Cataclysm Classic Demonology Warlock PvE Guide
Welcome to our Cataclysm Classic Demonology Warlock PvE guide. In this article, we will cover everything you need to know about Demonology spellcasting, including talents, glyphs, gearing, and more.

Table of Contents
- Cataclysm Classic Demonology Warlock PvE Guide: Abbreviations
- Cataclysm Classic Demonology Warlock PvE Guide: Talents
- Cataclysm Classic Demonology Warlock PvE Guide: Glyphs
- Cataclysm Classic Demonology Warlock PvE Guide: Demon Choice
- Cataclysm Classic Demonology Warlock PvE Guide: Stats and Gearing
- Cataclysm Classic Demonology Warlock PvE Guide: Spell Rotations
- Cataclysm Classic Demonology Warlock PvE Guide: Mechanics
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Conclusion
Cataclysm Classic Demonology Warlock PvE Guide: Abbreviations
Abbreviation | Meaning |
---|---|
Afflic | Affliction |
AoE | Area of Effect |
BiS | Best in Slot |
BoA | Bane of Agony |
BoD | Bane of Doom |
BoH | Bane of Havoc |
CD | Cooldown |
CoE | Curse of the Elements |
Corr | Corruption |
Crit | Critical Strike Rating |
Demo | Demonology |
Destro | Destruction |
DPET | Damage per execute time |
FG | Felguard |
GCD | Global Cooldown |
HoG | Hand of Gul’dan |
ICD | Internal Cooldown |
Immo | Immolate |
Imp SF | Improved Soul Fire |
Incin | Incinerate |
Int | Intellect |
LT | Lifetap |
Meta | Metamorphosis |
RNG | Random Number Generator |
SB | Shadow Bolt |
SP | Spellpower |
Cataclysm Classic Demonology Warlock PvE Guide: Talents
Demonology
Tier | Talent | Notes | Recommendation |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Demonic Embrace | Additional stamina | Optional |
1 | Dark Arts | Increases Felguard damage | Required |
1 | Fel Synergy | Passively heals demon | Optional |
2 | Demonic Rebirth | Demon “battle rez” | Optional |
2 | Mana Feed | Provides significant mana regen | Required |
2 | Demonic Aegis | Increase self healing | Optional |
2 | Master Summoner | Reduces demon cast time and mana cost | Optional |
3 | Impending Doom | Chance to reduce Meta CD and increase chance to summon a Ebon Imp with BoD | Required |
3 | Demonic Empowerment | Demon “Trinket” | Optional |
3 | Improved Health Funnel | Increases demon healing with health funnel | Optional |
4 | Molten Core | Chance to gain 3 Incinerates at 30% reduced cast time | Required |
4 | Hand of Gul’dan | Hard nuke and increases demon crit strike | Required |
4 | Aura of Foreboding | Stuns enemies hit by HoG | Optional |
5 | Ancient Grimlore | Increases guardian duration | Required |
5 | Inferno | Allows Hellfire to be channelled while moving and increase Immolate duration by 6 seconds | Required |
5 | Decimation | Reduces cast time on soul fire by 40% on targets below or at 25% HP | Required |
6 | Cremation | Increases Hellfire damage and allows HoG to refresh Immolate | Required |
6 | Demonic Pact | Increase raid/party member’s spellpower by 10% | Required |
7 | Metamorphosis | Huge DPS cooldown, transforms you into a demon | Required |
Destruction
Tier | Talent | Notes | Recommendation |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Bane | Reduces cast time on Shadow Bolt and Immolate | Required (Multi-target) |
1 | Shadow and Flame | Increases Shadow Bolt damage and allows you to inflict the 5% crit debuff | Required |
1 | Improved Immolate | Significant increase to Immolates damage | Required |
2 | Emberstorm | Reduces Soul Fire and Incinerate cast time | Required |
Affliction
Tier | Talent | Notes | Recommendation |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Improved Corruption | Increase Corruption damage | Required (Single Target) |
Cataclysm Classic Demonology Warlock PvE Guide: Glyphs
Prime Glyphs
- Glyph of Metamorphosis
- Glyph of Immolate
- Glyph of Corruption – Muti-target Fights
- Glyph of Incinerate – Single Target Fights
Major Glyphs
- Glyph of Life Tap
- Glyph of Shadow Bolt – Multi-Target Fights
- Individual’s Choice
Recommendations:
- Glyph of Soul Link – 5% increased damage reduction through Soul Link.
