Demonology Warlock DPS Spec, Builds, and Talents (Legion 7.2.5)

Table of Contents

• +Introduction
  • 1. Class Overview
  • 2. Patch 7.2.5 Changes
  • 3. Patch 7.2 Changes
  • 4. Strengths
  • 5. Weaknesses
  • 6. Viability in the Current Patch
  • 7. Contents
  • 8. ChangeLog
• +Easy Mode
  • 1. The Basics
  • 2. Talent Choice
  • 3. Stat Choice
  • 4. Basic Rotation
  • 5. ChangeLog
• +Spell Summary
  • 1. Spell Summary
  • 2. Main Resources
  • 3. Basic Abilities
    • 3.1. Spell Casts
    • 3.2. Your Personal Demon Horde
  • 4. ChangeLog
• ×Builds and Talents
  • 1. Talent Choices
  • 2. Talent Cheat Sheets
    • 2.1. Raid Encounters
      • 2.1.1. Heavy Cleave/AoE
    • 2.2. For General Use
  • 3. Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents
  • 4. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents
  • 5. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents
  • 6. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents
  • 7. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents
  • 8. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents
  • 9. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents
  • 10. ChangeLog
• +Artifact Traits and Relics
  • 1. Artifact Progression — First 35 Points
    • 1.1. Early Point Investment
    • 1.2. Second Golden Trait
    • 1.3. Final Point Investment
  • 2. Patch 7.2: 35+ Trait Path
  • 3. Relic Choice
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities
  • 1. Ability Priority List
  • 2. Important Notes
    • 2.1. The Importance of AddOns
    • 2.2. Soul Shards
    • 2.3. Demonic Empowerment
      • 2.3.1. Empowerment Overlap
    • 2.4. An In-Depth Look at AoE
    • 2.5. Demon Choice
    • 2.6. Darkglare and Hand of Doom
    • 2.7. Tier 1 Talents
      • 2.7.1. Shadowflame Usage
    • 2.8. Tier 2 Talents
    • 2.9. Implosion Usage
    • 2.10. Defensive Utility
    • 2.11. Doomguard and Infernal
  • 3. Core Concepts
    • 3.1. Cooldown Management
    • 3.2. Spooky Skull: Thal'kiel's Consumption
    • 3.3. Movement Management
      • 3.3.1. Quiet Movement
  • 4. Opening Sequence
  • 5. ChangeLog
• +Stat Priority
  • 1. Basics
  • 2. Stat Weights
  • 3. Statistics Explanations
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Gems, Enchants, and Consumables
  • 1. Gems
  • 2. Enchants
  • 3. Consumables
    • 3.1. Potion Choice
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Macros and Addons
  • 1. Addons
    • 1.1. Generic Addons for Warlocks
    • 1.2. ElvUI
    • 1.3. Weak Auras
    • 1.4. Boss Mods
      • 1.4.1. BigWigs Bossmods
      • 1.4.2. Deadly Boss Mods
    • 1.5. Name Plates
      • 1.5.1. KUI Nameplates
      • 1.5.2. TidyPlates
    • 1.6. Damage Meters
      • 1.6.1. Skada
      • 1.6.2. Details
    • 1.7. Extra AddOns
      • 1.7.1. AffDots
      • 1.7.2. Mik's Scrolling Battle Text
      • 1.7.3. DeathNote
      • 1.7.4. Doom CooldownPulse
      • 1.7.5. Angry Assignments
  • 2. Macros
    • 2.1. Warlock Macros
      • 2.1.1. Pet Macros
      • 2.1.2. Soulstone Mouseover
      • 2.1.3. Demonic Circle
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Gear, Legendaries, and Best in Slot
  • 1. Tier 20 Set Bonuses
  • 2. Best in Slot List
  • 3. Evaluating Upgrades Using Stat Weights
  • 4. Legendaries
    • 4.1. Descriptions
  • 5. Loot Competition
  • 6. ChangeLog

General Information

On this page, we present the viable talent choices for Demonology Warlocks in World of Warcraft Legion 7.2.5. We detail what each of the talents do and in which situations they should be taken.

The other pages of our Demonology Warlock guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.

About Our Author and Reviewer

This guide has been written by Furty, who has an illustrious history in the World of Warcraft raiding scene and race for World First. He has been a member of guilds such as Serenity, Midwinter, and many more, and is currently raiding in Future. He plays most classes at the highest level. You can follow him on Twitter and watch him play on Twitch.

This guide has been reviewed and approved by Not, one of the best Demonology Warlocks and a respected theorycrafter. He raids in Strawberry Puppy Kisses. You can watch him on Twitch or YouTube and you can follow him on Twitter. He is also the owner and editor of Lock One Stop Shop, a website dedicated to Warlocks.

