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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBlood Pact: A tale full of cheering and demonic fury
by Megan O'Neill 
Mar 20th 2012 at 7:00PM
You could argue that an affliction warlock is like a shadow priest with a demon. Or that a destruction 'lock is like a fire mage with a demon. But it's hard to argue demonology as anything but warlock, especially when a demo 'lock is often a demon with a demon.
And yet for a long time, demonology had been the lesser of the three specs. In Wrath, it was popular opinion that demo 'locks were only there for the raid buff, despite the fact that well-played demo could be competitive and even beat the then-reigning affliction spec. The other popular use of demo was to farm either old dungeon fun or honorable kills as the nigh-unkillable, hybrid affliction, SL/SL-specced drain tank.
In Cataclysm, demo took a change for the better in its DPS output. It rose every tier and finally overtook affliction and destruction in Dragon Soul. But its ascent wasn't -- and still isn't -- without problems.
Swinging into a new style
Looking back over the Simulation Craft archives, demonology actually topped the simulated DPS charts more often than not. But the simulation doesn't often make mistakes, even on the "Ouch!" player skill setting. Demo simulates well enough, but in reality, a well-played demo 'lock requires excellent cooldown timing with encounter mechanics and the tedious practice some call pet twisting.
Demonology actually raided with two pets for most of Cataclysm. The felguard had the best Demon Soul effect for demo, but the felhunter was the best single-target DPS pet by far. Demo 'locks would start the encounter off with the felguard and pop all their cooldowns -- pre-pot, mastery trinkets, Metamorphosis, Demon Soul, and Doomguard -- and then once everything was done, they'd spend a soul shard to instantly summon the felhunter. When most of their cooldowns came up for use again, they'd hard cast a felguard for another Demon Soul.
It also didn't help that demonology has been the literal and figurative in-between spec. It's smack in the middle of the talent calculator, and it always has to get re-theorized every tier to decide whether the filler spell is Shadow Bolt or Incinerate. Every tier, every demo 'lock gets to relearn the rotation.
Finally, a big roadblock to demo warlock DPS was the massive difference in DPS that the Doomguard made. It's part of the demonology deal that Metamorphosis and demons boost off of mastery, but a bug made the Doomguard triple-dip the mastery bonus. Combined with a 10-minute cooldown, a wipe meant the demo warlock's DPS would drag along the bottom for the next one or two attempts until the Doomguard came off cooldown.
But demo isn't quite out of the design cocoon yet.
How the fel does demonic fury work?
This is the big question about the talent calculator so far. It's what destruction got for blue post clarification, and it's what demo really needs to tell what exactly it's going to feel like. We know the secondary resource will be demonic fury, and we know various spells will generate certain amounts of fury and that Metamorphosis makes fury's effect more awesome.
Unfortunately, that's only half of it. We still need to know how demonic fury is spent and whether Metamorphosis is supposed to be the normal (infinite) state of DPSing or the exception (DPS cooldown) state.
The original idea was that a warlock would build up enough demonic fury (say, to 100) and at the maximum fury would just automatically shift into Metamorphosis. Then, after the fury drained to 0 during Metamorphosis, the warlock would return to normal racial form to begin the cycle again.
I'm not quite a fan of this generate-then-drain method. Destruction will already have a resource that builds and then spends. I'm a much bigger fan of Metamorphosis' requiring some active skill to DPS well with rather than a passive reward for performing the theorycrafted best pattern of spells to 100 fury.
I would like to see Metamorphosis an activated and then fury-driven state. It would be boring if staying in Metamorphosis were an easy thing -- that is, there's no fun if Metamorphosis is the default state for a demonology warlock. It's supposed to be an awesome moment when a warlock turns into the purple Illidan, not an expectation.
We don't know (as of writing this) if abilities that granted demonic fury outside of Metamorphosis will spend fury inside or not. I'd like to see the ability to generate some fury while still in Metamorphosis but have the spending or draining of fury eventually outweigh the gain. This way, warlocks could adapt Metamorphosis's timing to the encounters, stretching out Metamorphosis for only a little bit or as long as possible, depending on the raid's timing of specific phases or mechanics.
I've like demonic fury to be something that matters to demonology, something that is a mark of skill in the spec, not just another bar to fill up and down.
Let's face it: Nether Plating screams warlock tank.
Nether Plating for a clothy DPS class is odd, when you think about it. Sure, it's been a part of Metamorphosis for ages. Shaman lost their tanking viability a long time ago, but demonology warlocks still have the 6% reduction for being critically hit by melee attacks. Not even the plate DPS specs have that!
The armor increase is on par with tanking armor as well. With rounding, my bear has approximately 51.6k armor, in bear form with all her fine leather and bear-appropriate talents. My warlock has about 9.6k armor, and 600% of that would be 57.6k armor (my 'lock has 15 ilevels on my bear, OK?).
