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December 22, 2008, 12:12 AM
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#1 (permalink) | |
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The Demonology Thread!
Abstract This guide is intended to form a reference for those interested in playing demonology. It will be a work in progress. Covered are the areas that should be useful for demonology locks. If you see something missing or incorrect, please post. Spreadsheets & Tools Use these tools first as most gear and spell usage questions can be answered via the spreadsheet. Upgrade impacts can also be seen by Rawr once updated for 3.0. Rawr The Spreadsheet has been updated and can begin to be used as a reference as it develops. Talent Specs This will update as I follow the PvE spec thread. Some commonly accepted specs are given below: Base Demo Build: 0/41/15 +15 (base build for customisation) Meta Felguard: 0/56/15 (highest shadow dps) SL/Felguard: 21/50/0 (self sustaining) Arena Demo: 23/48/0 (needs feedback) Fire Demo: 0/41/30 (higher dps viable once 80) Imp Fire: 0/40/31 (similar to fire demo) Key Talents Demonology Talents Only certain talents are described. Demonic Brutality: Damage increase for your felguard. Soul Link: Needed for lock damage offload Demonic Aegis: Damage increase and self healing Master Conjuror: Under rated talent for extra damage (optional) Mana Feed: at least one point required Demonic Empowerment: Small DPS increase Fel Synergy: Essential to keep the pet up Summon Felguard: Staple pet Metamorphosis: Long cooldown DPS increase Demonic Pact: Damage buff based on spell power, applied by pet crit. Uptime = 1-(1-crit_chance)^(12/hit_frequency). With cleave and haste, frequency is in the 1.2-1.5 seconds per hit range. Unless crit chance is 100%, it's not going to have 100% uptime. With 14.5% crit and 1.5 second intervals the uptime is 1-(.855)^(12/1.5)=71%. Ref post here.Destruction Talents Together these three talents give you solid single target damage and good channeled damage (through rain of fire crit bonus). Improved Shadow Bolt: Self buff on crit for extra damage to shadow bolt Bane: Reduced cast time Ruin: Extra crit damage Player Race Race is a matter of personal preference. Pets Felguard Felguard is the staple pet of the Demonology Warlock. A Lock is able to use the following to buff the Felguard:
Doomguard High DPS if 2/2 Improved enslave demon is taken. Requires completion of a quest chain to obtain. Creates a higher shard usage pattern and uses 1g reagents for each 15 minute summon. Doesn't activate deep Demo talents. Infernal Gimmic pet, lasting 1 minute and doing high dps. Requires completion of a quest chain and forces the resummoning of the original pet once the minute is up. WWS is indicating approx 2.5x Felguard damage for the duration but does not activate deep Demo talents. Succubus Lower DPS fragile pet with the ability to CC. Felhound Lower DPS pet with “buffs” and a cooldown dispel. Imp Ranged DPS, lower than the felguard but in a melee unfriendly fight may be useful. This pet is more suited to a Destruction build (here or here) General Spell priorities Shadow Felguard  Fire Felguard  Feedback on this rotation is needed. The rotation is no longer king. Look at priorities, they'll tell you what to do next. The rotations above are not law but an indicator of priority. Stat Priorities Combat stat ratings Preferred stats based on T6 gearing in the spreadsheet version 303d. The Next Stat/dps bonus/+damage +1 shadow damage/0.53/1.00 +1 fire damage/0.00/0.00 +1 damage/0.53/1 +1 hit rating/0.50/0.93 +1 crit rating/0.24/0.45 +1 haste rating/0.37/0.70 +1 mp5/0.19/0.35 +1 intellect/0.13/0.25 +1 Stamina/0.03/0.05 +1 Spirit/0.36/0.68 In general, hit rating is preferred to get near capped, then damage becomes more important. Haste and Spirit are equally valued followed by crit. Gear Use the spreadsheet first and foremost, most answers on what is better can be answered through plugging in the gear and seeing the affect. Hit Caps Note: there is NO MAGIC NUMBER for hit rating. These caps are posted so that they are not exceeded. If in doubt, use the spreadsheet. It is possible to maximise performance with less than hit cap, but it is generally advised against. Hit Rating Originally posted in the combat rating thread with 26.23199272 hit rating required for each percentage of hit required. Hit rating caps at level 80 Mob level Hit 80 105 81 132 82 158 83 +446 Reduces by: 3% for Moonkin or Shadow priest 1% for Drenai 3% for Suppression or Cataclysm In a raid for horde this means 368 hit rating to be capped as 0/56/15 and for alliance this means 341 hit rating to be capped as 0/56/15. Hard hit capping is still required if you want to remove resists on soul shatter as it gets no benefit from either of the hit increasing talents. Enchants Weapon: Mighty Spellpower Helm: Shoulders: Chest: Powerful stats Cloak: Wisdom or Haste Bracers: Superior Spellpower Gloves: Exceptional Spellpower Legs: Brilliant or Sapphire Spellthread (Brilliant appears to be higher DPS) Boots: Spirit or Icewalker Belt: Leatherworking Only: Inscription Only: Tailoring Only: Glyphs Major Glyphs: [Glyph of Banish]: Increased the duration of your Banish by 5 seconds. [Glyph of Curse of Agony]: Increases the duration of your Curse of Agony by 4 sec. [Glyph of Corruption]: Your Corruption spell has a 4% chance to cause you to enter a Shadow Trance state after damaging the opponent. The Shadow Trance state reduces the casting time of your next