Demonology Warlock DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities (Legion 7.2.5)

Table of Contents

• +Introduction
  • 1. Class Overview
  • 2. Patch 7.2.5 Changes
  • 3. Patch 7.2 Changes
  • 4. Strengths
  • 5. Weaknesses
  • 6. Viability in the Current Patch
  • 7. Contents
  • 8. ChangeLog
• +Easy Mode
  • 1. The Basics
  • 2. Talent Choice
  • 3. Stat Choice
  • 4. Basic Rotation
  • 5. ChangeLog
• +Spell Summary
  • 1. Spell Summary
  • 2. Main Resources
  • 3. Basic Abilities
    • 3.1. Spell Casts
    • 3.2. Your Personal Demon Horde
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Builds and Talents
  • 1. Talent Choices
  • 2. Talent Cheat Sheets
    • 2.1. Raid Encounters
      • 2.1.1. Heavy Cleave/AoE
    • 2.2. For General Use
  • 3. Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents
  • 4. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents
  • 5. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents
  • 6. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents
  • 7. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents
  • 8. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents
  • 9. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents
  • 10. ChangeLog
• +Artifact Traits and Relics
  • 1. Artifact Progression — First 35 Points
    • 1.1. Early Point Investment
    • 1.2. Second Golden Trait
    • 1.3. Final Point Investment
  • 2. Patch 7.2: 35+ Trait Path
  • 3. Relic Choice
  • 4. ChangeLog
• ×Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities
  • 1. Ability Priority List
  • 2. Important Notes
    • 2.1. The Importance of AddOns
    • 2.2. Soul Shards
    • 2.3. Demonic Empowerment
      • 2.3.1. Empowerment Overlap
    • 2.4. An In-Depth Look at AoE
    • 2.5. Demon Choice
    • 2.6. Darkglare and Hand of Doom
    • 2.7. Tier 1 Talents
      • 2.7.1. Shadowflame Usage
    • 2.8. Tier 2 Talents
    • 2.9. Implosion Usage
    • 2.10. Defensive Utility
    • 2.11. Doomguard and Infernal
  • 3. Core Concepts
    • 3.1. Cooldown Management
    • 3.2. Spooky Skull: Thal'kiel's Consumption
    • 3.3. Movement Management
      • 3.3.1. Quiet Movement
  • 4. Opening Sequence
  • 5. ChangeLog
• +Stat Priority
  • 1. Basics
  • 2. Stat Weights
  • 3. Statistics Explanations
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Gems, Enchants, and Consumables
  • 1. Gems
  • 2. Enchants
  • 3. Consumables
    • 3.1. Potion Choice
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Macros and Addons
  • 1. Addons
    • 1.1. Generic Addons for Warlocks
    • 1.2. ElvUI
    • 1.3. Weak Auras
    • 1.4. Boss Mods
      • 1.4.1. BigWigs Bossmods
      • 1.4.2. Deadly Boss Mods
    • 1.5. Name Plates
      • 1.5.1. KUI Nameplates
      • 1.5.2. TidyPlates
    • 1.6. Damage Meters
      • 1.6.1. Skada
      • 1.6.2. Details
    • 1.7. Extra AddOns
      • 1.7.1. AffDots
      • 1.7.2. Mik's Scrolling Battle Text
      • 1.7.3. DeathNote
      • 1.7.4. Doom CooldownPulse
      • 1.7.5. Angry Assignments
  • 2. Macros
    • 2.1. Warlock Macros
      • 2.1.1. Pet Macros
      • 2.1.2. Soulstone Mouseover
      • 2.1.3. Demonic Circle
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Gear, Legendaries, and Best in Slot
  • 1. Tier 20 Set Bonuses
  • 2. Best in Slot List
  • 3. Evaluating Upgrades Using Stat Weights
  • 4. Legendaries
    • 4.1. Descriptions
  • 5. Loot Competition
  • 6. ChangeLog

General Information

On this page, we list your Demonology Warlock core abilities and how they should be used together (rotation) in World of Warcraft Legion 7.2.5. We also explain when to use your various cooldowns. Then, we go deeper and present all the subtleties that you will need to know if you want to excel at playing a Demonology Warlock.

