Overview

Demonology Warlocks are demon summoners, not casters. Your damage is almost entirely delivered by the demons you call — Dreadstalkers, Wild Imps, and your Felguard — rather than the spells you personally cast. Everything in this spec is structured around one core loop: generate Soul Shards, spend them to summon demons, and have as many active demons as possible when Summon Demonic Tyrant goes out.

Primary resource: Soul Shards, capped at 5. Generated by Shadow Bolt and Demonbolt (when you have Demonic Core procs). Spent on Call Dreadstalkers and Hand of Gul'dan. Regenerate to 3 out of combat.

Two Cardinal Rules

1. Never overcap at 5 Shards — spending is always better than banking, except immediately before entering a Tyrant window.
2. Always set up Dreadstalkers before Demonic Tyrant — Tyrant extends Dreadstalker duration via Reign of Tyranny. An empty setup wastes your primary damage window.

Strengths

• Durable — strong survivability options for a DPS spec
• Flexible talent choices across different group compositions
• Strong solo and Delve capability via pet tanking and self-healing
• Unique utility: Demonic Gateway (often used for instance skips), Soulstone

Weaknesses

• No damage immunity
• Higher ramp time — damage builds into windows, not instant
• Lower burst output outside cooldown phases

---

Stat Priority

Demonology values all secondary stats fairly closely. Follow item level first — a higher-ilvl piece is almost always an upgrade regardless of secondaries.

Priority	Stat	Notes
1	Intellect	Always follow item level
2	Haste	Tied with Crit — slight preference
2	Critical Strike	Tied with Haste
4	Mastery	Increases demon damage by a percentage
5	Versatility	Damage dealt ↑, damage taken ↓ (at half the rate)

Diminishing Returns Thresholds

DR kicks in above these rating values — you won't hit them in normal gearing, but relevant for min-maxing:

Stat	DR Threshold
Critical Strike	1,380 rating
Haste	1,320 rating
Mastery	1,380 rating
Versatility	1,620 rating

Stats are close enough that item level should be treated as the best stat. When in doubt, sim your character via Raidbots for precise optimization — no stat priority list beats a personalized sim.

---

Talent Builds

Hero Talent Choice

Soul Harvester is the stronger choice. Diabolist is fully viable with no meaningful performance loss — both are supported builds. The rotation priority lists below are separated by Hero Talent path; make sure you're reading the correct one.

Raid Build

Linear design, low complexity. To convert to a cleave-friendly version for multi-target raid encounters: swap in Implosion and Mark of F'harg — no other changes needed.

Mythic+ Builds

Two variants, both viable depending on your preferred playstyle:

Build	Approach	Best For
Doomguard Variant	Uses Demonbolt to spread Doom across multiple targets; Hand of Gul'dan for AoE; Summon Doomguard as a strong 2-minute AoE cooldown	Players comfortable with target-swapping and Doom management
Vilefiend Variant	Simpler and more passive; emphasizes automatic summoning alongside Call Dreadstalkers; fewer active decisions	Learning the spec or lower-complexity keys

Delves Build

Prioritises survivability and sustained solo performance over raw throughput. Use this for solo content — it is not optimised for group play.

Import strings for each build are available in the Wowhead Demonology Talent Builds guide to paste directly into the in-game talent UI.

---

Rotation & Cooldowns

Core Model

The spec runs on a generator → spender loop:

• Generators: Shadow Bolt (baseline), Demonbolt (when Demonic Core is active — proc from spending Shards)
• Spenders: Call Dreadstalkers (2 Shards), Hand of Gul'dan (1–3 Shards)

Never overcap Shards. Always prioritise spending when approaching 5, except in the few GCDs before a Tyrant window where banking to 4–5 is correct.

---

Opener — Diabolist

Step	Action
−5s	Pre-cast Power Siphon
−1.5s	Pre-cast Shadow Bolt
1	Grimoire: Imp Lord
2	Call Dreadstalkers
3	Summon Demonic Tyrant
4	Hand of Gul'dan
5	Demonbolt
6	Hand of Gul'dan
7	Demonbolt
8	Hand of Gul'dan
9	Demonbolt
10	Hand of Gul'dan
11	Infernal Bolt
→	Continue single-target priority

Opener — Soul Harvester

Step	Action
−5s	Pre-cast Power Siphon
−1.5s	Pre-cast Shadow Bolt
1	Grimoire: Imp Lord
2	Call Dreadstalkers
3	Summon Demonic Tyrant
4	Hand of Gul'dan
5	Hand of Gul'dan
6	Demonbolt
7	Hand of Gul'dan
→	Continue single-target priority

---

Single-Target Priority — Diabolist

1. Power Siphon
2. Call Dreadstalkers
3. Hand of Gul'dan / Ruination
4. Grimoire: Imp Lord / Grimoire: Fel Ravager
5. Summon Demonic Tyrant
6. Summon Doomguard
7. Demonbolt (Demonic Core procs only)
8. Shadow Bolt / Infernal Bolt

Single-Target Priority — Soul Harvester

1. Power Siphon
2. Call Dreadstalkers
3. Hand of Gul'dan
4. Grimoire: Imp Lord / Grimoire: Fel Ravager
5. Summon Demonic Tyrant
6. Summon Doomguard
7. Demonbolt (Demonic Core procs only)
8. Shadow Bolt