Shadow Bolt spell by 100%. [Glyph of Fear]: Increases the damage your Fear target can take before the Fear effect is removed by 20%. [Glyph of Felguard]: Use: Increases the Felguard's total attack power by 10%. [Glyph of Health Funnel]: Increases the chance you'll resist spell interruption when channeling your Health Funnel spell by 100%. [Glyph of Healthstone]: You receive 30% more healing from using a healthstone. [Glyph of Imp]: Increases the damage done by your Imp's Firebolt spell by 10%. [Glyph of Searing Pain]: Increases the critical strike bonus of your Searing Pain by 20%. [Glyph of Shadow Bolt]: Reduces the mana cost of your Shadow Bolt by 10%. [Glyph of Shadowburn]: Increases the critical strike chance of Shadowburn by 20% when the target is below 35% health. [Glyph of Succubus]: Increases the duration of your Succubus's Seduction by 3 seconds. Affliction by 0.2 seconds. [Glyph of Voidwalker]: Increases your Voidwalker's total Stamina by 20%. Minor Glyphs: [Glyph of Curse of Exhaustion]: Increases the range of your Curse of Exhaustion by 5 yards. [Glyph of Drain Soul]: Your Drain Soul ability occasionally creates an additional soul shard. [Glyph of Enslave Demon]: Reduces the cast time of your Enslave Demon spell by 50%. [Glyph of Kilrogg]: Increases the movement speed of your Eye of Kilrogg by 50% and allows it to fly in areas where flying mounts are enabled. [Glyph of Souls]: Reduces the mana cost by 70% [Glyph of Unending Breath]: Increases the swim speed of targets affected by your Unending Breath spell by 20%. Gems Metagem: Bracing or Chaotic Red: Runed (damage) or Veiled (hit/damage) or Reckless (haste/damage) Yellow: Rigid (hit) or Quick (haste) Blue: Sparkling (spirit) or Glowing (damage/stamina) or [Purified Dreadstone] Below the spell hit cap aim for hit rating and specific colours to activate a meta gem. Consumables Flask: Flask of the Frost Wyrm Battle Elixir: Food: Use Dam/Hit/Crit/Haste food. Check the spreadsheet. Professions Taken from here, the conversation hasn't concluded on any of this so it will need to be a work in progress. Tailoring: Lightweave seems to have a 50% proc chance on a 45s cooldown, which comes down to about 24 dps. Note that this enchant excludes the possibility of the 23 haste enchant. Enchanting: 38 spell power atm (2x this enchant). Blacksmithing: 38 spell power atm (2 extra sockets for 19 spellpower each). Once epic gems are introduced, this will rise to 46. Leatherworking: 37 spell power (using this recipe, which adds 67 compared to the 30 which can be applied by an enchanter). Inscription: 37 spell power (using this inscription, which adds 61 spell power and 15 crit rating compared to 24 spell power and 15 crit rating which can be obtained from the Sons of Hodir at reputation status exalted). Alchemy: 37 spell power when using a Flask of the Frost Wyrm. Herbalism: about 33 spell power when using Fire seeds on cooldown. Jewelcrafting: The benefit is 39 spell power straight, when comparing 3x32 to 3x19 spell power gems. This will be reduced to 27 spell power. There is a lot of conversation on prismatic gems and meta function. Jewelcraftin may be the best DPS gain depending on how that plays out Quote:
I wont use simulationcraft nor any other program and never have (apart from Leullier's spreadsheet for which items offer what sort of DPS upgrades) but lets look at the DPGCD (Damage Per Global Cooldown) of the 4 other abilities we can use pre-haste. My stats 25 man raid buffed (roughly) 2600 spellpower 24% crit Hit Capped Destro Nothing else of worth to consider Curse of Agony - 120% coefficient - 1740 base + (2600*1.2) = 4860 DPGCD Curse of Doom - 200% coefficient - 7300 base + (2600*2.0) = 12500 DPGCD# Corruption - 120% coefficient - 1080 base + (2600*1.2) = 4200 DPGCD Immolate (Numbers will probably be off on this) - 20% on DD, 100% on DoT - (460 base + (2600*0.2)) + (785 base + (2600*1.0) = 4325 DPGCD Now shadowbolt Shadowbolt - 85.71% coefficient - 730 (avg) base + (2600*0.8571) = 2958 DP2.5s Assuming 24% crit holds up that means that I will get 0 resists, 76 hits and 24 crits per 100 bolts, crits will hit for double damage (5916). Average shadowbolt damage - (2958*0.76) + (5916*0.24) = 2248.08 + 1419.84 = 3667.92 average damage (not inc Imp SB) per 2.5s Now lets consider Imp SB, it's not going to be up 100% of the time, lets assume it's up 90% of the time though giving an average modifier of - 1.2 damage * 0.90 = 1.08 damage modifier 3667.92 * 1.08 = 3961.35 damage per 2.5s Okay last calculation I feel is wrong but this is only rough anyway Damage per GCD (1.5s) = 3667.92 * 0.6 = 2376.81 DPGCD As I may have said, I work mainly off instinct and how my damage feels through fights but from my simple (and quite possibly flawed) maths Shadowbolt appears to provide a large DPS loss per GCD compared to our 4 other dots. Metamorphasis I don't consider because all abilities gain the 20% damage increase. The corruption glyph increases the awesomeness of corruption use and as such there is no rotation, you are just maximising DPS by keeping the uptime of DoTs as high as possible, downtime for 2 - 3 seconds on any and in all honesty we lose less than affliction missing 2-3 seconds of any DoTs used there. Please feel free to pull my post to pieces but this is the way I'm looking at things just now and I am reading this thread for things I haven't considered and perhaps trying to find if the build is actually worthwhile. #CoD is a once per minute use. |
