In this article, we list your Demonology Warlock (WoW MoP 5.3) core abilities and how they should be used together (rotation). We also explain when to use your various cooldowns. Then, we go deeper and present all the subtleties that playing a Demonology Warlock will face you with.

The other articles of our Demonology Warlock guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.

This guide has been reviewed and approved by two prominent Warlock theorycrafters: Gahddo, who maintains the Warlock profiles and rotations in Simulation Craft, and Evrelia, who raids in ScrubBusters and frequently streams on Twitch.

1. Single Target Rotation↑top

Demonic Fury is your Mists of Pandaria resource as a Demonology Warlock and managing it properly is very important. Demonic Fury is consumed when you enter Metamorphosis, something that you should do every time you deal increased damage ( Dark Soul: Knowledge, trinket procs, boss takes increased damage, etc.). The rest of the time, you need to keep building up Demonic Fury for the next activation of Metamorphosis.

Spending Demonic Fury during Metamorphosis and building it up outside Metamorphosis is done through two different rotations, which we present next.

For more information on your opening sequence, please refer to our dedicated section.

1.1. Building Up Demonic Fury for Metamorphosis

To build up Demonic Fury, use the following rotation.

1. Keep Corruption applied on the target.
   • Corruption is extended when you cast Touch of Chaos while in Metamorphosis, so you will generally not have to refresh it manually. That said, if Corruption is about to drop and you have no reason to enter Metamorphosis, then you can refresh it manually.
2. Cast Hand of Gul'dan when you have two charges.
3. Cast Hand of Gul'dan when you have a charge and Shadowflame has between 3 and 4 seconds left on the target.
   • Please read our Hand of Guldan section for a more efficient (but more complex) way of using Hand of Guldan and Shadowflame.
4. Cast Shadow Bolt as a filler.

If you feel your Demonic Fury generation is not high enough, you can use Soul Fire on Molten Core procs. This will increase your Demonic Fury generation and you will have less Molten Core procs to use during Metamorphosis, thus reducing your Demonic Fury consumption. In this case, casting Soul Fire has a higher priority than casting Shadow Bolt.

1.2. Spending Demonic Fury in Metamorphosis

Whenever you are going to deal increased damage for a given time window ( Dark Soul: Knowledge, trinket proc, boss mechanics, etc.), you should enter Metamorphosis and keep it active until you no longer deal increased damage or until you consume all your Demonic Fury.

While in Metamorphosis, use the following rotation.

1. Apply Doom or reapply it
   • if it has less than 30 seconds remaining;
   • or if you are currently under the effect of a very powerful buff (large trinket proc, Dark Soul: Knowledge).
2. Use Soul Fire on Molten Core procs.
   • If you feel your Demonic Fury generation is too low, then you can save some Molten Core procs to cast Soul Fire outside Metamorphosis and generate Demonic Fury.
3. Spam Touch of Chaos.

When the target is below 25% health, you will be able to cast Soul Fire on demand, thanks to Decimation. In this case, spam Soul Fire while in Metamorphosis and cast Touch of Chaos when you need to extend Corruption. If your Demonic Fury generation feels too low to spam Soul Fire, you can cast Soul Fire from time to time and spam Touch of Chaos the rest of the time.

1.3. Pandemic

Understanding Pandemic and understanding when to refresh your DoTs ( Doom, in particular) is very important, so make sure to read our Refreshing Your DoTs section, especially if you have Unerring Vision of Lei-Shen (LFR, Heroic).

1.4. Curse of the Elements

Remember to apply and maintain Curse of the Elements if no one else in your raid/party can provide the same debuff.

2. Demon↑top

Always use a Felguard, your Demonology-specific demon. If you chose Grimoire of Supremacy as your Tier 5 talent, then use a Wrathguard (the Felguard upgrade).

Remember to turn off your Felguard's Threatening Presence.

3. Multiple Target Rotation↑top

Against 2 or 3 enemies, stick to your normal rotation and keep Corruption and Doom up on all targets. Additionally, use Command Demon to make your Felguard cast Felstorm.

