Why no love for Demo Warlocks?

Dottss

OG
I see a lot of posts in this forum yet barely, if any, are about full 30-point demonology warlocks.



The truth is that a full demo warlock, when specced and geared right, can be one of, if not the most powerful class in 30-39 arena.



First off, I will admit that a fully twinked affliction warlocks is more effective in battlegrounds than a demonology specced 'lock. However, that's not the point. In arena, demonology specced warlocks are king.



First off, your survivability is out of this world. You blow each and every class away in terms of durability and its not even close.



The only class that presents a problem to you is a skilled rogue. And even that is 50/50 because you have a voidwalker that can detect stealth, along with two sacrifice bubbles.



You make retribution paladins look silly, you make casters feel helpless. Its almost unfair. There was one twink mage who blew through all his mana, used up evocation, blew through the second round of mana, saw that I was still at full hp/mana, and decided to /afk.





If there is magic involved, you are getting 400+ heals, with the potential of 600+ crits, every 8 seconds.



Here is a guarantee I can make you....You will not lose against any magic based class.



I'm not going to spend time discussing gear, its essentially your basic caster set up. However, you're going to want to make a few minor adjustments. For instance, you want to pick yourself up some bloodwoven bracers of the eagle along accompanied by a +12 stamina enchant and the one hand+umbra crystal to maximize stamina. A "+5 stamina wand" wouldn't hurt either.



To summarize, with your basic caster gear and a few stamina replacement pieces combined with BOA shoulders, you should be sitting at around 3450 hp, 2900 mana, and 250 spell power. This is the optimal setup.



Talents



IMPROVED HEALTHSTONE - 2/2 This is obvious. You are shooting for survivability. If you combine this with the Glyph of Healthstone and the Demonic Aegis talent, you are looking at at 940 instant heal.



Demonic Embrace - 5/5 Another no-brainer. You're shooting for survivability and endurance. 10% more stamina is great, even better when you equip more stamina based items.



Fel Vitality - 3/3 This provides dual bonuses. It increases your pet's mana and health by 15%. It helps when players finally realize they must kill your felhunter to kill you. You'll also need it for devour magic, which will yield you 400+ heals every 8 seconds. Also it gives you an extra 3% mana and hp. Not too bad if you ask me.



Demonic Brutality - 3/3 A so-so talent. You only want to use a void walker when you know you are facing a rogue or warrior. You get 30% more health added to your sacrifice bubble, which is all right when squaring off against non magic melee.



Demonic Aegis - 3/3 Another must have. This is one of your staple talents and what makes you an unkillable monster. It gives you a % increase in spells which heal you.This little talent is what helps you get those 940+ health stone heals. It also benefits Lifeblood, Life Drain and Bandages. Not too mention the awesome armor bonus.



Fel Domination - 1/1 A situational talent. You only need this when a pet dies or you've accidentally summoned the wrong pet for a particular class.



Master Summoner - 2/2 A complement to the above talent. A situational talent at best.



Soul Link -1/1 Our most essential talent. Its what defines us. Your pet takes 20% of all damage done to you. This isn't debatable. You must take this talent.



Unholy Power - 5/5 Increase pet's physical damage done by 20%. An all right talent. Useful when siccing your pet on those cloth wearers. You're basically only speccing this talent to get to Master Demonologist.



Master Demonologist - 5/5 An awesome talent. This talent will give you a further 10% physical damage reduction when your void walker is out and a 10% magical damage reduction when your felhunter is out, giving you essentially 30% damage reduction total.



GLYPHS



Some may debate me on these but I am telling you my opinion based on my play style and concept of what a demonology warlock is.



Glyph of Felhunter - An amazing glyph. This definitely ranks up there as one of the best glyphs in the bracket. What this does is give you a base heal of 319 whenever your puppy devours magic off an enemy or yourself. However, since we specced in Demonic Aegis, our heals actually go for over 400 and crit for 600+. And its only an EIGHT SECOND COOLDOWN. A top notch glyph. The only time this will not benefit you is when you are dueling rogues or warriors. A MUST FOR ANY DEMO WARLOCK.



The second glyph could cause some dissenting opinions but that's ok.



Glyph of Healthstone - Some may argue that the Glyph of Corruption is a better fit here because it increases the demonology warlock's less than impressive DPS. I disagree. As a demo warlock, your job is to outlast your opponent, exhaust them. This glyph does that for you. Combined with the Demonic Aegis talent, this glyph will net you an instant 900+ heal. The best thing about it is the cooldown is relatively short, so if you have time, you can always summon a new one.



A couple tips



Definitely pick up Herbalism if you are creating a new demo warlock. Rank 4 Lifeblood gives you a base 900 heal. However, with demonic aegis, you're getting a 1070 heal. This is a must if you plan on outlasting your opponent.