- Glyph of Soulstone – Since the change to Soulstone, making it a Battle Rez, this glyph will resurrect the targets of your soulstone with a total of 70% HP.
Minor Glyphs
- Individual’s Choice
- Individual’s Choice
- Individual’s Choice
Cataclysm Classic Demonology Warlock PvE Guide: Demon Choice
Single Target: Currently, the Felhunter is the highest single-target DPS demon.
AoE: The Felguard should still be used in AoE situations.
Cataclysm Classic Demonology Warlock PvE Guide: Stats and Gearing
Stats
Intellect:
Intellect now converts to Spell Damage, which makes all spells stronger. Several factors determine how much benefit they receive, such as the spell coefficients and talents. However, all spells benefit in some way.
1 Intellect provides 1 spellpower (before bonuses), 0.00154% crit, and 17.53 mana.
Hit Rating:
A 102.45 hit rating increases your chance of being hit with spells by 1% until Hit Cap (17% or 1742 Rating). Once the cap has been reached, Hit becomes useless.
Haste Rating:
128.05 haste rating gives 1% spell haste. Haste rating scales multiplicatively with other sources of haste. Haste cannot reduce the duration of the global cooldown below 1.0 seconds.
To calculate the ‘new’ cast time of a spell, use the following formula:
New.Cast.Time=Normal.Cast.Time / ((1 + (Haste.Rating / 12805)) * 5%.Aura * Dark.Intent)
Where 5%.Aura = 1.05 and Dark.Intent = 1.03.
For example, if we take a 2.5 second Normal.Cast.Time and a 950 Haste.Rating, we will get the following:
New.Cast.Time = 2.5 / ((1 + (950 / 12805)) * 1.05 * 1.03) = 2.152 sec
Due to the changes to DoTs, it has become a much more advanced stat. See the Mechanics: Haste section for more information.
Critical Strike Rating:
179.28 crit rating gives 1% to crit. With a Burning Shadowspirit Diamond, crits will do 2.06 times the damage of regular hits. Due to changes made to DoTs, all DoTs can now crit innately.
Mastery Rating:
179.28 mastery provides a 2.3% increase in the damage our demons do and the damage we do while under the effect of Metamorphosis.
Stat Priorities
You should download the Simulationcraft tool and base your decisions around your character. For example, if you use Moonwell Chalice with heroic Firelands gear, Haste will likely be lower than Crit. However, the below order should be correct in most situations.
- Lower (iLvl 359 – 378) Gear Levels:
Int = Hit (to cap) > SP > Haste (1007 Rating) > Mastery > Haste >= Crit
- Mid (iLvl 378 – 397) Gear Levels:
Int = Hit (to cap) > SP > Haste (1573 Rating) > Mastery > Haste >= Crit
- Higher (iLvl 397+) Gear levels
Int = Hit (to cap) > SP > Haste (1993 Rating) > Mastery > Haste >= Crit
Reforging
Reforging allows you to exchange 40% of a combat rating already on an item and convert it into a combat rating not already on an item. Example: If an item has Crit, you cannot add more Crit. If it has no Crit, then you could reforge 40% of another rating (Haste, Hit, or Mastery) into Crit. An item with 100 Hit and no Crit could be reforged to 60 Hit and 40 Crit.
Reforging is essentially following the stat priority rules above to reach specific caps and maximize the benefit we receive from secondary stats. For example, for the stat priorities in iLvl 378+ gear, we do the following (in order):
- Reforge Crit, then mastery to hit until cap, getting as close to 1742 as possible.
- Reforge Crit, then mastery to haste until 1993 rating, getting as close as possible without going under.
- Reforge leftover stats to mastery, including any hit or haste over the mentioned caps.
It is important to note that optimizing your reforging may involve reforging away from haste or hitting on gear to get as close as possible to the cap (without going under).
