Why Demonology?
Every guild that is heavy on casters (including healers!) will probably want a Demonology Lock. There are two main reasons:
-Demonic Pact: Provides a raid wide buff that increases Spell Power for everyone by 10% of the Warlock's Spell Power. This buff is activated when your Felguard crits. This is why the 2xT9 bonus is important. This does not stack with Shaman's ToW. But once the warlock reaches more then 3000 spell power buffed it will perform better then ToW (ToW is a flat +280 Spell Power). Currently in my average gear I provide anywhere from 380-420 spell power to the entire raid with 90% uptime on DP. This is raid buffed obviously with flask and food.
-ISB: Improved Shadow Bolt which is a five point talent in the first tier of the Destruction Tree. It provides a 30 second debuff which gives +5% crit chance on spells for the entire raid. This means Mages do not have to scorch anymore since many of them are arcane as of 3.3.
-Demonology Warlocks do great on any boss fight with AoE/Trash (Freya or Anub Heroic mode for example).
Demonology Spec - 0/56/15 -
http://www.wowhead.com/?profile=18859247#talents -Demonic Pact is the main purpose of this spec. 10% of your spell power is transferred to the entire raid as a buff every time your pet crits.
-Demonic Empowerment: Get it. DE is huge and there are macros in my guide to make it easier to use. DE speeds up your pets attack speed by 20% which increases the chance to proc Demonic Pact which is important. As you can see in the parse below I now have DP uptime averaging about 90+%. DE helps with this along with the 2xT9 bonus.
-Mana Feed: You do not need it in a 25 man setting. With Mana spring and mana replenishment from your raid your Felguard will NOT run out of mana. However, if you are using Demonology for farming or leveling I would then recommend getting this talent.
Glyphs:
-Felguard: Your pet will end up doing 20-25% of your damage. Think about that for a second. It's why you get this glyph. It's why you get DE talent. It's why you don't let your pet die. Here is a parse showing my Felguard Jhuuthun and what he does:
http://www.wowmeteronline.com/combat/detail/280369934#damageout -Meta vs. Quick Decay: I use Quick Decay to haste my corruptions which gives me more Molten Core procs. Some use Meta. The DPS difference is minimal and it can depend on the encounter which is better.
-Life Tap: Keep this up 100%. Not only does it increase your damage based on 20% of your spirit but it increases how much Demonic Pact buffs the raid.
Stat Weight from EJ:
Warlock_T9_00_56_15
*** These values are dynamic based on your gear. They are based on PERSONAL DPS and not BUFFING RAID DPS. Use them as a guide. Personally I value SP and Spirit over haste because my Guild out-gears me by a large margin and I want to buff them with as much Spell Power from Demonic Pact as I can.
Hit=3.0691
Haste=1.5983 ***Haste would be under spirit if you are more concerned with raid buffing
SP=1.5322
Spi=1.1149
Crit=1.0610
Int=0.5600
Sta=0.2143
Hit: Hit is the highest valued stat. You need 17% hit to not miss Boss mobs. If you are constantly missing with spells then that's a DPS loss. I use the built-in WoW equipment manager to setup the following Gear Profiles: 13% hit, 16% hit and 17% hit. Why three profiles? Do you have a draenei in your GROUP providing the racial +1% hit? Do you have a shadow priest OR a Boomkin Druid in your RAID providing the +3% hit debuff? I am currently sitting at 341 hit or 13% hit because I usually have a Draenei and SP/BK.
Spell Power/Spirit: Spell Power and Spirit not only increases your DPS but is the prime stat for calculating how much spell power Demonic Pact will use for buffing the raid. This includes other buffs like Lightweave Embroidery on your cloak and trinkets (use or passive). A lot of people don't understand that Spirit gets a lovely "double-buff" because it's affected by both Fel Armor and Life Tap Glyph. This is why it is valued so high. Your Fel Armor, talented, uses 39% of your spirit as additional Spell Power. Add in the Life Tap Glyph which is adds 20% of your spirit as a flat Spell Power increase. Add it all up with Fel Armor and Life Tap Glyph: it applies directly to Demonic Pact and it increases the Spell Power you are providing to your raid with the Demonic Pact buff.
Haste: How much Haste do I need? There is no set rule. I would say to aim for at least 20% haste (self-buffed including spellstone) so that when Bloodlust/Heroism is popped (+30% haste) you are reducing your GCD to a minimum. Haste will increase your personal DPS since you are getting more casts off over a period of a fight.