---

AoE Priority — Diabolist

1. Implosion (at 6 Wild Imps)
2. Summon Doomguard
3. Call Dreadstalkers
4. Hand of Gul'dan / Ruination
5. Grimoire: Imp Lord / Grimoire: Fel Ravager
6. Summon Demonic Tyrant
7. Demonbolt (Demonic Core procs only)
8. Shadow Bolt / Infernal Bolt

AoE Priority — Soul Harvester

1. Implosion (at 6 Wild Imps)
2. Summon Doomguard
3. Call Dreadstalkers
4. Hand of Gul'dan
5. Grimoire: Imp Lord / Grimoire: Fel Ravager
6. Summon Demonic Tyrant
7. Demonbolt (Demonic Core procs only)
8. Shadow Bolt

---

Cooldown Reference

Cooldown	Notes
Summon Demonic Tyrant	Main DPS cooldown. Gains damage per active demon; extends Dreadstalker duration via Reign of Tyranny. Always enter with Dreadstalkers active.
Grimoire: Imp Lord	On-demand dispel + moderate damage. 2-minute cooldown.
Grimoire: Fel Ravager	Interrupt on target; grants Spell Lock access during its duration.
Implosion	15-second cooldown. Consumes up to 6 Wild Imps. Always use at max stacks — never early.
Summon Doomguard	Strong multi-target cooldown; effective up to 5 targets.
Felstorm (Felguard)	Advanced — disable auto-cast on single-target to preserve Felguard energy for extra Legion Strike casts.

Advanced Mechanics

Demonic Core management: Maintain 2 charges when possible. Bank before Tyrant windows so you can rapidly generate Shards while Tyrant is active. Maximum stack cap is 4.

Doom spreading (AoE): In multi-target situations, cast Demonbolt on multiple targets — each enemy gets its own independent Doom application and ticks independently.

---

Enchants & Gems

Enchants

Slot	Enchant
Weapon	Enchant Weapon — Jan'alai's Precision
Helm	Enchant Helm — Empowered Rune of Avoidance
Chest	Enchant Chest — Mark of the Worldsoul
Shoulders	Enchant Shoulders — Flight of the Eagle
Legs	Sunfire Silk Spellthread
Boots	Enchant Boots — Lynx's Dexterity
Ring	Enchant Ring — Silvermoon's Alacrity

Gems

Gem	Color
Flawless Masterful Peridot	Green
Flawless Deadly Amethyst	Purple
Flawless Quick Garnet	Red
Indecipherable Eversong Diamond	Meta

Haste gems (Quick Garnet) are generally safe defaults. Sim your character via Raidbots to confirm exact gem choices for your specific gear set.

Consumables

Type	Item
Flask	Flask of the Shattered Sun
Combat Potion	Light's Potential
Health Potion	Silvermoon Health Potion
Weapon Buff	Thalassian Phoenix Oil
Augment Rune	Void-Touched Augment Rune
Personal Food	Royal Roast
Group Feast	Silvermoon Parade

Personal food (Royal Roast) is preferred over feast when available — Warlock stat weighting favours the Intellect bonus over the generalist feast buff.

---

Best in Slot Gear

Season 1 BiS. The 4-piece Abyssal Immolator's tier set (head, chest, gloves, legs) is clearly best — prioritise getting the four pieces over individual slot upgrades.

Slot	Item	Source
Weapon	Final Grade	Algeth'ar Academy
Head	Abyssal Immolator's Smoldering Flames	Tier Set
Neck	Barbed Ymirheim Choker	Pit of Saron
Shoulders	Mantle of Dark Devotion	Windrunner Spire
Cloak	Adherent's Silken Shroud	Crafting
Chest	Abyssal Immolator's Dreadrobe	Tier Set
Wrist	Voracious Wristwraps	Vorasius
Gloves	Abyssal Immolator's Grasps	Tier Set
Belt	Whisper-Inscribed Sash	Belo'ren
Legs	Abyssal Immolator's Pillars	Tier Set
Boots	Dream-Scorched Striders	Chimaerus
Ring 1	Eye of Midnight	Midnight Falls
Ring 2	Signet of Azerothian Blessings	Crafting
Trinket 1	Gaze of the Alnseer	Chimaerus
Trinket 2	Shadow of the Empyrean Requiem	Midnight Falls

Crafted slots (Cloak + Ring 2): These are accessible early via work orders. Prioritise them — two crafted BiS pieces that don't require raid lockouts.

Primary gearing avenue: Raid (Midnight Falls, Windrunner Spire, Chimaerus), supplemented by Mythic+ for off-tier slots and the Great Vault for targeted upgrades.

---

Tips & Common Mistakes

• Never overcap Shards — if you're sitting at 5 with nothing to spend on, you're losing damage. The only time banking near cap is correct is in the ~2 GCDs before a Tyrant window.
• Set up Dreadstalkers before Tyrant, always — Reign of Tyranny extends their duration. A Tyrant cast with no Dreadstalkers up is one of the most expensive mistakes you can make.
• Bank Demonic Core charges before Tyrant — entering a Tyrant window with 3–4 Demonic Core stacks lets you rapidly spend Shards into new summons while Tyrant amplifies them.
• Implosion at 6 Imps, not before — partial Implosion is always a DPS loss. Wait for the stack.
• Disable Felguard Felstorm auto-cast on single-target — preserving energy for Legion Strike casts is a small but real gain in sustained single-target fights.
• Sim for gems and stats — Demonology's stat weights are close enough that generic recommendations (like this guide's) are good defaults, not gospel. A 10-minute Raidbots sim will tell you exactly where your breakpoints are for your current gear.