Demonology Warlock DPS Spec, Builds, and Talents — The War Within Pre-Patch

With the introduction of the new talents system and the ability to freely change points and share/import builds free of consumables costs while out of combat, it is highly advised to adapt the build based on the type of situation at hand.

3.

Talent Explanations for Demonology Warlocks

3.1.

Tier 1 (Rows 1-4) Class Talents For Demonology Warlock

3.1.1.

Talents for all situations

Talent	Reason for taking
Demon Skin	Passive damage mitigation
Fel Armor	Passive damage mitigation
Burning Rush	Greatly increases Warlock mobility
Fel Domination	Offers instant pet swapping or resummon in case of an untimely death.
Mortal Coil	A percentage-based heal on a very short cooldown, which makes potions trivial in comparison.
Curses of Enfeeblement	Gives access to strong utility Curses while opening the path for Demonic Embrace.
Demonic Inspiration	DPS increase
Wrathful Minion	DPS increase

3.1.2.

Optional / flexible talents

Talent	Reason for taking
Fiendish Stride	Substantially reduces Burning Rush health cost while also increasing the max speed.
Amplify Curse	Enable to empower Curses.
Banish	Useful to control Demons or Aberrations if the situation arises.
Demonic Fortitude	Max HP increase, which works well with percentage-based mitigations such as Soul Leech and Dark Pact.

3.2.

Tier 2 (Rows 5-7) Class Talents For Demonology Warlock

3.2.1.

Talents for all situations

Talent	Reason for taking
Sweet Souls	Further increase the healing from Healthstones.
Demonic Gateway	The unique party/raid-wide movement tool exclusive to Warlocks can be used to quickly relocate, move between locations at different heights, and skip otherwise mandatory pathways.
Dark Pact	Powerful defensive cooldown that increases the Warlock's effective Health pool.
Strength of Will	Increases the value of Unending Resolve to a more relevant 35%.
Socrethar's Guile	DPS increase.
Sargerei Technique	DPS increase.

3.2.2.

Optional / flexible talents

Talent	Reason for taking
Frequent Donor	Further reduces the cooldown of Dark Pact to match Mortal Coil.
Shadowfury	AoE stun for when the situation requires it
Dark Fury	Increases the frequency of use of Shadowfury.
Dark Accord instead of Strength of Will	In cases where the silence/interrupt immunity is valuable.
Lifeblood	When additional sustain is needed.

3.3.

Tier 3 (Rows 8-10) Class Talents For Demonology Warlock

In this section, there are DPS increase talents worth prioritizing

3.3.1.

Talents for all situations

Talent	Reason for taking
Demonic Tactics	Passive Critical Strike chance.
Soul Conduit	DPS increase
Soul Link	Extremely strong passive damage mitigation tool.
Soulburn	A powerful utility that can massively boost either the survivability or the mobility of the Warlock, depending on what spell is used.

3.3.2.

Optional / flexible talents

Talent	Reason for taking
Swift Artifice	Mostly used for pathing purposes.
Teachings of the Black Harvest	Niche use for when the bonus effects on pet abilities might be relevant.
Fel Synergy	Helps mitigate the health loss from Soul Link, especially on pets.
Resolute Barrier	Cooldown reduction for Unending Resolve.
Pact of Gluttony	Allows Healthstones to be used as a personal heal with multiple uses at 1 minute cooldown.

4.

Demonology Warlock Talents

The following section will go through Demonology Warlock Talents with a focus on PvE scenarios.

4.1.

Tier 1 (Rows 1-4) Demonology Warlock Talents

4.1.1.

Talents for all situations

Talent	Reason for taking
Demoniac	Important Shard Generator, tied to Demonic Core procs.
Call Dreadstalkers	Important Shard Spender and the only way to progress further down the tree.
Implosion	Give access to another form of AoE and is needed to path down the tree.
Carnivorous Stalkers	Provides higher frequency of Dreadbites.
Spiteful Reconstitution	DPS increase but mostly taken for pathing.
Inner Demons	Provides a good DPS investment for a single point and offers the ability to start immediately with extra Demonic Cores when paired with Power Siphon.
Soul Strike	DPS increase with additional supporting talents.
Demonic Strength	Single-target and AoE burst cooldown.

4.1.2.

Optional / flexible talents

Talent	Reason for taking
Dreadlash	Additional cleave potential, best paired with Carnivorous Stalkers.
Imp Gang Boss	Multi-target alternative to the talent above, especially when combined with Implosion.

4.2.

Tier 2 (Rows 5-7) Demonology Warlock Talents

4.2.1.

Talents for all situations

Talent	Reason for taking
Rune of Shadows	Increases Shard generation while also scaling Shadow Bolt damage.
Fel Invocation	Turns Soul Strike in a Shard-generating ability.
Annihilan Training	Passive damage increase for Felguard, mostly used to path down the tree.
Wicked Maw	Damage amplification tool.
Power Siphon	Demonic Core on demand, especially when paired with Inner Demons.
Summon Demonic Tyrant	Cornerstone of Demonology: Tyrant is instrumental in extending all demons active, while providing decent damage and a damage increase aura.
Grimoire: Felguard	One of the highest DPS increases for its point cost, with the side benefit of additional burst, both single target and AoE. Synergises with Fel Sunder
The Expendables	Noticeable passive damage increase for every other pet besides Wild Imps.
Demonic Calling	Free shards and another source of mobility.