The other pages of our Demonology Warlock guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.

About Our Author and Reviewer

This guide has been written by Furty, who has an illustrious history in the World of Warcraft raiding scene and race for World First. He has been a member of guilds such as Serenity, Midwinter, and many more, and is currently raiding in Future. He plays most classes at the highest level. You can follow him on Twitter and watch him play on Twitch.

This guide has been reviewed and approved by Not, one of the best Demonology Warlocks and a respected theorycrafter. He raids in Strawberry Puppy Kisses. You can watch him on Twitch or YouTube and you can follow him on Twitter. He is also the owner and editor of Lock One Stop Shop, a website dedicated to Warlocks.

1. Ability Priority List

Demonology is a very consistent and reliable specialization, meaning you should always be able to easily predict how your cooldowns will overlap. There are no rotational procs to throw a curveball into the mix, so this specialization focuses primarily on using your most important abilities exactly on cooldown without delay. This ability priority list assumes you are using the recommend talent build(s) from our Talents page.

1. If you have 11 or more pets out at any given time:
   • Spam cast Demonic Empowerment over priority of normal rotation.
   • Spend Soul Shards as needed on Call Dreadstalkers and Hand of Gul'dan.
2. Maintain Doom at all times (if it will tick).
3. Cast Summon Darkglare (if talented) on cooldown.
4. Cast Call Dreadstalkers on cooldown.
   • Do not cast Call Dreadstalkers if you have Implosion talented and are currently dealing AoE damage to 4+ targets.
5. Cast Grimoire: Felguard (if talented Grimoire of Service) on cooldown.
6. Cast Summon Doomguard on cooldown.
7. Cast Hand of Gul'dan at 4+ Soul Shards.
8. Cast Demonic Empowerment if any Demons are currently not empowered.
9. Cast Soul Harvest (if talented) on cooldown.
10. Cast Thal'kiel's Consumption when it is off cooldown and will have maximum impact (see Thal'kiel's Consumption section for details).
11. Cast Command Demon+ Felstorm on cooldown.
12. Cast Life Tap while moving if you are below ~60% Mana.
13. Cast Demonwrath to generate Soul Shards if there are 3+ targets stacked around your demons, or while moving if you are above ~60% Mana.
14. Cast Shadow Bolt (or Demonbolt if talented) to generate Soul Shards.

The core component of this specialization is to fluidly maintain a flow of demons while ensuring all your major summons are immediately empowered. Budgeting Soul Shards is very important, as bankrupting yourself before Call Dreadstalkers comes off cooldown or a major cooldown is available will accumulate into major damage losses. Keep especially close track of Doom on multi-target so you do not overcap from Soul Shard influx when Doom ticks. While this specialization does not output much burst, your sustained damage is quite good, which is why maintaining all the components of it is so important.

2. Important Notes

2.1. The Importance of AddOns

The redesigned Demonology features a very heavy amount of pets, timers, debuffs, and resources. Unfortunately, this means that Weak Auras (or a similar aura tracking AddOn) is absolutely required to play this specialization at a very effective level. This is discussed more on the AddOns page. It should be noted, however, that playing this specialization without AddOns is completely possible. If your goal is to master this specialization and perform at a high level, however, it is encouraged you look into optimizing through Weak Auras.

2.2. Soul Shards

Just like the other two Warlock specializations, Soul Shards are your primary resource. Properly managing them is crucially important to success as this specialization. One of the most important interactions of this specialization is the interplay between Call Dreadstalkers and Hand of Gul'dan. Hand of Gul'dan consumes up to 4 Soul Shards and Call Dreadstalkers consumes 2 Soul Shards. Since you have a maximum of 5 Soul Shards, that means there is no possible way to cast Call Dreadstalkers after dumping Soul Shards via Hand of Gul'dan unless you are playing Soul Conduit and/or Demonic Calling. Pay close attention to your current Soul Shards with respect to your Call Dreadstalkers cooldown so you do not end up delaying the summon due to lack of Soul Shards. The same applies to Summon Darkglare, as this should be used nearly exactly on cooldown.

