Demonology Warlock Guide for The War Within

Welcome to the War Within expansion preview for Demonology Warlock, a resource page where to find changes, Hero talent trees and some initial assessment on the state of the spec.

The purpose of this page is to offer an up-to-date overview of how Demonology Warlock is changing in the forthcoming The War Within expansion, as such, it is not to be treated as a guide or a replacement, since the current state of tuning is not representative of what the final product will be.

Demonology Warlock received a whole talent restructure alongside some changes that altered the Class Tree.

Below are the most notable changes:

• Demonic Circle is no longer baseline;
• Demonic Tactics is a new output node;
• Soul Link has been consolidated as a 2 points node, removing Profane Bargain;
• Inquisitor's Gaze and Summon Soulkeeper node has been replaced by Soul Conduit at 1 point of effectiveness;
• likewise Grim Feast has been replaced by a much more appealing node in Pact of Gluttony.

The introduction of Pact of Gluttony specifically has created a new issue in only 1 or 2 floating point to spare after acquiring all 3 capstones and output/stamina/health nodes, with a triage situation occurring with the following nodes: Shadowfury, Demonic Circle, Fiendish Stride, Amplify Curse and Banish.

As a result the updated class tree pathing has created a restrictive feel, of not being able to talent into several utilities due how taxing the "core" of the tree is, which coupled with the lack of party-wide non-exclusive auras or utility is going to be detrimental in Mythic+ dungeons.

Moving on the Demonology side, the whole tree has been overhauled, with the intention of creating a pathing well-rounded and able to tackle most situations, progressing from a first gate almost devoid of choices towards the third gate which holds most of the options comparatively.

See below a list of the most transformative changes:

• Vile Fiend is now 30 seconds cooldown and has been moved down the tree and a capstone instead of being a choice with Soul Strike;
• Summon Dreadstalkers now have a chance to generate a Demonic Core when fading away;
• Rune of Shadows has been introduced as a substantial way to scale Shadow Bolt damage;
• Summon Demonic Tyrant is now a 1minute cooldown baseline and has been moved in the second gate with Reign of Tyranny being a single point investment;
• Nether Portal and its relative nodes Ner'zhul's Volition and Gul'dan's Ambition have been removed;
• Doom has been moved down the tree and reworked entirely to provide AoE damage with additional nodes able to further reduce the cooldown and summon a Shadowbolt casting Doomguard, respectively with Doom Eternal and Pact of the Ered'ruin;
• Vile Fiend being the central option at the third gate offers augmenting talents that alter the visuals and additional behavior of the summon similar to Hounds of Sargeras, with Mark of Shatug summoning a GloomHound that deals additional shadow damage single target and Mark of F'harg summoning a Charhound that deals constant fire damage around;
• New talents augmenting Summon Dreadstalkers have been added at the third gate: Flametouched and The Houndmaster's Gambit.

Overall the Demonology tree design feels more consolidated and focused, more cohesive in its intention of augmenting fewer but more meaningful rotational abilities, and in a way simplify the interactions with the new Hero Trees.

In practice the gameplay does not differ substantially from Dragonflight, before taking Hero Talents into account. On the other hand, cooldown management has been vastly simplified, with all relevant abilities being a multiple of 30 seconds, thus creating a very distinct and fixed cadence. Burst capabilities, especially in AoE, remain high thanks to Implosion and Grimoire: Felguard, and the new Doom offers an interactive gameplay element.

The reduction in Demonic Cores did not substantially alter the gameplay feel, mostly thanks to Rune of Shadows cast time reduction and Hero trees interacting with either shard generation or discounting shard cost, however it does negatively impact the current Doom implementation.

Hero Talents are perhaps the most notable addition to The War Within, with each spec having access to 2 out of the 3 available for the class. Demonology Warlock in this case can opt between Diabolist and Soul Harvester Hero Talent Trees.

The Diabolist Hero tree is themed around a sequence of Greater Demons that offer temporary effects such as damage amplification, shard generation or a high damage AoE ability before cycling toward the next one.

The playstyle, as such, is influenced by this cadence while not being an interference in the rotation at the same time. What changes the most is the damage profile instead, with Gloom of Nathreza directly buffing shard spenders, and higher burst capabilities thanks to Ruination or particularly in Tyrant windows, thanks to Abyssal Dominion.

Regarding defensive options and utility, Soul-Etched Circles offers a niche use case while Annihilan's Bellow drastically increases the frequency of use of Howl of Terror. Infernal Vitality and Infernal Bulwark also ties a sustain element to Unending Resolve which is definitely more enticing than what other Hero Tree currently seem to offer, albeit overall not great.

Soul Harvester Hero tree takes a different approach, with a theme-centered around shard cost reduction for spenders, direct damage increase, and additional damage over time in the form of Soul Anathema.

The synergy with Power Siphon through Necrolyte Teachings and Sataiel's Ambition while not being as transformative as it is in Affliction still offers a reliable direct damage increase, particularly with Shadow Bolt when talenting Rune of Shadows and Sacrificed Souls.

In AoE Mantle of the Harvester helps providing additional Demonic Core to fuel the damage.

In terms of defensive and utility options, again few improvements in terms of Gorebound Fortitude offering Soulburn Healthstones at no additional shard cost, and Friends In Dark Places giving an additional 25% to the baseline absorb value of Dark Pact. Eternal Servitude on the other hand enable a more frequent pet swapping/resummoning as a quality-of-life change, with the alternative of an improved combat ress in Gorefiend's Resolve similar to other classes.

Season 1 Tier Set Bonuses for Demonology Warlock in The War Within are the following:.

• Warlock Demonology Season 1 2pc — Your primary demon deals 5% increased damage, and your Shadow Bolt damage is increased by 50%.
• Warlock Demonology Season 1 4pc — Shadow Bolt has a chance to enrage your primary Felguard, increasing the damage of their next Legion Strike by 300%.

Both set bonuses offer a talent-agnostic passive damage increase, as intended in their design, with neither suffering from target count or encounter timing, and instead offering consistency first and foremost.

Worth noting that the 2 pieces set bonus will be less effective in AoE due a comparatively lower amount of Shadow Bolt casts compared to single target scenarios.

How Good is the Demonology Warlock Tier Bonus in The War Within?

If tuned following the general goal of providing between 10 to 15% increase with the 2 and 4 pieces together, Demonology tier set has a wide practicality, and should perform well in any end-game situation.

Strengths

• More intuitive gameplay with faster cooldown loops
• Efficient cleave damage
• Very high AoE burst with enough resources

Weaknesses

• Faster cooldown loops means more frequent setups which are a vulnerable timeframe for Demonology
• New talent tree offers less gameplay variety and choices
• Warlock utility in dungeons is still lacking, outside of niche such as Gateway skip, and amplify curse
• Warlock class tree rework is somewhat more restrictive post rework