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The Following 35 Users Say Thank You to Splot For This Useful Post:
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Aelneldth, Akasha, Angelina, cadaverous, chucknjen, Chula, Cormanthor, Crypt, crypticchris, Darinar, Dretar, Eshan, Hodag, Kivnar, Lokee, mavric240, Midnight, Mindbomb, moridrin, Niaku, Odlin, Ohmresist, picomor, Robo-lock, Smok, sprock, Suspiria, Taluna, TPMdm, ultimo, vergauze, Vitriola, Vmaster, Weeba, Whistle |
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December 22, 2008, 08:14 AM
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#2 (permalink) |
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Re: The Demonology Thread!
I scooted over to Elitist Jerks to verify the author and saw it was Splot over there as well. Very nice guide which I've used to go 0/41/30. Will this one be kept current with updates from EJ?
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December 22, 2008, 08:39 AM
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#3 (permalink) |
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Re: The Demonology Thread!
I've been a huge Demonology fan since I started playing WOW and it's great to see it getting some love.  Thanks for a very good guide. Last edited by paulcan; December 22, 2008 at 08:52 AM.. |
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December 23, 2008, 05:51 AM
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#4 (permalink) |
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Re: The Demonology Thread!
Very nice to see the threads being posted here to reach more people. Thankyou.
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December 23, 2008, 10:48 AM
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#5 (permalink) |
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Re: The Demonology Thread!
Great thread thanks. Play Demo extensively. Just one small edit though to the SL/FG spec that was listed above as SL/Felguard: 21/50/0 (self sustaining). Have used the SL/FG build almost solely since my time in Northrend and the original spec (and the one I use) is actually 30/41/0 and works better for leveling as each point added in the affliction tree after the 41 points in Demo to get the FG, increases your DPS and damage. Talent spec should be as follows: WorldofWarcraft.com -> Info -> Classes -> Warlock -> Talent Calculator |
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December 23, 2008, 01:42 PM
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#6 (permalink) |
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Character Info
Lessic 80 Undead Warlock Darkspear US PvP Guild: Tarren Mill Deathguard Profile: Blizzard Armory |
Re: The Demonology Thread!
Great guide, I'll note though on the 0/40/31 build i'd take a point from demonic power and get conflagrate |
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December 23, 2008, 02:09 PM
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#7 (permalink) |
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Character Info
Majestrix 80 Human Warlock Kargath US PvE Guild: Keepers of the Old Ways Profile: Blizzard Armory |
Re: The Demonology Thread!
with regards to the 0/56/15 build has anyone seen the math to show that 5/5 ISB is better overall DPS then 3/3 Molten Core? I don't doubt that its true, but would love to see the actual numbers as I kind of like using fire but don't want to be losing a ton of DPS either. Maj
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Maj |
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December 24, 2008, 12:26 PM
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#8 (permalink) |
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Re: The Demonology Thread!
Just two comments on this great post : There is a glyph of Immolate : +20%damage periodic but -10%initial damage. And the Meta/Ruine build can be improved by transfert 3 points to get 3%hit http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/warlock/talents.html?tal=00000000000000000000000000000050330113520225001352 3105155003005000000000000000000
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Sorry for my english, I'm french but there is no forum like WD in french^^ |
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December 24, 2008, 04:52 PM
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#9 (permalink) |
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Re: The Demonology Thread!
right now, i'm still leveling, so i am using imp health funnel instead of master summoner, but when i am raiding i think i will move those 2 points to imp hs. makes the raid happy. that aside, thanks for the wonderful work. i respecced to meta/ruin last night and wow. major dps boost. i hope people can start to see demo as pve and an awesome raiding spec when they read this. |
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December 27, 2008, 12:12 PM
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#10 (permalink) |
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Character Info
Chula 85 Human Warlock Shattrath Euro PvE Profile: Blizzard Armory Talent Tree: Demonology |
Re: The Demonology Thread!
Thanks alot for summarizing sources and putting all things together! What I do like almost best are phrases like "my point of view" or "rule of thumb, I may be wrong" where many poster claim for absolut correctness 'cause gear and play style make anybodies mileage vary, for Demo more than for affli or destro (my PoV^^). /thumbup Chula |
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