This level of planning is not as urgent for Summon Doomguard and Grimoire: Felguard, as they have lengthier cooldowns.

2.3. Demonic Empowerment

One of the most important aspects of this specialization is ensuring that your demons are always buffed by Demonic Empowerment. If you forget, or are late to use this spell, you gain zero benefit from your Mastery: Master Demonologist. Due to the significant Haste buff with Demonic Empowerment, your pets will get off nearly 60% more attacks during their lifespan if you correctly maintain the buff.

2.3.1. Empowerment Overlap

It can be very efficient to overlap Demonic Empowerment when using Grimoire: Felguard and Summon Doomguard. For example, conceptualize a player casting Summon Doomguard and then Demonic Empowerment, then following that with Grimoire: Felguard and Demonic Empowerment. In this situation, it would be much more efficient for the player to instead cast Summon Doomguard followed by Grimoire: Felguard, then casting Demonic Empowerment to buff them both. If you are fast enough, you will still be able to empower the Doomguard before it even finishes its first cast, meaning there is no loss of damage.

This overlap effect is very useful when dealing with Grimoire: Felguard and Summon Doomguard. Most of Demonology revolves around a very short set of cooldowns, which puts pressure on using your important spells on cooldown. Doomguard and Grimoire have long enough cooldowns, however, that delaying them by a few seconds to fit a convenient rotational timing is often a gain. Using Grimoire: Felguard then Call Dreadstalkers and immediately buffing them both with Demonic Empowerment is a good way to save globals that could be spent on generating Soul Shards. To reiterate, this concept can be applied to all your lengthier cooldown summons. Bear in mind, however, that the shorter cooldown the summon, the more pressing it is to use the summon on cooldown, as it results in significantly more spellcasts over the course of an encounter. Long cooldowns, however, such as Summon Doomguard, will likely not get penalized in this fashion if they are delayed by a few seconds, as you will only get to use it several times anyways.

2.4. An In-Depth Look at AoE

The cleave/AoE rotation when playing Demonology is radically different from the single target priority and may be confusing to newer players. The Mythic+ dungeon playstyle, in particular, is quite different than how you might be playing in a raid. When there are 3+ targets present and stacked, you should begin the following rotation:

1. Cast Demonwrath to generate Soul Shards.
2. Cast Hand of Gul'dan at 4+ Soul Shards.
3. Cast Summon Darkglare (if talented & available).
4. Cast Implosion.
5. Cast Demonic Empowerment for your Darkglare.
6. Cast Demonwrath to generate Soul Shards.
7. Cast Hand of Gul'dan at 4+ Soul Shards.
8. Cast Life Tap or a filler global.
9. Cast Implosion.

Essentially the AoE rotation uses Demonwrath to generate Soul Shards quickly while spending them on Hand of Gul'dan to fuel our Implosions. It is important to note that after casting Hand of Gul'dan, the meteor has to travel and explode before the new Imps spawn, so you want to delay about three quarters of a second before following it up with Implosion. You can also use this time to cast a filler such as Life Tap rather than just waiting.

2.5. Demon Choice

Always use a Felguard, your Demonology-specific demon. If you chose Grimoire of Supremacy as your Tier 5 talent, then use the Doomguard for all situations. Command Demon is very useful for the Felguard, as the Felstorm deals solid damage on both single target and AoE. Command Demon should not be used if you are playing with a Doomguard, however, as it only provides Spell Lock (an interrupt).

Remember to turn off your Felguard's Threatening Presence.