Against 4 or more enemies, start using Void Ray instead of Touch of Chaos, while in Metamorphosis.

Chaos Wave is not generally used in AoE situations, unless you want the target to die while you are in Demon Form. While it has a 100% chance to proc Molten Core, you will not use Soul Fire for AoE damage, so the procs will mostly be wasted. Also, using Chaos Wave will deplete your Demonic Fury too rapidly, so you will prefer using Hand of Gul'dan, which does almost the same amount of damage and generates Demonic Fury.

That said, Chaos Wave is good for burst AoE damage (because your enemies will not live long enough for your DoTs and Shadowflame to do any real damage to them). In this case, do the following:

1. activate Metamorphosis;
2. activate Immolation Aura;
3. double-cast Chaos Wave;
4. cast Carrion Swarm (if knocking back the enemies is a problem, you can use Glyph of Carrion Swarm);
5. spam Void Ray.

4. Cooldowns↑top

Dark Soul: Knowledge is your main DPS cooldown. It increases your Mastery by 18,000 for 20 seconds. Use it on cooldown and always use it when you have enough Demonic Fury to stay in demon form for as much of the 20 seconds as possible.

Imp Swarm is granted by Glyph of Imp Swarm, which you should almost always be using. Always use Imp Swarm together with Dark Soul: Knowledge. The Imps will grant you Demonic Fury that will enable you to stay longer in Metamorphosis while Dark Soul is active, increasing your DPS as a result. There are a few subtleties regarding Imp Swarm and we advise you to read our Imp Swarm section to find out more.

Summon Doomguard and Summon Infernal share a cooldown. As such, you will have to decide which of the two you will use. These two abilities are on a 10-minute cooldown, so you will realistically only use them once per fight. Summon Doomguard is better when fighting 3 enemies or less, while Summon Infernal is better when fighting 4 enemies or more.

If you choose Grimoire of Supremacy, as a Tier 5 talent, then Summon Doomguard becomes Summon Terrorguard and Summon Infernal becomes Summon Abyssal.

In addition, a number of defensive cooldowns are available to you to compensate for your frequent use of Life Tap, which is mandatory for mana management. We detail these cooldowns in a mana management section.

Finally, your talents give you a number of offensive cooldowns, which we detail in a talent cooldowns section

5. Optional Read: Mastering Your Demonology Warlock↑top

While the priorities we list above will prove sufficient for you to do excellent DPS, there are various other things you should know about playing a Demonology Warlock.

5.1. Metamorphosis and Demonic Fury

Demonic Fury is your Demonology-specific Mists of Pandaria resource. It will greatly influence your play style as you will build Demonic Fury with your damaging abilities before using Metamorphosis to gain access to abilities that will consume your Demonic Fury.

Your bar of Demonic Fury has a maximum capacity of 1000. Out of combat, you will rapidly regenerate up to 200 Demonic Fury. Additional Demonic Fury must be generated during combat by using your abilities (all your offensive abilities generate Demonic Fury). In demon form, Demonic Fury decays at a fixed rate of 6 Demonic Fury per second. In addition, many of your abilities are transformed into Demonic Fury-consuming abilities.

When your amount of Demonic Fury reaches below 40, your demon form will automatically be removed. Independently of your amount of Demonic Fury, you can cancel your demon form at any time by using Metamorphosis again.

Metamorphosis transforms some of your abilities. Hover over the links to see how much Demonic Fury each ability generates/consumes.

