Demonology Warlock PvE DPS Guide

Is Demonology Warlock worth a raid spot?

Demonology is a pet-centric DPS specialization built around the Felguard. Soul Link redirects 20% of all damage taken by the caster to the active demon (damage that cannot be prevented) and increases damage dealt by both caster and pet by 5%. Demonic Knowledge adds bonus spell power equal to 12% of the Felguard's total Stamina plus Intellect. The spec is viable on encounters where the Felguard can maintain continuous melee uptime from behind the boss without dying to lethal hazards or cleaves. Judge the slot by total raid output and pet uptime rather than caster survivability alone.

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Rotation priority

Maintain active Felguard on the primary target: keep pet on Passive, bind /petattack and /petfollow, disable Anguish autocast, position behind the boss to avoid parries/cleaves, and maintain Demonic Frenzy stacks (+50% AP at 10 stacks).
Keep Felguard Cleave enabled on single-target bosses as well as safe cleave packs: it is an extra damaging attack on a 6-second cooldown. Disable it near crowd-controlled enemies and use Life Tap with Mana Feed to support pet mana.
Maintain the assigned highest-rank curse (Curse of the Elements or Curse of Recklessness); cast Curse of Doom if utility curses are covered and the target will live for its full 60-second detonation.
Maintain Corruption and Immolate only when their full-duration damage beats Shadow Bolt filler for your gear and raid buffs. With only 1/5 Improved Corruption, Corruption has a 1.6-second base cast and is not an instant movement spell.
Cast Shadow Bolt as your primary caster filler.
Life Tap during movement or safe downtime to regenerate mana for both warlock and Felguard (via Mana Feed); avoid entering Bloodlust starved of mana.

Opener

Summon Felguard Shadow Bolt Curse of the Elements Corruption Destruction Potion

Before the pull: Summon Felguard, apply Fel Armor, disable Anguish, activate Soul Link, set pet mode to Passive, and buff the Felguard with Kibler's Bits (+20 Str/Spirit), Scroll of Strength V, and Scroll of Agility V. Ensure it also receives Power Word: Fortitude and Arcane Intellect to scale Demonic Knowledge.
Pre-cast Shadow Bolt at maximum range timed to land right after the tank establishes initial threat lead.
Send Felguard to attack (/petattack) on engagement and apply the assigned highest-rank curse on the first global cooldown.
Apply Corruption and Immolate if target lifetime warrants the globals, then enter Shadow Bolt filler spam.
Activate on-use spell trinkets, Destruction Potion, and racial cooldowns in the planned stationary burn window after tank threat is stable (use the first potion after combat starts; standard shared 2-minute cooldown starts at use); spam Shadow Bolt.

Cooldowns

Fel Domination

Instant cast on a 15-minute cooldown; reduces the cast time of your next demon summon by 5.5s and mana cost by 50%. Combined with Master Summoner 2/2 (4.0s reduction), Summon Felguard (10s base, costs 1 Soul Shard) becomes a 0.5s cast. The shard is consumed by Summon Felguard, not Fel Domination.

Health Funnel

Channels caster health to heal the Felguard; use conditionally when incoming damage is safe and channeling preserves pet uptime better than an emergency resummon.

Soulshatter

Instant cast on a 5-minute cooldown consuming 1 Soul Shard; reduces your threat by 50% on enemies within 50 yards. Use before pulling aggro.

Shadowburn

Instant Shadow damage on a 15-second cooldown costing 1 Soul Shard. Use during movement or when the target will die before a hard cast lands; it has no bonus damage or requirement below 20% health.

Stat caps

General Spells Hit Cap

164 Spell Hit Rating

All breakpoints vs Boss (73).

16% from gear (202 rating) without external hit support.

13% from gear (164 rating) with only Totem of Wrath (+3%) in your group.

15% from gear (190 rating) with only Draenei Inspiring Presence (+1%) in your group.

