Demonology Warlock Class Guide - MoP Classic

Welcome to our Mists of Pandaria Classic (MoP Classic) Demonology Warlock Class Guide for Phase 1, it focuses on getting you up to speed with the Spec for PvE content, Dungeons and Raiding. The guide includes key information for what has changed going into MoP, the best Talent builds, Major Glyphs, your Rotation, Gearing and Consumables for Demonology Warlock.

Table of Content:

• Changes from Cataclysm to MoP
• Talents
• Rotation & Abilities
• Gearing & Consumables

What’s New for Demonology Warlock in Mists of Pandaria Classic

Warlocks are a strange class. They changed a lot through the history of WoW, and Demonology in particular struggled to find its right place. In Mists of Pandaria, a lot will change for Demonology Warlocks. You will still be playing around Metamorphosis, but a lot of spells from Cataclysm will be changed or simply deleted from your rotation. Here are the key changes:

• Demonology has a new resource: you no longer use Soul Shard, but Demonic Fury, stacking up to 1000, spending it to turn yourself into a demon with Metamorphosis.
• Molten Core is a new key mechanic, reducing Soul Fire’s cast time when it proc.
• Demon Soul is replaced by Dark soul: Knowledge, a new offensive cooldown.
• Immolate and Incinerate are now exclusive to Destruction.
• Pandemic is a new mechanic, extending your DoTs.
• Fel Armor is now passive.
• Unending Resolve is a new defensive cooldown.
• Demonic Gateway has been added.
• You now summon Wild Imps passively all the time.

Is Demonology Warlock Good?

It’s pretty hard to say. Warlock always brings a lot of desired utility with SoulStone, Healthstones, Gateways but in the early stages of Mists, Demonology Warlocks tend to be outperformed by stronger specialization like Destruction. If you really want to play Demonology, you can, it’s not terrible but you will most likely have to put a lot more effort in to have worse results than Destruction.

Best Talents & Glyphs for Demonology Warlock in MoP Classic

With the new revamped talents, we will provide you with 2 talent builds, one for Dungeons and one for Raiding. Don’t forget that, with the new talents, a lot of utility options can change depending on fights.

Demonology Warlock Raiding Talent Build

Regarding Talents, Warlocks don’t have a lot of meaning full choice. Soul leech and Burning Rush are just better than any choices in their respective rows in PvE, Grimoire of Service can be swapped with Grimoire of Supremacy to have cooler summons but it’s not optimal. The only real choices you can make are:

• Mortal coil / Shadowfury: Mortal coil is better by default because of the health regeneration it provides, but if you need AoE crowd control, swap to Shadowfury.
• Soul link / Sacrificial Pact: Soul link is a strong passive Damage reduction you don’t really have to think about, with a built-in passive effect. But Sacrificial Pact is a very, very strong personal cooldown. The shield you get from this is insane. Swap around depending on fights with a lot of burst damage or more sustained damage.
• Archimonde’s Darkness / Mannoroth's Fury: Having more Dark Soul: Knowledge is a great thing, increasing the potency of your Metamorphosis. It’s a great damage upgrade, but if you need to deal massive AoE Damage, Mannoroth’s Fury is better.

Best Demonology Warlock Raid Glyphs

Regarding Major Glyphs, you will want to obtain Glyph of Imp Swarm, Glyph of Siphon Life and Glyph of Demon training.

Other Major Glyph you can consider are Glyph of Eternal Resolve, Glyph of Healthstone, Glyph of Soulstone and Glyph of Demonic Circle.

For Minor Glyphs, you can take Glyph of Hand of Gul’dan; make a mouseover macro and you might be a little better at AoE, but it will be at the cost of having to think about Hand placement all time, which might not be worth it.

Demonology Warlock Dungeons & Challenge Mode Talent Build

The logic in the Dungeon Build is pretty much the same as the raiding build. Shadowfury is usually better because you will want to make big pulls and control adds to help your tank and your healer, there are usually less big damage spikes so Soul Link passive Damage reduction is better. Mannoroth’s Fury allows you to delete big clump of adds, which is pretty great.

Best Demonology Warlock Dungeon Glyphs

Regarding Major Glyphs, you will want to obtain Glyph of Imp Swarm, Glyph of Siphon Life and Glyph of Demon training.

Other Major Glyph you can consider are Glyph of Eternal Resolve, Glyph of Healthstone, Glyph of Soulstone and Glyph of Demonic Circle.

For Minor Glyphs, you can take Glyph of Hand of Gul’dan.

