[9.0] Demonology Warlock Serious Talent REVAMP

[Zwetkun-amnennar]

Hi Fellow Warlock,

You will see all others class talent revamp here : https://eu.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/90-ideas-for-complete-talent-revamp-for-all-class/122538

I will introduce to you the complete rework of Warlock Demonology (not official).

Summary :

We will talk about Demonology Spec. Demono are master of demon, so all their gameplay must be around them. In BFA, Demono has changed in a right way but it’s always missing somthing really important to me. Lock Demono like it is now and previous expansion are always about one demon only, Felguard.

And here is the big issue here. As a Lock Demono I have 5 demons (Felguard, Felhunter, Succubus, Voidwalker and Imp) to control and i should play with the demon I WANT depending on the situation i’m in. Not just Felguard because he does everything better than others.

So Every demon must have 2 core skill: 1 cc and 1 special abilitie.
So i will list now the baseline skill that should be there (for me) to have this kind of freedom of choice. Shadow Bolt is an iconic spell of Demonology.

Take a look at the talent picture here : https://ibb.co/HPzkqZW

Baseline Warlock Affliction Change

Demonic Circle

2% of base mana / 0.5 sec cast / 10 sec cooldown
Summons a Demonic Circle for 15 min. Cast Demonic Circle: Teleport to teleport to its location and remove all movement slowing effects. You also learn: Demonic Circle: Teleport. Teleports you to your Demonic Circle and removes all movement slowing effects.

Curse of Weakness

1.25% of base mana / 40 yd range / Instant / 45 sec cooldown
Reduces the target’s attack power by 30% for 10 sec.

Imp

• Disarm
  30 yd range / Instant / 45 sec cooldown
  Disarm the enemy’s weapons and shield for 6 sec. Disarmed creatures deal significantly reduced damage.

• Singe Magic
  30 yd range / Instant / 15 sec cooldown
  Burns harmful spells, removing 1 harmful Magic effect from an ally.

Succubus

• Seduction
  30 yd range / 1.7 sec cast / 30 sec cooldown
  Seduces the target, disorienting for 30 sec. Damage will break the effect. Only usable against Humanoids.

• Whiplash
  10 yd range / Instant / 25 sec cooldown
  Whips the ground, knocking back all enemies within 5 yards.

Felhunter

• Spell Lock
  40 yd range / Instant / 25 sec cooldown
  Counters the enemy’s spellcast, preventing any spell from that school of magic from being cast for 6 sec.

• Devour Magic
  20 Energy / 30 yd range / Instant / 15 sec cooldown
  Purges 1 beneficial magic effect from an enemy. If an effect is devoured, the Felhunter will be healed for x% and gain 60 Fel Energy.

Voidwalker

• Suffering
  20 Energy / Instant / Instant / 15 sec cooldown
  Maims the enemy, reducing movement speed by 50% for 8 sec.

• Shadow Bulwark
  Instant / 2 min cooldown
  Temporarily increases his master and current and maximum health by 30% for 20 sec.

Felguard

• Axe Toss
  30 yd range / Instant / 30 sec cooldown
  The Felguard hurls its weapon, stunning the target for 4 sec.

• Pursuit
  20 Energy / 8 - 25 yd range / Instant / 15 sec cooldown
  The Felguard charges an enemy, causing X Physical damage and increasing its movement speed by 30% for 8 sec.

Demonic Gateway : TALENT NOW

Explicative Note: With this, Demono doesn’t need extra cc because they have already 5 (1 for each demon) and fear. Now we can talk about utilities and core gameplay of this spec which has a lot of depth.

It’s important to know the fact that Affliction has now baseline:

• 6 CC skill (Fear, 1 cc per demon).
• 1 Mobility skill (Demonic Circle)
• 2 Defensive cd (Unending Resolve and Soul Link).
• No Burst cd.

With this talent, Demonology (and the other classe) has 4 distintive playstyle, 1 for each demon (except voidwalker) and more if you combine talents. Here they are:

• 1 column: Playstyle based on your shadow damage and Succubus.
• 2 column: Playstyle Based on Wild Imp and Imp.
• 3 column: Playstyle Based on Dreadstalker and Felhunter.
• 4 column: Traditional Playstyle Based on your Felguard.