12% from gear (152 rating) with Totem of Wrath (+3%) in your group and Draenei Inspiring Presence (+1%) in your group.

The listed requirement reaches the attainable spell-hit cap; spells retain the unavoidable miss floor.

Demonic Knowledge

12% pet stats

Demonic Knowledge grants spell damage equal to 12% of your active demon's total Stamina + Intellect. Keep the Felguard buffed with Power Word: Fortitude and Arcane Intellect to improve this conversion.

Other stats

Sim it

Spell power improves your spells and contributes to pet attack power through pet stat inheritance. Your spell haste and spell crit do not directly transfer to Felguard melee attacks; Master Demonologist grants a separate damage bonus. Evaluate the complete player-and-pet set through simulation.

Consumes

Type	Consumable	Use
Flask	Flask of Pure Death	Use instead of Battle + Guardian elixirs
Potion	Destruction Potion	Burst throughput
Potion	Super Mana Potion	Mana recovery
Food	Blackened Basilisk	Spell power option
Weapon buff	Brilliant Wizard Oil
Mana restore	Dark Rune	Off-GCD mana
Pet Food	Kibler's Bits	+20 Pet Strength and +20 Pet Spirit for 30 min (Felguard)
Pet Scroll	Scroll of Agility V	+20 Pet Agility for 30 min; applied directly to Felguard
Pet Scroll	Scroll of Strength V	+20 Pet Strength for 30 min; applied directly to Felguard
Reagent	Soul Shard	Reserve for Summon Felguard, Shadowburn, Soulshatter, and stones; Fel Domination itself consumes no shard

Gems and socket bonuses

Activate your meta, cover spell hit for the talents and raid support you actually have, then favor spell power. Use hybrids where the secondary stat and socket bonus together are worth the spell power you give up.

Use epic cuts on gear you expect to keep. Listed budget cuts suit temporary items or a tighter budget; compare your server’s prices before upgrading.

Type	Gem	Use
Meta	Chaotic Skyfire Diamond	Improves damaging spell crits. Use blue-counting gems to activate it; it does not make damage-over-time ticks crit. Requires: At least 2 blue gems.
Default	Runed Crimson Spinel Budget: Runed Living Ruby	The usual spare-socket choice once spell hit and meta colors are covered.
Hit correction	Veiled Pyrestone Budget: Veiled Noble Topaz	Adds spell hit while retaining some spell power. Replace it when the complete set no longer needs that hit.
Crit option	Potent Pyrestone Budget: Potent Noble Topaz	Crit helps direct casting; compare it with spell power in your full build rather than applying a Destruction gem template blindly.
Meta colors	Glowing Shadowsong Amethyst Budget: Glowing Nightseye	Supplies blue for meta activation while retaining spell power and adding stamina.

When to match sockets

Any ordinary gem fits any non-meta socket. Matching every socket on an item activates its bonus; a mismatch keeps the gem’s own stats. Hybrid gems count as both colors for your meta, regardless of the socket they occupy.
Match a socket when the total gain is useful, not simply because the colors line up. Hit gems lose their offensive value above the relevant spell-hit cap. Put the blue-counting gems needed for Chaotic Skyfire Diamond into sockets with useful bonuses where possible.
A socket tradeoff
For a yellow socket with a +2 spell power bonus, Runed Crimson Spinel adds 12 spell power. Veiled Pyrestone plus the bonus adds 8 spell power. You trade 4 spell power for 5 spell-hit rating.
Assumes your meta is already active; before talents and buffs.

When to swap gems

After changing hit gear, talents or raid support: recalculate the hit target, then trade hit gems and spell-power gems as needed. Only count Inspiring Presence and Totem of Wrath when their spell-hit bonuses are actually available in your party; Improved Faerie Fire does not provide caster spell hit.
For unavoidable damage: keep enough stamina to survive, using blue-counting spell-power/stamina gems where they also satisfy your meta.
After replacing gear or changing gems, recheck your meta across the whole equipped set. A color that looked expendable may be keeping it active.

