So there’s nerfs to unpack here for clarity,
1 CC nerfs to demo “Axe Toss / * Grimoire: Felguard (Stun and Interrupt) duration decreased to 3 seconds in PvP combat (was 4 seconds).” .
This change isnt bad on its own given the control that demonology has, on its own not a bad change.
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Call Fel Hunter (PvP Talent) has been removed.(Interrupt/Spell lock)
self explanatory and i dont think this is a bad change per se on its own.
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(2) Set (Demonology): [Demonbolt and Felstorm damage increased by 20%.
-Not huge but damage loss non the less.
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Old set bonus not being on the new sets. (4) Set (Demonology): [Demonbolt has a chance to make your next Hand of Gul’dan instant and deal 150% increased damage.]
-This change will change how demonology is currently able to get pets out forcing more hard casting. This change is where things start to really change how a spec is even played and can create problems when the rest of the specs / classes in the game don’t change enough to compensate for the playstyle change. But on its own still not game breaking.
This change also nerfs Dread Calling - Each Soul Shard spent on Hand of Gul’dan increases the damage of your next Call Dreadstalkers by 4% (stacks to 120%) so quite a substantial amount of damage adding up here being lost.
- Master Summoner (PvP Talent) has been redesigned – Reduces the cast time of your Call Dreadstalkers, Summon Vilefiend, and Summon Demonic Tyrant by 20% and reduces the cooldown of Call Dreadstalkers by 5 seconds. (Call Dreadstalkers base cast time is 1.6 seconds, This talent previously made Call Dreadstalkers instant)
-This change is where I think it just becomes over the top when including in context everything else is being changed and or lost. Some of these changes i think make sense and I think there is such thing as nerfing too much at once. Demonology with all of these changes are heavily leaning into casting, but it should be noted that Master Summoner redesign just results in a possible very large damage loss because of how punishing casting is in this current state of the game is. So this spell will go from instant to having to cast it but it will do the same damage.
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- Critical strikes now deal 150% of base damage and healing in PvP combat (was 175%).
-This change isn’t huge per se for demo but it does matter, some of the bigger windows that help with damage with demo such as a tyrant crit occurring matters in a big way, this ceiling also being reduced does effect them even if its not as big as other specs and classes, a nerf is a nerf when in light of 8 other nerfs.
Demonic Calling Rank 2/2 : has a 20% chance to make your next Call Dreadstalkers cost 2 fewer Soul Shard and have no cast time. This talent is also a magic buff and is dispellable. but that would be 2 more points in the skill tree which results in more nerfs not included here but on top of. Overall i think balance is a good thing but i think sometimes the ones that make these changes dont actually play the class or spec to fully understand what makes something feel good or fun.
April 10, 2023
Immutable Hatred now increases your primary Felguard’s Legion Strike damage by 60% when it damages 1 target in PvP Combat (down from 120%).
Hotfix on its own not huge but for sure contributes to damage on top of every other nerf still to come.
April 12, 2023 Demonology
- Fixed an issue where Annihilan Training, and Antoran Armaments would benefit Grimoire: Felguard.
was a hotfix that fixed a bug but this bug would result in 40% damage lost on this ability which I’m not saying it should have been hitting that hard but i do think that if the current state of the spec is influenced by this then shouldn’t it be considered that this nerf was substantial on its own?
April 13, 2023 Demonology
- Fixed an issue where Immutable Hatred would benefit Grimoire: Felguard.
April 14, 2023 Demonology
- Fixed an issue where Reign of Tyranny applications would not be removed if a demon despawns out of line of sight.
-These nerfs start to add up to even more damage lost that we never knew we had.
This is another stacking nerf on top of the daily hotfix nerfs, not big on its own but fixing bugs that cause demo to do more damage before testing changes from a future patch even hit live is more compounding nerfs.
The last problem to note is the state of Demonic Tyrant and how strong it can be or how irrelevant this spell is, it can either end a game or in many instances player actually kill the tyrant within 2 -3 seconds, this ability is a 1.5 min cooldown and it is the most easily countered ability due to it being AI driven and the amount of CC is in the game to prevent it from playing the game at all. This spell is very bad for the spec and I feel it results in nerfs in other areas because of how powerful this spell can be on paper, in reality the world we live in is in high exp pvp it gets extremely low value vs a large range of teams that know how to play the game, but at lower ratings its a bully button that many don’t deal with and it ends up doing some of the most insane damage anyone has seen. This is clearly a problem on both ends of the spectrum.
Alternative Nerf Suggestion : Dread Calling - Each Soul Shard spent on Hand of Gul’dan increases the damage of your next Call Dreadstalkers by 4%., This talent stacks to i think 120%? this is a contributor to the higher damage padding this ability is capable of, its 1 point talent.
