Demonology Warlock DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — Midnight Season 1

Demonology Warlock revolves around a system of generating demonic forces. The more active demons you have, the more damage you will deal. In addition to straight damage, you will also receive more procs of Demonic Core, which feeds back into more Soul Shard generation and, by extension, more demons.

1. Cast Grimoire: Imp Lord.
2. Cast Grimoire: Fel Ravager.
3. Cast Summon Demonic Tyrant.
4. Cast Summon Doomguard.
5. Cast Power Siphon with 2 or less Demonic Core and at least 2 Wild Imps out.
6. Cast Implosion with 6 Wild Imps out.
7. Cast Call Dreadstalkers whenever available.
8. Cast Hand of Gul'dan if you have 4-5 Soul Shards.
9. Cast Demonbolt if you have 2+ stacks of Demonic Core.
10. Cast Infernal Bolt when at 2 or less Soul Shards.
11. Cast Shadow Bolt to generate Soul Shards.

Demonology has little variation in playstyle when multiple targets are present.

1. Cast Grimoire: Imp Lord.
2. Cast Grimoire: Fel Ravager.
3. Cast Summon Demonic Tyrant.
4. Cast Summon Doomguard.
5. Cast Power Siphon with 2 or less Demonic Core and at least 2 Wild Imps out.
6. Cast Implosion with 6 Wild Imps out.
7. Cast Call Dreadstalkers whenever available.
8. Cast Hand of Gul'dan if you have 4-5 Soul Shards.
9. Cast Demonbolt if you have 2+ stacks of Demonic Core.
10. Cast Infernal Bolt when at 2 or less Soul Shards.
11. Cast Shadow Bolt to generate Soul Shards.

Summon Demonic Tyrant is our main cooldown. The Demonic Tyrant lasts 20 seconds and deals damage based on the number of Wild Imps and Dreadstalkers active. Unlike previous iterations there is no snapshot as the damage is being calculated dynamically with each cast.

While Summon Demonic Tyrant setup window is not as rigid as it was in the past, the emphasis has shifted to the Tyrant window itself where getting as many Hand of Gul'dan casts will be the determining factor in order to optimise DPS.

The latest iteration of Doom provides a more nuanced gameplay with optimization opportunities, especially in multitarget. To maximize its contribution, it is important to understand the damage trigger conditions: Doom will deal damage if the target dies or the debuff duration ends.

As a result, it is important to cast Demonbolt at different targets when possible, especially those at lower health.

In situations where there is only one target, it is worth remembering that each subsequent Hand of Gul'dan cast will reduce Doom duration by 3 seconds. As such it is advised to hold when possible 1 Demonic Core charge to apply doom once expired.

To better understand Implosion usage, it is important to outline how the spell works.

Implosion damage has two different components:

1. The damage on the main target, which is directly proportional to the remaining energy of the Wild Imps being imploded at a given moment
2. The damage on the secondary target, which will always be the full value, regardless of Wild Imps' energy at the moment of the Implosion

When factoring the cost of 1 global cooldown, the Implosion cast itself has the opportunity cost of 0.75 shards per activation (where you could cast Shadow Bolt instead).

Another element to consider is the interaction specific with To Hell and Back:

• Without it Implosion is never worth casting single target
• With the talent it is worth using Implosion in single target because of the additional Wild Imps generated, and the extra Demonic Cores from imploding itself

Demonology Apex Dominion of Argus is a throwback to the original Nether Portal, packaged in a much more accessible and straight-forward fashion, albeit less nuanced. The goal is to get as many summons going during Portal duration and to do so players will need to cast twice the amount of Hand of Gul'dan per summoned demon.

As result it is imperative to enter the Tyrant window with as many resources (both Soul Shards and Demonic Cores) possible to speed up the process of generating Shards and casting Hand of Gul'dan.

The introduction of the Apex Talents, alongside the change for Tyrant, dynamically updates its damage based on the active summons has shifted a rotation centered around a pre-Tyrant setup to a post-Tyrant cast sequence instead.

All Warlocks use Soul Shards as their primary resource. Properly managing your Shards is crucially important to success, as they control the size of your demon horde. Incorrectly dumping Soul Shards at the wrong time can have domino effects that reduce your damage output, particularly around the time Summon Demonic Tyrant is coming off of cooldown.

Keep a careful eye on your Call Dreadstalkers cooldown, as you will always want to have a pair of Soul Shards ready. One important change from Legion is the Soul Shard cost of Hand of Gul'dan; this spell now costs always 3 Soul Shards. The important takeaway of this is that with maximum Soul Shards, we can now cast Hand of Gul'dan and Call Dreadstalkers back to back.

Demonic Core is our main proc and almost a secondary resource of the specialization. If you played Demonology in Warlords of Draenor or earlier, you will notice Demonic Core and Demonbolt are almost exactly the same as Molten Core and Soul Fire. Demonic Core enables the use of Demonbolt, which, in other words, enables us to generate a lot of Soul Shards quickly. Demonic Core has a maximum of 4 stacks, which makes proper management of this ability a necessity for skillful play.

Each time you are approaching a Summon Demonic Tyrant usage, you will want to have at least 2 stacks of Demonic Core. This will allow you to quickly generate Soul Shards to pump out as many summons as possible inside Demonic Tyrant window.

If you are in a situation where you are making frequent use of Implosion, you can be a lot more liberal with your use of Demonic Core stacks. Your damage will benefit a lot more from the increased Wild Imps you can fling at the adds rather than having a maximum power Tyrant. You will still want to ensure your Tyrant is powering up a few waves of un-detonated Imps, but you should not feel like you have to save stacks of Demonic Core that you could be using for cleave.

In general, you do not want to pool more than 2 charges of Demonic Core, else you risk losing potential stacks; however, whenever you need a burst or a quick switch, do not hesitate to plan ahead and hold more charges.

Always use a Felguard, your Demonology-specific demon. Your Command Demon ability is now Axe Toss, which act as both an interrupt and a stun. It is recommended that you leave the Felstorm, Legion Strike and Soul Strike abilities on auto-cast.

Remember to turn off your Felguard's Threatening Presence when in party or raid environments.

While it is difficult to describe the best ways to position and move during a dungeon or raid encounter, it is essential to your success as a Demonology Warlock. Demonic Gateway can be highly effective in many encounters and is under-appreciated by many players and raid groups.

Think of Demonic Gateway as a raid cooldown that can instantly teleport your entire raid group 40 yards, and the potential this ability holds quickly becomes clear. Ask your group if they want Demonic Gateway anywhere specific; if not used for your strategy, use it instead as a personal cooldown.

Demonbolt can be used strategically to cover movement, as it is the only instant cast we have access to. You can mitigate the need to move by positioning in locations central to fight movement.

For instance, if a boss is being kited in a circle, you should stay on the inside of the kite path to ensure minimal movement. You should also determine how your Demonic Circle can make a fight easier for you. There are many boss mechanics that can be trivialized with a clever portal, which can free you up to deal a lot more damage.

Soulburn used in conjunction with Demonic Gateway offers a quick way to cover large distances and can be used in a rush when the need to reposition is immediate.

Many players will unconsciously move during fights, despite it being unnecessary. For example, sometimes the boss or adds will be moved by the tank a couple of yards, and though you are still in range to cast, you subconsciously mirror that movement, costing you global cooldowns. Consciously work to "quiet" your movement, and reduce unnecessary movement to a minimum. The best way to see this in action is to take a video of your raid and then watch yourself play. Most players will be surprised by the amount of wasted movement they commit. When you are forced to move, make your path as direct and decisive as possible.