Demonology Warlock guide for WoW Forever

The Demonology Warlock in WoW Forever lets the demon do the work. You brand the enemy with Searing Pain, your Succubus tanks it and deals most of your damage, and you fill the gaps with DoTs. This guide covers the build, rotation, threat, demons and stats.

Role	Damage through your demon, the safest Warlock spec solo
Build at level 30	24 points in Demonology and 2 in Destruction, with the 5 extra points from Talented
Key talents	Unholy Power, Demonic Energies, Demonic Brand, Demonic Knowledge, Soul Link
Strength	Your demon tanks, strong pet damage, group utility
Weakness	Everything depends on your demon, the Brand needs constant upkeep
Leveling	Warlock leveling guide, Warlock level build
Other specs	Affliction Warlock, Destruction Warlock

What changes for Demonology

• Demonic Brand is new. Searing Pain brands the target for 10 seconds. At 3/3 your demon’s next 6 attacks against it deal extra Fire or Shadow damage and extra threat.
• Demons scale with your gear. Your Spell Power now makes your demon stronger too.
• Demonic Knowledge is new. It gives you and your demon Spell Power equal to 33% of your level per point while the demon lives.
• Demonic Energies is new. Your spells heal your demon, and Life Tap also restores its mana.
• Banes are not Curses. Bane of Agony is now a Bane, so you can add Curse of Weakness or Curse of Tongues on the same target.
• Ritual of Summoning matters more. Meeting Stones no longer summon, so Ritual of Summoning is the only way to summon players.

Strengths and weaknesses

Strengths	Weaknesses
Your Succubus tanks almost every fight, Soul Link moves 30% of your damage taken to her	If your demon dies, you lose your tank and most of your damage at once
Your demon deals most of your damage while you cast DoTs and Searing Pain	The Brand runs out about every 6 seconds and Searing Pain is a 1.5 second cast
Soulstone, Healthstones, summons and a Succubus that seduces an extra enemy	One target at a time, your demon has no area damage

The build at level 30

This build uses 26 points: the 21 points of level 30 plus 5 from Talented in the Legacy system. Twenty points in Demonology open Demonic Knowledge and Soul Link. The last 2 points are free: Destructive Reach for 20% more range on your Destruction spells such as Searing Pain, Improved Corruption for a faster Corruption, or Improved Life Tap for more mana. Open the build in the talent calculator.

Talent	Points
Demonic Embrace	3/5
Unholy Power	5/5
Fel Vitality	3/3
Demonic Energies	2/2
Demonic Sacrifice	1/1
Master Summoner	2/2
Fel Domination	1/1
Demonic Brand	3/3
Soul Link	1/1
Demonic Knowledge	3/3
Destructive Reach	2/2

After level 30, Master Demonologist and Demonic Pact follow at the bottom of the tree.

What the key talents do

Talent	What it does in Forever
Unholy Power	10% more damage for your demon at 5/5. Your demon deals most of your damage, so take all 5
Demonic Energies	Your spells heal your demon, and Life Tap restores its mana
Demonic Brand	Searing Pain brands the target, your demon deals extra damage and threat on it. The most important talent in the build
Demonic Knowledge	Spell Power for you and your demon equal to your level at 3/3
Soul Link	30% of the damage you take goes to your demon, and you both deal 3% more damage
Master Summoner	A faster summon, and the way to Fel Domination for an almost instant new demon
Demonic Sacrifice	Only a requirement for Soul Link. Do not use it

Improved Voidwalker makes the shield of Sacrifice stronger, a good pick for PvP. Improved Sayaad only raises the base damage of Lash of Pain, so the real gain is small.

Rotation

One enemy

1. Send your demon in.
2. Cast Searing Pain to brand the target.
3. Cast Bane of Agony, Immolate and Corruption.
4. Cast Searing Pain until the enemy dies. Every cast refreshes the Brand.
5. Low on mana? Cast Life Tap if you have health to spare. Low on health? Cast Drain Life, and refresh the Brand with Searing Pain when it runs out.

Two enemies. Put Bane of Agony, Immolate and Corruption on the first and Fear it. Send your demon at the second, cast your DoTs on it and brand it with Searing Pain. Fear the first again when it comes back. When the second dies, send your demon to the first and brand it. With a focus target and a modifier key you can cast on the feared enemy without switching targets.