2.6. Darkglare and Hand of Doom

Summon Darkglare can be extremely potent on fights where you can take full advantage of it reliably. This is best paired with the Hand of Doom talent to ensure the Summon Darkglare is hitting everything (as long as they are stacked). A good way to overlap Demonic Empowerment when combining this talents is to stack 5 Soul Shards, cast Hand of Gul'dan and immediately Summon Darkglare, then use Demonic Empowerment. This will apply Doom to all the target Hand of Gul'dan hits, and empower all your demons evenly.

2.7. Tier 1 Talents

The more globals you have available to cast Shadow Bolt or Demonbolt, the better Demonic Calling becomes. Demonic Calling also scales well with Haste, as you will be able to cast more times before Call Dreadstalkers comes off cooldown. The difference between Shadowy Inspiration and Demonic Calling is very small in terms of overall DPS delta, and largely comes down to a matter of preference. Eventually in Legion Demonic Calling will outscale Shadowy Inspiration at high gear levels.

2.7.1. Shadowflame Usage

You need to keep Shadowflame at 3 stacks on your main target whenever possible for maximum effect. Cast your first Shadowflame charge, then cast a few filler spells. You can usually fit at least 3 filler spells between each stack of Shadowflame. You will want to refresh Shadowflame when it has 2.4 seconds or less left on its duration. If/when your stacks drop off, wait until 2 charges before restacking Shadowflame.

2.8. Tier 2 Talents

These talents are all interchangeable depending on the fight, however, you will most commonly use Improved Dreadstalkers. It is the best for 1-2 targets, is extremely simple to use, and has good synergy with Demonic Empowerment. Implosion overtakes this talent on situations where there is heavy AoE. The ideal way to play when using Implosion is to wait for your Wild Imps to be nearly ready to despawn, then use Implosion. That way, you get the full benefit of their lifespan and the damage from Implosion. Wild Imps last 12 seconds, and the best way to track this is through an AddOn. Impending Doom is only useful on encounters that have 3 long lived targets that are stacked. In this situation, Impending Doom gains value as you can couple it with Hand of Doom.

2.9. Implosion Usage

You should aim to cast Implosion right before 1 or 2 sets of your Imps are about to despawn whenever possible. Pick a central target to ensure greatest splash. One good way of doing it without timers is to cast Implosion immediately after a Hand of Gul'dan cast, as the new Imps will take a second or so to spawn while the Hand of Gul'dan impacts. This will consume all the old Imps before the fresh Imps spawn.

2.10. Defensive Utility

Take full advantage of your defensive spells. The Tier 5 talents, in particular, offer an array of movement and defensive cooldowns. In many situations, the mobility advantage from Demonic Circle or Burning Rush gives you more survivability than Dark Pact. Unending Resolve is a solid damage reduction that can be used any time you feel threatened.

2.11. Doomguard and Infernal

You should use Summon Doomguard as your primary DPS cooldown for single target. Whenever 2+ targets will be present for the majority of the duration, you should instead use Summon Infernal.

3. Core Concepts

Demonology is a very predictable and procedural specialization. Much of the optimization comes from paying close attention to your cooldowns and minimizing fundamental errors. There are 3 major concepts that form the central trinity of optimizing for success:

1. Soul Shard & cooldown management;
2. Thal'kiel's Consumption;
3. movement management.

3.1. Cooldown Management

This concept essentially combines much of what we talked about earlier in the guide and concerns the practical application of how you manage your cooldowns. Ensuring you always have enough Soul Shards to immediately cast Call Dreadstalkers, correctly overlapping Demonic Empowerments to save global cooldowns, etc. There is nothing new to discuss that we have not already talked about, but it is very important that you give this the proper attention and respect as it forms the majority of the skill cap.

3.2. Spooky Skull: Thal'kiel's Consumption

Thal'kiel's Consumption is our hardest hitting ability, and one that takes a little bit of practice to get a feel for. Essentially, your Artifact weapon drains 6% of the health from your demon pets and converts it into one large blast of damage. This means that the more pets you have out before casting Thal'kiel's Consumption the larger your explosion will be. Since Demonic Empowerment also increases the health of your demon pets, it is also very important you empower them before casting Thal'kiel's Consumption.

