A look at new Demonology in Midnight

Classes Warlock
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I’ll start by saying I don’t have the alpha version and I’m basing this on footage, videos, and personal analysis of new talent and new synergies as well as the new philosophy behind the specialization. I know, is an alpha but…

I definitely like the idea of ​​button bloating, which for a class like the warlock in general was starting to become a problem due to the fact that it took a very long time to deal damage compared to all the other classes. The simplification is certainly appealing (I really like it for PvP purposes), but it might not appeal to those who wanted to maximize the perfect tyrant and manage the number of imps as best as possible

I really like the idea of ​​the Hand of Guldan’s transforming into the Eye of Guldan’s in single-target mode, but its implication that it relies on the number of imps and the use of implosions leaves me very very perplexed.
The synergy between implosion and Doomguard is really bad on a conceptual level. Implosion is a big problem for me, maybe need to remove it (every imps can automatically explode at a target when it is depleted).

In my opinion, it would be much better to make sure there is a “stance” to switch between Hand and Eye (with the use of a shard, similar to the old Fire & Brimstone from the MOP destruction).
This way, you can intuitively and quickly choose whether to use AOE or single-target abilities, without having to use an AOE ability a few times to be able to access it the third time (if I understand correctly) and get the Eye of Guldan’s. Why would I need to hit a single target multiple times with an AOE attack to saturate the imps and thus have access to a single-target attack? Totally nonsense and very weird, cluncky.

I think it would be smart if the Hand of Guldan’s with a final talent became the “Hand of Doom” like it used to be, and each target hit inflicts Impending Doom.
After 15 seconds, the Doom explodes, and the chance of summoning Doomguard increases based on the number of targets hit by the explosion. Each hand of guldan’s reduces the Doom’s duration, as it did some time ago. The Doomguard hits all enemies in an AOE attack. This solves the AOE/Single Target problem conceptually and technically. HOG 3 shards as rain of fire for AOE, EOG 2 shards as chaos bolt for single target

The Demonology apex is very strange and probably flawed even on a purely logical level: if they decided to make the Felguard no longer the mandatory primary demon in Demonology, then it makes no sense for two apex talents to buff the Felguard’s abilities. The last apex is also flawed on a logical level; it makes no sense for a soulkeeper to recover souls/demon cores when the same Warlock used a demon core to empower a Demon Bolt! The demon bolt CONSUME a soul, how does the soulkeeper logically recover something that has been used to be burn?
In fact, this would be MUCH more suited to Affliction who juggles souls, snatching them from his enemies, and thematically, the Affliction Nathrezim is perfect for Demonology and not very thematically with Affliction itself!

I’m not a fan of the tyrant at all as a burst (nor of the melee AOE version… even here, technically it would have been more logical for the caster to hit AOE like the Doomguard, and the melee to be single-target, also because if some targets move, he would always go to the main one and therefore the AOE aspect is lost), and I’m even more convinced after playing Legion Remix and witnessing the infinite awesomeness of the Twisted Crusade trait! Now, I’m not saying to replicate the exact same dynamic, but at least think about how to implement a burst like this, which also has the Nether Portal component that they don’t know how to include in the game…

If they really intend to make the felguard no longer the main demon at all costs (a choice that I appreciate VERY much), I pray that they can introduce a system similar to the hunter’s “taming” to be able to choose your own demon (in legion there are hundreds of beautiful demons), possessing it thanks to the subjucate demon and then having a style similar to the hunter’s pets that give interesting buffs and CC.

What do you think?

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I’m wondering where you read that the Fel Guard would no longer be the main pet for demonology? Wasn’t the whole reason they made it a talent so that new players would realise it was the strongest option of the five demons, for Demonology?

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I read it in a blue post

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Honestly i hate the fact we went from full demon damage in dragonflight to now being in between of the player and demons.
The worst part is that they are literally making so you have to track your imps timers, and implode in the last second for maximum single target damage.
I wouldnt have a problem if we were still able to keep weakaura and keep our existing imp tracker. But that wont be an option and im pretty sure blizzard is not gonna add that type of quality of life change untill like 3 expansion forward.

Also the fact we have felguard as a talent is just stupid, anyone who is new will find out very quickly that felguard is demonologys main pet. Infact demonic empowerment served that purpose, as it was only linked to felguard! But you know switch out the old with something worse that serves the same purpose is the goto for changes quotas.

The hero talent seems a lite lackluster, its just a damage amp and doesnt really give any more flow to the whole rotation, if you compare to the new dh’s spec thier hero talent makes you wanna use thier new eye beam as often as you can, completly changing your chosen talents in the spec tree.
The only “cool” thing about hero talent is 3rd dog is back. But even then its not even that big.