Gemming
- Meta: Burning Shadowspirit Diamond
- Red: Brilliant Inferno Ruby and Brilliant Queen’s Garnet
- Yellow: Reckless Ember Topaz and Artful Lava Coral
- Blue: Veiled Demonseye and Veiled Shadow Spinel
When to Ignore the Socket Bonus
As a general rule of thumb, if the socket bonus is less than 20 Int or 30 of any rating stat, it would be better to ignore the bonus and gem Brilliant Inferno Ruby or Brilliant Queen’s Garnet.
However, to be more accurate, you would need to find the relevant scale factors for your gear setup (Using Simulationcraft) and multiply those scale factors by the stats you would gain with either gem.
Set Bonuses
Bonus | Description |
---|---|
2pc | The duration of your Doomguard and Infernal summons is increased by 20 sec, and the cooldown of those spells is reduced by 4 min. |
4pc | Soulburn grants a 10% increase to your spell power for 10 sec, and Soul Fire cast with Soulburn active now grants a Soul Shard. |
- 2pc – The 2-piece bonus is a ~4% DPS increase, dependent on fight time.
- 4pc – The 4-piece bonus is a ~2.5% DPS increase if used on CD.
Best in Slot
Normal BiS without Legendary
Slot | Item | Gemming | Reforging |
---|---|---|---|
Head | Hood of the Faceless Shroud | 1x Burning, 1x 40 Int | Crit > Hit |
Neck | Flowform Choker | 1x 40 Int | Haste > Hit |
Shoulders | Mantle of the Faceless Shroud | 2x 40 Int | Crit > Hit |
Back | Nanoprecise Cape | 1x 40 Int | N/A |
Chest | Robes of the Faceless Shroud | 2x 40 Int, 1x 20 Int 20 Mastery | Haste > Mastery |
Wrists | Bracers of Unconquered Power | 2x 40 Int | Haste > Hit |
Hands | Gloves of Liquid Smoke | 2x 40 Int | Crit > Hit |
Waist | Cord of the Slain Champion | 2x 40 Int, 1x 20 Int 20 Hit | Crit > Hit |
Legs | Leggings of the Faceless Shroud | 2x 40 Int, 1x 20 Int 20 Mastery | Haste > Hit |
Feets | Janglespur Jackboots | 2x 40 Int | Crit > Hit |
Ring 1 | Ring of the Riven | 1x 40 Int | Haste > Hit |
Ring 2 | Infinite Loop | 1x 40 Int | Crit > Mastery |
Trinket 1 | Will of Unbinding | N/A | N/A |
Trinket 2 | Cunning of the Cruel | N/A | N/A |
Wand | Hungermouth Wand | N/A | N/A |
Weapon | Lightning Rod | 1x 40 Int | N/A |
Normal BiS with Legendary
Slot | Item | Gemming | Reforging |
---|---|---|---|
Head | Hood of the Faceless Shroud | 1x Burning, 1x 40 Int | Crit > Hit |
Neck | Flowform Choker | 1x 40 Int | Haste > Hit |
Shoulders | Mantle of the Faceless Shroud | 2x 40 Int | Crit > Hit |
Back | Nanoprecise Cape | 1x 40 Int | N/A |
Chest | Robes of the Faceless Shroud | 2x 40 Int, 1x 20 Int 20 Mastery | Haste > Mastery |
Wrists | Bracers of Unconquered Power | 2x 40 Int | Haste > Hit |
Hands | Gloves of Liquid Smoke | 2x 40 Int | Crit > Hit |
Waist | Cord of the Slain Champion | 3x 40 Int | Crit > Hit |
Legs | Leggings of the Faceless Shroud | 2x 40 Int, 1x 20 Int 20 Mastery | Haste > Hit |
Feets | Janglespur Jackboots | 2x 40 Int | Crit > Hit |
Ring 1 | Ring of the Riven | 1x 40 Int | Haste > Hit |
Ring 2 | Infinite Loop | 1x 40 Int | Crit > Mastery |
Trinket 1 | Will of Unbinding | N/A | N/A |
Trinket 2 | Cunning of the Cruel | N/A | N/A |
Wand | Hungermouth Wand | N/A | N/A |
Weapon | Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa’s Rest | 3x 40 Int | N/A |
Heroic BiS without Legendary
Slot | Item | Gemming | Reforging |
---|---|---|---|
Head | Hood of the Faceless Shroud | 1x Burning, 1x 40 Int | Crit > Hit |
Neck | Flowform Choker | 1x 40 Int | Haste > Hit |
Shoulders | Mantle of the Faceless Shroud | 2x 40 Int | Crit > Hit |