Enchants

Slot	Enchant	Materials
Head	Glyph of Power	The Sha'tar · Revered
Shoulders	Greater Inscription of Discipline	The Aldor · Exalted
Back	Enchant Cloak — Subtlety	Small Prismatic Shard ×4 Greater Planar Essence ×2 Primal Shadow ×8
Chest	Enchant Chest — Exceptional Stats	Large Prismatic Shard ×4 Arcane Dust ×4 Greater Planar Essence ×4
Wrists	Enchant Bracer — Spellpower	Large Prismatic Shard ×6 Primal Fire ×6 Primal Water ×6
Hands	Enchant Gloves — Major Spellpower	Greater Planar Essence ×6 Large Prismatic Shard ×6 Primal Mana ×6
Legs	Runic Spellthread	Rune Thread ×1 Primal Mana ×10 Primal Nether ×1
Feet	Enchant Boots — Boar's Speed	Large Prismatic Shard ×8 Primal Earth ×8
Main hand	Enchant Weapon — Soulfrost	Void Crystal ×12 Large Prismatic Shard ×10 Greater Planar Essence ×8 Primal Water ×6 Primal Shadow ×6

Professions

Engineering

Top personal DPS and utility: Destruction Holo-gogs, Super Sapper Charges, and bombs.

Tailoring

High-value crafted spell power pieces and progression sets.

Enchanting

Enchant Ring - Spellpower (+12 spell damage per ring / +24 total).

Leatherworking

Party drums under Anniversary Tinnitus rules (one Leatherworker per party).

Ready to gear? The full list covers every slot with caps, alternatives, and who should actually take each drop.

Open the full BiS list DPS tier list

Reviewing your logs

DPS tier list

Track Felguard melee uptime, Cleave casts on both single targets and safe packs, and rear positioning to avoid parries and frontal cleaves.
Check pet deaths, positioning downtime, and Health Funnel channel uptime.
Monitor Mana Feed flow and pet mana levels during combat.
Verify assigned highest-rank raid curse uptime (Curse of the Elements or Recklessness).
Inspect Shadow Bolt filler cadence and evaluate Soulshatter timing on threat spikes (remembering Soulshatter only drops player threat, not pet threat).

Tips and Common Mistakes

Practical tips

Always keep the Felguard on Passive with explicit /petattack and /petfollow macros to prevent it from auto-pathing into frontal cleaves or dangerous hazards.
Buff the Felguard with Kibler's Bits, Scroll of Strength V, and Scroll of Agility V for pet melee throughput; ensure it also receives Power Word: Fortitude and Arcane Intellect to scale Demonic Knowledge.
Recall your pet immediately when boss cleaves, tail swipes, or ground AoE hazards appear; avoiding pet death is far better than spending cooldowns on recovery.
After Felguard dies, cast Fel Domination then Summon Felguard (0.5s cast with 2/2 Master Summoner) to recover your pet, then re-apply Soul Link.
Never cast Demonic Sacrifice in this build: it dismisses the Felguard and removes Soul Link, Demonic Knowledge, and all pet DPS until a pet is resummoned (resummoning cancels Demonic Sacrifice).

Common mistakes

Leaving Felguard in a non-Passive stance or with Anguish enabled, letting it retarget, taunt, or eat frontal cleaves.
Casting Demonic Sacrifice in the Felguard build, which dismisses the demon and removes Demonic Knowledge and Soul Link until a pet is resummoned.
Forgetting Kibler's Bits and Strength/Agility scrolls for Felguard melee throughput, or missing Stamina/Intellect raid buffs that scale Demonic Knowledge spell power.
Allowing the Felguard to die to avoidable AoE mechanics without using /petfollow or Health Funnel.
Disabling Cleave on single-target bosses, or failing to support pet mana with Life Tap and Mana Feed.

Demonology Warlock PvE DPS Guide — TBC Classic