The latest buffs made almost no difference. The whole spec still hits like a wet noodle. Still have to cast so much more than the other two specs, while doing less damage. The new capstone for Vilefiend has been under tuned since beta, as the aoe version does better damage than the single target version in any scenario.
I don’t understand why specs that are clearly under tuned take so long to bring back up to the rest. Stuff like this should be fixed in a hotfix.
I don’t think demo needs any overt damage buffs
Things just need to actually work and be worth the investment as intended, kind of like how you mentioned
Warlock is notorious with getting the short end of the stick when it comes to stuff like this though
At the very least I would like to see
Please blizzard no more fiiiking buffs to shadowbolt or demonbolt. We are so tired of it
Doom needs to have its mechanic changed from applying from demonic core to having it apply via hand of guldan, remember hand of doom? I would also make doom proc the doom guard at 100% chance if its only being applied to 1 target and then 50% chance if it’s applied to multiple targets at once. I would combine both hounds into one talent and make it where both hounds are summoned at once…this would justify the cast time for it imo. I would remove the cast time for the dogs as well. I think these changes would help demo feel really good.
Grimoire is a worthless talent right now, definitely needs a substantial buff, soul conduit feels great when it procs, but it’s such a low % that it feels like a wasted capstone talent, I would like Doom Eternal to be baked into either impending doom or Pact of the Ered’ruin. As it stands there feels like no point in picking doom eternal.
The whole bottom right side of demo’s tree needs an overhaul as none of these talents actually provide the same level of dps as the opposite side, in fact, it’s straight up worse. The concept of buffing our felguard is cool, but they haven’t actually balanced it at all. Swap out Guillotine and Immutable hatred with a new talent that turns our Felguard into a Fel Lord (or even pit lord) with a substantial increase in damage. Put those two talents in Antoran Armaments, move armaments down one to replace either Brutality or improved tactics as both of those talents are a complete waste. Then that side might actually be something worth looking at.
The standard doom talent can be kept as reduced with demonic core usage, but Doom Eternal should let it be reduced 1sec with every shard spent.
They definitely have to buff the Shadow Hound to make it the best option for single target since, as it stands now, there’s no reason not to run Flame Hound.
G:FG could do with a damage buff.
The Guillotine/Immutable Hatred capstone likely needs to be replaced altogether, perhaps with talents that are AoE based so as to counterbalance the single-target of Doom and its Doomguard.
Agreed, the felguard side of the demo tree needs an overhaul, if it would go off haste and chance on hit make the felguard attack X% faster for x amount of seconds, idk, something other than crit, ive tested the crit based talents of felguard and as much as they said they fixed it, it appears it is either still bugged or not working as intended and ive purposely equipped only crit gear and dont see the difference without it or like your idea, upgraded felguard that turns into a fel lord, idk, i love my demo lock but our first week of raiding has left me really bummed out, i really hope they change a few things.
Actually, after another night of raiding and then a few games of blitz, yeah, the damage needs to be buffed, not something crazy but it def needs some attention and some QoL need to happen like, like the diabolist pet AI, they are still going for something other than the main target half the time and ruination and infernal bolt need to be instant, ive noticed ruination sometimes doesnt hit as the slow moving meteor by the time it falls sometimes actually misses the target, idk if it is a bug or maybe I am missing something but ive missed several pvp kills when it fails to hit a low hp target or it hits way too low for the long ramp up time it has
I was thinking that the meteor is a bit slow. It should land as quickly as HoG.
I’m surprised half the demo tree and diabolist hero talents are still bugged and no fix in sight.
It’s crazy that Demo just got an overhaul and needs an overhaul of the overhaul…lol… especially in pvp.
Not an excuse whatsoever, but sadly it’s the nature of the beasts. Just one hunter/warlock per still bugs from time to time.
100 pets? Yeh, things gonna happen lol.
Guys, let’s face it Blizzard clearly knows what’s best for us. I mean, why would they care if the majority of us don’t enjoy Malefic Rapture? Three expansions of feedback saying we don’t like it, but clearly, we’re all just wrong. They’ve got it all figured out our opinions are completely irrelevant. And Drain Soul, such a classic! Who needs a fresh animation for one of the oldest spells in the game, right? The charm of its dated, ugly as hell look just grows on you after a decade. Oh, and when was the last time we got a new pet? Battle for Azeroth with the Tyrant? Feels like yesterday… if yesterday was years ago. But hey, why bother with updates when we have mages and hunters getting all the attention? They’re definitely the ones Blizzard cares about keeping happy. So yeah, I’ve totally stopped expecting anything from them. I just sit back, cast my slow-motion Demolock spells, and watch mages blink around doing their damage without a care in the world. It’s almost like WoW was meant to be balanced at some point… but who needs balance when you’ve got melee paladins attacking from 20 yards away?
Didn’t we have a new animation in Mists that Xelnath have us?
I didn’t play in Mists unfortunately, but I’ve heard all about it.
Oh, remember when lock in Mists was actually fun? Good times. But hey, why should we, the players, get a say in what’s enjoyable, right? Clearly, they know better, 4 expansions of MR and counting, because who doesn’t love a playstyle the entire Lock community despises? It’s almost like they enjoy ignoring feedback. And Affliction as a DoT class? Yeah, that’s just a fairy tale we tell new players now. 
If they get rid of MR now how will they take your money when they finally replace it with more under-tuned garbage?
They design the garbage and we purchase the garbage. Now “shut your mouth and know role”… 
It wasn’t surprising the moment in beta with we started seeing demo cast much more than df. And lessens the proc rates of almost everything.
I agree that we are heavily bogged down by casts at the moment. Make Tyrant instant. Really painful to see a 15 imp/charhound/Dreadstalker tyrant disappear because I’d die in a swirly if I finished the cast. Might alleviate some of the big pain points for our burst windows.
Its funny you say this, because Beast Mastery Hunter currently has a single non-captone talent that provides up to 60% more damage in single target and almost nothing in AoE and Blizzard doesn’t see any issue with this at all. Demo isn’t the only one being dumpstered on.
BM seems to be doing fine, top 3 in single target dps and up there in AoE for now, meanwhile demo is on the low end on most of it (both PvE and PvP), granted this might change once people get their tier and on Mythic raids and M+, many of the concerns mentioned are legitimate, the change of direction to a more casted heavy demonology tree (taking out or proc regen for demonbolt) while introducing crit based talents or leaving some as extremely under tuned is such a headscratcher to me, I am sure your issues with BM are legitimately as well, not dissing you, but according to the latest data, BM is doing far better than demo in every single metric.