Crit: This stat causes a ton of confusion. First off you need to realize that when you spec Demonic Tactics 5/5 you get a flat +10% chance to crit increase on your nukes. You are also probably getting +5% from a Boomkin buff. +3% from a ret Pally debuff or a Shaman debuff (they dont stack). And lastly, you are providing a +5% Crit debuff with ISB. Add that up and it's a +23% to crit from talents and buffs/debuffs in a 25 man raid group plus whatever crit you have on your gear. This is why Crit is not valued as high. You get a ton of it passively.
Gems/Enchants: Use the values above to determine which gem/enchants to get. To sum it up, don't gem for crit. Personally, if I see a 'gem bonus' of +7 damage or more I will try to gem for it using the correct colors. Red: +23 Spell Power, Blue: +12 Spell Power +10 Spirit, Yellow: Hit if you need it or Spell Power/Haste. Spell Power for your weapon not Black Magic. Chest enchant you can go with +15 Spirit or +10 stats (I use Spirit). If you need hit, use Icewalker on your boots. If you don't need hit you could either get run speed or spirit on your boot enchant. For your helm/Meta gem slot, regardless of spec, get Chaotic Skyfire Diamond which increases the damage done when you crit. "But Lauru you said don't gem for crit!?" It's not the +21 crit rating but the +3% damage on every crit that makes this meta a nice buff. If you are a tailor then get the Lightweave Embroidery which is a +295 spell power buff you get (it's 20% uptime during a boss fight which is great for your personal dps and it buffs Demonic Pact for the raid). If you are not a tailor, get the haste enchant on your cloak.
Stone: Spellstone vs. Firestone?
-Spellstone. You want haste. No debate. Just look at the stat values I posted from EJ.
Rotation:
DoTs:
-You are using a Curse, Corruption and Immolate as your DoTs.
-Curse: If you have a Boomkin Druid or Unholy DK - use Curse of Doom (CoD). If no boomkin or UDK - use CoE.
-Corruption: Keep this up 100% of the fight as best you can. This is what procs Molten Core buffs.
-Keep Immolate up since Molten Core talent increases the duration. Caveat to this below.
-Do NOT 'clip' your DoTs. Meaning, make sure they finish their last tick before reapplying them. Use filler like shadowbolts (see below) until you need to cast the DoT again.
Nuke:
-While maintaining your DoTs, you will spam Shadow Bolts as your main nuke unless...
-Molten Core Buff: This procs from corruption ticks. When it procs you will see an animation over your head and a sound. Molten Core affects both Soul Fire and Incinerate. This is where you cast 3x Incinerates instead of using shadowbolts if the boss/mob is >35% (you get 3 hasted incinerates with extra damage). Make sure immolate is up first. There is a caveat to this below
-Decimation Buff: This is the Demo Warlock "execute phase" of a fight. You get Decimation when your shadowbolt or Incinerate hits a mob/boss at =<35%. Decimation hastes your SoulFires for 9 seconds. However, the second you land a soulfire on a mob =<35% the Decimation buff is refreshed instantly again to 9 seconds. In other words - spam soulfires here. If you proc Molten Core during the execute you still use Soul Fire! Your next three soulfires will get +18% damage and +15% change to crit. Some caveat to this.
Caveats:
-SoulFire spam on decimation. If you are the Demo Lock you are providing the ISB debuff. Do not let this fall off. Even during execute you will need to cast Shadow Bolt every 25-28 seconds to keep the debuff up on the boss.
-Do not let Corruption fall off during Decimation/Execute phase. You still want Molten Core because it affects Soulfires.
-Molten Core: If you are in execute (meaning you have decimation rolling) you do NOT cast incinerate you KEEP casting SoulFire. It will add DAMAGE and CRIT to your soulfires.
-You can let your immolate drop off during the execute phase of =<35% just not corruption.
-If you have enough haste, the GCD requirement for casting life tap will be minimal. Keep Life Tap buff up (if you using the Glyph). I use a Level 1 Life Tap for the start of the fight and then use my max rank Life Tap during the fight.
Meta:
When do you pop Meta?
What you do need to know is when your Raid Leader will call for Bloodlust/Heroism. You want to pop Meta during Heroism/Bloodlust and you want to pop Meta during the execute for Decimation/Soul Fire spammage. But every fight and guild is different on when they use Heroism/Bloodlust. In an ideal situation you get Heroism during your execute/decimation... If I know my guild will use Heroism much later in the fight I will pop Meta right at the start of the fight even before I put my DoTs up.
You should NOT charge/immolate aura during your execute phase unless there are multiple adds. Use your GCD's for soulfire spam.
Should I use my Demon Charge when I pop Meta and pop Immolation Aura and continue single target DPS?