Back | Nanoprecise Cape | 1x 40 Int | N/A |
Chest | Robes of the Faceless Shroud | 2x 40 Int, 1x 20 Int 20 Mastery | Haste > Mastery |
Wrists | Bracers of the Banished | 1x 40 Int | Haste > Hit |
Hands | Gloves of Liquid Smoke | 2x 40 Int | Crit > Hit |
Waist | Cord of the Slain Champion | 2x 40 Int, 1x 20 Int 20 Hit | Crit > Hit |
Legs | Leggings of the Faceless Shroud | 2x 40 Int, 1x 20 Int 20 Mastery | Haste > Hit |
Feets | Janglespur Jackboots | 2x 40 Int | Crit > Mastery |
Ring 1 | Ring of the Riven | 1x 40 Int | Haste > Hit |
Ring 2 | Infinite Loop | 1x 40 Int | Crit > Mastery |
Trinket 1 | Will of Unbinding | N/A | N/A |
Trinket 2 | Cunning of the Cruel | N/A | N/A |
Wand | Finger of Zon’ozz | N/A | N/A |
Weapon | Lightning Rod | 1x 40 Int | Haste > Mastery |
Heroic BiS with Legendary
Slot | Item | Gemming | Reforging |
---|---|---|---|
Head | Hood of the Faceless Shroud | 1x Burning, 1x 40 Int | Crit > Hit |
Neck | Flowform Choker | 1x 40 Int | Haste > Hit |
Shoulders | Mantle of the Faceless Shroud | 2x 40 Int | Crit > Hit |
Back | Nanoprecise Cape | 1x 40 Int | N/A |
Chest | Robes of the Faceless Shroud | 2x 40 Int, 1x 20 Int 20 Mastery | Haste > Mastery |
Wrists | Bracers of the Banished | 1x 40 Int | Haste > Hit |
Hands | Gloves of Liquid Smoke | 2x 40 Int | Crit > Mastery |
Waist | Cord of the Slain Champion | 3x 40 Int | Crit > Hit |
Legs | Leggings of the Faceless Shroud | 2x 40 Int, 1x 20 Int 20 Mastery | Haste > Hit |
Feets | Janglespur Jackboots | 2x 40 Int | Crit > Hit |
Ring 1 | Ring of the Riven | 1x 40 Int | Haste > Hit |
Ring 2 | Infinite Loop | 1x 40 Int | Crit > Mastery |
Trinket 1 | Will of Unbinding | N/A | N/A |
Trinket 2 | Cunning of the Cruel | N/A | N/A |
Wand | Finger of Zon’ozz | N/A | Haste > Hit |
Weapon | Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa’s Rest | 3x 40 Int | N/A |
Enchants
Slot | Enchant | Comments |
---|---|---|
Head | 60 Int/35 crit | Arcanum of Hyjal – Guardians of Hyjal revered |
Shoulders | 50 Int/25 haste | Greater Inscription of Charged Lodestone – Therazane exalted |
Back | 50 Int | Enchant Cloak – Greater Intellect |
Chest | 20 stats | Enchant Chest – Peerless Stats |
Wrists | 50 Int | Enchant Bracer – Mighty Intellect |
Gloves | 65 mastery | Enchant Gloves – Greater Mastery |
Legs | 95 Int/80 Stam | Powerful Enchanted Spellthread |
Boots | Run speed/35 mastery or 50 hit or 50 haste | Enchant Boots – Lavawalker / Enchant Boots – Precision / Enchant Boots – Haste |
Belt | Extra socket | Ebonsteel Belt Buckle |
Weapon | 500 Int Proc | Enchant Weapon – Power Torrent |
Offhand | 40 Int | Enchant Off-Hand – Superior Intellect |
Professions
Name | Benefit |
---|---|
Engineering | Tinkers now stack with normal enchants. Synapse Springs tinker to gloves provides 480 Int for 10 seconds with a 60 second CD. This averages to an 80 Int bonus. Engineering also provides further perks such as Flexweave Underlay. Nitro Boosts and Grounded Plasma Shield have a chance to fail and cause serious adverse effects, and are not reliable in a raid situation. |
Leatherworking | 130 Int to bracers in place of 50 Int, giving an 80 Int bonus. |
Jewelcrafting | 3 Brilliant Chimera’s Eye in place of 3 Brilliant Inferno Ruby or Brilliant Queen’s Garnet gives 81 Int (51 Int over Epic Gems). |
Blacksmithing | Extra sockets into wrists and gloves provides 2 additional Brilliant Inferno Ruby‘s or 2 Brilliant Queen’s Garnet‘s, providing an 80/100 Int bonus. |
