Demonology Warlock DPS Mythic+ Tips — Shadowlands 9.0.5
In this guide, you will find tips and advice to tackle Mythic+ dungeons with your Demonology Warlock in World of Warcraft — Shadowlands 9.0.5.
Mythic+ Introduction for Demonology Warlock
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.
Demonology Warlocks have the potential to deal extremely high burst AoE
damage after a proper setup, while also offering multiple short cooldowns that
suit well the average dungeon pull cadence. With multiple abilities having
some form of cleave effect, Demonology's damage profile is well suited for
dungeons, with the only negative of being limited by specific setup periods,
and a slightly longer interrupt that shares a stun. The spec still retains all
the class baseline toolkit comprised of Healthstones, Soulstones,
skip-enabling Demonic Gateway, AoE crowd control abilities such as
Shadowfury and
Howl of Terror, and uncapped AoE spells.
If you are unfamiliar with Mythic+ and its associated general mechanics, you can read more about it on our Shadowlands Mythic+ Season 1 page below.
Demonology Warlock Mythic+ Rotation
While both single- and multi-target rotations do not differ substantially from the standard priority outlined in Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities page there are few points worth noting:
- Starting a new pull without resources means a relatively long period of
time where the damage will be low, due to
Shadow Bolt being the only resource generator outside of procs. This makes transitioning between pulls with Soul Shards/Demonic Cores/Wild Imps extremely important to maintaining a higher DPS profile across the dungeon.
- While it may looks tempting, it is generally better to not implode at the
end of a dungeon pack, trying to spend all the Shards on additional Wild
Imps, in order to regenerate 3 shards out of combat and being able to cast a
massive
Implosion or Tyrant at the next pack.
- Demonology has relatively low cooldowns by nature, meaning it is usually
better to not hold on
Summon Demonic Tyrant as it very often results in missed casts across the whole dungeon run.
Demonology Warlock Utility
While damage is the bigger reason to bring an Demonology Warlock, the class itself offer a noticeable amount of crowd control and various supporting abilities:
- Recently reintroduced, the Curses can offer some advantage against
specific dangerous enemies:
Curse of Tongues can reduce the amount of interrupt required by the group, while
Curse of Weakness alleviates the incoming damage on tank from auto attacks. Last but not least,
Curse of Exhaustion can be used to slow targets in situations where kiting is required. While these effects can be noticeable, it is better to use curses on a few key targets, as the time spent to apply these effects is time not spent doing damage.
Healthstones have a 1-minute cooldown and heal for 25% of max health, allowing for an emergency heal for each player.
Soulstones offer a combat resurrection that can be used both reactively and preemptively in the case of a death run.
Demonic Gateway offers the unique ability to skip certain parts of the map, depending on the dungeon in question, avoiding specific pulls.
Shadowfury helps alleviating pressure on the tank during big pulls as it is a 3-second AoE stun.
Fear and
Banish are both spammable crowd control abilities that can be used to interrupt a cast in a pinch or to remove temporarily a target from combat.
Mythic+ Talents for Demonology Warlock
Level | Choices | ||
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15 |
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25 |
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30 |
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35 |
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40 |
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45 |
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50 |
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Talent Explanations
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.
Tier 1/Level 15
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's Dreadbite.
Bilescourge Bombers is an equally viable choice for any situation,
compared to
Demonic Strength with shorter cooldown and slightly more
damage at the expense of a Soul Shard cost.
Tier 2/Level 25
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.
Power Siphon was buffed for Shadowlands and is now a very
viable choice to increase your single-target burst and increase your Soul Shard
generation.
Tier 3/Level 30
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.
Tier 4/Level 35
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.
From the Shadows, coupled with
Dreadlash, offers an AoE damage
increase on
Hand of Gul'dan,
Implosion and
Demonbolt.
Tier 5/Level 40
Darkfury can be used to provide more frequent access to AoE stuns.
Mortal Coil is the default choice, offering both burst heal on demand
and another form of Crowd Control.
Howl of Terror offers an AoE fear, which can be useful to handle
difficult pulls and is best paired with some form of slow.
Tier 6/Level 45
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
Tier 7/Level 50
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.
In Shadowlands 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, without sacrificing Wild Imps.
Stat Priority for Demonology Warlock
- Intellect;
- Haste;
- Mastery;
- Critical Strike;
- Versatility.
Pet Choice for Demonology Warlock
You should be using your Felguard at all times as a Demonology Warlock.
Trinket Considerations for Demonology Warlock in Mythic+
When choosing your trinkets, we recommend simulating yourself on Raidbots using the Patchwerk option for raids and single-target, and Patchwerk with 4-5 targets or Hectic Add Cleave for an educated guess on multi-target performance in Dungeons. Usually, trinkets that proc stats are more versatile and better performer than than single-target spell damage procs, unless overtuned.
You can also get a quick overview of good Mythic+ Trinkets on our Gearing page, specifically the Simulation chart for multi-target scenarios.
Legendary Powers for Mythic+
Depending on your role within the group, party composition, affixes, and
key level, one Legendary Power might be more appealing than another. For a well
rounded setup that shines in single-target, Forces of the Horned Nightmare
is the preferred choice. During heavier AoE situations,
Implosive Potential should be considered instead.
For more details about Legendary Powers, please visit our dedicated Legendary Powers guide.
Covenants and Soulbinds for Mythic+
All four covenants and their varied Soulbinds all have different advantages for Mythic+ and it is very hard to recommend a "best" one, as it depends yet again on party composition, affixes, and level of the key.
A quick breakdown on each covenant ability strength:
- Kyrian
Scouring Tithe can offer additional shards every 40 seconds by sniping a dying target. However, due to Demonology's fast shard flow, it is not that impactful.
- Necrolord
Decimating Bolt offers increased single-target potential, often helpful when handling high health targets, especially when coupled with the Emeni soulbind.
Fleshcraft is a decent shield option.
- Night Fae
Soul Rot gives better cleave damage and burst on-demand, with the added bonus of additional sustain through AoE
Drain Life, if the situation demands it.
- Venthyr
Impending Catastrophe allows for AoE smart curse application in 1 GCD and some mediocre damage over time. Nadja soulbind offers mass confusion on
Door of Shadows arrival, for additional crowd control potential.
For more in-depth recommendations on Covenants and Soulbinds, please visit our dedicated guide.
Changelog
- 09 Mar. 2021: Reviewed for Patch 9.0.5.
- 07 Dec. 2020: Page updated for Shadowlands season 1.
- 12 Oct. 2020: Page updated for the Shadowlands 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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