Now we can move to talent (8 tiers). READ carefully because a lot of talent has changed.

Tier 1: Ressource Management

Soul Conduit

Every Soul Shard you spend has a 25% chance to be refunded. You passively generate 1 Soul Shard every 1 min.

Power Siphon

Instant / 1 min cooldown
Instantly sacrifice to 2 Wild Imps to generate 2 Soul Shards.

Demonic Calling

Shadow Bolt and Demonbolt have a 20% chance to make your next Call Dreadstalkers cost 1 less Soul Shard.

Doom

1% of base mana / 40 yd range / Instant
Inflicts impending doom upon the target, causing (100% of Spell power) Shadow damage after 30 sec. Generates 1 Soul Shard when dealing damage. Limit 1 target.

Tier 2: Base Skills Rotation

Maw of Shadows

Increases the critical strike chance of Demonbolt and Shadow Bolt by 15%.

Jaws of Shadow

Dreadbite increases damage taken from your Wild Imps’ Fel Firebolt by 10%.

Master Summoner

Reduce the cast time of your Call Dreadstalkers by 50%.

Grimoire: Felguard

Your Doomguard deals 10% more damage and has 10% more health.

Tier 3: Basic Gameplay

Pleasure through Pain

While your Succubus is active, your Shadow damage is increased by 10% and reduce the cast time of your Shadow Bolt by 0.5 sec Demonbolt by 2 sec.

The Expendables

While your Imp is active, your other Wild Imps are inspired and gain 1% additional damage each time it deal damage, stacking up to 10 times.

Sharpened Dreadfangs

While your Felhunter is active, your Dreadstalkers have a 20% chance to be enraged, causing each to deal (40% of Spell power) Shadow damage to its current target.

Soul Strike

50 yd range / Instant / 10 sec cooldown
Command your Felguard to strike into the soul of its enemy, dealing X Shadow damage. Generates 1 Soul Shard.

Tier 4: Defense

Open Link

Increases healing done by Soul Link by 30%.

Soul Skin

When your health drops below 20%, Soul Link increases to split 35% of all damage you take with your demon pet.

Demon Armor

Protects the caster, increasing maximum health by 5% and increases armor by 100%.

Sacrificial Pact

Instant / 2 min cooldown
Your demon sacrifices 75% of its current health to shield its master for 150% of the sacrificed health. Lasts 20 sec. Can be cast while suffering from control impairing effects.

Tier 5: Mobility

Burning Rush

Instant / 1 min cooldown
Increases your movement speed by 100% for 5 sec, but also damages you for 3% of your maximum health every 1 sec. Movement impairing effects may not reduce you below 100% of normal movement speed.

Demonic Breath

Instant / 20 sec cooldown
Sends a cone of dark energy before you, reducing the movement speed by 70% of all enemy targets within 10 yards for 6 sec.

Demonic Gateway

20% of base mana / 10 - 40 yd range / 2 sec cast / 10 sec cooldown
Creates a demonic gateway between two locations. Activating the gateway transports the user to the other gateway. Each player can use a Demonic Gateway only once per 1.5 min.

Planeswalker

Reduces the cooldown on Demonic Circle: Teleport by 5 sec. Your Demonic Circle reduces the movement speed of nearby enemies by 30%.

Tier 6: Area of Effect (AOE)

Bilescourge Bombers

2 Soul Shards / 40 yd range / Instant cast / 30 sec cooldown
Tear open a portal to the nether above the target location, from which several Bilescourge will pour out of and crash into the ground over 6 sec, dealing (40% of Spell power) Shadow damage to all enemies within 8 yards.

Shadow’s Discord

Hand of Gul’dan has 20% chance to deal (4 * (10% of Spell power)) Shadow damage to all nearby enemies over 6 sec.

Dreadlash

When your Dreadstalkers charge into battle, their Dreadbite attack now hits all targets within 8 yards and deals 10% more damage.

