you will likely be able to do pulls much larger than intended, which skews the talent choices towards AoE and burst focused choices rather than builds that support sustained damage.

Demonic Strength provides burst AoE every minute, on top of offering a single target increase, making it a good choice for virtually all keys if you time your pulls accordingly.

Dreadlash is a viable alternative giving you more sustained cleave and AoE damage across every pack, since its cooldown is tied to Call Dreadstalkers.

Following the Patch 8.1 buffs, Bilescourge Bombers is the default choice for any situation, offering the best single target and multitarget output.

Doom can provide strong damage if it can actually tick. If the targets are dying too fast, or you simply hate playing Doom, then Demonic Calling is the standard choice.

If you struggle to transition to the next pack with enough resources (shards/cores) running Power Siphon can help.

Dark Pact is a great choice for challenging keystones, as the cooldown is often necessary to survive lethal boss abilities or the more difficult trash pulls.

Burning Rush is the best choice for any situation where you feel Dark Pact is unnecessary.

Soul Strike provides consistent Soul Shard generation, additional mobility, and gives you additional pet control. This talent makes AoE feel a little smoother and helps with affixes that necessitate heavy movement. At 3 or more targets, this is the highest damage choice.

Summon Vilefiend could be used for instances with very difficult bosses on Tyrannical keys, as it is the best choice for up to 2 target situations.

Demonic Circle can be used creatively in some dungeons, such as to make certain bosses easier for yourself.

Darkfury can be used to provide more frequent access to AoE stuns. If you do not find yourself making use of Demonic Circle often in dungeons, take this talent and provide more Crowd Control.

Mortal Coil is a strong choice whenever you do not need the mobility given by Demonic Circle. It offers a noticeable heal on top of an additional form of Crowd Control, which can prevent a wipe, especially in Mythic dungeons.

Grimoire: Felguard provides strong single target and AoE damage and helps power through difficult packs.

Inner Demons is a passive choice that provides sustained single target damage at the cost of lower cleave potential.

Soul Conduit increases the amount of Hand of Gul'dan you will cast in a dungeon run, making it a somewhat competitive option, albeit worse than Grimoire: Felguard

Sacrificed Souls is an all around choice that provides a steady and stable damage increase.

Nether Portal is a viable option for strict single-target situations or if you need a damage boost every 3 minute.

Following the Patch 8.1 buffs, Demonic Consumption is the go-to choice for every type of content, offering a noticeable burst every 90 seconds on top of the highest sustained output.

Essence of the Focusing Iris is an exceptionally strong choice for dungeons, substantially increasing Demonology output during trash pulls, as it provides a powerful AoE cooldown on 1.5-minute cooldown.

Vision of Perfection is another noteworthy choice, enabling higher Tyrant uptime and reduced cooldowns, but lacking the control over when to proc the Essence Tyrant. Overall a solid choice, albeit one more tailored towards single-target output.

Memory of Lucid Dreams, coupled with shard refund mechanics such as Soul Conduit and Demonic Meteor, can offer some noticeable increase during AoE situations every 2 minutes.

Blood of the Enemy is an interesting choice in dungeons where you can easily stand in melee range in order to activate the major power and have your Tyrant or Felguard benefit from both increased critical strike chance and critical damage. The 1.5-minute cooldown makes it line up nicely with Demonology cooldowns, outside of Grimoire: Felguard.

For the choice of minor, if you need to bolster your AoE damage, consider taking Purification Protocol.

Strive for Perfection translates into additional Tyrants during a dungeon run, making it a valuable option.

Lastly, for a balanced approach, take Lucid Dreams, Focused Energy, or Blood-Soaked.

1. Haste;
2. Critical Strike;
3. Versatility;
4. Mastery;
5. Intellect.

When playing with Explosive Potential:

1. Critical Strike ≥ Mastery;
2. Versatility;
3. Haste;
4. Intellect.

You should be using your Felguard at all times as a Demonology Warlock. In Shrine of the Storm, if you do not run with a dual melee setup consider talenting Bilescourge Bombers and Summon Vilefiend so you can freely swap to Felhunter when you need interrupts.