WoW Wrath Classic: Demonology Warlock Guide (WotLK)

This article is part of a directory: WoW Wrath Classic (WotLK): Complete Guide Directory

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Demonology Basics	Best Race	Talents
Stat Priority	Glyphs	Skill Rotation
Consumables	Gems & Enchants	BIS Gear

Demonology Warlock Basics

The Demonology Warlock is in WotLK Classic is considering high-tier DPS, ranking just under S-Tier in many tier lists. They rank very high in this regard for PvE, but in PvP they lack prowess compared to the other specializations available. The other huge benefit a Demon logy Warlock brings to the table for raids is Demonic Pact. This skill will essentially give your whole raid a 10% buff to spell damage anytime your pet critical strikes.

This guide is primarily focused on level 80 end-game content and will be updated with more information for the duration of the Classic Wrath of the Lich King expansion.

The largest change for the Demonology Warlock in WotLK compared to The Burning Crusade, is the addition of Metamorphosis. This skill adds a huge amount of class immersion by allowing you to transform into a demon for 30 seconds. While you are in this form, your defenses will be greatly boosted in many ways (see tooltip hover-over) as well as increasing your outgoing damage by 20%.

The Demo Warlock brings one of the best AoE damage sources of all classes during Wrath Classic. All warlocks can simply spam Seed of Corruption and perform very well in AoE situations. What's more is that the Demonology spec also has the use of Immolation Aura which happens to be an easy instant case for AoE directly around your body; you can use this even when simply spamming seed of corruption, jump right into the action! While you are at it, Shadow Cleave will be another spell you can use anytime you are in the fray as it is an instant cast with a 6 second cooldown. Weaving through these skills will bring you to the top of the charts. Using Shadow Cleave while Metamorphosis is enabled will make the most of this.

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Best Race for Demonology Warlocks

If you are looking for the best race for Warlocks in WotLK, we discuss it in more detail in our Warlock Class Guide. Many Horde players choose Orc for the Command racial, which will help with their summoned pets' damage. Blood Fury also now affects spell power, so it is also another benefit. If Horde players are looking for the best Warlock race for PvP, many focus on Undead. The Undead get the Will of the Forsaken, along with other beneficial racial abilities. For the Demonology spec though, Orc is still very much preferred usually.

For the Alliance, most Warlock players choose either Humans or Gnomes. Neither of these classes have much in terms of buffing the damage or abilities of a Warlock. As an alliance player, it really is all about what race you enjoy playing when it comes to Warlocks.

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Talents For Demonology Warlocks in WotLK

These are the talents that most players choose for Demonology Warlocks in terms of maximum effectiveness in raids. We've highlighted a commonly seen variation that depends on your raid composition.

(Talent Calculator Provided by wowhead.com)

Variation

There are many choices you can alter when it comes to demonology warlocks in WotLK. Listed below are some options skills we have chosen and why, followed by some other options you could take instead if you want to try something different.

Taken: Suppression - This will allow you to get to hit cap sooner by increasing your chance to hit with spells by 2%. Another option taken sometimes is Improved Corruption, but with only 2 points to spare at the end of the other talent trees, we like this choice for the hit %, especially earlier in the game when you may be struggling to hit spells.
Taken: Improved Healthstone - This will help your raid's survivability to increase your healthstones' healing abilities. If you have another warlock in the raid consistently that has this, you can swap it out for other options.

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Best Demonology Warlock Glyphs WotLK

As seen in the Talent Tree build in the above section, we have outlined the best choices for Major Glyphs. The Minor Glyphs are very much just simple, small quality of life enhancements that you can swap out for any that you choose.

Major Glyphs

Glyph of Quick Decay - Speeds up one of your main damaging abilities, Corruption.
Glyph of Life Tap - Gain additional spell power based on your spirit stat to increase your DPS.
Glyph of Felguard - Increases attack power of your Felguard, a core source of damage.

Minor Glyphs

Minor Glyphs don't have any impact on the Demonology Warlock's performance. Here are your options, you can pick any combination of them:

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Stat Priority For Demonology Warlock in Wrath Classic

Warlocks of all specializations usually want Hit Rating as their number one priority, this is no different for the Demonology Warlock. Hit Rating is paramount to landing your spells and thus, doing damage. The Demonology Warlock has almost the same stat priority as the Affliction warlock, except that Spirit takes an important role here. Spirit will be your third most important stat, so that your Demonic Pact will support the entire raid with more and more spell power depending on your spirit.

Hit Rating (Until Hit Cap of 289, or 263 if you expect a Draenei in your party as they give Heroic Presence.)
Spell Power
Spirit
Haste Rating
Crit Rating
Intellect

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Skill Rotation For Wrath Demonology Warlock

Your main skill rotation will differ depending on more situations compared to the Affliction skill rotation. You will need to decide when to use Metamorphosis, but we recommend using it right at the beginning of a boss battle, in case you can use it again in 3 minutes if the fight is long. If you know that the fight will not last more than 3 minutes, you should adjust the timing of your Metamorphosis to whenever a Bloodlust or other raid cooldown phases happen to maximize your damage output.

Use Soul Fire if you have time during a pull timer, otherwise use Shadow Bolt
Use Demonic Empowerment (Use again whenever it is off cooldown)
Keep Curse of The Elements on the boss at all times
Use Curse of Doom if the enemy will survive longer than 60 seconds (beginning of boss fight), otherwise, use Curse of Agony and keep it up.
Corruption - Always ensure this is on the boss
Immolate - Always ensure this is on the boss
As long as all above curses are on the boss, use Shadow Bolt now.

Any time that Molten Core is active due to its proc, use Incinerate as it will cause more damage and have its casting time reduced.

Any time that Decimation is active due to its proc, use Soul Fire as it's casting time will be greatly reduced.

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Consumables For Raids

Flask:
- Flask of the Frost Wyrm
Food Buff:
- Fish Feast, Tender Shoveltusk Steak, or Firecracker Salmon
Potions:
- Potion of Speed
- Alternative: Potion of Wild Magic
Pet Food:
- Spiced Mammoth Treats

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Best Gems For Demonology Warlock

The gem choices for Demonology Warlocks are the same as the other warlock specs. You will always want to use the Red Gems listed below, unless there is a socket bonus that provides you with a large amount of stats greater to what you give up from the red gem spellpower. Make sure you also have enough Blue Gems to satisfy your Meta Gem requirements.

Slot	First Choice(s)	Alternate Choice
Meta	Chaotic Skyflare Diamond	-
Red	Runed Cardinal Ruby	Runed Scarlet Ruby
Blue	Purified Dreadstone	Purified Twilight Opal
Yellow	Reckless Ametrine	Reckless Monarch Topaz