• Hand of Gul'dan becomes Chaos Wave, which damages all enemies within 6 yards of your target (reducing their movement speed by 30% for 6 seconds) and has a 100% chance to trigger Molten Core.
• Curse of the Elements becomes Aura of the Elements, which applies Curse of the Elements to all targets within 20 yards of your target (or of yourself, if you have no target).
• Curse of Enfeeblement becomes Aura of Enfeeblement, which applies Curse of Enfeeblement to all targets within 20 yards of your target (or of yourself if you have no target).
• Corruption becomes Doom, which deals a large amount of damage over time and summon a Wild Imp every time a tick critically hits.
• Hellfire becomes Immolation Aura, which, once activated, will grant you the same AoE damage as Hellfire, just that it does not need to be channeled (i.e., you can do other things while it is pulsing) and it no longer deals damage to you.
• Shadow Bolt becomes Touch of Chaos, which deals slightly less damage than Shadow Bolt, but is instant-cast and refreshes your Corruption DoT.
• Fel Flame becomes Void Ray, which deals damage to enemies in a 20-yard line in front of you and extends the duration of you Corruption DoT by 4 seconds (to a maximum of 27 seconds).

In addition, Metamorphosis grants you Carrion Swarm, which deals AoE damage, knocks back enemies, and interrupts spell casting.

Finally, you can use Demonic Leap to enter Metamorphosis. After transforming you into a demon, it will make you leap forward 15 yards.

5.2. Refreshing Your DoTs

As a Demonology Warlock, between 15% and 20% of your damage comes from your 2 DoTs ( Corruption and Doom). You must strive to maintain 100% uptime on all of them, which is not difficult. Corruption automatically gets refreshed by Touch of Chaos. Also, you enter Metamorphosis often enough to refresh Doom in time. That said, there are a few general statements we wish to make about refreshing DoTs.

5.2.1. Pandemic

Pandemic is your level 90 ability. It causes the remaining duration of your DoTs to be added to the new duration when you refresh them, up to 50% of the base duration.

If a DoT has a base duration of 24 seconds and you refresh it when there are 10 seconds remaining, the new duration will be 34 seconds, thanks to Pandemic.

5.2.2. How do DoTs benefit from statistics?

DoTs benefit from your statistics at the time when the DoT was cast or refreshed. This means that the DoT will take into account your haste, spellpower, etc. at the time when you cast the DoT, and it will not be affected by any change in your stats while the DoT is running.

5.2.3. Pandemic and Statistics: When to Refresh?

The implication of Pandemic and the fact that DoTs benefit from your statistics as they were when you applied them is that whenever a DoT has less than 50% of its normal duration remaining, you should refresh it, if you have better statistics than when you cast it (trinket proc, Dark Soul, potion, encounter-specific buff, etc.). Otherwise, refresh the DoT when it is about to expire.

5.2.4. Unerring Vision of Lei-Shen

If you have Unerring Vision of Lei-Shen (LFR, Heroic) and it procs, you should enter Metamorphosis and double cast your Doom to give it a 135-second duration with 100% crit, thanks to Pandemic. If Doom has over 45 seconds remaining, then one cast will be enough to make it last 135 seconds (thanks to both Glyph of Everlasting Affliction, which you should be using with Unerring Vision of Lei Shen, and Pandemic).

Do not overwrite this Doom, unless you have another proc of Unerring Vision of Lei-Shen (LFR, Heroic).

5.3. Demons

By default, you can summon one of five demons to help you fight your foes.

• The Felguard will be your demon of choice for raiding. It will automatically cast the following abilities: Legion Strike and Pursuit. It can also cast Felstorm and activate Threatening Presence, if you instruct it to.
• The Felhunter may have its uses for raiding, though it does not do as much damage as the Felguard. It will automatically cast the following abilities: Devour Magic and Shadow Bite. It can also cast Spell Lock if you instruct it to.
• The Imp may have its uses for raiding, though it does not do as much damage as the Felguard. It will automatically cast the following abilities: Firebolt and Singe Magic. It can also cast Flee or Cauterize Master if you instruct it to.
• The Succubus may have its uses for raiding, though it does not do as much damage as the Felguard. It will automatically cast the following abilities: Lash of Pain, Seduction, and Lesser Invisibility. It can also cast Whiplash if you instruct it to.
• The Voidwalker will be your demon of choice while leveling up. It will automatically cast the following abilities: Shadow Bulwark, Suffering, and Torment. It can also cast Disarm if you instruct it to.