1. Talent Choices

Level	Choices
15	✔ Shadowy Inspiration	✘ Shadowflame	✔ Demonic Calling
30	✔ Impending Doom	✔ Improved Dreadstalkers	✔ Implosion
45	✔ Demonic Circle	✔ Mortal Coil	? Shadowfury
60	✔ Hand of Doom	✔ Power Trip	✔ Soul Harvest
75	? Demon Skin	✔ Burning Rush	? Dark Pact
90	✘ Grimoire of Supremacy	✔ Grimoire of Service	✔ Grimoire of Synergy
100	✔ Summon Darkglare	✔ Demonbolt	✔ Soul Conduit

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.

2. Talent Cheat Sheets

Optimizing talents on a contextual basis is the highly recommended method of setting up your build, as many talents offer unique strengths in the right situation. I have decided to list a "cheat sheet" of sorts below, however, to help with a quick set up that should be just fine for most encounters. If you want to fully optimize your ability to play this specialization, I recommend reading the entire talents section here to gain additional insight on when swapping your talents would be beneficial.

2.1. Raid Encounters

This build is an excellent starting point as a standard raid setup.

• Level 15: Demonic Calling
• Level 30: Improved Dreadstalkers
• Level 45: Demonic Circle
• Level 60: Power Trip OR Hand of Doom (see talent discussion below)
• Level 75: Burning Rush
• Level 90: Grimoire of Service
• Level 100: Soul Conduit (with Thal'kiel's Ascendance, otherwise use Demonbolt)

2.1.1. Heavy Cleave/AoE

• Level 15: Demonic Calling
• Level 30: Impending Doom
• Level 45: Demonic Circle
• Level 60: Hand of Doom
• Level 75: Burning Rush
• Level 90: Grimoire of Synergy
• Level 100: Summon Darkglare

2.2. For General Use

These talents provide good quality of life and do not require much set up or ramp up, making them solid choices for leveling, dailies, and assorted world content.

• Level 15: Demonic Calling
• Level 30: Implosion
• Level 45: Shadowfury
• Level 60: Hand of Doom
• Level 75: Demon Skin
• Level 90: Grimoire of Synergy
• Level 100: Demonbolt

3. Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents

✔ Shadowy Inspiration

✘ Shadowflame

✔ Demonic Calling

The Tier 1 talents focus on improving Soul Shard generation.

• Shadowy Inspiration causes casting Demonic Empowerment to make your next Shadow Bolt an instant cast.
• Shadowflame is an instant cast ability with 3 charges. It generates 1 Soul Shard on cast and applies a damage over time effect that can stack up to 3 times.
• Demonic Calling causes Shadow Bolt to have a 20% chance and Demonwrath a 5% chance on dealing damage to make your next Call Dreadstalkers cost no Soul Shards.

Demonic Calling is the best option for raids and scales best with Haste.

Shadowy Inspiration is very close in DPS value, and pulls ahead on fights where you can use the instant cast globals to reposition, saving you movement.

Shadowflame is a high maintenance mechanic that requires significant player input and tends to be outpaced by the other options even when managed perfectly.

4. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents

✔ Impending Doom

✔ Improved Dreadstalkers

✔ Implosion

The Tier 2 talents create new ways to use or summon Wild Imps.

• Impending Doom causes your Doom to also generate a Wild Imp when it deals damage.
• Improved Dreadstalkers causes Call Dreadstalkers to also summon 2 Wild Imps.
• Implosion is an ability that sucks all your Wild Imps onto the target and detonates them for AoE damage.

Improved Dreadstalkers results in the most overall Wild Imp generation in most situations and does not have any additional cost, making it a standard choice for most situations. Since the Wild Imps spawn at the same time as you use Call Dreadstalkers, everything gets Demonic Empowerment at once, which is an additional benefit of this talent. It also allows for larger damage values from Thal'kiel's Consumption as you are summoning 2 additional demons.

Impending Doom is an extremely strong choice when paired with the Kazzak's Final Curse legendary. The increased Doom tick rate is particularly strong on council style encounters. This is the best option in any multitarget situation where Doom will tick.

Implosion is useful for instant burst damage on multiple targets. It is also exceptionally strong in dungeons and by far the best option for clearing Mythic+.

5. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents

✔ Demonic Circle

✔ Mortal Coil

? Shadowfury

The Tier 3 talents focus on additional crowd control and some defensive utility.

• Demonic Circle summons a circle that you can teleport to, which clears all movement slowing effects.
• Mortal Coil horrifies a target for 3 seconds and heals you for a percentage of max health.
• Shadowfury stuns all enemies within 8 yards for 4 seconds.

Demonic Circle is the default choice on this tier as the crowd control given by the other talents is typically not beneficial in raids. The additional mobility from Demonic Circle can be invaluable, making it the best choice when approaching raid encounters.

Mortal Coil can be used as a spot heal, and it can also be affected by Havoc for additional benefit. It's worth nothing that it does have slight travel time, however, it can be a good instant cast to fill movement with.

