Cataclysm Classic Demonology Warlock Stat Priority

The stat priority for Demonology Warlock is as follows:

1. Intellect
2. Hit Rating(17% - 1742 rating is Hit Cap)
3. Haste Rating(to Shadowflame soft cap - 16.7% - 1007 rating)
4. Mastery Rating
5. Haste Rating
6. Critical Strike Rating

Intellect is the #1 stat that you want more than any other stat. In Cataclysm, Intellect converts to Spell Power, meaning the more Intellect you have, the more spell power you'll have, the more damage you will be doing. It also gives you some crit and mana. You should never give up Intellect for any of the other stats. Spell power is no longer found on any items besides the weapon, so just worry about stacking as much Intellect as you possibly can. 1 Intellect provides 1 Spell Power before any buffs and bonuses as well as a very minor amount of Crit and about 17 mana.

Hit rating is the next most important stat and is vital to doing damage because you must hit the boss in order to deal damage. Hit is very easy to obtain since it not only comes from many pieces of gear, but you can also reforge and gem hit in your gear. 17% is the hit cap, which is 1742 hit rating and is crucial to obtain. Once you hit the cap, you can never miss. However once you hit the cap, hit is useless, so try not to go much higher than the cap, with the aim to be right at the sweet spot of 1742 Hit rating.

Haste is amazing in Cataclysm. It makes you cast your spells faster, as well as Haste reduces the time between your DoT ticks, giving you extra ticks of damage if you have enough Haste. It will only reduce the duration once an extra tick of the DoT is received. While you can't get too much Haste in this current phase to reach many extra ticks, you can reach enough to get at least one extra tick of your DoTs, then you will stat for Mastery until you start reaching a point where you can reforge/Gem to be able to reach your next soft cap later. What this does is ensure that you get an extra tick of either Immolate, Shadowflame and Corruption. Below is a table showing how much Haste is needed for an extra tick of the listed DoT. It's also worth mentioning that DoTs no longer update dynamically and instead have to be snapshotted upon refreshing the DoT. Meaning if you already have a Immolate on the target and you get a Haste proc from your Trinket, that Immolate will not benefit from the Haste until you refresh your Immolate or then next time you Hand of Gul'dan since that refreshes Immolate.

Note that these values are including being Raid buffed. So do not worry about calculating raid buffs like Dark Intent, or any other Haste buffs.

• Extra ticks of Immolate:
  1. 7.2% Haste (105 rating) is 1 extra tick.
  2. 21.4% Haste (1573 rating) is 2 extra ticks.
  3. 35.7% Haste (3264 rating) is 3 extra ticks.
  4. 49.9% Haste (4951 rating) is 4 extra ticks.

• Extra ticks of Corruption:
  1. 8.3% Haste (21 rating) is 1 extra tick.
  2. 25% Haste (1993 rating) is 2 extra ticks.
  3. 41.7% Haste (3970 rating) is 3 extra ticks.
  4. 58.4% Haste (5945 rating) is 4 extra ticks.

• Extra ticks of Shadowflame:
  1. 16.7%% Haste (1007 rating) is 1 extra tick.
  2. 50% Haste (4954 rating) is 2 extra ticks.
  3. 83.4% Haste (8911 rating) is 3 extra ticks.
  4. 116.6% Haste (12838 rating) is 4 extra ticks.

Mastery is the new stat introduced in Cataclysm that does something different for each specialization. For Demonology this stat increases the damage done by your Demons and all the dmaage you do while you're in your Metamorphosis demon form. Each point of Mastery increases the damage by an additional 2.3%. You'll stack this stat as soon as you've reached your Haste Soft Caps. One thing to talk about as Demonology and Mastery is that your Metamorphosis snapshots all the Mastery you have and even if you remove the Mastery gear or the Mastery proc goes away, you will keep that Mastery on you while you're in your demon form. This makes something called "Mastery Swap", meaning Demonology Warlocks will typically keep a set of gear on them that has as much Mastery as humanly possible on it in their bags. This allows you to put that Mastery gear on, pop Metamorphosis, and swap your normal gear back on before you initiate combat with the boss. This will enable you to deal some of the highest burst in the game while in that Metamorphosis demon form for a massive increase in damage.

Critical strike makes you crit more, meaning you deal more damage. As long as you have your meta gem in that increases your crit damage, crits deal roughly twice the damage of normal hits. You're DoTs can crit as well. This is the last stat to worry about.