You also have two demons that you can use as DPS cooldowns: a Doomguard ( Summon Doomguard) for single-target damage or an Infernal ( Summon Infernal) for AoE damage.

Finally, you have the Command Demon ability, which, if put on your action bar, will change with the demon you are using. For the Voidwalker, the Felhunter, and the Succubus, this ability will cast their manual ability. For the Felguard, it will cast Felstorm. For the Imp, it will cast Cauterize Master.

5.3.1. Grimoire of Supremacy

Grimoire of Supremacy is a Tier 5 talent that improves your demons and gives them better abilities.

• The Felguard becomes a Wrathguard. Legion Strike is replaced with Mortal Cleave, Felstorm is replaced with Wrathstorm, and Threatening Presence is replaced with Axe Toss.
• The Felhunter becomes an Observer. Devour Magic is replaced with Clone Magic, Shadow Bite with Tongue Lash, and Spell Lock with Optical Blast.
• The Imp becomes a Fel Imp. Firebolt is replaced with Felbolt and Singe Magic is replaced with Sear Magic.
• The Succubus becomes a Shivarra. Lash of Pain is replaced with Bladedance, Seduction with Mesmerize, and Whiplash with Fellash.
• The Voidwalker becomes a Voidlord. Shadow Bulwark is replaced with Threatening Presence.

The Wrathguard remains the demon with the highest DPS.

Your demon DPS cooldowns are replaced with more powerful versions: a Terrorguard ( Summon Terrorguard) for single-target damage or an Abyssal ( Summon Abyssal) for AoE damage.

Finally, you have the Command Demon ability, which, if put on your action bar, will change with the demon you are using. For the Observer, the Shivarra, and the Voidlord, this ability will cast their manual ability. For the Wrathguard, it will cast Wrathstorm. For the Fel Imp, it will cast Cauterize Master (as it does for the Imp).

5.4. Hand of Gul'dan

5.4.1. How the Charge System Works

Your Hand of Gul'dan spell now has a system of 2 charges. When you use the spell, you consume a charge, which will regenerate automatically after 15 seconds. When you are out of charges, you cannot cast Hand of Gul'dan.

The implication of this system is that you cannot maintain of 100% uptime on Shadowflame, which Hand of Gul'dan applies. The best you can do is a 40% uptime, and this is what you should be aiming for.

5.4.2. How to Get the Best out of Hand of Guldan

The most efficient way of using your Hand of Gul'dan is to always wait until you have two charges (or one charge, with the second charge becoming available within 4 or 5 seconds). Then cast Hand of Guldan, keep doing your rotation for 4 or 5 seconds, and cast Hand of Guldan again.

This will result in 5 ticks of a single stack of Shadowflame followed by 6 ticks of a double stack of Shadowflame. Counting the travel time of Hand of Gul'dan, you need to cast Hand of Guldan again about 3 seconds before Shadowflame expires. Otherwise, you will simply reapply a single stack of Shadowflame, which is not as damaging as a double stack.

If Metamorphosis is available and you do not need to use it again in the next 10 seconds, you can activate it after casting the second Hand of Gul'dan. It will buff your 6 ticks of a double stack of Shadowflame.

You need to be in Metamorphosis when Shadowflame is applied to the target, something that occurs about 2 seconds after casting Hand of Gul'dan. In order to be certain to be in Metamorphosis at the right moment, you should activate Metamorphosis immediately after casting Hand of Guldan. Then cast Touch of Chaos or refresh Doom, before canceling Metamorphosis.

To sum it up:

1. cast Hand of Gul'dan;
2. continue your rotation for 4-5 seconds;
3. cast Hand of Gul'dan again;
4. activate Metamorphosis;
5. cast Touch of Chaos or refresh Doom;
6. deactivate Metamorphosis;
7. enjoy your double stack of buffed Shadowflame.