Special summons, like Grimoire: Felguard, also add to the damage of Thal'kiel's Consumption, as well as the additional imps summoned by the Improved Dreadstalkers talent. Thal'kiel's Consumption also benefits from damage bonuses such as Soul Harvest and Sin'dorei Spite. Try and overlap this ability with such bonuses whenever possible as it will result in much larger damage values.

Before every Thal'kiel's Consumption, you should:

• Ensure your pets will not despawn before the cast ends
• Use any damage increases available, such as Soul Harvest
• Summon any bonus pets, such as Grimoire: Felguard or Summon Darkglare
• Ensure your pets are buffed by Demonic Empowerment

As a rule of thumb, "bigger is better" when it comes to Thal'kiel's Consumption. What I mean by this is that generally speaking the larger pets result in more damage as they have higher health values. For example, 2 Dreadstalkers result in more damage than 4 Imps, and Felguards are overall the most beneficial.

3.3. Movement Management

While it is difficult to describe the best ways to position and move during a dungeon or raid encounter, it is essential to your success as a Demonology Warlock. Demonic Gateway can be highly effective on many encounters, and is under appreciated by many players and raid groups. Think of Demonic Gateway as a raid cooldown that can instantly teleport your entire raid group 40 yards, and the potential this ability holds quickly becomes clear. Ask your group if they want Demonic Gateway anywhere specific; if not used for your strategy, use it instead as a personal cooldown. Use Life Tap to cover most of your movement, as it is inefficient to waste globals using it in the regular rotation. If your Mana pool is already healthy, you can use Demonwrath instead. Finally, always try to position yourself in a location central to fight movement. For example, if the boss is being moved in a circle, try to stay on the inside of the kite path to ensure minimal movement.

3.3.1. Quiet Movement

Many players will unconsciously move during fights, despite it being unnecessary. For example, sometimes the boss or adds will be moved by the tank a couple yards, and though you are still in range to cast, you subconsciously mirror that movement, costing you global cooldowns. Consciously work to "quiet" your movement, and reduce unnecessary movement to a minimum. The best way to see this in action is to take a video of your raid, then watch yourself play. Most players will be surprised by the amount of wasted movement they commit. When you are forced to move, don't forget to use Life Tap, and make your path as direct and decisive as possible.

4. Opening Sequence

1. Precast Demonic Empowerment at 3.0 seconds on the countdown.
2. Use Potion of Deadly Grace.
3. Precast Demonbolt.
4. Cast Grimoire: Felguard.
5. Cast Summon Doomguard.
6. Cast Call Dreadstalkers.
7. Cast Demonic Empowerment.
8. Cast Demonbolt/ Shadow Bolt.
9. Cast Demonbolt/ Shadow Bolt.
10. Cast Demonbolt/ Shadow Bolt.
11. Cast Demonbolt/ Shadow Bolt.
12. Cast Hand of Gul'dan.
13. Cast Demonic Empowerment.
14. Cast Thal'kiel's Consumption.

5. ChangeLog

+ show all entries - show only 10 entries

• 22 Apr. 2017: Updated Ability Priority List and Opener.
• 27 Mar. 2017: No changes needed for Patch 7.2.
• 11 Jan. 2017: Updated opener.
• 09 Jan. 2017: Checked and confirmed for Patch 7.1.5.
• 12 Nov. 2016: Added an AoE In-Depth section to further clarify how to play in Mythic+ and AoE scenarios.
• 14 Sep. 2016: Added Shadowflame section and cleaned up APL.
• 29 Aug. 2016: Updated for Legion's launch.
• 24 Jul. 2016: Added section explaining the 4-piece + Fragment "cheese" playstyle and additional opening sequence.
• 18 Jul. 2016: Updated for the Legion pre-patch.