Demon Hunting for Lock

[Roided 3]

I wanted to know everything i could regarding this ability. I feel like this is an interesting part of a warlock that iv never experienced or understood. What can you use it for? (ex. heroics? pvp? off tank for raids? What rotation do you use? Do you reforge into different stats?

 

Any and all information other than what spells change (since its already on icy veins) is greatly appreciated!

[MadMonk 154]

Moving this to the Warlock forum, I'm sure they'll be able to help you out.

[Zagam 1,982]

It's mostly for PvP.  I see some people using it while questing, but that's really not ideal unless you can't grasp the concept of non-Demon Hunting. 

 

With that said, I can tank 5 man heroics without it and have been since hitting like 530 ilvl.  Demo has a lot of tools to mitigate damage and melt faces, but don't expect to walk into a heroic or challenge mode and be able to tank.

 

The Glyph of Demon Hunting converts the following spells and abilities:

500% increased threat generation

Increased damage reduction

Soulshatter becomes a Taunt

Fear becomes Sleep

Twilight Ward becomes Fury Ward and it absorbs all damage

Shadowbolt becomes Demonic Slash with a charge system

 

Basically it turns you into a psuedo tank, not a real tank.  You can play with it, but you won't step into any raids like this without enough gear to trivialize the encounter.

[Annoroth 5]

Just in case you're thinking of trying out some tanking with it, just note that the Taunt is actually a very limited version of taunt, and won't work on a number of mobs (mostly raid bosses). 

[Zilthy 36]

Mostly useful in PvP for certain situations like flag running, although I would personally rather support a 'real' tank class carrying the flag.

As mentioned it is a pseudo tank and is missing too much to be an effective tank and not even suitable to be an off tank in raids.

What it's missing:

Crit immunity.

Physical damage reduction from heavier armor.

Dodge/Parry (or some equivalent)

It is a neat little glyph but I have yet to find a situation where I cannot do the job better or something far more useful without it.

[Kazistrasz 216]

The only potential raiding uses I could ever see is if there's some point where you need an emergency off-tank or a DPS to tank adds. Then again, at this point you're better off letting a warrior or DK pop defensive stance/blood presence and tanking it while you rape face.

[Soulzar 42]

Its useful when your tanks are AFK and you want to clear trash. lol

[brnz 0]

We successfully used Demon Hunting on normal mode Garalon early in HoF, which was a dps check for our team and I think many others.

 

The following situation occurred:  

 

Prot Paladin  DPS (subpar dps output) + normal Warlock  DPS < undergeared Ret Paladin DPS + demon hunting warlock DPS

 

Demon Hunting was viable because there was no taunting necessary in the tank role, just soaking damage in the frontal cone and doing damage.  I ultimately took less damage than the other tank, because I was able to absorb most of the damage and self heal much of what remained.

 

We did not use demon hunting in Heroic Garalon because we were no longer DPS constrained.  There were also I think other mechanics that may have prevented its use. 

 

So, I do think they still occasionally make PVE situations where warlock tanking is viable, but they are and always have been few and far between. You have to look really hard and be faced with a unique situation where the opportunity cost is right.  I could see our same team never even considering it, if our aggregate dps had been higher in that moment.

Edited September 17, 2013 by brnz