Demonology Warlock PvP Rotation and Playstyle (BfA / Patch 8.3)

The Demonology Warlock has one role when in an Arena: survive. Demonology Warlocks have powerful crowd control in the forms of Fear, Mortal Coil, and Axe Toss. On top of this, they have passive defensives, such as Soul Link, that make them very hard to kill. Although they focus on surviving and peeling for their team, they also have strong sustained and burst damage. If a Demonology is able to free-cast abilities, they can easily use their pets and artifact weapon to quickly kill an enemy.

Have a plan for who you will be mainly using your crowd control on. Demonology Warlocks have Fear, which is very powerful.

The opener refers to your team's opening crowd control chain and damage done as soon as you get out of the gates. The main goal in the opener is to force your enemies to use their cooldowns.

If the enemy healer uses their trinket in the opener, they are in trouble. In the opener, Demonology Warlocks should focus on putting down a Demonic Gateway and place your Demonic Circle in a safe spot behind a pillar.

This is the rotation you should use on your target at the beginning of the game.

1. Cast Demonic Gateway from one side of the map to the other.
2. Use Demonic Circle to make it easier to get away from enemies.
3. Use Fear to get away from enemies or on the enemy healer.
4. Generate Soul Shards by using Shadow Bolt and Soul Strike.
5. Use Call Dreadstalkers off cooldown.
6. Use your Felguard's special ability, Felstorm off cooldown.
7. Use Demonbolt when you get a Demonic Core proc and you have 3 or less Soul Shards.
8. Cast Hand of Gul'dan when you have 3 or more Soul Shards.
   • Hand of Gul'dan will summon Wild Imps for each Soul Shard used to cast it.
9. Get crowd control on the enemy healer (you can use Fear, Mortal Coil, Axe Toss or have a teammate do this).
10. Use your burst rotation.

When you have the enemy healer in crowd control and you are trying to kill an enemy, you use your burst damage.

1. You will want 2+ Wild Imps active before you start bursting.
2. Use Power Siphon.
3. Use Demonic Strength.
4. Use Demonbolt.
   • This is instant from the Demonic Core proc after using Power Siphon.
5. Use Call Dreadstalkers.
6. Use Summon Demonic Tyrant.
7. Use Concentrated Flame, if you are using The Crucible of Flame as your Major Essence
8. Use Hand of Gul'dan at 3+ Soul Shards.
9. Use Soul Strike.
10. Use Demonbolt.
11. Use Concentrated Flameif you are using the Major Essence.
12. Use Hand of Gul'dan.
13. Use Implosion if your target is at low health.

The great part about Demonology Warlocks, is that you do not have to wait long to use this burst rotation again. This rotation, except for Summon Demonic Tyrant, can be used every minute.

Sustained damage is damage you do when your burst cooldowns are not available.

1. Generate Soul Shards by using Shadow Bolt and Soul Strike.
2. Use Soul Strike off cooldown.
3. Use Concentrated Flameif you are using the Major Essence.
4. Use Call Dreadstalkers off cooldown.
5. Use your Felguard's special ability, Felstorm off cooldown.
6. Use Demonbolt when you get a Demonic Core proc and you have 3 or less Soul Shards.
7. Use Concentrated Flame, if you are using The Crucible of Flame as your Major Essence
8. Cast Hand of Gul'dan when you have 3 or more Soul Shards.

Soul Link is your main defensive ability. This ability splits the damage between you and your pet. For this reason, it is very important to keep your pet alive. If you find that the enemy team is focusing your pet, try to get away and re-summon it or have your healer keep it alive.

Call Fel Lord is another strong defensive ability. If you are being focused by two melee, use this and stand in the ring. The Call Fel Lord will consistently stun and deal damage. If the enemy team tries to ignore it, they will likely have to run away or use important defensive cooldowns.

Fear also has defensive uses. It might be hard to cast this if the enemy team is focusing you, but try to use it when they do not have interrupts available. Use this to help you or your teammates get away from an enemy.

Use Demonic Gateway when you are overextended or to create distance between you and the enemy team. Using this effectively can completely negate an enemy team's cooldowns.

It is advised to use Macros to use abilities on enemies or allies without having to target them. For this reason, we have a page dedicated to them.