PVE Demonology Warlock Guide (TBC 2.4.3)

Game: The Burning Crusade
Content Type: Gaming Guides

Welcome to the Demonology Warlock guide for World of Warcraft the Burning Crusade 2.4.3. In this guide, you will learn about playing a Demonology Warlock in dungeons and raids. The guide includes Talents, Gems, Enchantments, Gameplay & Skill rotation tips.

Talent tree

Before we start discussing the builds, it’s worth saying that even though Demonology is less gear dependant that Destruction, it still requires some items. Namely, 2T5 set bonus: Robe of the Corruptor and ideally a Void Star Talisman. Without the 2T5 bonus, your demon will require healing which will increase the workload on your healers. Not to mention that you will have to maintain your pet at all times, which can only make things harder for an inexperienced player.

Affliction is even less gear dependent and should be considered as an option if you’re having problems starting out with Demonology.

Below is a standard Demonology build. The demon of choice is obviously Felguard and here we have more powerful destruction spells to help our raid: a combination of Improved Shadow Bolt and Devastation to maintain the debuff.

Below is another version of the build with Felguard. This build sacrifices Devastation to reduce casting time on Corruption (which makes space for another Shadow Bolt) and Improved Life Tap. This build should help players with mana issues.

In the last build, we see some trade-offs being made for increased personal damage via Ruin. Your pet of choice is now Succubus, which is squishier and therefore harder to maintain in a fight. This is a build for players with good gear (with high crit chance) who know how to keep their pet alive.

Gems

Meta: Chaotic Skyfire Diamond
Red: Runed Living Ruby
Yellow: Veiled Noble Topaz, Great Dawnstone if Hit is required
Blue: Glowing Nightseye to activate the Meta Gem

Enchants

Head – Glyph of Power
Shoulder – Greater Inscription of the Orb or Greater Inscription of Discipline
Cloak – Enchant Cloak – Subtlety
Chest – Enchant Chest – Exceptional Health or Enchant Chest – Exceptional Stats
Bracers – Enchant Bracer – Spellpower
Gloves – Enchant Gloves – Major Spellpower
Legs – Runic Spellthread or Mystic Spellthread
Boots – Enchant Boots – Boar’s Speed
Weapon – Enchant Weapon – Soulfrost with Enchant Weapon – Major Spellpower as a cheaper alternative while starting out

Enchanters can also benefit from Enchant Ring – Spellpower on both of the Rings

Professions

As with every DPS class in a raid – Leatherworking gives your group the best bonus. Drums of Battle and Drums of War provide a noticeable DPS increase. This is the option for higher tier raiders.

Tailoring is great for gearing up your new warlock. Look into crafting Shadoweave and Spellstrike sets as they would be with you until T4-T5 items. This option is great for fresh level 70 warlocks looking to improve their gear asap.

Jewelcrafting would give you earlier access to epic gems, but you can unlock them without the profession later on. Note: epic gems bonus does not require the profession, so you can drop it after using the gems on BiS gear.

As mentioned in the Enchants section, Enchanting grants you a unique ring enchant – Enchant Ring – Spellpower. You can use it on BiS rings and then drop the profession while keeping the bonus. Other than that – the ability to do your own armor & weapon enchants.

Gameplay & Rotations

Rotation

Normally, you should be using Fel Armor. Maintain an assigned curse. It will be one of the following: Curse of the Elements, Curse of Recklessness or Curse of Doom.

Maintain Immolate and Corruption on the target. Rest of the time you use Shadow Bolt. Since we are using Improved Shadow Bolt, it is vital to maintain that debuff on the target.

Use Life Tap when needed, preferably while moving since you can’t cast your other spells at that time.

Demons

Your summoned pet plays an important role in your gameplay and significantly increases your damage output. Keeping your demon alive can be a hard task in certain fights.

Build #1 and #2 uses Felguard, while Build #3 will go with a Succubus. Refer to the Talent section for the description of each build.

Treat the demon as a melee DPS player.

Demon should be placed behind the boss to attack, as parries from your demon trigger attack reset on the boss, which will increase damage on your Main Tank.

Ask for buffs on your demon, as it will increase its damage, survivability, and partly increase your damage also through talents like Demonic Knowledge.

Keep your demon out of AoE damage.

Low health demons can be dismissed and instantly re-summoned with the help of Fel Domination. The re-summoned demon will have full HP and all of the buffs.
Macro: /run PetAbandon()

Note: don’t let Succubus use Lash of Pain as it will consume Improved Shadow Bolt stacks on the target.