Having a BLAST as demonology

Classes Warlock
1

Not much to my post.
I see nothing but demo discouragement on the forums and that prevented me from giving it a go for years.

When prepatch dropped I decided I didn’t care to optimize my champion as much as possible and I am so glad I made that decision!

I see a lot of posts of people speaking on how they WISH they could play demo but it “sucks” so they don’t.

I havent done a whole lot of pvp but it feels nice as F in pve leveling. And I am still having fun in these lower level bgs.

Either way, I am having a blast and don’t intend to trade specs anytime soon.

5 Likes
2

Demo is probably the best spec for levelling out of the 3. You get a pet that’s tanky, does damage and holds aggro easily, you get a lot of active abilities that keep you way more engaged than just casting some DoTs and spamming MR or mindlessly casting Chaos Bolt, and visually Demonology is way more active than Destruction or Affliction.

Its flaws will become way more noticeable in raids and max-level PvP (especially PvP). Hopefully you end up enjoying it to the end, there ain’t been many demo locks out there for a while now.

4 Likes
3

A lot of people define the specs exclusively on the meta.

Unless you are doing high end raiding like CE or M+ at 20+ demo is absolutely fine and can get you there.

Well that was true in BFA and legion. Can’t tell in SL yet cause it’s not done being baked.

And if people care how the specs perform in prepatch then they are well beyond my help.

Now in pvp it’s pretty awkward but epicburn shows how it can be done

4

Demo is fun. It just has a very busy rotation. It’s great to have 20 demons, though, lolz.

5

yeh its fun but the 20 demons hit like a wet noodle

6 Likes
6

You’re level 35. Hit max level when all the problems start to slowly become apparent. Demo is fun, and strong. But the ramp up compared to others is ridiculous, especially for the work and management you have to put up with.
Not to mention the terrible pet ui that this game is faced with.

I don’t think people complain about NOT playing demo though? Perhaps in Warlords when we were completely done dirty.

However, Afflictions new ramp up may honestly start to outrank demonology in shadowlands imo.

Conclusion - Demo is fun if you’ve never played any of its other iterations.

6 Likes
7

Yeah I agree with this.

Though from my experience it is true that demo requires heavy rampup to be effective, it shouldnt be a surprise however that once you get to that point your damage is absolutely terrifying.

But on the bright side demo has more access to hard CC thanks to felguard stuns and baseline can kite thanks to curse of exhaustion.

8

There is nothing terrifying about demo damage.

Its outclassed by 90% of specs in this game.

7 Likes
9

Well just experience.

Only reason why it can be so bad is because getting to that point is a pain.

10

I don’t care for min maxing myself, I too also love playing demo, but there is a difference between slightly low DPS vs sucks, and demo sucks.

2 Likes
11

Demo is a lot of fun but reliant on stats. It was bad at the beginning of BfA and I’m sure it will be better once there’s some better gear available.

12

Like others have said, Demo is fun TO PLAY.

But it needs a damage buff, maybe the Legendaries will solve this in Shadowlands?

Maybe we will get a nice Aura Buff?

Or maybe Blizz will let us rot at the bottom like always.

Honestly? If you aren’t trying to get World First or trying to compete with Method, then who give a damn? Play what makes you happy.

4 Likes
13

Because there’s a whole range of people who don’t do world first and still like to perform well.

I dont need to win the superbowl to enjoy not sucking at football.

So, the spec is bad, and performs like it. Stop finding excuses and let blizz know they need to fix.

4 Likes
14

At what point did I make an excuse for Blizz?

I’m not telling anyone to stop complaining, because I’m right there with you.

I’m just saying, if you really love the spec and how it plays like I do don’t let it’s current state stop you.

And hopefully in the NEAR future, Blizz will listen and at least bring us in line with the other two specs.

3 Likes
15

I played demo all of BfA, until recently I switched to Affliction because I was like “amagahd Aff might be de-stupidified”, but from what I can tell, current demo plays an aweful lot like BfA demo.