4.2.2.

Optional / flexible talents

Talent	Reason for taking
Sacrificed Souls	Single-target damage increase that works well in a build with multiple summons
Imp-erator	Damage increase for Wild Imps, mainly useful in single target.
Shadow Invocation	Passive damage increase, noticeable especially in aoe.
Blood Invocation	Marginal DPS increase single target
Umbral Blaze	Single target damage over time effect on the primary target of Hand of Gul'dan, offering a decent damage increase.
Reign of Tyranny	Single target talent choice that empowers Tyrant damage further, increasing burst windows.
Fiendish Oblation	Increases Grimoire: Felguard burst.
Fel Sunder	Minor damage increase through debuff on target.

4.3.

Tier 3 (Rows 8-10) Demonology Warlock Talents

4.3.1.

Talents for all situations

Talent	Reason for taking
Doom	DPS increase both in single and multi target
Summon Vilefiend	Strong single-target cooldown that synergizes with Summon Demonic Tyrant and can be augmented to offer AoE.
Dread Calling	Noticeable damage increase on Call Dreadstalkers.
Antoran Armaments	DPS increase.
Foul Mouth	Increases both Vilefiend damage and Wicked Maw debuff uptime.
Shadowtouched	Increases the amount of spells that are affected by Wicked Maw.
Mark of F'harg	Currently, the better upgrade single target with the ability to offer AoE damage.

4.3.2.

Optional / flexible talents

Talent	Reason for taking
Pact of the Imp Mother	Damage increase option for a leftover point. Generally worth investing only in AoE-heavy situations.
Doom Eternal	Further reduction in debuff duration does not translate well in the current Demonic Core economy.
Impending Doom	Solid DPS increase and the preferred option to progress down the tree.
The Houndmaster's Gambit	Substantial DPS increase for Dreadstalkers.
Improved Demonic Tactics	DPS increase for Felguard main pet.
Demonic Brutality	Critical Strike damage increase.
Pact of the Ered'ruin	Gives Doom a chance to deal substantial single target damage, through spawning a Doomguard.
Mark of Shatug	The intended single target augment for Vilefiend. Currently undertuned.
Flametouched	Free Haste and Critical Hit Chance for Dreadstalkers.
Immutable Hatred	Single target passive damage increase.
Guillotine	Relatively short cooldown providing good target ground damage, mainly used in multi-target.

Do note that the builds suggested above do not account for specific fights in the current raid tier; that said, we have a dedicated page that covers boss-by-boss talent recommendations, which you can find linked below.

For specific Mythic+ advice, which typically involves having a setup that can perform both in single-target and AoE situations, and this set-up can also be influenced by affixes and other things like party composition and pull layout. Check out our dedicated M+ page below.

Since several talent choices have an effect on your gameplay, we recommend reading our rotation page linked below to find out how to adapt your playstyle and priority based on your selected talents.

Other than a handful of DPS increase nodes, the path progression is generally flexible and allows one to opt in or out of specific utilities that may not be relevant in a specific situation. The following sections will highlight the key talents while also making suggestions for what to pick to progress down the tree.

For detailed information about each individual talent, follow the link to the Spell Summary page:

Under our Talents section, there is the option to enter "War Mode." Enabling War Mode provides the following benefits:

• PvP talents enabled in the outdoor world;
• 10% increase in World Quest rewards at maximum level;
• 10% more experience gained while leveling;
• Earn Conquest Points, which can reward gear every week.

With the benefits of enabling War Mode for leveling and PvE content, it is recommended you enable the feature. In most situations, this will allow for the maximum returns despite the risks. You will make yourself available for open-world PvP and the possibility to be "ganked" while leveling or doing World Quests exists.

In this section, we will rank the PvP talents best for leveling and doing solo / small group PvE content. Below is a ranking of both General PvP Talents and Demonology Warlock-specific PvE talents.

1. Bonds of Fel allows to burst targets by dragging them away from the marked location.
2. Gateway Mastery increases your gateway's range by 20 yards and reduces the duration of the debuff placed on players using it by 15 seconds, making it a good choice when increased mobility is needed.
3. Nether Ward summons a shield lasting 3 seconds and reflecting back all harmful spells targeted at you.
4. Call Observer is only relevant when dealing with a lot of casting mobs.

1. Call Fel Lord guards a location for 15 seconds; any enemies that come within range take up to 5% of maximum Health as damage. This can be used very strategically in certain situations and is capable of dealing some nice burst damage.
2. Call Observer guards a location for 20 seconds; any enemies that cast spells in the radius will take up to 5% of maximum Health as damage. This has a lot more limited use but can have absurd value in specific situations.
3. Master Summoner makes Call Dreadstalkers an instant cast. Since we are often using Demonic Calling, the quality of life of this talent is diminished. It can be used if you prefer the consistency, but there are generally better choices.