5.5. Molten Core

Molten Core is the only proc that you should have to watch out for. It has a chance to proc when you deal damage with Shadowflame and Wild Imps, an imp that is summoned (not more often than every 18 seconds) when you deal damage with Shadow Bolt, Soul Fire, and Touch of Chaos.

Molten Core stacks, which means that if you trigger it again before using it, you will not lose the proc.

Note that the imps from Imp Swarm will grant you a number of Molten Core stacks when you use this ability. This gives you a lot of Soul Fire burst damage, so take this into account when using Imp Swarm.

5.5.1. Decimation

Thanks to Decimation, your Shadow Bolt and Soul Fire spells have a 100% chance to grant you a stack of Molten Core when the target is below 25% health.

While this does mean that you are free to spam Soul Fire when the target is below 25% health, your mana regeneration will probably not allow it.

5.5.2. More on Imp Swarm

Without Glyph of Imp Swarm, you generate an average of 6 Imps every 2 minutes.

With Glyph of Imp Swarm, you generate an average of 5 Imps every 2 minutes while Imp Swarm is not on cooldown. When you use Imp Swarm, you get 5 Imps, on a 2-minute cooldown.

For Glyph of Imp Swarm to be a DPS gain, you need to use Imp Swarm together with Dark Soul: Knowledge. This way, the Demonic Fury you get from the Imps will enable you to stay longer in Metamorphosis while you deal increased damage (due to Dark Soul being up).

The cooldown of Imp Swarm is reduced based upon your haste at the time of casting. This means that, if you cast it when you benefit from Bloodlust, Heroism, Time Warp, your legendary meta-gem, Berserking, etc., the cooldown of Imp Swarm will be significantly shorter. So, do not hesitate to wait a bit for one of these buffs before casting Imp Swarm.

When the cooldown on Imp Swarm is significantly less than 2 minutes because of a haste buff, you have to delay casting it again until Dark Soul: Knowledge comes off cooldown. This delay is a slight theoretical DPS loss, but it is more than compensated by the benefits you get from using Imp Swarm and Dark Soul at the same time. Also, while you wait, the off cooldown effect of the glyph can proc a few Imps on its own.

5.6. Opening Sequence

Without Unerring Vision of Lei-Shen (LFR, Heroic), your opener is the following:

1. precast Shadow Bolt (i.e., before entering combat);
2. cast Hand of Gul'dan (right when the boss is pulled);
3. apply Corruption;
4. cast Grimoire of Service;
5. cast Imp Swarm (active Berserking before, if you are a Troll);
6. cast Hand of Gul'dan;
7. activate Metamorphosis and use all your cooldowns;
8. double-cast Doom;
9. cast Touch of Chaos;
10. continue with your regular rotation.

With Unerring Vision of Lei-Shen (LFR, Heroic), your opener is the following:

1. cast Grimoire of Service;
2. cast Hand of Gul'dan;
3. apply Corruption;
4. cast Imp Swarm (active Berserking before, if you are a Troll);
5. cast Hand of Gul'dan;
6. activate Metamorphosis and use all your cooldowns;
7. double-cast Doom;
8. cast Touch of Chaos;
9. continue with your regular rotation.

5.7. Mana Management

Life Tap is your main source of mana regeneration. You will need to use it roughly every 30 to 40 seconds. This ability costs health to use and for this reason, you are given a number of defensive abilities.

You have a total of 6 defensive cooldowns/abilities, 3 of which are granted by talents. You have to make use of them wisely to preserve your health and prevent your casts of Life Tap from giving more work to your healers.

• Soulshatter reduces your threat by 90% for all enemies within 50 yards. It has a 2-minute cooldown.
• Unending Resolve reduces all damage taken by 40% and prevents your spells from being interrupted or silenced for 8 seconds. It has a 3-minute cooldown.
• Dark Regeneration is a Tier 1 talent that restores 30% of your health and that of your pet, and increases healing received by 25% over 12 seconds.
• Sacrificial Pact is a Tier 3 talent that sacrifices 50% of your demon's health (or 50% of your health if you have no demon) to create an absorption shield on you for 200% of the sacrificed health.
• Dark Bargain is a Tier 3 talent that prevents all damage from 8 seconds. When the effect fades, 50% of the damage prevented is dealt over 8 seconds.
• Healthstones can be much more beneficial to Warlocks than they are to other classes, because of Glyph of Healthstone. Do not hesitate to make good use of them!

