Demonologist Spotlight Part II

This post is continuing on with the discussions I had with Bristinie (BRK's ex-guild lock, currently on hiatus to recuperate and refocus on RL for a bit) focussing on the Wonderful Ways of Demonology. I'm basically just going to let Bristine run the proceedings here - for part 2 of our conversation (first part here), I asked him about his cast rotations, some general thoughts on cursing, some further insight on raiding as a demonologist and lastly the key talents that go towards making a good raiding build warlock. What I received was a well thought-out response that reflects many of my own opinions, and many more - its a shame he rolls as a pretty boy Alliance or I'd do my best to poach him. Here is a great example of what everyone should want to see in a raider - someone that isn't satisfied in just knowing "what" they're meant to do, but also seeks to understand the "why" of it all. As someone that has spent a fair amount of time recruiting, take it from me that these are rare traits to see...

However, on with the show - I'll comment on a couple of things as we go, but I'm mainly back seat driving, this is Bristinie's show today.

Bristinie:
First, my cast rotation, first, your curse, all warlocks should always have a curse up at all times on the target, and demonology locks should use whichever their warlock class leader assigns them, on all bosses before a DPS curse is used, make sure at LEAST CoE and CoS is up. Once those two are set, (hopefully by a warlock with malediction) my curse of choice is either CoD or CoR, depending on the boss. On a boss that hits like a wimp, like Leo, I like CoR, for Tidewalker, I'd use CoD. CoD, while having lower dps than CoA, allows for more freedom in rotation, and will usually increase overall dps by allowing you a few more shadowbolts per minute, when you would be using GCD's on refreshing CoA.

TeePee:
I've covered most of my thoughts on cursing here - while CoE and CoS are certainly staples, depending on your raid make-up CoR may be of as much or even more use to you. Bristinie's definitely right about picking your bosses - any boss with abilities based on their AP is generally a bad choice for using CoR unless you greatly out-gear the encounter.

As for the CoA vs CoD debate, the maths speaks for itself. In just 2 minutes of fight time, you can cast CoD twice, or CoA 5 times. With the global cooldown taken into account, the 3 extra casts of CoA is 4.5 seconds, which is "nearly" 2 shadowbolts worth of cast time (1.8 if you want to be exact). If you add those 2 shadowbolts on top of your CoD damage, you'll no doubt find yourself a long way in front and hopefully see why a lower dps spell can actually still increase your total DPS.

Bristinie:
Then, your two other DoTs, Corruption and Immolate. I use both, and because I do, I do not advise Demo warlocks (before very high content) to use shadow damage only gear. The bonus to your shadow DPS and FG DPS will either barely or not at all outweigh having a smaller, but equal amount of fire damage, because Immolate can crit, while your shadow DoT's cannot, this can mean a huge difference in damage done over the course of the fight. I always use Corruption then Immolate, because then they will finish at exactly the same time to refresh them again, barring the T4/4pc bonus (I am not sure how that would affect my cast rotation, I only run with three of my five pieces anymore).

TeePee:
The other reason I always liked to cast Corruption before Immolate was due to the initial damage component of Immolate - casting Corruption first gives your tanks those couple of extra seconds to get a better agro lead so a big immolate crit coupled with an unlucky run for your tank doesn't mean you pull agro early. Strictly speaking this should rarely be an issue, but even the best tank will occasionally run into a string of dodges and/or misses and just not get that intial burst of agro they'd normally like.

Bristinie:
Once those are ticking, shadowbolt. Over and over and over. Shadowbolt will make up for a massive percentage of a demonology warlock's DPS, usually about 50%.

TeePee:
The shadow mage sees your 50%, and raises you 50%!

*tumbleweeds*

/sigh

Bristinie:
Now, while you're doing that, there are an incredible number of things one should monitor (you can very easily get away without some of these, but I prefer to know more about what is going on in my raid than less). I watch first, my DoT timer, I use ClassTimer for it, but to each their own for that. Then Thooghun, my felguard. He is the reason I am doing as much damage to the boss as I am. Then, my own health, and mana, for obvious reasons. Those are the things that every demo warlock HAS to monitor to be successful, I choose to also watch my healers. I use Grid for my raid frames, and enable range checking, and mana bars. This way I know whether I need to use a Healthstone, if it is safe to Lifetap, and the likelihood I need to be heading to a corner to Hellfire (I do not condone Hellfiring yourself to death if your raid leader does not approve of it, trust me, it isn't worth the problems it can cause). By watching my healers, I can effectively estimate how safe I am to be lifetapping, and saving potion CD's for health pots, because a living warlock does a lot more dps than a dead one.

After all of that, I watch Omen. Thats right, Omen comes last. This is because demonology is the most threat efficient of the warlock specs. It has 0 inherent threat reduction, but, 30% or so of my damage comes from my felguard. So I can show up as doing 1200 dps on a boss fight, but only 900 of that would be attributed to me, which salv reduces to 600 or so, which is well below what a tank should be able to generate at the t4-5 gear level.

TeePee:
If you're thinking about rolling with demonology, re-read that last paragraph. Seriously.

Bristinie:
As a demonology warlock, one can reasonably expect a ton of damage in a raid environment, but at the cost of fragility. I know that sounds all wrong because of Soul Link, which should always be on, but the fragility of your spec comes in your felguard. A felguard can take very little punishment in a raid environment compared to an average melee, and very few healers would even consider healing one. You always have to know every boss from both the melee and ranged DPS perspective to be successful as a demonologist, letting a buffed felguard die is a huge waste, and as far as I've seen that can always be avoided.

As a demonologist, there are a few key talents to have if you want to raid with your felguard. I raid with a classic 6/44/11 spec, which works very very well all up until t6 content, where the optimal spec would have more points in destruction to utilize the reduced Shadow Bolt threat and increased range. However, I agree that if one is spending points in demonology at all, there are a few key talents that one should be going towards, Improved HS, and Imp, then Demonic Sacrifice, then Soul Link, then Felguard (I strongly encourage anyone that may be taking a Felguard as their primary pet to also take at least one point in mana feed and three in demonic resilience). Along the way, the points you pick do not matter much, as long as they make sense, as it is those key talents most people will spec into that encourages them to touch any of the lower demonology talents.

As a demonologist, one of the most powerful tools you have, is the ability to desummon your felguard, and resummon them nearly instantaneously, by using a macro. The gist of it is that you can instantly dismiss your felguard, who will come back at full health and mana, and all of his previous buffs, which translate into spell damage for the demonologist. Abuse this. Anytime a felguard is even remotely close to death, I would resummon, and go on back to my rotation.

So, there you have it - basic demonology raiding guidelines in a nutshell. Hopefully we'll hear more from Bristinie with the occasional guest spot, and he'll return to the ranks of the WoW masses in the near future.