I definitely have to suggest finding a level 80 friend and farming the Heavy Frostweave book. Heavy Frostweave bandages, give you a base 750 hp per tick. Impressive, yet a demonology warlock will get you 914 hp a tick. AMAZING. A few ticks and your back up to full hp. How is that for a blow to your opponent's confidence?



Without question, you want to use macros. There is a great site out there called www.arenajunkies.com that lists "General Macros" and macros for every class in WoW.



A few macros that will help improve your gameplay as a warlock include the following:



Devour Magic

Devours magic on yourself if the macro is pressed. If shift is used during when the macro is pressed it will devour magic on your target.



#showtooltip Devour Magic

/cast [modifier:shift, pet:Felhunter] Devour Magic; [pet:Felhunter, target=player] Devour Magic



Spell Lock/Intercept Focus Macro

Spell lock's focus target if you have a Felhunter out.. If you have no focus target, it will simply Spell Lock/Intercept your target.



/cast [target=focus,exists,nodead, pet:felhunter] Spell Lock; Spell Lock



Totem Stomper

Sends your pet to attack Totems. Add the names of the totems you would like to kill. Highest priority at the bottom. If there is no Totem it will attack your target.



/petattack

/petattack [target=Healing Stream Totem]

/petattack [target=Mana]

/petattack [target=Tremor Totem]

/petattack [target=Grounding Totem]







So there you have it. If you want to try a unique spec that require some micro management and thought, I definitely recommend the demonology warlock. It is an extremely powerful character. You can definitely heal upwards of 15k+ in 2v2.



Here is an example of a 2v1 I did earlier tonight.

http://s194.photobucket.com/albums/z313/SuperDude325/?action=view&current=asdd.jpg



12k damage done and 10.5k healing done in 4 minutes against a twink shaman and twink warrior.



I forgot to mention. Drain Mana is one of your most powerful tools against mana users. This is essential to outlasting other casters. Do not forget about this ability.



OK! I must go to bed, hope you enjoyed the read. My apologies if its a bit long and drawn out. Take care.



Toodles!
 
great post, Dottss.



demo locks can be very effective due to their survivability. i remember when Useabandage's lock was demo, he flag carried really well with his rogue partner. it was pretty funny, 9 people would rush him, and they would be swallowed whole by his rogue teammate, while he seemed to tank everyone



makes me want to try one out...
 
Dottss, I've faced you a number of times over the last week or so (mostly) on the hunter Dkermit. I have to say I was quite impressed with the spec and how you play it. Certainly a monster 1v1. I watched you duel sooper and there's really nothing he could do.



I would go as far as to say you make ret look silly but you certainly make for a tough opponent. It's and interesting spec and a great post. Thanks.
 
when i found out that arena warlocks weren't demonology at 39, i was just really confused. it's obviously the best spec for arenas in the level bracket.



kudos to figuring this out ages before your peers.



edit: i'm curious - have you tried out sticking 3 points into instant seduce? it seems like it could be game-breaking at 39 given your ability to re-summon multiple times in an arena. i can see a fel dommed succy followed up by an instant seduce chain after your opponents have trinketed as absolutely devastating. just wondering if you've found this to be worthwhile at all.
 
Lloydganks said:
when i found out that arena warlocks weren't demonology at 39, i was just really confused. it's obviously the best spec for arenas in the level bracket.



kudos to figuring this out ages before your peers.



edit: i'm curious - have you tried out sticking 3 points into instant seduce? it seems like it could be game-breaking at 39 given your ability to re-summon multiple times in an arena. i can see a fel dommed succy followed up by an instant seduce chain after your opponents have trinketed as absolutely devastating. just wondering if you've found this to be worthwhile at all.
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Interesting suggestion Lloyd. You could take 3 points out of Demonic Brutality and put them into Improved Succubus. Both the succy and void are situational pets in 1v1 and even more so in 2v2. But after thinking about, an instant seduction could prove vital against some twos. Its a toss up in my opinion. Against dual melee, rogue/rogue, war/rogue hunter/hunter, etc, it could without question, be viable.



However, without question, your felhunter is your primary pet. I may have to try it out the instant seduction though.
 
iv tried both soulink and full affliction, and affliction is still better 1v1/2v2/wsg/ab. its not worth speccing just to duel a rogue hunter or warrior thats decent unless its some kind of dueling tournament or something.



in your post you talk like a afflictions warlock is bad or something but its not :|



vs a caster you shouldnt need to spec sl because they are already helpless 1v1 as affliction. your control as a warlock is already op enough vs caster, then add in heavy frostweave bandages + glyph of felhunter, every caster is a joke. even though they were never a challenge as a lock anyways ;/



i really dont see the need at all to go soulink over full affliction :|
 
Unstablle said:
is there any real changes to what spell rotation you use than with an aff lock minus Siphon life? this spec sounds awesome.
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not really, also playing without curse of exhaustion is gayyy
 
blue said:
iv tried both soulink and full affliction, and affliction is still better 1v1/2v2/wsg/ab. its not worth speccing just to duel a rogue hunter or warrior thats decent unless its some kind of dueling tournament or something.



in your post you talk like a afflictions warlock is bad or something but its not :|



vs a caster you shouldnt need to spec sl because they are already helpless 1v1 as affliction. your control as a warlock is already op enough vs caster, then add in heavy frostweave bandages + glyph of felhunter, every caster is a joke. even though they were never a challenge as a lock anyways ;/



i really dont see the need at all to go soulink over full affliction :|
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I'm going to have to vehemently disagree about affliction warlocks being better in 2v2's and 1v1s.