Demonic Strength

Instant / 1 min cooldown
Infuse your Felguard with demonic strength and command it to charge your target and unleash a Felstorm that will deal 400% increased damage.

Tier 7: Refine playstyle

Stolen Power

When your Wild Imps cast Firebolt, you gain an application of Stolen Power. After you reach 50 applications, your next Demonbolt deals 25% or Shadowbolt deals 50% increased damage.

Imp-erator

Increases the critical strike chance of your Wild Imp’s Fel Firebolt by 35%.

Improved Dreadstalkers

Call Dreadstalkers now also summons 2 Wild Imp and Dreadstalkers now last 15 sec.

Inner Demons

You passively summon a Wild Imp to fight for you every 10 sec.

Tier 8: Burst

Sacrificed Souls

Shadow Bolt and Demonbolt deal 4% additional damage per demon you have summoned.

Demonic Consumption

Your Demonic Tyrant now destroys and absorbs the remaining power of all of your Wild Imps to empower himself.

Nether Portal

1 Soul Shards / 40 yd range / 2.5 sec cast / 3 min cooldown
Tear open a portal to the Twisting Nether for 20 sec. Every time you spend Soul Shards, you will also command demons from the Nether to come out and fight for you.

Call Fel Lord

2 Soul Shards / 40 yd range / Instant cast / 1.5 min cooldown
Summon a fel lord to guard the location for 15 sec. Any enemy that comes within 6 yards will suffer (60% of Spell power) Physical samage, and be stunned for 1 sec.

I repeate that none of this is official. It’s just my personnal point of view of the spec but i truly think that a lot of classes need this particular attention.
Thanks for reading me.

Support this Project. Make WOW Great Again !
Your humble servant !

[Dâedra-argent-dawn]

As huge Demonology enthusiast, i must say - I love the IDEA behind current Demonology BUT, even with these talents changes (that looks really good, Kudos to you mister), puppeteer demonology is doomed because of ineffective tools of controlling our demons. As a puppeteer specialization - demonology has the most uneffective tools to control demons that he/she summons duirng battle. You can’t change target of your Tyrant, Dreadstalkers, Wild Imps, Vilefiends, Demons from Grimoire of Service, and demons from Nether portal and inner demons talents. While monk, and DK can do that with ease for their minions (army of the dead and elemental spirits).
Without changes to our control tools over our demons, any talent, spell and other changes that doesn’t involve a core redesign of the current Demonogy is DOOMED and useless, we will still be in the same dire situation.

I know that this is not popular idea among puppeteer desing lovers, but hear me out. Yes, the idea behind puppeteer demo is interesting, but truth be told, in the current state of the game and tech behind the game such desing is the dead on arrival. The share amount of bugs or desing flaws kills demonology - control over demons, AI of our demons, outdated gameplay desing of our demons and ETC. For us would be better if we recieve back MoP/WoD demo back, because that itteration of Demo had flawless gameplay desing that had GAMEPLAY dept, but was way more reliable on the technical level of implementation class design and class fantasy… and yes, for all of you who SCREAMS that it is not the Demo way to transform into the demons.
Just check the lore journal of Jubeka Shadowbreaker - one of the strongest warlocks of Black harvest.

Jubeka’s Journal day 36:
Remarkable! My first attempt to summon a higher order member of the legion failed as spectacularly as planned. The shivarra broke free almost instantly after Kanrethad completed the ritual.

I expected the frail human to be struck down while I banished the creature. Instead, in the instant that the shivarra’s razor-sharp blades sliced through the air, Kanrethad’s form shifted and the blades bounced as if striking stone.

Unlike the typical form of metamorphosis, he did not complete the demonic transformation… perhaps his research has been more successful than I expected.

Or you can check this post of my old char.

