How To Improve As Demonology Warlock — Battle for Azeroth (BfA) 8.1

1. Wasting Cleave Cooldowns Too Early

Remember that many of your single target cooldowns are also effective for dealing heavy cleave damage. For example, if you know the boss is going to summon a group of adds in 15 seconds, it is certainly worthwhile to hold on to cooldowns such as Demonic Strength or Grimoire: Felguard. Pairing off your cooldowns to the context of the fight is a very important part of maximizing your damage; players with high awareness of fight timers will have a much easier time.

2. Overcapping Demonic Core

As we often have large numbers of Imps expiring at once, it is possible with good luck to quickly generate large numbers of Demonic Core stacks. If you are not ready for the influx of procs, you risk overcapping your stacks and losing precious Soul Shards. Once you reach 2 stacks of Demonic Core, you should be ready to spend stacks on Demonbolt quickly, as it is easy to quickly overcap from there.

3. Not Moving During Instant Casts

Demonology, while being a fairly mobile specialization when played correctly, is heavily dependant on your ability to keep casting in order to generate resources to convert in a steady flow of summons. It is extremely important to learn to plan ahead your movements in any given situation and to make use of instant casts in those moments.

4. Failing to Set Up for Demonic Tyrant

Summon Demonic Tyrant is a cooldown that requires proper setup in advance, as you want to have the maximum amount of demons at the ready for the usage. Make sure you are anticipating the use of this cooldown, and how you can maximize your demon count in advance of it.

5. Not Using Call Dreadstalkers on Cooldown

Call Dreadstalkers is one of our most important abilities, particularly if you are playing with Demonic Calling. You will want to get your Dreadstalkers out as soon as possible, as any extra usages that you might get over the course of a fight results in a noticeable amount of extra damage. Keep a careful watch on this cooldown and be ready to use it immediately once it is ready.

6. Poor Pet Control

Your Felguard can be positioned strategically to deal the maximum amount of cleave and AoE. At the minimum, I recommend keeping your Felguard on passive and manually controlling it through "/petattack" and "/petmoveto" macros. Proper pet control in heavy cleave environments, such as Mythic+, is very noticeable and can result in marked damage increases.

7. Holding Your Cooldowns

Demonology cooldowns are relatively short, and a common mistake is to hold on to them for bosses only. Try to evaluate the time between bosses and how many cooldown rounds you can fit in the most efficient way.

8. Changelog