Shadowfury can be quite useful in Mythic dungeons, but does not see much use in raids.

6. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents

✔ Hand of Doom

✔ Power Trip

✔ Soul Harvest

The Tier 4 talents offer strong damage increases.

• Hand of Doom causes Hand of Gul'dan to apply Doom to everything it hits.
• Power Trip grants Demonic Empowerment a 65% chance to generate a Soul Shard.
• Soul Harvest is a DPS cooldown that increases all your damage by 20% for 15 seconds. The duration is increased by 2 seconds for each target afflicted with Doom, to a maximum of 35 seconds.

Hand of Doom is great for all situations, as it will save you a lot of global cooldowns you would have spent applying Dooms.

Soul Harvest is strong in raids for allowing larger damage values from Thal'kiel's Consumption and improves your burst windows. Especially good on fights where you need to push specific timings or kill high importance targets.

Power Trip is the best talent for absolute pure single target, however, if there is even the possibility you could gain additional Doom ticks from using Hand of Doom then you should forsake this choice. Overall it is very close in overall numbers and less experienced players should use Hand of Doom even on pure single target.

7. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents

? Demon Skin

✔ Burning Rush

? Dark Pact

Tier 5 talents improve personal survivability and mobility.

• Demon Skin augments Soul Leech so that it passively recharges at a rate of 1% of maximum health per second, and can now absorb of to 20% of your maximum health.
• Burning Rush increases your movement speed by 50% until cancelled, at the cost of 4% of your maximum health per second. You also cannot be slowed below 100% of your normal movement speed while it is active.
• Dark Pact sacrifices 20% of your demon's current health (or your health, if no demon is present) to shield you for 400% of that value for 20 seconds.

Burning Rush is typically the default choice here, as Warlocks have no baseline movement speed abilities. Even though Demon Skin and Dark Pact can provide powerful defensive utility, the mobility provided by Burning Rush often results in more lifesaving potential in raids, allowing you to quickly avoid lethal mechanics. Moving faster also saves you DPS, as you spend less time moving.

Demon Skin is the best choice on low or no mobility fights, as it provides the most damage reduction. Dark Pact can be useful if you are required to soak a specific mechanic, but otherwise is inferior to the other available options.

8. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents

✘ Grimoire of Supremacy

✔ Grimoire of Service

✔ Grimoire of Synergy

The Tier 6 grimoires augment your pets in various ways.

• Grimoire of Supremacy allows you to permanently use Doomguards and Infernals as pets.
• Grimoire of Service allows you to summon a second demon of your choice for 25 seconds which deals 100% increased damage.
• Grimoire of Synergy causes damage done by you and your demon to have a chance to grant the other 25% increased damage for 15 seconds.

Grimoire of Service is the best Grimoire for dealing single target damage. It provides good burst and synergy with Thal'kiel's Consumption. Grimoire of Synergy is the best Grimoire for cleave and AoE (4+ targets).

Grimoire of Supremacy is not far behind either choice in any situation and can be used if you prefer a totally passive option.

9. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents

✔ Summon Darkglare

✔ Demonbolt

✔ Soul Conduit

The Tier 7 talents offer large boosts to your damage.

• Summon Darkglare summons a new pet that deals damage to all targets afflicted by your Dooms.
• Demonbolt replaces Shadow Bolt, deals chaos damage, and does 20% increased damage per active demon.
• Soul Conduit causes every Soul Shard you spend to have a 12% chance to be instantly refunded.

Soul Conduit is the best option for single target and light cleave and should be your go-to for most encounters. This talent is only worthwhile if using Thal'kiel's Ascendance.

Demonbolt is your go-to talent for single target and light cleave if you have not yet acquired Thal'kiel's Ascendance.

Summon Darkglare is a good choice for heavy cleave/AoE and questing. It should be paired with Hand of Doom for best results.

10. ChangeLog

+ show all entries - show only 10 entries

• 22 Apr. 2017: Added Soul Conduit (with Thalkiel's Ascendance) as single target build. Updated Power Trip discussion.
• 27 Mar. 2017: Updated Tier 2 talent discussion for Patch 7.2.
• 09 Jan. 2017: Updated for Patch 7.1.5.
• 12 Nov. 2016: Updated Grimoire selection and removed Shadowflame as a potential candidate due to incorrect Simcraft data.
• 25 Oct. 2016: Updated talents following the swap of Demon Skin and Demonic Circle in Patch 7.1.
• 14 Sep. 2016: Added some additional clarification on progression talent options.
• 29 Aug. 2016: Updated for Legion's launch.
• 24 Jul. 2016: Updated talents for improved clarity.
• 18 Jul. 2016: Updated for the Legion pre-patch.
• 20 Jul. 2016: Added cheese build with T18 4-piece and Fragment of the Dark Star.