Alchemy | Mixology, combined with Flask of the Draconic Mind provides an 80 Int bonus. |
Enchanting | 40 Int to each ring provides an 80 Int bonus. |
Inscription | 130 Int/25 haste shoulder enchant is an 80 Int bonus over the regular enchant. |
Tailoring | Lightweave Embroidery gives 580 Int for 15 seconds on a 64 second ICD. This averages to 135.9 Int, which replaces the normal 50 Int enchant, providing only a 85.9 Int bonus. Tailoring currently gives the greatest DPS increase of all the professions. |
Herbalism | Lifeblood is now a DPS cooldown providing 480 haste for 20 seconds on a 2 minute CD. This averages to an 80 haste bonus. |
Skinning | 80 crit. |
Mining | Stam, useless from a DPS perspective. |
Consumables
Flask: Flask of the Draconic Mind or a Cauldron of Battle
Food: Severed Sagefish Head / Seafood Magnifique Feast
Potion: Volcanic Potion (Pre-pot and use during Bloodlust/Heroism)
Races
Alliance
Worgen
- Viciousness – Passive 1% crit.
- Darkflight – 40% speed sprint for 10 seconds. 2 minute cooldown.
Gnome
- Expansive Mind – Increase mana pool by 5%.
- Escape Artist – Escape the effects of any immobilization or movement speed reduction effect. 1.5 minute cooldown.
Human
- Every Man for Himself – Removes all movement impairing effects and all effect which cause loss of control of your character. 2 minute cooldown.
Dwarf
- Stoneform – Removes all poison, disease and bleed effects and reduces all damage taken by 10% for 8 seconds. 2 minute cooldown.
Horde
Orc
- Blood Fury – Increases spellpower by 584. Lasts 15 seconds. 2 minute cooldown.
- Command – Damage done by pets increased by 5%.
- Hardiness – Reduces duration of stun effects by 15%.
Goblin
- Time is Money – Passive 1% spell haste.
- Rocket Jump – Activates your rocket belt to jump forward. 2 minute cooldown. Shares cooldown with Rocket Barrage.
- Rocket Barrage – Launches your belt rockets at an enemy. 2 minute cooldown. Shares cooldown with Rocket Jump.
Troll
- Berserking – Increases your casting speed by 20% for 10 seconds. 3 minute cooldown.
- Da Voodoo Shuffle – Reduces the duration of all movement impairing effects by 15%.
Blood Elf
- Arcane Torrent – Silence all enemies within 8 yards for 2 seconds and restores 6% mana. 2 minute cooldown.
Forsaken
- Will of the Forsaken – Removes any Charm, Fear and Sleep effect. 2 minute cooldown.
Cataclysm Classic Demonology Warlock PvE Guide: Spell Rotations
Spell Priority
Single Target Spec
Spell | Condition |
---|---|
Soulburn | T13 4pc Set Bonus |
Metamorphosis | – |
Demon Soul | – |
Immolation Aura | Metamorphosis |
Immolate | – |
Bane of Doom | If target will be alive atleast 15sec |
Corruption | – |
Shadowflame | Melee Range |
Hand of Gul’dan | – |
Incinerate | Molten Core |
Soul Fire | Decimation |
Incinerate | – |
Multi-target Spec
Spell | Condition |
---|---|
Soulburn | T13 4pc Set Bonus |
Metamorphosis | – |
Demon Soul | Felguard |
Immolation Aura | Metamorphosis |
Immolate | – |
Demon Soul | Felhunter |
Bane of Doom | If target will be alive at least 15sec |
Corruption | – |
Shadowflame | Melee Range |
Hand of Gul’dan | – |
Incinerate | Molten Core |
Soul Fire | Decimation |
Shadow Bolt | – |
Explained
The first thing to note is that you will want to have your Felguard out when you enter an encounter. Once the encounter begins and your Felguard attacks the boss, use Felstorm and Demon Soul. Once Felstorm has ended, you will want to summon a Felhunter using Soulburn unless the fight is AoE-heavy.