But without all that wonderful dodging or blocking or parrying or damage-absorbing buffs, warlock tanking isn't going to happen. Don't worry, my fellow demonics, I dream about drain tanking too -- but a sixth tank spec to balance with the others?
Keep dreaming.
Blood Pact is a weekly column detailing DOTs, demons and all the dastardly deeds done by warlocks. We'll coach you in the fine art of staying alive, help pick the best target for Dark Intent, and steer you through tier 13 set bonuses.
Filed under: Warlock, (Warlock) Blood Pact
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 2)
Derrek Mar 21st 2012 2:32PM
The thing about warlock tanking, Cheese, is that it would be totally awesome and unique among all classes because it goes against every precedent in the game. To elaborate:
First of all, nobody expected it. Then Wrath came along with Metamorphosis.
Back then, Metamorphosis was ( and still is ) a totally badaxe cooldown. But it had a lot more utility back in the day than it currently does. In addition to Immolation Aura and Demonic Leap, we also had Demonic Cleave which dealt a decent amount of melee damage ( yes, melee damage ), along with a fully functional taunt. Take all of those abilities, our ridiculously high threat generation, and an aversion to Soulshatter, put them all in the hands of a skilled player, and Metamorphosis could indeed be used to tank for a short time.
The intention behind the semi-tanky original design for Meta isn't entirely clear, but it probably had something to do with our innate ability to generate as much threat as most tank classes just by going through our normal DPS rotations ( even at the middle of the damage meters we had to Soulshatter a LOT ).
Those of us who enjoyed popping Meta and taunting in dungeons missed the taunt and cleave abilities when they were removed in Cata. There were other quality-of-life improvements to the Demo playstyle overall, but the utility was fun to mess with when we had it.
To answer the question of "why the 600% armor", given that Meta has moved away from the semi-tank cooldown it once was, I would say that it's there both for flavor and additional utility. In addition to the more flavor-oriented idea of demon form being harder to kill than clothie form ( which makes sense from every angle - I mean, it's a big cooldown, there's no reason for it not to be awesome! ), the Demo spec is well suited for soloing older content. It just makes sense to have that armor and crit reduction built in when you have elite trash packs hammering on you as you hellfire them all to ashes.
As to your comment that "If I wanted to play a tank, I'd make one", that's kind of a given. Every tanking class has the ability to DPS as well, and most do decent DPS in their tank spec and build. Feral Druids are ( until 5.0, anyway ) notorious for being able to dps or tank quite well with the same talent build and gear setup. If Demo tanking were ever implemented ( I seem to recall a blue post a while back stating that it's too much balance work at present ), it wouldn't be the only way to play Demo.
I say, give it a shot, Blizzard! I personally can't think of any reason why being a big purple winged tank ISN'T awesome.
my_cheese_stick Mar 21st 2012 5:38PM
Ah, whoops. I accidentally posted my reply as a new comment.
Coco Mar 20th 2012 10:03PM
2 thoughts:
1. all this talk of fury made me think if a similar system of building a resource to enter a more-effective fighting state would work well for fury warriors.
2. It would be interesting if taking PvE damage added to your demonic fury, allowing you stay in the form longer/cast more spells from it. This would open up some interesting pinch-tanking options.
J Mar 20th 2012 11:56PM
My lock has been my main for about 6 or 7 years now, and though I will jump into the beta and explore the new lock talents and specs thoroughly like anyone with concerns should, I'm starting to feel like this might be the last tier where my lock is my main.
Now, I know that that's really not a big deal to some people, but it's a huge one to me. With close to 13k achievement points, 100+ mounts etc, my lock has been my dedicated raider and achievement hound, and I've loved playing it. But, once again, Pandaria means that I'm going to need to completely relearn my class. Again. I cannot place enough emphasis on that word. The absolute nonsense with demo was almost a deal breaker for me this expac, where I never once felt like I was playing the spec the way Blizzard had intended for it to be played (see 'pet twisting'). Now I'll be required to learn how to use THREE different resources along with learn the three different specs, and... I feel tired just thinking about it.
I can't help but feel like this is one of the many reasons why locks are the least played class. Nobody knows what the hell to do with them anymore, current players included.
evoxpisces Mar 21st 2012 12:50AM
Lock tanking would be so badass but I know it won't ever happen...unless each class eventually gets a 4th spec...
But yet another great article by our newly appointed master of demons!
Fletcher Mar 21st 2012 3:39AM
Random question; how does the Glyph of Corruption interact with the Affliction talent Nightfall? That is, two points in Nightfall gives the same thing as Glyph of Corruption - do they stack, giving a combined 8% chance to proc Shadow Trance? Or not, making one or the other superfluous?
I think I may have asked this before, I honestly can't remember though. Sorry.
radicaster Mar 21st 2012 5:46AM
Yes, they do stack. So the "optimal" glyphs for affliction is haunt, corruption and unstable affliction, however on heavy multi dot fights glyph of bane of agony can replace unstable affliction
TJ Mar 21st 2012 8:27AM
Megan - Thank you again for a great article. I am glad to see this column active again and I look forward to reading it every week.
