Demonology Warlock DPS Spec, Builds, and Talents — Shadowlands Pre-Patch 9.0.1

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

Talents can be freely changed when out of combat and in a rested XP area (such as an inn or a capital city). Moreover, Tome of the Tranquil Mind and Codex of the Tranquil Mind can be used to temporarily allow players to change talents anywhere, as long as they are out of combat.

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

For specific Mythic+ advice, which typically involves having a set-up 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.

1. Level 15: Demonic Strength or Bilescourge Bombers
2. Level 25: Power Siphon or Doom
3. Level 30: Player's Preference
4. Level 35: Summon Vilefiend or Soul Strike
5. Level 40: Mortal Coil
6. Level 45: Soul Conduit or Grimoire: Felguard
7. Level 50:: Demonic Consumption or Nether Portal

1. Level 15: Demonic Strength or Bilescourge Bombers
2. Level 25: Doom if it can tick, otherwise Demonic Calling
3. Level 30: Player's Preference
4. Level 35: Soul Strike
5. Level 40: Mortal Coil
6. Level 45: Grimoire: Felguard
7. Level 50:: Demonic Consumption

✘ Dreadlash

✔ Bilescourge Bombers

✔ Demonic Strength

• Dreadlash causes your Call Dreadstalkers Dreadbite to hit all targets with 8 yards, and deal 25% more damage.
• Demonic Strength infuses your Felguard with demonic strength, commanding it to attack the current target and Felstorm for 400% increased damage, on a 60-second cooldown.
• Bilescourge Bombers opens a portal which will bombard a location over 6 seconds, dealing Shadow damage to targets within 8 yards. It has a 30-second cooldown.

Bilescourge Bombers is the default choice for single-target and cleave situations, assuming the targets stay stacked on the main one.

Dreadlash is a viable alternative when you are dealing sustained damage to 2+ targets, it is however the weakest option in this row.

Demonic Strength can be a good option for dealing bursts of AoE every minute or in conjunction with Demonic Consumption.

Once you have access to Explosive Potential, the free bonus Haste will make Demonic Strength a slightly better option for single-target situations compared to Bilescourge Bombers, especially for Demonic Consumption builds.

✔ Demonic Calling

? Power Siphon

? Doom

• Demonic Calling causes Shadow Bolt and Demonbolt to have a 20% chance to make your next Call Dreadstalkers cost 1 less Soul Shard and have no cast time.
• Power Siphon instantly sacrifices (up to) 2 Wild Imps to generate 2 charges of Demonic Core and increase their damage by 30%.
• Doom grants access to a DoT, dealing a large amount of damage after 30 seconds have elapsed. If Doom kills the target, there is a 5% chance to summon a Doomguard to fight for you for 25 seconds. It generates a Soul Shard when damage is dealt.

Demonic Calling is a good option, slightly worse than Doom at providing a steady and reliable damage increase in any situation.

Power Siphon allows for a lot of on-demand resource generation, Wild Imp creation, and burst. This talent is a great option for high movement fights, or when you need to serve up a little more burst damage.

Doom is the best choice for single-target and sustained AoE situations damage, assuming targets will live at least 30 seconds (before Haste). It is Demonology's only tool to deal with distant targets, so if the situation calls for it, consider talenting Doom.

? Demon Skin

✔ Burning Rush

✔ Dark Pact

• Demon Skin grants Soul Leech a passive recharge rate of 0.5% of maximum health per second, and may now absorb 15% of maximum health.
• Burning Rush grants 50% movement speed in exchange for 4% maximum health per second, and prevents you from being reduced below base movement speed.
• Dark Pact grants a large shield on demand; 20% of your current health is sacrificed to shield you for 250% of the amount lost.

Burning Rush remains the most versatile option, as Warlocks have little base mobility. Burning Rush functions both as a means to stay in range and position aggressively, but also as a means of dodging mechanics. It is my opinion that movement speed offers the greatest defensive benefit in most situations, and you should default to this talent.

Dark Pact is a good option for encounters where you need to soak a mechanic or survive a telegraphed amount of high damage. It is important to note that the damage absorb is based on current health, rendering this ability useless as a reactive cooldown. For Dark Pact to be effective, it needs to be used while you are close to full health to mitigate a future amount of damage.

Demon Skin is a good choice for encounters with low movement and consistent damage intake.