If i could change it i would make it so final node of the hero talent would either

  • Change tyrant into a Antaen, either actual model or have us summon a nether portal that has one fire a massive beam towards a pack dealing good ST and some aoe damage.
    The new talent node for aoe could just make so this would apply a dot that deals a portion of the total damage done.

  • Remove tyrant and have us the player become empowered giving us the model of old metamorphosis and have it so we summon additional demons while summoning them
    Example would be when summoning dreadstalkers you summon a Aranasi that puts webs infused with fel giving a slow + dot.

  • Make it so Tyrant is replaced with Imp mother, which is the same as tyrant but now removes the imp cap for its duration, after expiring all additonal imps instantly implode towards your main pets target.

    The amount of accurate and lore friendly examples can almost be endless, but its mainly that blizzard is stuck in the middle ground of either giving player all of the damage or either putting it on the pets.

2 Likes
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After seeing the changes in the new (and final) alpha release I wondered if I was dreaming…

I was very worried about the “new” Demonology, with too many really poor and conceptually disastrous synergies (HOG becoming Eye with three casts, capped imps, doomguard with implosion, poor apex). However, in a week, finally gathering feedback, they’ve really done a remarkable job.

I think that to make implosion much more attractive for AOE it would be enough to reintroduce the ability from battle for azeroth with which using implosion on 3 or more targets increased the haste

Special mention goes to the Grimoire concept: Fel Ravager, which, once summoned, causes spell lock to be applied (the spell itself, once the silencing demon is summoned, becomes spell lock) for 24 seconds, until Fel Ravager’s spell lock runs out (check the last Kalamazi’s video at 27:45 to see Fel Ravager in action)

I really like the Doomguard with CD, implosion with CD finally makes sense and the choice node with power syphon allows you to choose AOE or single target builds… The INSTANT dreadstalkers (who knows if they will go live…), and the revisited return of the Nether Portal (even if 3XHOG to summon a single demon…)

I would create a choice node between Tyrant caster for single target and Tyrant melee for AOE I’m very excited and surprised, and I really hope we can go live with improvements like this. If they also fix the stance issue for curses

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“Reign of Tyranny” should be reconsidered, especially in terms of increasing the duration of dreadstalkers by a full 15 seconds. The problem, of course, stems from the fact that demonic core generation would become much slower

Another problem could be the fact that the “demonic oculi” in the diabolic tree is highly redundant with the new version of the “Eye of Gul’dan,” especially visually. Both the oculi and the eyes have identical graphics and would be too present on the screen, with particularly intrusive lfire rays and chaos. I really like the Eye’s dynamic, but at this point I think the diabolic oculi should be revisited, if not eliminated entirely, in favor of something different

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Revisiting the Tyrant’s dynamics, I think it’s really the only thing I don’t particularly like about the excellent and unexpected rework, besides the talents associated with it.

Antoran Armaments, for example, makes no sense as a talent other than having an AOE Tyrant, in the sense that in the various warlock trees there are nodes where you can choose between single-target and AOE spells (implosion/power syphon, gloomhound/charhound), so I would have expected to be able to choose between a single-target Tyrant caster and a melee AOE Tyrant.

Tyrant Oblation, which increases the warlock’s haste, is a great talent, but I would have also preferred some buff to summoned demons (only the diabolist’s Abyssal Dominion will give this opportunity). Reign of Tyrany doesn’t particularly convince me.

In any case, as written by @Guldone It would be preferable if instead of summoning a demon like the Tyrant you had a sort of self buff similar to metamorphosis, for me a demonic possession with a dark aura that surrounds the warlock, red eyes and horns would be enough for my taste

I’d add that Dominion of Argus needs a rework for the simple fact that it requires a hard cast of HOG, and it already required a lot of hard casting to get to the casted summon of the Tyrant. So either you make the Tyrant instant or Abyssal Dominion simply becomes passive and every 5 seconds a demon emerges from the portal from Argus.
I hope they fix the graphics and add a nice green portal to the side of the warlock so that the demons emerge and attack the target without overlapping the warlock’s silhouette like they do now in alpha .For Dominion of Argus, I suggest using the demon skins from Zereth Mortis, Shadowlands. There are some really beautiful ones. Especially the dreadlord ones

EDIT: I was thinking about the lack of a logical connection between the Doomguard’s CD and Doom itself. In the latest alpha, Doom is spawned with the Demonbolt, and its explosion is anticipated by the HOG, while the Doomguard’s CD decreases for each Demobolt cast.

In my opinion, it could be done like this: after demonic knowledge, you take Hands of Doom so that HOG applies Impending Doom to all targets in range. Each HOG reduces the Doom’s detonation time by 3 seconds. As soon as it explodes or is removed, there’s a chance for each target hit to summon a Doomguard (taking the last talent, of course).

This way, the trait would be much more logical and very suitable for AOE between HOG, Doom that deals AOE damage, and Doomguard that hits AOE with Shadowbolt Volley

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