I started playing in Wrath, and I chose a Demo Lock "for all those cool looking demons I could control." However, I did not start to run "current" end game content until FL was released. I have learned in my brief stint in this game that each expansion will bring massive (my opinion) game play changes, and personally, I am looking forward to see what MoP has to offer. While we may not always agree with the changes being made, we just need to make the best of what is given to us. If a change really hampers our experience, Blizzard has given many tools to let them know (WoW forums for example) how we as a gaming community feel about the new or changed aspects of the game. That being said, I am a Demo Lock, and I will never be anything else (i do have a few 85 alts, but they are exactly that, alts). I will goof off with my OS (currently Aff), but my OS will never be my MS. It just won't happen. When all is said and done, I will do my research, and twist what I have learned to my playstyle, and I will set my sights on the #1 spot in my guild's DPS roster. It wont matter if this is MoP, 6.0, or any other game I may play.
zaid2586 Mar 21st 2012 10:50AM
Excellent article Megan. I am looking forward to hearing your thoughts as we start moving into the beta and actually get to test drive the new resource systems.
While I also have a twisted hope for demo tanking, I think that people read into Nether Plating a little too much. Metamorphosis has always been intended as a "get in your face and tear shit up" CD, with demon leap and especially immolation aura requiring us to get in melee range. The addition of Demonic Slash to our arsenal, and making Shadowflame a Demo specific spell reinforces the notion that Meta is intended to be an "in your face" burst of damage at melee range.
Given that we wear cloth and have no avoidance stats, I think that Nether Plating is merely intended as a means to allow us to actually survive being in melee range while we are dishing out the massive DEEPS. Especially so in PvP.
baldcore Mar 21st 2012 12:04PM
Um When was this article written cause blizzard did in fact clarify how demonic fury works. Demonic fury is built up using dots, bolts, and hand of gul'dan. At any time you can activate metamorphosis to spend that demonic fury. You spend it with a series of metamorphosis only spells as well as spells that are modified by metamorphosis. When you run out of demonic fury you revert to your former self. The trick to this will be finding ways to stay in metamorphosis mode while doing as much damage as possible while acquiring more demonic fury to keep metamorphosis up as much as possible.
Strawder Mar 21st 2012 2:32PM
I'm watching the announcements and updates with this part of MoP with great interest. Barring any massive changes from this planned design, my focus will be moving away from my current characters, to a brand new 'Lock as my main, with an eventual Druid 2nd main.
my_cheese_stick Mar 21st 2012 5:34PM
@Daedalus - I understand your point about how warlocks don't really 'help' people. Truly, that has crossed my mind several times in the past whenever I consider the 'drain healer' idea that I mentioned. However, in practice, all a warlock tanking spec would be doing is helping people by taking blows for them, when in my mind, they should be turning their nose up at the prospect. They have demons to take blows for them when their bull-headed, less intelligible, bulkier group-mates aren't around. The reason that I can see the healing warlock idea working is because... well, I -can't- see warlocks wanting to take a blow to the jaw. No, they would much rather sit back and laugh at someone who's doing the tanking for them, choosing to heal the dumb sap and let them do all of the work.
Basically, I imagine it to work similarly to the idea of using Health Funnel on the Voidwalker. Let them take the hits because they're too stupid to say no, and I'll be back here watching. Again though, this isn't to say that I'm right; your point is entirely valid. That's just how I more so imagine the class's flavor to work. Less of a front-lines bad ass, more of a behind-the-scenes puller of strings mastermind. Either way, I'm certainly not campaigning for the idea. I'm much happier having the warlock as a pure DPS class.
@Derrek - There's no disputing that, before Cataclysm, one could indeed tank in Metamorphosis form for a short while. ...Well, okay, maybe it would be a bit tricky to maintain aggro if your tank was really, really good at their job, but that's irrelevant. I do see your point about the fact that we used to pull a lot of aggro, and sometimes we still can. It would be fairly common in Wrath for me to have to pop my Soul Shatter a good fifteen seconds into the fight, just to make sure that the Big Baddie wasn't going to devour my face.
The thing is, I don't understand why the 600% armor is coming back now. I understand your points about flavor, and how turning into a giant demon should come with a bonus to our durability. No, really, I totally get it. But, I don't see that how it will be useful unless we move away from the current model of the game where, as Blizzard says fairly frequently these days, threat is almost a non-issue. I understand where the extra armor could be useful for soloing content and it's obvious PvP applications, but that's about it in my opinion.
Anyway, I'm not really saying that we 'shouldn't' have a tanking spec, so much as I don't really want it myself. I like the warlock class as it is, that being caster DPS with a melee-range spec in the form of Demonology. I don't see much appeal to the idea of Metamorphosis tanking, but that's just me. I'll stand back and play the more traditional caster specs, personally.