Demonology’s primary concern is Metamorphosis. Generally, Metamorphosis should be used on CD unless you are delaying it so it can be used alongside trinkets such as Moonwell Chalice. If you have the T13 set bonus, Soulburn should be cast on cooldown, along with Soul Fire, so the shard is replenished. Demon Soul should be used on cooldown.
Immolate and Corruption should have as close to 100% uptime as possible. This is also true for Bane of Doom, however this should only be cast if the target is going to live for more than 15 seconds.
Hand of Gul’dan should be used on cooldown. Incinerate should be used when Molten Core procs, even during Decimation. When the target reaches 25% HP Decimation will proc, Soul Fire will then become the filler spell.
If safe, Shadowflame should be used on cooldown while in melee range. However, it is not worth running a long distance into melee range. In addition, Metamorphosis: Immolaton Aura should be used in melee wherever possible.
If all of the above is done, revert to Incinerate (Single Target) or Shadow Bolt (Multi-target) until a higher priority option becomes available.
Cooldowns
Metamorphosis
One of the changes made to Metamorphosis is the introduction of the Impending Doom talent. This means that our Metamorphosis ability will have an ever-changing cooldown that must be closely monitored.
Currently, Sims is showing the possibility of this cooldown being as low as 85 seconds (Heroic T13). However, the number will vary greatly depending on RNG, cast times (gear), and movement.
As a general rule, you want to use this as often as possible (i.e., on cooldown) to guarantee potential uptime isn’t wasted. However, with good encounter knowledge, I would suggest doing so if you can safely line this up with important events such as Bloodlust/Heroism and Decimation.
There are rare situations where Metamorphosis should be delayed, the most common of which is when used alongside the trinket Moonwell Chalice.
Meta and Mastery
Mastery values are ‘snapshotted’ when Metamorphosis is cast, meaning that the damage increase provided by mastery does not change during Metamorphosis even if temporary mastery buffs wear off. This makes temporary mastery buffs provided through trinkets and items very powerful if they can be lined up with Metamorphosis. However, this is not always the case, so these trinkets/items should be tested and valued individually.
Demon Soul
Demon Soul: Felguard increases your spell haste by 15% and fire and shadow damage done by 10% for 20 seconds. This spell should generally be used on cooldown and should be lined up with “On-Use” trinkets, trinket procs, bloodlust/heroism, and potions as often as possible.
Demon Soul: Felhunter increases periodic shadow damage dealt by 20% for 20 seconds. As this spell only affects Bane of Doom and Corruption, its priority is much lower than that of the Felguard’s Demon Soul. It is still recommended you stack this effect with that of trinkets/potion/Bloodlust/Heroism where possible.
Doomguard
Summon Doomguard summons a Doomguard (guardian pet) to fight alongside you for 65 seconds on a 10-minute cooldown (95 seconds on a 6-minute cooldown with 2pc T13).
The Doomguard scales with some of your stats: spellpower, mastery, hit, and crit. Therefore, timing your Doomguard summon with trinket procs, enchant procs, and potions is essential for maximizing DPS. In most cases, the best way to achieve this is to simply summon your Doomguard ~10-12 seconds into the fight, as all procs are off cooldown and available before the pull.
The Doomguard does not scale with percentage-based damage increases or haste.
Dark Intent
First and foremost, you should gauge the needs of your group. They should always come first when learning raid fights or playing with undergeared healers. You should consider applying it to DPS classes when you hit enrage timers or wipe because the boss has a burn phase you didn’t complete. I’ll leave this up to you.
