Demonology Warlock DPS Mythic+ Tips — Shadowlands 9.1

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 2 page below.

The new seasonal affix Tormented populates the dungeons with 4 servants of The Jailer that, once slain, will offer a choice among 3 fixed powers based on the player's role.

Each Servant will have their specific powers listed with our recommendation in bold as follows:

• The Stone Ward
• Dripping Fang
• Tiny Dancing Shoes

The Stone Ward is the generic and well-rounded pick, but Demonology can also make use of Dripping Fang as the spec offers really high damage mitigation by default but lacks sustain.

• Champion's Brand
• Raging Battle-Axe
• Signet of Bolstering

Signet of Bolstering is very situational, but can be powerful in dungeons with lot of trash pulls while Raging Battle-Axe is currently rather underwhelming, leaving Champion's Brand as the only go-to choice.

• Regenerative Fungus
• Vial of Desperation
• Handbook of Uncivil Etiquette

Regenerative Fungus can offer some overall decent sustain and is the default choice since Handbook of Uncivil Etiquette does not buff player damage if the pet is the one interrupting a cast.

• Champion's Brand
• Dagger of Necrotic Wounding
• Volcanic Plumage

Dagger of Necrotic Wounding offers a very noticeable DPS increase, and while numerically better than Champion's Brand in Tyrannical weeks, it only procs from player spells meaning it will be slower to stack as Demonology compared to other specs. Volcanic Plumage offers the utility of an AoE knock-up effect but is limited to 4 procs per minute, has a 2.5-second delay, and has fairly underwhelming damage all things considered.

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.

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.

Level	Choices
15	✓ Dreadlash	✓ Bilescourge Bombers	? Demonic Strength
25	✓ Demonic Calling	✓ Power Siphon	✗ Doom
30	? Demon Skin	✓ Burning Rush	✓ Dark Pact
35	? From the Shadows	✓ Soul Strike	? Summon Vilefiend
40	? Darkfury	✓ Mortal Coil	✓ Howl of Terror
45	✓ Soul Conduit	? Inner Demons	✓ Grimoire: Felguard
50	✗ 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'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.

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.

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.

From the Shadows, coupled with Dreadlash, offers an AoE damage increase on Hand of Gul'dan, Implosion and Demonbolt.

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.

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.

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.

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

You should be using your Felguard at all times as a Demonology Warlock.

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.

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.

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.