Dungeons. On bosses, cast Curse of the Elements in a group with many casters, or Curse of Recklessness for a group with mostly melee. Skip curses on trash. Send your demon in after the tank, cast your DoTs, and skip them on enemies that die within about 12 seconds. Cast Shadow Bolt or Drain Life on the tank’s target. In a group, Shadow Bolt is worth it, because your healer pays for part of your Life Taps.

Demonic Brand and threat

At 3/3, Searing Pain makes 50% less threat and brands the target for 10 seconds. Each rank adds 2 demon attacks to the Brand, so your demon’s next 6 attacks deal extra Fire or Shadow damage, depending on the demon, and extra threat. The Brand ends after 10 seconds or after the last of those attacks, so in practice you recast about every 6 seconds.

Searing Pain has no travel time, and rank 2 arrives at level 26. Before you have Demonic Brand, do not cast it: it makes so much threat that it pulls enemies off your demon. From level 28, put a Firestone from Create Firestone on your weapon for extra Fire damage and crit on Searing Pain.

Demons

• Succubus or Incubus (Summon Succubus): the most damage of any demon, and with Demonic Brand it holds threat for almost the whole fight. Your default solo demon. Seduction keeps a humanoid out of the fight in dungeons.
• Voidwalker (Summon Voidwalker): your backup tank for enemies that hit too hard. Torment holds threat much better than in Classic, and rank 3 at level 30 fixes the threat problems of the late 20s.
• Felhunter (Summon Felhunter): almost the damage of the Succubus, and Devour Magic removes magic effects. Spell Lock only arrives at level 36.
• Imp (Summon Imp): little damage, but Blood Pact gives the group Stamina.

Bind Attack and Follow to keys you can press without thinking, so you can send your demon in or pull it back before it runs into another group. The new Move command lets you place your demon anywhere.

Health and mana

Life Tap now scales with Spirit. Rank 3 converts 140 health plus your Spirit into the same amount of mana, plus 10% per point in Improved Life Tap. With Demonic Energies, every Life Tap also restores your demon’s mana. Rank 2 of Searing Pain costs 68 mana, so one Life Tap of 200 mana pays for about 3 casts. Two rules keep you from drinking:

• A lot more health than mana? Cast Life Tap.
• Low on health? Cast Drain Life until you have enough health to tap again.

Stats and gear

Spell Power, Shadow damage and Fire damage first, then Stamina and Spirit, then Intellect. Spell Power also makes your demon stronger. Shadow damage helps Corruption and Bane of Agony, Fire damage helps Searing Pain. Stamina gives more health to tap, Spirit more mana per Life Tap. Hit and crit are rare on gear at level 30, and this build has no Suppression, so you miss enemies of your level 4% of the time.

• Tailoring has new soulbound Shadow pieces such as Shadow Gown and Shadow Gloves, and Flame pieces that boost Searing Pain. Only the tailor can wear them.
• Weapons. Your weapon is a stat stick, its Spell Power matters more than its damage. The Warlock quest for the Orb of Soran’ruk lets you choose between Staff of Soran’ruk and Orb of Soran’ruk. Staff of the Shade from Razorfen Kraul has more Shadow damage, but does nothing for Searing Pain.
• Wands. Gravestone Scepter from Blackfathom Deeps is the strongest wand before level 30. At 30 Searing Pain is your filler; use the wand to finish enemies below about 20%.

Races and professions

Faction	Race	Why
Alliance	Human	Ruthless for 2% more critical strike chance, The Human Spirit for more Spirit. The best choice
Alliance	Gnome	Expansive Mind for more mana, Eureka! for stronger, cheaper spells
Horde	Undead	Touch of the Grave scales with Stamina, Cannibalize also restores mana, Will of the Forsaken breaks Fear. The best choice in most situations
Horde	Orc	Blood Fury: 10% more spell power for 15 seconds, Shatter Curse against curses
Horde	Troll	Rapid Regeneration heals 50% of your health over 6 seconds, Beast Slaying against beasts

None of these is strong enough to skip a race you like more.

Professions. Tailoring makes Shadow and Flame gear at almost every level, and its camp buff gives Spirit. Enchanting pairs well with it. First Aid gives bandages and now also potions and cures for poison, disease and bleeds, which a Warlock cannot remove otherwise. Alchemy makes Lesser Arcane Elixir and Lesser Mageblood Elixir.