Healer Rankings
Rank | Class | Condition |
---|---|---|
1 | Restoration Druid | – |
2 | Holy Priest | Raid Healing |
3 | Restoration Shaman | – |
4 | Holy Priest | Tank Healing |
5 | Discipline Priest | – |
6 | Holy Paladin | Glyph of the Long Word |
DPS Rankings
Rank | Class |
---|---|
1 | Shadow Priest |
2 | Fire Mage |
3 | Balance Druid |
4 | Elemental Shaman |
5 | Frost Mage |
6 | Arcane Mage |
7 | Feral Druid |
8 | Feral Druid (Hit Cap) |
9 | Survival Hunter |
10 | Retribution Paladin |
11 | Combat Rogue |
12 | Unholy DK (2H) |
13 | Assassination Rogue |
14 | Frost DK (2H) |
15 | Marksman Hunter |
16 | Beast Mastery Hunter |
17 | Enhancement Shaman |
18 | Frost DK (1H) |
19 | Unholy DK (1H) |
Personal Rankings
Rank | Class | Uptime |
---|---|---|
1 | Balance Druid | 99% |
2 | Shadow Priest | 98% |
3 | Survival Hunter | 98% |
4 | Feral Druid | 95% |
5 | Feral Druid (Hit Cap) | 93% |
6 | Fire Mage | 88% |
7 | Frost Mage | 82% |
8 | Assassination Rogue | 76% |
9 | Elemental Shaman | 74% |
10 | Unholy DK (1H) | 72% |
11 | Beast Mastery Hunter | 69% |
12 | Combat Rogue | 66% |
13 | Arcane Mage | 62% |
14 | Unholy DK (2H) | 60% |
15 | Marksman Hunter | 57% |
16 | Enhancement Shaman | 55% |
17 | Retribution Paladin | 46% |
18 | Frost DK (2H) | 41% |
19 | Frost DK (1H) | 40% |
AoE and Multiple Targets
The strong point for Demonology. You will want to use Felguard, Felstorm, and Shadowflame in almost every AoE situation. In situations with 6 or more targets, you will achieve the best results through channeling Hellfire. In situations with 5 or fewer targets, muti-dotting with Immolate and Corruption before channeling Hellfire will yield more significant results.
For more controlled multiple-target damage, tab targeting non-cc’d mobs with Immolate and Corruption and then proceeding with a single target rotation on each mob until it is dead will be the most optimal way of dealing damage.
Cataclysm Classic Demonology Warlock PvE Guide: Mechanics
Haste and DoTs
The way DoTs work has changed. In addition to all DoTs benefiting from haste innately, haste now reduces the time between ticks. Haste only reduces the DoTs duration until an extra tick is received.
The change to the Inferno talent reaching the haste “thresholds” for Immolate is no longer critical. Attempting to achieve any of these thresholds will not significantly increase DPS. However, these values and how to calculate them are still good to know. Reaching the haste thresholds for Corru[tion does provide an increase and should generally be achieved.
This applies to all of our DoTs except BoD. However, the haste required to achieve this extra tick will differ between DoTs. To calculate the haste necessary to achieve an additional tick, we would need to calculate the time between ticks, specific to 3 decimal places.
Tick.Speed.Required = (Base.Frequency * Base.Tick.Speed) / (No.of.Ticks – 0.5)
Where No.Of.Ticks is the number of ticks you would like to achieve. For example, if we wanted to apply this to Immolate (With Inferno, 7 sec Base Frequency, 3 sec Base Tick Speed), wanting to achieve 2 additional ticks (9), we would do the following:
Tick.Speed.Required = (7 * 3) / (9 – 0.5) = 2.471 seconds
From here, we can calculate the percentage of haste required to achieve this tick speed using the following formula:
Haste.Percent = (Base.Tick.Speed / (Tick.Speed.Required + 0.00049999)) – 1
Therefore:
Haste.Percent = (3 / (2.471 + 0.00049999)) – 1 = 0.21432909
So, what haste rating should you be aiming for? Immolate (with Inferno) gains extra ticks at 7.161994%, 21.432909%, 35.715902%, etc. So, to determine the haste required in a raid situation with all raid buffs, including Dark Intent, we will use this formula:
Haste.Rating = ((Haste.Percent / 5%.Aura / Dark.Intent) – 1) * 12805.716
For example, the haste required to gain 2 additional ticks (21.4% haste) is as follows:
Haste.Rating = ((1.21432909 / 1.05 / 1.03) – 1) * 12805.716 = 1573 rating
Therefore, the haste thresholds are (raid buffed):
Extra Ticks | % | Rating | Goblin |
---|---|---|---|
1 | 7.2% | 0 | 0 |
2 | 21.4% | 1573 | 1431 |
3 | 35.7% | 3264 | 3105 |
4 | 49.9% | 4951 | 4776 |
Our other DoTs also benefit from gaining extra ticks. The haste thresholds for our other DoTs are below:
Corruption:
Extra Ticks | % | Rating | Goblin |
---|---|---|---|
1 | 8.3% | 21 | 0 |
2 | 25% | 1993 | 1846 |
3 | 41.7% | 3970 | 3804 |
4 | 58.4% | 5945 | 5745 |
Shadowflame:
Extra Ticks | % | Rating | Goblin |
---|---|---|---|
1 | 16.7% | 1007 | 870 |
2 | 50% | 4954 | 4778 |
3 | 83.4% | 8911 | 8696 |
4 | 116.6% | 12838 | 12584 |
Other DoT Mechanics
DoTs, Buff and Debuffs
When a DoT is applied, the following rules are applied:
- All player stats are “snapshotted,” including all bonuses received through buffs and procs and any losses to stats from debuffs. This means the DoT will not benefit from any procs unless recast.
