How To Improve As Demonology Warlock — Shadowlands 9.0.5
On this page, you will find out how you can improve at playing Demonology Warlock in World of Warcraft — Shadowlands 9.0.5. We list the common mistakes that you should try to avoid and the small details that can greatly improve your performance.
Not 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.
Not 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.
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.
Setting 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.
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.
Correct 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.
Using Your Cooldowns More Often
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.
Changelog
- 23 Nov. 2020: Updated for Shadowlands.
- 12 Oct. 2020: Page updated for the Shadowlands pre-patch.
More Warlock Guides
Guides from Other Classes
This guide has been written by Motoko, Warlock main since The Burning Crusade, co-admin in the Warlock Discord, and theorycrafter and contributor for LockOneStopShop.
- Castle Nathria 9.0.5 DPS Log Rankings and Analysis, Week 5: Boss Damage Only Rankings Added
- Player Loots One of the Rarest Item in WoW
- A Different Kind of AFK Story
- WoW Patch Timeline from Vanilla to Shadowlands Patch 9.1
- Potentially Infinite Breath of Sindragosa Bug
- Elwynn Forest Without the Trees
- Covenants Per Spec in Castle Nathria and Mythic+ for Top Players
- Animated Ulna World Quest Up on US Servers!