✘ From the Shadows

✔ Soul Strike

✔ Summon Vilefiend

• From the Shadows makes Call Dreadstalkers's Dreadbite to cause the target to take 20% additional Shadowflame damage from you for 12 seconds.
• Soul Strike commands your Felguard to deal Shadow damage and generate 1 Soul Shard.
• Summon Vilefiend summons a demon to fight for you for 15 seconds, on a 45 second cooldown.

Summon Vilefiend is the default choice for single-target and 2-target situations, as it provides an additional demon that does significant damage and lines up naturally with Summon Demonic Tyrant.

Soul Strike is the best choice for situations with at least 3 targets, as the extra resources translate into a lot more damage. It also offers an extra degree of mobility.

From the Shadows is overshadowed by the other 2 options in the Shadowlands pre-patch.

✘ Darkfury

✔ Mortal Coil

? Howl of Terror

• Darkfury reduces the cooldown of Shadowfury by 15 seconds.
• Mortal Coil allows you to horrify an enemy and heal for 20% of your maximum health once every 45 seconds.
• Howl of Terror causes the 5 nearest enemies within 10 yards to flee for up to 20 seconds on a 40-second cooldown. Damage may break the effect earlier.

With Demonic Circle becoming baseline Mortal Coil is now the default choice for most situations. It offers a noticeable heal on top of an additional form of Crowd Control, which can prevent a wipe, especially in Mythic dungeons.

Darkfury is an option for dungeons and Mythic+, allowing you to Crowd Control groups of enemies far more often.

Howl of Terror is perhaps the more dungeon oriented option in the row, allowing yet another form of AoE disruption on a relatively short cooldown.

✔ Soul Conduit

? Inner Demons

✔ Grimoire: Felguard

• Soul Conduit grants each Soul Shard spent a 15% chance to refund itself.
• Inner Demons passively summons a Wild Imp for you every 10 seconds, and additionally has a 10% chance to summon an additional Demon to fight for you for 15 seconds.
• Grimoire: Felguard summons a Felguard who attacks the target for 15 seconds and deals 50% increased damage, on a 2-minute cooldown.

Inner Demons provides some extra Imps with the chance at extra demons, which is a consistent damage increase in any scenario.

Soul Conduit is a jack of all trades talent, slightly behind Grimoire: Felguard, but the best option if you run triple Baleful Invocation with Vision of Perfection.

Grimoire: Felguard deals a lot of burst damage, and is a particularly powerful cooldown for cleave. Grimoire Felguard is the best option especially when running Explosive Potential, allowing for considerable burst damage.

✘ Sacrificed Souls

✔ Demonic Consumption

? Nether Portal

• Sacrificed Souls grant Shadow Bolt and Demonbolt 4% additional damage per demon you have currently summoned.
• Demonic Consumption causes your Demonic Tyrant to absorb 15% of every other pet health to empower itself.
• Nether Portal opens a rift for 15 seconds that summons additional demons each time you spend a Soul Shard.

Sacrificed Souls used to be the best option for multitargets situations but is now tied with Demonic Consumption in practice.

Nether Portal summons a variety of powerful demons that provide high amounts of damage for their Soul Shard efficiency. This talent can be a competitive option for single-target fights with favourable timings.

Demonic Consumption gives Demonology a stronger cooldown for burst phases and is tied for the highest output in any scenario, making it the default choice.

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. Essence Drain stacks a damage reduction effect on enemies that are damaged by your Drain Life. You can reduce their damage by up to 25%, which is a large increase to your ability to survive and sustain.
2. Amplify Curse empower your next curse effect.
3. Bane of Fragility reduces the target's maximum health by up to 10% by 15 seconds, which is very desirable when setting up bursts.
4. Casting Circle is a 1-minute cooldown ability that creates an area in which you are immune to silence and interrupts for 8 seconds. Removes silence/interrupt immunity from Unending Resolve.
5. Gateway Mastery increase 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.
6. Nether Ward summons a shield lasting 3 seconds and reflecting back all harmful spells targeted at you. Has a 45-second cooldown and it is extremely valuable when facing caster teams.

1. Call Felhunter allows you to interrupt once every 24 seconds. This talent has exceptional and flexible use and feels really good in all situations.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. Pleasure through Pain increases your shadow damage by 15% when you have Succubus active a pet.
6. Singe Magic is an improved defensive dispel on a 15-second cooldown if Imp is the active demon.

One of the Essences introduced in Patch 8.2 enables a specific PvP talent based on the specialization. Demonology Warlock get Nether Ward. Being a purely utility spell, it is hard to recommend the Essence, as there has not been any case so far where a spell reflect outweighs the lack of a damage oriented Essence.