- The DoTs damage will update with boss debuffs on a per tick basis. For example, if a DoT was applied to a boss before the 8% Spell Damage debuff was used, and the 8% Spell Damage debuff was applied between the 2nd and 3rd tick, the 3rd tick will benefit immediately.
The only known case where the above is not true is with the 5% Crit Debuff (Shadow and Flame/Critical Mass). This debuff follows rules similar to those of player buffs.
As a general rule of thumb, it is not recommended you recast a DoT early (i.e., clipping, except the information provided in the ‘DoT Refreshing’ section of this thread), even when you have additional procs that weren’t present on the original cast. This will effectively lower that DoTs overall DPET for that encounter despite the extra damage done due to the proc.
DoT Refreshing
Another change to DoTs is how DoTs behave when reapplied or refreshed. If a DoT is refreshed between the 2nd last and last tick, the DoTs duration will be extended to include the previous tick. For example:
Corruption (unaffected by haste) has an 18-second duration, dealing damage every 3 seconds (6 ticks). If you refresh Corruption at 16 seconds (2 seconds till the last tick), the new Corruption applied to the target will have a duration of 23 seconds and will tick 6 times.
What this means is that you can ‘clip’ a DoT without losing the last tick of that DoT (and the damage that the last tick provides), making it much easier to have a 100% uptime on all DoTs. One thing to note is that if a DoT is refreshed using this method, then the last tick inherits the stats of the new DoT (See ‘DoTs, Buffs and Debuffs’).
Pet Twisting
Under certain circumstances, changing your Demon routinely throughout an encounter is beneficial. This is called Pet Twisting. The only current circumstance is when you use the trinket Moonwell Chalice and delay Metamorphosis to line up with this trinket.
The basic idea of this is as follows:
- Open the fight with the Felguard and use its Demon Soul + Felstorm, Moonwell Chalice, and Metamorphosis.
- Soulburn a Felhunter once Felstorm has completed.
- When Moonwell Chalice has ~6 seconds left on its cooldown, begin to summon a Felguard hard.
- Use the Felguard’s Demon Soul and Felstorm, Moonwell Chalice, and Metamorphosis.
- Soulburn a Felhunter once Felstorm has completed.
This continues until the fight is over or until you have no soulshards left, in which case you should continue to use your Felhunter.
The reason we do this is because of the way the Felguard’s Demon Soul stacks with Metamorphosis and Moonwell Chalice.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is There a Haste Cap?
Technically, there are multiple. See the Mechanics: Haste section of this guide for more information.
Should I Use the Infernal or Doomguard?
Doomguard for Single Target, Infernal for AoE.
I Changed My Spec, and My New Spec Gives Me More Dps on a Training Dummy!
What you do on a training dummy is irrelevant. Not only is your sample data far too small to rule out RNG, but you’re also missing many buffs/target debuffs that will change how specific talents perform.
Conclusion
We hope that our Cataclysm Classic Demonology Warlock PvE guide has provided you with the necessary insights on how to effectively play this class in Cata Classic. If you found this article helpful during your journey in Azeroth, please let us know by leaving your comments below.
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