5.8. More on Offensive Cooldowns

In addition to your Dark Soul: Knowledge, Summon Doomguard, and Summon Infernal, you have other offensive cooldowns, the majority of which will depend on your choice of talents. We present them in this section, but first, a we need to say more about your Doomguard and your Infernal.

5.8.1. Doomguard and Infernal

For most situations, summoning a Doomguard is your best choice. In case you are faced with a large number of enemies that you wish to use extra burst on, you should use Summon Infernal.

Summon Doomguard/ Summon Infernal will summon a Doomguard/Infernal to fight by your side for 45 seconds. The ability has a 10 minute cooldown, meaning that it will realistically only be usable once per fight. Your Doomguard/Infernal's damage will scale dynamically with your own Spell Power and Critical Strike Rating, so any change in your stats after your Doomguard/Infernal has been summoned will affect him.

Ideally, you need to use your Doomguard/Infernal at the pull or when your raid uses Bloodlust/ Heroism/ Time Warp.

Everything we said in this section is still valid for Summon Terrorguard and Summon Abyssal, if you choose Grimoire of Supremacy as your tier 5 talent.

5.8.2. Offensive Talent Cooldowns

Grimoire of Service is a Tier 5 talent that enables you to summon an additional demon to fight for you for 20 seconds. This ability should be used on cooldown and preferably when you have a trinket/weapon enchant proc or when you deal increased damage on the boss, as your demon benefits from a number of your stats.

Archimonde's Vengeance is a Tier 6 talent that causes the enemy to suffer 25% of the damage you take for 12 seconds. This cooldown is very straightforward to use. Simply activate it when you are going to receive a large amount of unavoidable damage.

5.9. Tanking With Glyph of Demon Hunting

Glyph of Demon Hunting is a major glyph that turns your Demonology Warlock into a decent backup tank.

This glyph teaches you Dark Apotheosis, which is a battle stance that grants you damage reduction and increased threat generation. The damage reduction is further enhanced by your Mastery.

While in Dark Apotheosis, you gain access to many of your demon spells just as if you had cast Metamorphosis: Aura of Enfeeblement, Aura of the Elements, Carrion Swarm, Immolation Aura, Void Ray.

Some of your spells are replaced with new spells more suited to tanking.

• Soulshatter is replaced with Provocation, a taunt.
• Fear is replaced with Sleep.
• Touch of Chaos is replaced with Demonic Slash, whose charge system will contribute to significantly lower your DPS.
• Twilight Ward becomes Fury Ward.

In Dark Apotheosis, use your normal single-target or multiple-target rotation. The main difference is that Touch of Chaos and Shadow Bolt are replaced with Demonic Slash, which has 3 charges and a 4.5-second recharge time. Use Provocation and Fury Ward when needed. Demonic Slash alone should generate enough Demonic Fury to allow you to remain in Dark Apotheosis. If you need more Demonic Fury, you can cast Hand of Gul'dan from time to time.

6. Changelog↑top

• 19 May 2013: Evrelia's review and Patch 5.3 update.
  • Greatly improved single-target and multiple-target rotations.
  • Added sections with detailed information for Hand of Gul'dan and Imp Swarm.
  • Added opening sequence.
• 10 Mar. 2013: Improved the conditions for refreshing Doom during Dark Soul: Knowledge.
• 07 Mar. 2013: Patch 5.2 update.
  • Updated and improved single-target rotation.
  • Updated and improved the multiple-target rotation.
  • Improved advice for using Doomguard/Infernal.
  • Greatly improved section about refreshing DoTs.
  • Removed mention of Kil'jaeden's Cunning, which no longer has an active component.