Granted, that will change over the course of the expansion, but I’m wondering why people are suddenly “discovering” demo now.

16

Shadowlands Demo is BFA Demo but without any Azerite Traits or Essences, which is its main issue on beta right now. None of the covenant abilities or legendaries offer Demo any synergy, so your gameplay is the same at level 60 as it is at level 50. Which is a problem, because most other specs in the game are being actively improved by their legendaries and covenants, leaving Demo in the dust both mechanically and numerically compared to its peers.

If I had to guess most people are “discovering” Demo because most people are trying out new classes with the changes. In BFA, making an alt was a hell nightmare for even dedicated altoholics, and with the new levelling revamp, trying out a demo lock becomes much more accessible.

17

Not being 50 on my Demo, Im not super concerned with damage…

I am concerned with gameplay. And right now, at level 32, demo feels a bit restricted to me. I LOVE the theme and concept. The ability visuals are great. The flow just feels like its got an arm tied behind its back.

For example, [Demonic Calling], the talent that gives your [Call Dreadstalkers] a chance to summon instantly and cost no soul shards… this is great… mostly, until you realize that unlike nearly EVERY other class, this doesnt reset the abilities cooldown. It feels awful having this proc and having your ability be on cooldown and unable to use it. Just awful.

And then there is [Demonic Core], the passive that makes your [Demonbolt] instant cast. Seems great… but its probably the ONLY few passives in the game that frequently activates AFTER combat is done, and you are riding off on your mount!!! This just makes it feel wasted half the time.

When in dungeon groups, with a tank that doesnt take breaks between pulls, you wont be regenerating your normal 3 soul shards, so most fights you will be starting with 0 shards.

But the big one for me, is the classes AoE ability. It feels sooo restricted, slow and has WAY too many steps needed to pump out minimal AoE damage:

  • First build up soul shards (2 or 3) which can take time
  • Then cast [Hand of Gul’dan] (which does minor aoe)
  • wait the 0.5 seconds for your imps to appear
  • use [Implosion] to do AoE around your target.
  • repeat

This seems to be the primary souce of AoE damage for Demo, and its way too much hassle for the minimal amount of aoe it can pump out.

[Call Dreadstalkers] does decent AoE with the [Dreadlash] talent, but its on such a long cooldown its not really worth mentioning. You also have your [Felguard] that can use [Felstorm] which is a 4.5 second AoE every 30 seconds! Seems to be a trend with Demo, not having decent sustained AoE or cleave ability. Both of these abilities cooldowns make them burst AoE at best, but horrible for fights where you need to deal AoE damage beyond the first 4 seconds.

Most of the games leveling experience is slow paced enough that you recharge your soul shards between fights. Most battles are vs 1-2 enemies at a time so AoE damage isnt really needed. Having played even a casual end game experience I realized that things that I will be experience will change drastically, im seriously wondering how bad Demo will feel to play, even IF its damage is high enough.

3 Likes
18

You aren’t wrong but remember that BB is a powerful aoe spell on a cool down to use every pack and shortens that ramp up fairly significantly while you are calling up imps

Also those demon core proc you get after a fight should be used on the next flight. They hang around long enough typically.

19

[Bilescourge Bombers] is a 6 second AoE that can only be used every 30 seconds.

How many AoE fights do you know, especially where AoE damage matters, that only lasts 6 seconds? Most notable AoE fights require multiple casts of AoE abilities back to back, and that is something the Demo is greatly lacking in.

If an AoE ability is going to have such a long cooldown and still be competitive, it needs to do a LOT more damage.

Im sure there are a lot of tricks to help lessen the short comings of the spec. Players are great at pushing the limits and finding neat and unique ways of doing this. Should they have to though? No. The class should be on par with the rest, which is currently doesnt feel that way. At least, not during the leveling process.

1 Like
20

Demo is the easiest spec to level with.
Properly talented Demo will take aff and destro in wpvp 1v1’s (and just about any other dps class).
Demo can easily do m+ through at least 15.
And yes, its fun.