In 2v2s, if you are going up against dual dps, they are going to target you first, without question. Affliction warlocks will not hold up against sustained dps like a soul link warlock. They have less health, worse heals, less armor, less mana, the inability to summon instantly summon another pet if you run into trouble.



The only advantage affliction has over demonology is superior DPS and curse of exhaustion.



Playstyles are completely different also. Every single affliction warlock has the exact same spell rotation against every single class. Curse of agony, Corruption, siphon life, drain life, in hope of burning the opponent down as fast as possible.



Demonology is an unique style because your goal isn't attempting to burn down your opponent as fast as possible. Its a battle of attrition. You find me any affliction warlock to 1v1 against and I will beat them, hands down. This isn't even debatable.



And to answer your question, Unstable, I think you definitely use a different spell rotation against particular classes.



For example, you'd want to use "Curse of the Element" against those damn paladins who use shadow resist aura, throw on Corruption and Immolate. When they attempt to heal, immediately drain their mana, watch their cast bar fill about 3/4 of the way, then hit spell lock. This strategy will work against any kind of paladin. Obviously when they bubble, run, mana tap to full mana, then use your Heavy Frostweave Bandage to replenish your entire health bar.



I highly recommend the spec if you are looking for something completely unique in a bracket saturated with high, instant DPS.
 
Last time I fought dottss in an arena he finished with 12k damage and 14k healing...it was a tad upsetting.



SL played properly > Affliction played properly for duels and 2v2 more often than not. Only exception I could see is in a dual dps team. But playing vs dottss is a royal pain in the arse.



"You find me any affliction warlock to 1v1 against and I will beat them, hands down. This isn't even debatable."



Ill testify to his abilities here, the best affliction lock ive been able to play with couldnt take him down and he is frightningly good at his lock.
 
Full Demo lock here as well - been trying to do 3v3 competitvely and it works quite well. I'm an unkillable CC machine - shame I fight undeads more often than not =/



Come 3.1 patch I'll be speccing 2/17/11 however as this nets pretty much the same damage reduction while giving me access to 2% hit (always nice) and Shadowburn to assist in my team-mates bursting down a target.



-X
 
well yeah, demo would stomp affliction in duels. no idea what that other guy is talking about...lol. glyph of felhunter is just silly (or whatever that glyph is called).



Dotts, i have been playing a lot on my 29 lock as instant seduce demo spec. i am currently specced http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=IcZ0gcuoM . as you can see, i have a lot less available at 29 (and no felhunter) so the playstyle is a lot different.



however, i have found instant seduce to be absolutely dominant. i have a couple macros that make it even better, namely ones that will instantly re-seduce people who trinket and also allow me to re-seduce while the current one is still going (this is clutch, doesn't give them any time for an instant when the current seduce wears off). in addition, my succy actually has more HP than i do! the new pet scaling that blizzard added has really helped. you can't just try to kill the succy, because between her substantial health and armor and imp health funnel (this talent is so lol) she is just more or less unkillable by anything but a zerg.



i think you should try it out for sure. i can see a demo lock being absolutely dominant in 39 arenas. using up a fear DR cycle on a healer, spell locking a couple times, and then fel domming a succy for an entire seduce chain once DR wears off just seems like it would be completely GG. let me know if you try it!
 
Unstablle said:
SL actually sounds like a ton of fun. Ive been collecting some pieces for the set and I cant wait to get this set running :). would you recommend sacrificial kris and umbral or SoJ for a weapon?
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I would definitely go with the sacrificial kris+umbral. Spell power and stamina should be your primary stats.



Likewise, bloodwoven bracers of the eagle with fortitude enchant over shadow wrath/healing bracers with spellpower enchant.



And to be honest, Lloydganks, the more I think about it, the more I think the instant seduction would fare better against rogues than the void walker.



Immediately seduce the rogue once he cheapshots you, he'll trinket, seduce again and gain some space. Bandage up to full, restart the fight when he's out of stealth and you've got about 20-30 yards on him. I am definitely going to try that strategy this week and let you know how it goes.
 
I also forgot to mention that 3.1 will bring in "Glyph of Soul Link". This will add 5% more damage reduction to your soul link.



If this is a level 30 glyph, I will have a hard time deciding whether to keep Glyph of Healthstone or switch it to the new Soul Link Glyph. Any opinions on the matter guys?
 
Ive always been a fan of static buffs over short term gain type things.
 
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