It is a DPS increase to do this.... as long as you won't get yourself cleaved/spanked when running in (your dps is 0 if you get killed). Stand behind the boss and pop your Aura. Then continue casting while your aura passively damages the boss. Remember that your threat cap is lowered if you are in the hit box of the boss. Watch your threat. A method used is described below on using your Demonic Circle: Teleport once Meta ends to get back into range in the AoE section.
If it's not safe to charge in and use your immolation aura it is still an obvious dps increase to pop Meta and cast at range since Meta gives a +20% damage bonus to all attacks (including DoTs!).
Khevyn wrote:
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Q u o t e:
"Some bosses have abilities that only hit melee range that you have to be aware of, such as Gormok. He does a stomp that will interrupt spellcasting in melee range. Others have Stun/Silence effects if you're too close. Just be aware of these mechanics and don't use it for those fights. And don't die to Cleave or Tail Swipes."
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AoE: What do I use?
There are a lot of questions on when to use Meta, Rain of Fire and Seed of Corruption. The first thing you need to understand is threat. Certain tanks obviously handle large packs better then others. A lot of it is the skill of your tank as well.
The first thing I usually do drop a portal down before the pull that will put me at 30 yards away from the boss. One thing that seems to confuse locks is what direction will they be facing when they use their demonic portal. It's simple. When you cast Demonic Circle: Summon take note of the direction you were facing when you dropped it! This is the direction you will face when you use Demonic Circle: Teleport.
When you cast Metamorphosis you will use the Charge function and then immediately cast Immolation Aura. You can still single target while popping all the trash/boss with the Aura since the aura is a passive affect once activated. If your tank is on the ball you can also cast, while immolation aura is running, seed of corruption or rain of fire.
Esson wrote:
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Q u o t e:
"4 or more mobs Seed is always the better DPS choice now EXCEPT its a tradeoff for mana. The two reasons that Seed is better is that its explosion now hits the original target you cast it on and molten core no longer effects Rain Of Fire. The issue as I said is that your'e trading off DPS for mana efficiency, so for fights like heroic anub'arak in phase 1 Seed > RoF but in phase 3 you'll probably want to use RoF to conserve mana. "
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WATCH YOUR THREAT (and watch your meters *grin*). Especially with Seed of Corruption + Immolation Aura + Meta. I have hit some insane damage per second (DPS). Freya comes to mind in Ulduar.... Yikes! Soulshatter better be up to drop threat
If you are smart you will make friends with your pally's. BoP can be useful here.
Macros:
Our User Interface/bars are really full because of all the spells we have. Here are some macros I use that removes Demonic Empowerment and trinkets from my task bar while removing the annoying sound/display error when the trinket or DE is on cooldown. The use 13/14 are your trinket slots:
#showtooltip Shadow Bolt
/console Sound_EnableSFX 0
/use 13
/use 14
/cast Demonic Empowerment
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()
/console Sound_EnableSFX 1
/cast Shadow Bolt
#showtooltip Incinerate
/console Sound_EnableSFX 0
/use 13
/use 14
/cast Demonic Empowerment
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()
/console Sound_EnableSFX 1
/cast Incinerate
These are separate macros. Both of these will REPLACE your shadowbolt and incinerate spell. So every time you cast incinerate or shadowbolt it will check if DE and trinkets are ready to use without you managing them. It does NOT matter if one of your trinket slots doesn't have a use function.
Please PLEASE do not macro Metamorphosis into these. This is a cooldown that needs to be managed separately or you will suffer a severe dps loss.
Mods:
-Power Aura. Many locks will miss the Molten Core procs and forget to switch from shadowbolt spam to Incinerate. Use this mod:
http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/powerauras-classic.aspx -ForteXorcist: Used to keep track of DoT timers and cooldowns. One of the best warlock mods regardless of spec.
http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/fortexorcist.aspx -DoTimer:
http://wow.curse.com/downloads/details/3260/ This mod will be updated this week and can be used if you don't like ForteXorcist.
Power Aura: How do I set it up to warn me that I have received a Molten Core buff?
-Once you download install the mod in your interface/addons folder restart WoW.
-Type /powa to bring up the menu
-Character Effects Page 1
-Hit NEW
-Hit the tab Activation
-Select Activation by: BUFF
-Type in Molten Core
-Change stacks to >=1
-Only thing you need checked at the bottom is "Cast by me" you can disable all the others.
-Select the tab Sound
-Select a sound you want to hear when you get Molten Core (I use the level up sound)
-Click the Animations tab
-Choose an animation to show over your toon using Main Animation
-Close this window by hitting 'x'
-hit TEST