Demonology warlock - anatomy of failure

First i will start with recognition - yes there are some players who enjoy current demonology design/gameplay. Yes i understand your reasons for loving current spec, i do…i really do. But we must admit one simple thing - current demonology broken by so many levels, that spell buffs/nerfs or talent changes will not revilitiase spec in current gameplay meta and especially in PvP. Lets take a look what did the old talents(pre MoP) and modern talents (MoP/pre legion) work. Pre MoP talents worked …

and this one

What is demonology ideology and class fantasy

Demo was ruined in Legion, people was deceived by alluring puppeteer gameplay. At some part demonology really became this puppeteer - a demon master who summons army of demons to the battlefield and command them. But did it worked in class fantasy and gameplay ways? Blizzard replaced quality of demons with quantity, not thinking about problems that puppeteer will experience in this game engine. We are really summoned army of demons in battlefield, but it was simple imps and dreadstalkers - th…

You can look at my previous post about control over our demons.

Blizzard : When are you making Demonology Lock competitive again?

If demonology has to stay as puppeteer class, then it need drastic spec design changes and serious rework of C++ code that was used to fuel demonology abilities. First, demonology need…no demands more control over his/her demons. Right now, we - demonology warlocks - is the most pet focused spec in the game, have least effective tools to control our demons. Just look at these two clips Is how our demons respond on our commands, and what takes to force them to change their target. [W…

[Blacklock-argent-dawn (Blacklock)]

Doesnt matter. They’ll revamp us to an even worse version.

It’s tradition at thus point

[Razorchaos-argent-dawn]

WTB mop arms warrior cause current arms is beyond stupid

[Inagony-twisting-nether (Inagony)]

I agree with everything you wrote in that post.

First of all; I don’t feel like I am commander of a demon army. What we call as demon army are just imps. I can opt. to summon different demons through talents (Nether Portal + Grimoire of Felguard [i already have a Felguard…] ) But I can’t control them AT ALL. I don’t have a way to cleave; I don’t have a way to switch targets. All I have is ST or heavy AoE with Implosions, which feels bad! I summon Imps but I don’t even control them. Use Implosion and they disappear…

In arena its even worse. ALL classes can easily outrun my demons. Can’t even be compered to BM Hunter pets. They stick to me like a glue.

I am not really saying bring Meta back (Although I would be very happy). But to say mechanically okay and play-wise decent… is just ridicilious imo.

Edit: I wholeheartedly disagree with people that think Meta can’t be a part of Warlock fantasy. They either never digged into lore or are just trolls.

[Gulgammeth-stormscale]

Blizzard are HIV man. They are greedy pathetic company, wont even bother. They want only money.

[Bal-silvermoon]

I’d really like to have more control over demonic tyrant and have it’s Demonfire spell non-interruptable. Pvp-wise you work hard to make one strong tyrant, one cc and it’s over, your only damage is gone next 1.5 mins. BM hunter’s pets become immune to ccs while enraged, why can’t demonic tyrant be? he’s a strong demonic TYRANT, not a some random beast like BM’s. He must be immune to all kind of ccs and kicks.

[Dâedra-argent-dawn]

If demonology will stay as puppeteer spec in core desing, the whole process of summoning demons should be reworked. Here is my few ideas.
Hand of Gul’Dan should be reverted back to the MoP desing

• Hand of Gul’Dan
• • Instacast
• • Has two charges
• • Applies shadowflame DoT on the target. Stackable.

With such change warlocks would require a new spell to summon demons, same rule with current HoG would be applied on this spell.

• Requires from 1 to X* soulshards.
• Summons from 1 to X* amount of demons.

This will allow demo to:

• Summon demons without dealing AoE damage - this would be useful in situations where targets that was CCe by fear/seduction/blind would not be damaged.

• It will allow summon demons in advance before combat encouter.

Additionaly demons that would be summoned by this spell must share control scheme with our prime demon - in other words we should be able to control them using pet control panel.

Other idea is that since Demonology is heavily focused on our demons, there should be talents that would allow us to modify/alter some of our demons abilities, like some defence ones.

• Felguard/Wrathguard will recieve a shield and would be able to use abilities like mass reflect of something like that.
• Voidwalker - will recieve Consume shadows or something like that.
• Succubus/Shivara - will recieve Vanish like ability.
• ETC

[Akezo-kazzak]

the disgusting idiots should just bring back MoP/WoD Demonology and scrap this thing or make it a 4th spec and let people who like their spec not making any sense have fun with current iteration