Rotation for Demonology Warlock in MoP Classic

Single Target Rotation & Priority

1. Always play with a Felguard, not another demon.
2. Maintain Curse of the Elements (if you are assigned to it).
3. Maintain Corruption.
4. Use Dark Soul: Knowledge on Cooldown (if you have 2 charges, don’t overwrite them).
5. Use Imp Swarm on Cooldown.
6. Use Summon Doomguard on Cooldown.
7. Use Grimoire of Service on Summon Felguard on Cooldown.
8. Use Felstorm on Cooldown.
9. Use Metamorphosis with Dark Soul Knowledge active. Get out when Dark Soul runs out.
10. Use Metamorphosis with 900+ Demonic Fury. Get out when you have less than 300 Demonic Fury.

During Metamorphosis: Maintain Doom, spend all your Molten Core procs on Soul Fire, and then use Touch of Chaos.

Outside of Metamorphosis: Cast Hand of Gul’dan with 2 charges, or with 3 seconds left on the Shadowflame DoT. If you’ve just used your last Hand of Gul’dan and you have no charge left, try to get into Metamorphosis to boost its damage. Cast Soul Fire with Molten Core. Try to save those procs for Metamorphosis, so don’t use Molten Core procs unless you will overcap. Molten Core stacks to 10 times. Cast Shadow Bolt. If you need mana, use Life Tap.

Demonology Warlock Opener

Regarding Openers, you want to cast Shadow Bolt during the pull timer (approximately 2 seconds before pulling), cast Hand of Gul’dan to spend a charge and get Shadowflame running, Corruption, Grimoire of Service, Felstorm (double spin!), Dark Soul: Knowledge, Imp Swarm, a new Hand of Gul’Dan, Metamorphosis, cast Doom twice to give it a 90 second duration and proceed with single target rotation.

AoE Rotation & Priority

In AoE, the rotation is pretty much the same. But you’ll want to maintain Doom and Corruption on your targets (up to 6 targets), use Immolation Aura during Metamorphosis and Hellfire instead of Shadow Bolt. If you don’t have Mannoroth’s Fury talented, don’t cast Hellfire on 2-3 targets.

When you fight more than 6 targets, just replace Touch of Chaos with Void Ray, use Immolation aura and Hellfire regardless of your talents. You don’t really need to follow the single target priority anymore.

Best Gear & Stats for Demonology Warlock in MoP Classic

Best in Slot aren’t as big in Mists of Pandaria Classic. Reforging is the new hype, so you can tailor your gear better than before.

The gear you should aim for are: Trinkets, Tier Sets and Weapons.

Demonology Warlock Best in Slot (BiS) Gear in MoP Classic (Pre-Raid)

The best weapons you can find pre-raid in the first phase are:

• Inscribed Crane Staff, from Inscription.
• Je’lyu, Spirit of the Serpent, from Sha of Doubt, Temple of the Jade Serpent.
• Headmaster’s Will, Darkmaster Gandling, Scholomance.

The best off-hands you can find pre-raid in the first phase are:

• Inscribed Red Fan, from Inscription.
• Bottle of potent potables, from Hoptallus in Stormstout Brewery.
• Scroll of Whispered Secrets, a BoE.

The best pre-raid trinkets for Demonology Warlock are:

• Relic of Yu’lon, from Inscription.
• Vision of the Predator, from Striker Gad’ok, Gate of the Setting Sun.
• Ghost Iron Dragonling, from Engineering.
• Flashfrozen Resin Globule, from Vizier Jin’bak, Siege of Niuzao Temple.

Demonology Warlock Best in Slot (BiS) Gear in MoP Classic (Tier 14)

Upgrading your character with the best gear is an important part of increasing your damage.

Below is a BiS Gear List containing your theoretical Best in Slot (BiS) Gear for Demonology Warlock. This information is based on the MoP original release and PTR data, and so is subject to change. But this list should give you a good target for gearing.

There can be some key stat breakpoints and targets that you need to hit for maximum performance. You can find those in the Stats Section below, and use reforging to adjust your gear stats to achieve them.

MoP Classic Demonology Warlock Stat Priority

Your best stat is Intellect, which should be your first priority. Then, Hit Rating and Expertise to reach a 15% chance to hit.

After that, you want your first Haste cap to give your DoTs an extra tick, around 4717 Haste, then Critical Strike chance, then Mastery, and then more haste in that order.

Best Consumables, Enchants & Gems for Demonology Warlock in MoP Classic

The following tables outline the recommended Consumables, Enchants and Gems for Demonology Warlock in Raiding and Dungeon content.

Consumables

Enchants

Gems

We hope this guide helped you improve your Demonology Warlock Gameplay and better understand the spec. To check out all of our MoP Classic content, such as Class Guides, Tier Lists and more, you can browse our full library of MoP Classic Guides.